The Wordless Mage
Chapter 43: Reset Point

Chapter 43: Reset Point

This is the 163th, how tiring.

Liora’s hand floated atop the door knob, waiting patiently for the pounding of feet against the floor that she’d long since gotten used to.

Before, her heart would bang against her ribs at the thought of repeated death, but now, she hadn’t even a modicum of fear to constrict her throat and rid her of air.

"Help, he’s running with my purse!"

The all too familiar voice rung to her left, a man again running down her lane.

She rehearsed this--studied it with enough intensity to recall the events about to unfold like a book.

Her fist shot out in front of her to land into the man’s jaw, his hand running forward from his sudden loss of balance.

Bang!

Again, he accidently shot the gun laced at his fingertip, Liora’s head swerving to the right to dodge its bullet.

"W-wait, get off me!" The man yelled at her while she gripped onto his wrist and ceased his descent, the sudden pressure causing the gun to fall out from his hold.

The man’s left knee swung up in hot pursuit of her chest, but she predicted this as well, throwing him to the side with all her body weight while using his shoulders as holds.

He slammed into the door she’d just exited, his eyes closed for a moment from the impact. The anger in his limbs only ramped up, his eyebrows tilting down in conjunction with his balled fists.

He swatted Liora’s hands away from his shoulders, trying desperately to swing himself to the ground on the right where his gun laid. Liora wouldn’t stand for it, sticking her leg out to trip the man.

"Damn you..." He slammed into the hard pavement, his voice ragged and breaths uneven. From the loud crunch that reverberated from his fall, it was clear that something’d been broken in his face.

Liora’s brow raised as the man’s shoulders twisted vehemently, a long black gun back in his hands.

Bang, bang, bang!

She twisted her head three times in retaliation to the three shots that went off, each time inching closer to the man’s stretched hand.

"H-How!"

The man’s desperate question was of no concern to her, a fourth shot striking the air once she gripped tightly upon his wrist once more.

His movements grew more erratic, kicking and turning in an endeavor to sever her clutch, but it was to no avail.

Okay, here’s the hard part!

The man’s left hand reached for his pocket, pulling out a thin strip of black that hid its threat well.

Liora didn’t even bother to allow him to utilize it, her free right leg slamming into his arm.

The object clattered onto the ground, the blunt force causing its sharp blade to release from the crevice it was contained within.

"How are you doing that!"

The man had tried to build momentum by swinging his shoulders left and right, but Liora knew very well the outcome of his freedom.

Krrrkkk!

Her head slammed into his, the force behind it enough to make even herself keel from the pain.

The man’s eyes rolled into his skull, his movements stilling once his head rolled down into relaxation on the hard street.

"I did it..." She murmured to herself, her chest’s movements ragged from the prolonged burst of exertion.

After allowing herself a moment of rest, she used her knee to return to her feet, pivoting to observe the lady who’d been standing over her fallen purse.

She’d watched the scene play out in front of her, her hands covering her mouth. It seemed that she was frozen in fear, but once a silence filled the air, she gained the backbone to speak.

"Oh, why, thank you, kind sir!"

The lady threw herself onto Liora, wrapping her arms around her back.

"Of course, ma’am. Don’t even sweat it."

The gratification she’d felt in the moment was short-lived, the distant buildings morphing in a swivel around her.

Not before long, even the woman just in front of her joined the swirl, her body turning into thin strands that accumulated into one point.

Blinking just once, Liora went from saving the woman to standing back in Rowan’s room, her vision from the floor a couple inches taller than before.

"Hah~ am I really going to be stuck here forever?"

Her breath was cold, brushing over her skin in its solitude.

She’d been stuck in this temporal loop for weeks now, although the one she’d just escaped was the quickest she ever left one.

When she first appeared in the sub-space, she went through the same death--just as the last one--over and over until she could beat whichever parameters the realm set for her.

For the first one, it was death by beating, a group of boys meeting just to kill him. She never quite understood why Rowan had amassed such a number of enemies, but for each scenario, it seemed like real, lived experiences that he held.

"That was the seventh one, now," she said with closed eyes, rising to meet the mirror that rested against the wall. She remembered the thousands of deaths she’d experienced firsthand, each one less and less painful than the last. "Wait, mirror?"

No, there was just wall, the room far more blank that it’d been before. Crumbled papers scattered across the floor, an equal number of dried pens and used pencils sitting alongside them.

"Hey, Rowan, stop talking to yourself, would you!" A female voice screamed outside her door, deep and agitated.

What’s happening? No fists. No cars. No falling steel beams. Just... silence.

That wasn’t the only thing that irked Liora, her mind wandering on her own separate memories. She hadn’t known Rowan’s life had been lead with only pain and grief, although she did have a prior inkling that he’d been through things that he wouldn’t talk about.

The same as me, she smiled, opening the door for his room while stepping over the sole table enclosed in its walls.

The figure was taller, her face blocked by black, but for some reason unknown to Liora, she could generally tell that there were wrinkles spread all across her features. And yet, still, the white hair was dazzling, even when half-obscured.

"Rowan, get your butt out of this house and go find a job!" Rowan’s mom yelled, pointing her finger towards the door. "Or, better yet, go live on-campus and enjoy college life!"