The VENOM Squad : Emperor Scorpion ft. Monitor Lizard

Chapter 35

"Hanzo," Hanabi mutters which made Gusion look at her direction.

"You know him, Nephila?" he asks, his daggers drawn and is ready for an attack. But Hanabi shakes her head in response.

"It just crossed my mind," she states.

Giving the go signal, the VENOM squad attacks their new enemies. But instead of them controlling the situation, it is the other way around. And to weaken them, Lesley's team separates from each other to divide the strength of the squad.

Lylia and Hayabusa manage to draw Harley and Angela's attention, making it a success to separate them from the others. The black mage, Lylia, directs her wand towards Harley without hesitation—but with a heavy heart.  Creatures in dark purple color appear around the two VENOM squad members. Seeing the round and furry creatures reminds Harley their first meeting with Lylia at the cave. The creatures possess a rather wide mouth, a bristly pair of ears and their sharp teeth look like they could snap a human in two. They are Lylia's creation—the Snores.

"Again with these annoying bombs," Harley mumbles. But he cannot deny the fact that he is excited to face another mage, a black magician at that. He does not know how she manages to still be in Magical City when black magicians are long banned from their place. But that does not matter now for having a worthy opponent is something he always asked for.

"We do not need to fight, Harley," Lylia states, wanting to negotiate with the strategist, "turn yourself in and everything will return to the way it used to be."

Those words are the last thing he wants to hear. He scoffs before a smirk draws on the edge of his lips while Angela's wings started buzzing as they flap at a fast speed.

"Game on!" he claims before charging towards Lylia but Hayabusa intervenes. He releases a set of shurikens ready to shred Harley but with Angela's one swing of her hand, the shurikens are deflected. The waves that she releases are strong enough to even throw a person away. But thinking that he could strike now, Harley still proceeds to attack with a set of his dangerous cards on hand.

"Gloom!" Lylia summons her favorite Snore of all and when Harley shoots his cards, Gloom opens his mouth wide and eats them. Though they exploded inside its mouth, Gloom simply burps for it caused him no harm at all. The Snores that surrounded Harley and Angela vanish in sight, but only reappears with a new arrangement and more of them come into sight. If touched, they would explode in no time.

"Don't fight back, Harley!" Lylia pleads for it hurts her just by thinking that she has to injure him if he persists. "I don't know what you have become but there is one thing I want."

Lylia stretches her hand towards the genius mage that pulled her out of the lonely darkness she isolated herself in and says, "Come back, Harley, come back to my side."

But what she received is a devious smirk. And staring at his now amethyst eyes tells her that the Harley she met back at the Enchanted Forest is different from the Harley she is now fighting against with. But still, she wants to believe that he would still come back and leave the squad that turned him into someone evil.

"I am just starting!" Harley claims and before he attacks, Angela attaches herself in him and deflected the Snores with her waves that left greenish colors on the air. Harley, then, pops up right before Lylia with his cards ready to slice her flesh. But it is not only him that can do the flashy disappearance and reappearance, Lylia can, too.

She never mentioned it to anyone before but every time, she has a pair of black, magical shoes randomly wandering around the perimeter. And when in danger just like how Harley would end her life in just a few seconds, she vanishes and appears where her pair of magic shoes are.

"Damn it!"

Cursing under his breath, Harley and Angela receive a huge explosion from a pair of Snores that threw them off their feet. As a person who once fought against her before, Harley could tell that Lylia became better. Her Snores' damage are greater compared to the time he defeated her back at the Enchanted Forest.

Having the chance to attack, Hayabusa, then, activates his Quad Shadow, surrounding the two.

"He might appear in one of those," Harley states, "be attentive, Vespid."

With the four shadows around them as well and the Snores limiting their movement and make escape seems impossible, Harley and Angela are given no choice but to fight carefully or they will end up into a bloody firework with Lylia's annoying creatures.

Hayabusa appears at the shadow behind the two with his weapon on his hand but Harley barely manages to dodge his attack with his protective magic. But then again, Lylia waves her wand and a few numbers of Snores move to their direction. Hayabusa once again shows himself and before the Snores explode, he gets to land a fatal blow at the left chest of the mage.

But in exchange, Angela still manages to deflect three Snores, decreasing their chance of dying in  that situation. She also releases her strings on time before Hayabusa disappears, making him a target of her dangerous stunning ability.

With the strings immobilizing him, Hayabusa is vulnerable that even if Lylia tries to free him and protect him from any attacks, they could not stop the fiery, blazing ring of fire of Harley. But seeing the scarlet blood flowing out from his chest, Lylia could not help but tear up in pain. She wants to help him, she really does, but that moment, she must refrain from being controlled by her emotions because it will bring them into a disadvantage.

Detaching herself from the genius mage, Angela catches him on her arms before he could hit the ground. Harley's clutch on her shoulder tightens as his wound drains the energy out of him. His breathing becomes ragged as he tries to gasp some air. With his unstable condition, it is hard for him to cast a healing spell on himself.

"I'll fly you away from here," Angela states, "and I will stitch your wound."

Gritting his teeth both in pain and anger, Harley has no choice but to receive help from his colleague no matter how it would hurt his pride. And in order not to let him bleed further, Angela wraps her arms around Harley's chest and before Lylia could summon more of her Snores, the Vespid releases her deflecting waves at one direction and flew away at lightning speed.

The black magician grits her teeth seeing them escaping from them. Going after them is not a really good idea especially that her colleague is seriously wounded—almost burned into a crisp. Hayabusa could not help but groan in pain because he feels like the insides of his flesh is burning despite the fact that Harley's ring of fire is already gone.

"Please, hang on for a moment," Lylia states as her tears finally drop down her cheeks, "I have called for assistance."

Though she is a magician, healing is not her forte especially that she focused learning on the dangerous offensive black magic tricks instead of teaching herself about healing magic.

Meanwhile on Nephila's side, she is against Hanzo. She sees him nothing but an enemy that would only harm her squad but she is having some inner troubles. No matter how hard she tries to remember, she could not recall Hanzo in her past. The weird thing that makes her uneasy is that her inner self is screaming at her to remember the red haired man she is against with for a reason that she is ignorant of.

"I do not know if you are feigning innocence in not knowing who I am," Hanzo states, "but I do not care about that, really. Just do not cause any further trouble and turn yourself in peacefully."

Hearing his voice makes her to tilt her head to the side. It sounds familiar, it's just that she could not pinpoint who and where she has heard it. But his statement is enough of a reason for her to bury the weird feeling she is having at the back of her mind.

"Your scarlet hair," she says while walking towards Hanzo at a slow pace, "is beautiful."

She holds no weapon at both hands, making her look like a harmless woman but not until she speaks again and summons her Higanbana.

"But your scarlet blood would be a greater sight!"