Betrade

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.