Pyrrhic

Michael barely avoids the stream of arrows sent his way, and so he tries to leap towards the exit of the alleyway in an attempt to gain some distance to either escape, or sneak attack his opponents.

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be going his way today... First, small droplets could be felt as they slowly started falling from the sky. Rain had come, and Michael just so happened to be facing a Water Mage... It was as if God wanted him to get his ass kicked... Second, the Water Mage created a large ice wall to block his exit, equipped with many sharp ice spears to prevent him from trying to climb it.

Michael barely avoids spearing himself on the newly formed obstacle as he slides to a halt, he moves to the side but still gets grazed in the thigh by an arrow, causing his movements to faulty slightly.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR KILLING PRESOT! SCUM!" the archer exclaims, pulling out a vial from the knapsack he was carrying and dipping his arrow into it.

"Poison." Michael mentally remarks, gritting his teeth as he thinks about how to avoid this. His eyes are drawn towards the corpse of the man formerly known as 'Presot', and towards the spear sitting next to him. His Gandalfr runes should make him proficient with any weapon... Which means, he should be able to throw that...

He shakes his head and frowns, the spear was not too far to grab before he was turned into a poison arrow and icicle pincushion... The back entrances of the buildings comprising the alleyway had already been barred closed. And if anyone were still inside, they'd likely barricaded them to prevent getting caught up in the fight. Still, that didn't mean they couldn't be used.

Michael leaps to the side as a cold breeze passes by him, barely avoiding the barrage of needle-like icicles shot at him. His rune-enhanced clarity allowed him to see the archer lining up his shot, and with Michael having just dodged to avoid the mage's attack. He wouldn't be able to avoid his next shot... At least, that's what the archer thought.

Michael swings his sword at the latch-lock of a nearby door, the force, while not cutting through it, managed to break it from its wooden foundation. In a swift motion, Michael flung the door open and used it to block the poison arrow of the archer. The projectile itself actually pierced through the door, but got caught at its shaft before it could strike Michael in the face.

Michael goes cross-eyed momentarily as he stares at the poisoned arrowhead that was a couple of centimetres away from his nose, but he quickly refocuses himself and charges for the spear nearby.

The mage fires a high-velocity jet of water at him, and Michael gets caught in the side by the surprisingly fast attack, but he manages to twist out of the way before he could get cut in two... The strength of the attack could easily be observed by the way it gauged material from the cobbled road.

Michael ignores the burning pain in his side as he rolls and grips the spear, just as the archer lines up another shot. "TAAKE THIS!" he roars, flinging the spear with all his might while using the momentum from his roll.

*Puchi!*

An arrow hits Michael in the stomach as soon as he lets go of the spear, and he falls onto his back due to the sheer agony of being hit in the gut... But...

*Clatter!*

The sound of the archer's bow hitting the ground was music to Michael's ears. He forced his foggy vision to focus on the man. And was exceptionally satisfied to see a spear protruding from his chest, right through where his heart should be.

An ice wall had formed in front of him in an attempt to block the attack, but the spear was thrown with such force that it somehow penetrated through it. The ice protection quickly turns to particles and dissipates, leaving only the two shocked men.

The man looks down dumbly at the wooden shaft sticking from his fatal wound, still not comprehending that his life was most certainly over. He flexes his hands a couple times and tries to speak, but only manages to vomit out a profuse amount of blood... Rennius sends a shocked look to Charlie one last time before his body finally gives out, his knee's buckling and causing him to fall into the alleyway below, smashing his head like a ripe watermelon on the cobblestone ground.

*CRACK!-SPloosh*

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Charlie has to manually force himself to breathe at witnessing the death of another of his most trusted subordinates and friends, his hand gripping his staff so tightly that his knuckles had turned white... He turns his gaze to the one who was responsible for all of this, the kid who'd murdered so many of his brothers and men, for seemingly no justifiable reason that he could comprehend.

He could see the boy now, lying on his back and struggling to stabilise his breathing as he slowly bled out. Rennius arrow had punctured something vital, so his death was most likely assured, but... Charlie wasn't even close to being satisfied yet.

"This is payback, I don't care how old you are. You deserve what's coming to you! Aqua Scythe!" he exclaims, swinging his staff horizontally across his body, causing a thin yet powerful cutting wave of water to shoot towards Michael's prone body.

"Waterspout." a new voice states from the opposite side of the hallway Charlie was standing. A small tornado forms mid-air and easily catches the Water Scythe, sucking it all up before exploding, completely dissipating all force from Charlie's spell.

"W-who!?" Charlie angrily exclaims, furious at someone interfering with his revenge. Through the rain, he could see a man standing in a casual pose, dressed in pure white robes and wielding a small ornate wand in his left hand.

His was completely unaffected by the rain, with no even a droplet marring his bone-dry clothing... Charlie could feel himself freeze momentarily as the man's grey eyes bore into him.

"My sincerest apologies, but would you do me and my assistant there a favour?..." Loutiel asks with a small, smug grin.