- Azriel -
Chasing Lucifer had exhausted many of the angel troops. Azriel expected difficulties with Lucifer and thought of every sacrifice as necessary, or at least he was telling himself when in reality his frustration was growing rapidly.
'Killing our kind is a specialty of yours. Soon though, soon you'll feel the same despair we did.'
Azriel had setup plans with Cytus prior. He knew the parasite would attempt to go after Lucifer directly, so he made sure to correct the potential mistake.
"Go to the highest roof you can. You'll be more useful as a sniper." Azriel had said to Cytus.
Lucifer had clearly taken a clean hit from Azriel. He had expected it to at least slow his brother down, but was surprised and annoyed at the quick recovery he saw.
'How? That attack should have cut deeply enough to inflict significant pain. How are you still flying?'
Azriel had left Amahar and Yukina to deal with the rest of Lucifer's group. He was confident that they could kill them, or at minimum, draw Lucifer's attention. He wasn't as sure of Amaterasu's side though. He had heard tales of Death's strength from his father, and unlike some of the other angels, he believed them.
'I need Lucifer dead soon. Her succeeding would be a miracle.'
With that thought, Azriel sped up his flying. He was the only one who could fly faster than Lucifer, and he was also the best option for close-range engagements. He would fly over Lucifer, strafing him with attacks, but nothing would connect.
'You ran from me that day. You could have killed me, yet you ran and here you are again, running. How about you stand your ground and fight, like our brothers and sisters you murdered!'
- Elijah, Yvere, Lao, Heinrich -
The four had been fending off attacks from various lycans and yokai. Heinrich was on defense, making sure to intercept any potentially dangerous attacks. Lao and Yvere were on offense, making sure to fight back any enemies that pushed in for melee.
The variety of the yokai complicated things. Kodama (wood-like beings), komainu, (large dog-lion beings), kept their distance, acting as a defensive line. While tsuchigumo, (half-spider, half woman) and kitsune (Silver foxes) rushed in with the lycans. Fighting humanoid enemies in such large numbers would be difficult enough, but the various shapes of the yokai required different responses.
The tsuchigumo would attempt to trap Lao and Yvere in webs while the kitsune would try to ignite the webs. Heinrich did his best blocking their attacks, his eyes constantly shifting to new targets.
In this chaos, Elijah couldn't stop thinking one thing.
'I'm a burden to them.'
The thought overwhelmed him. He couldn't stand the idea of being the reason why his team members in front of him die. He ran to the alley beside the four, where he was swiftly followed by three wolf-form lycans.
'What are you doing?' Everyone thought.
Elijah could hear the clawed footsteps behind him. The false sensation of teeth on his shoulders nagged at him. He turned the corner, and as soon as the lycans chasing him turned his direction he jammed his dagger into the closing one's eye.
Elijah was now on top of the lycan's corpse. The other two wolves went to swipe at him with their claws. He pulled the dagger out of the corpse's head and sliced behind him as fast as he could. His arms received deep cuts, however, his attackers were far worse off.
Their paws had been severed clean through. Elijah didn't miss the opportunity to jump on one of the lycans and stab them in the stomach repeatedly, killing them. His arms were warm, covered in a mix of his and his enemies' blood.
The other lycan went for his throat. He put his arm up to block, and in one motion it was gone, ripped off of his body. He screamed and swung the tip of his dagger into the lycan's chin. The wolf fell over, Elijah's arm still in its mouth.
Suddenly words from the guide rang in his mind.
'Always finish the kill.'
Dazed from blood loss and pain, he stumbled over the still body of the lycan, and stabbed them in the head. He wasn't sure if it was necessary, but he was too dizzy to bother questioning it. He fell over, sure that this was the end.
The muffled sound of yelling could be heard. Someone was calling a name.
"...Jah!S...aw...st...awa...!" The voice yelled.
Elijah felt something press against the stump where his arm used to be. Then suddenly an indescribable pain flooded his senses. He attempted to scream.
"AAA..." A piece of cloth was shoved in his mouth.
"You'll bite your tongue off. Up! Up!" Yvere shouted.
Elijah's vision was blurry. He felt like he had just given blood a hundred times. He scrambled to stand up, trying to find any amount of strength in his body. To his surprise, he was able to stand, if only barely.
Yvere reached into Elijah's pocket and pulled out the grey orb. Lao and Heinrich joined the two soon after.
Lao's face had streaks of green and red blood dried on it. His eyes were glowing.
"We need to meet back up with Peter and Sabu." Lao spoke as fast as he could. "Is it reattached?"
Yvere shook her hand in a way that indicated "kind of"
The enemy forces had gone around the now corpse-filled alley. They ran towards the four.
Yvere faced them. She put her energy into the grey orb and threw it. A large smokescreen formed in front of the approaching threats.
Yvere put Elijah on her back. She and Heinrich began to run, while Lao took a stance. The lower half of his arms and legs turned red.
The smokescreen was cleared away by wind magic. The enemy group didn't see that Lao had leaped high into the air, and was bringing down an axe kick.
The enemy Lao landed on was crushed, and beneath them, the ground was cracked. He rushed to the next enemy and drove his elbow into their nose.
Lao was in the middle of everyone. As risky as it was, it gave him the advantage of slowing everyone's magic, since the enemies wouldn't want to hit each other. This fact helped him greatly.
Lao hadn't gone into this expecting to be a valiant sacrifice. He had a plan. His battle against Cytus taught him that he shouldn't be as careful with his power.
'Ten minutes left.'
He began to tear through the enemy forces. Each punch and kick easily knocking away his foes.
"He's activated his contract. Get away from!" A gruff voice yelled.
The enemies that were able to get away ran off behind the owner of the voice.
Amahar and Yukina were standing next to each other. Amahar raised his hands, and unexpectedly, Lao ran the moment he did.
Lao was gone in a flash. It didn't take him very long to catch up to the others.
"Nine minutes until I'm depleted. Hopefully, I bought us enough time."
Heinrich turned around.
"Let me buy us a little extra."
Heinrich put his hands on the ground and took a deep breath. He pulled his hands up and large pieces of the ground shot into the sky. He put his hands into the air and brought down the flying stone towards the enemies.
Amahar noticed the attack and was fast to stop it. The ground between the enemies and the four was now split open. A deep hole had been formed, dividing the two groups.
Amahar wanted to send the attack back to Heinrich but knew it was a waste of mana. His group was far larger, thus he had to grab every large stone for fear of casualties on his side. He threw the rocks to the side and worked on filling the hole.
"Cut them off Yukina," Amahar ordered.
Yukina nodded her head and began moving away from the group.
- Peter -
Peter and Sabu had finished up the last of their oni. They regrouped and attempted to find the four that had ran into the gathering of buildings.
Sabu jumped up with wind magic and ran along rooftops of the buildings while Peter followed below.
"To the right. I saw a large mass of stone shoot into the sky." Sabu said.
The two ran over, swiftly killing any remnants of the enemies that had gotten lost in the chaos.
Peter was heading through an alley full of market stalls when he stopped. He could tell there was an illusion in front of him. He shot flames in front of him and was met with spikes of ice shooting towards his face.
He back stepped far enough to avoid serious injury, only receiving a few cuts on his sides and cheek. The ice in front of him shattered and from it, Yukina dashed towards him, her sword pointed at his face.
He went to parry the attack. The moment Yukina's sword touched his, it phased through.
Sabu was above Peter, looking for an opening to assist when ice spikes shot up from the roof he was standing on. He avoided the attack and looked around for where Yukina could be.
"Join the others Sabu! I need to clear the area!" Peter yelled.
Sabu nodded and dashed away.
Peter hated the idea of announcing his plans to his enemy but thought it was necessary for what he was about to do. He put his sword into the ground and caused the area around him to erupt in flames. Every building within a ten-meter radius was engulfed in fire.
He lifted his sword from the ground and exhaled slightly. He looked around at the char he had created, searching for Yukina.
Amongst the burnt wood of the stalls, Yukina walked out, her entire body covered in ice that was now melting.
'It just had to be a yuki-onna.' Peter sucked his teeth.
Yuki-onna had a powerful bloodline ability. They could generate ice from their bodies. Unlike the typical water mage, they didn't need a source, other than their mana.
Yukina froze the darkened ground and skated over to Peter. She brought her icy sword down onto Peter's flaming blade.
Neither element was giving in. Peter started to think about how helpless he had felt against Cytus. He didn't have his sword, and he barely had his magic at that time. The thought of that old battle caused him to look at his hands.
Yukina was frustrated. She didn't understand why she couldn't overpower Peter. His eyes didn't indicate he had taken a contract in Hell, so why was he matching her strength?
Peter turned off the flames on his sword. He and Yukina separated from each other. He used his free hand to gesture "Come here"
Yukina normally wouldn't fall for such a tactic, but Peter had damaged her pride as a yuki-onna. She was among a higher class of yokai and wasn't about to have a human look down on her.
She rushed in, swinging her sword downwards. Peter dodged to the side and swiped at her face. She ducked the attack and backed off.
The two clashed blades, neither landing a strong enough hit to seal the fight. It was hard to say if either was winning. Peter had been faster, but Yukina seemed more adept with dodging. She would weave in-between Peter's attacks, while Peter would often have to parry or sidestep.
Peter was hoping that Yukina wouldn't realize he was wasting time. The thought of a quick victory went away when he had looked at his hands. He had recently been made more aware of his limitations. His mana would have been enough if he was against a different opponent.
As the fight dragged on Yukina slowly became aware of what Peter was doing. Throughout the fight, he had never gone for anything too risky. His moves seemed deliberately predictable.
Yukina and Peter separated. Unfortunately for Peter, she was done with this game. She covered herself in ice and began to freeze the ground beneath her.
In response to this, Peter reignited his sword.