Chapter 22 Say Hello.
Isaac stopped part way through his scouting. “This is… odd.” He said to himself. His shadowcloak kept him completely silent so he could talk to himself in peace. He felt the presence of three creatures up ahead. One was very similar to the chimera that had thrown Lenna into the wagon about a week prior. The other two felt a lot like Lenna but… deeper. The one specifically stood out to Isaac. It felt powerful, similar to Isaac in a way that nothing else was. The only other thing that had given a feeling even a fraction of what he was feeling in that moment were shadow-wolves. Isaac stopped and basked in the feeling for a few long seconds. “It’s him.” He spoke with finality. He knew that the person he was feeling was a man, a drow, and a mage with a very high connection to shadows. Isaac was sure that the man that he was sensing was the one who had powered the ritual to make the platinum level chimera they had fought with Edward.
Isaac turned around and jogged back to Lenna. He appeared in front of her with a grin on his face and a slightly crazed look in his eye that he hadn’t even realized he had. “You found them.” Lenna told him before he could even say anything.
“Yes. It might be a three on three.” Isaac replied with a widening grin.
“With odds stacked against us?” She surmised.
Isaac stopped and stared at her. “Am I that easy to read?” He asked her.
Lenna nodded and replied simply: “Yes.”
Isaac chuckled and shook his head. “One chimera, felt like that giant, four armed, cyclops amalgamation we fought before. One high level I didn’t get a good read on, probably the creator. And finally,” Isaac’s grin returned in force. “A near maximum level shadow sorcerer.”
Lenna shook her head. “You are insane.” She told him.
“Probably.” Isaac agreed.
“So what’s the plan?” She asked.
Isaac turned to look back the way he had just come from. “I don’t know yet, I turned back as soon as I felt something. I need to go scout it all out first.” He explained.
Lenna took a step towards him and grabbed his shoulder prompting him to turn back to look at her. “I need you, to promise me, that you will not engage anything without me.” She told him.
Isaac gently grabbed her hand but made no move to withdraw it from his shoulder. “I’m not suicidal Lenna. I promise to not get into any fights without you.” He thought for a moment while staring into her eyes. “I might ask you to let me fight the sorcerer alone though.”
Lenna sighed. “We’ll see.” She replied. “And thank you.”
Isaac flashed her a grin. “Anything for you.” He replied and then vanished.
Lenna felt her hand still resting on something for another second after Isaac had disappeared and then it fell from him leaving. ‘He’s so dramatic.’ Lenna grumbled internally. ‘I just want him to be careful but I feel like if I’m not just as dramatic as he is it won’t get through to him.’ She sighed. ‘He needs to stop staring into my eyes like that. I know what he’s doing.’ She continued her internal conversation about Isaac using a psychological trick to enhance her feelings for him.
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Isaac couldn’t help himself, he was manipulative with everyone. Every move he made was a subconsciously directed effort to make sure he got exactly what he wanted out of everyone around him. He relaxed around Lenna but sometimes he did things without even realizing it. Even when he did realize it he rarely cared. To Isaac social interactions were like sparring. They could be fun whether he won or lost, whether he got what he wanted or not. The problem was that Isaac truly didn’t feel guilty about manipulating people which only caused him to do it more. He did hope that Lenna saw through it though as he wanted her to be resistant to such things. For him, he needed her to be immovable so he had an anchor to keep him grounded and if his tricks worked on her when he wasn’t even trying then that was a scary reality.
Isaac continued his scouting until he came upon a blank wall with a giant monstrosity standing in front of it. “Guarding your secret entrance makes it not a secret anymore.” Isaac chastised the person who had come up with the defensive plan for the chimera creators. He looked around but found no wards nearby. He continued searching for a bit longer and eventually found only two. “Fireball and an alarm. Whoever made these is obsessed with alarms. Like I understand wanting to know where your attackers are at all times but this is ridiculous.” He said to himself before returning to Lenna.
“I have no idea what the triggers are.” He told her while they were on their way there.
“Try the chime out on the fireball?” She offered.
“Not the alarm?” Isaac asked.
Lenna gave him a sidelong glance as they continued walking. “What if it sets off the fireball?”
“Well the chime takes a few minutes to work anyway, if it sets off the fireball it’ll set it off either way.” Isaac argued.
Lenna shrugged. “Your call.”
—
Isaac rang the chime in the direction of the alarm. He felt and saw the ward start to break down. “Good.” He said quietly even though Lenna was the only one with any capability to hear him.
“It’s an on death trigger.” Lenna told him.
Isaac felt his mana quickly getting close to empty. “What about the fireball?” He asked.
“Seeing a creature that isn’t four legged, a chimera, a drow, or a pecurke.” She explained.
Isaac smiled. “Let’s get to work. We have to wait until the ward breaks to kill it but I don’t have enough mana to get us both out of here to wait it out.” He explained.
“Understood.” Lenna replied and rolled her shoulders with her sword drawn.
Lenna blitzed out of Isaac’s shadowcloak towards the monstrosity before her. She was stronger now than she was the last time they had fought. Now she knew how to add her aura into each strike. Before, each of her strikes were powered by mana and strength alone. Now, each swing was carried by the very weight of her broken oath expressed as raw wrath and hatred, mana, and her strength. Lenna’s sword cut through the tendons on the front of the creature’s ankle until it hit bone.
The creature was too stunned to make an immediate reply so Lenna took another two steps forwards and spun. Her spin pulled her sword out of the creature’s ankle and helped her build momentum into her second strike. Her second strike cleaved through the tendons on the back of its ankle and cut almost completely through the monster’s ankle. The giant amalgamation tried to grab at her but she continued to strafe around it causing the blind grab to get nothing but air.
Another two steps and she hit the back of the other ankle with another two heavy strikes. Once the tendons were severed the monster started to tip. It had been trying to catch Lenna who was behind it so it started to fall backwards. Lenna barely managed to get out from under it before it dropped to the ground with enough force that Isaac felt it in the floor. Isaac could only cross his fingers that the impact wouldn’t alert the casters that were somewhere between two hundred and six hundred feet away from them.
On its way down Lenna swung in a powerful uppercut, lopping off one of its four arms at the wrist before it hit the ground. Her flames were burning with the most intensity that Isaac had ever seen. They were blasting so brilliantly that the wounds that she was making were instantly cauterized. The creature started flailing wildly trying to find Lenna but the only thing that met it was more pain as she removed the creature’s second left hand. It tried to roll towards her in order to bring its other two hands to bare but Lenna simply danced backwards out of its reach.
The monster soon found itself nearly completely immobile. It only took Lenna another twenty seconds to remove the other two hands. Once unarmed, both literally and figuratively, Lenna gave it some space and looked over at the alarm. It still had power so she began waiting. As soon as it was done she would finish off the monster. For now though she could only wait and make sure that it didn’t find a way to get the jump on her.
A little over two minutes later the ward broke and Lenna finished it off. She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Surprise is a wonderful weapon.” Isaac commented. “Also, you have gotten quite a bit stronger.”
Lenna shook her head. “A bit stronger, yes. The main thing was not getting thrown. Last time I felt like a ragdoll in the hands of a giant toddler.”
Isaac started laughing. “You did look like that, yeah.”
She turned to give him a flat look. “Thanks.” She replied.
Isaac shrugged. “You said it not me.” He looked ahead at the obvious illusion over the ‘secret’ entrance into the monster maker’s layer. “Let me finish recharging and then let’s go say hello.”