Harpe strummed the strings on the small harp and a somber melody emanated out from it. This was accompanied by emerald green lines of musical notes. They rapidly flew out from the harp and curved right through his chest. He reacted with a karate upper block he had learned a long time ago but it was to no avail. He was instantly sent flying into one of the alley walls at an incredible speed. He could hear a loud thud as his back make impact with the wall and all of the air was knocked out of him. When he fell back onto the ground on his hands and knees, he was left intensely grasping for just a second of breath.
"Huff...huff..huff." While Allen continued to futilely try to force a decent amount of air back into his lungs, he looked up to see what was going on. Nera had her back fully turned away from him.
"I can’t believe I let my guard down with someone that crazy for even a moment."
"Don't worry..."
A fierce grin appeared on her face as she raised her fists in a fighting position.
"I'm sure my performance of handing you two your asses is going to go off without a hitch."
She snapped her fingers causing metallic gauntlets to seamlessly extend over her wrists and hands then swiftly bounded straight towards the armored warrior wielding the ax.
"Harpist Craft, Page 3 - Hymn of Fortification."
Harpe quickly strummed once more on her instrument, this inciting four red staves of musical notes to emerge from it and hurriedly encircle the arms and legs of Hache just as Nera's fist collided with his crossed arms pushed him back into the mist a little.
He swung the ax at her. Nera simply avoided it by leaping back with two steps a far distance away. She followed this up by getting into a running position then started sprinting towards the armored warrior again, building up so much speed her image nearly became nothing but a blur.
She was about to reach the armored warrior in half a second. He swung his ax downwards at her. Nera nimbly avoided the attack. She flipped forward high into the air while keeping her momentum and slammed her feet down on the long handle of the ax as it hit the ground.
It was embedded into the asphalt below. Caught off guard and unable to dodge without disarming himself, Hache took the full force of Nera's second punch.
"Magical Knucker Driver!” She yelled out as her strike made contact with a booming metallic crash. His reverberating voice could be heard as he loudly grunted in pain. However, it was not enough to move him from where he stood, and he batted his arm at Nera, forcing her to jump back.
A large dent was left on his chest plate and he noticeably groaned as he inspected the damage with his free hand.
Nera grinned and raised up three of her fingers.
"Three. That's the number of your ribs I just broke. I could hear them cracking from a mile away. Are you sure you want to continue, tin bucket?"
Having finally regained his breath and got back to his feet, Allen was wordless as he watched the two fight. Both of them were moving in ways that should not be humanly possible. Allen clasped his fists trying to steel his resolve and started to hectically think if there was any way at all he could actually help here.
'Nera, she probably decided to focus on the armored guy first because the other has that move that threw me into a wall. It went right through my arm, so it probably can't be blocked. By keeping her distance, she can at least dodge those attacks if the hooded woman does join the fight. If she goes after that woman now, the armored guy will just have an opening to attack with his axe. But if that woman decides to fight as well, it'll be a two on one. Maybe I could hold her off for a while..."
"There's nothing you could do here extra but be a nuisance."
Allen turned away from the fight to see that Harpe had positioned herself right across from him on the other side of the alley without him even noticing. He backed away cautiously.
"This Grim Reaper Trial only has a select number of performers in it. All the rest are just extras and props. What we want is the Grim Piece from that girl, you don't have to needlessly put yourself in harm's way. You barely know her don't you?".
She glanced his way for the first time and Allen could see that her eyes glowed vivid green and had odd spirals inside of them. Along with the rest of her appearance and sickeningly whimsical voice, she seemed unsettlingly otherworldly to him as if she was a devil in human form.
Allen could not fathom what she was talking about.
"So this is what mages are like. Dammit, Amy might’ve been right in saying that thinking magic was cool was nonsensical. Going up against something I know nothing about is downright terrifying. Was I really thinking about holding her off for any amount of time?"
This was much different from getting into brawls with delinquents like he had many times before. For all he knew, this devilish woman could just strum some more on that harp of hers and tear his body apart. Suddenly, a shaky idea formed in his mind.
"Hold on, you said you were just after a "Grim Piece", right?" "I think I have what you're looking for right here."
Allen rummaged through his pockets until he found the same odd black trinket that had been what had gotten him in this predicament in the first place and, now, he was hoping it would get him out of it.
"Here, she dropped this earlier today. Just take this and leave."
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