- The group -
Peter was dashing around, trying to get as many kills with his remaining seconds. The scared and hesitant enemies that remained were easy prey.
Peter was holding his breath the entire time. He knew the moment his timer was up he would collapse. If his outward expression showed how his body felt internally no one would be afraid of him.
While Peter was ripping through her allies, Yukina was charging towards the other five. Her mana reserves were getting low, so she decided to get closer before using any more magic. She was confident she could finish off four humans, and a half-vampire with just her sword.
Sabu was watching Yukina approach. He still had mana to spare and would make sure to finish what Peter started. He rushed towards Yukina, knives in both hands, and threw them while boosting their speed with wind.
Yukina intercepted the attack by swiping the knives out of the air with her sword.
'Accurate, but not powerful enough.' She thought.
Sabu kicked off the ground and spun his body in midair, sending a mix of wind blades, shuriken, and knives at Yukina.
Some attacks landed, but none did any damage. Yukina's ice armor blocked any dangerous spots, while she avoided or countered the rest. Her charge forward was unstoppable.
In the background, Lucifer's explosive attack against Azriel could be heard. The noise interested Yukina. If she wasn't determined to kill the opponents in front of her, she would have turned around to check.
Sabu cursed his lack of knowledge with wind magic. Back when he was first learning, Lucifer had told him that "Wind starts the weakest, but becomes one of the strongest."
Sabu took a deep breath. Trails of winds surrounded his arms and legs. Another lesson he had received came to mind.
"Wind is kind of like a multiplier. The better you move, the better it can help you." Zach's voice echoed in Sabu's mind.
Sabu pulled out a wakizashi and shot toward Yukina while spinning. He slammed the small blade against hers, using the momentum of his movement to add weight.
Yukina was knocked back.
'Not one, but two humans have managed to push me back.'
Yukina started to grind her teeth. She dug her foot in and started freezing the ground. All around Sabu, illusions of Yukina started to appear until eventually his line of sight with the real one was cut off.
Sabu jumped into the air and was met with a barrage of icicles. He did his best to blast most of them away, but couldn't stop one from piercing his leg. The pain caused him to momentarily stop channeling his spell and fall back onto the hard ice.
Sabu slammed his fist onto the ice. Yukina's plan seemed obvious in hindsight. Try as he might, he couldn't stand up without using magic again. The pierced leg was too painful to put any weight on, and trying to stand one-legged on ice would only result in him falling back down.
This gave Sabu an idea. He started to repeatedly feign getting up and falling back down. He wanted to look as weak as possible.
'All for one moment. Pride is a poison meant for warriors.' Sabu repeated in his mind as he continued his pathetic act.
Yukina almost felt bad for the human. To her, he looked like a wounded animal, desperately trying to crawl away from its predator.
Elijah turned to help and felt Heinrich's hand on his shoulder.
"Don't," Heinrich said.
Yvere was busy holding off three lycans that had confronted the four. Due to Peter's, and a lesser extent, Lao's prior display, the three wolves were slow to move in.
Sabu looked at Yukina and the four. With all his years of training in his past life and the current one, he still felt woefully unprepared. He had always been vigilant and confident in his abilities until he met Cytus, and now Yukina. He considered his current act proof of his weakness.
Sabu's past life came to mind. A story he had heard as a child of yokai snatching up humans. He had never been scared of "fictional" monsters. He had dealt with humans that seemed far worse.
All these thoughts were only a moment. Yukina was now standing over Sabu, panting from mild mana depletion. She had canceled her ice armor for fear of going into full depletion if she left it on.
"No. Please. I can't even stand, just let me go." Sabu begged, his voice almost quivering.
Yukina was disgusted by the act. She couldn't believe a human capable of hurting her would be so disgraceful. She went to stab her sword into him and at that moment, Sabu spun himself upwards, kicking his legs and using wind to cut into Yukina's body.
The attack caused Yukina to back up. She had been surprised and seriously wounded.
Sabu had landed deep cuts into her body. Yukina didn't have time to put her ice armor back on and was now, finally, suffering serious damage.
Yukina's blood dyed her pale skin and white armor a deep red. She was furious and wanted nothing more than to impale the human in front of her on top of a mountain of spikes.
Sabu floated himself just barely off the ice. Despite the act, he genuinely couldn't stand up if he wanted to.
Yukina, fed up with her humiliations, decided to spend every last drop of mana she could. She stabbed her sword into the ice and created large ice spikes that shot towards Sabu, coughing up blood in the process.
Sabu focused all his attention on his legs and shot himself upwards. He went overboard in his quick attempt to avoid Yukina's attack.
His body flipped and spun around as he soared. His aerial movement was less flying, and more like someone who had been shot out of a cannon.
Yukina grunted in anger. She watched as Sabu fell back down towards the spikes, eagerly waiting to see his body slide down the icicles.
As she stared upwards a large boulder crashed through the icicles. She looked at the large rock that broke her attack and cursed Amahar under her breath.
'Watch where you shoot those things.'
She was mistaken. It was Heinrich, copying Amahar's former attack. He wanted to launch it at Yukina but was interrupted by one of the lycans getting past Yvere.
Sabu saw the attack and while his body was facing down he shot two of the strongest wind blades he could muster at Yukina.
Yukina saw the attack and skated on the ice towards the boulder. Sabu's wind blades blasted into the spot where Yukina was.
Yukina couldn't believe Sabu was still able to cast magic in his position, but she no longer cared. She raced towards the other four. She skidded past the boulder and was ready to strike down the first opponent she saw.
Yvere had handled the two lycans, including the one that tried to attack Heinrich and was now facing off with Yukina.
Yukina noticed the gauntlets on Yvere.
'Must be a healer.'
Yukina tried to cut Yvere down, but couldn't get past the gauntlets. Every attempt she made to strike was blocked.
While Yvere was stalemated with Yukina, Sabu took out one of his last knives. Using his other arm, he spun himself to face Yukina. He threw the knife with a powerful gust of wind.
Yvere saw what Sabu was doing. She still had full mana from constantly draining enemies so she decided to do something risky. She left an obvious opening for Yukina to stab her in the chest.
Yukina took the bait and plunged her sword in the middle of Yvere's chest. The blade slowly started freezing the flesh around it.
Yukina smiled until she felt Sabu's knife pierce the top of her head. She released her grip on her sword and fell to the ground, dead.
Yvere pulled the sword out of her chest. She healed the open wound and frostbitten skin. The pain alone was almost enough to make her legs buckle.
Sabu cushioned his fall with multiple puffs of wind before hitting the icy floor below him. His fall was still harder than he would have liked, almost knocking the breath out of him.
"I need to help Peter! Can you move?" Yvere yelled over to Sabu.
There were no enemies close, so Sabu lied.
"Yes, go!" He shouted back.
Yvere sprinted back to Heinrich and Elijah. She saw Elijah standing in front of a dozen enemies with his dagger pointed out. Behind him were a collapsed Lao and Peter, and to his right was Heinrich.
The group was being surrounded. Peter's act was still making the enemies wary to attack. In their minds, Peter was like a dead snake that could still bite on reflex.
"What are you waiting for? His contract is clearly done. Finish them off!" Mira ordered from the side.
Elijah was terrified. He could feel his new life coming to a close. He couldn't possibly fight off the forces in front of him. He had one last move he could try.
"You heard those explosions right? Lucifer's clearly won. He'll kill any one of you that remains here." Elijah's voice stayed firm.
"Death too. You really think THE Death would lose. If you run now you might live. What sense is there in throwing any more of your lives away to kill some humans?" The statement caused the enemies to look at each other.
"What's your reward for this? A swift end to Death? Or maybe an agonizing one to Lucifer?"
Elijah felt like he knew Lucifer well enough to know that he wasn't the crazed torturer humans see him as. Still, the bluff might work on those that have never met him.
"The only agonizing end will be for those who retreat. Are you really going to believe the words of a newly reborn human?" Mira said confidently.
'Shit. I wish Lucifer had snapped your neck.' Elijah thought.
Mumbles of "newly reborn" and "Lucifer couldn't beat both archangels" started to spread.
"I might be newly reborn, but I've seen Death fight. He lives up to the tales I was told." Elijah wasn't giving up.
Yvere had hidden behind the boulder. She was waiting to see how long Elijah could stall for before making a move.
"Enough of this." Mira pushed through the crowd.
She was staring Elijah down, sword in hand.
Before she could move Elijah spoke again.
"Weren't you terrified when Lucifer almost broke your neck with one hand?" He asked in a fake sympathetic tone.
Mira resisted the urge to rub her throat.
"Aren't you scared of what will happen to you when Lucifer finds you?" Elijah's tone was now creepy and unsettling.
Mira swallowed. In all the chaos she had pushed back the fearful thoughts she had of Lucifer. The idea of him winning against both Cytus and Azriel was unthinkable, at least it had to be for the sake of her confidence.
She tightened her grip around her sword and stepped in to attack Elijah. He tried blocking the swing with the dagger but was knocked backward, dropping his weapon.
"He's just a weakling who knows how to speak, nothing more!" She shouted behind her shoulder.
Elijah took the opportunity to channel his attack. He had seconds, maybe, so he just said 'Fuck it.' in his mind and sacrificed his hand to fire.
Mira heard the electricity and tried to dodge. Elijah was aiming for her chest, but he only managed to graze her side. His hand was effectively gone, the damage being far worse the last two times.
Heinrich had been waiting patiently, ready to intercept any ranged attacks that might come through. He was now the only one standing between the enemies and his teammates. He accepted that he would lose his head for his next move.
As Heinrich went to push his teammates away by moving the ground beneath them a loud voice boomed across the destroyed town.
["Enough!"]
The strange voice combined with the volume instantly drew the crowd's attention.
Death was standing on top of the ice wall Yukina had made. His shadowy head and black clothing contrasting with the icy blue wall beneath him.
Death's presence petrified the remaining enemies.
Mumbles of "I thought Ama would win" and "He doesn't even look hurt" spread throughout the yokai. While amongst the lycans the anger they had for Death was now turning into pure fear.
Every enemy except for Mira ran away. She looked up at Death and then at her sword. She went to stab herself in the stomach when Yvere jumped out to stop her.
"You don't get to die here."
Yvere wasn't letting go of the sword. Mira looked on in horror as Death jumped down and began walking towards her.
"He'll torture me. Please just kill me!" She begged Death.
Death blinked so that he was right next to Mira.
"Look back on how many underserved chances you were given. Look at all the lives that were lost because of Azriel. Beg for a better end in the next cycle." Death said before smacking Mira in the head with the back of his scythe, knocking her unconscious.