It was a logical conclusion. Fighting right now was disadvantagous for the party, simply because there was an extra Awakener in their side.
Rein didn't think that they would be wiped out, because of seriché and dias. While both deski and shionelle were around the strength of an average Awakeners, dias was much more experienced than most awakeners, and seriché was a prodigy, a lot more stronger than your average Awakener.
But that didn't mean that this battle could be won easily... At least not without losses.
Rien was, most definately, weaker than the cultist, even those who were unawakened considering they had years to get stronger, unlike him.
So... While it definately was disadvantagous for seriché's group, it was even more disadvantagous for rein himself.
'i could die'
"Mh... Not exactly" the cultist with the placid expression, one whom rein considered to be the leader of that group, spoke, placing a hand in top of his sword.
"We're exactly where we want to be" the unawakened women with dirty blond hair said, a cocky grin on her face as she took out a scimitar.
And that was it, that was the invitation to battle. Rein didn't know why the cultist had even waited to talk and not simply attacked them, but they had.
"Rein, forse, engage the unawakened ones, leave the rest to us"
Seriché said, then he said something to deski and shionelle, but rein didn't hear it, because he was too focused on the approaching groupm
As it turns out, rein and forse didn't have to approach the unawakened cultists. Both of them lunged at them instead.
One of them was the women with the scimitar, who was approaching him, the other was a man with a thin cutlass, nimbly approaching forse.
Rein gritted his teeth, lowered his body and rushed sideways, so to distance himself from the fight happening between the awakeners.
Getting cought up in cross fire wouldn't be the best course of action.
As the women appreached him, he pushed his feet to the ground and grounded his stance.
'right!'
She slashed her scimitar in a wide arc, coming towards him from the right, rein lunged forward and swung his blade, letting the scimitar slide off of severer.
"Hah!"
'she's stronger than me'
Rein lowered himself forward slightly and pushed his sword below her arm, aiming to peirce her ribcage.
She stepped sideways and sent the scimitar straight for his head.
Rein had to push his body backwards with his entire force just to avoid getting beheaded.
He took a moment to gain his footing, which was a moment too long, as the cultist was already upon him.
A upward slash from the side, a wide arc from the left side, a downward slash from the left upper side.
It was incredibly difficult to not get cut into pieces, infact, rein didn't think he would last long.
The cultist pulled her arm back, and pushed the scimitar forward, trying to peirce his heart, rein quickly pulled severer back and pressed his palm against the blade itself, then he let the scimitar slide off of servers length and stepped back.
A moment later, another swing came from his, and another, and another, and another.
Rein could not find an opening.
It wasn't because she was incredibly skilled, even though she was, compared to him atleast. It was simply because rein was unskilled.
The reason he managed to survive so far was because he was focusing on evading and redirecting her blows instead of attacking.
Compared to him, who had barely a week of training, the women in front of his probably had years of training, so rein considered it astonishing that he survived this far.
But even then, he knew that he couldn't do that forever.
"!"
And that was true, as rein failed to evade a swong properly, his body weight distribution being wrong. The scimitar flashed past his face, leaving a wound from the side of his lips to the back of his jawline, below his left ear.
It was shallow, but it was simply one of the many to come.
Rein mustered all the power his could and swung a wide arc in front of him, then lunged backwards, hoping to create some distance, the sharp pain created by the wound on his left cheek neing dulled by the adrenaline coursing through his vains.
He took a deep breath, and then prepared for strike.
From the corner of his eyes though...
He could see seriché and deski engaging three of the cultist, including the leader, at once. Dias, with his rapier, was engaged in a bloody battle with on of the bigger cultist.
Shionelle, who was the closest to rein, was in a brawl with a guy wielding a mace.
And then there was forse, who was putting a good fight against the cultist with the cutlass.
Rein was probably the first one who was going to lose.
'dammit, something has t change, I am going to die like this'
Rein took a measures step sideways, dodging the scimitar by a hairs breath, and then pushed severer straight for her arm.
The women turned her body sideways and took out a dagger and attacked rein with it.
Rein, having not expected her to do such a thing, could not react fast enough, this resulted in him getting a cut that ran along his left forearm all the way to his elbow joint.
'fuck!'
It hurt, this time, it hurt like hell.
Rein had to force himself to focus on the blade of the women so that he wouldn't die.
'fuck, i have to do something!'
Something had to change, either that, or rein died.
Rein had to think of something, and fast, the women would not give him more than a few seconds to think.
'ah'
Rein thought for a second, then pushed himself upward, and held the sword in a way that implied a sideways arc. But rein... Simply ran away.
He pushed towards shionelle, and putting everything in the line, he threw the severer with all his strength towards the man with the mace.
The man, being Awakened, reacted quickly amd swatted the flying longsword away, severer spun in the air and landed back a meter away from rein.
The Awakener with the mace grit his teeth, realizing what had happened. Rien had just given shionelle and moment to attack. He had created a opening, a small one, but a Opening none the less.
And shionelle did not miss that opening, she pushed the metal rods forward and struct the side of the man's face, just then, a small electrical shockwave erupted from his body.
"Gah!"
And that was it, that was rhe decisive moment needed to turn the tides of that battle towards one side.
Shionelle, not hesitating at all, simply bashed the man's skull in in just a few swings.
Rein picked up the severer and turned around, expecting took meet the women again.
Rein's plan was to distrupt shionelle and that awakened man's battle so that shionelle could win, and then shionelle would help him kill the women targeting him.
It was a desperate and dengerous wager, there were so many things that could go wrong, and so many things that would've gone wrong.
Rein could miss, he could get struct down while being unarmed, the opening wasn't enough for shionelle to win and many more.
But in the end, it all worked out well, or so rein thought.
"?"
The women was not coming for him, not anymore that is. She was instead... Rushing directly towards shionelle.
What rein had done was created an outside influence so that shionelle could win. But that, by no means, means that the women couldn't do the same.
Yes, shionelle was a Awakener, but that didn't mean that they were invincible, it simply meant that they were much harder to be killed by normal means.
The women with the scimitar was barely a meter away from shionelle, who had just yet noticed her.
When rein realized what was happening, he gritted his teeth and lushed himself towards the women.
But it was too late, the scimitar flashed past the air and, in one clean motion, beheaded shionelle.
For a moment, time seemed to slow down. Just for a small, fraction of a second.
Rein could see the head fall off the body, and the body going limp a second after that.
As her head hit the ground...
The light in her eyes dulled.