It took about two hours for Ellis's leg to heal and that speed was thanks to the vitality increase, else it would take up to half a day with the blood syringe alone

Within these two hours they had already entered the city but stayed at the edge where there were only packs of threes or fours as the main combatant of the group was down

"Now that you're in good condition we will move in, we only have today to finish levelling up and get some sleep as we will be needing the last two days to get to the border"

"Only the rest of today?! Isn't that impossible? I needed a while just to get to twenty-five, much less getting to level fifty which takes a lot more according to your explanation"

Ellis protested

"It only took a while because we weren't focused on hunting, we were in a hurry to get to our destinations at the time, pus there were many distractions, you will see our efficiency when we really start hunting"

With that said she could only go along with his plans, anyway, she just needed to fight

"Oh, right, won't we be not getting experience since these beasts are low levelled?"

She recalled him saying the beasts right now were not enough for her to level up at all

"That was the case before, now though the beasts have levelled up sufficiently within this city, they took out the entire population of humans within the past four days which disbanded the horde, returning them to their original hostile relationship, that makes them fight until they establish their territories, leaving only the strongest of beasts alive"

Ellis felt uncomfortable knowing that an entire city's population of over three hundred thousand people were wiped out in a matter of days, but she was helpless in the matter, the only thing she could do would be avenging the dead by killing the beasts responsible

"Il kill as many as I can"

She said firmly

YuJu smirked at her words

"Good you'll need that resolve, now head to the centre of the city"

With those words, he disappeared into the shadows of the nearby buildings

Ellis and Anput gave each other a glance then followed the road into the city centre, each taking a side so they don't affect each other's battle

Ellis was confident in her ability to cope with numbers using her stances, as for Anput she had become much stronger after getting the new bloodline, based on bare stats Ellis couldn't compare, so the both of them could fight alone now

'At the beginning, I needed her help to fight with beasts, then she needed mine to level up, now we are equally matched, it feels like we've been through so much yet it's only been four days'

Ellis thought nostalgically, a howl from the distance brought her back to reality shortly after and she prepared herself for the gruelling battles

The howls got closer and closer while their numbers increased little by little, a few minutes passed and the sound of many feet galloping toward them was heard beyond the distance, soon they were et face to face with packs upon packs of beasts, they numbered more than fifty beasts in total, making Anput and Ellis a little nervous, these were fifty rather strong beasts, not the fodder they used to fight

But having seen many hoards they quickly steeled their hearts, Ellis took in a deep breath while Anput gave a howel of her own, the two then dived into the oncoming beasts with courage

The first to meet Anput head on were three boars with oversized tusks, charging madly with red eyes

Anput didn't dodge or change trajectory, she charged toward the leading boar as well, the two came closer and closer until they were only an arm's length apart, that's when Anput made a quick leap at the boar's face

Her front paws were the first to contact the face, she didn't push off the boar but allowed it to move forward, sweeping her body back while her back feet which carried her leftover momentum landed on he face as well, only then did she leap off with all four legs, generating enough pressure to tilt the boar's balance forward, smashing its face into the ground as it scarped its skin off the ground while skidding forward face down

Anput's leap on the other hand took her over the other two boars who smashed into the leading boar, puncturing bloody holes in its body

There was enough distance behind the boars for Anput to land without a hassle as these beasts who were hostile to each other kept a distance as they chased the one that attacked them

She didn't get a breather though as nimble figures came rushing to her, mouths open and claws ready to swipe

Looking at the few feline lith feline figures she took a different approach with her attack, first, she jumped onto one of the parked cars, occupying high ground, when the first one came at her with a jump she smacked it down with her paw, and followed by a back kick for the one jumping at her back, subsequently, she used her other legs to jump slightly, meeting the one that came at her from the air with a wide maw that bit the offenders face off, spraying blood everywhere and throwing its body onto the remaining two feline

This brutal display caused the felines to rage while the other poaching beasts seemed to stagger, their instincts warning them not to fight this beast

The slight pause gave Anput enough time to glance at Ellis, checking if she needed any help

The purple glowing figure of the naked Ellis apparently didn't need any as she cut through every beast with a single swing, using the momentum of her swing to dodge toward the next blows and then swinging again to harvest another life, then repeating her earlier move, with this combo she cut through the oncoming beasts like a grass mower

Since her comrade didn't need help Anput turned back toward her own pray and started the massacre

Three minutes and a half later Anput bit off the last beast on her side, almost an entire minute after Ellis finished her wave of beasts due to her lack of lethality compared with Ellis's weapon

"Rargh!!"

The two were just relaxing their tight muscles when they heard a growl, followed by a great number of footsteps

They turned toward the front and saw even more beasts approach them, there were about seventy beasts in this tide, and while they were about the same strength as the previous ones Ellis and Anput were already somewhat tired

"I see what Master meant"

Seeing the approaching wave after their battle she guessed this was what he meant by needing resolve

Narrowing her eyes she readied her sword and plunged into the crowd of beasts with a low shout

Anput wasn't lagging behind either as she dived with ferocity as well

The sun soon set in the distance, plunging the city into shadows, with no light in the city it gave off a silent and somewhat eerie vibe, sadly it was anything but silent as roars, muffled collisions, and sounds of slicing could be heard in the darkness

The beasts trampled over each other with some moving forward and others running back with fright, those who tried to escape though were rarely successful since the other beasts finished them off themselves while they headed toward the two murderous demons that were ripping their way into the city

As one of the two causing this bloody mess Anput wasn't short of any stains of blood on her already reddish-black fur, her mouth was filled with dripping fresh blood as it never stopped ripping apart through flesh, her eyes revealed a cold killing intent, never shrinking back from any beast

On the other side of the road, Ellis looked even more horrifying than her partner

Red and black blood covered her naked figure from head to toe dying her the same colour as Anput, a purple aura flickered on her body from time to time, combined with her crazed slaughter she looked like a demon coming straight out of hell

As the two slaughterers paved the way through the city'es roads they left lines of bodies on their path, they couldn't stop moving either or they would be surrounded by both dead bodies and beasts, leaving them with no room to manoeuvre and be overwhelmed with numbers

Their Master was certainly doing a good job at keeping the beasts within their limit, not too little to give them long breaks and too much to run around them and surround them, with that said they needed to finish wave after wave faster and faster if they wanted a few minutes of breaks

They held on so long due to their tenacious will and the use of a few blood syringes to revitalise their tired bodies

"Haaaah!"

Another wave of a sword among the countless waves she had to swing today cut down the last rat like creature that just turned to run seeing the entire horde wiped

with no more beasts close she fell to her knees while supporting herself with the half-broken sword, lacing at Anput on the side she saw her laying on the ground existed, her tongue hanging out as she tried to catch her breath

Once a few seconds passed and the two regulated their breath Ellis stood up shakily and walked toward Anput with two new syringes in hand

Anput struggled to get up and meet Ellis half way to receive her douse

"That was the last wave, no need for the syringes"

Suddenly a voice came from the darkness surprising the two at first, but they immediately recognized the owner

YuJu appeared next to the two, he didn't look tired in the least and there wasn't a single smudge on his cloths, vastly different from the two of them

"Let's go get some rest"

He lead the two into one of the side roads, they didn't meet any beast on the way as whatever beast nearby would either join the fray or run away, there was no room for hiding

The trio made their way into one of the apartments in silence, after picking open the lock with his quick hands he let the two inside

"Take a shower you too and get some sleep"

His words were punctual and sufficient, he didn't praise them nor console them for their difficulties

The two of them nodded and headed into the bathroom, soon the sound of water running was heard

While they took a shower YuJu lit a candle and started writing some weird looking symbols in a notebook he got on the way, his brows were furrowed while his mind worked hard at recalling the various weird shapes

twenty minutes later he closed the notebook with a sigh

"I should have planned all routs further, I focused too much on the perfect plans leaving some gaps in the backup ones"

He sighed again in disappointment, then shook his bad mood away

"They sure are taking their time"

He glanced at the bathrooms door, even though they would need a long bath to scrub off the blood he thought they wanted to sleep more than anything now

He got up to check on them, knocking the door and calling out Elli's name

There was silence for a while so he knocked on the door again, what he received was Anput's woof from behind the door

He frowned a bit and opened the door to take a look

First, he spotted Anput under the shower looking at him with droopy eyes, the water had washed away most of the fresh blood but a lot of it was still stuck to her fur

Behind her Ellis was in the bathtub, her eyes close as she leaned on the edge, only her head was visible while the rest of her body was submerged in the blood coloured water

"Slept huh"

He shook his head slightly and walked toward her

Lifting her gently out the bathtub he used the water from the shower to rinse her body, then he took out a brush and used it to brush the blood out her hair

Throughout all this she slept soundly, she was so exhausted that she couldn't be bothered to wake up from this gentle treatment

Once he was done cleaning her he wiped her down with a towel then carried her to the bed, laid her down and tucked her in

looking at her sleeping peaceful face he was silent for some time, after a good while he turned away silently, going back into the bathroom where Anput was waiting with her sleepy yawns, still, she found energy from who knows where to wag her tail, knowing she was about to be groomed

Sure enough, he took out a larger brush meant for fur and started to comb through her fur, tugging at the bloody spots and smoothing the damaged fur all while Anput happily growled under the running water

Once she was also clean and dry the two got up and headed to the bed beside Ellis's

YuJu sat beside the window by the bed while Anput jumped on the bed and laid beside him

His hand found itself into the curls of her fur, running between them in slow motion as the hard working hound sank into a deep well deserved sleep

With the two of them asleep He blew out the candle, then opened up the curtain, looking out the window into the darkness, his hand patting Anput while his mind wandered into his memories