Chapter 53 A Second One.

“Tunnel Horror?” Lenna questioned.

Isaac shook his head. “No. We got lucky this time.” He explained and looked back at the field of bodies and blood he had left in his wake. Some of the blood started to ripple. “Wait until it starts grouping up and Wall of Flames around the gathering point.”

“Grouping up?” The sorceress asked.

“You’ll see.” Isaac replied and crossed his arms as he waited for the mass of blood and bodies to start to move. The group waited with a mix of curiosity and trepidation for the dozen seconds it took for the blood to start noticeably moving towards a specific point. “There.” Isaac pointed. “Ring of fire, now.”

The sorceress nodded and quickly cast her spell. A circular wall of fire erupted around the area the mass of blood was flowing towards. The lifeless bodies of the Ori-Masa were just starting to shift and roll in the same direction. The blood waves crashed against the barrier of brilliant heat and combustion only to vaporize almost immediately. “How long do I have to hold this?” The sorceress questioned.

“Until it stops working.” Isaac replied. “This is not a monster you want to fight. If it can be dealt with before it becomes a problem then I call that a win. I’m not baiting it around for hours again.”

“Can’t you just kill it?” Fable questioned. He was obviously fishing for information about Isaac and his skills but Isaac didn’t care. Even if Fable knew that his power wouldn’t work on dark creatures the spellblade had his reputation to consider. He couldn’t just hire drow assassins or summon some monstrosity to kill Isaac. That would just be him admitting that he couldn’t kill someone who was a lower level than himself in a direct conflict.

“I can heal it.” Isaac replied simply. “If I didn’t want it to die then no amount of your little group’s fire spells would kill it. The same goes for Lenna. If I hit you with the same ability I am using on myself right now there wouldn’t even be bones left. Want to test it? I’ll hit Lenna with it first.” He offered.

Fable was silent as he stared at Isaac for a long moment. The only sounds were sloshing blood, rolling bodies, and vaporizing fluids. “I’ll pass.” Fable eventually relented. He flexed his left hand subconsciously as he remembered losing it the day before.

Isaac shrugged. “Worth a shot.” He said and turned around to watch the monster continue to kill itself on the elf’s flames.

The group continued watching for well over a minute before there was nothing left. Right when the sorceress was about to let the Wall of Flames fizzle out a small ball of flesh, bone, and blood rolled out of the torrent of flames. It went straight for Isaac. “What in the nine hells is that ugly thing?” Esk asked.

“Lenna, burn it until it’ll fit in a lunch box.” Isaac instructed and Lenna stepped forwards.

Isaac tapped her on the shoulder to make contact so he could start healing her before she started burning her hand. “Let my flames consume all before me.” Lenna said and held her hand out facing the rolling monster. Once it got within five feet of her she stepped forwards and kicked it. The ball was tossed a dozen feet back before landing with a sickening squelch. Most of its outer layers had flown off between the impact with Lenna’s foot and the ground. By now it was less than six inches across from its starting two feet.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“That’s good enough.” Isaac told her and she cut the power to her Cone of Flames. He stepped towards it and crouched down while holding an empty ration container between himself and the monstrosity. It started rolling towards him and eventually impacted the inside of the container. Isaac quickly closed it and latched it shut before handing it to Lenna.

“Where did that come from?” The sorceress asked while eyeing the ration container. She hadn’t seen Isaac get it from anywhere.

Lenna put the container in her Bottomless Bag and took in their surroundings. “Thin air.” Isaac replied and took one last look at the carnage. “We’ll repeat this in each location.” He instructed the Flame Ravens. “This strategy will work until another Tunnel Horror decides to try and take a bite out of me. When that happens the rest of you will gank it while I keep it busy. My mana output alone will ensure it only targets me. Questions?”

“How did you know this would happen?” Esk questioned.

“It’s happened before.” Isaac replied simply. “I can feel the tiny dark mushroom spores inside of the Ori-Masa. They are infected by them and someone or something is controlling them through the spores. They will assimilate you too if you aren’t careful.”

Esk gulped, the sorceress paled, which was hard to do considering her skin tone, Mark frowned, and Fable looked at Isaac incredulously. “And you just left monsters like this alone?” Fable questioned Isaac.

“Why not?” Isaac questioned back. “I’m only doing this because I am getting paid.”

Fable’s near constant frown deepened. “What about protecting the innocent? What about the lives that could’ve been lost?” He interrogated the dark mage.

“What about them?” Isaac retorted.

“Do you not have a shred of honor in your body?” Fable began.

“Not really.” Isaac cut in.

“What about your duty as an adventurer to humanity?” Fable continued.

“To get paid?” Isaac questioned.

“Or sympathy for the families of those that died fighting these monsters?” Fable pressed.

“Yeah, I don’t have that.” Isaac answered.

“Don’t have what?” Fable questioned.

“Sympathy.” Isaac replied simply. “Most of what you just said means nothing to me. You’d have better luck talking to Lenna about honor, duty, sympathy and all that.” He explained and started walking towards the next area where he felt a group of infested Ori-Masa.

Fable just stared after him. He had run out of things to say. Isaac’s nonchalant attitude about people’s lives and duty was something that he had experienced before but never with the same amount of severity. Isaac wasn’t some random thief or mercenary who never would have amounted to anything anyway. Isaac was a man with enough power to be a real threat to humanity if given the chance. Fable was sure that one of the demigods would step in to get rid of him if he really did become a problem at some point but he was also sure that the casualties would be immense before they could show up.

The group as a whole followed Isaac to the next area where they repeated the same strategy almost to a tee. This time however Lenna completely finished off the monster. Esk had been tasked with writing down the approximate number of Ori-Masa Isaac was killing. Lenna was giving him the estimations, so long as no one complained about that fact it would be fine, no one was complaining. Once the third section was over the sorceress stopped Isaac. “Please, I need a break. We don’t all have a bottomless mana pool.” She told the dark mage.

Isaac shrugged and gestured towards Esk and Fable. “You two are up. Switch with the girls.” He told them.

Fable scowled but Esk nodded. “Seems fair.” Esk replied. Fire was the name of the game so Isaac, Mark, and the rogue that always seemed to be forgotten about were useless once stage two started. Those three would only be useful in the initial engagement but as it was, Isaac was hogging all of the spotlight.

Isaac stopped just outside of the fourth target location and frowned. “Prepare for contact.” He told the group. “Tunnel Horror. Back up and I’ll drag it out into the cavern we just came from.”

“How can you tell?” Esk questioned.

“Haven’t we been over this?” Isaac questioned back. “I am the Lord of all that is Dark. I can feel their presence. It’s close enough that it’ll feel me when I start killing the ugly fish and I don’t want to deal with both at the same ti… shit.”

“What? What’s wrong?” Esk questioned quickly.

Isaac frowned deeply. “There’s a second one.”