"'I'll look into it.' Balthazar said confidently before taking his leave of Nellies' Brothel." - Nellies' Girls: Brute Squad (1)
17 Zi'Da 719
An order of steak and ale pie later and Balthazar finally had a lead. He was just about done with his steak when he saw a man with an abnormally large mouth enter the tavern and take a seat at a table. Balthazar grabbed his ale pie and crossed the tavern to the table where the man with the force smile was sitting but then Balthazar realized the man was scanning the crowd just like Balthazar had been. This caused the mage to pause as he assessed scar-face. When scar-face's eyes reached Balthazar they widened and he stood. Scar-face left his table and walked directly to Balthazar who sat back down in his chair and narrowed his eyes at the newcomer who seemed all too aware that Balthazar was going to be there.
"You!" The man with the scar shouted at Balthazar which surprisingly drew the attention of the room. Balthazar tapped his spoon against the table, surprised, stunned, and unable to think of a reply. "The hell you looking at, you snow-haired fuck?" The man with the scar was looming over Balthazar's table now.
"I'm sorry, you looked familiar." Balthazar tried to put the conflict aside. This was not how he wanted to conduct his investigation... loud and in the middle of the tavern. He'd have liked to sit down and try to coax some information but that was quickly becoming impossible.
"I look for-fucking-milliar? What's that supposed to mean!" As the brute continued to shout, Balthazar began to smell the alcohol soaking him. The stench moved like a thick cloud just a little bit behind Scar-face. So he'd been drinking before he came into the tavern, that interested Balthazar. Had the man with the scar been kicked out of another bar? Or had he needed some courage for whatever his plan here was? Well the answer was certainly not that he was looking for courage which Balthazar realized when another large, burly human stepped beside Scar-face.
"This the guy?" Burly asked Scar-face. Scar-face nodded and Burly set both his hands on the table. "Up. Outside. Now." Something about being called out so directly made Balthazar feel defensive, especially because he realized how many people in the tavern were looking his way.
"I think I'll stay. I shouldn't take my food-" As Balthazar spoke, Burly swiped his arm across the table, knocking Balthazar's pie and dishes onto the floor. Balthazar's face flushed red with anger and he stood up so abruptly that he knocked his chair over. Burly smiled, Scar-face too... and Balthazar tried to exercise all of his discipline not to sock one of them right then and there, but when he realized they wanted him to go outside, his thoughts provided enough distraction.
Balthazar had seen brawl after brawl in here, so why take him outside? Perhaps they meant to do more to him than beat him... but Balthazar had done so little to them that he couldn't understand what was going on... he just knew that it would happen.
"As you wish, outside." Balthazar said with irritation in his voice before he began walking towards the door. Scar-face and Burly followed behind him, their hands dropping to the wooden clubs hanging from their belts.
"Quite the coincidence that you and your friends happened to be hanging out where I was told a group of men who beat women would be." Balthazar said as he walked out the back door of the Buckle & Chain. There were was another man waiting outside the tavern with a club in his hand but surprisingly still no bladed weapons. Balthazar only thought it odd because he'd grown fairly used to being attacked with cutlasses in Scalvoris... not clubs. "Oh. You have another friend" Balthazar said as the man with the forced smile shoved him from behind.
Balthazar stumbled forward slightly and the three men circled around him, which was when Balthazar realized it was not only one friend in addition to Burly and Scar-face, but three because their were two who'd been standing behind the door. Balthazar didn't let that distract him because he knew not one of them could get the drop on him... not with his sparks. Though maybe that wasn't going to be the problem he faced. He turned to face Scar-face, figuring his interrogation would have to begin now. Scar-face certainly hadn't painted himself as innocent in the last few bits. Now he even had a group with him which would have explained why the girls described multiple different attackers.
"I take it you boys are the one who have been harassing Nellies' girls." Balthazar's accusation was met with some strange glances. Burly looked over at Scar-face and Scar-face shook his head. "Oh, come on. Esmeralda saw you. She sent me to-" Before Balthazar could finish his sentence he felt a club-wielding figure enter his diameter of motion sensing and his body quickly tensed into action. Balthazar ducked beneath the man's wild swing and turned- pivoting at his heel, to deliver a punch into the attacker's stomach. His hand squished into the soft belly of Triplet (which was what Balthazar had designated as the name of the third attacker) and then Balthazar pulled away, trying to get all five of them in front of himself but failing to do so before the next attack came.
Scar-face, Clubber Four, Clubber Five, and Burly quickly took their clubs into their hands while Triplet had attacked Balthazar from behind and so they were on the attack when Balthazar turned from Triplet to them. Scar-face swung his club towards Balthazar in a wide arc and Balthazar sidestepped it, jabbing him across his scarred face as he did so. Scar-face recoiled and Burly swung, at the same time as his other two friends were Balthazar from behind. The mage's Rupture spark screamed that there was danger approaching but Balthazar couldn't ignore Burly's advance either. Balthazar dipped backwards away from Burly's blow and Clubber Four struck him in the back of the leg.
Balthazar's knee buckled, forcing him into a kneeling position where he realized two things. The first was that when he was kneeling the brute squad attacking him seemed to lean on the side of kicking and the second was that the kicks were no where near as painful as the strikes with the club. Balthazar realized this when he blocked one of Burly's low kicks before he could really get momentum by punching Burly's rising knee. Clubber Five kicked the side of Balthazar's abdomen, pushing the mage forward with enough momentum that he tried to tuck into a somersault. Balthazar was somewhat successful in that he managed to roll but he did not manage to get back up on his feet in the same roll, because the kick had unearthed a pain in his ribs. He had to waste the distance the roll had earned him on standing back up.
So all five members of the brute squad charged in at Balthazar. Scar-face was at the front of the five and he swung wildly at Balthazar, his clear intoxication affecting how widely he attacked and giving Balthazar a little more time to anticipate him. Balthazar stepped inwards this time, closing the little distance between himself and Scar-face so that he could isolate the bigger man's club arm- and that's what he did. When Balthazar moved in he struck Scar-face in the pit of his raised, clubbing arm, sending a wave of uncomfortable pain through the drunk Scar-face that caused him to pull his arm in close. Then Balthazar grabbed the club Scar-face was holding with the plan to pull it out of his hand but before he could, Burly and Triplet laid into Balthazar's sides with their clubs.
Clubber Four hit Balthazar on the arm he had reached out to grab the club with and Triplet hit Balthazar across the back with his club. It was a blunt pain that would sharpen when the adrenaline had worn off so Balthazar did his best to fight through it and focus on the warning his spark gave him about the incoming attacks. Balthazar kicked Scar-face away from him and his head quickly swiveled back and forth between Burly on his left and Triplet on his right, there was nothing to be done easily about either of the other attackers who'd backed away to catch their breath a moment- or perhaps to wind up. Triplet attacked first but Burly's swing wasn't far behind. Balthazar ducked under Triplet's swing and then practically hugged the man so that he'd escape the reach of Burly's swing.
Triplet struggled against the bear hug Balthazar had engaged him in and the mage quickly realized that Triplet would be able to break his grip in a few trills if he didn't act fast so- forgetting one of his more recent troubles with the element, Balthazar bent his knees, calling upon the wind around him with his spark to embrace him. Suddenly the wind began to whip and Balthazar leapt into the air, carrying Triplet with him for the few trills of ascension that Balthazar could keep his grip on the man. The two of them made it about fifteen meters into the air before Balthazar dropped him, sending Triplet falling down towards the floor where Clubber Four and Five attempted and failed to catch him. When Triplet his the ground there was an audible crack thought it was hard to tell who among the three bodies had broken something. Balthazar lowered himself onto the rooftop of the Buckle & Chain where Burly, Triplet, The Clubbers and Scar-face wouldn't be able to reach him with their clubs.
He hadn't landed there with the intention of giving himself the ranged advantage, he just didn't want to be assaulted the moment he landed, but when Balthazar and the brutes both realized they could not reach him, everyone's faces changed. A cruel grin spread over Balthazar's mouth while a look of surprise and then fear crossed over the brutes as Balthazar held out his hands towards them. He held one hand out towards Burly and the other out towards the mess of Triplet and the Clubbers who were all still rising from the crash. Balthazar felt his ether rising like a raging bonfire and spreading throughout his body, down to his hands and fingers when suddenly his Rupture spark screamed warning and Balthazar bobbed his head to the left, narrowly avoiding Burly's thrown club.
"Come on! Give me yours! I'll hit him!" Burly shouted to Triplet who didn't seem keen on being disarmed. Balthazar left them no time to argue, thrusting out his hands and propelling two torrents of blue flame from the rooftop down onto the attackers. The fire engulfed Burly, Triplet, and the Clubbers completely. Balthazar's eyes began to smoke as his mutations took affect and he felt the electricity arching around his arms putting a little more drain on his ether but he didn't stop. He could have gone to another element but he didn't. He wanted them to burn. His spark wanted them to burn. But the element did not. Balthazar suddenly felt a sharp heat upon his hands and he stopped casting. Balthazar stumbled back slightly, away from the fire he'd created and the blazing bodies below in shock. Was the fire going to burn him? His kin? He didn't understand why it didn't bend to him. Scar-face wasn't particularly afraid of Balthazar, but he'd just watched the mage incinerate his friends with blue fire from his hands and to the average drunk that sight inspired what Scar-face liked to consider a tactical retreat.
Scar-face turned and began to jog away so Balthazar reached out with his hands, spinning them as he did and calling upon his other spark and the ether in him to create a portal in front of Scar face with an egriss atop the roof Balthazar had landed on. He hadn't expected creating the portal to feel easier than manifesting an element, but in the wake of the blue flames it did. Scar-face, too slow to react, ran right through the portal as it came screeching into existence. "Not so fast." Balthazar said as Scar-face stumbled to a stop in front of him. The drunk looked left and right, then when he realized he was now on the roof with Balthazar he raised his club high and charged the mage standing at the edge of the rooftop. Balthazar smiled and went to shift sparks to propel himself into the air- effectively condemning Scar-face to fall off the rooftop given his previously displayed reaction time when Balthazar remembered why he'd come.
He still needed answers.
So instead of flying out of the way, Balthazar charged forwards to meet Scar-face a little further from the edge. Well charged doesn’t accurately describe the two limping steps forward he took to make sure he wasn’t standing at the very edge of the rooftop when the also injured Scar-Face reached him.The brute lashed out with another slow-alcohol laced swing and while it should have been easier to avoid because it was one assailant rather than the three, Balthazar’s aches and pains slowed him too. Plus he couldn’t decide between immolating the man and trying to punch him with sore knuckles. Scar-face walked Balthazar in the chest with his club- a weaker wack but a wack all the same. Then he socked Scar-face across the jaw and the drunk stumbled slightly so Balthazar advanced, punching him in the stomach before stepping in with an upward elbow to the underside of Scar-face's jaw which caused the drunk to stumbled backwards. From there his own intoxication took him off of his feet and sent Scar-face crashing onto his backside. "Good thing they made this place sturdy." Balthazar mumbled as he limped over to see the pained Scar-face writhing on the roof.
"Unfortunately for you, I don't have any evidence... yet." Balthazar knelt down and grabbed Scar-face by his shirt. "So I'm going to get a confession."
