Expert Rage Baiting
Mike got a weird feeling as he was surrounded.
He expected to get anxious, fearful, or even indignant.
Instead, he felt an odd sense of... challenge.
It's obvious that the group didn't have good intentions, and Mike wouldn't be surprised if they tried to hurt him, and yet, that prospect didn't seem so undesired to him.
In fact, a small part of him almost wanted them to try.
But he kept his cool.
'I have an idea of what this is about.' He thought as he watched the other redhead get closer, her expression the textbook definition of what Mike thought whenever he imagined arrogant young masters and mistresses.
"Can I help you?" Mike asked dryly, showing a distinct lack of fear despite the unsavory situation.
"Hm, you're a bit bold, I'll give you that." She snickered and Mike just stared at her with a blank expression.
A flicker of annoyance flashed across her face, but she hid it quickly.
"Yes, you can help me." Her voice turned a bit darker, and Mike took note of the other slowly inching closer, tightening their encirclement. However, Mike did not indicate that he noticed, his gaze fixed on the girl in front of him.
"You see, I couldn't help but notice that you spent some time with that... girl." The way she said 'girl' was like it left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Mike didn't like that.
"I'm not a fan of her, and I don't like people being close to her either. So to put it simply, I want you to stop seeing her." She finally said, and Mike raised a brow.
"You want me to stop seeing her because you said so?" He asked and stared at her like she was an idiot.
His words took her by surprise, and Mike sensed a similar emotion from the other students, like they couldn't fathom the idea of someone defying her words. Surprise that quickly turned into outrage.
"Heh... hahaha!" She suddenly started laughing, and Mike genuinely felt annoyed.
"Haha! You don't seem to know who you're talking to." She suddenly got up in his face and stared down at him. "I've never heard of you before. You must be from a small family, right? Well let me tell you something, I'm Agnes Agni, and you best be scared of me." She practically growled, and Mike just blinked at her.
"... I don't care." The air seemed to freeze for a moment.
"... What?" The girl, Agnes, almost sputtered, her face turning red.
"I said I don't care," Mike repeated with a shrug and scratched his head. "Also, we're in an institution where your family background has limited significance. It's not like they will come and fight your battles for you here if you're being bothered. Also, no offense, but if you need your family name as a way to intimidate people at the same level as you instead of dealing with them yourself, then that's honestly kinda sad." Every word that came out of Mike's mouth came from his heart.
He truly did not see the point of her threatening him with her background. He hadn't done anything wrong, and even if he had offended her, it's not like they would send their agents into the school to carry him away or anything like that. If she had beef with him, she had herself to rely on, and trying to intimidate people with her background was just a moot point, in his opinion.
Now, while he meant every word he said, that didn't mean he'd say such words aloud under normal circumstances.
However, this was another situation of his Lupine nature acting out.
Wolves are proud creatures, and they don't take kindly to being threatened. To Mike, her need to threaten him with her background and not act on her own was a sign of weakness, not something to be intimidated by.
And right now he had no qualms letting her know that.
"You... how DARE you?!" She yelled, and Mike felt the surrounding temperature rise as he felt his instincts gradually awaken to the possible danger.
'What to do.' Mike thought as he analyzed the situation, his high perception allowing his thoughts to move swiftly, though, he didn't seem aware of this himself.
'I could try to fight them. Other than Agnes, they don't make me feel particularly threatened, but that's only individually. Together, they are a problem. Moreover, there is Agnes herself, who gives me similar vibes to Theresa.' He mused.
'Which leaves running away. But...' The idea left a sour taste in his mouth, and he knew it wasn't something he'd want to do, no matter how smart it was.
However, he had a thought, and he smiled.
'That could work.' He thought before saying.
"How dare I? How dare YOU?" Mike scoffed.
"You talk about your great family, yet you don't even have the mind to face me one-on-one. Are you that terrified of losing that you bring 11 other people to jump one person? What would your oh-so-powerful family think? Seeing you prepare so much against a no-name like me?" He openly taunted, and Anges' eyes widened, but Mike continued.
"I mean. Is it anything other than pathetic?" He shook his head. "All you are good at is sneering and throwing your weight around. When will you actually DO something? I don't know much about the Agni family, but I will say, you aren't exactly painting the best imag‐" Mike leaned back as a whip of fire cracked above him with a concerning amount of power.
He quickly retreated, but his path to escape was blocked off by two of Agnes goons. He was about to activate his Aura at a higher output when he heard her shout.
"He's mine!" She growled, and Mike faced her again.
She held a whip of red and orange flames, the whip part slithering around like a snake as she stared at Mike with a burning gaze. Literally, her eyes were on fire.
"You want to talk about pathetic?! Fine! I'll make you beg for death!" She yelled, and Mike whistled.
"You're doing a lot of talking and too little doing. Maybe do something first and I'll take you serious–" Mike was cut off again as his instincts warned him, and he shifted to the side.
He then felt his ankle tingle, and he quickly lifted it just as the whip tried to wrap around his leg.
'So she can manually controlled it too, huh? Noted.' He thought as he continued his taunts.
"Is that it? Theresa actually made me work for it!" He said noncommittally.
"SHUT UP!" Agnes yelled and flicked her whip, and Mike watched as it spewed out a wave of fire which he promptly dove out of the way to avoid.
'Oof. Okay, maybe I overdid it.' He thought, not that he regretted his choice.
As for why he was taunting her and not attacking back? Well...
He thought back to what Vice-Principal Joseph said during the orientation.
'And before you ask, no, we do not intervene in every dispute. If you can't handle pressure in here, you won't be able to handle it outside. But be warned, there is a line. Cross it, and you'll find out what happens when you become my problem...' He vividly recalled the words that had been spoken with such calm yet firm authority that prevented him from doubting them.
Now, why was this relevant?
Well, it was pretty common for students to scrap with one another in places other than the combat areas. Which was to say, someone could get attacked by another student, and no one would bat an eye.
However.
There was a line to this. The moment a student showed genuine killing intent towards another student, that's when things would get spicy, as trying to kill another student fell firmly within the school's zero-tolerance policy.
From the beginning, Mike noticed that Agnes was a bit unstable, the current situation highlighting that fact. So...
'If I can get her to genuinely try and kill me, I could get her into deep trouble. As for whether I can handle her genuinely trying to kill me, well, dodging is surprisingly easy when you aren't trying to counter, and if things do get dangerous, we're well past the point of whether self-defense is allowed.' He mused as he continued dodging.
There was also the fact that his aura was barely active as it was.
'Actually, I can use this to my advantage.' Mike thought as he dodged another swipe from the whip.
Mike watched Agnes' movements closely as she moved.
She was quite skilled with the whip, it seemed, and Mike didn't doubt getting hit would hurt, a lot.
As it was now, he was relying on his instincts to dodge, but he wanted to do more than that.
So as he kept narrowly avoiding very nasty injuries, he watched.
He attuned his senses to Agnes and observed the way she moved. How—despite her enraged state—she still attacked with technique and mastery.
And he began to learn.