Chapter 37

They approached their party.

“I tell you,” Murphy proclaimed, having clearly been dragged here by Joanne. “That you guys who didn’t go down the hole had it good.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” a middle-aged woman yelled back at him. “My Adrian got torn to shreds by that earth wall.”

“Yeah, most of us died.” This was a big man who was the same age as the woman with similar features. Maybe a brother.

“We had to fight four of them,” Murphy yelled back. Adrian saw Joanne trying to pull them away.

“Five,” Jules whispered to him before striding confidently into the pub.

“The hole fight was harder,” Galan agreed. “Way harder.”

About five of the other group leapt to their feet, with the big guy leading the way to loom over Murphy. He succeeded, after all Murphy hadn’t bothered to get to his feet.

Oh Shit.

Then he saw Jules aiming to get between the two opposing groups.

“Jules,” he implored, throwing his voice with his skill so it went straight to her ear. She heard him but kept walking.

Jules split the group. “Sit down,” she ordered with a bored tone, giving the man a push on the chest.

Zap!

The big man went flying, both from the electricity and the force she had put into the shove. A table broke as he landed on it. The house turned drinking spot had been filled with pre-Alpha furniture that had been weathered by the change so was pretty delicate.

Instantly, almost all the thirty occupants of the room were on their feet. His group versus the larger local components.

“You out-of-towners think you’re better than us.”

“Shush you,” Jules said back. “We’re trying to drink.” She turned her back on the woman and picked up a glass.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then Jules looked back. “But we are better. You guys weren’t good enough to be invited to the real fight.” The silence was defending. She smiled provocatively. “And you certainly aren’t strong enough to consider fighting us.”

Jules!

Cursing internally, Adrian prepared to fight. The woman, the original instigator, threw herself at Jules who of course had been expecting and hoping for exactly that reaction. Jules ducked down, lifted the woman and threw her over her shoulder to crash into the wall.

There was a roar, and the two sides clashed.

A stranger stumbled towards him.

Step.

It failed. Too much spiced whisky. Adrian was knocked over in a tangle of limbs. Trying to keep the whisky intact, he fell to the ground, the other man on top of him. All of his enhanced strength and agility focused on the task. The thin carpet provided no cushioning but by rotating his wrist and absorbing the force of the impact through his shoulder he kept it from spilling everywhere. Then the man rolled onto his arm and with no leverage to help the drink went flying.

When drinking, it was okay to trip and fine if you fell over, what was unacceptable was to spill your drink.

The prick on him had made him spill the entire glass!

The man shifted and tried to punch him. Adrian blocked him and realised his opponent had neither a strength nor an agility advantage. If Adrian had not been preoccupied with preserving his drink, this would have ended before it began.

Adrian’s Mind went through options. Mind abilities were a firm no as he did not want to risk killing anyone. The fear option might work, but that was cheating. Triple blade was off because it was bad form to bring killing magic to a bar fight.

Wind gust.

The man on him got buffered to the side and that let Adrian roll over so he was on top.

“You spilt my drink,” he yelled in the man’s face.

The pinned man’s head butted him in response. Adrian felt his nose crack. As Adrian reeled backwards, the man twisted violently, trying to dislodge him.

Screw this!

New world, new Adrian.

He punched the man bucking under him even as blood ran down from his nose into his mouth.

His domain sense told him that someone was coming at his back swinging a chair.

Adrian rolled to the side. Not particularly elegantly, but it got him out of the way of the swing, which was not so lucky for the man under him who got the stool in his face.

The stool broke and still holding two legs of the broken chair the guy who had tried to brain him from behind re-focused on Adrian.

Wind gust.

Adrian aimed for behind the man and pushed only a single point of mana into the attack. The wash of air propelled the coward, who had tried to cowardly knock him out, forward toward Adrian. Even drunk, the guy was so unbalanced that it was easy enough for Adrian to grab and then trip him, directed so that he landed straight on the guy who had spilt his whiskey. The two were tangled together and Adrian jumped up and body slammed them, wrestling style.

An elbow in the ribs hurt, but there was a satisfying moment of resistance before they both collapsed and he heard gasping breaths.

The fight to his left rolled towards him. Six people grappling. The man at the bottom of his three-man pile tried to push up, Adrian rose and then dropped hard on top of them. He was tempted to use the Buff of Growth, but that was probably taking the tussle too far. The weight of two grown men plus the extra force was too much, and he collapsed.

Wind gust.

Wind gust.

The group of six that was almost running into him was tossed away from him. The guy under him buckled upwards to dislodge him and Adrian let it succeed. They thought they had pushed him off, but he had just used the minor shove to jump to his feet.

A wind gust sent them tumbling. Adrian moved to stand against the wall. Trying to work out what was happening.

Omala was pinned under some girl. She needed help.

Wind gust.

Someone stumbled into him and because of the fog of alcohol he didn’t get advanced warning. Automatically, Adrian steadied the other man.

Praveen looked at him, grinning happily, before staggering away to hit someone. This was crazy.

Someone hit Jules with a piece of table drawing blood. She spun, lifted the offender and threw him at a wall. Which resulted in a man-sized gap as he tumbled outside.

A shrill whistle cut through the noise and everyone stopped fighting abruptly and turned to face Omala who had whistled.

“Who needs healing?” she asked, improvised weapons dropped and clanged as they hit the floor. Half the gathered people put their hands up.

Healing spells went out and the big guy who had helped start the confrontation burst out laughing.

He went straight up to Jules. “That move at the start. With the push and the lightning. Bloody oath, what a great starter.” He shook Jules’s hands enthusiastically and pulled her into a hug.

Adrian looked around the room. Broken furniture and the hole in the door. He was too old for this shit. With a shake of his head, Adrian walked out of the new doorway. The guy Jules had thrown through the wall must have been sixty with that scrawny, wiry strength look. Adrian paused long enough to use his Lay of Hands on him.

They were all crazy.

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