Three Minutes?!

   The night was chilly and the city was quiet. It was dark as well, but in the center of this city was a structure brightly lit. 

    Bastian approached the structure that lit the center of this beautiful city. He started to limp slightly. The structure which was more of a fortress was familiar to him. He had been there many times before he 'woke up' per say.

    "Help", he begged falling infront of the soldiers whom guarded the entrance. The soldiers scoffed. 

   "Why should we?", said a soldier who was tall and broad. His facial hair was visible through his helmet. It was not well groomed. 

   "Do you not remember?", Bastian asked. "It is I the prince's boy. The one who went missing a year or so ago. That is me."

   "And do you have proof of this?", another soldier asked. He was a superior officer.

     Bastian lifted his shirt to show the markings which had been imprinted on him from a young age. The mark was sacred and somewhat abstract. It looks to depict a hand in someway. Only those who ranked high in the royal army would know of this mark. 

    At the sight of the mark Bastian was taken inside. 

   As he was being dragged down a hall a messenger was sent out. The messenger would be sent across the land to inform the prince of the news.

   "On way to intercept." The voice sounded as if it was on Bastian's left but no one else could hear it. The voice belonged to Gatz. 

    Outside the fortress a beast drawn cart ran rapidly down the streets of the city. The cart was armored and full of a squad of armed guards along with one messenger and a driver. 

    "Did'ja hear? The invalids at the fortress are set to be moved tomorrow." One of the armed guards said. Thump. 

   "I heard they'd be killed tomorrow", another said. 

   "I heard they were just plannin' on Killin the men", said another.

   "Guess what I heard?", said a voice at the very back of the cart. The guards didn't recognized it and they turned. It was a person with build of a teenage girl holding a scythe. This individual was also wearing some sort of armor. It looked strong yet maneuverable. The men moved and raised their weapons. 

   "I heard the prince's boy is back in town", the scythe wielder went on. "I also heard he don't plan on takin' shit no more. I don't know though what do you guys think?"

   No one responded to the question. "Aww that's to bad, I was planning on hearing you out".

  At that the scythe wielder known as Gatz stood tall. His eyes turned a deep purple color. 

"So I'm gonna ask that you all forget about the prince's boy thing annndddd, you", he said pointing at the driver. "You're gonna bring me back to the fortress okay?" 

   The men all except the messenger started nodding. It seemed they were in some sort of trance. The messenger stood.

   "Wait wha-?", Gatz said shocked. 

   "In the coldest of night's there is still warmth", the messenger said as he looked at the ground. Gatz was about to question him but before he could the whole cart erupted in flames. Gatz was sent out the back of it with minor injuries. 

   "Hey um, we got a problem", Gatz said speaking to no one in particular. 

   "It being?", said a female voice. 

    "Gift User. Class 35 at the very least.", Gatz said recollecting himself.

    "Sending help now", the woman whom could not be seen said. "Three minutes out".

   "Three minutes suddenly becomes a long time", Gatz says to himself as he gets up. He looks ahead and sees 8 figures emerge from the flaming cart. It was then that he saw the crest on their breastplates. These were no ordinary men. They were disciples of the gift of fire. 

   Gatz stood up straight taking his scythe in both hands. "Three minutes just got a whole lot longer."

 Back in the fortress Bastian was being dragged through the halls. He was surrounded by eight guards. 

   "Plan B." Bastian heard the message which the soldiers could not. Bastian started screaming in agony. The soldiers let him fall to the floor and watched.

    Bastian's legs began to bleed as something emerged from each of them. They were knives. The soldiers took a step back. Grabbing the handles of their weapons, but not drawing them yet. 

    "The hell?", one soldier said staring at the somewhat gruesome scene before him. 

   The knives fell to the floor with a clanking sound. There was now a hole in each of his shins. The holes closed themselves, with muscle and skin. 

    Bastian grabbed the two knives and stood up. The soldiers moved forward to attack him. Bastian then slid onto the floor between one of the soldiers legs. To his back was an open hall. 

  "You guys are rooks I take it?" Bastian asked. "Medium level soldiers, only strong in large numbers. Train for 3 years and then off to the battlefields". 

   "What's it to you?", one of the soldiers asked. 

    "Well I'm just wondering why a couple of lousy meat shields are guarding a place like this?" Bastian said tauntingly. "Lemme guess you guys weren't good enough for the front lines so they stationed you on night duty here, that right?"

   As Bastian finished saying that an arrow pierced his right shoulder. "Ouch", he said before taking it out. The wounds healed quickly. 

    The archer whom shot the arrow stood at the end of the open hall along with three other soldiers. Though these three were higher ranking then the other 8 which now were standing with their swords pointed toward Bastian. 

    Bastian looked at his surroundings. There was nothing of real use anywhere around here. This hall was also to open to take on so many does at once. Bastian reached for his belt. He grabbed a round ball looking thing and through it in the air. This caused a blinding light in the room. While everyone was blinded a scream and a crash were heard. 

   After a moment the soldiers could see again. They then realized where the crash came from. It was a window that broke. They looked outside of the third level window to see Bastian sprinting away through a courtyard. They also notice that the arches body lay a bloody mess in the courtyard three levels below. 

   Back at the flaming cart Gatz held up his scythe. The disciples walked towards him slowly. As if they were conserving their energy or something. Suddenly, three of them rushed Gatz in an all out sprint. Gatz then seemed to disappear.  The three men were confused. Then Gatz appeared behind them. 

  "Hey guess what?" he asked as fire was thrown his way. He disappeared again. "You're probably thinkin' I can teleport right?", he said reappearing behind the men. They shot fire at him again without a word. "but.." he said appearing again behind the tallest of the men. He swung the scythe cutting the mans head of swiftly in an executioner style. The other two men leaped forward, fire spewing everywhere. Gatz disapeared once again. 

   "But I'm not actually teleporting!" he went on. "I have the lying technique pretty cool right?" The two men stood a few feet apart with their backs facing each other. They couldn't attach the voice to an area. 

    Gatz appeared in the middle of them. Each man had his back to him. In one clean motion Gatz spun slicing the first mans head off and piercing the scythe into the other mans shin. "You see I'm not teleporting or invisible really, I'm just making your brain think that!" He said disappearing. He left the scythe in the man's leg. He then reappeared Infront of the man. "You disciple's don't speak while you fight to conserve your energy or what ever, bleh", Gatz said making a gesture that mimicked vomiting. "But I'll make you speak. He disappeared once again. But the man was catching on. He turned suddenly about 180 degrees and shot fire out from his hands completely torching Gatz. Gatz's body fell to the ground charred and lifeless. The man removed the scythe from his shin. 

    "Your movements were predictable. Perhaps you should have focused on our fight rather than entertaining yourself," he said kicking the corpse.

   "Gotcha!", Gaz said from behing. He thrusted the blade of the scythe into the man's side. He then twisted it. Then he disappeared. 

   The disciples who had stayed back then launched into position. Four of them go into some sort of formation where they each stood opposite each other pretty far apart. Their bodies then caught on fire, these were certainly high ranking disciples. They then shot fire from their hands forming a rectangle of fire. The fire was so hot it could probably melt anything. Even though they couldn't see Gatz they knew he was somewhere in the vicinity of the rectangle but were unsure where. Then the messenger stood in a corner his back to the fire. Gatz appeared in the middle. He smiled at the messenger.

   "Why do you smile when faced with certain death?", asked the messenger. 

   Gatz smiled as he tapped his foot rhythmically on the ground. "One hundred eighty", he said aloud as he stopped tapping his foot. 

     Three minutes had passed.