Page 159 of A Soul to Touch

Mayumi brought her shoulders in to make herself smaller when he slammed his hands around her. She steadied the flat edge with her foot, with the bladed side towards him. It lodged into his throat.

Once more, she was just holding him at bay.

At this rate, he’s going to kill me.

She felt no fear, but the adrenaline coursing through her veins made it feel as though her stomach and heart had switched places. The back of her throat burned on each inhale and exhale of breath, her lungs shrivelling as they squeezed.

She had one hand holding the hilt of the sword with her opposing foot pressing it in. Her other foot was against his chest to keep him back, but he was stronger than her. She was sure the only reason he wasn’t completely bearing himself down on her now was because of the pain he must be feeling.

Dark purple blood oozed onto the silver blade of the sword as it cut deeper and deeper into his throat. Faunus came closer and closer, like he didn’t care as long as he got his meal in the end.

Mayumi had always known this was a risk. She’d been mentally prepared for it. She could handle dying. It had been ingrained into her personality to be aloof about her own death.

But the reason her heart raced with worry wasn’t for herself, but for him.

He’ll never forgive himself if he kills me.

She could only imagine the aftermath of this. How he would handle knowing he’d been the one to take her life.

He’d never said it, but Mayumi knew he loved her. It wasn’t hard to see it in the way he held her dearly like she was the only thing that mattered in the world. She also felt it in the way he stroked his claws over every single part of her body, from her feet all the way to her thick hair as though he worshipped every part of her.

He treated her like she was the most precious thing, and the words he spoke were deep affirmations of affection.

It was hard not to return those feelings when they were so freely being shared. She preferred them over the uselessnessof one single word that was so lacking in expressing one’s endearment.

Mayumi narrowed her eyes in stubborn determination. She did the only thing she could think of.

She shoved her fingers all the way to her base knuckles into his nose hole since he didn’t have eyes for her to poke. The big Duskwalker shuddered from the unexpected intrusion to his nose and reared back. He hacked in repulsion, giving her a chance to bring her foot back.

He swiped a claw and nicked the point of one of them against her cheek, slicing it when she turned her head to evade the worst of it.

The sword was firmly lodged in his throat now, and she aimed the heel of both her boots at it when he started to come back down. Both feet hit it, but her left one slipped immediately after it.

Mayumi crossed her arms across her face, expecting the worst when that gave him the freedom to finish coming down.

A sharp gasp tore from her throat. Pain radiated in her right knee as it hit something hard and curved. She didn’t worry if something in her knee shattered when she thought she was moments away from her arms being bitten into.

Suddenly, Faunus’ slumped over her and started crushing her beneath the weight of his massive form.

It took Mayumi a few seconds of wild panting to realise he’d completely stopped moving.

Did I do it?

She wasn’t going to lay here and wait to find out – not if it meant she could be wrong.

Clawing her way out from under him was exceptionally difficult. She had multiple injuries, and he was so damn heavy as a limp being that it was like trying to lift a bear off herself.

However, as she wriggled herself upwards and to the side, trying to crawl out from the junction of his neck and shoulder, she could see his head was still firmly attached to his neck. She’d barely got the sword halfway inside his thick, dense throat.

If it wasn’t his neck that put him out, then what–

Mayumi didn’t think she’d ever felt anything like the ghastly chill that crept down her spine at what she saw. Never in her life, even after everything she’d seen, done, and experienced, had anything made her heart nearly shatter in her chest.

Seeping heavily from the wide-open crack of his skull, a puddle of purple blood was forming underneath his head.

“No!” she yelled, leaning forward to ghost her fingers in the air above it.

It was obvious he was still alive by the way his laboured breaths lifted his chest, but that did nothing to ease her.

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