Autophagy

"Overall, it doesn't matter anymore," Song Lei muttered. His voice wasn't loud by any means, however, everyone in the field could hear him clearly.

"Prepare yourself..." Song Lei said as he pointed his dagger towards Clark. Today was the day that he had been preparing for half a year. Being humiliated and used by Clark was by no means fun. After enduring all of that torture, he would finally be able to sleep peacefully. As long as he managed to beat Clark of course...

"You think you can beat me so easily!?" Clark shouted. He was angry, so angry that Song Lei could see veins protruding out of his forehead. "Guys! Let's go and show these fuckers what we are made of!"

Hearing Clark's orders, his men charged towards Song Lei all at once. Of course, before they could gang up on him, they were blocked by Song Lei's men. Their battle formation spread like the wings of an eagle, escalating on a large series of one versus one battles. These infected were all elites. None of them would go down with shallow wounds from soul daggers, just like Rufus. They also had incredible fighting prowess' that were better than that of Song Lei's men. However, there was a numerical advantage on Song Lei's side that could balance things up.

Song Lei and Clark stood face to face. There were about five meters between the two. None of them dared to make a move as they knew their opponent wouldn't be easy to beat. Both Song Lei and Clark were leaders. They were clear antagonists of each other. On one side was Song Lei who represented humanity, on the other side was Clark who was the god of the soul worms.

As their subordinates kept clashing around Song Lei and Clark, no one dared to disturb the two. Song Lei and Clark kept watching each other. Even a small movement from any of the two would topple the status quo that had taken effect between them. They were like a cup of water that would overflow with a single drop of water added to it.

This stalemate continued for a long time. Song Lei and Clark carefully sized each other up. Clark knew that Song Lei was strong but he didn't know to what degree it was.

On the other hand, Song Lei had a pretty good estimate of Clark's abilities. Because of his status, Clark would almost never have to dirty his hands. Although this didn't cause his skills to get rusty by any means, it still made them stale.

This status quo was broken by a shrill scream caused by one of the elite infected getting beaten down. He collapsed on the ground with the collaborated assaults of two trainees.

Both Song Lei and Clark lost their focuses for a moment. They turned their heads slightly to look over to the side, however, as soon as Song Lei realized what he was about to do was something stupid, he spanned his sight back to Clark and charged ahead. Clark was a split second slower than Song Lei who had sharpened his senses by being on alert every single second.

*Swish!

Song Lei swung his dagger in an arc. Of course, Clark could dodge this attack in time. Although he hadn't been training hard like Song Lei, he was still the ruler of the soul worms. With his enhanced physique, he wouldn't go down just because he was distracted for a second.

Seeing him dodge his attack, Song Lei didn't panic in any way. His fast reactions weren't in vain. Him making the first attack had given the initiative to him. Slash after slash, sounds of his blade cutting air resounded throughout the field.

While dodging, Clark kept searching for his chance, a little opening in Song Lei's attacks. Unfortunately for him, Song Lei Wasn't going to give away his advantage. The only thing Clark could do was keep dodging.

After a minute of playing cat and mouse with him, Clark dodged Song Lei's attack once more and rolled on the ground. While doing so, he picked up a two meters long wooden stick from the rubble of his now-destroyed makeshift throne. It was relatively sturdy and thick. Although it wasn't a real weapon, it was what Clark needed the most.

Soul daggers were incredibly dangerous for the soul worms. It was easy for Clark to figure that out after seeing it work. The best choice of action he could take was to keep his distance from them. Although he wouldn't go down with a single scratch like a normal infected, it was still dangerous.

For this reason, the wooden rod would help him a lot in creating that distance.

"Don't think that something like that would help you," Song Lei said with a frown on his face. He strode forward with two big steps and swung his dagger before Clark could react.

"AAHHHH!"

Clark shouted as the dagger cut his left shoulder in half. If Song Lei were able to bring it a little bit lower, he would have been able to completely sever his left arm alongside his shoulder. This much contact with the soulite dagger made Clark's consciousness waver. His eyes went hazy for a second.

However, Clark was more tenacious than Song Lei had thought. He hadn't dropped the rod in his hand even though he had gotten wounded to such a degree. Surprised by this, Song Lei couldn't utilize the chance to slash again as Clark threw himself backward.

There were a lot of different feelings on Clark's face as he got up from the ground. An incredible amount of smoke started spewing out of the gashing wound on his shoulder as it started healing visibly. The way new flesh was constantly constructed by his body and connected to each other was quite a sight to see.

Song Lei didn't want to give Clark the chance to recover. Unfortunately, he had lost the advantage with his initiative. Moreso, Clark now had a rod that he could use as a weapon. Although it was just a blunt rod, this didn't make it any less dangerous in the hands of a master like Clark.

The fact that Song Lei had a range disadvantage was also there. There was an imaginary bubble around Clark that Song Lei couldn't enter easily. That bubble was Clark's effective range. Song Lei did his best to simulate what kind of approach he should take, however, no matter what he simulated in his head, it would always end up with him being struck by Clark's attack.

Gritting his teeth, Song Lei came to peace with the fact that he wouldn't be able to deal with Clark in a fair fight.

Of course, he had no plans on making this fight a fair one.

As Clark was doing his best to heal himself from his wound, he also held the wooden rod firmly. He wanted to make sure that Song Lei wouldn't be able to come closer to him. If he were to slip by his effective range of fighting, Clark would once again fall into a disadvantageous situation.

"Heh..." Song Lei chuckled to himself. Seeing the annoying smirk on his face, Clark got confused.

"What..?" He muttered. He couldn't understand why Song Lei would chuckle in such a situation.

"Later," Song Lei said as he disappeared from Clark's sight. Clark was dumbfounded.

"You are esca- Fuck!" Clark shouted as he did his best to walk forward. Unfortunately, his wound was holding him back. His body was focusing on healing it as best as it could, limiting his movements.

Song Lei didn't have the ability to get past Clark's effective range. Even if he were to try, he would get hit and fall back. There wasn't a need to force things and hurt himself in the meanwhile. Instead, now that Clark was trying to heal himself, he decided to go and help his men a little bit. As Clark stood in his place, Song Lei ran towards the closest elite infected and started helping out with the fight.

With his help, the infected started crumbling under the pressure. They were already outnumbered, however, they could somewhat keep up with their superior physiques. Unfortunately for them, that little resistance they had disappeared with Song Lei. In less than a minute, they had lost two more people from their sides. And the only thing Clark could do was to watch as his wound healed. Song Lei knew that Clark couldn't join in the fight so he was utilizing this chance to the fullest.

As he managed to heal his wound, Clark's surroundings became filled with steam. He had to join the fight as soon as possible and help out. Otherwise, things would reach a point where he would no longer have a chance of restoring everything he had built up until now.

"You bastard! I'll make you my slave!" Clark shouted as his face became red with anger. Just as he was about to join the fight, Song Lei suddenly pushed the infected he was fighting with away and charged towards him. Clark was by no means expecting such a thing. With his incredible speed, Song Lei managed to get past Clark's effective defensive area.

"Take this!"