Practice dummies? The gang except the leader bursted into a mocking laughter. What Clifford said sounded absurd to them. How could a kid come in to a gang's territory planning to use the gangsters as dummies.
"Oh no! This boy is completely foolish, where has he got the confidence from?" John lamented. He looked at Clifford and was surprised to see him calm and collected brimming with confidence. "He can't take on them all, can he?" John asked himself.
Clifford was not surprised at how the gang reacted, what he said sounded completely unreasonable but he was damn serious about it. These gangsters are going to be his practice dummies for the night.
"Are you all deaf? I said you will be my practice dummies for tonight." Clifford said again, this time with murderous intent. The gang leader felt the aura from Clifford and he could tell right away that he was a mage and he wasn't there to joke around. He took out his Glock and threatened Clifford with it.
"Hey! I can tell you're a mage but you aren't faster than a bullet, are you?" The leader said with murderous intent. The gangsters heard what their leader said, a young mage trying to take on nine armed men? He's probably a foolish young mage who's eager to test his new powers. They knew the strong mages lived in the high tier cities, only weak mages lived in the lower tiers, so they were not worried of Clifford being a mage. Instead, they bursted into laughter and made jest of Clifford and John.
The leader walked up to Clifford, he pointed the Glock to his abdomen and puffed some smokes unto his face while he barred his rotten teeth reeking of bad odor. This infuriated Clifford but he remained calm on the outside. The wicked grin from his face disappeared and he sank in to the shadows. The gangsters immediately became alerted.
Every gangster including the leader was on high alert, shadow mages are one of the most difficult types to deal with because of their cunning and silent attacks.
"Aaahhh!" One of the gangsters gave out a loud painful cry. Clifford had came out of the shadow and thrusted the blade of his gauntlet in to the gangster's thigh. He decided to attack him first because Clifford recognized him as one of the late Freddie's gang members, they had tormented him for so long, he wouldn't start to forgive them now.
The painful cry of one of them caused restlessness among the gangsters as they couldn't see Clifford when he attacked the unfortunate gangster. Next, Clifford came out of the shadows, they all saw him but were wary of him. Clifford casted the fiery ball spell, three fire balls emerged from each hands,each the size of a small football. They burned fiercely and this made fear written all over the faces of the gangsters, ghastly expression in their faces. One of them made attempt to run away but Clifford shooted a fireball at him. The fireball hit him on the back, he fell down straightaway with his clothes burnt, he suffered some burns before he fainted on the spot.
The rest of the gangsters were shocked, they were really going to be used as practice dummies. One of them made an attempt to attack Clifford, he threw his short knife at Clifford, instead of Clifford to use the shadow spell "absconding shadows" to evade the attack. He instinctively raised his Mana as a shield to block the incoming attack, the Mana shield blocked off the knife with ease. John couldn't help but be astonished at how Clifford did that.
After realizing his attack had failed, the gangster made a dash for escape, Clifford immediately vanished in to the shadows, he appeared in front of the escapee and pierced his knee with the knife. The gangster gave out a shrilled cry, the other gangsters couldn't stand watching a man take on all of them, it would be a shame to their reputation if words got out to other gangs.
They all attacked Clifford at once, he absconded in to the shadows once again and appeared at the rooftop of a building behind the gangsters. They couldn't see him but remained on high alert. Clifford casted the fire spell "fiery balls" once again, he whistled at the gangsters and they followed the sound only to see Clifford with fiery balls burning vehemently dancing in his hands.
Clifford grinned at the gangsters and rained the fire balls on them, he continued to rain it on the gangsters for about two minutes before he stopped. The gangsters were all in miserable conditions, they suffered burns in different parts of their bodies but none of them had life threatening injuries.
After seeing they were all in piteous states and couldn't put up a fight anymore, Clifford descended by jumping down from the rooftop, when he was about to land on the ground, he vanished in to the shadows and appeared beside the gang leader who is currently groaning.
John came out of where he had hidden himself earlier, he walked up to Clifford and the gang leader while carefully observing the miserable conditions of the gangsters. He was surprised at Clifford's adept at his magic spells.
Clifford patted the gang leader on the cheek, while he conjured a small fireball in his hand. The gang leader made pleas to save his already burnt skin but the pleas fell on deaf ears. Clifford grabbed him by the hair, pulled him closer and smeared the fire ball on his face, his face got burnt and turned completely unrecognizable.
"You don't puff smokes at me, do you understand? Clifford yelled at him.
"Yes...yes!" The gang leader replied while whimpering.
Clifford let go off his head, stood up and looked at John. Although he knew these gangsters were no match for him, he used them to test his magic abilities and he felt no remorse doing so. They were bad people who have done unimaginable terrible things, sparing their lives is already being merciful.
John didn't felt pity for the gangsters either, he detested gangsters the most and he would do worse if he was to be Clifford.
"Wow! That's great mate, you're so cool when using your powers. You're so versatile and adept at your skills as well. That's just crazy mate." John exclaimed.
Clifford walked up to John gleefully, he hung his arm around his neck and they made their way home while discussing of Clifford's magic abilities.
The next day, Clifford would be making final preparations to leave Avalon City for Sun City.