The Grounds Keeper

CHAPTER 4 Off The Deep End

"Pardon me. I'm sorry I wasn't looking were I was going"

He offered his hand to a young man with pale skin and brown gelled hair, he wore a green robe also. At the sight of Eathon he grinned and took his hand in a shake. Eathon noticed a peculiar tattoo on the back of it, a stylized image of a three headed dog snarling its fangs, as he looked up he noticed that the student had brought his fingers to Eathon's face and with a hesitant smile flicked him, a force like a wave crashing against sand collided with his face sending him flying back landing hard to the ground.

The man laughed in what sounded like shock and pleasure

"I knew if I waited I would catch you out here, still I never expected you to be so weak, and you can't even defend against a basic blow. It was a stroke of luck that I was outside the infirmary when you had that conversation with Mrs. Michelle, to think it would be so easy to rank, don't hold this against me you poor bastard, but ide be stupid not to take the opportunity to kick your arse while you still have no clue how to defend yourself."

Eathon hesitantly got to his feet and felt his nose, blood was streaming down his throat but not out of it, this meant that bastard had definitely broken the bone and it was obscuring the path of the blood making it flow inward, with a grunt of pain he re adjusted the bone as a thick stream of congealed blood flooded out to the floor and don his immaculate coat. It was absolute agony, but he had done it once before when his father split a log with such force that it flew apart and struck him right in the face, since that day realigning his nose wasn't as big an ordeal due to the damaged cartilage being quite flexible.

Eathon observed the man with tears in his eyes, he was short and lean but by no means athletically built or muscular, and he couldn't deduce just how he could strike so hard. As he stared he saw the man crouch into a sprinters position on the floor and with a quick gesture with both hands shot forward as if propelled from a cannon, it was far too fast to dodge, his arms were extended above his head in fists and both caught Eathon in the stomach, he felt the wind escape him and he collapsed atop the guy who twisted his fists while still in contact, Eathon felt his whole body sweep of its feet as he spun out of control and was tossed into the air like a spin top.

This wasn't human strength, something else was at work here. He felt something hard strike him mid-air as he was propelled hard to the ground. There was a sharp snap noise as he felt pain shoot like lightning from leg. He looked down to find his right leg snapped into a right angle, for a few moments his mind panicked this guys a psycho, what did I ever do to him?, how will I get out of this?, I can't fight this guy, he's trying to kill me. The man jumped twelve feet into the air and with a gesture from both hands shot toward the ground with both feet extended stomping the broken leg.

Eathon screamed in agony yet the new pain seemed to signal to his shook brain that something needed to be done in order to preserve his life, he shot out his arms and grabbed the man by his collar and with all the strength in his neck, back and arms pulled him forward and smashed his fore head into the man's face. He expected the crack of impact as he broke his nose, only to feel a force like wind resistance at the point of contact which caused him to be shot back to the floor as if his head was attached to the earth by a rubber band.

Yet the strike weak as it was must have done something, as the man stumbled back wiping blood from his nose, this gave Eathon enough time to kick up with his good leg striking the man hard between the legs, to his surprise it connected without issue. It seemed that the strange force that deflected his last blow had lifted. It must have wavered as the pain of his nose broke his thought process, making him drop whatever spell of protection he had surrounded his body with.