Chapter 155 - Inferno Garden Trio

A few minutes have passed after the Water Seraphim's death. And each of the remaining Seraphims were still fighting the Slayers who were assigned to them. After observing Umbra, the Shadow Seraphim, Ignis knew that he was susceptible to his group's fire attacks, it could be that he was oddly weak against it, making the Serpent Summoner's hunch correct. "Shadows vanish when the light of the flames come smoldering." Ignis reminded himself of this quote before pulling out his dagger and charging into the battle head on himself.

He whispered something into Kai Xin and Reno's ears and they both nodded afterwards. Umbra was preparing himself as to what these opponents of his were plotting. "Kill. Dismember. Eat." Umbra could only speak in this particular way. He thrived off of being one of the quickest Seraphims, but one single burn on his body was amplified so much more because of his weakness to that affinity.

The three of them backed off for a bit and pulled out their grimoires, creating some distance between them and Umbra. The Shadow Seraphim was confused, he was pretty anxious about them knowing his weakness, and it was not only one Fire Slayer he was up against, but three actually strong ones.

Kai Xin, Reno, and Ignis Silva casted a circular shield that covered them. Forming the flame shield covering the three Inferno Garden members. But there was a catch, however, this was a spell that needed to be maintained, so this was going to be a bet that Ignis Silva wanted to make. If ever he was wrong and Umbra was actually not weak against flames and their fire spells, it was going to back fire on them if he just cut through the flame shield with his massive claws.

He instructed them to walk slowly and keep on maintaining the shield, once his bet turned out wrong, it would be troublesome attempting to fight Umbra who was an adept melee fighter at this close of a range. The Shadow Seraphim was quick on his feet and pounced back as well. 

Ignis Silva had a grin of confidence etched on his face now. "It seems that I am right, Kai, Reno." He said. They had a timed fight on their hands now, the flame shield was not going to be up for long, they had about five minutes of using it until their Anima cells completely fatigue out and it turned off on itself.

Their advances were slowly turning from slowly walking towards Umbra into full on running at him. "Are you scared of being burned, you are, aren't you?" Kai Xin was trying to tilt Umbra and make him enraged so that he loses his cool and gives in to aggression. "Come on, why aren't you attacking? Are you that scared and unconfident in the power and size of those claws that you carry?" He said to Umbra.

"Do it now, Kai!" Ignis shouted as Kai Xin threw his sword straight into Umbra's face. Because if he were to break formation and attempt to slice him up, it would break the shield and leave them vulnerable to the range of the Shadow Seraphim's attacks. 

Umbra did not expect Kai Xin to launch his sword straight into the air, it was not even a normal sword throw, before Kai Xin let it loose, he enchanted the blade with his flame affinity. It was a glowing hot red blade coming quickly towards Umbra. The blade was sidestepped by the Shadow Seraphim, this was all Ignis needed in order to move on to the next part of his plan. "Reno, now!" While still holding his grimoire, the member of the Inferno Garden placed his other hand on the ground as their flame shield advance was halted due to this. After two seconds, a couple of fire pillars emerged from the ground and caught Umbra off guard, burning the soles of his feet. He was obviously in pain, his screeches were reflective of that.

The Inferno Garden trio now turned off and let go of the flame shield. Ignis Silva threw the last of his playing cards up above so that the Shadow Seraphim would not fly away, while Kai Xin and Reno enchanted their feet with flames and burst through the air to close the gap between them and Umbra. They really expected Umbra to just back off, as he would not be able to dodge two attacks coming from each side while his space for escape was covered by the exploding cards of Ignis. 

But Umbra was not going to run away from this confrontation. No, he still had a few tricks up his sleeves. His devilish face grinning and laughing was the last thing Reno would ever see. He had the ability to control his opponents shadows and turn them into weapons such as spikes and stuff. The Shadow Seraphim knew that they were unaware of this attack, it was not like he could spam it as well, it was going to be a one time thing to use in this fight, and now was the perfect opportunity to use it.

Reno and Kai Xin's shadows moved against what they were doing and stabbed them with spikes. Reno was pierced straight from the back right into his heart. Blood started to pour out from the wound as he turned to look at Ignis Silva for one last time. "I-I am sorry, boss. T-This was my fault." He said as he fell to the ground. Kai Xin turned around almost immediately as he realized a huge concentration of Anima cells coming from behind him, little did he know, they were coming from his own shadows. The spikes were going to pierce his face but he moved ever so slightly, but he was not going to get out of the Shadow Seraphim's trump card unscathed, however. The Spikes grazed him right in the other eye of his, he paused for a bit and immediately jumped straight into the Shadow Seraphim and sliced his already burning feet off. Afterwards, Kai knew that he was in a vulnerable position, he moved back and dragged Reno's body from the ground.

Their leader, Ignis Silva, was saying nothing at all for five seconds, as if he wanted to take in what the hell just happened to them. After noticing that Kai Xin was fine, albeit his other eye was bleeding pretty heavily, the Dragon was still alive. "Kai, how is Reno?" He asked. Kai Xin responded back with a slight shook of his head. It was far too obvious that Reno was gone.

"I see. Can you still fight? Even if you cannot, I want you to fight. This is the only way that we can bring the Shadow Seraphim down. Even if your other eye gets to the point that it can no longer be healed and mended, I want you to draw your sword against that piece of shit and fight." Ignis said so stalwartly. But he was right, though, everyone had their hands full, the Allcaster and Yin were running, trying to find whoever needed help the most in order for them to join the fight and aid in it, they were pretty far from where Kai Xin and Ignis were, though. 

"I know." Kai replied back. Ignis nodded. Kai Xin took out a clean black cloth and covered his wounded eye with it. "I am not letting Reno's death end in vain, we are exterminating this one, Ignis." His response assured Ignis that his right hand man was still functional and capable of fighting. But as they were talking, the Shadow Seraphim was already starting to heal its feet, although very scrawny and limp, it was more than enough for him to move. There was a noticeable difference between how he moved now and how he moved earlier. Umbra started running at them now, his bloody claws drawn out, he saw that this would be the chance for him to kill both of them after eliminating the third one.

Ignis covered Kai Xin from the back with storms of fire, this stopped Umbra and made his advance take a bit longer than he had expected. The Shadow Seraphim was going to have to wrap around the tornado of flames in order to get to them. Kai was fighting with his vision very impaired. He was not used to fighting with only one eye working, but he still drew his sword as he and his leader was hungry for vengeance. He and Umbra's claws met in the middle, but the Shadow Seraphim's attacks were far too much for him. Ignis Silva enchanted his dagger with flames and jumped in as well. Together, both of them were engaged in a melee against the Shadow Seraphim, one which would end in each of their defeat if they were going to make the wrong attack and decision. Kai Xin was landing clean hits and cuts at Umbra, he shrieked the same way as he did when his soles got burnt. 

Ignis jumped up and placed his palm on top of the Shadow Seraphim's head while holding his grimoire on the other hand.. "Burn away into nothingness."