Only two hours till reinforcements arrive, I have to hold on till then, "Clang clang clang..." I am fighting two monsters simultaneously and Ashlyn also holding back another one. I have been fighting 18-19 hours and it’s taking a heavy toll both on my body and mind, the only thing kept me going is the thought of Reinforcement which said to arrive in two hours. I am scared for my life. I am scared that, a big group of powerful Monsters will swarm in before reinforcement, I have many dreams and most important I haven’t seen my younger sibling yet. "Slic.." I injure monster on its leg but not able to kill it, being at the Specialist stage they are more intelligent than Private stage monster and can use better teamwork. "Puchi..." "Fuck yeah!" I shout out as I pierced the head of the monster, effectively killing it. Seeing their partner dead monsters went to mad and started to attack me in frenzy, It is little hard to counter their frenzied speed as I kept getting injured now and then. Sparks fly as Monsters nails and my sword collides, countering each other offenses. "Slice clang" "damn!" I cursed as I fail to kill that monster, just injuring slightly, that monster would have been dead if not for other monster stopped my attack with its nails. "You fucker’s are really egging me." I said and attack to match their frenzy, "shhhh" I sucked a deep breath as red nail rat’s nail dug deep into my thigh but there is not time mulling over this as I have Monster’s to kill. The circulating 23rd move of Supreme Combat Exercise, my body’s heading ability increased a lot, now whatever injury I receive, it will clot in minutes preventing excessive blood loss. "Kachac.." "yeah!" I shouted as I cleanly decapitated the monster, leaving behind only one monster to kill, it would take longer to finish it. Gripping my sword I start to attack the last monster, I want to quickly kill this bastard to provide help to Ashlyn, she was fighting another Specialist stage monster all by herself. "Thud.." the monster blasted apart by me and hit the tunnel wall, I followed behind to quickly but that slippery bastard quickly got up and countered my attack with his its nails. It will not alive for much time, "Clang slice" "unh.." I got little startled as Monster cut half by me, I thought the monster will counter my move but it missed and my flaming sword cleanly cut through its middle. Not wasting any more time, sneakily walk toward Ashlyn who is having a tough time against her opponents, I want to sneak attack on that monster and kill it in a single attack. I asked Ashlyn to use a big fireball to distract it, she did what I asked her. She summoned the silver fireball of her size and threw it at the monster, "boom" small boom rang out, as smoke was just clearing, "Puchi." I sneakily got behind it and stab it on its a skull, killing it one shot. ’sigh’ i sigh looking at my injuries, although they are not fatal but they not harmless if got piled up too quickly they could be life-threatening. I can’t do anything about my injuries except quickly remove my clothes from my backpack and tear them to strips to use them as a bandage. I would have asked Jim for his ointment but he used it all, the trick using cloths as a bandage, I learned from him as he was doing that. I quickly remove the fingernail-size monster core’s from its heart, these monster cores are really expensive in markets. They are used in alchemy, magical weapons, and fuel for the various machines. they can also be eaten by monsters but they had to eat in small quantities, it will take ten days for Ashlyn to finished it completely. The Monster core contains extremely concentrated mana and the nature of mana is very berserk in nature. if Ashlyn ate it whole Monster core now, she will explode in less than an hour, that’s how berserk monster core’s nature is. After counting four Monster cores I’ve collected now, I got a total seven total. This fortune for me, I even wish it for a second that more Monsters would come so that I can get more monster’s core out of them. "shit! why," I said as I saw six Specialist stage monster’s coming toward me, I just had jokingly wished that more monster would come to so I could collect more core’s but now my wish come true, there are six monster’s are coming toward me. "Ashlyn, do you mind handling two monsters," I said, if Ashlyn would have been surface monster, I also lately would never ask her to do that but she is bird type monster’s, as long as she didn’t get too close to them she will be fine. Red Nail Rat’s are one of most weaker species who have no long range or projectile attacks, their strength lies in their large number’s. "Clang clang clang" I started to fight with five monsters, I have become an automated machine in this hour of fighting, I just swing sword whenever I find a weakness in monster’s posture. People all over me fighting with a monster with all their heart, some people even kept projection of clock activated on their Holowatch to see time as they were waiting for the reinforcements. "Kacha." I killed last of the sixth monster by decapitating. To kill these six monsters, I had to pay a hefty price, my whole body had ridden with injuries. I quickly collected all the Monster cores from Monster bodies and started to bandage my injuries using my cloth strips. I looked my watch to see only forty minute’s till reinforcement comes, maximum they will take one hour. The notification came from the Westblood city said that Reinforcement is coming using flying magical artifact which is many times faster than the train, so they should be able to arrive in time. "Gasp Totems!" I shouted not only I, but Jim was also shouted seeing five beams light’s of different color projected in the sky, distinct forms of the sword, saber, but shields could also be seen inside them. They are Totem’s, one can create their totems after reaching the lieutenant stage, they can be any form of sword, armor, monster what you desire. Totems can be used as direct weapons or can also be an argument in the weapons to fight, Totems can increase its user fighting power to a whole new level. But to create a totem one’s mana purity have to be above 70% or above, five beams light there seem to five people that brought out their Totems. People only brought out their Totems when they are serious because to use totems takes a lot of mana. "Tatattata." There are two monsters coming toward me I relaxed at first but then I notice the size seemed to bigger than normal Lv. 1 Specialist gade monster’s, "fuck!’ i said slowly I know what is coming, these two monster’s maybe Lv. 2 or Lv. 3 of Specialist grade. I started circulated 24th move of Supreme Combat Exercise, I tried it earlier but feeling ten times more pain than 23rd move I back down but now I have no option, gritting my teeth, I fully circulated 24 the move and completed the first set of Supreme Combat Exercise. I attacked the monster who came in front of me, "Clang Thudd" "puh puh puh" I blasted backward and started vomiting blood, the power 24th move is no use against them. This difference between power level, no Exercise can fill the gap, no matter how amazing the exercise may be. "Thudded Crack crack.."I again blasted and collided with the wall, my bones broke and sword left my hand. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞 I didn’t have the energy to move my fingers, the situation changed so suddenly, a few minutes ago I was killing Monsters and now Monster is about to kill me. "Chuu" Ashlyn cried out and threw fireball double her size but they’re no use. She covered herself with fire and collided against the monster but she was also blasted apart by the tail of the monster, "Ashlyn!" I cried but I don’t have the energy to help her, I felt so powerless. The Monsters had come close to me and attacked me aiming for my head, I didn’t close my eyes but look at sharp nails coming toward my head to take my like. "Thud.." suddenly purple light flashed and the monster fell flat without completing his attack, I was shocked seeing this, I thought I was dead as Monster come so close killing me. I looked up to see where the purple light come from as it was the one that killed, hovering in the air is the man looked to be in Mid-twenties. Releasing tens of purple bolts of lightning from his finger, whichever monster those purple bolts touched fell dead. The reinforcement had come, thinking there is no danger to my life anyone, I close my eyes and fell asleep in second.