Autophagy

"He will eventually go down as long as we keep attacking him. We'll then clear this floor and go down to see if the others need help," Song Lei instructed. Everyone nodded in response. Although there was a human-shaped monster right in front of them, their wills didn't waver.

With Song Lei's sign, all of them charged in once more. Their formation was like the feathers of a bird. They all were all protecting each other all the while charging towards the enemy. Fortunately, the patrols that had been alerted had still not arrived. They had about ten seconds before this turned into an all-out battle with a big number disadvantage on their side.

After engaging in close fight with Rufus, all of them swung their daggers furiously. Rufus disregarded their attacks as if he was fighting against a bunch of flies and swung his arm in a wide arc.

His attack hit two of Song Lei's men, resulting in them being thrown away. Rufus' fists hit like a truck. If those who were hit took another attack from him straight on, they would instantly get knocked out.

Considering this, Song Lei ordered them to stay out of the fight and block the incoming reinforcements. Then, he charged back into the fight. Unfortunately, the result was the same. They attacked Rufus, Rufus didn't care about their attacks and swung his fist. In the end, all they had gained were a few injuries on their side.

"You guys go help the other two and fight those patrols," Song Lei ordered to the four other trainees that were fighting by his side.

"Then what will you do boss?" One of them asked.

"Go," Song Lei said without explaining. In the end, he had to fight with Rufus all on his own. If they kept attacking him in groups, he would only lose his men. That wasn't what Song Lei wanted. After all, he would still need them for the main battle.

Hearing Song Lei's orders, the trainees gritted their teeth. None of them wanted to leave him alone against this monster, however, they knew that they couldn't put up a fight against Rufus even if they were here. As long as they obeyed Song Lei's orders and went to fight against the incoming reinforcements, they would have done what they had to do. Considering this, the four trainees split into two and went to the East and West of the floor to help their friends.

Now, Song Lei and Rufus were staring at each other without making any moves.

"You think you can beat me on your own?" Rufus asked. "You weren't able to do so even when you had six more people on your side. What makes you so confident?"

Song Lei smirked and didn't answer with words. Instead, he raised his hand and put his middle finger up. Seeing his gesture, Rufus' face went dark. Song Lei suddenly regretted flipping Rufus off as the killing intent emitted by him hit his face. It was very strong, so strong that even Song Lei who had lived in the New World for a good time was disturbed a little bit.

This time, Song Lei decided to wait in his place. It didn't do them any good to charge towards Rufus. Now that he had pissed him off enough, he could utilize this chance.

Just as he expected, Rufus abandoned all of his reasoning and charged towards him. Of course, Song Lei didn't just sit and wait. Instead, he carefully inspected Rufus' movements. Just as they were about to collide, he took a step to the left and dodged Rufus' attack. In the meanwhile, he spun and swung his dagger in a wide arc, leaving a deep, gushing wound on Rufus' body.

Now that Song Lei knew Rufus wouldn't go down easily, he could attack as hard as he wanted. If it were any other trainee, he would have to be extremely careful while doing so. If the trainee puked out all the worms in their soul, the wound wouldn't heal. This could cause that person to die. However, because Rufus didn't seem to be puking his worms any time soon, Song Lei could afford to be a bit more careless.

Just as he expected, the deep wound on Rufus's back sizzled and healed quickly. The last time Song Lei had fought with him, Rufus had lost his ability to fight after Song Lei had gouged his eyes out. This didn't have anything to do with his eyes being special. Instead, this was caused by accumulated damage. Because Song Lei couldn't take Rufus down easily, he had to accumulate as much damage as possible on him. Only by this way would he be able to take him down.

After Rufus' attack missed, he hit his head on the wall, resulting in a few cracks forming on the wall. Just like he had guessed, Song Lei wouldn't fare well against Rufus' attacks if he were to get hit.

Seemingly unfazed by the collision, Rufus turned towards Song Lei and charged once more. Repeating this time after time, they exchanged more than ten blows. Song Lei was slowly running out of fuel, however, Rufus wasn't doing that well too. His eyes seemed to be hazy because of all the damage that had accumulated throughout his body.

Funny thing was, the one who did the most damage to him wasn't Song Lei but he himself. He had hit his head on the wall more than five times.

Seeing Rufus' weakened state, Song Lei wiped the sweat off of his face and raised his dagger before kicking the ground.

In an instant, he appeared in front of Rufus. His sudden increase in speed caused Rufus' eyes to widen. This was something Song Lei had learned through countless efforts. From what his instructors told him, he had an incredible aptitude for CQC. Combined with the countless fights he had gone through, Song Lei had become a veteran on this aspect. He could always pull out something from his hat.

Forcing his muscles, he was able to traverse short distances in an instant. For the untrained eyes, he would look like he had just teleported. Especially in this dark environment, Rufus couldn't respond to Song Lei's movement at all.

After appearing in front of him, Song Lei swung his dagger time after time, not giving Rufus the time to recuperate. Wounds of all sizes started appearing on Rufus' tired body. The blood coming out of those wounds colored the hallway and Song Lei's face in crimson.

Shortly after Song Lei finished his last attack, the crazed expression on Rufus' face disappeared. With a thud, he fell on the ground face first.

"Huff... Huff..." Song Lei was out of breath. It wasn't anything that couldn't be resolved with a short breather. After all, he hadn't been hurt much during his fight with Rufus.

Sighing, Song Lei slightly stabbed his dagger on Rufus' back. As long as the soulite dagger was inside Rufus' body, it would cause his soul to constantly shake, forcing the soul worms to pour out on their own.

Turning his head to the side, Song Lei stared at his men. They had managed to fend off the reinforcements all on their own. For six people to take care of this many enemies was something surprising. Even though it was enough for them to slightly scratch their enemies, them still managing to pull this off showed how good recruits they were.

Seeing Song Lei's tired state, they also made sure to gather the bodies of the trainees in one place. After that, they came over to Song Lei's side.

"Boss! You really managed to take him down," One of the trainees said excitedly. Song Lei nodded with a gentle smile on his face.

"Come here. Stab your dagger into his body slightly," Song Lei said. "And make sure that it isn't too deep."

Heeding Song Lei's orders, the trainee came over and stabbed Rufus. The unconscious Rufus' face soured up. Seeing that it was somewhat working, Song Lei ordered everyone to stab their daggers one by one. By the time the sixth dagger was stabbed, Rufus' body started shaking like crazy. Everyone around him took a few steps back to avoid his ginormous hands that were flailing around.

After five minutes of shaking, Rufus stopped. His muscles started shrinking at a speed that was visible to the eye. Song Lei went to his side to make sure that he was still breathing. Fortunately, Song Lei could feel the gentle wave of air rhythmically leaving Rufus' nose.

After his muscles shrunk enough, Rufus shook in his place once more. Seeing that, Song Lei sighed in relief. He ordered his men to carry Rufus to the pile of unconscious bodies that were laid out on the floor. After they were done cleaning up the whole Section A, they would place them back in their rooms one by one.

Unfortunately, things were still not over.

"Get ready everyone, we have one more floor to take care of...."