"You!" Victor snarled in anger, his previous cool exterior shattered so thoroughly by Michael's actions. "You really don't know how to do anything right, do you? You're so useless that you couldn't even do the world a favor and die right!"
"Maybe you're right," Michael replied coolly. "Or maybe someone as pathetic and weak as you is simply unable to kill me."
"Why don't we put that to the test?" Victor growled, his finger inching close to the trigger.
Michael noticed this and smiled, tilting his head to direct Victor's attention to the people gathered around them watching the whole thing play out. The moment he saw Victor's resolve shake when he realized that they had an audience, Michael knew that he had already won.
'The end is already decided. Now I just have to steer my fate towards it.'
"You and I are both members of the Grey family," Michael said, making sure to be loud enough that everyone would be able to hear him. "So why don't we settle this fairly?"
To his immense annoyance, Victor could not deny that the little bastard was right. It would not look well for him if the news that he had killed a defenseless memeber of the Grey family. Whether or not they were outcasts did not matter. That was part of the reason why despite not being an actual part of the main Grey family, Michael and his family had not been crushed by other rival families long ago.
The blond man motioned for his bodyguard to throw Michael his own gun and turned to smirk at his cousin cruelly. "You know what? You're right. Let's play things out fairly." He held up his gun and pointed at the one in Michael's hands. "One shot. Whoever wins, lives."
"Agreed," Michael said and glanced down at the weapon in his hand. It was a simple Glock 17, easily capable of killing a man with a well placed shot.
Maybe it was because he had already practically experienced death before, but Michael was surprised to find out that he truly felt no qualms about the possibility of taking a life. Of course he knew that the repercussions of killing a second generation heir of the Grey family would be impossibly catastrophic which meant that he could not actually risk killing Victor.
Both men stood five meters apart and stared down the other, Victor with burning eyes filled with rage and Michael with the same unnervingly calm expression he had since his reappearance. The two of them raised their guns and the people around them fell into hushed whispers with more than half of them giving Michael looks of mockery and pity. Behind him, he could almost feel the terror and worry radiating from his father and sister. In truth, Michael could understand the reason for their reactions. As an heir of a great family like the Greys, Victor must have endured training that was designed to push his body beyond what a normal man could do. If this duel had occurred yesterday, Michael would have most likely begun saying his last prayers by now.
But what his family and everyone else did not know was that for the past half a minute, Michael had been constantly using Foresight to see the future. The constant usage of the skill was already giving him a splitting headache but he forced himself to weather through the pain. He could not afford to be caught off guard in the event that Victor decided to play dirty.
As the atmosphere settled, both guns were raised and a single moment of pin drop silence fell around them. Michael activated Foresight as he had been doing for a while now and the world gained a subtle static as he watched Victor fire his gun. Upon tracing the trajectory of the bullet, he realized that the blond man had changed his aim at the last minute, knowing that Michael would not be able to kill him, and had instead shot the gun at Michael's family.
'This slimy bastard...'
Time resumed a second later and Michael's eyes narrowed into dark pinpricks purely focused on Victor's hand. The second his wrist began to tilt, Michael pulled the trigger instantly. The bullet hit the barrel of Victor's gun just as he fired it, causing the shot to go wide and destroying the gun entirely. Victor immediately gripped his right hand with his left and growled in pain as the sudden destruction of his his gun had inflicted more than a few serious wounds on his hands.
The crowd gasped out of shock at the outcome of the impromptu duel. No one had even expected Michael to survive, let alone win! Still the show was not over yet as Michael began walking up to the injured Victor.
"I might not be able to kill you Victor," he said and raised the gun again. "But that protection does not extend to your guards."
Before either of them could react, both bodyguards soon found themselves sporting matching holes in the middle of their foreheads. They dropped to the ground a second later as dead as doornails. Michael pointed the gun at Victor next but he removed his finger from the trigger to avoid the strong temptation to blow a hole through the bastard's head as well.
"Listen and listen good, cousin," he spat out the last word with visible disgust. "If you ever come after my family again, I am going to make you wish you had died here today."
Without another word, he turned around and walked back to his family. His father was still staring at him in awe while Ari had already fallen unconscious from the strain of moving around so much. Silently he lifted her into his arms and carried her into their home, his father following behind them soon after. No one dared tho say a word as the disgraced heir of the Grey family slowly picked himself up from the ground. His teeth were clenched so strongly that the grinding was practically audible and his face was flushed red with anger and pain as he dragged himself to his car and drove out of the area at a much higher speed than when he had arrived
'Very well! Michael! You have no idea what you have done! You have sparked a fire that will consume you and your peasant family in its flames!'