White Rabbit

Chapter 33: By the Way

ESSENCE

I jump up into the air and twirl, landing on Reece's great sword whenever he swings it at me and I backflip off of it while summoning a blue energy orb mid-air and throwing it at him, which he easily rolls to the side and dodges. A time seal forms beneath Reece's feet and my eyes widen whenever I realize that's he's planning to project a time field. I hurriedly form an aura of dark blue, neon blue, and white energy around me before racing towards him, breaking through the time seal barrier and protecting me from being slowed down. Reece raises an impressed brow at me in the process as I form two sai out of dark blue energy which have blue flames running up and down the blades. I swing at Reece swiftly and he moves from side to side with each swing that I take towards him.

"I'm not the same scared, lonely girl that you found that day," I say as I continue slashing at him.

"Good," Reece smirks at me before holding his sword vertically and closing his eyes, a black and gold time rune forming in front of his blade as golden energy begins to swirl around the rune in criss-crossing motions, "Because I'm not holding back."

My eyes widen whenever the golden energy continues to glow brighter and goes off with a flash and Reece vanishes from my sight. My eyes scan the area and I find Reece several feet above me in the air, flying towards me with his sword raised above his head as another time rune appears between us. Reece leaps off of the time rune and goes to the left, climbing higher in the air as one rune appears after another and he bounces back and forth between them until there's a circle of them around me, a golden ribbon of light connecting each rune. On the final and highest rune, Reece leaps straight off and a time portal forms in the center of the circle, which Reece falls through right as a giant set of golden roman numerals forms in a golden and black band around the circle and the band spins and continuously goes faster. The golden strands connecting each rune begin to glow impossibly bright as the band raises to speeds that are dizzying and a sound that resembles a faint hum increasingly gets louder before Reece appears back in the center and throws his great sword at me, which is now glowing golden and radiating black and gold energy, before everything explodes in a flash of gold and black and I feel something crash into me.

Whenever I open my eyes again, I notice that Reece is lying on top of me and has pushed me out of the way of his blade, which is now buried in the concrete wall of the basement, and I feel fairly disoriented from whatever just happened.

"What...was that?" I groan.

"That was my Temporal Clock. It captures the attention of the victim, dazes and mystifies them while lowering their defenses, and obliterates all objects made of energy whenever it goes off-- such as weapons, fields, and so on. It also impacts the intended targets like a bomb of energy. It's an attack in itself, but I usually use another attack with it. My great sword charges with energy from using it and so I tend to use that to my advantage," Reece explains, "You were too dazed whenever I threw my sword at you and I realized when I let go of the handle that you weren't going to move or defend yourself, so I teleported to you and tackled you out of the way."

"Well, thanks, but can you get off of me now?" I glare up at him and he smirks.

"Are you sure you want me to?" Reece raises a brow at me.

"Are you flirting with me?" I raise a brow back at him.

"Do you want me to be flirting with you?" Reece asks.

"I don't know. Do I want to punch you in the face?" I ask.

Or run my hands down your taut, nice, toned-- wait, what?

"Okay, okay," Reece laughs and gets off of me before offering me a hand to get up, "Come on."

"Huh?" I shake my head and continue staring up at him, "Oh. Right."

He raises a brow at me curiously as I take his hand and stand up, but he pulls me flush against him whenever I'm finally on my feet, to my surprise. He scans my expression and gives a slight hum before stepping backwards.

"That's what I thought," He smirks slightly.

"What?" I narrow my eyes at him and cross my arms.

"Hmm," Reece wanders off, "Nothing."

"Liar," I pout and place my hands on my hips.

"Do you want to continue training or not?" Reece glances back at me and I sigh.

"Fine," I say and walk over to Reece and stand a few feet across from him.

I go to summon a weapon, but Reece shakes his head.

"No," He says and holds out one of his hands, "No weapons this time. I want to see how you do in regular combat."

"Like, self defense?" I tilt my head to the side.

"Yeah," He nods, "It's useful to have other methods of fighting aside from relying on weapons and powers."

"Alright then, let's do this," I grin and raise both of my fists, putting my left leg further back than my right while bouncing side to side.

Reece stares at me and bites his lip before he breaks out in a laugh and doubles over, his arms wrapping around his waist. I blink and stare at the spectacle before me for a few moments until he stands back up straight and his laughter is reduced to chuckles.

"What? What is it? What's so funny?" I stare at him in confusion.

"Nothing," He laughs and smiles brightly, looking almost angelic, "It's just that you looked so funny in that pose. You know that you don't actually have to bounce back and forth on your heels, right?"

My retort gets lost in my throat upon seeing his bright smile and I can feel my face growing increasingly hotter.

"Y--Yeah...I know that..." I trail off shyly.

"Oh, and by the way," Reece smirks, "You were blushing earlier, just like you are now."

"SHUT UP!" I shout and chase Reece, who laughs, around the training room.