Chapter 21 Did It Really Matter?
Isaac frowned at the only place close enough to Lenna that he would be able to get them both there safely and without triggering any wards. By his guess it was an area of about twenty feet across and fifteen feet wide as that was how wide the tunnel itself was. All side passages had been sealed with magically conjured stone making there truly only be one way in and one way out. Whoever had made this had taken the time to do it right even if they were clearly on a budget. The wards were all low level but there were a ton of them. Every sixty to a hundred feet there was a cluster of two to three wards. Isaac knew, from Lenna, that many of them were dispels for divination protection, invisibility, sound nullification, flight, and divination itself.
‘I guess they don’t need damage wards when they have guards that never tire.’ Isaac thought to himself. ‘I better head back before Lenna decides to go through said guards.’ He turned and jogged back down the tunnel to meet up with Lenna once again.
“You were almost out of time.” Lenna told him as soon as he appeared in front of her.
“But I wasn’t and that’s what’s important.” Isaac countered and leaned against the tunnel wall. “Good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” He asked.
“Bad news first, good news after makes the bad news suck less.” Lenna replied curtly.
Isaac chuckled. “Fair enough. Bad news is that there are as many wards in this tunnel as there are people in Ben’s End. No, that is not an exaggeration. They are placed in small clusters just close enough together to be a pain.”
Lenna nodded. “We can also assume that there will be many more guards.” She added.
“Most definitely.” Isaac agreed. “I think I can feel some of them already but it’s hard to tell at this distance because of how weak they are.”
“The good news?” Lenna asked.
“The wards are useless, mostly. As far as I could tell none of them will go off without the chimeras setting them off. It’s all a bunch of dispels that mean nothing to me.” Isaac answered with a grin. “We will have to sprint from safe zone to safe zone however. I can’t keep my shadowcloak up on both of us for the hours that this is going to take.”
Lenna nodded in understanding. “What is Plan B?” She asked.
Isaac shrugged. “Plan B will work under the assumption that we have been spotted by guards but the alarm has not been raised. In that case we fight them entirely in the safe zone between warded areas as quietly as possible and then continue on our merry way as if nothing has happened.” He replied, making up the plan as he was saying it.
“Understood.” Lenna stated. “What if the wards are set off?”
“We can call that Plan C.” Isaac began. “In that event we will have to make a split second decision between running, accepting the fact that we will be hunted the entire way back to Safeharbor, or taking a more V’Nova route.”
“V’Nova route?” Lenna asked skeptically.
“Yes.” Isaac replied. “We charge through the front door and anything and everything that happens to be between us and our prey.”
Lenna stared at him for a long moment. “I don’t know how to feel about you calling that the ‘V’Nova route’.” She told him.
Isaac flashed her a grin. “It was mostly a compliment.” He told her honestly before pushing off the wall. “Ready?” He asked before the conversation could continue and Isaac could find a way to put his foot in his mouth again.
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Lenna nodded and walked over to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. “Ready.”
—
Plan A was going very well for the first hour and a half. By Lenna’s count they had traveled around three miles even with Isaac having to stop to rest, scout ahead, then come back to get her and bring her to the next safe zone only to do it again. They were making good time. They had stopped at an area that Isaac had deemed ‘Safe enough.’ to rest and refill his mana when Plan A suddenly stopped working as intended.
Isaac’s eyes shot up from the ground that he was staring at with his hands resting on his knees. The most recent pair of safe zones were a bit farther apart than Isaac had liked but they made it and that was all that counted. He felt a team of four shadow-wolf hybrids bounding down the tunnel towards them. “Shit.” Isaac said quietly. “We have incoming.”
Lenna immediately drew her sword and got into position in front of Isaac. “How empty are you?” She asked over her shoulder.
“Empty.” Isaac replied worriedly.
“How long can you keep us invisible?” Lenna questioned.
“I don’t know, somewhere between ten seconds and a minute if I had to guess.” He answered honestly. It was hard for him to feel the absolute bottom of his reserves as they were constantly refilling at a rate that churned his internal mana like the bottom of a waterfall.
Lenna motioned towards the wall and they both moved up next to it. “Let’s hope it is long enough.” Lenna told him and he grabbed onto both of her shoulders and leaned in close from behind her. The less open space between them, the less mana Isaac needed.
He swallowed nervously as he coated them both in shadows. They disappeared only three seconds before the small pack rounded a bend in the tunnel and continued toward them in a rush. They were about to pass them when one of them skidded to a halt. Then the other three joined it. All four of them started sniffing at the air and looking around trying to find whatever had left its scent all over the place.
“Shit.” Isaac whispered.
“We aren’t scentless while resting.” Lenna spoke the same thought that went through Isaac’s mind.
Isaac felt his legs start to grow weak and his head start to spin. He took a deep breath then said the words Lenna was waiting for but really wished she didn’t have to hear. “Fuck it. Plan B.”
Lenna broke out of the shadowcloak in a blur. She launched herself at the closest monster and cut cleanly through three of its four tentacles with her first strike before transitioning from the horizontal swing into a downwards strike that lopped the creature’s head off. Her flames danced across her blade as she executed the first monster and they continued to do so as she closed the distance between her and the second one.
Isaac was having trouble standing from the mana exhaustion so he simply sat in the corner with his legs tucked in, to lower the surface area that his shadowcloak needed, to maintain his invisibility. He knew that he wasn’t in any place to fight so he let Lenna do what she did best, have a glorious battle with multiple opponents while at a disadvantage. That may seem oddly specific but it was a situation that she found herself in more often than not and Isaac was always in awe at both the combat itself and the outcome.
Lenna engaged the remaining three chimeras as violently as she could without using any area of effect spells. The only spell that was currently active was the one that she always casted silently on her sword to coat it in flames. Two of them lunged at her while the third looked around in confusion. It probably still smelled Isaac but couldn’t find him and was thus waiting for a second attacker. Lenna appearing out of thin air probably didn’t help the wolf feel any less paranoid.
Lenna met the one head on and used it to block the second one’s advance. She met each of its whip-like tentacles with a swift strike that rapidly shortened their reach. As small bits of tentacle went flying Lenna drove her foot into the creature’s nose. Flames coated her boot as she struck with everything she had. The wolf’s face immediately went from horizontal to vertical in orientation and its whole body skidded back a few feet. The monster was left in a daze and Lenna quickly finished it off before the other two could intervene.
She turned just in time for the one that hadn’t originally engaged her to finish its pounce. Both of them crashed into the ground. The back of Lenna’s head bounced off the stone floor and was immediately closed in on by a mouthful of teeth. Lenna let go of her sword and grabbed the wolf by the snout and the front of its jaw. She pulled them apart with every ounce of strength that she had. The mouth opened far enough that she could have easily escaped but she had a better idea. She pulled and pulled. Flames coated her hands and part of the way up her arms as her body was pushed to its limit. She felt the moment that the chimera’s jaw couldn’t open any farther and she pushed on.
A growl that turned into a whimper met her as the creature realized what she was trying to do to it. It started to thrash and try to dislodge her grip so it could escape but Lenna’s gauntleted hands were a vice. The whimper intensified as she felt and heard its jaw muscles start to tear. Once they started it was over. The sudden lack of proper resistance caused its jaw to open a full one hundred and eighty degrees in an instant.
Lenna kicked it off of her and grabbed her sword. She jumped to her feet just in time to see the last chimera drop from a sword wound in one eye and out the other. Isaac had taken the opportunity Lenna had given him to finish off the last one. The last one had been standing around trying to get an opening to attack Lenna but its companion had been in the way and the flailing tentacles had only managed to keep any help away from the monster. She quickly finished off the one with the torn open jaw and then looked around at the carnage.
Smoking wounds and broken bodies littered the small area that the pair had stopped to rest in. The scent of cooking flesh was pungent. “I love watching you fight.” Isaac commented while flashing her a grin.
“Glad you enjoy it.” She retorted.
Isaac chuckled. “Do you not?”
She narrowed her eyes at him but did not otherwise respond. Isaac took that response to mean that he was right but Lenna’s internal feelings were a bit more complicated. She knew that she had been conditioned to enjoy battle. She knew that the love of bloodshed was something that had been trained and indoctrinated into her. The problem was that she did enjoy it but she did not know if she naturally enjoyed it or not. ‘Would I have enjoyed fighting if things had been different.’ She thought. She quickly decided that those were thoughts for quieter times and steeled herself to continue on their quest. After all, in the end, did it really matter?