Chapter 1 Like A Turtle?
Isaac rose to his feet. His tattered clothes clung to his sweat, dirt, and blood covered skin. He offered Lenna a hand and gave her, bloody but healed face, a warm smile. “I think a bath and a nap sounds wonderful.” She replied to his previous proposition.
Isaac chuckled. “Yeah.” He said and turned to offer the other person with them a hand to his feet.
Izen took the offered hand and let Isaac pull him to his feet. “I really am getting too old for that.” Izen complained but the smile hiding under his beard showed how serious he was being.
The three of them all looked over the game of cat and mouse going on the better part of a mile away. “Midget horses,” Isaac commented with a chuckle. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over that.”
“Their short legs can’t reach the stirrups otherwise.” Lenna replied casually.
“Dwarven cavalry is certainly a sight the first few times you see them.” Izen agreed. “Though I would be extra careful to not laugh at them. Dwarves are good at holding grudges when they want to be and the cavalry are actually quite skilled.”
“I can see that.” Isaac replied. They had been watching the dwarves, mounted on short and stocky horses, harass the drow soldiers, knight-paladins, and wizards relentlessly. The drow were still trying to save their remaining three wagons from the dwarves by the time the trio had decided to head back inside Safeharbor. Isaac looked down at the corpse in front of them. “Lenna, each of us can take an arm.” He offered and she obliged. The pair drug the headless corpse of the tyrant of Contantis back to the gate of the city he failed to raid.
The three living and one dead individuals passed over the corpses of fallen drow soldiers until they reached the area where the drow attack had been stopped cold. They had to pass over lines of sulfur from a certain Celeste Ironeye, also known as The Dawnbringer, who had rained literal fire and brimstone from the ceiling of the cavern onto the invading force. Izen shook his head as they stepped over more sulfur. “The smell will take weeks to get rid of.” He complained.
“How can a level thirteen sorceress cause this much destruction?” Isaac questioned in awe. He had seen the spell while he was engaging with Jallen in a duel for the fates of Safeharbor and Contantis.
“You, you of all people, are asking that?” Lenna questioned.
“She uses a lot of spells from the Tactician archetype.” Izen explained. “They all have an incredibly high mana control requirement, maximum mana, casting duration, and area of effect. It is a shame she can only do that once a day.”
“Is that how Catastrophe fights?” Isaac questioned.
Izen shook his head. “I wouldn’t know. Ask Fable, he has actually met her.” He replied to which Isaac nodded.
“Speaking of,” Isaac began as they came upon Edward and Fable who were watching the corpses of both sides as if they would soon get up and go back to war. “Fable.” Isaac greeted the old hero. He gave Edward a nod as well but quickly turned his attention back to Fable. “Does Catastrophe fight the same way as Celeste?” He questioned.
Fable raised an eyebrow in question but answered anyway. “Yes. She has an obsession with taking normal spells and exaggerating them until they reach cataclysmic proportions. Her Fireball is capable of annihilating a city block but it takes her a dozen seconds to cast.” Fable explained. He shook his head. “She is the only demigod I have ever heard of who has to drink mana potions. She drinks them like water once she starts casting.”
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
“Isn’t there a chance those will be lethal?” Isaac questioned.
“Not if you make your own.” Lenna replied.
Fable nodded in agreement. He took a breath to allow for the conversation to conclude before he changed topics. “Is that him?” He asked while gesturing at the headless corpse Lenna and Isaac had been dragging along.
“Yeah.” Isaac replied. “Want to peel him open like a can of spa-” Isaac winced. “Ouch,” He grunted and rubbed his temples with his free hand. “Crack him open like a turtle?” Isaac tried again and this time he didn’t try to reference something he shouldn’t, and still didn’t, even remember.
Fable glanced at Lenna to see her reaction but she just shook her head and sighed so he looked to Edward for an explanation of what had just happened to Isaac. “Don’t ask me.” Edward replied to his unspoken question. “If they cared to explain, I’d listen, but I won’t press.”
Fable turned back to the corpse. “That is your bounty to loot so I will leave you to it.” Fable replied to Isaac’s question and turned to leave. “I should go check on my apprentice.”
Isaac glanced past the departing Fable to see Esk and Mark sitting back to back with their helmets off and exhaustion on their faces. It appeared that Esk had invested in a helmet after their duel where he had lost in one move due to his exposed temples. “Edward?” Isaac asked if the Guild Master was interested in finding all of the magic items Jallen V’Nova had crammed onto himself.
Edward shook his head. “I need to see to the rest of the adventurers.” He frowned at the corpse. “I do want to know his equipment list if you wouldn’t mind, once we’ve all had the chance to rest.”
Isaac nodded. “Sure.” He replied. “I can do that.”
Izen sighed. “I would like to stay but if the duke is seen looting corpses like an adventurer then my noble reputation will fall even farther.” He complained.
“Weren’t you an adventurer for a while?” Isaac questioned.
Izen nodded. “Indeed.” He affirmed. “Noble society seems to have forgotten about that, or they see it as my ‘young and crazy days’ and not as a pillar of time that has led me to where we stand today. Imagine how impossible this would have been without Edward, Celeste, and Marie.”
Isaac swallowed. Those three had been anchor points for their plans. Edward had a direct line of communication with the scouts that kept an eye on places like Contantis to give them a long enough heads up as to not be blind sided by Jallen and his troops. That wasn’t even considering how much of a monster the man was on the battlefield or the adventurers that he had requested join him in the center of the formation. Celeste’s massive Heaven’s Rage spell had kept the entirety of the V’Nova’s auxiliary wizards busy holding her attack at bay, even if it was only for less than a minute. The after effects of her spell even continued to keep them pinned down so the human battleline didn’t have to worry about hostile magic. Marie and Shy had taken care of the V’Nova scouts while Isaac was fighting Jallen, but even before that, Marie had killed the cleric to Dri’El that had the ability to directly request their god for aid before he had the chance to do so.
“No thanks.” Isaac replied. “I don’t want to think about how awful that would have been.”
Izen chuckled. “Thank you two, again, for this victory. It could not have happened without you, without most of us honestly, but you two had the largest parts to play and you played them admirably.” He offered each of them another handshake before he departed.
“And then there were two.” Isaac commented.
Lenna pointed towards the gate where Claus could be seen leaning against a shield that was propped up by something unseen from hind. Aria was asleep with her head on his lap, clearly worn out from running out of mana. Claus had his armor off and some of his bare chest was exposed to the warm air in the cavern. The air had been cool but Celeste’s spell had raised the entire ambient temperature in the cavern by a noticeable amount. Claus was bandaged heavily on his left side and his left arm was in a sling. When he saw them he gave them a big grin and jerked his head so they would approach. “Three, with one more asleep.” She told Isaac and he chuckled.
“Let’s go find out what happened to the big guy while we strip your uncle for items.” Isaac said and tugged on Jallen’s arm that was still in his grasp. Lenna did the same and they were soon settling down to chat and loot with Claus and the sleeping Aria.
“Did you die again?” Isaac asked with a shit eating grin.
Claus almost laughed but instead just winced and held his breath for a moment before he let it out slowly. He took another slow breath in before speaking. “Hurts to breathe. No laughing.” He explained.
Lenna reached out a hand and set it on his massive shoulder. She gave him some of her healing and focused it towards where she felt the worst of the damage was. “You took a sword through your armor.” Lenna surmised.
Claus nodded in both affirmation and appreciation. “Paladin cut straight through.” He explained. “Thanks.”
Lenna nodded in reply to his thanks. “You actually died then?” Lenna asked. “When was this?”
He shook his head. “No, just missed my heart.” He replied to her first question. “Right before the weird feeling.” He looked at Isaac with a quizzical look.
“My core was exposed to the air while I was still alive, and conscious, it was awful.” Isaac explained.
Claus nodded. “Makes sense.” He replied. Isaac wasn’t sure what exactly made sense but he wasn’t going to ask just for the sake of pressing the still injured man.
“Let’s see why this bastard didn’t die the first nine times I should’ve killed him.” Isaac said and dropped into a crouch over the body of his assassination target. “I hope it’s reusable.”