Martin spat out the blood in his mouth as he spoke,
"You should look forward to more hair on that empty head of yours."
His statement had already caused a vein to pop up on Two's head and he was charging forward.
With a groan, Martin stood up but Two was already sending a punch towards him hoping to pummel him back to the ground but luckily, Martin was able to parry the attack with his left arm while directing a punch into Two's gut causing the thug to double over in pain while gripping his stomach.
Grabbing this opportunity, Martin raised a knee and implanted it into Two's bent over face. Two's heard jerked backward and the mask on his face had cracked. Martin didn't have to see his face before he knew that he had broken Two's nose as blood was already dripping from under the thug's mask.
Number One and Three were already moving forward and Martin didn't know what to do, then he suddenly had an idea and he moved his body until he was behind Two. He had planned to use Two as a ransom so if the men cared about the lives of one of them, they could let them go.
It was worth a try.
Standing behind number Two who was trying to understand what was happening, Martin quickly put his arm around the latter's neck and grabbed him in a choke hold.
However as Two tried to struggle and push him off, Martin rolled on his back and used his feet to pin his captive, in this manner he had the life of one of their members in his hands and also he could be used as a meat shield.
"You guys only have one choice now, retreat or he dies."
Martin said with his voice turning extremely cold at the mention of dying, as someone who had experienced death before and most importantly death from betrayal he held a great amount of hatred within him which in turn caused his killing intent to be intensified.
His eyes held no sign of remorse as he had told himself that he would walk on the blood of his enemies just to build his path.
The surrounding temperature seemed to have dropped by a few degrees and both Thugs felt a chill invade their bodies.
They were just low level thugs and this kind of pressure was something they had only experienced from their superiors.
Two could feel the color draining out his face as his hands tried to remove the boy's hand from his neck but nothing was working out.
He couldn't help but wonder why the boy was so strong.
He glanced at his companions but he had no hope, he already knew that they wouldn't care much about him as that was how the business ran.
They weren't really best of friends, they were just hand picked randomly to go out and teach some kids some lessons.
Now he felt they were the ones being schooled.
His thoughts were confirmed when One laughed out, "Kill him. We don't really care. More money for us after we deliver your crippled body to our boss." His teeth shone as he expressed his greed.
Three continued, his eyes scanning the situation, "By the way, at your current strength, you can only hold him down for so long."
The moment the sentence left his mouth, he charged straight to Martin and following behind him was One.
They were done playing, they needed to leave before the fighting drew any attention.
Seeing that his bluff had been called off, Martin released Two and immediately rolled away from him, steadying his stance to fight while the thug desperately tried to catch his breath.
Deep down, he knew that if the Axton kid had kept him held for a couple of minutes, he would have gone to the great beyond. He was grateful that his team had come up with such words and the boy had easily fallen for it.
Martin frowned when he saw One and Three heading for him, they were planning to fight him at once and he didn't think he would be able to handle them but still he needed to try.
"Bill, Lance. I'm counting on you guys" Martin couldn't do this on his own, he had to rely on backup for now.
Bill immediately stood behind him, he had trained and prepared for things like this.
His rune immediately materialized on the back of his hand, it glowed a bright red color as he needed to use his magic.
He was standing behind Axton's back and he couldn't help but admire him, it was this same kid he had wanted to bully along with Jim and Rob but here was this kid, standing to fight with him.
He didn't know that a fire had been lit in him and he unconsciously wanted to follow Axton everywhere he went. He knew that following in Axton's footsteps could only lead him to greater things.q
Martin held out both his hands ready to attack, he didn't care about defense because he knew his backup wouldn't let him down.
"I'm counting on you Lance, protect me."
Martin said as One delivered a punch directly to his face but he had dodged it, returning the attack in double folds.
"S… sure, I'll do my best." Lance pushed his glasses up and steadied his body to try and replicate a fighting stance.
One and Three suddenly quickened their movements, overwhelming Martin who was desperately trying to evade and get a hit into one of them.
Bill could only fire out a few fire shots to give Martin an opening before his mana ran out.
The moment his man depleted, Lance would step in creating Water shields and protecting Martin from stray punches, yet he could only last a minute as his mana supply wasn't enough.
His backups were down.
Martin could only take in hits while giving his own blows, he was about to pummel Three in the face when Two shot out of nowhere and landed a kick in his stomach sending him flying back.
Martin coughed out blood but his opponents were already moving as they fanned out in a triangular form ready to finally complete their mission.
Martin could only smile sadly as he stood up,body riddled with bruises, he wasn't going to win this fight.
_If only I had comprehended the windblade spell I'd just dice them up into a thousand pieces_
He mused to himself.
Just as the men closed in on him, a soothing voice pierced the air, the spiritual pressure released caused the throats of everyone present to tighten as they fell to their knees coughing out blood.
Even Martin wasn't spared. His body was already weak so he was the first to fall on his knees, he couldn't understand where such power was coming from.
This person had to be at Master level or on a breakthrough to the level of a Master.
________
"What's going on here?" A voice that sounded almost like the cooing of a dove echoed in their eyes, it was soft yet they could feel the anger in its tone.
They couldn't move, they couldn't even talk as their throat felt constricted.
Martin fought against every aching cell in his body just to take a glance at where the serene voice was coming from and he saw her.
Standing just behind the scene was a lady cladded in a tailored suit that accentuated her hour glass figure.
The top of her suit looked like it was too tight for her and a button was undone leading to the unrestricted visual of her cleavage which looked like her boobs were about to pour out.
The skirt she wore was above her knees leaving her bare thighs in displayed. Her heels were the color of fiery red and she wore a transparent black tight.
Her porcelain skin had a shimmer to it while her red colored lips was pouted in displeasure.
She had been hearing some disturbing sounds and felt the disturbance of unstable magic and she had decided to check it out herself.
Why were students playing with magic just outside the school, it had to be those bullies and she disliked seeing the weak being bullied.
Her eyes skimmed over the area and she quickly understood what was going on. It was pretty explainable also.
There were four men in masks which meant they were definitely not students and she couldn't sense magic in them, they had to be body cultivators.
One of them laid in a heap at the far corner while the other three masked persons had surrounded a boy without a mask, she could sense a little man in him and looking at the two boys behind him, she understood that they were students also.
"I see" the lady said as she pushed the frame of her glasses and focused on the people in front of her. She knew what she had to do.
"Sand whirlpool." the lady said while pointing her hand in the direction of the three masked men and the earth beneath them gave way instantly becoming something akin to a quicksand with almost no viscosity, it swirled and spun so rapidly that they had no time to react nor escape.
Martin's eyes widened, such elemental control, she had mastered and understood the true properties of the earth rune. It felt like she had the power of nature at the tip of her hands.
It was exciting to watch all that was happening.
He suddenly felt a tug in his heart, His heart was beating faster than ever before.
He wanted to be as good as her, maybe even better. Could he even reach her level?
The rune on her shone brightly, it was meant to a dull brown for the earth rune but now, it could be mistaken for orange because of how bright the rune glowed and efficient her magic was.
"Earth prison."
she muttered when they were halfway sunk and the sand whirlpool instantly solidified while the earth around then rose up trapping them in one place.
Everyone was shocked, in just two moves, she had completely rendered the thugs that they had been fighting for useless and she had captured them.
The lady walked closer to her captives and she peeled off the masks from their faces, in an instance she recognized them.
"Oh. Dergin's minions. You have a lot of nerves coming to cause trouble in this school and harassing my students."
One of them was about to say something when he felt a huge piece of rock on his mouth, she used the earth to prevent them from uttering a sentence.
She wondered what had happened between Dergin and these kids.
She had heard that Dergin's first child had been turned to a cripple, was it the fault of these boys? She looked closer at them and realized that the other two were familiar but the boy whose hair had a reddish hue couldn't ring a bell in her head.
He must be a new student but how could a new student get in so much trouble? She mentally sighed, she would have to look deeper into it later.
"Get up everyone and take yourself to the Health care center, I'll take care of this myself." She sent out a warm smile to the already weakened students.
Bill and Lance came forward as they helped Martin stand up on his feet.
They walked past the lady and Martin smiled at her as a way of appreciation but her stern voice immediately rang out.
"This isn't over yet, I want you to get better first before I'd do anything."
The boys shivered inwardly but they were grateful as they walked back to the health care.
They ensured that they avoided been seen by students and soon enough they were being treated by nurses.
Martin had broken a lot of his bones, wounded some vital organs, and a healing mage had to be called to help him out.
From the look of things, he was going to be staying in the Care center longer than he thought.