Chapter 12 - Six Out Of Fifty

One by one.

The remaining Slayers pushed forward towards the Angel.

With his palms on his chest, Yin was telling them not to go.

"Stop it! You're going to die!"

There was an unspoken truth in the atmosphere.

These Slayers wanted nothing more than to offer themselves to death's cold embrace.

They just wanted to get it over with.

Failure was imminent.

Yin's thoughts circled around and around.

Suna was on the ground, slowly being approached by the ghastly Angel.

Only being stopped momentarily by the Slayers attacking it thoughtlessly.

What was Yin's next move?

An action that would increase their chances of victory.

A move that he was still hiding.

That's when it hit him.

How could he have forgotten it?

The Deathly Binding Chains.

With his chest still in pain from the crushed ribs he suffered earlier, he stood up.

Bodies were being thrown at the Angel, only to be decimated one by one.

The buzz-cut Wind Slayer from earlier told Yin something before charging straight into the monster himself.

"I admit, I doubted you as well. I know it's not right to put a price on lives, but after seeing you and Miss Suna in action, you both are worth more than every single one of us out here.

He tried to reach out.

But Yin could not dare to invalidate someone's resolve.

He respected his decision.

His decision to die as a soldier. As a Slayer.

Shortly after standing up, Yin clapped his hands one time.

Forming a motion reminiscent to that of a prayer.

Vinny was still trying to fight death.

His lips were pale and his eyes were hollow.

"Y-Yin, Suna. Don't let us die for nothing. Let our deaths mean something. P-Please."

Suna held her chin down.

She could not stand to look at them and promise something she was unsure of.

She slowly took a knee and rose up from the ground.

Vinny's soul has left his body, leaving behind a grotesque dismembered corpse.

Isabelle cried out at a distance.

About six Slayers were now left standing.

And that's already including Yin and Suna.

A pair of twins, both Water Slayers, clearly just only children.

A petite Earth Slayer with brown hair and lean frame.

And a Summoner who had used his Grimoire as a shield for the Angel's blow earlier, he was basically useless.

The Angel was now out of energy.

But it was too fatigued to fly away and escape.

With one leg, it slowly crept up to their location.

"Focus on supporting my advance."

Yin ordered them.

"You children, stand back. You clearly have no stamina left to do anything."

As he pointed at the Water Slayer twins.

"Summoner, can you fight? Physically, I mean."

Suna wanted to gauge her teammates strength and what they can and can't do to prepare for the worst.

"No."

"But I can act as bait."

"Nobody's going to be bait. Don't be ridiculous."

Yin shot him a stare of disapproval.

"Sir, I've lost all my friends already. I've got nobody back home. The least I can do is hold that thing down with all my might while you guys impale it or something. I have to do this, while my friend's remains are still here. I want them to see that they did not die for nothing. Remember what you said to all of us? If we win, we'll live. Let's win, Mister Yin."

Yin had realized.

This kid knew about sacrifices and accepted it wholeheartedly.

He picked up a spare dagger from a fellow Slayer's lifeless corpse.

"Use this."

He handed the dagger down to the Summoner.

To which the latter nodded in approval.

"I can still dance."

Said the Earth Slayer.

She wielded an axe as huge as her frame.

"The name's Cosette. I'm afraid my stamina is already far depleted for spells, but I can still dance with my Axe."

Her face had confidence written all over it.

She wore brown leather armor, which complimented her dark brown skin.

Her hair was worn in a bob cut, she probably dyed it brunette.

Suna was the same height as her, but she was clearly younger.

Her eyes were a dark hazel brown color.

"Alright, back me and Suna up as best as you can, retreat when it gets too dangerous."

To which she nodded while doing a half-smile.

Even Suna could see she was overflowing with confidence.

"Excluding the Water Slayer Twins, that makes four of us. I'm not letting everyone die for nothing, Vinny. I promise."

The Angel was now revving up its single foot at a distance now.

It was preparing to do what it did to decimate their allies earlier.

Yin placed both his palms together and slowly separated it.

Everyone, including Gavin, Luken, and Isabelle could see it.

He was conjuring something from his palms.

They were…chains?

"Deathly Binding Chains."

Yin wrapped the chains around his fists.

The Slayers were dumbfounded.

Wasn't this guy a close quarters combatant?

That's what everyone had in mind.

Luken smiled at a distance.

Isabelle's tears quickly dried up as she wrote what she saw in her notebook.

"This is the first time I've seen Yin do this."

Gavin was in shock.

"Don't worry. You're not alone in that."

Luken placed his arm on Gavin's shoulders.

"Let's believe in our juniors."

To be able to conjure something out of nothing like that except for Summoners casting incantations to summon their beasts was unheard of.

Before they could even ask what Yin did, the Angel made its move.

It used its swords as crutches, even with the damage it took, the threat was still too strong for them.

Slowly making its way towards the group.

"Cosette, take the twins some place far away and regroup afterwards!"

Yin said with no hesitation in his voice.

"You got it, sir!"

She quickly grabbed the Water Slayer twins and ran as fast as she could away from the place of action.

"Suna, synchronize with me. We'll pummel at it with all our might, focus on keeping its defenses down."

"Gotcha."

Yin looked at the knife-wielding Summoner.

Trying to think about what he could do in this situation.

"I don't know how good you are with a knife, but still, fight in a way befitting a Slayer."

The Summoner was trembling, but he still nodded in assurance.

Yin called forth the black lightning and empowered his limbs once more.

"Remember, it's as tired as we are. If we're out of energy, then it feels the same way. Hold out until Cosette returns. Don't die."

"Roger!"

Suna and the Summoner verbally approved in unison.

The Angel was now only a few inches away.

Suna tried to sweep its last remaining leg with a kick, thinking it would go down.

It didn't.

Instead, it jumped up the air for a few feet just to dodge her kick.

It landed towards where the Summoner could have been.

But due to quick thinking, Yin shoved him and managed to block both swords with his chain-reinforced fists.

Yin threw an uppercut which hit the wounded Angel straight in the jaw.

It was shaking while being shocked by black lightning.

Suna followed up with a kick to its side.

The Angel screamed out in pain.

The Summoner guessed that this was the perfect time for him to strike.

He guessed wrong.

The Angel had recovered after being thrown sideways by Suna's kick.

Before it got up, it mustered all its strength and cut the Summoner's left arm off.

He screamed in pain.

Without hesitation, Yin threw himself in front of the Summoner and tackled him to the ground in hopes of saving him from a second slice of the Angel's blade.

Yin succeeded in that, but he was too late from saving him from being decapitated.

Suna rushed at the Angel.

She hit it with numerous combinations of kicks and punches before being sent flying away with a kick, prompting the Angel to fall down again.

"I-I'm sorry. I just wanted to avenge my friends."

The Summoner said while crying.

"You already have, soldier."

Yin was consoling the injured Summoner.

He had his back turned from his enemy.

The Angel calculated the distance in a split second.

Within that time frame, it threw one katana in Yin's direction.

It was thrown with such speed that it only took a split second to almost pierce Yin's back.

"Yin!!! Behind you!"

Suna warned him with a violent screech.

The Summoner tried to push him away, but with one arm, he found it too difficult.

Before Yin could fully turn around and comprehend the situation, Cosette had arrived.

Yin could hear her Axe being swung behind him.

She successfully managed to deflect the katana thrown by the Angel with her axe.

Any second later and she would have been too late.

"Phew, glad I could make it in time."

She wiped the sweat off her head and held an arm out for Yin.

To which he accepted and stood up.

The Angel threw one of its two wielded weapons in an attempt to eliminate Yin.

Thanks to Cosette's timing, it never reached its target.

She assumed the position of a runner getting ready at the start.

In mere moments, the distance between her and the Angel was gone.

She was all up in its face.

"You know for an Angel, you're quite ugly."

Cosette mocked it.

She lifted her axe in preparation for a swing once more.

The Angel hastily jumped back to dodge the swing.

Suna timed her attack with Cosette's and hit the nape with a clean hit, sending the Angel flying towards Yin's direction.

He removed the chains from his fists and wrapped it around its body like a mummy.

But Yin had miscalculated, it still had its sword held in place.

It slowly hacked away the chains which were binding it.

Suna and Cosette were running but they were too far.

The closest except Yin was the Summoner.

He ran as fast as he could towards the bound Angel and stabbed its hands, wanting to make it let go of its blade.

Before he could finish cutting off the Angel's hand, the Angel threw its last katana once more.

Only this time, it hit its mark.

"No!"

Yin cried out but nothing could change what happened.

The blade flew straight at the Summoner's neck.

Killing him instantly.

"Out of fifty Slayers. Only three remain in action."

Luken made his words heard by the emissary, who was now shaking in panic, fear, and anguish.

"Don't forget Isabelle, you did this."