"Is he dead?"
"It can't be"
"Hey get your ass up"
"Fuck me, I just placed 500 coins on him"
"My coins!"
"Stand Up!"
The pirates began to splash whatever booze was in their hand on Holman's unconscious body except no matter what they threw at Holman, he wasn't waking up.
"Get him!" Suddenly, one of Holman's friends yelled orders at the others, pointing his finger at Michael. There were a total of seven men in their early thirties who rushed at Michael to avenge Holman.
"Ca-"
"Keep your mouth shut" just when Gibson was about to call him captain and ruin their disguises, Gaya elbowed Gibson in the ribcage to shut him up. She then quickly gave a glance at the rest of the crew to stay still.
Six of Holman's friends surrounded Michael while one knelt down to check on Holman.
"Seven versus one, the odds are against you boys," said Michael calmly.
"Pfft, you stupid?"
"We're gonna mop the floor with you"
"Let's teach him a lesson!"
Holman's friends taunted Michael. Considering they were pretty drunk, they seemed to forget how he knocked out their friend Holman with a single punch. Just looking at their footwork and hand movements told him that they don't know any special fighting technique.
"Let's do this" Michael just raised his finger to call them up as two of Holman's friends rushed at him from the front while one moved from Michael's behind.
The distance between the two coming from the front was approximately 4 meters while the one trying to attack him from behind was only 2meters. Therefore, he had to deal with the closest one before dealing with the others.
When a fist came closer to him, he just stepped forward and then sideways as the guy lost his balance due to missing the punch. Before he could stumble down, Michael kicked his right knee, instantly breaking it.
"Ah!" he screamed in agony, dropping to the ground. However, he did not give the guy any time as Michael grabbed his neck before sending a knee to the side of the guy's face, knocking him out instantly. Plus, one could hear a jaw-breaking sound when Michael's knee hit his face.
After dropping one guy to the ground, the two who were rushing at him from the front halted their steps in shock because everything happened so fast as many weren't even completely sure of what just happened.
Although the two halted their steps, Michael did not stop as he dashed at him as fast as he could without using any Arch energy. Even without Lightning Dash, the training he underwent made him extremely agile, strong, and fast.
The booze slowed down the two guys' reflection speed. Wasting no time, he elbowed one guy on the side of his face. The jaw was separated by the elbow as he went down without a scream. The very next moment, he twisted his body, swinging his right leg. The side whip kick instantly knocked the other guy, producing a short thud sound.
At this time, the rest of Holman's friends began to rush at Michael from his front, left and right. With a swift kick to the gut, he sent the guy coming from the front stumbling back. Then he twisted his body, sending a fist into the guy's face. Michael felt his knuckles breaking the guy's nose. The blood splashed across the ice as well as stained Michael's fist.
The last guy suddenly started to walk backward in fear because he was the last one standing. The one who was checking on Holman already dragged Holman out of the way from the fight. Even after being shaken violently, Holman still did not recover his consciousness.
"I told you the odds are against you" Michael said, kicking the guy who he sent stumbling backward with a kick to the gut before, finally knocking him out.
Thop!
"You come here!" the last guy screamed at the one who was pretending to check on Holman. One could see that the guy was freaked out seeing his friends getting knocked out one by one.
This time, Michael did not rush at him but just picked up a half-drunk rum bottle from the ground. The crowd was stunned at the scene as they now stared at Michael like he was some kind of freak. They watched Michael walk towards the last guy with the bottle in his hand.
"You..."
The guy mumbled as he tried to unsheath his cutlass. Michael grabbed the guy's hand stopping him from reaching his sword,
"Next time, run away"
Crack!
Michael smashed the bottle in the guy's head with enough force to knock him down. Out of the seven men, six were knocked out. He turned his gaze towards the last man who was on the ground beside Holman,
"Tell your friends, this ends right here. If they try anything silly, that'd be the last thing they do" After warning the guy, he just turned around, walking towards Gaya and Gibson.
"Put this in your ear" he placed an earpiece in Gibson's hand, whispering to put it into his ear. Among the chaos, no one noticed the little exchange between Michael and Gibson. The onlookers were too focused on losing their money to Shorty.
After Michael left the area, Shorty did not linger around as he knew the pirates would rob him blind if he stayed. Shorty gathered his crew before running behind Gibson.
*******************************
After the fight, Michael and Gaya walked into a dark alley near the tavern. Michael had to lose the crowd as some people who lost coins because of him might try to start another fight. As much as he could, he wanted to stay off the grid without showing any of his powers before he could get a complete idea about this part of the world, getting into regular fights would ruin his plan.
"Where are we going?" Gaya asked. The place was dark, nothing but trash to accompany them in the alley. The tall buildings on either side prevented much of the sunlight from lighting the alley, hence the darkness.
"You're gonna come down or keep following us" Michael stopped walking and shouted looking at the top of the wooden building beside him. Gaya was confused but she soon saw movements up on the roof. Just a few seconds after Michael's shout, the hooded figure leaped down from the top of the building and landed in front of them comfortably.
"Who the fuck is he?" Gaya asked Michael while he just stood there calmly, waiting for the hooded figure to start speaking.
"You made me" the hooded figure spoke with a thick accent. He was standing at least 6ft 5inches with enough muscles to compete in a body-building competition back on earth. Yet he seemed so agile.
"I noticed. It'd be nice if you tell me why did you choose me and what do you want"
"Call it a gut feeling. I'm putting up together a team and after what I saw, I'd say my gut feeling was right"
"It was you who set up that Holman guy, wasn't it?" Gaya connected the dots as the hooded figure's silence confirmed her theory.
"Team for doing what?"
"A simple retrieval. There are risks but you'll 3million in gold before and 3million after the job's done"
"6million for a simple retrieving, I'm interested"
He didn't believe someone would pay 6million for a simple retrieving job. However, he wanted to learn more about this part of the world and its people. Doing this job would not only make him rich but also help him gather more information. Besides he wanted to know who's willing to pour out that many coins and for what. Even if the team just consisted of four people and the same payday for everyone, it would cost the one running the operation 24 million. If someone was willing to pay 24 million, he knew what he wanted to be retrieved must be worth it.
"Meet me at the docks in eight hours, we'll be headed to Gisel"
The moment the hooded figure mentioned the name Gisel, Michael's brows arched up. Kingdom Gisel was his destination, it was where the source of Nightcrawler's magic radiation hiding artifact. He paid the system a hefty sum to get the location, he even left the demon soul stone back at the Abyssal to get his hands on the artifact before anyone else could. Now it seemed like someone's already putting together a team to get the artifact.
Before Michael could ask any further questions, the hooded figure used a grappling hook similar to Michael's to reach the rooftop and disappear. The design of the grappling hook was different from Michael's mark 3 yet he was surprised by the device. According to Aria, the Southerners always compensated for the lack of Arch energy with technology and science. Now that he saw the hooded figure use such a device, he began to form an idea about this part of the world.
"Gisel? It's where we're going. Somehow I can't believe it's just a coincidence"
"Either way, we'll see this through," said Michael.
"Where do you want me?"
"Get to Gibson and follow us discreetly. I'm doing this alone" He gave a gentle pat on her shoulder before leaving the alley. Since they didn't want the hooded figure to know the Silent Reaper belonged to them, they had to be cautious, they had to keep their cards close to their chest without revealing them because they could be used to their advantage if the hooded figure tried to double-cross them after the job was done.