Master of Myths

The humans who had finally got a moment of rest started to notice that the injured beast wasn't finished by the powerful young man, instead, the woman who saved the first was sent to fight it, this intrigued everyone and much couldn't help but worry, whispering among themselves why he would make her fight such a strong monster

Ellis couldn't hear their whispers as she was lost in her own thoughts, she wondered if this was her punishment for being so disobedient, or his way of training her? Or did he have some other plans in mind? Would he save her if she failed to win? Did she really mean a lot to him...

The standoff between Ellis and the beast was getting longer and longer, some humans then started to notice something weird about the beast, its wobbly figure started to shake less and its arm didn't dangle as much, those globe-like eyes started to shine more and more with each passing second

"He's healing!"

Someone shouted among the crowed drawing gasps from his surroundings and awaking Ellis from his trance

"Krrrr"

The beast sprang into action with the shout as well, lunging at Ellis with its claws ready to rip her into pieces

Ellis flinched seeing him jump at her like that and flusteredly raised her sword to parry

Clank!

There was hardly any power put into her parry, allowing one claw to swipe her sword out the way while the other went straight toward her neck

Whoosh!

She avoided the attack in her panic by bending backwards, then kicked against the beast to prevent any follow-up attack

Much to her surprise, the beast was easily kicked away, though it landed smoothly on the ground

'It's severely weakened'

She knew that even with its injuries she was no match but it turns out it was weakened even more than she thought

'Could it be an aftereffect of its skill?'

She wanted to think about it more but she noticed the beast quickly regaining more of its health back, the more time she wasted the stronger it would get

'Cant let it rest'

Her mind was made up and she dashed toward it, much of her hesitation gone now that she had a chance to win

Seeing her attack the beast let out a threatening sound and rushed to meet her

Clank Clank Clank!

The sword and claws met again and again producing sparks with each hit, a testimony to the strength both sides were putting in, their exchange had the undivided attention of all the onlookers, even YuJu had his eyes fully glued to them

As more attacks were launched and parried the fight seemed to speed up, even though it remained within the human eyes limit the crowed found themselves soon losing the ability to catch up

Thankfully they both soon reached a limit, settling on a speed that was both dazzling but within human comprehensibility

'Damn it, I should have gone with my fastest speed form the start'

Ellis couldn't help but curse at herself, she felt her actions had failed YuJ's teachings of going all-out from the get-go, she had wanted to test out the attack pattern of the beast before making her full assault but she didn't think it would heal and get faster during the battle itself

'This thing is crazy! If it keeps healing at this pace it would soon be out of my league'

She had to do something and quick

'I have to use a stance'

Indeed she did and it wasn't like she had never thought of it, it's just that stances required one to be still for a moment before activating while she had to use it within a fight

'It's okay, I did something harder before, I can do it again'

Thinking of the time she linked two stances made her confident in herself, with this newfound confidence she spurted into action

"He!"

Right after parrying one of its claws her body twisted into shape, hips leaning forward, shoulders tensing, and feet dancing

Her whole demeanour changed and her sword felt more threatening

'Kuu'

Sadly the pain of suddenly exerting your body was still there, and while it only froze her up a bit that was more than enough for the already swinging second claw two slash a deep scar onto her stomach

But that was the end of this beasts happy time as a flurry of attacks came at it in revenge

Clank! Clank! Slash Clank! Slash Slash

It parried some attacks while others were able to slash at it, its waste, chest, and arms were soon fille with deep red wounds

But the beast wasn't the only one suffering as the wound on Ellis's stomach was festering at a rapid pace

The reason being the green liquid that constantly dripped down its claws, it not only brought corrosive damage but was also very painful making Ellis's face twist in pain

"...."

The crowd watching couldn't help but fidget around, everyone wanted to help but knew that if they were weak and powerless, not only would their intervention be useless they might even distract her and have her killed

The only person who could do anything was the silent young man watching the show with a serious gaze

"Sir!"

Finely someone couldn't take it and spoke, it was the blond young man who had a jinxing habit

"Felix! Don't-" "It's okay"

The nurse beside him tried to dissuade him from going but he only gave her a smile and walked with wide strides toward YuJu

"Sir, that miss might die, please help her"

He spoke to YuJu, but received no answer

"Sir, she saved everyone here and she helped you stall the rats, I don't understand why you wouldn't just kill the beast instead of letting her fight it!"

His voice was louder this time, brimming with righteous confidence, but was only met with silence again

"Why aren't y-"

He moved to grip YuJu by the shoulder but his hand froze mid-air while his words were caught in his throat

Killing intent radiated from YuJu's body silencing the man and the nearby humans, Ellis and the beast gave a glance toward their direction but seeing it wasn't directed toward the fight they kept clashing without pause

"You want to help her?"

YuJu asked without glancing back at the man, as if taking his eyes off meant the end of the battle

The blond man felt suffocated but struggled to muster out a quiet yes

"Then go ahead and jump on the beast, you might give her half a second of time, enough to maybe slash it a few more times before your head rolls, but if you don't think your life is only worth half a second for her then stay back and be quiet"

YuJu's killing intent then receded allowing the man to make his choice

Of course, it wasn't much of a choice, no matter how brave the man looked he wouldn't want to die, especially when it was worth barely half a second

"I don't understand why you are doing this! This women clearly hadn't done you any wrong, why do you have to be this cruel?! It only takes you a little effort to kill the beast!"

"It's not your place to question my decision when you are weak, uselessly weak, whatever I do is my own business, you should just watch and keep quiet like the rest of the people here"

"Bu-mff"

The blond man wanted to argue once more but a hand over his mouth prevented him, when he looked back he saw the nurse behind him shaking her head, begging him to just stay out of this

"No! I won't stay quiet while watching the person that saved us die!"

He removed the woman's hand and then pointed at YuJu

"I don't care how strong you are or what you think of me, in the end yo-" Slice!

A finger suddenly went into the air, stunning all the onlookers who decided to watch the man instead of the fight

"Arghhh! You! You-mmmph!"

The blond man screamed at YuJu who just cut off his offending finger, he wanted to curse at him, sadly, or perhaps thankfully, a rag found its way into his mouth, preventing him from bringing more doom to himself

"We are very sorry sir, he's got a mental disability, would you please forgive him"

The nurse apologised on the man's behalf and politely asked for forgiveness, then seeing no response she took it as a yes and dragged the man away while making sure the gag never left his mouth

With the noise gone, YuJu could focus once again on the fight that was now nearing its end

'As I thought, my intervention is going to make her lose'

Originally she had a chance at winning against the beast, and he's not talking about the time it was injured by him, he was thinking of the beasts full power, although it sounded insane that she could win against such a foe but it was very possible

The reason behind that was the class, Swordsman, that was mentioned next to her empty class, it meant she could choose to become a swordsman and gain its corresponding skills, and with her already great sword skills she would have great proficiency in them and be able to raise it during the fight before finely dumping all her 250 points into a skill and win the fight using pure technique, that was what fate probably had in store for her

But now with an anomaly that existed outside of fate's rules called YuJu, the preexisting mold for the scenario had changed, he didn't allow her to take on such a class but at the same time allowed her to fight the beast by injuring it, knowing full well she would probably lose

'Perfect'

And this was all according to his plan

He smiled as he waited for the moment of change...

Clang Clang Clang!

The two never stopped fighting even when there was a disturbance by the side, the exchange of attacks seemed like it would never end, bt a visible change proves otherwise

While the beast suffered gravely under Ellis's earlier onslaught it soon started to catch up and was able to keep up with her pace, gradually it the battle started to tilt toward its side

'Things can't go on like this'

She knew the longer the battle dragged on the less of a chance she had at wining

'If only I fought with all I had, Kuh'

She regretted her indecisiveness, her stubbornness to listen and her useless behaviour

She started to lose track of the beasts attacks, soon she would be on the losing end

'Would he save me again'

She wondered to herself as she looked to the side, her eyes met with his

Focused, deep, a bit devilish for some reason, but she couldn't help but lose herself in them

Slash!

"Ku!"

She grunted at the slash she received, her moment of distraction allowed the enemy to gain on her and now she transited toward the receiving end

'I will lose'

She was certain it

'And I hardly injured it'

Her attacks only slowed it slightly

'No! I can't lose like this!'

She couldn't accept it, this meaningless loss, her pride couldn't take it

'Even if I lose, even if I die I should go down with dignity!'

Her emotions, her skill, her fighting spirit, they all combined into her sword, breathing into it an awing aura

"Haaa!!!"

Lifting her sword over her head without any semblance of defence she swung down with all her strength, her spirit, her conviction

The beast couldn't ignore this attack and tried to defend itself with its claw

SLASH!

The blade went through its entire hand like butter, continuing on its path without obstruction

"KRRRAA!"

Ellis wasn't the only one with her life on the lone, the beast who couldn't take this also screamed into the air with ferocity, putting all its energy and swung its other claw it the incoming sword, a green light covering it

All eyes were on the two, awaiting the clash the would decide the winner