3rd person POV
Right now, the battle was cut in two. On one side was Venti against most of the abyss mages, on the other was Andrius against the few that tried to get past him to get rid of the weaker ones.
One has to say that even if Venti was known to be the weakest of the archons, he was still an archon and a god, and Andrius too had been a god before he stepped down and handed Modstadt to Venti.
Getting rid of abyss mages wouldn't have been a problem for them, the biggest problem was the sheer amount: there were just too many of them. besides the 20 or so abyss mages that were already here at the start, ten more had joined the battle later, bringing along hordes of hilichurls.
As a bow user, Venti had quite a difficulty trying to keep all of them from approaching the ones he was trying to protect.
"Andrius!" He shouted as he got rid of another abyss mage.
"I got it back here, just concentrate on your own battle!" The wolf reassured from behind.
Like this, the battle went on, and the abyss' forces slowly diminished, their numbers reducing from a few hundred to merely a hundred.
For a battle this big, it was going quite well. Too well in fact.
While Venti and Andrius were busy with the abyss mages and hilichurls, they had forgotten about one thing.
"Chough! Ugh!" A cough and a loud groan sounded from behind them, causing both Venti and Andrius to turn around, only to come face to face with a horrifying scene.
Razor was barely holding himself up on the ground, three bloody slashes surrounded by hydro energy on his back.
In his arms, he was still holding onto Xiao, determined to keep his promise to the man when he had handed the child over.
"Please take good care of him. He's all I have."
"Your lupical?"
"You could say that." The man had chuckled before jumping straight into battle.
"I'll protect tiny lupical." He had said to the man's back.
"Thank you, Razor." An answer came with the wind, but the man never once turned around since then, focusing on keeping the enemies away from them.
And now, even as the next three slashes came towards him, even as Andrius shouted for him to dodge, he didn't move, choosing to protect the little one in his arms instead.
He waited for the pain he knew would come, but even so, he did not move.
He waited, but the pain did not come, instead, his senses were filled with the scent of the wind, and a calm voice sounded beside his ear.
"Thank you for protecting me. Now it's my turn to protect you instead."
That instant, the battlefield filled with green smoke, and when it finally dispersed, instead of a dying boy and a child, the one facing the herald was Xiao in all his glory.
With his spear in his hand and mask on his face, he stood in front of the abyss herald, shielding the wounded razor behind him.
"Couldn't you have waited a few seconds with that attack? Now someone got hurt for no reason, and you'll die a more painful death than you would have."
If anyone who had fought alongside of Xiao in the archon war heard his words, they would have immediately turned around and ran, knowing how pissed the yaksha was right now.
"Not good! Xiao don't-"
Venti had also noticed the state of his loved one and shouted out to him in an attempt to stop him. To be fair, the only reason he did this was to protect him. He just wanted to stop Xiao from using his powers in a way that meant him getting hurt, only this time, even Venti wouldn't be able to calm him down.
"Not this time, Venti. He pissed me off." He interrupted the bard with a calm voice void of any anger he spoke of.
Even if his voice did not show his anger, through the mark, Venti could feel Xiao's rage.
And just like Venti felt his rage, Xiao could feel Venti's worry all the same, only this time he did not give any words of comfort.
Knowing full well that he couldn't stop Xiao this time, Venti instead put all his energy into getting rid of the remaining abyssal forces along with Andrius.
"Can you still stand?" Xiao asked Razor as he glared at the herald.
"Wound too big. Lost too much blood." Razor spoke with much difficulty.
"If it's like that... Please excuse me for a moment."
Saying this, he directly grabbed Razor and disappeared into a puff of smoke, only to come back moments later.
"Now that we've dealt with that... it's your turn isn't it?" He turned to the abyss herald.
Adeptal and elemental energy surrounded the herald, and before he knew it, Xiao was already behind him, brandishing his spear at his neck.
After barely blocking the incoming spear, the herald was faced with a torrent of attacks from all sides, and the wounds on his body increased at a great speed.
The fight continued and the herald had no choice but to continue retreating, backing away from the main battlefield without having a chance to call for backup.
Receiving more and more wounds, the herald eventually sought a way to escape. Instead of blocking the yaksha's last attack, he turned around and ran knowing full well that the attack might hit him square in the back, resulting in a fatal wound.
Even knowing the risks, the herald still turned, receiving the attack from Xiao.
To his luck, the wound wasn't fatal, merely an inconvenience. He ran forward at full speed opening a portal the moment he got far enough.
He had gotten away and he had opened the portal. His escape was nearly complete.
Nearly, that is.
The moment he was about to step through the portal, anemo energy wrapped around his throat, pulling him backward.
"Venti wasn't wrong, this is indeed a useful little trick." Xiao chuckled as he held out his hand.
"And sometimes, you don't even need to pay attention to the amount of force you apply. Like, right now."
The moment he spoke those words, the bind on the herald's neck tightened.
Snap!
"It's so much easier to control this in my normal size." Xiao sighed, looking at the dead herald on the ground.
"I should go back before Venti starts to worry." He let out another sigh as he picked up the dead herald and turned to walk back toward the battlefield.