HP: The Arcane Thief-Novel

Chapter 94

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

In the elegant and posh ball room of the Valentinos, a gruesome event was currently taking place amidst the aggressive shouting and yelling of the crowd.

Everyone was congregated around a circle, in which punch after punch landed on Maksmilian's face while Axel sat atop him, pinning him down. Droplets of blood sprayed out with each of his punches, some even landing on his face, but Axel did not stop, his bloody fists meticulously repeating the same action with the same intensity.

Meanwhile, on the elevated platform, the Valentinos: "..?!.."

They were completely flabbergasted.

"How did he even get the wands?!" Asked Enzo, chuckling out of disbelief.

They couldn't understand how Axel even got Maximilian's wands. They had been lamenting his recklessness and immaturity for accepting such a challenge, expecting him to lose, but who knew he had such a thing planned?! Turns out, the boy was more than prepared for it. He didn't even need to draw his own wand.

And what was more impactful, was the way he was responding to the situation. Seeing him continuously bashing away the Mikhailov heir in the middle of so many important people, including Andrei Mikhailov, without any fear, had a different level of savagery to it.

Alessandro looked down at his hands which were twitching due to the thrill. He had to accept, it had been a long time since something had gotten his blood pumping like this. "I've been wanting to do that for a long time. that'll teach that mikhailov bastard to stay the hell away from my Tina!" He exclaimed while laughing. "That's my son-in-law! Give him more!" He cheered, his voice drowning in the yelling and cheering of the crowd.

Francesca, on the other hand, saw this differently. "It's not something to cheer about," she said, looking ominous, her eyes not leaving Axel.

"What are you talking about, mom?" Asked Endo in bafflement. "Just look how he's protecting Tina! Isn't this what we wanted?"

Francesca shook her head, "I'm not worried about his qualifications. The boy has enough Magical capabilities to overpower his wand to the point of serious damage, a feat which might be impossible even for Martina to accomplish. And yet, that's not the most dangerous thing about him," she said, pausing at their bewildered expressions.

"Look at him now," she said, glancing over at Axel still punching a somehow conscious Maksmilian. "He's beating the Heir of Mikhailov family right in front of everyone, AND he's going to get away with it. And how much of his extraordinary magical capabilities did he have to show in order to make it happen? None. No matter how much he was provoked, he waited until the start of the duel to attack. His terms were: No interference, and a Mikhailov knife. So, the Mikhailovs, the most dangerous Russian Mafia family, can't do anything while their Heir is getting egregiously beaten right in front of them. Not only that, to rub salt on the wound, they also have to grant their family's protection to the boy.

He's not only managed to exact his revenge 10 folds for all the insults, he's also managed to keep his abilities hidden, and ensured his own safety. How many thirteen year olds can do that?"

Maria had a look of awe on her face. "I didn't think of it that way. He really is extraordinary."

"Yeah," agreed Endo, "But how is that a bad thing?" He asked in bewilderment.

Francesca sighed. "From this, and from his past feats, which include taking Endo hostage while he himself was still crippled, and shattering his enemy's skull with a bludger and getting away with it, it can be seen that—he can hold grudges, and... he's not someone you would want on your bad side."

"Yeah that's ri—... Oh..." Then it suddenly dawned on them. And now as they looked at Axel still bashing Maksmilian's bloody face which had turned beyond recognizable.... the scene suddenly looked more spine-chilling to witness.

"We screwed up, didn't we?" Asked Endo, his jolly expression going away. They had just screwed him over to avoid the confrontation with the Mikhailovs.

"He'll definitely hold a grudge for this, right?" Asked Maria, now finding Axel scary. With what they've done, they've definitely pissed him off.

Alessandro shrugged. "You worry too much. This is just a small matter compared to what we're offering him. Sure we might have estranged him to us, but I think that's well worth it if we're avoiding a WAR," he said dismissively.

Francesca shook her head. "You might still be underestimating him, dear. Do note that we don't know his true capabilities yet, and we don't know his future potential. So, I have to wonder…"

Was it truly worth it?

...

Meanwhile, Axel had already entered Maksimilian's mind. But before he got down to business, he decided to take a quick scan of the guy's brain, to get some useful information about his new potential enemies.

And he had to admit, it was a bad decision. A lot of information rushed into his head at once, and the content of the information...

'Fuck!' Axel almost broke the connection.

This guy was…. messed up. Truly messed up. His thoughts and the things he had done… he deserved to be tortured to insanity. For one, he liked forcing himself on women. He would rape them in a variety of ways, each more messed up than the other, and most of them ending in the death of the woman, and sometimes.... it doesn't end even after their death. And then there were other scenes as well... things that can't be mentioned. . .

'Ugh....good thing I haven't had dinner yet,' thought Axel in absolute disgust. And to think this guy wanted to marry Martina.

Axel had just wanted to get some useful information before he started but he decided to seal away the information and get right to the business in order to quickly get out of this degenerate's mind.

[Thought Implantation]

Going deep inside Maksmilian's head, Axel found the part that controlled Maksmilian's sexual and violent urges, and started changing his current thoughts and implanting new ones...

This was true Legilimency. To have the ability to alter the other person's mind. But, since he was still not proficient in doing this, it was only temporary, and he couldn't change the victim's nature. Meaning if they are evil, they will stay evil. He can only make them direct the evil towards... other things.

'Let's see, instead of women, let's direct his urges towards... evil men, and instead of children, let's make it animals like Acromantulas and Grindylows... also, some of the urges should be directed towards family members as well...'

Axel exited the guy's mind with bile rising in his throat, his ears suddenly once again ringing with the crowd's noise. He stopped channeling [Heal] and gave Maksmilian one final punch, shattering the guy's jaw and knocking him out.

*CHEERS*

Deafening cheers went up in the crowd, and Axel slowly got up and flicked his hair back with his bloody hand, revealing his face spattered with small droplets of blood, a testament to how brutal his punches truly were.

He glanced at Andrei, the Godfather of the Russian Mafia and twirled the Valentino knife in his hand, gesturing to quickly fulfill the wager and give him a Mikhailov knife.

"THE KNIFE!"

"GIVE IT TO HIM!"

"YEAH!"

"""KNIFE! KNIFE! KNIFE! KNIFE!...""""'

"Boss, are we really going to…?" Asked one of Andrei's men as the crowd began clamoring.

Andrei cursed. "You think we have a choice? It's not our territory. Give him the knife already."

With the cheers of the crowd, a shining knife was presented to Axel, who now had a knife in each hand, one from the Valentino family and one from the Mikhailov family. Pocketing both the knives, he stormed out of the Banquet hall, Martina rushing right after him.

"Let's get out of here. Start plan B," said Andrei after he created a noise-cancellation ward around him and his men. Unable to take the humiliation, he had decided to implement their alternate plan.

"Plan B, boss? Is it really the right time to do it?" Asked one of his men.

Andrei had a vicious smirk as he looked at the exit. "With most of the guards inside? Yeah, you bet your ass it's the right time."

"Think it over again, Andrei. It means war," said Sergei, his brother. "Not to mention we'll have to help "them" if we go with it."

Plan B was very risky, it would definitely start a war between the two families. And to implement it, they were also borrowing help from some very dangerous people. If they really did it, they would also have to return the favor.

Andrei scoffed. "We've already borrowed the relics, we'll have to help them either way. With this humiliation, I don't mind a war at all. We have their help this time and if the plan succeeds, we'll be at a huge advantage."

Sergei knew that there was no convincing his brother now. Sighing, he just decided that he'll try to keep the damage to the minimum. Saying their goodbyes, the Mikhailovs quickly left using the Portkey, taking an unconscious and deviant Maksmilian along with them.

...

On the other hand, walking out of the Hall, Axel clutched at his head which felt like it was splitting in half. The high level Legilimency he had performed back to back had turned out to be more taxing than he had imagined.

"Axel!"

"Wait! Axel!"

Martina tried chasing after him but Axel wasn't really in the mood to face her right now. Activating stealth and Arcane Footwork, he quickly lost her, randomly wandering around on his own. Only after he was around a mile away from all the noise did he stop.

His headache wasn't going away, and the cursed content which had entered his head due to Maksmilian wasn't helping. Something had been bugging his head ever since he had decided to use Legilimency on Maksmilian. And Axel needed some quiet to figure out what.

Reaching a quiet place, he quickly began thinking about the information his brain had already processed. Axel wanted nothing more than to erase this from his mind, but he had a feeling that he had missed something important, forcing him to recall just what it was that he had seen.

'Damn it,' he swore as his mind flashed yet another piece of cursed information. The sick fucker Maksimilian was truly evil. As long as he performed well in his training and education, the Mikhailovs had allowed him to do anything he desired since his childhood, leading him to be more and more disgusting as he grew. It had been almost half an hour, and all Axel had managed to glean after accessing almost half the information was how much of a degenerate Mikhailov was.

'And to think he was so sure he would marry Martina,' thought Axel, recalling the memories of the guy's fantasies.

'Wait,' Axel paused at that thought as he realized what was wrong. 'That bastard was so sure about it because…THEY'RE GOING TO KIDNAP MARTINA!' Axel's eyes widened as he finally accessed the right information. But, he quickly calmed himself down. This place is surrounded by unbreachable wards. There's no way they could succeed.

Digging further, he found almost nothing more in the bunch of random information he had managed to glean. 'Must be a false alarm,' he thought, going through the last bit of information.

But then, his eyes almost popped out due to the sheer surprise he felt as a familiar name came up in the memories. "KRAKEN?!"

A sudden feeling of foreboding came over him as he turned around to look for Martina. But of course, he couldn't see her. He had left her behind on his own. But then,

*Ding*

[Special Mission Received]

"What the—?"

As if to make his fears come true, the system handed out a new quest.

[Protect Martina]

[Martina Valentino, your valuable ally, might be kidnapped by her enemies. Stop the kidnappers before they succeed.]

Axel disappeared from his location.

[Arcane Eyes: Max]

[Arcane Footwork: Max]

[Arcane Acrobatics: Max]

He didn't even read the rewards before he had rushed off at his top speed, quickly making his way back to the way he had come. But alas, Martina was nowhere to be found.

'System! Where is she?'

[I can't directly help you in Missions, Axel.]

'Fuck I know! But would it kill you to just so it this once?!' he asked, his eyes scanning all places as he ran.

There was no response from the system, and Axel calmed himself, knowing that his panic wasn't helping the situation. He made his mind concentrate. Closing his eyes, he activated another skill.

[Super Sense: Max]

His senses heightened to a terrifying degree, and all of a sudden, he could perceive everything to the extreme. His eyes weren't of much use here due to the abundance of trees and infrastructure here, but... his nose caught the familiar lavender scent, making him open his eyes. But along with the pleasant scent, there was also, the coppery scent of....blood.

[Limit Break!]

Axel instantly activated the skill which he had decided not to use unless in an absolutely desperate situation. "You had better not be hurt," he muttered, rushing off at the highest possible speed.

…

Damien Malcolm's blood was boiling right now. His family, the Malcolm's, was not an ordinary family. They have been the loyal and trusted vassals of the great Mikhailov Family itself. Under the Mikhailovs orders they had migrated to Britain, in order to spread their powers in this quickly rising country.

They had flourished, bringing their family's position even higher and further solidifying their loyalty by the benefits they provided to the Mikhailovs. And that is how, they had gotten this chance of Kidnapping Martina.

Since no one actually knew that they were the Mikhailov family's loyal vassals, initially, they were tasked to marry Martina into their family since the Valentinos wouldn't accept a direct proposal from the Mikhailovs. This way, the Mikhailovs would have the Valentino family's support through their vassal, the Malcolms.

But who knew that the Mikhailovs family would suddenly get their hands on a wonderful piece of technology, making it possible to actually kidnap Martina?

It was suicidal mission, one which naturally fell to the Mikhailov's most loyal and capable force, the Malcolm Family. When he came to know about it, Damien was, at first, devastated. His Martina was going to be married to that bastard Maksmilian. But then, he decided to volunteer to lead the operation himself.

He figured that since Martina was doomed already, he might as well give her a last goodbye. He wanted payback for all the times the bitch had rejected him. And in the end, who did she choose? Someone like that bastard Axel! How could let the bitch get away with it? So, during the kidnapping, there could be a few "accidents", but they could fix her right up before he presents her to the Mikhailovs.

Which was exactly why, his blood was currently boiling as wandered the Valentino estate in search of Martina. He and his men were currently hidden in some sort of invisible bubble, allowing them to bypass all kinds of wards. Only a limited amount of men could fit in this thing, so he had brought his family's very best. They had breached the wards using this mysterious technology after receiving the news that Martina was currently outside, without any significant protection.

As for his involvement, it wasn't difficult. Someone was needed to lead these men, and he was a second son, not exactly the most important person in the family. He might be killed by his brother in the future anyway, if he tries to fight for the succession, why not allow him to go on this mission?

"So, where is she?! Are we there yet?" He asked, hurrying along with all the men. They had been running for more than half half hour, tracking her. Their spy from the party had been secretly following her, reporting her realtime information to them.

"Her location is constantly changing, boss. She's trying to find someone. But we've almost reached her now," reported his underling.

"So, everyone knows the plan?" He asked. "We quickly capture her and kill any witnesses. After that, do as I say," he said, his voice shaking slighty due to excitement. Finally, he was finally going to have Martina! Just recalling that beautiful face, his heart start racing. 'I'm going to have a lot of fun before I return you, Martina.'

…

A.N.: Action in . Poor Maksmilian, Acromantulas and Grindylows? he's fucked...

: Axel on a HUNT

Next next: Massacre

next....next: Ideal Son-in-law, but no medicine for regret

And much more exciting chapters after that.

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