Chapter 64 Myth And Legend.

“Let’s relieve some of that tension.” Lenna told Isaac. The way she was looking downwards at him while he was laying on the dusty stone roof was suggestive to say the least. “Adrenaline is the best medicine for an addict like you.” Her words lacked any bite and she said them with a knowing smile.

Isaac would have been lying to himself if he said that what she was doing wasn’t having an effect on him but going from melancholy to the bedroom would have been jarring to say the least. “I don’t know.” Isaac replied but couldn’t take his eyes off of her. “I don’t think the mood is exactly set for that.”

“Oh?” Lenna asked. “Is it because I’m not in my armor?” She questioned innocently.

Now Isaac was just confused. “What?” He asked. He couldn’t find any other words to expand on his question.

“You wanted to spar with magic didn’t you?” Lenna asked. “A good spar against someone you can’t kill should help you in more ways than one.”

“What?” Isaac asked again. He felt like his mind had taken a wrong turn at the fork in the road related to ‘relieving tension’ and ‘adrenaline’.

Lenna rolled her eyes and got up. She offered him her hand with a grin. “Just come with me.” She told him.

—

Lenna stepped away from Isaac on her tiptoes and gave a playful half spin. “Ready to lose?” She teased. The fact that the movement had been natural enough in plate armor to still be seductive was as impressive as it was attractive. Isaac didn’t notice right away, because his head still wasn’t quite in the right place, but it was clear that she was trying to get the old Isaac back by leaning into his favorite things. Those things naturally being her, her body, and fighting.

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “Lose?” He questioned. “And how, my beautiful warrior of legend, do you plan on beating me?”

Her face went from playful to a look that seemed to say ‘are you serious?’ in an instant. “Isaac, who, no, what, are you about to fight?” She asked him leadingly.

Isaac felt like he was being led into a trap which, in and of itself, was more scary than the trap itself. ‘Maybe she has spent too much time with me.’ He thought to himself. “A paladin with a few hundred years of experience.” He replied cautiously.

Lenna nodded. “And what is something that only a paladin has?” She continued.

“An aura…” Isaac said finally understanding what she meant.

Lenna nodded again. “And what does that paladin’s aura do?” Now she was just digging in the knife.

“Inflict a potent fear effect.” Isaac answered with a frown.

Lenna shook her head in the negative. “No, my dear, it turns you into a wild animal.” She said simply.

“Fine.” Isaac conceded. “But that’s not a real spar.” He argued.

Lenna nodded with a smile. “True. But do you know what that means?” She asked.

Isaac felt like she wasn’t about to say something like ‘I win the match whenever I felt like it’ but he wasn’t sure exactly where she was going with it. “I’m rubbing off on you too much.” Isaac told her without answering her question.

Lenna chuckled. “It means you are not the strongest person in Safeharbor.”

The realization felt like a building had been taken off of Isaac’s chest. Just the knowledge that he wasn’t some unbeatable apocalypse monster would have been enough but the fact that the one person who could put him back in his place was someone that he trusted completely brought him a relief that he hadn’t even thought possible. He gave her a warm smile. “You’re right.” He agreed. “Enough melancholy, fight me, Lenna V’Nova, warrior of myth and legend.”

Lenna put her helmet on and fastened it in place. She drew her sword and faced off against him. “We stop on a surrender or a single drop of blood.” She told him. He nodded in acknowledgement. “Also I’m no warrior of myth or legend.”

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“Yet.” Isaac answered with a grin and vanished.

Lenna turned her head and tucked her shoulder while swinging her sword around behind her. Isaac had to teleport away mid swing in order to avoid her swing. She had predicted all of his potential angles of attack and shifted every single weak point in her armor enough that his attack would miss even if she hadn’t guessed where he would teleport to. She couldn’t see or hear him but that didn’t matter. To anyone watching it was as if she was fighting an imaginary enemy. She kept moving from defensive position to defensive position seemingly at random while swinging in whatever direction her defense was weakest.

A few times Lenna felt her sword be moved slightly off course but she never hit anything solid. Just as many times Isaac’s training sword skipped off of her armor because she moved just right in order to close off whatever opening he was going for. Their fight could have been choreographed. She knew every move he would make as he made them. She knew that at the rate that they were going she was going to run out of stamina before either of them won so she decided to actually start using her magic. “Open gate to torment and fury.” She chanted as quietly as she could and spun on her toes while drawing a circle around her.

Isaac teleported right into it and had to immediately teleport out. His shadowcloak had been overpowered in an instant and he had to pat his cloak to rid it of a few clinging flames. Lenna heard the noise and dove through the flames as if they weren’t there. Her blade came down hard and fast with flame and aura enhanced strength. Isaac barely got his sword up in time to try and parry the attack. His eyes went a little wider when he pushed himself out of the way more than he changed the course of the attack. The power behind her attack was enough to split him in two but she had total faith in him being able to avoid taking it directly. She moved from the swing into a shoulder bash but got nothing but black fog as Isaac was already gone.

She released her focus on the circle of fire as he appeared above her. He stabbed down but was met by a backwards upswing. Not only had she anticipated his next move but she had the entire combo planned out from the start. Her heavy downward strike was simply the beginning of the upwards backswing. Her shoulder bash was only there to force him to teleport as well as leaving above her open for him. He had taken the bait and felt her sword partly impact his shin before he could teleport away. He appeared a few feet from her. His shin was definitely going to bruise from the glancing blow. He smiled and ran death mana through the injured area and felt the pain vanish in an instant.

Lenna stopped. She didn’t look around but she seemed to be listening and waiting for something. ‘How does she know?’ Isaac asked himself. He teleported back in, this time right in front of her. She swung and he had to teleport away but not before he noticed that her eyes were closed. ‘Fine.’ Isaac thought to himself. ‘I’ll play her way.’ He went back in for the same attack but instead of just thrusting for a weak point he covered his blade in dense shadows and attacked with his willpower as much as his muscles. Lenna’s sword ignited as she made a wide sweep and stepped back. Isaac parried it and went in for another attack. After the third exchange Isaac realized something and disengaged.

Lenna’s head tilted to the side slightly like she was still listening for something when Isaac’s let go of his shadowcloak. “Okay, how are you predicting my every move?” He asked her and she opened her eyes that quickly found him a dozen feet away. “At first I actually thought that you could still sense me but I am almost certain that is impossible.”

Lenna smiled. “Oh?” She asked innocently. “Whatever do you mean?”

Isaac narrowed his eyes at her. “You know exactly what I mean. How are you countering my every move while I make it?”

“I just know you.” She replied without losing her smile.

Isaac shook his head. “No way. Meshing fighting styles is one thing but that was straight mind reading.” He argued. The only way that he had even realized that she hadn’t actually been tracking him was her slightly exaggerated swings towards the end.

Lenna chuckled. “You used the same attack pattern on me that you used on Shaeo. The same attack vectors in the same order that you used on Fen as well.” She told him. “Back, left, right, back, front, back, right, front, back, front.” She listed out. “Always with your right hand going from the right, top left, stab, top, stab, top left, bottom right, stab, stab, top.”

Isaac just stared at her in shock. “How?” He asked her with so much shock that she would have thought it exaggerated but it was clear that it wasn’t.

“I watch you.” She replied simply.

Isaac shook his head. “I understand that I can get complacent when it comes to certain things but using a ten hit combo, what, two? Three times?” His eyes were blinking far more than they needed to as he tried to process what she was telling him. “That’s insane.”

Lenna shrugged. “I’m your swordsmanship teacher. You have patterns and I’ve learned them. It’s not that strange.” She tried to explain.

“Do I use that same pattern any other time?” He asked her. “Or only when teleporting?”

Lenna held her hand out and tilted it back and forth in a ‘sort of’ gesture. “You like to go, right, top left, stab, a lot.” She thought about it a bit longer. “And top, stab, top left. Those are your two main combos. Combos are fine when fighting golems or monsters but fighting a person with them is a bad idea.”

Isaac was still trying to process that she had memorized his attack patterns that he didn’t even realize he had. “Okay… what about after that? You stopped when I stopped and moved when I moved. How did you know?” He questioned further.

Lenna shrugged. “It just felt like the right timing. Like I said, I watch you.” She explained.

Isaac tossed his sword into his Inventory and sat on the hard sand. “Just felt right?” He asked with a shake of his head. “Am I that predictable?”

Lenna chuckled and took off her helmet. “Yes and no. Isaac, remember, we’ve been sparring almost everyday for months. We’ve fought a dozen different types of opponents and hundreds of creatures together.” She walked over and sat down in front of him. He tossed her a waterskin without her even having to ask for it. “We are basically a set of paired swords at this point.” Isaac was still just shaking his head. “What did I do that caught you off guard?” She asked.

Isaac thought about their minute long magical spar. “Other than reading my mind?” He asked rhetorically. “The ring of fire and the backswing that caught my shin after your shoulder bash attempt.” He replied honestly.

Lenna nodded. “So, my new spell that I haven’t used in combat before, and the move that would only work on someone who can teleport above and behind me.” Lenna expounded. “Two things that you couldn’t have seen me use before. Nothing else I did could have surprised you.”

Isaac had to cede the point. The fight really had felt almost practiced up until that point. “Fine.” He replied eventually with a huff. “You win.” He conceded. “I still think that actually being able to tell me my patterns is completely insane.”

“There are still a few of your patterns that I don’t know.” Lenna conceded.

“Oh?” Isaac asked. “Which ones?”

“Unarmed and…” She seemed to debate if she was actually going to say the rest of the thought before eventually deciding on following through. “undressed.”

Isaac almost choked on the water he had just started drinking and sprayed some of it across the sand. It took him a good few seconds to stop coughing from the water that had almost shot out of his nose. “Forward today aren’t we.” He eventually got out between coughs.

Lenna shook her head. “No.” She replied then smiled seductively. “Forward would be me saying ‘why don’t you show me the latter now.’ and dragging you back to our room.”