Page 174 of A Soul to Touch

The pain he felt was miserable, but Faunus tried to ignore it when he swept his arm to the side to knock a Demonslayer sprinting at him with their sword pointed for his side.

Mayumi and her friend, the one she just said was named Yoshida, separated. Yoshida was forced to move away in order to fight a foe one on one. He was on the constant backfoot, having to defend rather than attack. It was obvious his skill was lacking in comparison to hers.

Mayumi ran into the fray while pulling her dagger from her belt and held it with the blade coming out from the bottom of her left fist. She began using her dagger to attack and her sword as ashield. She blocked a sword coming downwards to slice her from above and forced it back before spinning and swiping her dagger in a quick strike across their body.

The Demonslayer let out a distressed choke and held their wound. Faunus started making his way to her when he saw that wasn’t enough to put them down.

I must go to her.

She didn’t need him. By the time his wobbly form was almost upon them, the Demonslayer’s wound had slowed their movements until Mayumi was able to flip her dagger and stab it into their jugular.

He only knew the name of her other companions, Klaus and Henry, because he overheard them calling to each other. She’d also spoken of them many times.

Together they fought against a small human and a woman who appeared to be taller than the rest – he could only tell it was a woman by her breasts tightly clad in her black leather uniform.

Faunus was thankful it was easy to see who belonged to which side. He only needed to attack those in black, and in his hazy vision, they appeared like nothing more than Demons.

Something wrapped around his back paw and tugged. The strength of the human was minor, but it still caused him to trip forward.

Faunus steadied himself on his forearms to prevent his skull from bashing against the ground. Then he let out a bellowing roar when something long and sharp speared him all the way through his torso.

His orbs had been white from both worry and pain, but they often flickered to red at his fury. They were red when he twisted his head to the Demonslayer, who had just shoved their sword through his torso with both hands.

They tried to yank it out, but the clenching of his muscles kept it locked inside. The Demonslayer pressed the base of their footagainst Faunus’ side to tug, gaining back their sword inch by inch.

When they realised Faunus had turned his sight to them, they left it inside him and backed up.

It was too late for them. Faunus reached his hand down his body before they could take a single step and stabbed his claws through their shoulder. He felt bones snapping as he brought them closer. Their dying scream was cut short when he clamped his jaws around their head and shattered their skull.

His following yelp was high-pitched and sharp.

The quick shutting of his own fangs shot excruciating agony like a lightning bolt throughout his face. He went to cup his skull but stopped himself before he made contact.

I cannot even fight with my fangs!Faunus lifted his paws and roared to the sky in frustration.It hurts. Why does it have to hurt so much?Could his final moments not be filled with pain? He was riddled with it, both inside and out.

It was debilitating. He hated the shame it brought – even more so when he saw Mayumi was fighting by herself.

She ran through the middle of the clearing and jumped for the stake. She used one foot to bounce off it while turning to the side, spearing her sword through the chest of the second opponent that had come to fight against Yoshida.

She had seen her friend was struggling by himself against two enemies.

Her eyes found Faunus on the other side of the clearing, her hair wiping around her face as the wind blew.

“Behind you!” she yelled before she twirled to block a blade.

Faunus didn’t have the chance to assess the two people who started to corner her and purposefully separate her from the rest of those fighting.

Instead, he turned just in time to see a Demonslayer utilising a whip and brandishing it against him. It had been aiming for hisneck, perhaps to thread around it like a collar. He threw his arm up, and it caught around his wrist.

Their eyes widened between the slit of black material covering their face before they narrowed on him. They pulled, just as he did.

They let go of the handle, and it caused him to stumble a single step in surprise. Faunus unthreaded it from his wrist and carelessly threw it to the side.

“Fuck!” he heard Yoshida spit.

Faunus, about to launch himself at the Demonslayer in front of him, managed to catch the male throwing up his own arm to take the blow of a sword directly against it. Yoshida had lost his own weapon to the ground and had nothing else but his own body to defend with.

The man’s following bellow was one of pain when his arm was sliced down to bone.

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