[X] Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere
Wrenching yourself from the ground even as the horrible man hops to his feet, you launch into a flurry of blows, pounding at his torso with all your might. He staggers backward, his skin ripping under your assault, but... he's laughing. Damn him! Mad though he be, you won't hold back against such a fiend! With a mighty shout you swing your right fist with all your might.
A sickening chorus of snaps and the emergence of a sliver of bone through his skin heralds your realization that his ribcage has been crushed. His eyes widen in fear, and at last, he falls.
You step back, watching him fall to the ground, in shock.
Then relief washes over you in a wave. You did it! You finally prevented it from happening! You saved-
"Miss..." Your turn to see the boy, still on the ground, reaching toward you with an outstretched hand. "Run...!"
It's at that moment a hand takes hold of your throat, and whatever the boy is saying becomes much less important.
"That's an interesting trick... have you little witches finally learned something new?"
Your eyes widen in shock, as though they could drink in the air your mouth cannot. His wounds... you saw your hands make them, you saw it with your own eyes, so where are they? His shirt is in shreds but his chest is completely unblemished! That cannot be!
He's... he's not human...!
"Well, didn't do you much good, did it?"
A hot fog descends over your mind as he tightens his hold on you, almost certainly breaking the skin and oh merciful God in heaven his fingers are in your veins DIO FATHER HELP!
Three pencils take him in the side of the head. The fourth gets him in the neck. All the wounds land with a force that sends his head reeling to the side, and you'd swear you see them crackle with electricity.
He howls in pain and turns to look back down the alley.
"Unfortunate," Prof. de Owen says placidly, pulling another handful of the writing implements from his jacket pocket. "It's occasions like this that make me reconsider my decision not to acquire a gun." He throws another volley with his left, then another with his right; your attacker's face becomes a snarling pencil stand.
Roaring, your attacker drops you and charges your teacher.
de Owen's outstretched hand impales him through the heart in a burst of amber light.
"Golden Years Overdrive," he says, sounding as dull as ever. "You should have stayed in bed, signiore."
If the man has any final words, they are drowned out by the chiming of the church bells as his body disintegrates into dust.
"But then, if I carried a gun, I'd be obliged to come to the attention of every government of every country I pass through," he muses, removing his jacket as he strolls over to you. "That would be frightfully disruptive of my travel plans." He drapes the jacket gently around your shoulders, and offers you a hand up.
[X] You take it, and thank him for saving your life.
[X] You take it, and ask him where the closest hospital is; that boy's in a bad way.
[X] You take it, and ask what on earth was wrong with that man.
[X] You will stand under your own power, thank you very much, and demand to know why he refused to give chase to help retrieve your belongings. True, he saved your life, but your life would not have been in peril if he had handled matters like a man!