章 34: Chapter 33
On her way, Lesley sees two women fighting on top of the Paxley mansion. One is wearing an armor with a cross blade while the other one is wearing a fit, golden dress. Through her sniperscope, she could see clearer and just like her speculation, it is Esmeralda. But the other woman is a stranger, she has not seen such person or even have the slightest idea where she came from.
Putting her finger on the trigger, she aims at the armored woman. Though it seems far, Lesley could see that Esmeralda has few scratches and bruises on her face, legs and arms. And whoever the woman she is against with, it seems that she brings nothing but trouble—it is the vibe she gets from her.
"Test one," Lesley mumbles to herself before pulling the trigger but she flinches when the armored woman spins her cross blade on her side. It is as if she is aware of the bullet that is coming right at her.
"Test two," she states, firing another bullet but just like the first one, the woman blocks it effortlessly.
A yelp is about to escape Lesley's lips when she sees Esmeralda being thrown on the opposite wing of the mansion but she manages to pull herself together. Through her sniperscope, she sees the woman smiling and waving at her, confirming that she is aware of her presence since the beginning.
"Not now," Sivir mouths at her before disappearing in the night. Lesley clicks her tongue before activating her camouflage and heads to the battlefield. Distracting herself is no good especially that she needs to bring Harley back as soon as possible.
But first, she must reunite with Princess Odette to join whoever she gathered to go with her.
"Your Highness," she greets with a curtsy, "I apologize for the long wait."
With a smile, the princess nods at her before she motions the five warriors who shall be accompanying her in going after the VENOM squad.
"They shall be the team you are going with," she says, "and if I can summon more backup, worry not for I shall send them."
Lylia. Lolita. Kagura. Hayabusa. And Hanzo.
"The team is now departing," Lesley states before nodding at the direction of her teammates. But she suddenly remembers what she saw back at the Paxley mansion so she turns to the princess.
"Your Highness, I have no idea if it has something to do with the majority but back at the Paxley mansion, I saw Esmeralda. She was with another warrior but where she came from is something I do not know of."
After saying those words she rejoins her team and with their eyes focused on the raging war, they walk towards the field to end it once and for all.
Making their way further into the waves of demons that the replica of Alice keeps on summoning, Lesley's team is a bit slow for they need to clear them first.
"Guard my back," she states particularly to no one as she aims at the dark sky. Hayabusa immediately grasps her plan so he stands beside her and makes sure that no demon would interfere. Killing Alice would lessen their burden and the appearance of the demons would come to a halt.
But the agility of the demoness is no joke. Lesley's bullet is dodged by her until she is near to losing them all.
"Are you good at aiming or not?" Hanzo clicks his tongue, annoyance is plastered all over his face but it is not that obvious because of the mask covering half of his face.
"Don't question my skills!" Lesley yells, grabbing a few grenades and throws them in midair where Alice is freely gliding. With her rifle once again aimed at her, she tries to follow her and waits for the perfect moment to fire her bullet. She no longer wants to waste one with that demoness because it could happen that even before she faces the VENOM squad, she is already out of bullets.
"Kagura," Hanzo calls out the onmyouji, "help this missy here in securing her shot at that flying enchantress."
A bit offended by this, Lesley glares at the Akuma ninja, "Alice is not an enchantress, she is a demon."
Rolling his eyes to the side, Hanzo replies, "Whatever she is, I do not care. Just kill her!"
Kagura, who does not want to get herself involved at the heated argument of the two, simply follows the instruction. She summons her umbrella and with a few whisper of a single chant, chained demons after demons shot up right to the sky following the flying demoness. On the other hand, Lesley waits for the demons to catch up on Alice.
"We have to hurry!" Lylia yells, her eyes focused on the VENOM squad.
"Just for a moment," Lesley mumbles with gritted teeth. When Kagura's demons wrap themselves on Alice, she aims at her forehead and pulls the trigger. Alice's replica shrieks as the bullet penetrates on the center of her forehead.
Seeing her turning into dust and carried away by the gust of wind, disappointment is very much evident on her face. Instead of a smile of victory, a frown is drawn.
"Is something the matter?" Lesley asks while refilling her rifle with bullets.
"She is simply a replica," Kagura pouts, "she would make a great addition in my demon collection if we killed the original."
Lesley simply smiles at her complaint and says, "Then, let's catch the real one if we are given the chance."
"Gladly," the onmyouji states.
On the other hand, the battlefield is a playground of playing tag in the eyes of Gusion and Harley. Catching Johnson is their final play to finally have the Magic Cube. It is only a matter of time and they will be tasting their victory.
To corner Johnson, who is separated from his team, Grock summons another great wall so he would slow him down and stop him from driving any further. Harley is on standby, ready to trap the automata with his ring of fire.
"To get the magic cube, we must force Johnson to retract from his defensive form," Gusion states.
"Grock, charge at him and we'll do the rest," Harley says which his giant friend agreed to.
A loud bang echoes at the battlefield when Johnson crashes yet again at the wall that he did not expect to come his way. With the death of Alice's replica, Johnson is a bit conscious of what is happening. Still, half of his consciousness is controlled by the real Alice. And whatever happened to his other colleagues, he has no idea yet.
"You are the keeper of the Magic Cube, protect it with your life."
That is the constant reminder of Mr. Ton to the tank of the SABER Squad. He might not be the leader but his role is of great importance because if the Magic Cube falls on the hands of a wrong person, it will be the end of their land's peace and order.
Johnson, recovering from the accident, senses the presence of Grock who is now charging towards him with his weapon ready to pummel him. He transforms back to his old form, holding a spanner and metallic shield with the symbol and name of their squad, SABER, etched on it.
He thrusts his shield into the ground for stable support but he is still pushed back when Grock's weapon makes contact with the shield. A great force is reverberated, making the two tanks separate from each other. This time, Harley releases his circle of fire to cause malfunction in Johnson's engine. It is accompanied by Gusion's set of daggers but it is not in their knowledge that Johnson is way tougher in terms of his mechanical make up and machinery. Their attack is futile.
"No damage at all," Angela states, calculating the remaining strength of the automata with just the use of her mechanical eyes. "Full strength reduced to 80%, shield strength decreased by 10%."
"Where is Nephila?" Harley asks impatiently, "She's taking too long!"
As the four members gang up on Johnson, Nephila is tasting her victory against the SABER support who is now bleeding on the ground. The blades of her Higanbana is stained with the scarlet blood of Rafaela, dripping off on the ground drop after drop. Seeing that her other teammates gathered around, she decides to join in for their last supper of victory against the squad of the SABER.
"I apologize for the delay," Nephila states upon rejoining.
"Nephila, immobilize Johnson with your Higanbana. Angela shall help you with her strings while Harley and I locate where the Magic Cube is," Gusion instructs.
Ready to strike the lone automata who is having a hard time going against Grock, the VENOM squad halts upon seeing familiar figures that suddenly appear before them.
"Surrender willingly or go against us," Lylia states with Hanzo, Hayabusa and Kagura beside her.
As for Lesley, she is better off to be away from the sight of the VENOM squad. Lolita is beside her to make sure that their marksman would be safe.
Seeing the red haired guy wearing a mask and holding a huge sword that owns a strange mouth, Nephila suddenly mutters, "Hanzo."
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