Page 175 of A Soul to Touch

Lost in watching, Faunus felt the slash of the whip slice across the flesh of his neck. He also took a new arrow close to his heart. It buried into his body until he felt the sharp point of it each time he took in a lungful of air.

He was growing more injured by the second and was doing very little to help in fighting. Yes, he’d killed two Demonslayers, but so had Mayumi.

And she was currently fighting off two by her damn self.

I am growing weaker.

He was losing too much blood, even for a Duskwalker. He hadn’t even realised he was littered with arrows until the last one punctured his lung.

He was a distraction for the Demonslayers, helping to spread out their attention, but that was it.

He couldn’t believe that he needed help. The one with the whip and the bowman he could see were too far away from him to fight. They were keeping their distance from his slicing claws.

He was just standing here, struggling with his limbs that were trying to cave in. His lungs felt as though they were filled with dust, blocked and aching, and it made every breath he took burn in the back of his throat.

It was in that moment, when he was deciding the best course of action he could take to aid those on Mayumi’s side, that he watched Yoshida be speared in the torso with a sword. He was the only one of her companions who wasn’t wearing plated armour, and it left him vulnerable.

Yoshida gaped at the weapon inside him before raising his head to the Demonslayer with blood bubbling at his lips. It began pouring down his chin.

He was going to die, that much was obvious. Faunus usually wouldn’t have given a damn about a human’s life, but he currently did – only because it meant Mayumi had one less person on her side. He cared naught for their friendship.

I will not last much longer.Faunus watched the Demonslayer twist the weapon inside Yoshida’s chest.But he can.

Using all the strength within him, he sprinted in the direction of the man.

Faunus shoved the Demonslayer away hard enough that he went rolling to the ground. The accidental flick of his wrist sliced claw marks into his leather and, hopefully, his flesh.

Yoshida stared at Faunus instead when he gripped him by the throat with one hand and swiftly yanked the sword from him with the other. Crimson liquid squirted from the gaping hole in his stomach when the blocking pressure was released before pouring down the front of him.

Then a bright yellow light began to glow from underneath Yoshida’s flesh as magic radiated coolness between them.

Even just using his own magic had Faunus shaking, but he refused to relent, even when an arrow embedded into his back. He flinched but held strong.

The gargling from the dying man grew stronger rather than softer as he was given back his strength, his blood, his breaths, while Faunus’ own dwindled far more rapidly.

Yoshida gained the vigour to hold Faunus’ wrist to lift himself up, his human legs writhing so that his leather boots brushed and kicked the dirt and snow.

“Why?” he grated out. “Why save me?”

“Protect her,”Faunus pleaded, his breaths turning more laboured at the gaping wound forming in his chest. His arm burned with the transfer of magic.“Protect her with the life I have granted you.”

He was healing him, taking his wounds for himself.

Another horrible yelp escaped Faunus, one far worse than ever before when something wrapped around the horn on the bad side of his skull and pulled.

He went with it, at the same time dropping Mayumi’s companion as a crumbling heap to the ground, to prevent it from snapping the last tether holding him together.

The Demonslayer kept pulling, and Faunus’ paws almost came out from under him.

Despite the differences in their strength, pain was a cruel weapon – one this puny, feeble human didn’t know they were wielding.

He grabbed the line of the whip with his fist. It was difficult to hold as it was so small and thin within the crease of his large palm. He was also holding it with the arm that was now wounded due to the new injury he’d gained in saving her friend from death. But he held it as tight as he could to lessen the tug and went with the Demonslayer, finding himself stumbling away from the battling field.

His sight desperately searched for his tiny, little, precious female in the clearing.

Klaus and Henry had managed to kill one of their two enemies, but they both struggled against the big human woman that rained down heavy striking blows.

Yoshida, the one he had saved, killed the man who had originally sought to take his own life. He could have gone to his friends, who were struggling together against a singular opponent, but he instead entered the forest.

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