Negotiating with Air...?

"So you say that Wardes was here to assassinate me? Do you have any proof of this?" Wales asks, and Michael can only shake his head. "He isn't stupid enough to incriminate himself. But if you really are Brimir's ancestor, then you must know what this is." he says, showing his Gandalfr rune.

Wales lets out a quiet gasp as he sees it, the others in the room glancing at him in confusion, wishing to be let in on the 'secret'. "T-this? Left hand of god... Gandalfr!"

"Your majesty? What is this Gandalfr you speak of?" one of the guards asks.

"Gandalfr was Brimir's closest familiar when he was alive, f-free this man this instant!" he commands, and the men hastily scramble to remove Michael's chains.

"Maybe I should have started with that?" Michael mutters as he rubs his wrists where the red marks left by the chains could still be seen.

"Bring Sir Wardes to me now. I am leaning on him being a traitor with Gandalfr's testimony." he says, but is interrupted as the cabin door slams open. "Your majesty! Wardes' Griffin has been freed and he's been let out of his room! He's trying to escape!"

Michael's eyes widen at this as he sprints out of the room faster than anyone can react, all while stealing a dagger from a guards waist to activate his Gandalfr runes. Once outside, he spots Wardes on the bow of the ship, about to escape atop his Griffin as he casts spells from a wooden wand he'd somehow gotten ahold of.

"WWWAARRRDDESSSSS!!!" Michael roars furiously as he sprints at him, the Griffin leaps from the ship and starts flying in the opposite direction to where the airship was headed, but this didn't dissuade Michael. His hatred for the man burned in his chest, and he felt as if he'd start spewing flames if it got any worse.

"SHADOW DANCE!" he exclaims, causing shadows to enshroud him, allowing the Shadow Dance passive to activate and massively boost his speed. He reaches the bow just before Wardes disappears in the clouds below the airship, but he refuses to let the man escape.

"POUNCE!" he roars, leaping straight off of the ship like a madman, his shadowed figure resembling a descending demon as he shoots towards Wardes like a launched missile!

The crewmates give shouts of shock as seeing someone leap after the escapee, but they aren't able to do anything as both Michael and Wardes disappear into the thick clouds below.

"WAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRDDDEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!" Michael continues to scream as he plummets, eventually spotting Wardes who kicks his Griffin in the sides to make it speed up. Michael's shot alerts him to his presence, but his shock at seeing the falling Gandalfr stop him from casting any big spells. Not to mention his unfamiliarity with the wand as well as casting with his off-hand.

It should also be mentioned how difficult it actually is to target Michael when he's inside of his Shadow Dance cloud. All of his attempts to hit him would be decided by luck... But, lady luck doesn't seem to be smiling on him today.

Blades of wind strike and pass by Michael, but he ignores the accumulating wounds, deep gouges open up across Michael's arms, legs, torso, and head. But they are quickly healed by his Shadow Dance passive, a beneficial side effect of getting hit was that each spell actually knocked Michael higher, allowing him better opportunity to manoeuvre towards Wardes.

The battle only lasts seconds, but eventually, Michael's able to plummet towards Wardes. "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOUUUUUUUUUU!" he screams as he plunges the dagger straight through Wardes' back and into his heart.

"GAAAHUk!" he shouts as he feels the cold steel pierce him. "Y-you!..." he starts but coughs out blood, his Griffin not yet noticing his state.

Michael gives a bloodthirsty grin as he stands on the haunch of the Griffin, twisting his dagger for good measure. "Don't worry. Cromwell and Sheffield are next!" he promises, pulling out the dagger and stabbing Wardes in the back again, and again, and again.

Wardes gives a shuddering breath as he clutches Michael's arm, "G-gandalfr... F-fine, Kill me... B-but, take b-back the h-h-oly l-an-...d" he barely gets out as he bleeds profusely from his wounds.

Michael laughs in his face, stabbing him once again, "Fuck you, fuck your holy land, and fuck Brimir. Maybe those Elves will be more receptive to me than you and your fucking nobles were."

Wardes sends a bloody scowl at him. "F-fi-ne. W-ind Cut-ter." he says, and Michael only realises he was chanting a spell when it was too late. Wardes swings his wand, not at Michael, but at the neck of his Griffin, completely beheading it and causing the duo and the corpse to start plummeting from the sky.

"FUCKING WARDDDESSSSSS!" he screams as they fall, clutching Wardes who still had his feet secured in its stirrups. He'd start stabbing Wardes again, but the man had gone limb and Michael knew he was most definitely dead... The number of times he'd stabbed Wardes made his body more like swiss cheese than anything resembling human.

He climbs down towards the Wardes body and eventually grabs ahold of the Griffin's saddle. Michael had no idea what he could do to save himself, but his best shot was probably to jump off of the creature's corpse at the last second...

Michael looks down at the floating continent as the ground gets closer and closer. There wasn't any water nearby to land in, but there was a mountainside with a couple trees atop it...

He continues falling.

Falling.

Falling.

But just before he's about to hit the floor, he uses "Pounce!" and leaps off of the Griffin's corpse and heads towards a tree growing from the side of the mountain. He successfully hits it, but his legs immediately break despite this, causing him to start rolling down the mountainside.

His Shadow Dance passive starts healing his wounds as he gathers more and more of them, which is the only reason he hadn't died yet... Jumping onto a steep mountainside probably wasn't the best decision he'd made in his life.