Chapter 7

Another loud bang came from behind, a flower pot on the left side of Caroline exploded, broken clay pieces flew everywhere.

Jason happened to be close to the two gunmen because of where he was hiding, while the gunman was not paying attention to him, he leaped to the chance and swung his hand held camera at one the gunmen.

His swing was more powerful than he thought, not only did he send the gunman flying to the side, his camera was also completely shattered into pieces.

The second gunman turned his gun around and tried to point at Jason, but his aim was broken by a broken camera handle to his wrist, his gun flew to the side and the next thing he saw was an incoming fist.

It did not take much effort for Caroline to almost catch up to the running lady guest. But another gunshot stopped the lady guest's escape.

Caroline was able to hold the lady guest as she fell down and kept her from hitting the cold and hard ground.

The shot was fired from another gunman on Caroline's left side, and Caroline had no choice but to carry the lady guest over to the nearest giant flower pot and hid behind it.

"Don't be a hero, young lady. We just want that bitch!" the gunman continued firing at the flower pot to keep up the pressure, "Come out and we will let you go! Just leave the thief and liar here and you will be fine!"

"Such a big man, using a gun on a helpless young girl." Caroline tried her best to hide herself and the lady guest away from the edges of the giant flower pot, "Pick on someone your own size for a change!"

"No one steals from the Corin family, so you chose wrong you little bitch!" the gunner yelled as he unloaded the final rounds in his magazine.

Right when the gunner was trying to reload, Caroline emerged from behind the pot and threw the piece of rock she picked up earlier at the gunman.

The piece of rock made a noticeable "woosh" sound as it traveled through the air and landed right on the gunner's face.

"Boom!" a loud explosion destroyed another giant flower pot, and Jason, now with his shirt and jacket full of burn marks and his beaning exuding smoke, struggled to get to where Caroline was: "We need to go now! They have a fire bender!"

"What?"

"Watch out!" without hesitation, Jason stepped up and stood between Caroline and an incoming fireball with his arms crossed in front of him. An explosion ensued, and he was knocked back several feet and almost knocked down Caroline.

The person who released the fireball was a man with black hair, and a mustache with a scar on his face and wearing all black. And as Caroline turned to him, he already had another fireball between his two palms.

With Jason down on the ground coughing and not able to stand up anytime soon, Caroline rushed to the gunner she just knocked out and picked up the gun on the floor. The next fireball barely missed her, and she could smell her hair and jacket burning.

The gun's hammer struck several times but no bullet was fired - turned out the gunner did somehow reset the action of the gun but did not get to reload before he was knocked out.

Another fireball incoming, Caroline had to ditch the gun and dive to the side, her face and side scratched and bruised by flying shattered bricks and clay from the explosion.

Having no time to check on her wounds, She leapt towards the man with the scar on his face in an attempt to tackle him.

Fierce as the fireball attacks were, the tackling was not as hard as she expected. As they both fell to the ground, she facing down and her opponent facing up, Caroline mustered up all her strength to climb on top of the fireball throwing man and started wailing on him with her well practiced left and right hooks.

This man tried his hardest to block Caroline's hits with his arms guarding his face and upper body while yelling and cursing at her. But his guard was not sturdy enough to save him from getting hit in the face and chest. His nose started bleeding after the second indirect hit, and the corner of his left eye started swelling up.

But just as Caroline thought she was about to handle this man below her, the man's arms started lighting up and releasing pulses of heatwave.

A fiery shockwave erupted from the man's arms, though Caroline backed away just enough to avoid being scorched, she was still knocked away and down on the ground.

As the man with a scar on his face stood up and tried to conjure up another fireball, Jason came up from behind him and swept him on the floor with a low sweeping kick.

"Come on, standup Caroline! Are you alright?" Jason struggled to present a battle form with one arm as he stared at the man doing a quick roll on the ground and tried to stand up again.

"Yeah, you weren't kidding with the fire bending." Caroline coughed as she recovered from the impact of the shockwave, "This son of a bitch is really pissing me off."

Police sirens alarmed every standing persona at the scene and put a pause on their fight. The man spitted out some blood in his mouth, turned around and ran away.

"Come on, she's shot and we need to get her to the hospital." Caroline patted Jason on the arm, causing Jason to flinch in pain.

"Geez, I think that fireball dislocated my shoulder." Jason was breathing through his locked teeth.