19th Tick: The Start Of A Battle
1028 Words
“So what’s three plus three?” Thomas asked Rose.
“What’s ‘plus’?” Rose replied, giving him a look.
“Are you being serious right now?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I asked you to educate me, not give me trick questions.”
Thomas smacked his face with his palm. “I knew you were uneducated, but not to this extent.”
“No one taught me anything, okay?”
“Fine.” Thomas waved the question asked.
He took one pebble and placed it in front of Rose. He asked, “How many pebbles are there?”
“One, obviously.” Rose replied.
Thomas placed another one, asking, “How many are there now?”
“Two.”
He took the pebbles away and asked, “So what’s one plus one?”
“How am I supposed to know? You never told me what ‘plus’ is.” She complained.
He sighed, dropping the pebbles on the ground. He was trying to teach Rose some basic math under her request, but she was a hopeless cause. He had already spent a few hours in addition alone, and any form of explanation did not seem to go through to her. Thomas took a deep breath and faced Rose again.
“Okay, so you have one pebble.” Thomas started.
“Why would I need a pebble.” Rose asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Why are you asking me? I don’t know, maybe you want to throw it at someone one day.” Thomas continued. “So you’re have one pebble and I have one, can you understand that?”
“Why do you have a pebble?”
“To teach math.” He stated. “So, I give my pebble to you, how many pebbles do you have now?”
“Two.”
“Okay, so what’s one plus one?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s two, it’s two for heaven’s sake!” Thomas complained. “Plus is just like an act of ‘giving’, okay?”
“I see.”
Thomas calmed himself and picked up a leaf, handing one to Rose. He said, “You have one leaf, and I have one too.”
Thomas passed the leaf to Rose. “How many leaves do you have in your hands.”
“Two.”
“So what’s one plus one?”
Rose hesitated, looking at the leaves, before slowly saying, “...two...?”
“Finally!” Thomas cheered.
Rose dropped the leaves and commented, “Math is hard.”
“Yeah, keep thinking that. Just wait until you learn about trigonometry and logarithms.” Thomas joked.
“When will that be?”
“Never.”
Thomas looked around, then at the city not too far away. Everything seemed to be fine, so Thomas could afford to waste a little more time. He looked at Rose who was still trying to fully process the idea of ‘one plus one equals to two’. Thomas stood, startling Rose.
“What’s going on?” She asked.
“Nothing, just felt something odd in the air.” Thomas said.
“I don’t, so you’re probably just imagining things.” Rose told him. “Is it a good or bad feeling though?”
“Not too such, feels bad.”
“But I don’t feel it, even with my sixth sense.”
Thomas turned around, looking around. He could see someone standing outside the town walls, wearing a cloak. Thomas could feel his aura even from the forest, it was too short, Rose barely out of its range.
Rose leaned closer to Thomas, her eyes widening after feeling it. She said, “Who’s that?”
“I don’t know, stop asking me these kinds of questions.”
“Who else am I supposed to ask?”
“I don’t know, stop asking me questions.”
The figure lifted a hand, a ball of fire appearing, slowly growing in size. The guards did not seem to notice him, most of them looking in other directions while the rest ignored him. Thomas took a step forward. “Zeroth Hour.”
Time paused as he ran towards the man, jumping and tackling him to the ground. Thomas took off the hood of the cloak to see the person’s face. He was human, but something about him was weird. Thomas took a few steps away from the ball of fire, leaving the man on the ground when time resumed, the fireball exploded on the spot, covering the area with a cloud of smoke and dust. Thomas stood there, looking at the man who was caught in the explosion.
“What are you doing here?” Thomas asked. “Why are you attacking the town?”
The man stood up, glaring at Thomas. Thomas saw as he lifted a hand up, the air cracking with electricity. Thomas cursed and reached back, “Twelfth Hour.”
The dog was pulled out of the pocket in time, frozen in time. Thomas resumed time on the dog before the man could finish casting his spell. The dog bit down, consuming the magic. The man would have had his hands bitten off if he had not pulled his hands back. Thomas stopped time on the dog and put it back into the pocket in space. Thomas told him, “I do not care for who you are, but if you leave now, I will not pursuit, i don’t feel like killing.”
The man swept forward, a layer of grey smoke surrounding them. When it cleared, the man was nowhere to be found. Thomas smiled slightly at how idiotic the man had been.
“Third Hour.”
The image of the guy showed him opening a sort of hole in the ground and jumping g through it. He scratched his head, were all humans able to use so many Magics in their lives? He doubted it, few humans would be that strong. Yet, there was one of the humans like that, worse, it seemed the man was not working to his fullest ability. Thomas sighed, returning to where Rose was. He told her, “Some guy that wanted to harm the people of the town.”
Rose paused.
“Outsiders with ill intentions?”
“Yes.”
“Who would want to-” Rose started before they both heard a noise in the distance.
They remained completely silent, facing the area of the forest where the noise came from. Thomas took a step forward, Rose’s eyes widened before she tried to jump away. Thomas noticed it and instantly said, “Zeroth Hour.”
Time paused, Rose in midair, a spear not too far away from her. She had sensed danger with her sixth sense, but she would not have been able to completely dodge it. Thomas grabbed the spear and followed the path where it came from. He encountered the person who had thrown it, pointing the spear in his direction.
He then walked further back, trying to find any of the man’s allies. He stood in place, looking left and right. In the paused time, he had just casually strolled into an army, the army of humans that would destroy the town.
- Writer
