- Lucifer -
Lucifer had seen Peter's and Heinrich's attacks, while still dodging a majority of the army's attacks, most of which involved flying around stone spikes that would shoot from the ground to air-rolling and evading Azriel's bombardment.
He was calm. Not out of confidence, perhaps the opposite. He could feel his chances of living getting slimmer and slimmer. As the feeling got stronger, he felt his senses sharpen.
Lucifer had trained every day he could. He never took peace for granted. Torturing his body through practice and sparring far stronger opponents filled his past. His subconscious only allowed one thought at a time.
'Remove Cytus from his position.' Was his current thought.
He channeled multiple orbs in his hand, creating a cluster. He flew directly up, towards Azriel.
Azriel, surprised, sent dozens of wind blades down at him. Lucifer caught the more dangerously positioned ones with his flames, while just enduring small hits from the other. The attack might have been wide, but it lacked impact.
Lucifer closed his fingers around the cluster he made and flooded the skies with a cloud of thick smoke that kept growing, even as Azriel tried to blow it away.
Lucifer took the chance to do something even riskier. He hid in the smoke and channeled multiple clusters in both hands. He wrapped the clusters in orange mana, forming two spheres. He waited until Azriel completely blew the smoke away. Once the smoke was gone, he launched the wrapped clusters down towards Cytus's gathering of buildings.
Cytus noticed the attack and shot the orbs out of the air, causing multiple explosions to rip across the air and ground as the clustered orbs shot out of the orange mana wrapping.
The damage was massive. The entire area where Cytus had been was now burnt rubble.
Another thought came through Lucifer's mind.
'Reduce the numbers.'
With that thought, Lucifer blasted fire behind him, while flying back to the ground. He wanted to move faster and block any potential attacks from Azriel.
Looking around at the destruction gave Lucifer another thought to compliment his most recent one.
'Destroy everything to reduce their numbers.'
While using the tight gathering of buildings and stalls was his initial plan, Lucifer decided that he needed to push for a victory, and not just hope that Death makes it back in time. He flew in the opposite direction of the group, thinking that it was the right move for his next attack, unfortunately, Azriel had decided to try something new.
"FIND THE HUMANS. KILL THEM TO DRAW HIM OUT!" Azriel's voice boomed.
The army's forces started moving towards the four's direction.
Lucifer landed. He could feel the footsteps heading away from him. His anger broke his calm expression and his mind left its one thought restriction.
'You'll regret that Azriel.'
The fire around Lucifer's right arm climbed up to his hand, creating a large flame that would shrink, then grow, repeating this process multiple times. The fire compressed down into a small orange sphere the size of his palm. He wrapped the sphere with lines of orange mana a dozen times using his left arm's fire.
Lucifer placed his right palm up towards the sky. He put his right hand behind the orb, pulled it back, and smashed it forward, launching the orb with so much speed it appeared to blur.
The attack burned through wall after wall before eventually going off.
- Azriel -
Azriel shouted his command to the army. He didn't like the idea of using the humans as bait, because they weren't weak enough to easily deal with, and it gave Lucifer room to prepare.
'We can't chase him for very long. I need to force a reckless action.'
Lucifer's attack exploded among the buildings that the army was moving past. Large tentacles of flames shot out of the explosion, whipping through the nearby area. Multiple groups of the army were hit and killed by the wildly swinging flames, causing severe damage to Azriel's numbers.
Seeing the attack gave Azriel inspiration.
He gathered wind around his body and started to create a powerful twister. He had avoided such an attack prior for fear of hitting his own side.
The twister gained strength, picking up the burnt rubble and bodies in the area. Azriel fed the attack more and more mana, causing it to rotate faster.
Azriel could see where Lucifer was, and guided the twister towards him, making it move faster and more violently with every second.
- Cytus -
Cytus and his group that had been on the buildings Lucifer destroyed were stumbling around the debris. Cytus had a few small cuts from flying debris, but nothing serious, unlike the others who had been closer to the explosions.
Body parts were scattered all over. Healers were trying to save those who were buried. They tried asking Cytus for help but he ignored their pleas and instead decided to mock what Azriel had said.
"Find a tall building. You'll be more useful as a sniper." Cytus mimicked Azriel's voice in a mocking tone.
"I'll show you how I can be useful."
Cytus's full-body became enveloped in lightning. It was the same spell he had used against the group back in Hydern, except this time it would be full strength.
Cytus heard Azriel's command as he was channeling.
'I can't wait until this alliance is over.'
The spell completed at the same time Azriel created his twister.
"What is he doing? He'll kill us all." A healer said in a scared tone.
"Never trust an angel," Cytus said before disappearing in a flash of speed.
- Lucifer -
Azriel's twister was approaching fast. Lucifer couldn't risk flying anymore. The wind around the area had become far too turbulent for any non-wind mage to safely fly through.
As Lucifer went to move he heard the approaching sound of rapid footsteps. As he turned around Cytus's hand gripped his head and slammed him to the ground.
"Let's go see what Azriel wants, shall we?" Cytus laughed.
Cytus dragged Lucifer along the ground, all while maintaining his incredible speed. Lucifer reignited his arms and grabbed the arm Cytus was holding him down with.
Cytus released Lucifer, who spun fire around him as he flipped off the ground. His nose was broken and the back of his head was bleeding. The powerful wind behind him and the lightning-fast parasite in front of him refocused him back to his calm state. He pushed all thoughts worrying about the others out of his mind.
'Survive.'
Lucifer rushed Cytus, keeping one hand pointed in front and the other towards his back. Cytus was on his side in a second.
Lucifer went to turn. Before he could, Cytus's fist smashed against his cheek. He was now facing Cytus, and in an instant another punch slammed against his stomach, lifting him off the ground.
Lucifer could feel the attack go through his whole body. Cytus grabbed his leg and bounced him off the ground like a whip. As soon as his body lifted off the floor he looked up at the smiling parasite and shot fire from his mouth.
The attack caught Cytus off-guard, causing him to back away further than he wanted. Lucifer shot himself up with fire once again. He took a quick breath.
'Stronger. Stronger!' Lucifer thought.
The flames around Lucifer's arm turned blue and started to slowly burn his skin.
- Peter -
Peter and Yukina had been exchanging magical blows when they both noticed Lucifer's attack.
Peter could tell the attack's intent. Such a powerful spell would take time to make, time Lucifer would only have if he wasn't the army's main focus anymore.
'Fuck.'
Peter started running from Yukina. He used his flames to gain distance quickly. Yukina created large ice walls in front of him that he pushed through with a powerful wave of fire from his sword.
Peter was injured. He and Yukina were evenly matched. He had punctures in his chest and legs from where her ice had stabbed him. He had landed his own damage, burning the side of her face that was covered by her hair, revealing an all-white eye underneath.
Peter was in agony from the pain. He pushed the pain to the back of his mind as best he could. His main priority was getting back to the group. He had to trust that they could all work well enough together to fight back the army while Lucifer dealt with Cytus and Azriel. He was confident Lucifer could win, and it was that confidence that spurred him forward through his pain.
Yokai and lycans tried to stop Peter from reconvening with the group. He made quick work of most. He would cleave through any that tried getting close, and swiftly blast any that attempted to shoot magic at him. He used his magic to maximize his mobility, making sure to never stop.
Peter saw another illusion in front of him. It looked like everything was on fire.
'There's no chance the yuki caught up to me.'
He shot a wave of flame into the illusion. He had stopped just long enough that he was now being surrounded. The illusion faded, and from it, he could see Mira. Her hand had been regrown and she was holding a sword.
Peter glared at Mira and sheathed his sword, dispersing the flames. He needed to trade offense for evasion. He shot himself up and towards the rooftops with fire magic.
Peter's injuries made every magic cast risky. If he lost focus it would only lead to more damage from backlash. He clenched his jaw.
'Ya didn't try Lucifer's trainin' to let this stop ya.'
Lycans and yokai jumped up to the rooftops to meet Peter. He wasn't stopping to fight. He ran, bringing the pursuing enemies towards the group.
- The five -
Sabu had joined the four, telling them about Peter's current fight while assisting them in defending.
"It's a yuki-onna. What are you dealing with?" Sabu asked, throwing a knife into a tsuchigumo that was attempting to hit the group with spider webs from the roof above them.
The tsuchigumo fell off the roof and hit the ground with a thud.
"Lao's got five minutes left before he's depleted. There's a purple-eyed lycan we believe to be a leader." Yvere reported.
"Purple?" Sabu worryingly mumbled to himself.
The five were slowly being overwhelmed. Heinrich's magic was slowing down. The group was swarmed by yokai blasting magic from rooftops.
The lycans were easier to deal with, if only because Lao's contract activation had made him far stronger than them. Lao was more stained with blood than the other four combined. He had been at the very front intercepting every attack he could. His arms would have been perforated if not for his gauntlets.
Lao's breathing was getting heavier with each passing minute. Yvere had been healing his small injuries. She didn't want him speeding up his timer anymore than he had to. Lao would occasionally send an enemy he knocked unconscious to her, so she could drain their mana.
The two healers were in sync. Lao tanked damage while Yvere kept everyone in fighting shape. Elijah had left Yvere's back. He was standing on his own now, watching behind the group and calling any enemies he saw.
Sabu's addition was welcomed. He would dash around the rooftops dispatching the enemies that had been pelting the four with attacks. He was throwing a knife when a large boulder shot his way. He slowed it with a powerful blast of wind, causing it to drop onto the roof and collapse it.
Sabu fell through. He could hear the sound of another boulder hitting the ground where the four had been. He rushed out of the building and saw Lao and Yvere holding the boulder above the crouched heads of the others.
The two healers tossed the boulder in front of them.
"We have to move! They're launching boulders at this location!" Sabu shouted.
The sound of a powerful explosion shook the ground. It was Lucifer's attack. The five started to move.
"Thr...three minutes...left," Lao said through his heavy breathing.
- Peter -
Peter caught up to the five. He had gotten very far away from the enemies that were chasing him through the use of floating explosive orbs and flames pushing him forward.
Four of them were running along the ground when they noticed Peter. He and Sabu kept to the high ground while moving with them.
"Report," Peter said.
"Lao two minutes. Purple-eyed lycan earth magic. Heinrich almost tapped." Sabu informed, not wasting words.
'Purple? Shit!'
Suddenly two large spiky walls, one of ice and the other stone, formed around the group, trapping them in a bowl.
Peter drew his sword.
"I have eight minutes. Just survive." Peter said, his arms turning black up to his elbows, and his legs turning black up to his knees.