Basics in Teaching

Chapter 5 - Basics in Behavior (2/3)

WHACK!

...

"This is not friendly fire, Mister Maus—I'm afraid we are not on the same side."

A new voice had made it to the scene, a familiar one, but one that couldn't catch Engel's memory for a moment. As he hesitantly raised his head and reopened his eyes, he was greeted with a sight that only in his wildest dreams he could ever have the pleasure, the pure delight of witnessing. Against all thought, against everything he experienced just within the past thirty or so minutes...

He was never gladder to see a teacher.

"Come on... you're not dead yet, okay? You're not dead yet; you'll be O.K. Just hang in there...!"

"...Miss Teck? Is that you?" Engel muttered, managing to pick himself up from the ground despite his injuries. He still found it difficult to see through his bloodshot eye, but he was still able to manoeuvre his way to where his saviour was... where Abbie and Lana's seemingly lifeless corpses laid. "What are you-"

"Give me a minute, Engel—they're almost stable," Miss Teck interrupted abruptly, maintaining a grip on both of the students' mangled bodies. It was unceremonious—her ability didn't work like magic—but Engel could clearly see some of the wounds on both of his friends start to mend. "Bubble is in a better state than either of these two, but I can feel her life fleeting. Please bring her over here if you are able to."

The demi-human could do nothing but fervently nod as he then rushed over to Bubble, who he could see was breathing laboriously, but she was alive. The only physical damage he could see on her was a large bruise on her leg and two snapped arms. It appeared that the pain had instantly rendered her unconscious. Wasting no further time, Engel was careful to, with a slight struggle due to his wavering strength, pick her up and treaded back to the school nurse who, without looking back, quietly thanked the 'last survivor'.

As he let her rest down near where the teacher was, it was only then he was able to get a better look of his friends.

Abbie, although now looking much more recognisable than Engel would have previously thought, still was an absolute mess, the result of being the first of Mister Maus' victims in this scuffle. His abdomen was sliced into, his innards spilling out of him and, even though the blood loss seemed to have been stopped by Miss Teck, the already-spilled blood splattered on the floor told a very vivid story.

Maus did not spare Lana any more than he did Abbie, although he did appear to have lessened his effort since then—Lana's state was technically much better, most definitely saveable by modern medicine, but that didn't mean that it wasn't still a gruesome sight. Large slashes and surface-level lacerations covered her entire body like a horror movie victim and, although the blood seemed to have also stopped, it appeared she must have lost a lot of it as evident by the red substance's abundance below her.

From where Engel was standing, the attack concluded in just one slash, but somehow, the teacher managed to slice into her multiple times within that timeframe.

"Oh God..." Engel muttered unconsciously, looking upon his bruised, battered, and cut up friends. "I still... haa... I still can't believe this is happening."

"Me neither, Engel, but it is indeed happening, so there is nothing we can do but focus on what's going on now, okay?" Miss Teck responded somewhat offhandedly. "I'm almost done—they'll be stable, but they will still need to be treated by a hospital and be taken care of there. I can't say for sure right now, but I'm almost certain these two will be okay physically."

"Thank you, Miss Teck; really, thank you," Engel replied, finally falling backwards in exhaustion. The toil this entire situation so far had taken a huge toll on his mental health, and he couldn't imagine how Lana, Abbie, and Bubble would feel after everything they've also been through, having it much worse than Engel at least... that is, if they would get the chance to—their situations were not set in stone, but he didn't doubt Miss Teck's ability. "I- There's no way around it—we all would've been killed if it wasn't for you."