Chapter 47 It’s True.
The next day came quickly for Isaac. Not so much for Lenna. There were so many feelings swirling around inside her it felt like a war of butterflies was going on, complete with blades and bloodshed. She wanted to respond to Isaac’s feelings but much of what she was feeling she had never felt before and turning those feelings into words was proving to be far more difficult than she would have liked. So, instead of talking about it, she continued on, while sleep deprived, as if everything was normal. This, of course, didn’t fool Isaac but he wasn’t about to bring it up.
The duo decided that it would be a good idea to leave Alice to her work and not bother her. Instead they had breakfast then went to spar. After their usual few rounds Lenna decided to enhance their training regime a bit. “We should practice with you enhancing me.” She told him. “Also, you need to become resistant to my aura.”
Isaac nodded in agreement. “That’s a good idea. Which do you want to start with first?” He asked.
“Enhancement.” She replied and waited for him to do whatever he needed to do.
Isaac moved around behind her and put his hand in between her shoulder blades. He took a deep breath and started working his mana into her muscles, bones, and tendons. It took him far longer than it did when they were in a life or death battle but it was also painless and there was almost none of the bloated feeling Lenna had experienced the first time. The problem was that it had taken Isaac almost thirty seconds to do it. “Okay.” Isaac said and tried to step back. As soon as his hand left her back he felt his control slipping and he quickly replaced it.
He tried a few more times to keep control without physical contact but with the same results. There was a large gap in his current ability compared to how skilled he needed to be to enact his skill without maintaining physical contact. After the fifteenth try Isaac let go and was breathing deeply. His brow was sweaty and his vision was blurring just from focusing too hard. “Something to work towards.” Lenna encouraged. “You’ll get there soon enough.”
Isaac nodded tiredly. “Yeah.” He agreed.
A few minutes later Isaac looked ready for whatever was next. “Stand across from me and don’t let my aura control you.” She instructed.
Isaac did as he was told. He stood across from her and took a deep breath. “Ready.” He told her.
Lenna’s aura blasted out and blanketed the area. She didn’t focus it on Isaac but started him at about half strength. She watched as Isaac’s eyes got a little wider, his casual stance lowered slightly and turned almost predatory, and worst of all his neutral face turned into a familiar grin. She could tell that he was already walking the razor’s edge. “Breathe.” She told him. “Let the feeling wash over you instead of moving through you.” This was the real test. The first deep breath would be the most dangerous. During the first deep breath his body would relax slightly and in doing so he would be more susceptible to the fear effect.
Isaac took a deep breath and Lenna saw something snap. It was like the Isaac she knew was quickly replaced by someone else. The casual mania she was used to was switched out for a predator’s thrill of the hunt. It was like he went from mortal to tiger or dragon in an instant. His stance dropped farther and the ball of his one foot dug into the ground like he was preparing to pounce. Lenna thought about cutting off her aura right then but she wanted to know exactly how Isaac would act when completely under a magical fear effect. Usually a person was incapable of even moving towards the target of their unnatural fear. In many cases soldiers or adventurer’s would train that limitation out to ensure they wouldn’t get annihilated by a dragon on first contact. Even if a person was trained to resist it they would still have trouble powering through it as they advanced on the originator of the fear.
Lenna’s eyes went wide as she realized that something was actually wrong with Isaac. It wasn’t that he was incapable of moving towards her under the fear effect but the opposite. He was actively holding himself back as much as he could. He completely lacked a flight response. While under a fear effect Isaac had to fight back against a fight response that wasn’t dampened by a flight response whatsoever. Isaac lost his battle and lunged at Lenna. A sword made of shadows formed in his right hand and his left hand grew claws of burning void. Shadow was his weapon and death was its poison. His sword was coated in death flames a moment later. He didn’t teleport or disappear. He didn’t faint or try to come at her from an odd angle. There was no cunning behind his eyes.
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Lenna cut her aura and stepped into Isaac causing their heads and chests to collide. His claws were stopped by her armor and his sword was deflected by pauldron. She hugged him and spoke quietly as his senses slowly returned. “It’s okay.” She told him. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
He only struggled to escape her grasp for a few seconds before his brain caught up to what had happened. He took deep calming breaths in her arms and let his weapons fade away. He relaxed in her arms. “Thank you.” He eventually got out. “I… I don’t know… That was, difficult.”
Lenna just nodded and rubbed his back. “We need to be careful with training your resistance to it. If we aren’t, you could forcibly gain a berserker level.” She explained and slowly let him go.
Isaac leaned back to have his full weight back on his own two feet and looked into Lenna’s eyes. He saw concern and thoughtfulness but nothing else. Isaac breathed a deep relaxing sigh as the tension continued to dissipate from his body. “That can happen?” He asked.
Lenna nodded. “You are not normal.” She told him which received a chuckle as a response. “I mean mentally. Your flight response is missing. I have heard of people receiving levels in classes forcibly in life and death situations. A powerful enough fear could make your body think it was going to die.”
Isaac nodded slowly. His mind was clearing up far quicker than he expected. A strong adrenaline rush alone wasn’t enough to remove his faculties but the magical fear seemed to strip him down to his core. The aftermath was unpleasant. In the moment nothing mattered except the target but after the fear wore off he felt… wrong… violated by his own body in a way. Like riding a runaway cart but worse because it was his own body. “We need to continue working on this.” He told her. “But gentler next time.”
“Agreed.” Lenna replied with a curt nod.
The pair did some more light sparring to help get the rest of the adrenaline out of his system and then returned to Celeste for lunch. They had stayed later than usual so they didn’t have enough time to get cleaned up before eating. Sweat still clung to both of them heavily as they sat down at the bar. Lenna had set her helmet on the bar next to her plate so it would always be easily accessible. The pair thanked Celeste and were about to dig in when it happened.
The day hadn’t been Isaac’s best day. It certainly wasn’t his worst but it was far from his best. His loss of control earlier and the sweat making his clothes and armor stick to him were the two main culprits. Those two things alone weren’t enough to cause Isaac to act any differently towards others but they did shorten the fuse on his temper a bit. Unfortunately.
“Look there,” One patron said and pointed someone out to another near him. “isn’t that the guy?” He asked.
“Yeah. That’s him.” Another replied.
Someone else close by tsked. “Damn warlock bringing slavers into town.”
Isaac caught the entire conversation as they weren’t being very quiet and were only halfway across the room. Isaac looked up from his food and his eyes met Celeste’s. “There’s someone else bringing dark elves into town?” He asked. He knew that many of the residents of Safeharbor exclusively referred to dark elves as slavers so it wasn’t hard to put two and two together.
Celeste visibly winced and then tried to play it off. “Not that I’m aware of hun.” She replied.
Isaac’s collar got hot. Being a warlock meant a few things that Isaac refused to be associated with. The main ones being getting his power from someone else and being beholden to a higher power. Isaac’s power was his own and his decisions were his own too. After losing his autonomy only an hour and a half earlier Isaac wasn’t about to let it slide. While he was deciding on his retort he was subconsciously bending his wooden spoon.
Lenna caught the look in his eyes as did Celeste. Their reactions were very different. The look in his eyes was murderous, enough so that Celeste took an unconscious step backwards. Lenna on the other hand set her own spoon down and turned to face the table where the comments were coming from while rising to her feet from her bar stool. “He isn’t a warlock.” She corrected calmly but sternly.
A few at the table snickered. “Having your whore speak up for you?” One of the guys at the table replied. He had a bottle that was half empty in front of him but his speech wasn’t slurred in the slightest. His cheeks were slightly flushed but it was obvious that his words were entirely his own.
The spoon snapped. Isaac set the two halves of the utensil down gently and whispered. “Sorry Lenna.” As he turned and slowly rose from his seat. “Take it back.” Isaac ordered in the same tone that had set Fen off a few weeks prior. His words were a command to his lessers, not even an order from mortal to mortal.
The man at the table rose as well. “Or what?” He scoffed. “You can’t do shit.” He prodded. “If you make a move on me the duke will kick your sorry asses outta town.”
“Last chance.” Isaac replied. This time he was losing his tight grip on his temper and a little of it snuck past the demeaning tone. “Take. It. Back.”
“What?” The man replied and Isaac took a step towards him. Lenna tried to grab onto his shoulder but he just reached up and unclipped his cloak leaving it in her hand. “It’s true.” The man continued. Isaac took another step. Two tables were in between them but it didn’t look like Isaac cared as he started to sweat what looked like ink. “That’s all she is.” The man continued digging his own grave. Isaac took another step and vanished.