The smell of rot while still present lessened as compared to just minutes ago.
The floor here was also much more clean with minimal amounts of gore covering it.
Continuing his steps he could see it in the distance.
The large gathering that would be his next challenge.
Readying himself he pulled his sword into a more ready position.
Although still not fully recovered from his prior breakdown, he was still capable of fighting, afterall time wasn't in his favor.
During his many loops he had discovered that at around midnight the darkness descends and the town as he knows it disappears. Meaning his run just ends.
The starting point of his loops is around five in the afternoon, with his longer attempts including this one being around four to five hours long.
If he had to guess from the fact that the sun just went down a while ago it had to be somewhere around nine or maybe ten. Meaning he only had about two to three hours remaining.
As he approached the group his state slowly returned to the battle coded one from before.
He was patient not running, just walking. From the size of the group Ash knew that conserving his stamina was vital.
It didn't take long for him to get noticed by one of the monster, one soon became two and then a dozen.
It didn't take long for the whole group to rush at him.
The bodies started falling one after another, but Ash had no time to rest. The monsters just kept on coming endlessly, without any sign of slowing down.
In the midst of this onslaught, Ash thought back to something from his past.
...
Two years ago.
"Ash! Are you listening?"
Ash felt a sudden striking pain hit his back.
"Ahhh"
He let out a small scream. Afterwhich small chuckles could be heard from all around the small classroom.
"If you keep dozing off during class you will be in trouble in the future."
The teaching sister remarked.
"Anyways please answer the question."
Ash's face grimaced as he clearly had no clue what the question even was.
"Umm... and the question was...?"
Expecting this, but still being caught off guard by the complete disrespect the teacher collected herself and answered Ash.
"What was the Hero King Reinhardt von Stern's statement at the funding of Primus?"
Ash went quiet, he knew the Hero King Reinhardt, he was one of the Four Heavenly Kings afterall.
He knew he was the founder and king of the biggest megacity Primus, and that he was a legendary figure that has lived from the first era, but things like quotes were something he wouldn't ever know.
After thinking for a small moment, Ash raised his shoulders in a dismissive manner and spoke up.
"I don't know."
The class was quiet, not expecting Ash to own up to his lack of knowledge, still it didn't take long for someone to raise their hand in hopes of answering instead.
"Yes, Sophie."
The teacher gestured towards the student already giving up on Ash.
"If I remember correctly it was: "Only through never giving up and struggling through everything was humanity able to get this far. Hope is intrinsically intertwined with the human experience and only through it can we continue our existence. This path of mine will only ever end when humanity has fully reclaimed and conquered all that was once theirs. So continue struggling with me till we have to struggle no more." and I quote."
The teacher nodded in satisfaction.
"Very good Sophie."
Then she looked at Ash who was absent-mindedly looking outside the window.
"And you Ash. Meet me at my office later, your conduct lately has been problematic."
Ash let out an annoyed sight, but tried not to show it.
...
Amidst the battle a small smile creeped up on Ash's face.
'Struggling till the bitter end, huh?'
The enemies weren't letting up, and Ash could feel himself getting weaker with each passing moment.
But Ash didn't let up, his infused slashes just kept cutting through the approaching enemies, while he remained mostly untouched.
Seconds that felt like hours had passed, and soon minutes that felt like days did so aswell.
But despite everything, things weren't changing, they just kept coming.
Tiredness was slowly catching up to Ash his strikes became slower, less accurate. Not enough for it to make a difference, but it was enough for Ash to notice his own state.
By this point if Ash had to guess he had already killed a few thousand, but proof of his achievements never remained.
While normally mountains of corpses would have formed by now, these corpses simply turned into large puddles of blood, or that's atleast what Ash thought considering he didn't have much time to focus on such factors.
The battle kept dragging on, and by now no matter how hard Ash pushed he knew that his end was coming. His will to keep going was slowly running out along with his mostly depleted stamina.
'I... can't keep... this up... much longer.'
But just then Ash felt it.
Something has changed.
The intensity, the pace at which the monsters kept coming was slowing down.
The seemingly infinite group was starting to thin out.
It was finally here, after what felt like days worth of struggle, was slowly arriving at it's end.
'Just... one final... push.'
With his newly reclaimed resolve Ash was more determined than ever to keep going.
His strikes became more precise, quicker, stronger.
And although it didn't change the pace at which the enemies fell by much, it was still something that carried meaning.
Ash was once again in his slaughtering form.
The bodies kept falling, blood splashing at Ash endlessly.
And then complete silence.
His sword hit air.
He had won.
Following the realisation, his legs gave out and he fell down with a splash.
Surrounding him was what seemed to be an ocean of blood so high it completely engulfed his foot, and was slowly approaching his knee.
Still with his tiredness he didn't care, he simply leaned back into the pool of blood.
There he was floating in an ocean of blood, tired and battered, his muscles unresponsive.
Looking up at the pitch black sky there was nothing for him to see.
He tried closing his eyes, but he could feel himself sinking each time, so in end he chose against it.
"I did it..."
A small whisper escaped his dried up lips.
For the next thirty or so minutes he didn't move an inch.
Then he slowly got up and looked around.
His muscles were still aching, but he didn't mind.
Looking around, the street seemed ordinary, it was lit by a few of the lamp posts around.
The street was unlike the other street not narrow. It's size was closer to the town square.
He was about to leave when he spotted something shinning strangely at the end of the street.
Ash was cautious, but still approached it.
It emitted a neon blue light, and the closer he got the clearer it became that it was some sort of small object.
Arriving at his destination, Ash looked forward at the object.
It sat atop the only bench this street had to offer, with the bench even having two small trees at it's side.
It was a small aluminium ticket, with light emitting qualities.
Picking it up, Ash took a closer look at the ticket, noticing the writting on.
It read as followed.
"Icarus Academy Special Admission Ticket."
"One of three special admission tickets for d.c. year 462. Owners are eligible for entry to Primus's most esteemed Icarus Academy."
Written in one of the corners was an extra piece of information.
"If lost the owner is not eligible for any sort of reimbursements."
After reading the ticket Ash was quick to have a reaction.
'An academy? No thanks.'
He was about to throw it away when a sudden thought hit him.
'Wait a minute.'
Taking another look at the ticket something instantly jumped out to him.
In the corner stood a logo he recognized all too well.
'SCC'
Indeed, Icarus Academy was ran by the Soul Chip Corporation. Which only meant one thing for Ash.
'Will...'
Although not certain, he had a feeling that this academy was possibly the place where the new recruits would go for training.
Although Will was only a recent friend of Ash, he was also his only friend.
If he had any chance of meeting him again he had to go to the academy, as with the town's destruction his admission to SCC was pretty much done for.
Ash took the ticket and put it in his most secure pocket.
With the anomaly done with and midnight drawing near, Ash hurried to out of the street.
Although he felt tired and weak, he still wanted to challenge the "cyclops" at the middle of town.
Standing at the entrance to the main street a sudden thought came to Ash.
'I should check my Interface.'