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Harmony: An Assassins Tale
Chapter 35: A Flugre's Reason

Chapter 35: A Flugre's Reason

As we went towards the portal room, I couldn't help but wonder what got Johnny working so hard. He seemed very eager to enter the Flugre dimension, I just couldn't find out why. He didn't have an inch of worry on his face, and he seemed proud actually. He seemed overconfident, and I knew that was going to bite him back, one day. As we entered the portal, we noticed a few guards there, and they were reapers. Both of them were previous Lords, and I backed out, saying, "Johnny, prove to me your new found strength. You will take them on both, and if you die, so be it, I won't intervene," and rather than being worried, he grinned. "Yeah! Of course! It wouldn't be a challenge, if you were going to save me in the end, anyways!" and the other Lords started laughing, which ticked me off, because they didn't know what was coming.

"Well that is just hilarious! He's sending his disciple to fight us? The previous Lords? This is going to be childs play! Lets do this, Sucao!" And before they charged, Johnny disappeared from sight, which confused them. " You two, you are too easy! Come on, be more of a challenge! Here, I'll help you!" and he tied both of his arms with platinum, and this platinum had elastic qualities as well, and he tied it behind him, which ticked them off, by quite a bit. "Don't get so cocky, boy! We are just testing the waters, the real fight begins..... now!" and they lunged towards Johnny, who dodged it with ease, again. "Where did you go this time , you shitty brat?" and the other one asked him to calm down. "Remember what Raizel~Dono told us? Yes, thats better, Juzo. Now, keep a level head, and lets finish this, hopefully quicker." none of them payed heed to me. Although they were continuously lunging forwards, trying to hit Johnny, he just kept on disappearing , when I saw him come right next to me and he whispered to me a word, before going back in the midst of the fight. 'Go' was what he had said, and I understood. He wanted me to start the breaching of the Flugre Dimension, and that he was going to come afterwards. Although this fight seemed quite one-sided, I still wondered how badly Johnny would be injured when he came to the Flugre Dimension. I then quietly went towards the already set up portal, and jumped through it, and then, while halfway across the portal, I looked at them, and taunted them. "Hey! Thanks a lot for the free passage!" and before they could get me, I was gone. When I arrived there, I noticed that the portal was gone, and I thought whether it was Johnny, or the Flugre's.

I then saw two arrows fly towards me, and it was too obvious, so I dodged it, yet I fell into their trap completely, because a hidden arrow flew towards my blind spot, and pierced through my skin. The pain was intense. I couldn't do anything but scream, and then I realized it. A harpy came, probably someones familar, and had a big grin on her face. "This was too easy! I thought the new Lord was going to be a bit of a challenge, yet, just like Raizel~Sama said, you are here!" and she continued with a volley of arrows. Although many arrows came from her direction, each were a different arrow, and they were all coming at different angles, so I wondered whether there was more. "Scan!" I said, and the incantation activited a set of runes, which allowed me to see every ME possessing body , and it was only her, in a 500 meter radius. I realized, that either she was an expert sniper, or the expert sniper was beyond my runes capability. I then came to the conclusion she was the one shooting it, rather than anyone else.

"Well done, you seemed to figure it out, I congratulate you! Only a few people realize I'm the only one here, as I am Juni, The Harpy Queen, and Trine's personal familiar. I come from an elite Harpy family, which trains in marksmanship, rather than flying, swordsmanship, agility, or any of those. We are the second highest family, yet I brought us up to the first! My ability far exceeds any other marksman in this dimension. I won't tell you my secret, but I can tell you one thing, each arrow is imbued with a different type of ME, but most of them are of the Burn, such that it could easily pierce through human skin, oh, and my arrows are barbed, so don't think about pulling them out, else you want an artery to pop out too. That first shot was just to make you alert, the next shot will be in your head!" and she continued with the volley of arrows. I couldn't detect most of it, so I let my body take control of me. I stopped the flow of my SE for a little bit of time, and emptied my mind, concentrating my ME in certain positions, to let instinct take over. I was able to dodge the shots with instinct, but  I didn't realize it, but I supposed so. I felt another shot, this time, straight in my head, piercing straigh through my skull. "You shouldn't trust instinct that much! It's easier to decieve, and is useless if the attack is to quick!" and Juni started laughing, not knowing she was about to be pummeled.

As I fell, I couldn't feel a thing, my senses were rendered useless, and my vision was dimming. All I saw was a pair of chicken legs, before I finally fell straight down, dead, or so it seemed. "Bwahahah! Now, time to tell this to Raizel~Sama. Let's see, now, I just have to drag his body, okay, not much of a problem, at all!" and she grabbed me from the torso, and lifted me onto her feathery shoulders, and started her ascent, which was a key moment. About two minutes while she was flying, I realized that Raizel was actually in the Flugre dimension, so that means he must have already defended his place, and is going to the Flugre's , or that the position of the Portal is switched. I then grabbed her, by the head, because that was the closest place I could grab, and I did a suplex, tumbling us straight towards the ground. She seemed more shaken about the fact I was alive, then the fact we were falling to our utter doom. Most harpy's fly at 500 meter of height, but the Queen, to mark her strength, goes upto a kilometer, which is usually dangerous without gear, but a harpy's lungs are extremely durable. She started stammering in the midst of the fall. "Wh..wha...HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE? I checked your pulse and everything!" and I smiled. At about 50 meters left, I let go of her, and fell, crashing, yet she was able to flap her wings in time. "huh, stupid human.... wait.... WHAT!?" and she realized it. I already activated Ketsueki. "K..Kkkk..Ketsueki! When did you have time to activate it? And how are you alive?" and I told her, because Harpy's intellect wasn't so high.

"Ketsueki is in my blood, so I don't need to activate it to begin with, so I can pretty much activate it at will. Second of all, I'm still alive because I first increased blood flow to my brain, then froze it right after your arrow pierced my skull. It still hurts as hell, but I'm still alive, and I can get it fixed once my 'student' arrives, so all I need to do now, is stall. Oh, I was also safe, because I used your talons to rip apart my arm, which allowed me to harden my blood, and use it as an impact shield, I then accelerated my blood flow, so that I wouldn't die of blood loss, it's really simply, actually! Now, shall we continue our dance?"

She seemed infuriated. She didn't have a SE, so all she had was her marksmanship skills. She flew upwards, and started shooting volleys of arrows, in all sort of different angles, and as Ketsueki was protecting me instinctively, I understood how she was able to move there angles so much, and I realized it after noticing trees covered with arrows. Whenever she shot an arrow , her precise sniping skills allow her to shoot it directly at where she wants, and due to this, she can control its movement as well. It is a very crude method, but works well. Suppose she targets me, but wants to hit me from behind. So, what she would do is shoot with alot of strength, with a reinforced string, which allowed it to go behind me, then, with another arrow, more force is applied which allowed it to hit the other arrow shaft, to move it into my direction, and the second arrow was unsharpened, rather, more like an empty shaft, simply to change directions. This would work better without trees, but since she was here, in the Flugre Forest, which was filled with enormous trees, and are extremely big as well, so it would have been better in another place, possibly the Dragon Dimension, as the fake arrows won't be found. 

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With this, I easily knew how to combat her angle changing technique. When she first shot her arrow, I noticed her gaze and bow position changed, so she was most obviously going to change its angle again, and I called it. Rather then using Ketsueki for this, I myself went towards the fake arrow, and deflected it, and that seemed to amaze her. "Ho...How did you find out? Did I use to much force? Was it to slow? How!" and I pointed towards the trees. "Although it had no arrowhead, or fletching, It pierced through the trees, so just what kind of wood are you using? Piercing the trees itself made me know it was some trick, because an arrowhead, imbued with ME, would have either burned it down, or would have done more damage. " and she seemed amazed, yet, then again, there would have been better methods, like shifting the fletchings weight, or the arrowheads weight, guess they haven't thought about it yet, because of Harpy's usual crude method.

She seemed pissed, like very pissed. She seemed to have no plan left, so she went to her breast pocket, and tapped on something, I couldn't see what though, but it was twice. With that 3 arrows came out of no where, and when I 'Scan' I didn't see any body, and her body was also gone. I then went back to normal vision, yet she was still there. I went closer, and realized it was nothing more then a mere illusion. 3 more arrows popped out. I got hit by two of them, and Ketsueki was to slow to react. My wound was already healing, so I had to find a way to cut myself, so I decided to grab a piece of wood, but the arrow shot that out of my hand, and onto the wall. When I tried to pull the arrow out, it wouldn't budge, so I knew it was lodged in it, and if Earth magic was used, it would have been stuck in it. I then tried the shafts, but they weren't sharp at all, and the wounds I already got made it much harder. The arrows on me, were also lodged deep enough that I couldn't pull it out, and even if I did, I could tell it was barbed. I had no real choice but to die there, but then I thought, maybe to call out Rittz, but, for the first time, he refused. He stayed in my rift, without coming out, and when I asked him, he said 'Kei! Jei! Bei ! Yei!' which meant that he was afraid of this place, and didn't want to fight. I can tell he didn't like Flugre's and didn't want to fight the Harpy's, so it was hard.

I had nothing else to do, but hope for Johnny to help me. I couldn't believe a mere Harpy, could bring me down. Then I rememembered that I still had the Lord power, so I decided to activate it, and the surging power was intense, My wounds instantly healed, so I decided to pull out the arrows lodged into me, and , although there was rapid healing, I had Ketsueki keep a small hole intact, such that I would be fine even without the power. I tried to use 'Scan' again, and even in a 2 kilometer radius, I couldn't find them. So, I knew now, that they were either using a gun loaded with arrows, or a cross bow. The string must have been from the U~ebu spider, whose web is so powerful, even the strongest strike from a blade can't cut it. It can only be destroyed by fire, nothing else. So, to speak, it had an extremely poweful elastic potential, and if the bow is fitted with the U~ebu web, then it would so-to-speak, never break, yet I believed in the power of the Lords. I waited for another shot, and it came. with the help of Ketsueki, which I had to keep dried blood on a wound, was able to deflect the arrow, and then I pinpointed where the arrow came from, and rushed there, but all I saw was a bow, fitted with U~ebu and Pui-Pui wood, the strongest wood there is. After I found the bow, another arrow came out of nowhere, and I couldn't dodge it, and it pierced my back, and although it healed quickly, more arrows came before I could heal fully. It was a true mess. I couldn't track the person continously shooting these arrows at me, but I assumed it was that hotheaded Juni. I heard no reply, so it couldn't have been her, but who was it?

When I tried to do a scan, this time, the arrow went straight into my rune, which made it useless. So, I had found out two things. First, there was a scout, and second, a shooter. The Flugre's truly do hide their identity , by a large amount. Right when another arrow was about to go straight into my head,  I barely dodged it, yet somehow, it twisted and turned, hitting me directly in my skull, piercing yet another hole, without Ketsueki to help me. "Yes! Got Him! Nice one, Juni!" and she smirked, while the scout started coming down. I then noticed I didn't fall, and I was still there. When they werea bout to grab me, I didn't have the strength to do anything, rather, it was Johnny. Now, I can tell he is stronger than me, and that I was weak, once again. I needed support, even after becoming the Lord, this one is much stronger than me, yet still, no matter the situation, I made sure Nezah was suppressed, I can't control that bastard.

"Ora, Ora! Hazen you seem to be in quite a pickle, what's wrong? I thought you could handle ....... this little Harpy brat? And what about this... kid? Man, Hazen, you better get stronger, I couldn't believe you.. my sensei, failed this easily. Well, then, which one of you hurt Hazen~Senpai?" and they both shook in fear. The Harpy then, started laughing saying, "If you are his Kohai, than talking you on will be simple! " and she vanished from Johnny's grip, yet he didn't seem fazed one bit. She then shot the same volley of arrows, yet he payed no heed to it, and focused on the kid, (The Scout) . Yagrik was able to protect him from every shot, very accurately. "No, this is actually my ME, I don't need to use Yagrik on weaklings like this. I was going to storm the Flugre's , because they are the strongest, overall. I want to test out my new power, you see. So, kid, what are you doing here? Tell me everything, and scram, or you can die, with Juni over there." and he brought her corpse infront of the kid. "J..J...Onee-san! No.. why are you dead? WHY!? " and the kid went on a rampage, but Johnny's grip was too strong. "Calm down, Hui! She isn't dead, not yet, anyways. If you answer my questions, I'll bring you back here, without a bruise. Now, can you just answer my questions?" and she looked at me with innocent eyes.

"Are you sure Onee-san will be alright? do you promise?" and Johnny said yes. "Hontoni?" and he replied, "Hontoni." and she asked him to let go of her, and Johnny let her go. "Now, Johnny, what do you want to ask?" and he started throwing questions at her, and I couldn't understand what he was saying, but Hui understood it all. Wait. How does he know her name? I just stood there, without strength, watching Johnny. "He..he.. Master, you've chosen well." and I fell unconscious. Johnny explained it all to me later. I just wondered what Raizel was going to do next. We continued to tred around the Flugre world, after that, looking for Trine, and possibly, the Portals.