Call me Chicken?

"You just called me a cunt? Right?" Michael glowers as he draws his sword, the blade almost touching the floor as he holds it casually at his side.

The four D'argent gang members shiver slightly under Michael's cold glare, all of them immediately preparing themselves for combat as he tosses his cloak to the side. "Boss, there's somethin' wrong with this kid." one of the men mutters, his hand becoming clammy as Michael silently stands there.

"You scared or something? Stop being a bitch and do your job." the swordsman growls in response, prodding the man forward slightly.

As soon as the first man takes a step forward towards Michael however, he raises his hand and shouts "Ether Shock!", causing three threads of orange electricity to shoot out and strike the men in the chest. He'd targeted the swordsman and the two men wielding clubs in particular, wanting to eliminate them before they could surround him.

Unfortunately, while his spell had injured and disoriented them somewhat, none had been killed by it. Unlike Guiche, they were wearing some light armour and hadn't been struck in the head, allowing them to come off mostly unscathed, albeit, slightly scorched and shocked.

With the four men temporarily stunned by the sudden magic, Michael sprints forwards while gripping the sabre with both hands and slashing at the man wielding the dagger.

He tries to dodge backwards to gain some distance but his hasty retreat is nowhere near a fast as Michael's enhanced speeds. Despite his base Agility being lower than the criminal, it was still six points higher than the average man, making him equal to a lower level athlete.

Michael kicks off of the floor and leans forward as he tries to extend his swipe, managing to catch the thief in the stomach, his blade easily disembowelling him as it passes.

The man falls to the floor while screaming in agony, doing his best to keep his intestines inside his body. Michael moves to strike at the others, but they'd already recovered from his spell, one of the men blocking his blade with their club.

The wooden weapon strains under Michael's assault, but aside from cutting halfway through it, the hardwood somehow remains intact. With Michael's blade lodged in the man's club, it gives the other too ample opportunity to flank him.

Michael is forced to let go of his sabre as a club barely whizzes past his head, a glint of silver catches his eye a the last second, leaving him almost completely unable to block the sword heading for his skull.

"Hex!" he exclaims, barely getting the spell of in time just as the sword was about to give him a short than usual haircut. The man and his sword disappear in a puff of smoke as the words leave his mouth, causing a chicken to start randomly waddling around on the floor.

Michael draws his dagger and unconsciously releases a sigh as the runes reactivate, allowing him to avoid the two club-wielding men as they pursue him. Additionally, he takes this chance to give the chicken a punt, kicking it hard into one of the alleyway walls and causing it to squawk in surprise at the attack.

"Kill 'im quick! He turned Yuru into a fuckin' chicken! It'll be us next!" one of the men roar before charging as fast as they can at Michael.

"I'll call start calling you bastards Cunt-Fried chicken!" Michael retorts as he backs away, his taunt only causes the man to attack far more fiercely than before, randomly screaming as he unleashes a flurry of blows. Michael ducks under one frantic club swing while cutting a deep line into the man's neck, killing him as he focuses on the last guy... Minus the chicken.

The gang member takes one look at the carnage before him before throwing his weapon at the floor and running away. Unfortunately for him, Michael simply couldn't allow that to happen. Not only was this guy now aware of his magical abilities, which would make the Kingdom aware of where he is. He'd also report his presence to Marcel, maybe ruining Michael's future plans.

"Ether Shock!" he shouts again, feeling slightly drained at the number of spells he'd been forced to use in the short battle. Two threads leap from his fingertip, striking the somehow still alive disembowelled man, as well as the fleeing thief.

The spell strikes him in the back of his head, killing him in much the same manner as had befallen Guiche...

With that, Michael picks up his sabre from the floor and pries it out of the club it was still stuck in before turning towards the end of the alleyway where a cloud of smoke signals the end of his Hex spell.

The swordsman stumbles out of the smoke and glances around in confusion before locking eyes on the bodies of his comrades. He then grimaces, pulling his shirt up and revealing a large black bruise in the shape of Michael's boot... Huh, so Hex did function as strangely as it did in the game...

By all accounts, his kick had broken most of the bones in the chicken's body, yet the swordsman only had a big bruise and possibly some cracked ribs. This most likely meant that the damage dealt to the chicken was transferred, but not amplified... A shame, but expected... After all, it would be incredibly overpowered if you could just Hex a dragon and behead the chicken to kill it.

Of course, if you beheaded the chicken, the wound would probably be fatal to any regular unenhanced human anyway... Not many people could get in the neck by a strong sword blow. Michael shakes his head, and focuses on the sweaty-looking gang member. "Call me a cunt will you?"

"N-N-no! That weren't me!... P-please!" the man pleads, tightly gripping his sword while raising his other palm in surrender.

"Well, you aren't leaving even if it wasn't... Ether shock!"

"AAARRGH!"