Some basic ideas since you indicated that any de-esclation methods have failed.
This first aspect is if I have no weapons or improvised weapons around me to hit pre-emptive, to me weapons first, fist last.
First I would have my guard ready for a pre-emptive blow.
Keeping my hands up in a non-threating palms out neutral position or in jack benny stance so my main striking tool is closer to the target yet not gauged as a violent movement, the whole time talking, my own body slightly bladed.
All the while during this verbal judo my eyes would be doing a very fast scan to check his body and hands, seeing if there are any weapons in his hands, a folder clipped onto a pocket, a velcro case hooked on a belt, maybe a odd bulge under his jacket, anything, also trying to note the location of his friends, and any weapons I may see on them, there distance from me and the general enviroment and crowd around me for something I could use to attack with or put distance between ourselves.
From here it could go two ways, my first choice if possible would be to make my way over to the bars bouncers and get them to buy me some time to boogie out the door and into my car for a fast getaway, no bar wants a lawsuit or a maiming on its hands, if that is impossible and according to this situation it seems to be already well past that point as this character was not aware enough nor could he de-esclate the situation long enough to leave the building, a pre-emptive attack may be in order.
Since this is a multiple assaliant situation, my initiation of the attack is even more vital so that I can be in control of the first movement, my goal only to escape, if I wait for my attackers to make the first move I could most likely be hospitalised or killed, because when they do attack to help there friend it will not be one at a time, each in succession, it will be all of them at once and they will leave me very little chance of fighting back.
My pre-emptive would be swift and loud, to psyche out my opponents, aimed for either the eyes, throat, groin, nose or jaw, if I felt my life was in mortal danger due to certain aspects, such as put this in a outside street situation where there may be no help or weapons may be already played in teh bar, then I would feel no hesitation to latch onto the leaders head like a spider and bite off his nose and spit the chunk back at his buddies, not so much for the damage but for the psychological effect.
In this situation to show a pre-emptive technique I might use, my right hand would piston out in a tiger claw/face smash, like a boxers jab or you can picture throwing a baseball from a hands up position, the move is a gross motor movement that strikes the eyes and face at the same time, it is not a rake, it does not even matter if I hit the eyes as the face smash is enough, it could be one finger, three fingers, all fingers, something will get in a eye and its great for stopping forward movement. Used with the pre-emptive tiger claw, is a drop step power generation method, the drop step gets all my weight behind the first blow.
From here I may drive my knee into his sack or launch a knife hand/forearm blow into his carotid or slam a palm heel/chin jab home or a hammer fist into his nose or a wheeling elbow into his jaw or use a y strike on his voice box but that is not really the point the point is that since I made the pre-emptive attack I can make an extra choice or two based on a simple but practical strategy.
After my pre-emptive my sole goal is to make my tactical getaway, not to stand around and beat someone into the ground as his friends jump me, if a target gets in my way I hit and fight relentlessly like a escaped patient from a insane asylum , being single minded in my selection of targets and determination to drop the attacker, grabbing anything as a weapon along the way if possible to help me out.
My other tactical goal is NOT to go to the ground, ever, I must absolutely stay on my feet, if I make the mistake of going to the ground to finish the attacker, the others might descend on me, if knocked to the ground I must fight my way up immediately.
Going to the ground where there are others who can stab, beat or shoot me is IMHO tantamount ot suicide.
The second aspect, I have or can gain access to my own weapons than those would be put into the same strategy above, if I can get one of my folders I will use it like a yarrow in the pre-emptive blow, if the case was worse, like the outside and lone street encounter and if possible to deploy then the blade, if I had mace the same goes, whatever I have.
I would rather talk my way out then ever have to go through this though, I can handle a bruised ego.
Peace.
sorry, i dont know i’d probly just run away. 