"S-show you my hands?" Michael can't help but stutter out, "Er, do I have to? My hands are rather unsightly to look at... I was burned as a child you see..."
Wardes gives a kindly smile, "You have my sympathy, but I am not so weak-willed to be repulsed by such a sight." he states, gesturing for Michael to continue.
...
Michael coughs into his fist and 'goes' to start unwrapping the fabric around his left hand, but before he reveals his Gandalfr rune he quickly whispers "Hex!" from his upturned finger at Wardes.
*Pop!*
Caught off guard by the sudden wandless spell, Wardes is covered in a puff of smoke, which fades to reveal his now chicken body.
Michael continues his attack, not waiting to see if Wardes had any artifacts that could resist it. His Griffin alone was threat enough even without the other two Griffin knights flying overhead. "Shock!" he exclaims, casting his Ether Shock via a shortened chant.
Six threads of orange lightning strike out towards the helpless chicken, but before they're able to hit, a *pop* of smoke occurs yet again, revealing an unhexed Wardes wielding his now glowing blue rapier. "A peculiar spell, but not enough. Come quietly and I might allow you to keep your limbs, Michael, the False Familiar." he threatens, his bloodlust almost becoming visible to Michael.
Upon seeing his sneak attack utterly fail and feeling Wardes' bloodlust, Michael makes the only rational decision at this moment. "Pounce!" he exclaims, his legs bulging as he propels himself from the road and over the tree line of the nearby forest, eventually plummeting back into the thick foliage under the persuasion of gravity.
"SCCREEEEEEEEEEeee!"
The sound of Wardes Griffin screeching as it audibly flaps its wings and begins chasing him has Michael accelerate further, disregarding the occasional branch he accidentally runs into. Fortunately, any damage he takes is quickly healed due to Shadow Dance, not to mention his drastically increased speed due to it.
His flying pursuers wouldn't be able to see him through the canopy, so at least he had that one advantage. That wasn't to say he was at all confident about escaping... They could definitely fly faster than he could run, even with his Gandalfr runes and Shadow Dance passive-active, and he knew that he'd eventually run out of forest to hide in... So despite his momentary escape, the situation was still pretty fucked.
Michael's current top speed, ignoring how difficult it is to traverse the forest quickly, is around twice an Olympic athlete at fifty miles an hour. The air resistance made him feel like he was moving through water, which was a first for him, but he barrels through it regardless due to the adrenaline pumping through him. He simply didn't have the time nor the focus to comment on just how fast he was actually moving.
Eventually, however, his pursuers seemed to get tired of chasing him, and Michael is vaguely able to hear one chanting, "Gale Strike!"
He barely dodges to the side in time as a powerful wind blows through the area, literally uprooting a few trees as many others nearby lose all of their leaves in one go.
Michael is thrown through a nearby tree before eventually getting embedded in a larger oak tree. "Urrgh." he mutters as he pulls himself out of the bark all while grimacing at the pain in his back. He wasn't sure if anything was broken, but since he'd literally just be blown through a tree, it was a possibility.
Despite this though, he dips back into the forest before his perusers are able to catch him, risking it all on his Shadow Dance passive to heal him up enough so he wouldn't be one-shot by any other spells they cast.
By the time ten seconds passes, most of his wounds had healed, and his wonky-looking arm had snapped itself back into place... Just in time too! As the three Griffin Knights start throwing more and more spells the longer the chase goes on.
"Gale Strike!"/"Water Barrage!"
"Water Rapture!"
"Air Thrust!"
Michael zigzags as spells collide around him, his Shadow Dance occasionally deactivating as the Griffin Knights catch glimpses of him. He wondered whether they'd run out of mana before he escaped, but his hopes seemed to be for nought as Wardes' voice rings out. "Lightning Trap."
"Wha-AAAAHHYA'YA'YA'YA'YA'YA!!!!" Michael screams as he accidentally runs through some sort of lightning net, the trap enclosing around him and binding his limbs together all while continuously electrocuting him.
Michael is barely able to activate both Shadow Dance and Dark Pact through the seizure he was experiencing, managing to bite onto his tongue to draw enough blood for the latter ability. A wave of the blackest shade of smoke explodes from Michael's body as Shadow Dance activates, completely concealing him his the three Griffin Knights fly down to intercept him.
A second later, Dark Pact activates, causing a purple ring of smoke to explode this time, the caustic cloud burning and melting everything nearby. Sucking the vitality out of all nearby foliage and preventing the Griffin Knights from coming any closer, fearing the effects the smoke would have on them. Even Wardes' attempts to blow it away via his Elemental Wind Magic have no effect.
The lightning net binding Michael is instantly destroyed as Dark Pact activates, and with Shadow Dance activated, his wounds quickly repair themselves as he's concealed by the smoke. Unfortunately, before he's able to escape again, Wardes' waves his blade and completely surrounds him with lightning traps.
Since his Dark Pact had already ended, Michael was trapped... His Shadow Dance would end in a couple seconds, and since Dark Pact takes seconds to activate, he wouldn't be able to heal the damage he would inflict on himself.
"Surrender criminal! Or you will be executed for your crimes!" one of the knights beside Wardes commands, his wand-rapier still pointing at Michael's general location which was still covered in Shadow Dance smoke.
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Michael's eyes dart between the traps surrounding him, he'd thought that he might get out by Pouncing over them, but Wardes had obviously thought about this and left a trap above him as well...
Was there anything he could do to escape?... Hex the three of them, risk using Dark Pact, and hope they remain Hexed long enough for him to gain enough distance so that they could no longer track him?... Fat chance. Wardes' had already shown some amount of resistance against it, meaning he'd be back to normal in less than a second. The chase would begin again, and since he'd used his daily use of Shadow Dance's active effect, he'd just get caught again.
Michael lets out a long sigh and wills the cloud formed by his Shadow Dance to end, putting his hands in the air after sheathing his dagger. "You got me."
"Criminal scum. You'll be tried for your crimes against Tristain. Your murder of Guiche de Gramont has not been forgotten, and your attack on Antomiers is as heinous as it was vile!" one of the knights proclaim, seemingly waiting for his response.
...
"First of all, I didn't mean to kill Gui-""DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME, CRIMINAL! IT IS WELL KNOWN THAT YOU PLOTTED THE DEATH OF ONE OF YOUR BETTERS! YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WOULD BE STRUNG UP FOR SUCH A CRIME! SO DO NOT DENY IT NOW!"
...
"Again, it was an accide-" IT BAFFLES ME THAT YOU ARE SO DETERMINED TO DENY YOUR GUILT! BY BRIMIR'S WILL! YOUR NEXT LIFE WILL NOT BE A GOOD ONE!"
...
"You done yet?" Michael retorts shortly, wondering why this dude had such a hate boner for him... It wasn't as if Guiche was his family or something. Once the Knight doesn't respond, Michael continues, "Okay, what happened in Antomiers wasn't me." he starts, and scowls when Wardes' has to preemptively silence the mouthy Knight before he could interrupt again. "I haven't even been in Antomiers, so any crimes I've 'supposedly' commit there are obviously attempts to incriminate me. I admit, Guiche's death was an unfortunate accident, but I don't believe I should die for it! I am far more valuable alive! LOOK!" he exclaims, pulling the fabric from his hand and proudly showing his Gandalfr runes.
"I am Gandalfr! A Familiar of Brimir! This rune marks me as a holy symbol! Do you even know how Romalia would react if you killed me!? My rank wouldn't be that far below the Pope!-" he announces, doing his best to raise his value in their eyes... Enough so that they wouldn't immediately execute him at least.
The mouthy knight finally seems to lose it, however, drawing his rapier and pointing it at Michael, "HOW DARE YOU SLANDER HIS HOLINESS NAME! AND HOW DARE YOU PURPORT TO HOLD ANY SIGNIFICANT RELATION TO THE CHURCH OR BRIMIR! WITH YOUR DEMONIC ELF MAGIC AND LONG LIST OF CRIMES! WE SHOULD KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAN-*Highk!*" the man exclaims while raising his blade, preparing to behead Michael... Only for a glowing rapier to pierce through his chest, penetrating his heart and easily killing him.
The man drops his weapon and turns his head, only managing to choke out a "W-why captain-..." before falling to the ground dead.
The other Knight is shocked by this, unable to react in time as Wardes swings his visibly blunt rapier to behead him. The man's head goes flying, causing a spatter of blood to hit Michael's cheek as he watches the events with a pale face.
Yeah, he knew what sort of person Wardes was, but knowing that the man now held his life in his hands, without any buffer from Tristain or the two knights made him incredibly wary. "W-why did you kill them!?" he quickly asks, not really sure what was actually happening.
Wardes shrugs and flicks the blood from his blade, "Me? Isn't it you who is responsible? They valiantly fought against you before being callously cut down. How heroically disheartening." he casually says, putting all the blame onto Michael for some reason.
"That doesn't answer my question... I'm caught, why would you kill them!?" Michael repeats, all while frantically going through his spells to think of some way of escaping... Maybe he could steal one of the now rider-less Griffin's?
*SCRREEEeee-Thud!*
"Ah, well... That's a no go then." Michael inwardly comments as Wardes' behead the other two Griffins. Ruining that potential plan of action.
Wardes smiles, "General Gramont wants you regardless of if you are dead or alive, but, as you stated, you are far more useful alive. I can think of some people that could use your abilities, unwilling or not... Why, after your use has ended, Gramont can have you! But using you as leverage against him first? Hmmhmmhmm!" he silently chuckles at the thought.
So that's it, huh? He probably wants to brainwash me with that ring, use me as a soldier and hostage simultaneously to get Gramont onto their side?... Would that even work though? The only good thing about this situation is the fact that Wardes' is far away from Louise... In fact, did he even know for sure that he was Gandalfr before this?
"Now. Why don't you hold still? I promise everything will be-" Wardes starts, but Michael tries his last ditch efforts to escape. He'd just stopped being a slave, so he wasn't all that eager to become one again! "Hex! Shock! Serpent Wards! Dark Pact!" he quickly shouts the four spells, the former two failing completely, the Hex ending before the puff of smoke even clears and his Ether Shock colliding with one of the lightning traps, doing nothing.
His Serpent Wards provide a momentary distraction, but Wardes easily blows most of them away with a quick spell, their frail bodies unable to resist the slicing winds, while the remaining ones are easily torn apart by his Griffin... They weren't even able to get off a single attack!
Scowling at his wards failure, he leaps into a lightning trap as his Dark Pact activates, allowing the caustic explosion to free him from the binding and allowing him to run free... Only for a second though, since Wardes was more or less familiar with his abilities now...
"Your petty spells are but weak annoyances." he states, whispering some kind of wind spell which causes him to appear in front of Michael, allowing him to smack his blunt rapier into the side of his neck, immediately rendering him unconscious.
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