Securing territory
The main hall of the Scarlet Crows was alive with boisterous laughter; the base was large, but the twelve people, all loyal Comrades Hal had taken care of growing up, filled the space with a homey atmosphere. The church's main hall was filled with a long table at which the crows ate all their meals, with Hal at the head.
After the feast was over, Hal walked up to the podium at the end of the hall, and yelled for silence.
"You all must have heard of the great victory I brought in today, right?"
The Crows let out hearty applause and cheering.
"Well, I have another piece of news to share with you all today. I have awakened; I am now a mana user!" Hal raised his hand and summoned a beautiful ballista bolt made of ice.
The silence was palpable in the room; then, the Crows went wild with joy.
A strong leader meant more power for the gang, and more people would want to join.
"Tomorrow, we will secure our territory. Instead of making traps and being bullied by Gleeful Blade, I now have a way to confront our enemy, we will demonstrate our power to the people of The Scarlet Crows Territory and get pieces flowing into our coffers and new members filling our empty rooms.
After the banquet died down, Hal took the whole night watch and continued runesmithing.
The runes Hal could create right now were basic, pushing and pulling, strengthening, and things like that.
By the time the sun streamed over the thatch roof across the street, Hal's small amount of mana had doubled, and he had completed his personal gear enchantments.
Hal was handsome and retained mostly human looks; his orc heritage showed itself through the two large canines that revealed themselves when Hal talked, his strong body, and his yellow eyes.
Hal's black leather cloak, which had tons of pockets sewed into the inside, holding smoke grenades, daggers, and others of Hal's inventions, was inscribed with protection runes, and the leader armor under that was enchanted to be more flexible.
After breakfast, Hal addressed his subordinates.
"I suspect that Gleeful Blade won't stand by while we gather reputation from killing their vice leader, so Ivor and I are going to take the offensive. Your job today is to spread the word of my new abilities and use that as the reason to return our Taxes back to normal."
The Scarlet Crow Soldiers wanted to protest against Ivor and Hal being on the offensive alone, but they knew they were brutally under-geared and wouldn't be much help.
The Scarlet Crow's territory was located on the edge of the City, the church was just a few blocks away from light bush that turned to forest the farther away from the city you got.
To expand, there was only one way to go, straight into Gleeful Blade's turf.
"Whats the plan, Hal?" Ivor had faith in his leader, but he had no idea how two people could land a blow on the one-hundred-strong Gleeful Blade.
"Kristoph is a simple man. He's lazy so he won't do shit himself. He's most likely going to send a large force straight to our base - simple overpowering."
"Here's our plan..."
-----------------------------
Gleeful Blade gangster POV
-----------------------------
The boss finally sent us to go squash The Rabbit and his feeble excuse of a gang, I have no idea how that Fuck Killed our vice-leader, but today is the day we get revenge!
Looking at the five bowmen, and twenty armed men around him, the thug felt secure in his victory.
On the way to the church, the small militia didn't hesitate to knock down the stalls of street vendors and even kicked a homeless woman selling corn-husk dolls.
Rounding the corner, the group laid eyes on the signature black cloak of The Rabbit, and their yellowed teeth widened in palpitation for the reward they imagined getting rewards for killing the Leader of the Scarlet Crows.
----------------------------
MC POV
----------------------------
(Oh, they brought me five bows and some good swords, amazing!)
Hal faced the group until he was just in arrow-range, then turned on his tail and bolted down an alleyway that led to a circular alcove, totally blocked in by the buildings around it.
The group of criminals gave case, but when they made it to the alcove, Hal had already climbed a wall onto the roof of a building. The gangers turned back to the alley find a way up, just in time to view a massive figure covered in steel armor push a large boulder into the alley, blocking their escape route.
Hal threw down some smoke grenades, causing chaos among the untrained gangsters.
(Create Ice ammo is really a bizarre spell, but it's what I've got to work with.)
Hal took out the creation he had spent the previous night making, a modified crossbow that shot spiked balls instead of arrows.
(The spell takes more mana the larger the ammo I make, so this is most effective, I put motion runes on the string to make it auto-pull back for a faster fire rate, and put streathened the body of the crossbow, yep, I really outdid myself!)
Rapidly creating Ice bullets, the crossbow turned into a machine gun, each ball exploding into shards, ripping and tearing flesh.
The smoke cleared, and no one was left alive.