Chapter 56 My Lady.

“You know what we haven’t done yet?” Isaac asked while the pair were walking towards the arena for a good spar.

“Hmm?” Lenna replied in question.

“Used that Identify mat scroll thing.” He said. Lenna nodded in agreement. “After the spar?” He asked.

“In our room.” Lenna replied in the affirmative.

“Yes.” Isaac agreed. “The last thing I want is someone else seeing it.”

The pair soon arrived at the arena and squared off. “Fear resistance training first.” Lenna told him. Isaac took a deep breath to center himself and then nodded. Lenna gave him as little pressure from her aura as she could. The adrenaline spike hit Isaac like a runaway cart but he managed to hold himself together. Lenna could see that Isaac was keeping himself together so she simply let him get used to the feeling for as long as he could take it. A few minutes later Isaac looked like he was both about to pass out and about to rush her like a frenzied dog at the same time so she cut her aura and let him relax. “How are you feeling?” Lenna asked.

After a few moments of Isaac catching his breath he nodded and sat on the hard packed sand. “Tired.” He replied honestly. “That is still worse than any adrenalin rush I’ve ever naturally had.”

Lenna nodded. “It’s magically induced. It should be.” She sat down cross-legged in front of him and took off her helmet. “You did well to last that long.” She complimented. “How much longer do you think you could have held out?”

“Not long.” Isaac replied honestly. “I was about at my limit.”

“Try to clear your head with your death flames.” She told him. He had finally finished converting all of his mana pathways above his knees to being able to handle the death mana. The progress had been and still was slow but all of his vitals were now within near instant healing range.

Isaac’s eyes went wide and he smacked himself in the forehead. “I should have thought of that.” He replied and did just that. He felt the mental exhaustion burn away and his mind clear. He wasn’t sure how that would help while fighting but a quick recovery was always good. Isaac tilted his head in thought. “You know what else we haven’t done?”

“What?” Lenna asked to humor him.

Isaac grinned impishly. “Sparred with magic.”

Lenna shook her head. “That is a bad idea.” She replied with finality.

“We can both heal back any injury that isn’t instantly fatal, well, except for my legs, so the risk is actually quite low.” He reminded her.

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Lenna knew he was right but she wasn’t about to fireball Isaac. She did have two new spells that she wanted to test out but testing them out on Isaac seemed like a bad idea. “Let me try out my new spells first.” She acquiesced.

“Awesome!” Isaac said and hopped to his feet then paused. “New spells?”

Lenna nodded. “Flamecloak and Gate of Flame.” She explained.

“How?” Isaac questioned.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“How do you know new spells? Like why couldn’t you cast them before?” He expanded.

Lenna tilted her head in thought. “It’s… complicated.” She replied unhelpfully. “Part of it is magic itself helping me through my class.” She thought about how to word the next part for a moment and Isaac gave her the time to do so. “Part of it is my broken oath telling me things… like whispers in a dream…” She shook her head. “Like all spells I know from my oath, they all are related to anger or remorse. At least the spell chants are.”

“What are they?” Isaac asked.

Lenna stood up and faced away from him. “Open Gate to torment and fury!” She commanded and cut the air with two outstretched fingers. The area on the ground that she pointed at throughout the motion lit up with an orange line. Another orange line mirrored the first one only ten feet into the air. A moment later flames gushed out of both lines towards their mirror. The flames poured with such an intensity that they were hard pressed to see to the other side.

Isaac watched on in awe. “Impressive.” He replied after watching the fires burn for a few seconds.

Lenna cut the power and got ready to cast her next spell. She walked a few steps away from Isaac and faced him. “This one is a self buff.” She explained. “Kind of.”

“Alright.” Isaac said. “Let’s see it.”

Lenna took a deep breath. Both of the spells were incredibly mana hungry and she knew that she would only be able to hold the other one for around half a minute before she would start to feel mana fatigue. “Hate, my sword. Wrath, my shield. Flame, my armor. Fury, me.” She spoke, small amounts of those emotions were evident in her tone. Again two orange lines formed. This time in circles a few inches out from her head and feet. The flames that leapt from them were thin and sporadic. They were easy enough to see through and Lenna waved her hand through the fires as they seemed to flow in an odd arc to make an almost egg shape around her. The flames were hot but not enough to burn her as they immediately stopped wherever her hand went only to start again once her hand was no longer in the way. She took a few practice swings through the fires and she barely felt them.

Flamecloak was like perdition only scaled down to a point where it wouldn’t instantly ignite everything around her. Also it originated from outside of her to prevent her from killing herself with her own spell so that was a plus. Isaac smiled at her. “It looks like you won’t need a change of clothes next time you get swallowed by something.” He commented.

Lenna cut the power to the spell and let it fade. She returned a flat look to him. “This isn’t strong enough to kill a creature that large in a reasonable amount of time.” She replied. “I would have to resort to perdition again regardless.”

Isaac winced. “Then what good is the Flamecloak?” He asked.

“The fires only stop when I get in the way.” She explained. “Anything trying to hit me will have to deal with them. More importantly, it keeps out the cold.”

Isaac looked at her in utter confusion. It wasn’t that cold where they were and at present they had no plans to head to somewhere covered in snow. A moment later he realized what she meant. Cold spells would be blunted by passing through the spell’s domain. How much, he would have to see for himself but it looked like it could be helpful regardless. “Okay.” He replied. “Got enough mana for a magical spar?” He asked.

Lenna shook her head. “No. Those spells are too mana hungry.” She explained.

Isaac shrugged. “Maybe next time then.” He drew his practice sword and squared off against her. A moment later Lenna lunged. Usually Isaac was on the offensive but this time Lenna decided to switch it up.

Swing after swing came at Isaac but he parried and danced away from each one. Lenna was being too aggressive for him to try to make any kind of real counter offensive so he simply let her push him back around the arena. He was in control of their direction most of the time but that didn’t matter overly much when he couldn’t counter attack. After five minutes Lenna stopped and frowned at him. “You’re cheating.” She told him.

Isaac grinned. He had been using an incredibly small amount of death mana in his arms to keep them from getting tired while they fought. He was still breathing heavily but it was more like he was out for a morning run than sparring. “Only a little.” He confessed but his grin never left his face.

Lenna shook her head. “Catch your breath. Do that to me and then let’s go again. No magic this time.” She ordered.

Isaac chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine.” He gave her an exaggerated bow. “As you wish, my Lady.”