“Celia…” Arthur whispered, giving her a quick glance, panting.

  “Arthur, what the hell is going on?”

  “Celia!” He repeated, standing up straight and taking a long breath. It wasn’t a question of what he was or wasn’t going to do. He had to do something. Whatever he could, the very least bit of effort was fine. And right now, that effort was not saving his own life. As much as he wanted to think it, it wasn’t saving Celia’s life either. He looked at the many open doors in the hallway, “Get everyone out of their classes. Evacuate the school.”

  “Why? Arthur, speak up. What’s going-”

  A loud bang, and one of the doors at the far end of the hallway came flying towards them. Vil jumped forward, readied his sword, and as soon as it got close, swung downwards. Arthur jumped towards Celia, pushing her down and curling into a fetal position with his body covering hers. The two halves of the door crashed down on the floor, coming to a screeching halt.

  After that, there was no way for the screams to stop.

  “I’ll make sure she does not come near the young ones. Take them and get out of her, friend!”

  Arthur pulled Celia up with him and looked at where the door had come from. She did not have her jetpack on anymore, but was wielding two swords instead of one. Both of them, katanas. Wearing a black leotard with matching stockings, her hair had been tied back into a single ponytail. Her face was covered with a white mask with zero facial features on it. One step at a time, she approached the two of them.

  “Celia, get all the kids behind us. I’ll get the ones near her.”

  “Who is she?”

  “Just…I’ll explain later. Please, just get the kids.”

  She nodded in a hurry and rushed into the class right beside them. At the same time, all the teachers who had been standing in the hallway did the same. It did not take long for the kids to start moving after that. Doors burst open and everyone ran out at the same time without any regard for discipline. Still, nobody fell down or got hurt. He could not help but feel proud of them, for displaying enough courage to be calm in a situation like this. Maybe some pizza was in order soon. Or well…

  Arthur ran forward, and Vil kept up with him. The two classes right beside Lana had already closed their doors to ensure she did not enter them. He was sure that she wasn’t going to do that anyway, but she had already proven that she did not care about anyone who got caught in the crossfire. Everyone in this school would die if they got in their way, and she wasn’t going to reconsider it.

  Her arms moved at the exact same time. One tried to attack Arthur as he ran straight through one of the classes she had already passed, while the second got ready to stop the incoming knight. That second one went as it was expected. Swords clashed and clanged throughout the hallway. Arthur, on the other hand, just decided to collapse on the ground. On his knees, he bent down until the sword was too far above to hit him and crawled behind her.

  There was no way to stop him after that. Vil had her locked in position and then did something even better. As Arthur stood up and opened the door to the first class, the knight rotated the assassin around, pushing her until he was the one with his back to the classes. Then, with constant pressure on her blades, he took her further and further away. Arthur wasn’t sure what his powers were, but he hadn’t even used them till now. Lana, meanwhile, was probably already on cooldown. His own timer was still at 45 seconds remaining.

  As the kids poured out of the first class, he opened the second door and took a quick look at his own stats, too.

  Health – 88

  Stamina – 29

  The latter was going down, and it was going down fast. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep going for very long, but the adrenaline was pumping him right now. The children started to get out of the second class too, with half of them already leaving the way Lana had entered. Once the first class was empty, he looked back and took a quick check on Vil.

  The knight was currently engaged in trading a flurry of blows with her. Even then, he hadn’t broken a single sweat yet. He seemed to be enjoying it, in fact. With a single hand, he blocked every single one of her attacks, only humiliating her with his advanced skills. It did not seem like he was going to need any help at all. Neither from Arthur, nor from his own parasitic abilities.

  The kids were gone. Arthur quickly hopped back after Vil gave him a knowing nod and popped out of the other side of the door. Then, as he got ready to follow the running children, he noticed something that made his eyes glimmer.

  Right behind one of the doors, leaning against the corridor, was Lana’s jetpack. He crouched down, gave it a quick look, and picked it up. Arthur’s stamina was low already, and if he understood this piece of machinery as he thought he did, it was going to make things a lot easier. There were very clear joysticks to control the main thrusters, and most of the buttons had their functions written on them. It meant these assassins hadn’t been trained with these things. They had been mass-produced to be as usable as possible. Probably for a universe where they were common.

  Arthur put on the jetpack and activated one of the thrusters. Logically, one of them took him up and down. The other controlled the direction. That meant that if he did not use the vertical thruster, he could effectively glide through the air with little stamina spent. And that was exactly what happened. With a single push on the joystick, his feet slightly hovered over the ground and started to move forward. The kids had already reached the main exit through the corridor and gathered outside.

  Getting out of the door, he flew out between all the gathered children.

  “Holy shit! Is that a fucking jetpack?!” One of them shouted, hands on his head.

  “Derek, language! And yes, it’s a jetpack. Now, get moving!”

  The kids started running once more. Through the building, the sounds of the swords were still loud enough to echo outside. The other group of children came into view, and everyone gathered together. They had already started to group up and make their way out of the main gate, where there was relative safety.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  As soon as that funnel of escape had been created, Arthur took a long breath and calmed down. Then, hovering in place, he noticed his stamina meter. It had already jumped back up to 48. His theory had been right. The halfway mark was the body’s mental limit. Anything beyond that was adrenaline and determination. Getting back up to 50 would be very easy, but anything beyond that would probably be slower.

  “Holy shit. Is that a fucking jetpack?”

  Arthur looked at the voice with a sour face. Those weren’t the words you would expect from a well-mannered English teacher, but he knew Celia well. Those were definitely words you would expect out of Miss Ingram. The only issue was that it usually didn’t happen in front of the students.

  “You need to watch your mouth, Miss Ingram.”

  “Special…circumstances.”

  She looked back at the school and then at the last group of children who left the school. Celia took a step forward, probably hoping to get out with all of them. But once she noticed that Arthur wasn’t moving, she also stayed put. The other teachers, meanwhile, took the children across the road into the public park and made them stand together in an open space.

  Arthur took a deep breath. Stamina was at 52, and the skill had recharged. More than enough to be able to go and help Vil out even a little bit. Elle and Dee would also hopefully be back by then. He kept thinking about them, about getting out of this universe and finding the person who had set these assassins behind them. Now, more than ever. The hundreds of deaths from the previous loop had been bad, but now they had attacked the kids. Unacceptable.

  “Arthur…?”

  He didn’t want to reply. He didn’t even want to look at her. The more he did, the more difficult it became. It had been an instinctual decision to eat that parasite. The idea that his life had someone as wonderful as her, and someone considered it useless enough to kill him, made him fume. As long as she was here, his life was worth living. She made it worth living. Right now, if he looked at her, he wouldn’t be able to go through that portal when the time came.

  For her sake, he needed to focus on the fight for now.

  “Arthur, do not tell me you are going back in.”

  His thoughts were probably too loud. Way too loud. Her hand was already on his, gripping it tightly to make sure he did not push the thruster and move forward.

  “Mr Cross, speak up.”

  “Celia, I…” He stumbled on his own words and finally gave in. One look at her, and he felt himself crumbling already, “I need to go. He’s in danger.”

  “What is going on?”

  “I…can’t explain. You wouldn’t believe it anyway. Not right now. I’ll sit down properly some other time and explain it in detail, alright? But trust me, I’ll be fine. I know.”

  “No, you don’t. I’ve known you enough to figure out when you lie.”

  Arthur cursed under his tongue, “Fine! Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll be fine. But I have the ability to help him out right now, and I need to do it. You said all that time ago, right? If not us, then who?”

  “Yeah, but that's about getting off your ass every morning, even if you don’t want to. Because you need to teach the kids. This is different. She has two fucking swords! Two! She blew the goddamn roof off the school.”

  “And who put it back together, Celia?”

  “You, but…”

  “That’s it. That’s all.” He pushed her hand off his, “I am still teaching them, Miss Ingram. I am teaching them that when you can help someone, you do it.”

  “Not!” Celia grunted, hitting him on his arm, “Not when your own life is in danger. You need to save yourself first!”

  He cracked a smile, “That’s what I am doing…”

  Her anger disappeared and was replaced with genuine confusion, “What?”

  That didn’t come out right. Wasn’t that something you usually said when saving someone that you loved with all your heart? For some reason, an image of Vil smiling with his pearly white teeth, with an arm around him, came into Arthur’s mind. He immediately brushed it off. He couldn’t imagine talking to the knight for longer than necessary. To be in love with him was a thought that didn’t even need to exist.

  “N-nothing. Look, I need to go.”

  “Arthur!”

  He didn’t stop this time. They could talk later, when he had the time. And if he didn’t. If he never got the time…then that was alright. She had given him this, and all he was doing was proving that she had been right to.

  Jetpack at full speed, he drifted back through the school entrance and reached the main lobby. He already had a good view of the two from here, and it seemed like the fight had changed a bit. Lana was no longer wasting her energy. With both of her swords, she was dancing instead. A beautiful wave of patterns that clashed against the defending Vil, who was clearly the one at a disadvantage now.

  Arthur got off the jetpack, and it fell to the ground, attracting both of their attention.

  “Why are you h-”

  Just a single glance from the knight was enough for Lana to get the upper hand. With a single sweep of her leg, she pulled Vil’s ankle toward herself. He tumbled to the ground, failed to time his recovery and lost control for a couple of seconds. Arthur ran forward, rushing through the hallways until he was right next to both of them. There wasn’t a lot of space to manoeuvre in the area, but he needed to come up with something.

  Vil on the ground, Lana pushed one of her swords directly to his throat and kept it there. The other, she pointed at the approaching Arthur.

  He could see it, though. She was going to kill him. But he could also see what to do. It was the easiest plan, now that he had gotten used to his abilities. He looked at the knight on the ground and pushed his hand forward, slowing himself down a little so he did not run into Lana’s sword. Then, he closed his eyes and counted. One, two…

  “Arthur, no!”

  By the time Vil’s scream reached him, the third second had already passed.

  Skill Activation

  Object Reversal

  Once he opened his eyes, it had gone exactly how he planned. And it also hadn’t involved anyone losing their clothes.

  Vil was still on the ground, and Lana was still standing above him. Avoiding her sword since she was still confused, Arthur bent down and picked the knight up with one hand. The second sword, which had earlier been pointed at Vil’s throat, was nowhere in its position. Instead, it had appeared behind the assassin.

  An object in motion stays in motion. The katana, which had been swung at an angle just a few seconds ago when Lana had knocked the knight down, was swinging right back at her knees. Astounded, she jumped backwards to avoid that. But that was precisely what Arthur needed. Because a sword was still an exception to the rule in a certain sense. It required a human to keep a certain motion up, otherwise gravity became the obstacle in its path.

  Once it stopped mid-swing and clattered to the floor, he picked it up as he slid back with the knight. Both of them came to a halt near one of the classes and pushed themselves up.

  “Not bad, huh?”

  Arthur readied the sword, which was heavier than it seemed, and pointed it at the assassin.

  “No, friend, not bad at all. But…” Vil sighed and kept his sword up, too.

  “What?”

  Lana gave the answer before he did. She gave a slight smile and pointed her sword at the ceiling. Then, she closed her eyes. One. This is what she had wanted. Arthur bit his tongue out of frustration. He had used his ability, and now there was nothing to reverse her destruction. Two. The sword came down at full speed, hitting the floor and making a loud noise.

  Three.

  Skill Activation

  Atomic Resonance

  The entire roof collapsed. This time, without any resistance.