We Have All the Time in The World -Chapter Two

           Li slowly stood up from his table and decided to just take a chance and see where his gamble would take him. He noticed the four men beginning to stand up from their seats which meant that they were going to move for her as well. He took a deep breath and proceeded to move across the mall towards the woman waiting for him, as he felt himself switch into a different mode, one that knew whatever was going to happen could mean certain death for them. Each step felt like an eternity, but it was the same for the four men that were closing in. He noticed one of the men on the left reached into their pants pocket to pull something out.
 
            He continued to close the distance between him and the woman until she looked up from her drink and noticed Li walking towards her; at first she had a smile on her face. Almost like she was expecting him to show up, but that all changed the moment she noticed the ice cold expression on his face. She wanted to say something, but the next instant she felt him grab her hand and pull her up from the table with complete urgency.
 
            “We have to go, now.” Li’s voice was icy almost animal like.
 
            The woman looked past Li and prepared to let something escape from her mouth. He could not make out what exactly was being said, until he heard another voice coming from in front of his body. A thick accented voice from one of the African Countries, he couldn’t make out which, “Don’t even try anything.”
 
            Li turned around to see one of the men come in front of him and move his fist towards his face sending him down to the ground. Immediately crashing into the table where the woman was drinking her Bollinger RD a short moment ago.  While another man, one of the two from the left side immediately grabbed her and pulled out a switchblade and placed it towards her thigh.  She froze with fear knowing that she did not know a way to get out of this.
 
            The people in the bistro and the plaza began to move away when the action started to unfold. The woman looked down at Li noticing that he was slightly dazed from the hit, but she knew that there were other things that required her immediate attention. 
 
            “You know our boss will be very happy to get you back.” One of the men said in a thick African accent.
 
            The woman began to shake feeling the sharp edge of the blade against her skin, it was a feeling that she was familiar with, but she did not like the feeling that was going through her body right now. Something told her to resist but there was a part of her that though it just might be easy to submit to this craziness and just go back to their boss. She had been travelling through Italy in the middle of a mad dash for the past few days and maybe it would just be easier.
 
            Before she could even come to terms with that thought she saw a streak rush past her towards one of the men, it was Li. He grabbed the man who punched him in the face by the nape of his neck and moved his face down towards his left knee. A loud crunch was heard from the impact of the man’s face meeting the knee and immediately he was flying backwards, his legs moving upward until he landed on his back, a loud crunch was heard from the impact.
 
            Without even taking a moment to catch his breath, Li immediately launched his left leg back into the air and took out the second man that was in front of him feeling his foot make impact and seeing some teeth and blood fly from the man’s mouth. The third man managed to move past the man holding the woman and tried to take a swing at him. The swing impacted, but it was not enough to do anything to phase him. Instead, Li just punched the man in the face twice in rapid succession a left and a right cross, then followed it up with a punch in the stomach.  The attacker took a moment to regain his footing and then continued to come at him but Li just found other ways to counter the attacks that were being thrown at him. Each move was countered within the next moment of attack.
 
Without even taking a moment to think out the next move, Li took to the offensive and prepared for his counter by motioning his body for a jump and proceeded to twist his body to launch into a roundhouse kick in midair. He felt his shoe hit the man and watched the attacker fly down to the ground. Immediately, Li just landed like it was nothing for him and turned his attention towards the man with the knife.
 
“Let her go or die.” Li’s tone was colder and he had no deference to dispatching this man.
 
            The man tried to keep his calm while he held the knife against the woman’s thigh. He did not expect to see this man to be able to dispatch his comrades so quickly.
 
             “I have my orders.” The man said as he held on to the woman.
 
             “Okay.” answered Li, “We’ll do it your way.”
 
             Li moved his left hand in front of him and faced the left palm towards the woman and her aggressor. All he could do was smile as he felt a small surge of energy build from within his body. The energy began to move towards his open hand and a faint light began to show at the center. Shortly, a crackling sound was heard as the energy began to form into a small fireball.
 
           Li’s eyes locked onto the man’s eyes, “Drop the knife, NOW!”
 
            The man dropped the knife from his hands and moved away from the woman before Li would be able to do anything to him.  Before Li could even take another step, the man ran across the mall before he could even find out what exactly that ball of energy was.
 
            Immediately Li moved his hand down and allowed the energy to disperse from his body and moved carefully towards the woman. He took a deep breath and managed to calm himself down before he moved his right hand to touch hers.
 
            “Lyric?” asked Li gently moving her hand into his, “Are you all right?”
 
            The woman, Lyric James, looked at Li with disbelief at what he was capable of doing before taking a few breaths to compose herself and answered, “How in the hell are you able to do that?”
 
            Li smiled to himself and scanned the area around him. He did not see any sign of the man who had attacked them, but he knew that if he and his friends were there to take Lyriv. More of them would be likely to follow. Without taking a moment to check if she was okay he immediately ran towards the edge of the plaza towards the Bacino Orseolo, which leads towards the Grand Canal and any transportation out of Venice. He knew that they would have to move now, but first and foremost he would have to make sure that he got Ania to safety.
 
           “LYRIC GET BACK HERE!!!” A loud accented voice screamed out from the other side of the Piazza.
 
            The two of them looked towards the direction of the voice and saw a dark skinned man wearing a black muscled T-shirt and a dark pair of slacks standing next to the attacker who ran away from Li. He had a patched beard and he seemed to be a little animated (Or at least that was what Li thought when he got a glimpse at him.). Lyric eyed him with fear and concern something that was not evident on her protector’s face.
 
           The animated man was named Edmund Omasa was the one that Li was protecting Lyric from. From what he knew of the man from her was that he was her former lover of eight years. (Personally, Li thought that was eight years too long, but did not decide to make a comment on that to her). During their mad dash across Italy, they had encountered him before, which only made their escape even more urgent. 
 
            From the corner of his right eye, Li saw that there were more men coming their way. At first he expected them to be more African bodyguards, but to his surprise it was not just them. He recognized Triads, Yakuza, and even Cosa Nostra. Something did not seem right about this situation, but he did not allow himself to even think about it.  He held on tightly to Ania’s hand and just began to run towards his escape plan.
 
           “What are you doing?!” Lyric screamed holding on to Li’s hand as tight as she could. Trying her best to keep up with him and at the same time cursing the fact that she was wearing heeled shoes She turned her head back to see the men still following them and she started silently praying that they would be able to get out of this alive.
 
            “Trying to keep us alive!!!” Li didn’t want to admit right out, but he felt excited at the fact he was in a chase for his life. A long time ago before this situation, he had lived a completely different life than the one he was living now. One that involved him fighting against things that no human would ever believe possible. Yet now that was another life that he partially longed for, but the energy that he used to feel when it came to fighting and protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves was still as strong as it used to be when he was younger.
 
            He felt Lyric lose step as her shoe began to fly off from their running through the Piazza. He hated to make her push on, but he had no choice if they were going to escape Edmond and his allies. He continued to push on ahead towards an abandoned neighborhood, being renovated for construction. This was the opportunity that he needed in order to by them some time and maybe increase their chances.  Li scanned to the left and the right to see if there was some empty building they could run into just for a quick moment. They passed one building after another with no real luck at all until there was one straight ahead.
 
         “Just a little further!” Li screamed and used and extra burst of energy to make sure that they made it inside.
 
         Turning around to face the door, Li pushed Lyric past him and further into the building before he slammed the door and rushed up the nearby stairway with her. He didn’t know what else could be done, but he knew that he had to at least get her to a gondola and make sure she made it to the station.  She on the other hand felt her heart pounding from all the excitement that was going on around her. She still wasn’t sure what it was that she wanted to do. All she knew was that she needed to get as far away from Edmond as soon as she could. However, she that the only way to do that was to stick by Li’s side while he kept her safe.  
 
         Truthfully, she really did not know how he was going to do that for her. Especially given she knew how relentless Edmond could be when it came to getting what he wanted. That was one of the things that she originally loved about him, that aggressiveness that made it so easy for her to submit to him.  Right now, however, that was the one thing that scared her to death. Yet she believed in this man, Li to do what he said he would do. Protect her at any cost and that was why she was so willing to put her faith in him. So far every little move he made was one that kept them alive a little longer. Slowly she poked her head out and saw that no one was coming, maybe it was going to be all right from here. Leaning against the wall behind her, she let herself relax a little bit, until she felt a hand quickly come across her mouth.
 
         Before she could even let out a scream, she heard Li’s voice trying to keep her from losing it, “They’re close.”
 
          Li moved in front of her, to keep her calm, but that was the last thing she felt when she noticed that he was totally poised to strike at anyone who was ready to attack them. It was a little scary but at the same time it was this aggression that made her  safe with him. She had only seen him like this once and it was this part of him that just made her feel at ease.
 
        Moving Li’s hand from her mouth she whispered, “What the hell are we going to do?”
 
         “The only thing I can do .” answered Li , but was stopped mid sentence by the familiar sensation of someone kicking him. He lost his orientation and found himself on crashing into the ground full of construction gear.