Chapter 172 - Commence

The only ones who were members of the Slayer Corps who were not allowed to take part in the Operation Liberation were the D Rank Slayers, to be clear, they were mostly made up of children who were still not even remotely good at using their affinities. They would not even make for good meat shields or baits in a real battle at all.

A couple of Enforcers stayed back in the Grand Castle as well as the High Council's members. The old cretins did not even volunteer to take part in the operation. But, it is doubtful that they would even perform well because of their age. "Come here, children, hide in here." Willis, the leader of the High Council was the one who was tasked with directing the D Rank children where to hide in order to be safe. 

It would be vital for them to live out this operation just in case it had failed, they were like the 'safety nets' of the Slayer Corps.. Even Shaheen went out with Team Alpha and wished to fight with them after seeing the Angels up close with his own two eyes. "Are you sure you can handle these Angels, Shaheen? They are not mere criminals and such, you know?" The Commander asked, teasing him in the process.

"You might have forgotten that I am also an S Rank-capable fighter, Luken. Watch your words." The Enforcer's leader replied back with a slightly annoyed voice and face. "This is not the exact start to the mission that you had expected, isn't it, Luken?" Emperor Nicholas jokingly asked him. "Nope. Not at all, sire. Not at all." The Commander said while gripping his rapier with his dominant hand. 

The Angels up above backed off from the Red Barrier as they lined up in front of the Outer Gate's entrance. "Would you look at that, they are pretty coordinated, like an army, eh?" Ignis Silva pointed out after seeing what just happened." "Once the Outer Gates open up, Alpha will go out first and try to suppress them from moving forward. We would not want them to actually get inside Niflheim."

Gavin Khalil gave the order to the other summoners with them that they needed to summon their beasts right about now. "When Alpha shoves in, have your defensive beasts guard the rear and our sides, we do not have dedicated defenders in our team, even if some are adept at close quarters combat here, the last thing we want to do is to break our formation. Have the offensive beasts take charge and make them coordinate with the others up in front, make sure to always prioritize saving others. Alpha is in the most dangerous position, the least we could do is add additional firepower and help them." The Serpent Summoner said as he opened his green grimoire. He called upon the aid of Ryoko the Elder Wyrm, as well as the Serpent which swallowed Fulgur, the Lightning Seraphim a few months ago.

All the other Summoners soon followed and an array of beasts manifested out of thin air, the Allcaster grinned. "I do not need to tell you again and again what spellcasters are meant to do, am I?!" He raised his voice, it was a rare occasion for everyone to see. 

Yin Sohaya, Suna Izanami, Cosette Akim, and Hector Incendium stood close to the Commander, Shaheen Patel, and the Emperor. "This is the riskiest place you could be during the start of the mission, are you guys sure about where you are standing?" Luken asked them. "Of course, Commander. Do not worry, I do not plan on dying just yet." Yin gave out a confident grin along with his answer. "I am ready to fucking bash some Angel's head in." Suna said as she cracked her knuckles. Cosette Akim took out her grimoire and enchanted her weapon with her Earth affinity. "I guess this is it." She muttered out nonchalantly. Hector noticed just how calm they all were. He said nothing and proceeded to enchant his weapon as well. 

Every other Slayer followed their preparations, from enchanting their weapons down to opening their grimoire's pages in advance. "Looks like nobody is dragging their feet just to be here." Luken said to himself. "Slayer Corps! This is a battle not only for our survival as soldiers, but for everyone in Niflheim as well! Our families residing here, our children that are still too young to be aware of what the world they live in looks like, for everything else that these despicable Seraphims and Angels have done to our ancestors. Stand tall and stand proud, cut off as many Angel heads as you possibly can!" The Commander exclaimed, bolstering the war cries from earlier, sending them all to a frenzy of anticipation. 

The Outer Gates' doors opened up – the Angels and Slayers now shared the same goal, to annihilate the enemy before the enemy completely slaughters them. "Go." Luken blurted out as he led the charge himself. Team Alpha were on the offensive, but they saw that the Angels were now flying upwards, abandoning the chances of being stuck in a close quarter confrontation against them. 

Ignis Silva and Fen Kaori noticed this and immediately gave the order for the long range attackers to start unleashing their barrages up above to make the Angels fly back down. The Inferno Garden leader threw out his enchanted blood stained playing cards and aimed it at the Angel's wings up above. "Come back down here, you pieces of shit!" Ignis exclaimed. Summoned beasts who had wings and could fight in the air were sent up to face them. Ryoko had multiple beasts on her wings, they all jumped at the Angels and were desperately dragging them down into the ground below.

Indeed, the three leaders of each team knew that this would be a possibility that might occur during the mission. They had talked about this back when they were still at the Khalil family's manor, arranging the squadron and their members. "Heh. You were right about this, Ignis." Luken whispered under his breath and he was waiting for an Angel to be plucked down from the heavens above. 

But they were not just going to fly up and wait for them to get hit by the spells and the beasts, it was the first time that the Slayer Corps noticed it – Angels with bows and arrows equipped instead of the traditional blades that they had. Yin looked around and it was going to be hard to fight under these conditions. "Fuck. We have to force them to come down to us or we will get wiped up before the we could even get started!" Then he realized it, he called for the Black Lightning from above and enchanted his weapon, but that was not his main trump card, however, he thought that since his enchantment process was unique, the black lightning would hit the Angels from above as it came down towards his sword. 

He ran forward without a single word. "I have to hurry!" Yin was tunnel visioning at one particular thing that he did not notice an Angel creeping up behind his back with its blade drawn. "Yin! Behind you!" Suna screamed but the white haired Slayer was too slow to turn around. "Damn, is Yin going to be one of the first ones to die out here?!" Cosette desperately tried to sprint and move forward to save him but her feet felt like it was stuck in place. "Move, legs!" She shouted. "A-Am I really this stricken with fear?!" 

Hector Incendium zoomed past them with his feet burning from the enchantment. With one swing from his axe, he chopped off the Angel's head. The blood of his target painted his axe's blade as well as his some part of his face red. He wiped it off with his arms. 

"T-Thanks, Hector!" Yin said to him. "Do not do dumb things, Yin. I know you want to do the most that you can, but you cannot do anything at all if you are dead and six feet under." The prodigal Fire Slayer said.

They could no longer see the Commander, he went on up ahead directly below where the Angels were. "Take cover for now, they have long range projectile throwers in the form of archers. I did not expect them to have this, it was never in the data books or anywhere at all." He said. "We could have prepared for the long range spells since it has a pretty high cooldown rate, but this constant barrage of arrows will not bode well for us at all."

Gamma and Beta did the same, they took cover with the rocky terrain outside and hid from the arrows. "This is the first time I have ever seen them make use of bows, what has gotten into these Angels? Tch." Kai Xin said as he clicked his tongue. "Relax, Kai, we still have to think about what our next move would be after they exhaust their arrow quivers."