Tabitha looked down, her eyes growing wide as her sword broke, the tip falling to the ground.
Fortunately, she had already moved aside, hoping to avoid Alex striking back. Otherwise, he might have taken advantage of the situation to launch his own attack.
Alex was holding his own blade, and she realized that was what had shattered her own sword, leaving it useless.
Before Tabitha could recover from the shock, Alex struck out at her with his bare hand, shoving her hard. Unable to resist, she staggered back, only just managing to keep her feet.
She had years of training, so she managed to keep her composure. Holding her broken blade, she inched toward the door, planning to escape.
Alex drew back his arm and threw his knife straight at her.
"Oh!" Tabitha cried out in pain and clutched at her shoulder, blood oozing from between her fingers. She clenched her teeth, refusing to allow the injury to slow her down. She kicked open the door and dashed out of the room.
Alex was too strong, and failure was inevitable, so Tabitha knew she had to escape.
He laughed and followed her. It was late, so he didn't want to make too much noise and risk waking everyone. If anyone came to investigate, they might get hurt.
Outside, Tabitha held the wound on her shoulder as she ran. Alex was seriously skilled with a knife, and he was clearly a powerful martial artist. She had failed to kill her target for the first time in her life, and she wasn't even sure she would be able to escape.
Alex stalked Tabitha, keeping a little distance, but not allowing her to get away. Then, something went very wrong.
Under the dim light from the streetlamp, two students were kissing, totally unaware of the approaching danger.
Tabitha saw an opportunity. She grabbed the male student and held a knife to his throat. "Who are you?" she demanded of Alex. "Are you the master everyone is talking about?"
Alex felt sorry for these two young people who had stumbled into the path of a cold-blooded killer. He dragged the female student behind him and said, "Don't move. I'll save your boyfriend."
The girl took a step forward, but then she looked at Alex and moved back again, watching the woman who had taken her boyfriend hostage and waiting for Alex to make a move.
"Who am I?" Alex asked Tabitha. "Haven't you already investigated me?" He glared at her. Risking his own life was one thing, but now Tabitha was threatening an innocent boy, so he had to be much more careful.
"I think you are the famous Alex," Tabitha said. "And if you move, I'll cut your student's throat."
"No. This is not happening," Alex said firmly. "I will not let you kill a student."
"I'd like to see you stop me," she said. "I really can't understand why such a well-known martial artist would become a high school teacher. But, since you're his principal, you need to protect your students, so if you let me go, I promise not to hurt him."
The boy was shivering with fear and didn't dare to speak.
"This hasn't really gone to plan, has it?" Alex asked, inching closer.
"Back off!" she said. "Don't try anything funny." She didn't believe Alex would be able to react quickly enough to save the boy, so the student was a useful hostage.
Alex folded his hands behind his back. Not only did he not retreat, but he continued to walk forward, his expression indifferent.
"If you don't let him go, then I will damage you in a way that you won't recover from," he said. "It will end your career, and I'm sure you don't want that. Make the right choice, or I'll permanently put you out of work."
Tabitha laughed. "Really? And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" she asked. "I don't believe your nonsense. Step back."
Alex took another step forward. She bit her lip and pulled the boy closer, her broken blade pressing harder to his throat. She wasn't bluffing. If she had to hurt the boy, she would.
"If you don't let me go, I will kill your student," she said. "And it will be all your fault."
But when she went to carry out her threat, Alex rushed her, punching at both her arms and making her drop the blade. Pain and numbness shot down both arms, and she no longer had control over them. Her arms shook with weakness, and she couldn't stop the trembling. Shocked, she dropped to her knees. Alex waved his hand at the boy, who dashed off with his girlfriend, not looking back.
Tabitha flexed her fingers, regaining some feeling, but there was clearly some kind of nerve damage, and her movements were clumsy and painful.
Alex stood beside her, silently watching her. Without fine motor skills, Tabitha would be unable to function as an assassin.
He shook his head. He had warned her what would happen, so she had no one to blame but herself.
"I'll wait until you're ready to talk," Alex said, picking up a pebble, tossing it up, and catching it. "It's not like I can go back to sleep anyway, since you've broken my bed."
After a few minutes, Tabitha managed to pull herself together.
Tears ran down her cheeks, and she hung her head, embarrassed by her failure. She had always taken great pride in her skills, but if this nerve damage was permanent, then her life would never be the same again.
"How could you do this to me?" she wailed, looking up at him. "Why didn't you just kill me?"
Her career as an assassin was everything to her, and without that, she might as well be dead.