Chapter 65 Mages Are Scary.

Isaac took the brief moment he had to catch his breath to take in the battlefield. For the second time in two days Isaac truly felt outclassed by something. He was not a fan. He knew that he would be able to kill the mushroom if he could land a solid hit but he also knew that the mushroom wouldn’t give him another opportunity. The thing was learning very, very, quickly. Isaac watched as the monster dove towards Lenna to finish her off while she was on the back foot. She was getting pushed back in the worst direction. If she continued on that course not only would her back hit the wall but Esk would be unable to get to Fable. Isaac’s mana wasn’t regenerating fast enough for him to go on a teleporting spree right away. He had enough for three, maybe four teleports. Given another handful of seconds he would have another but that was time that he didn’t have. It was time to take that leg he was owed. He knew that if he went for the creature’s head it would get him. It had been keeping its remaining arm close to its body and Isaac had seen how quickly the monster moved. Without his boost active, it would get him before he could react. Not only did he need this to work but also needed to survive it.

Lenna was tossed back again as she felt her left elbow dislocate. She hadn’t been fast enough to properly parry the monster’s most recent attack. It knew that it could leave Fable for a bit as the old man was still struggling to get into his Bottomless Bag with a hand whose fingers didn’t work and a broken shoulder. Esk, Mark, Fina, and Shy were lower threats for the monster after it had watched their fights. Why Shy seemed to be a lower threat Lenna had no idea. Maybe the monster thought that it would be fast enough to dodge her knives so it added her to the ‘save for later’ list. Regardless, Lenna was the monster’s soul focus. After she and Fable blocked an attack for Isaac the monster seemed to think that the only way to get to Isaac was to get rid of the two of them. Another attack was about to come at her. She had noticed its pattern. She noticed the subtle shift in weight before it kicked at her. She shifted to take the hit in the chest as she started to hop up. She was going to trust her breastplate to absorb most of the attack and she was prepared to get tossed for the rest.

Isaac burned two teleport’s worth of mana on readying his next attack. He teleported behind the monster and swiped through the leg it was still standing on as its other leg snapped out towards Lenna. His hand pushed through the thick wood-like substance in around a second before he teleported away again. He felt claws scrape across his cloak as he was teleporting. ‘That was far too close.’ Isaac thought to himself. The monster started to fall backwards. As its eye looked up towards the ceiling it caught sight of Shy. She was half a dozen feet in the air with her cloak spread wide. Three knives with ice blue ribbons on them were already in mid air. The monster raised its remaining arm to block them but one got through. One hit its wrist, another its elbow, and the last where its stomach would be. All three immediately burst with biting cold and rapidly freezing water.

Chunks of ice made of at least a gallon of water formed on two of the monster’s joints and on its torso. The extra weight and the inability to move its arm properly lead to the monster toppling onto its back. Kahtesh took the moment when he was sure that the monster wouldn’t be able to move right away to fire a lightning bolt. The bolt crossed the distance in a blink but instead of hitting the creature’s head it hit the shoulder without an arm.

The raven of the Flame Ravens continued to hold her pose in the air, only ten feet away from the monster, as another three knives impacted the creature. This time they hit the monster’s remaining leg at each joint. She was hesitant to throw any more because she felt like the monster would block them with its already frozen arm. Instead she let herself fall back to the ground with the only sound being a slight rustling of her cloak.

Mark had reached Fable at some point and helped the old man down a few potions. Fable wasn’t going for complete healing but he needed to be able to move around without the pain threatening to knock him unconscious. That still meant that he had downed half a dozen potions before he rose back to his feet. Isaac teleported over to Lenna and started feeding her half of his regeneration rate in death flames to put the paladin back together again. Fina continued to hold her breath while staring at the struggling monster as it flailed and tried to smash the ice off of itself. Shy readied the rest of her knives and Esk stood just off to the side of the monster warily.

“I don’t have enough mana to finish it off.” Isaac said. “Give me a minute.”

“Stop healing me and kill the damned thing.” Lenna chastised him.

“I have to agree with the paladin.” Fable said. “End the monster and then heal her.”

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Isaac nodded and dropped his hands to his sides. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He breathed in the dark mana in the air as if it was oxygen. He did it a few more times before the ice finally shattered on the monster’s arm and it tried to get up even though it only had one arm and a still frozen leg. “Can I save my knives?” Shy questioned barely loud enough to be heard by the rest of the group.

Isaac opened his eyes and nodded. “Yeah. Let me end this.” He said and vanished. Isaac left no trace of himself as he walked over to the monster. It stopped struggling and made itself look smaller so it could more easily reach anything that tried to touch its body. Its one eye was darting around with the help of its entire head to try and find Isaac. For some reason it really, really, wanted to kill him. Little did it know its target was standing right behind it. Isaac drained almost the entirety of his mana reserves as he punched right through the back of the monster’s head. Its head turned into black dust but not before its arm started to swing towards Isaac. Before it could reach him its body stopped moving as it became rigid. The mushroom corpse toppled over with a slight thud. Isaac looked up at the rest of the beaten and battered team. “This was a bit more than I signed up for.” He commented. “Edward had better pay us triple for this.”

“Here, here.” Esk replied.

“Agreed.” Fable added. “Stingy bastard.” He whispered under his breath, clearly about Edward.

Fina dropped to the ground and leaned against the cold stone wall of the cavern. She let out a deep sigh. “I could sleep for a full day.” She commented. Her pale elven skin looked even more pale than usual as she closed her eyes.

Shy walked over to the corpse and nudged it with her boot before nodding to herself. Isaac continued healing Lenna and the boys eventually all joined Fina in resting against the wall. Shy stood guard at one of the side entrances that the Ori-Masa had used to get there and Kahtesh handled the one they had arrived through. “It’s been one hell of a day.” Isaac commented to Lenna.

Lenna nodded as she felt the final dregs of weariness from battle and injury alike drift away. “It was only an army of zombie fish, a twenty foot tall mushroom fish, and a ten foot tall mushroom assassin.” She shrugged. “Just another day’s work right?”

Isaac let out a hearty laugh. “For what, a demigod and his merry band of battle hardened adventurers?” He joked.

“Or an entire Adventurers’ Guild branch.” Esk added dryly from his place a short distance away. “I can’t remember the last time I worked this hard for coin.”

Isaac laughed and he and Lenna moved to join the rest of the group. “Up until the giant fish we were pretty on track for the bull shit Edward makes us deal with.” He commented.

“I changed my mind.” Esk said. “You two can keep Safeharbor.” He shook his head. “The other cities treat us better.”

Fina nodded. “Yes. And I can see the sun.”

“I prefer fighting dragons.” Mark added with his own nod.

The rest of the Flame Ravens looked at Shy. She looked back once she felt their gazes on her and shrugged. “Forest or caves. Either is fine.” She replied to their unspoken question.

“That’s fair I guess.” Esk grumbled. “Being out in the open is dangerous for you.”

Shy nodded. “Mages are scary.” She agreed.

“Wait, is that the only reason you don’t like to be out in the open?” Esk questioned.

Shy stared at him for a long moment. “What other reason could I have?” She asked in return.

“That… I don’t know… you don’t like people staring at you? You’re shy?” Esk replied but he didn’t sound very convinced of his own responses.

Shy shook her head and turned away to continue looking down the entrance she was guarding. Fina chuckled at the whole situation but Mark leaned in close to Esk and whispered something to him. “You two are idiots.” Fina told them. It was clear that she had overheard whatever Mark was trying to tell Esk.

“Can you all shut up so this old man can meditate in peace for a few minutes? I want to have some mana if we get ambushed again.” Fable cut in.

Mark, Esk, and Fina all sighed and did as requested. Isaac chuckled and sat down against the wall next to Mark. Lenna sat down on his other side. From their position they could see the entirety of the battle field they had just almost died in. None of them had been completely spared from a near death experience. Fina had been the least targeted but if it hadn’t been for Shy’s quick thinking she, along with the rest of the party, would have been smashed under a wave of hyphae and turned into mushroom food. Isaac nodded and closed his eyes to rest. He wasn’t planning on meditating or falling asleep but he felt the need to rest after such a long and grueling battle. Some rest would give him plenty of time to refill his own reserves as well. Lenna, Esk, and Fina all soon joined Fable in meditation. The battle was finally done. There were no more enemies in sight. Their bounty was more or less completed and Lenna hadn’t even been spied on recently.

‘If only this peace could last.’ Isaac thought to himself. ‘But alas, peace is merely the time between battles.’ He opened his eyes and looked up towards the sky he knew to be beyond hundreds if not thousands of feet of stone and dirt. ‘I wonder how long we will have until Jallen decides to make another move. Will it be a day, a month, or a year?’ He shook his head. ‘I swear the uncertainty is worse than whatever he is planning.’ Isaac huffed and got up with a stretch. “I guess we can start looting.” He said to Mark who nodded and offered his hand. Isaac grabbed it and hauled the larger man to his feet. Isaac took another quick look at the battlefield. “For all the money it’s worth.” He grumbled. There truly was nothing that could be sold for gold by itself. The only use their loot would have would be to prove that they had killed it. Isaac sighed again and Mark nodded. “Let’s get to it, big guy.”

Mark chuckled. “I’m not that big. Have you seen some of the goliaths around?”