It was Rowe and his party. One was a mage, tall and male, wearing a thick mantle and a staff with a ominous red crystal. The other looked like a rogue, shorter than both of them, and had daggers equipped on his waist.
Stefan couldn't stop smiling as he presented Michael in front of them.
Michael really didn't want to be here. He never understood why Stefan would always put him in the most uncomfortable situations.
Rowe moved forward. His face was still horrible, finding a few dried abrasions, but the swelling seemed to have lessened. To think he had recovered that much in only a couple of hours was surprising. Michael never knew healing magic had existed until now.
"I'm sorry, kid," he muttered as if the words hurt. "I knew I was drunk when I decided to pick a fight with a boy like you. I didn't mean for it to go that far."
Stefan patted Michael's back. "Great. Now, where's mine?"
"I don't owe you anything, Jaegen."
"You definitely owe me an apology, man. You hurt my feelings."
Rowe stared at him. It was like that immature smile stuck on Stefan's face was fake, like he was trying to taunt them more.
"Why are you like this, Stefan," the mage said. "We agreed to follow that kid's rules, what more are you trying to get from us?"
"I want Rowe to say sorry to me."
The mage lowly sighed. "You're not going to let this go, aren't you?"
"Of course not," Stefan stopped smiling. "You point a sword at my party member and you're surprised when I'm mad?"
"Stefan, don't—"
"Can't even say sorry to me, are you really that miserable—"
Rowe pulled his collar, dragging Stefan's face closer. "One more game, one more damned game and I'm going to snap."
Stefan's face didn't budge. "Get your hands off me."
Rowe pushed him away.
"Do you really think I'm scared of you?"
"Stefan, you're messing with the wrong people," the rogue stood behind Rowe. "Do you think we still care about the formalities? About the honor?"
"There was no more honor when you became adventurers."
"That's right," he glared at him. "You still want to talk with that pretty mouth?"
Stefan scoffed. "You three aren't even enough for me—"
"It's okay, I got my apologies," Michael tugged his arm. "I think we should get back with Ellis and Mave, right?"
"Yes, that's right!" Stefan obnoxiously exclaimed. "We don't have time for these hooligans. At least Rowe said sorry, that's all I cared about."
Michael found it hard to tell if Stefan was angry or not. Even so, he kept including Michael in tense situations though he was the one that scolded him about safety.
Stefan pushed Michael in front, guiding him to where he believed Ellis was.
"Would she be happy seeing you like this?" Rowe shouted from behind. "Her little student—throwing away his talents as an adventurer, or nothing more than a drunk."
Stefan stopped.
"That's right. Get mad for me, Stefan, because I know you'll enjoy this more than me."
Michael felt like his shoulders were being crushed. He tired to pry off Stefan's hands but they came off themselves.
Stefan stormed back, without saying anything, he unsheathed his azure blade and thrusted it towards Rowe's bare neck. It was only mere inches away from piercing through his skin.
"Look at him!" Rowe shouted loudly and gestured his hand. "Just a few words and he's already lost his mind! This is the same person that we want to follow!"
Michael tried to pull him away. It was like tugging against a stone statue. Not even the fabric of his clothes would move.
Stefan's eyes were so widened, he didn't even look normal anymore.
"Stefan?" Ellis came through the crowd. "What are you doing—Stefan!"
"Look at him," Rowe laughed. "You think I want to trust your party? Working together, what a joke, this fool can't even control himself."
Stefan looked like he was beyond control. It was as if he was letting Rowe's words get into his head. If Michael was trying to sway him back to reality, he didn't even care. What Rowe said must have triggered him so hard, he was debating if Rowe should be killed.
"Stefan," Ellis said his name sternly. "Put down your sword, now."
"That's right," Rowe laughed again. "Listen to your leader like a good student."
Stefan turned to Ellis. His face looked disappointed, like Ellis had betrayed him. He lowered his sword and sheathed it back in his waist.
Rowe mockingly laughed. "You made the right choice—"
Stefan punched him in the face, shooting him across the floor and drifting him into the crowd behind. It was so quick that Michael didn't even know what happened until the crowd gasped and scattered away.
The mage pointed his staff and chanted a spell. A blast of magic erupted from his staff and exploded on Stefan, flinging him away.
Michael was dragged to the floor just by holding onto Stefan as he flew across.
Ellis shouted for them to stop, noticing the crowd question their mutual agreement of working together. It hasn't even been minutes yet everything drove itself into pure chaos.
The crowd of adventurers ran around just trying to move out of the way from the sudden fight erupted. Stefan sprung from the ground and dashed to the side, avoiding the blasts of mana. Though the buildings and the ground were breaking apart just by the crossfire.
Stefan parried another attack from the flank as the rogue tried to catch him by surprise. He was actively defending himself from projectiles of a mage and darting attacks from a rogue. If he was purely confident that he could have taken them all on at once, it was something Michael found hard to believe.
Michael unsheathed his sword and charged the mage shooting spells at Stefan.
What're you doing, the voice said, don't do this! Michael, stop!
He didn't care if it was wrong. He didn't even care about the voice in his head begging for him to stop. If they had done something to offend Stefan, Michael felt it was right for them to apologize. The look of disappointment in his face when he turned to Ellis already said enough. These guys were bad business and just wanted to throw their quest upside down.
The mage quickly turned to Michael. He thrusted his hand and chanted another spell.
A wave of light flashed over Michael, covering him in a skin of sparkling static. The sparks tried to latch itself on his skin but it just didn't work. The spell completely dissipated the moment it came in contact with his body.
The mage widened his eyes watching Michael walk through his spell. He slammed his staff, commanding thick roots to sprout from the cracks of the ground to restrain Michael in place.
Michael felt his body be pulled back by the roots latching itself over his body. But, again, it just didn't work. The roots simply glided off his body like it had wilted within seconds. He charged even closer to the mage.
The desperation could have been seen in the mage's eyes. He cursed something that Michael didn't understand and quickly casted a shield made of mana.
Michael slashed his sword across, completely shattering the spell in a second. He pulled back his sword and thrusted it inches away from the mage, imitating the same move Stefan had pulled.
The mage surrendered, his face beading with sweat, and fell to his knees. He had witnessed the impossible and completely gave up. Michael had ran through his spells like it was nothing.
Behind you, the voice rang loudly in his head, move!
Michael rolled to the side, just barely dodging Rowe's grab from behind.
Rowe's nose was profusely bleeding again. His face said that he had no regrets from now on.
"I thought you said you were sorry," Michael gripped his sword. "Are you drunk again?"
Rowe charged again, completely consumed in his own drive.
Michael readied his sword.
Mave kicked him afar, just like how Stefan punched him. She turned over to the mage and kicked him across the face.
"Mave…" Ellis sighed. "Not you, too."
"What?" she kicked him again. "I'm doing what you said. We're correcting their behavior."
Stefan came into view. His face couldn't have looked more menacing as he dragged along the beaten rogue. He didn't even draw his sword, that was the most intimidating part.
Mave looked at him. "It's going to be a long day."
"You got that right," Stefan dropped the rogue beside the mage. "We got work to do, don't we?"
Mave snorted. "If you could even call it work."
Ellis tried to calm the crowd down as if the fight wasn't something personal that Stefan had started. He was actually more than glad that the fight was over.
Rowe groaned, picking himself from the floor. He clutched his stomach, noticing his party members had already been dealt with.
"Let it go." Ellis ordered, following Stefan's stare. "Be the better person and let this go, Stefan."
Stefan looked at Ellis again with that disappointing face. He inwardly sighed and walked off like nothing had happened.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Mave turned over. "I'll follow him. You can clean these fools up with the parties you gathered."
Ellis didn't even get a chance to respond. He looked at Michael and debated if he wanted to release some of his frustration onto him. Things were supposed to go smoothly with the adventuring parties recognizing each other and now it seems like they've already reached a disagreement.
It felt like Stefan's reputation would never change, no matter how many good deeds he would do for the guild. Everybody had the same opinion for him and today especially proved that.
Stefan was erratic and too impulsive to be in charge of a quest like this. If they assumed Stefan would act like this on a daily basis, then everyone would obviously have a problem. They all had their own negative perspective on him which was already difficult for Ellis to convince they were serious about banding together for the quest.
But Michael believed otherwise. They didn't know Stefan behind the doors like he did. Even if Stefan did come off as a lazy person, he genuinely cared for his party members behind their back.
Ellis shouted to the nearby crowd, ordering them to move the bodies and clear the way. Rowe and his party groaned as they were dragged, muttering a few curses but at least the fight was over. Ellis had some convincing to do for the townsfolk just so they could feel safe on the outside again. Seeing that not even adventurers were safe from each other, it was damn near impossible that any of them would get along. But Ellis was persistent and determined for everyone to work together. He wanted results, and he would do anything to achieve that by any means necessary. If it meant locking Stefan in the house whenever Rowe would be outside, then that would be one way to avoid another disaster.
Are you going to pick a fight with anyone else, the voice said, just because they called you names?
Michael didn't care about what people thought of him. He's always been at the end of the rope back when he was a slave so mistreatment was usual for someone like him.
But what Rowe had said to Stefan was probably different. Stefan didn't look like a person to give a damn about other people's thoughts either so it was rare for him to be angry by just words. Michael somehow felt the need to side with Stefan, deciding that Rowe and his party deserved to be beaten.
You used me in front of everybody, the voice said, they know it's a boy that's immune to spells. Wasn't your idea to stay sneaky and away from attention?
Michael thought he should be fine. It's only been a few seconds when the spells repelled off of his body so it was already hard to tell what actually happened. There weren't any records of ego swords either. In the worst case scenario, they would just think he pulled some neat trick to disable the mage's spells during that fight.
Looking at everybody's faces, they were more concerned about what Rowe's party was going to do in the next few days. Michael was more worried about how Ellis would hope to control all these adventurers when they started to despise his party.
The sword hummed as he sheathed it on his back. It was definitely going to be a long day, just like Mave had said. Michael didn't know when the quest would be over but he assumed all of them were going to stay here for a while. That must've explained why Ellis was so eager to meet everybody else so they could be comfortable with each other.
Even so, Michael wasn't looking forward to meeting new faces at all.