Sam heartily laughed. His voice reverberated throughout the whole club.
"You are good! Alright! Let's go!" He smiled and activated a spell of his own.
It almost appeared as if the muscles underneath his clothes had inflated a tiny bit, as he growled some sort of a battle cry.
Sam excitedly made a step towards Gethyn, now they were standing face to face, or at least tried to do so.
Gethyn still was a head taller, which made it seem like he towered over the captain.
Sam tsked at this discovery and thrust his hand forward, going for a jab.
At this moment, while the punch was still heading toward Gethyn, all of the red from his face disappeared, even his eyes stopped wandering around the club, becoming cold as ice.
With impressive speed he sidestepped the attack and made a jab of his own, hitting Sam right on the chin.
Surprisingly this Power Society captain immediately lost consciousness from that and fell to the floor with a loud thud.
It all happened so quickly that no one had the time to process what just happened. Everyone stared in silence.
The waiters, the thugs at the door, and the remaining customers—all had their mouths agape.
Cyril too was shocked. Somehow Gethyn went from an undoubtedly drunk waste to a cold killer in a moment.
But how did he emulate it to such an extent?
"This group is full of deceit! We can't trust them!"
"Let's go upstairs," Gethyn grunted to Cyril and quickly started running while everyone was still stunned.
Shaking off the distracting thoughts, Cyril ran after him.
The thugs at this moment too regained their thinking, and soon chaos erupted.
"Go help the captain! I'll call for backup!"
A bunch of tough-looking people ran out from the staff room, holding expensive-looking weapons, and chased after Cyril and Gethyn.
...
On the second floor there were no thugs around as Cyril expected. The path was clear.
Cyril ran into one of the rooms following Gethyn, and the moment he went in, the doors behind him closed.
"What's happening? Why the commotion?" Kenneth worriedly asked.
He, Jack, and Katherine were all standing in this room, the same concern present in all of them.
"Turns out Cyril had a history with the Power Society, and this place happened to have a captain visiting it." Gethyn quickly responded in a grumpy manner.
Kenneth's face froze. After a few seconds, he sighed and shook his head, "Well, accidents happen sometimes."
"You were just unlucky, don't worry about it," he said to Cyril with a polite smile.
In the meantime, Jack and Katherine approached the doors and cast a few spells. The door shone like a rainbow for a few seconds before calming down.
"Alright, it will take a bit of time for them to open this thing, but let's hurry up nonetheless." Jack dusted his hands, nodded, then turned to look at Cyril with a mocking stare.
"You really like to seek enemies everywhere, huh?"
Cyril didn't respond in any way, deciding to look around the room instead.
This was the warehouse they mentioned before. Indeed, the whole room was filled to the brim with crates.
Some were already opened, and many were lined up to be opened next.
"We were quickly trying our luck before but haven't found anything. Can you tell your butterfly to take a look?" Kenneth quickly asked.
Cyril complied without any issues, sending Morpho a stare.
The butterfly flew up in a slightly dissatisfied manner. She already got in the mood for a fight, but it ended just like that.
Still, she started flying around the room without any complaints.
...
Cyril, not able to curb his curiosity, approached Gethyn in the meantime.
"How did you do that?" he asked.
Gethyn looked slightly annoyed but answered anyways, "Do what? Stay sober after those drinks? I wasn't; I was truly drunk."
Seeing Cyril's confusion, he explained with some helplessness, "I used a spell later. Aside from improving my speed, that spell also detoxified me. It made me sober right away... though the hangover tomorrow will be worse."
"By the way, you really should stop gaining enemies. That captain was quite strong," he added with a frown.
However, that felt a bit weird for Cyril, given how easily Sam was dispatched.
Anticipating his line of thinking, Gethyn continued, "The only reason it ended so quickly was because he underestimated me. I landed a surprise hit on his jaw, which shook his brain and knocked him out. There is no magic involved there."
"If the fight began in earnest and he got the chance to showcase that strength spell of his, I wouldn't know how to end it." He solemnly shook his head.
With an annoying sneer, Jack cut in from the side. "Gethyn probably got drunk on purpose to lower their vigilance. Come on, Cyril, that's a common tactic to pretend to be weaker in order to win the fight." He shook his head like a disappointed older brother.
Which only further annoyed Cyril.
"He really should be more careful with his words! Emily is closer to us than to him..." Rhamn mumbled like a third-rate villain.
At this moment banging sounds could be heard on the door, followed by screams and confusion.
"Oh, they are here." Katherine stood near the door with her arms crossed. "Hurry up, please."
Just then Morpho actually discovered something.
"It's the scent of Black Tulip! It's here! I can't believe our luck!" Rhamn excitedly yelled, if her body were real, she would've drooled already.
Cyril cautiously approached Morpho and the crate she was sitting on.
The other people happened to be standing a bit further away, and he opened the crate by himself first.
Urgently, yet trying to display calmness, he reached with his hand inside of the crate.
"What you got there?" Suddenly Jack appeared at his side, exclaiming with enthusiasm.
His eyes, displaying playful curiosity, however, to Cyril they now appeared more cunning and suspicious.
Cyril's hand was currently covering a single spot in the crate, and he slowly brought it back.
In his palm there was nothing, and Jack's eyes wandered back to the bottom of the crate.
There was nothing there either.
"Well, and what did your butterfly discover? It was something, right?" Jack said with a raised brow.
The rest of the group slowly approached.
Jack was still acting carefree, Kenneth had the same polite smile, Katherine still looked flirtatious, and Gethyn stoically stood with his arms crossed.
Now, however, they appeared as snakes, hiding their true feelings and observing Cyril's actions.
Or so his impression became now. Maybe it was due to nervousness.