"Mind stepping back a bit?" Miss Lin whispered to Joaquin.
He nodded and moved to the side. As he walked he could feel the wind around them get violent. Even though his eyes were sealed behind a huge black cloth, Joaquin felt like the assassin's gaze was burning holes into his skin.
'Why the fuck is he looking at me?' he thought as he turned to look at a window beside him. 'I always knew I looked good, but is it really enough to attract men?' He lightly chuckled to himself.
In most of the blocks in school, there were fields of grass in between the buildings. Right now Miss Lin and the others were between the Science 1 and Science 2 building. They were the tallest in the whole school and the widest.
In one side of this alley behind Miss Lin was a big wall half the size of the buildings which joined them. At the other end was an exit, there were six dumpsters beside both walls, they were divided into toxic, plastic, metal, glass, paper and magical waste.
Last but not least there was a single tree that grew against the science 2 building, it reached all the way to the top and only starts to branch at the roof top. No one knows who planted it or what fruit it will bear, but the cool science kids used to sit there until Joaquin started experimenting on it.
Finally, there was Miss Lin, Joaquin and the assassin, halfway into the alley of the science buildings. Joaquin had moved over to the dumpsters to avoid getting caught in the crossfire
"I am going to get rid of this since I can't fight in it," said Miss Lin as she unzipped her skirt and slowly brought it down after struggling with it at the waist area.
Joaquin turned to look away while covering his face with his left hand, at first he wanted to scream at her, but he held back.
The assassin was also trying his best to look away from her, 'these blindfolds were supposed to take away my sight for such things. But why am I burning up, damn why did it have to be a woman.'
"You are not planning to fight me all flustered like that are you?" She smiled and swayed her hips and placed her index finger on her cheek. "But I don't blame you for falling for my young, so very young and attractive figure." The last words cemented with a taunting glare to Joaquin.
She was wearing yoga pants, put them on during the lab incident because she was worried about Joaquin seeing her panties again.
"Why would fall for a demoness like you from the Xiao family? I have one goal in mind and it is your life. DIE FOR ME, TIME MAGE!" he burst out screaming at high speeds towards Miss Lin with his fist out.
The two of them collided with a huge BOOM! The dust that had made its way up to cover them was quickly blown away by their auras. Miss Lin had blocked his punch by crossing her hands together. When she broke away, the assassin was blown back. Miss Lin followed in with a punch of her own.
The assassin grinned and exposed a knife in front of Miss Lin's fist. It stabbed her and blood spilled all over the place. "I got you." Miss Lin whispered and his smile faded along with the blood. Miss Lin's fist phased through the knife, and the man's arm to connect a punch to the face.
As he flew back, Miss Lin grabbed his leg and swung him violently and launched him away after a few spins. She looked at Joaquin and smiled.
'Their movements are huge and their punches don't sound like they hurt, apart from speed, Miss Lin and the assassin might lose to Ruben in contest of brawn.' Joaquin thought to himself as he looked away from Miss Lin to pay attention to the assassin. 'Since this is a death battle he might use underhanded tactics to get the upper hand. I must arm myself.' He reached into his pocket and clenched a black ball in his hand. 'The stronger one is, the more likely they are to get one shot by this.'
The assassin did indeed glare at Joaquin, but after picking up some killing intent from the boy he decided to focus back on his target. 'She has the ability to pause and rewind time, to which extend she can drag these two functions is now becoming a mystery. So far I've seen her apply it to her wounds and her opponents. In order to transcend time, she is also unbelievably fast without trying, and here I am after 20 years of training. How can I lose to a lumpy teacher in speeds, pathetic? I will not be defeated.'
He put up his fists with two fingers protruding further out than the others. His stance appeared to be much simpler but more graceful than the first one.
"Time mage. From now on this with be a battle of speed, it doesn't matter if you can stop time or what. The level I am going to be using transcends your magic, thank you for pushing me this far."
Miss Lin immediately ran forward after the statement, 'he is weird but I can tell that he has gotten stronger. The fact that he call me a mage is bothersome, he must be from the western kingdoms.'
Their fists collided and instantly turned into a whirlwind of attacks. Joaquin could not see either one of their movements until they got knocked back again. Miss Lin's shirt was dyed red and her breathing was extreme as she held on to her lower abdomen.
'What the hell did he do to me? I can't rewind time on the wound,' she thought as she tried over and over again to cast her ability on the wound.
"It is as I said. We came for your head." This time three voices spoke at once, when Miss Lin looked forward she saw the first two assassin standing near the bold one. On their hands were blades that shone with a bright pink colour. "Have you ever heard of the element Akasha?" They laughed, "Well it doesn't matter because that is what I am going to use to kill you."
'Akasha, as in aether? These guys are dangerous.' Miss Lin shifted to look at Joaquin, she opened her mouth wide but before she could scream she was attacked. She dodged a pink blade that was aiming for her neck. The assassin that attacked was right in front of her so using all her might she punched him on the face.
As he fell back another one appeared from the top. And the bold one appeared from behind, sandwiched by death Miss Lin smirked, "Time stop." Everything around her became grey and stopped moving.
Behind the dumpsters she saw Joaquin, he was staring at the wall, his eyes and mouth up wide. He looked like he was running away from something, so bolted towards him in urgency. She grabbed the boy and he started to breath, blink move.
"CRAZY WOMAN!" Joaquin said as he jumped from her hands.
The time stop was cancelled and Miss Lin was unable to see what was on the wall, as the assassins were already over her. Blood splashed and the assassins smiled as they all managed to impale Miss Lin with their blades.
They didn't go any deeper but the fact that they were able to inflict irreversible wounds was more than satisfying for them. Miss Lin broke away with the time stop, went to grab Joaquin and ran to the dead end of the alley.
The time stop lifted itself before they arrived at their destination and the assassins were back on their tails again. Princess Joaquin yelled out frantically, "YOU WILL DIE. THE ZERO BOMBS ARE IN MY POCKET."
It was then she remembered that she had frozen them in time to avoid accidently detonating the black balls and killing them both. She thought for a second that she could take them out but she felt the assassins nearing in. In order to fight back she flung Joaquin at the wall and turned to face them.
After a nerve wracking contest of speed Miss Lin was finally able to subdue the assassins, she had already accepted that she can't kill them. At least no by herself, she crawled over to Joaquin and ran to meet her halfway.
She collapsed on top of him, "Jojo. Have you ever wondered why you don't have any mana?" her voice was barely audible, normal people wouldn't have been able to pick up on what she was saying at all.
"Not really, it is probably for the best that I don't know about it."
Joaquin's heartbeat was normal and so was his breathing despite all that was happening around him. If there was anything he was worried about, it was why his bombs didn't detonate as soon as energy levels started rising.
"You really are afraid of death." Miss Lin chuckled. "If you want to know why then you should take sip of my blood." She coughed once and tightened her arms around his neck.
In front of him were three highly trained but currently incapacitated assassins. In his arms was his teacher whose heartbeat was getting slower and slower by every passing second.
As Miss Lin took her last breaths, everything once affected by her ability was freed. This meant that the black balls will now start to take in mana. Joaquin felt his pockets get warmer, he took them out and desperately tried to throw them away while being pressed down by dead body.
[An adventure lies behind a blood bath.]
The balls landed a few feet away before exploding and killing the boy by the shockwaves bashing his head against the wall.