Or was there? The headmaster did not feel the boot crushing his head into paste, it would appear that The Death Dealer had not helped his brain experience fresh air, instead, with his eyes closed, he felt a sudden pull, a vertigo, and a body crashing into him.
"You seem do have run into a bit of pickle headmaster, a snafu of some kind" the old man was pulled up to his feet, the assassin maintaining her pose with her leg outstretched, as though she had not realised that the old head's skull had not been converted into sand.
But no, she stared right at the now two of them with a look of curiosity, just keeping herself into this position for no viable reasons.
"You disrupted your mana flow, but I would prefer some assistance to deal with this feisty woman" Osworth placed his hand onto the elder's shoulder, his tone still as palpably tranquil as usual, even when literally showed by the finest Fin-Limier's refined killing intent, either he was unshakable, or he was just unable to notice.
He handed a small vial to the headmaster, stepping forward and raising his hands, daring to challenge her to a fight in close quarters.
"Are you insane?! She's going to tear you apart!" the old man protested, he was well aware of where he stood in the chain of power, and knew very well that he at a spot well above even those said strong, but so was he knowledgeable that he was way down beneath the extraordinary, some sort of middle ground that he had since long gave up on reaching, those fated to step up did so early.
The Volcano Witch, Storm Of Blade, The Death Dealer and The Two Copper Knights, all four had been born much later than himself, but reached their level well before he had accomplished his own, what took him decades only took them less than a single one.
He highly doubted that Osworth was somehow capable of even holding her back at all, she might just be able to literally walk through him.
"Do not worry for even a second, I can not die"
The assassin stared at the masked bodyguard with an eyebrow raised, one hand on her face, a finger tapping repeatedly against her cheek.
"Absolute idiot!" the old man cursed as his brazenness and illogical confidence, gulping down the small vial, trying to get his mana circulating properly again, to what end, he did not know, even a harmful manoeuver using apex at point blank, literally casting the spell directly into her chest had not even made her pause mid-sentence.
This was no normal strength, even species with impressive magical defences would have severely reeled from such a blow, and The Death Dealer certainly looked like a human, not even imposing, and she just ate it, not even her clothes were damaged by the severe inferno.
He could not guess what could be the true reason behind such an outstanding body, he did not have enough information, all he could tell about her was that she was a woman, was probably a freak of nature, and was kind of cute, though that last point was not relevant.
The old man just couldn't help but notice that detail.
'We can not win, but surely, we can still retreat, somehow…' he raised his hand to cast a spell, blinking a couple of times as he saw double, everything seemed wobbly, his mana ceased its circulation against his will.
'Did she poison me- Poison?' he wanted to gasp audibly, but instead, his legs gave in, falling to his knees, catatonic, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
"Welp, let me tell you, that disguise of yours is actually pretty convincing, I didn't recognise you for a second there, I probably wouldn't have at all had I not known in advance honestly" the assassin cracked her neck, walking up to Osworth and slapping him on the back.
"How's it going Loimos? Making old bones? I wasn't expecting you to hire my services again, I don't accept jobs without kills usually, just made an exception, because of last time, haven't had much luck on my missions since then" she tapped his chest with her index, awfully talkative with a decaying corpse.
"I did not believe that any other would be able doing the job as well as you, the headmaster had tricks that would have dealt with regular assassins easily, also, we are familiar with one another" despite being in presence of someone aware of his rotting status, his voice as Osworth remained the same.
Maintaining such a potent disguise, which was needed considering the sort of people he was constantly around, had necessitated him to take up some restraining conditions, one of them being to maintain the Osworth character he had invented.
Though, that wasn't even close to being the most constraining.
Walking up to the inert, but still breathing headmaster, Loimos snapped his fingers, prompting the man to stand up.
"You will not make any further actions against I, you shall act as per usual and never go against me or my allies, await your next orders and end your life if you are discovered to be under control, keep yourself in your office as much as you did before, and repair the damages done, if anyone asks you about what happened, say that a problem happened with the academy's array, keep an eye on the king's action" the skeleton recited a series of orders before sending the headmaster away.
"That's some impressive stuff you got there" Maliah nodded her head.
"It was a collaboration of many minds, may I ask for a favour?" the undead moved right up to her.
"Yeah sure, you're the closest thing I have to a friend"
"I would appreciate if you could make sure that no bounty is placed on Alizé, and that if one is, that no one takes up the mission, I have an ally, to convince whoever takes care of such matters, here is a sample of an earlier version of the serum the headmaster just ingested, they should be thrilled"