Chapter 31 Into A Corner…

Isaac awoke to Lenna rising from her meditation position and stretching. He hadn’t slept well and the creaking boards from Lenna moving had been enough to rouse him. Lenna looked at him and raised an eyebrow in question. “I’m going to have to get used to being so close to Fen.” Isaac explained. He could always feel Fen’s presence. With Lenna he had gotten used to her quickly and he trusted her so she had never bothered him. Fen was an entirely different matter. Isaac knew that if it came to a fight that he was unlikely to lose against Fen, that wasn’t the issue, but Fen was very likely to escape.

If Fen decided to cause as much chaos as he could and then teleport away once Isaac arrived then that would be that. He was betting on Lenna and his intuition. They both agreed that Fen cared too much for Jala to leave her unless his own life was in real danger. They both also agreed that if Fen thought that he could put Isaac down for good then he would. Fen was an ancient sorcerer, he didn’t need to be taught a lesson twice. He wouldn’t try anything until he was sure that it would work because he would be betting his own life and most likely Jala’s on his plan. Knowing these things didn’t help Isaac sleep any better. Even if the logical mind knows what is true that does not mean that the very human mind, that was inside Isaac’s head, wouldn’t run itself ragged thinking about all of the ‘what if’s.

Lenna nodded, seeing through him, and started putting on her armor. “We should get this day started.” She told him. She knew that getting him moving would get him back to normal in no time and the sooner they checked in with the Guild Hall to make sure that the other two were behaving the better, for both of them.

Isaac nodded. “Agreed.”

—

The V’Nova Wexler duo’s first stop was, of course, the Adventurers’ Guild. The pair were walking up the stairs to the second floor where Edward’s office and the room that Jala and Fen were using was located when they heard a familiar squeak. They shared a look and hurried up the last few stairs and rounded the corner to see Alice, one of them, backed up against the wall with a certain sorcerer leaning over her with a predatory grin.

“What’s the matter child?” Fen asked. “Never seen a dark elf before? Does perfection and power scare you that much?” He purred and reached out towards her face.

“Fen.” Isaac spoke. The word was solid and unyielding but not harsh or threatening. It was spoken like a command that was to be obeyed. Isaac spoke the word with the mentality of a god creating a new law of the universe. Fen’s grin faded away and he rose back to his full height which was a full two inches taller than Isaac. His gaze met Isaac’s and the tension in the room spiked to a point that it could be felt through the walls. Jala soon appeared in the doorway to the conference room that they had been using.

Alice’s eyes were as wide as saucers and their brilliant blue was glossy as she ran and hid behind Isaac. Jala looked back and forth between the two grandmasters of shadows and then locked eyes with Lenna. “What happened?” She asked noiselessly.

Lenna shrugged and then placed a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “Alice.” She gently turned the small girl towards her. “What happened?” She asked.

“Alecia came home late,” She began at the beginning. “I wasn’t awake for her to fill me in on what had happened.” Lenna nodded along so she would continue. “I was coming out of the library and he was just, there.”

“He startled you?” Lenna asked.

Alexis nodded. “Yes.” She swallowed “But then he backed me into a corner…” Her eyes started to water. It was clear that nothing had happened but that didn’t mean that Fen had scared the poor girl any less. Lenna and Isaac both knew that there was more to the Alices’ fear of dark elves than just the cultural one that permeated the area though neither of them knew the exact reason.

Lenna looked at Isaac and then at Fen, neither of whom had moved and guided the receptionist around the corner so she was out of the potential line of fire. Lenna maintained her position, just behind and to the side of Isaac, there just in case he needed her but out of the way. “She’ll be fine.” Lenna told Isaac, reassuring both him and Alexis.

“Was that necessary?” Isaac asked rhetorically. The answer was no. No it was not necessary to frighten the little receptionist.

Fen flashed Isaac an impish grin. “Was what necessary?” Fen asked.

Jala took a step forwards, a thought ran through her mind: ‘Damn male dominance is going to get him killed!’ She only got to take a single step.

Fen was pushing his luck as far as it would go. Startling the mix breed had been an accident and after that he was just having a little fun. They had put him on house arrest with nothing to do. He simply saw an opportunity for some entertainment and took it. No one got hurt so as far as he was concerned it shouldn’t have been a problem. It wasn’t like he was going to do anything to her, it wasn’t his fault she scared so easily. What turned a little fun into a standoff was Isaac saying his name like he owned him. To Fen, it sounded like Isaac saw himself as above everyone else. To Fen, only dark elves stood at the top. He was willing to treat Isaac like an equal due to losing a fight and Isaac having interesting magic. Now? Isaac had prodded just the wrong spot. The same spot that he had kept prodding while they were fighting. “You are just a poor imitation.” Isaac had said and that sentence kept running through Fen’s head.

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At first Fen thought that it was just Isaac trying to get under his skin while they were trying to kill each other. That was fine, it made sense to use every tool at one’s disposal while in a life or death situation. This was not a life or death situation. Fen blinked.

Isaac wasn’t having any of Fen’s shit. He would have let it go if Fen had backed off but the dark elf seemed to do the exact opposite. Isaac expected some attitude from Fen but this went beyond simple attitude. This was a challenge and they both knew it. Isaac never once backed down from a challenge. The two mages were much too alike and it was already causing problems. Isaac had been slowly shifting his breathing from normal to long and deep meditative breaths. He needed his body to be ready to move at a speed that it hadn’t ever consciously moved before. Jala moved, Fen blinked, Isaac took action.

Lenna knew that this was going to end badly. How badly? She wasn’t sure but to her it looked like Isaac was looking into a mirror of himself if he had been born a drow and that sounded awful in way too many ways. Isaac was a relatively neutral person on the moral spectrum and that was evil enough for Lenna’s taste. Fen was the type to kick a beggar’s coin cup as he walked by where Isaac would just ignore them. She saw the look in Jala’s eyes. She knew that her aunt was about to try to stop them before the situation really got out of hand. She also knew that that was the worst possible thing to do. Isaac was always like a coiled snake and she could feel the tension building in him. The moment Jala moved Isaac vanished from where he was standing right next to her.

No one even saw the shadows coat Isaac’s body for the fraction of a second that it took for him to teleport right in front of Fen. In one motion Isaac pulled a throwing spike out of his Inventory and stabbed it up through the bottom of Fen’s mouth. For one entire second the world froze as Isaac locked eyes with the taller man. Even though Isaac was shorter he was still looking down his nose at Fen. The message was clear. ‘You are only alive because I let you.’

Alexis had peeked her head around the corner to see what would happen. Her eyes had just focused on Fen when all of a sudden Isaac was there. She couldn’t see past him or hear if any words were spoken but she didn’t need to as the next moment he was gone again.

Isaac had the shadow mana as close to the surface of his skin as he could without broadcasting what he was doing. He would shove it out and focus on going through the shadows out to his target location at the same time. As soon as he was hidden he would teleport. The only thing left behind was some black fog in roughly the shape of a man that would fade away in less then a second. He left the throwing spike in Fen’s face and teleported to behind him. Isaac immediately transitioned into a spinning back kick to the small of Fen’s back, tossing him forwards to crash onto the ground.

Fen managed to get his hands under him before he hit the ground. He was used to pain. The pain wasn’t the part that was bothering him. There were two things that his mind was too busy getting hung up on to think clearly. The first was his inability to open his mouth as the throwing spike had gotten wedged in the roof of his mouth. The second was that he couldn’t feel Isaac teleport even when staring right at him. He could feel the small puff of mana signaling that he had teleported but he couldn’t feel anything else. There was no hint at his destination, no wind up, no flare of power as he bypassed the need for a spell chant. He was just there.

Isaac appeared next to Fen and gave him a swift kick in the ribs to toss him to the ground. He walked over to the sorcerer and crouched down so he could look down at the man from within arms reach. “Fen.” Isaac said like a disappointed father. “All I needed you to do was stay out of trouble.” He sighed deeply and grabbed Fen’s jaw. There was fury, confusion, and a trace of fear in Fen’s eyes. Isaac ripped the throwing spike out and healed the injury with death flames in one, natural, motion.

Fen coughed and spit the blood on the ground that had been pooling in his mouth. “I didn’t even do anything.” Fen defended while some blood dripped down his chin.

Isaac shook his head. “That’s why I was willing to let it go.” His eyes and focus narrowed. His attention bored into Fen’s soul through his eyes. “But then you challenged me.”

“You’re imagining things.” Fen told him and tried to sit up only to be shoved back down. “Bastard.” Fen cursed.

“You are only alive because I want to abuse Jala’s skills. If she didn’t have any use,” Isaac leaned in closer. “you would be dead. Understand?”

Fen’s face wrinkled into a noiseless snarl. Magic started to build. He was at his limit. Either this next move was going to kill him or he would kill Isaac. It didn’t matter to Fen anymore if he got out of the city. He could not, would not, let Isaac continue to act like a god. They both knew that there was no divine power flowing through his veins and Fen was going to prove it.

Fen mentally directed the power into his vocal cords but he didn’t speak. Instead he focused on saying the words in his head and poured mana into the spell form that he had made inside his throat. ‘I command you to DIE.’ Fen yelled internally at Isaac. Before Isaac could even react and before Fen could feel the backlash from trying to silent cast a ninth level spell he began forcing the next spell to be silent cast. ‘What I…’ The spell chant died still in his mind as he was hit with overwhelming pain and the sudden realization that his vision had gone dark.

Isaac felt the power build and he knew that Fen was going to cast something. Isaac jumped up while summoning his sword. He slashed down across Fen’s eyes and then drove the blade through the downed sorcerer’s chest, pinning him to the floor. Isaac fell just as much as he stabbed downwards as he felt his heart implode again. Death mana churned in his chest like a whirlpool and his heart was put back together near instantly. What he wasn’t prepared for was what Fen had planned next.

Fen fought through the pain as his mana pathways felt like they were fraying from having so much mana ripped out of him for the spell. The mana cost had doubled. That in and of itself would have been unpleasant but bearable for Fen. The problem wasn’t that the cost was doubled but that it was taken in an instant. There was no pouring forth of mana but instead it was as if half of his reserves had been removed forcefully in less then a quarter of a second. Fen knew that the word of power he had used wasn’t enough to put Isaac down once let alone for good so he forced the next spell out regardless of the damage that he was about to take. He turned his body into shadows and all of a sudden he could see again.

Isaac was leaned over, half propping himself up with his sword that was currently in the sorcerer’s liver. In the first instant Fen was made of shadows and went in for the kill. ‘Shit.’ Isaac thought as he felt his heart reform.

Fen yelled. His yell was a roll of thunder and a shockwave blasted out from him in all directions. Isaac was thrown into the wall, all of the lanterns along the hallway were blasted away from them but remained on as they were all simple magic items. The impact with the wall actually served to help Isaac’s heart start beating again but that didn’t matter if Fen’s next attack worked.

Fen’s mana pathways were actively breaking down from the massive damage that they had received and Fen refusing to let them heal by continuing to cast spells. “Command:” Fen spoke and pointed his open palm at Isaac whose head was spinning from the impact with the wall.

Lenna launched towards Isaac as fast as she could. Her cry was heard from the first floor. “Isaac!”