A beam of light slammed into Alisha, tossing her like a ragdoll straight into a tree. The tree groaned—then exploded like it owed her money.
"GAAAH!" Alisha groaned, half-buried under leaves, twigs, and what was left of her dignity.
Kaelith and Sera gawked.
"What just—did a meteor hit her?" Kaelith asked.
Out of the warped air, a boy strolled out. He looked a bit older than them. Had a kind of spiky hair, a white shirt, black pants, and two black armbands with strange patterns. The same color as his eyes, which were pale blue, but Something was wrong with his pupil. They weren't round—they were a four-pointed star.
"Oops," he muttered, saying. "Sorry! I was experimenting and… I guess it kinda worked."
Alisha moaned under a pile of leaves and broken branches, limbs splayed out awkwardly. She sat up slowly, bits of bark dropping out of her hair. Her face was blank for a moment… then her eye twitched.
"The one thing I hate," she said coldly, brushing off her skirt, "is a sneak attack."
She cracked her knuckles. The air rippled around her with spatial rifting.
"And congratulations… you've just succeeded in pissing me off really well."
The boy, Jin, raised a sheepish hand. "Well… technically, it wasn't a sneak—"
"Enough."
She vanished in a flash of violet ether, reappeared inches from him, her fist already swinging.
"Ah!" Jin shouted, leaning back in time. Her fist swished past his cheek and struck the earth with a thunderous boom, blasting a crater beneath them. Birds took flight from nearby trees.
"Listen to me!" Jin protested, raising his hands. "I didn't mean to—"
"Save it!" Alisha growled, blinking rapidly in succession, striking from every direction. Her blows split the air, solid enough to splinter stone. But Jin wove through them with ease—smooth, slow, as though he danced through her fury.
Kaelith moved forward, tense. "We ought to intervene."
Sera's hand on her shoulder held her back. "No. Not yet. He's… too strong. See, he is toying with her."
Kaelith's eyes slitted. Despite Alisha's ferocity, Jin wasn't resisting. He deflected her attacks with ease, never blocking straight—just moving, parrying, letting her momentum carry her into misses or harmless hits.
"We'll step in when there's an opening," Sera muttered. "Otherwise, observe."
Alisha, furious and breathless, growled, "Stand still and fight me like a decent person!"
Jin sighed. "I'm not here for this, but… very well."
She blinked—disappeared—and reappeared behind him with a sneak attack. Jin tilted, and her knuckles grazed his hair. She blinked again, this time to his side, with a flurry of jabs, purple trails rending the air.
He didn't block. He guided.
With gentle pats and fluid motions, Jin nudged her fists off course. Each deflected strike crushed boulders or split ground where she missed. But she never hit him.
"But seriously," he said midway through dodging, "why so hot-headed? Can't we talk about this?"
Alisha didn't answer. Instead, she stretched out her hand. Air pulsed—space warped—and five mirror-clones appeared around him, trapping him on every side.
Jin's eyes gleamed faintly. He shifted once—again—and each clone's attack missed by a hair. The illusions vanished as they struck air. From above, the real Alisha dropped, foot aflame with thick spatial energy.
Jin caught her ankle mid-air.
The purple energy flared—and folded. Jin had extinguished it like pinching a flame.
Spinning slowly, he let her momentum carry through and tossed her off. She somersaulted in mid-air, landing crouched, fuming.
"This isn't going anywhere," Jin grumbled. "Guess I gotta use that."
He snapped his wrist, and a card appeared in his hand—covered in an intricate vine pattern, as if it had grown organically from nature itself. He tossed it casually her way.
"What is—"
The card flashed green.
Glowing vines burst forth, trapping Alisha mid-air. She shouted, arms and legs bound—not forcefully, but firmly. Enough to prevent her from making her next strike.
"I owe you an apology. I'll make it up to you later," Jin said under his breath, tossing a second card between his fingers. This one shone deep black—darker than darkness.
"Well, I was planning to leave soon. Doesn't matter if it's a little bit early."
He activated it with a flick.
"And again, sorry about that kick. Totally accidental. And see ya later, bye!"
But Alisha wasn't done.
She had two mortal weaknesses: a quick temper… and no reasoning when angry. And Jin? He checked both boxes. Strong. Fast. Smug. He sent her stumbling and dodged around her blows like she was a toddler swinging a foam bat.
So even while his apology touched, even while the vines took hold of her, her power surged. Space energy seethed in an uproar. With a shriek, she tore the vines asunder and blinked forward—again.
This time, her shining palm struck.
But again—it was as if she had hit mist.
Her eyes widened. Jin was gone. Not evaded. Gone. The space around her still undulated gently—evidence of a high-dimensional displacement she could not track.
Something remained, though.
A gentle glimmer, a whisper of light, drifted towards her. Through her body, it went. And vanished.
No one noticed except for Alisha.
Then, a flood of information rushed into her. Schematics. Equations. Pulsating geometries. Spatial layering theories she'd never imagined. A thousand ways of bending the world by sheer willpower.
She stalled.
Sera stepped closer. "Alisha? What's wrong? And that guy—"
Alisha snapped out of it and quickly pocketed the card. "Nothing. Just some… spatial residue. Let's go."
Sera's frown intensified. "You sure?"
"Yeah," Alisha said, already walking. "We wasted enough time here."
Kaelith and Sera shared a look, then followed.
As they left the clearing, Alisha glanced back one last time.
"If the information I got is true… then I suppose I can forgive you," she thought. "But don't expect a thank you, you smug, teleporting jerk."
She snorted and picked up her pace.
"Hmph."
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A/N: Just to let you know that they will play a major part in one of the middle or end arcs.
The real arc starts now - A Timeless World
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