Gunslinger

Zeke used his bare body to completely block the Hermit's most powerful attacks. The hermit's attacks were truly unfathomable, sometimes as fast as Lily, as random as Diana's or even very slowly. Each time he punched, kicked or used any part of his body to hit Zeke, a huge explosion would blast out, however, Zeke stood there, still as a mountain.

"I may be unable to beat you, but you cannot beat me either." Zeke smiled as he counterattacked.

"How is this possible? A runt like you has such power? What card did you activate?"

However, Zeke did not respond and simply continued to attack with all his might.

The group of four were desperately searching for the device that had locked them into this space. Since it was some kind of spacial artifact, the only one who could act as a guidance compass was Diana. She continued to walk in the direction that she felt was the most difficult to create portals in and the other three quickly followed. they were in a hurry since they did not know how long they had.

At that moment, a scream blasted through the air. It was the hermit. His scream exploded the nearby dilapidated buildings and the four students suddenly coughed out blood. His scream in itself was a powerful mental attack on their psyches.

"You ate up my precious parasitic flame! You b*stard! You b*stard! I will kill you!"

The scream cracked open the roads and pavements. Bricks flew apart to facilitate the Hermit's rage.

"It's there! I feel the strongest spacial ripples from there!" Diana whispered as she ran as quickly as she could. Lily decided to speed past the three of them and destroy it first altogether.

"Wait!" Diana screamed, but it was futile. The hermit had suddenly materialized beside the box which was emitting terrifying spacial pulses.

"Fools!" He laughed as the blade he was brandishing earlier appeared in his hand. However, he was no longer in a playful mood - kill and escape quickly. That was what he would be doing now. His face became solemn, and the blade seemed like it could even stop time as it skimmed towards Lily's neck even faster than Lily could react despite her extreme speed related ability.

Zeke, who had realized that the hermit, whose mysterious disappearance trick was impossible to understand, had easily slipped past him. He then heard Diana's scream and quickly made his way towards their scream with all his speed. However, he could already intuit that he was a second or two too late.

The hermit finally had a smile on. 'Time to kill!' He thought with glee, but then something completely out of his expectations took place.

The hermit's sword suddenly felt a bizarre restriction on it and started wobbling before it left his hand and flew off as if it had been impacted by a projectile, and instants later the spacial artifact exploded as well.

"What an obscene mess." An angry voice sounded out, echoing from everywhere as a person suddenly appeared in the sky above them and slowly landed on the ground. A force of attraction suddenly pulled Lily towards the other three, and Zeke who had accomplished his goal of stalling for time until someone arrived on the scene, began draining out aura.

"You! It's you!" The hermit screamed.

"Shut up!" The person responded angrily.

The mysterious person was dressed up in all black, wearing a leather trenchcoat. A partial mask covered his mouth while a top hat covered his head. On his side, hung a gun. As he moved, space itself curved around him, as if making way for its master.

As he stood between the Hermit and the students who were bundled together by the mysterious force, he looked at them, his eyes were filled with rage, however, he held it in when he saw Zeke.

"Oh? Interesting. He actually accepted a bargain with Death? To die to protect, is it? Noble, but stupid." The Gunslinger commented.

"So it was actually the card of Death." The hermit sighed, but his expression immediately changed, as he was pushed to the ground by an impossible force. He couldn't move at all, and his bones were being crushed.

"I told you to shut up." The gunslinger spoke nonchalantly to the Hermit, but then he looked at the children again. "Leave!"

His voice was not loud, nor did it send any powerful impact like the Hermit had when he screamed. However, the voice was cold and in the voice was the weight of heavy disappointment. The gentle, but firm word had hit their ears like a hammer, and the students suddenly felt immense shame. Each one of the five had broken rules, hidden secrets and only succeeded in putting their lives in danger and creating a mess.

When Diana heard the gunslinger tell them to leave, she lowered her head, and quietly created a portal dragging the five all away from the scene. The gunslinger then turned towards the hermit.

"You actually have the cheek to go by the name of the Hermit, decrepit man?"

"Y-you! I will kill you! B*stard! You killed all my comrades!" The hermit gritted, his face near the gunslinger's shoe.

"It was just an assignment. Aren't you the same, Mr. August Renoir?" The gunslinger laughed coldly. "You were just trying to kill innocent kids a few minutes earlier, and are now getting angry over such trivial matters? I wonder what your lovely children have to say about the matter of their famous father acting like you just did, haha."

"H-how do you know? It does not matter. You just signed a death warrant with that." The hermit growled, his aura shifted. A card came out of his chest, just like Zeke had done. However, this card was a different one altogether. It had the personification of a hermit on it. He suddenly became strong enough to resist the immense gravitational force pulling him down.

"Hmph. Initiating your Tarot? Looks like you've truly lost your mind." The gunslinger snorted, as the gravitational force which was pulling on the Hermit suddenly started varying chaotically. The attractive force pulling him to the ground that was as powerful as that on a supergiant planet suddenly started alternating between weak and strong, very, very fast. Different parts of his body were affected by differed field effects and strengths of the force, causing his mind to become confused and he could not function as he lost his motor skills.

"No matter how powerful an assassin you are now with the Initiated Tarot of the Hermit, I have caught you on open ground, and within my field, you are nothing but a sitting duck. An assassin is strong with the element of surprise, not open battle."