Chapter 71 Give. It. Back.
“This is some bullshit.” Isaac cursed and walked over to sit next to Lenna. “I am literally the strongest being on two legs within a hundred miles and I can’t kill a damn blob of leftovers.”
Lenna was glad that her helmet was hiding her smile while she held back a chuckle at Isaac pouting. “You’re pouting.” She told him but some of her amusement slipped through and he scowled at her.
“I am not.” He countered and at that moment Lenna thought he looked twelve instead of twenty.
“Uh-hu.” She agreed halfheartedly. He looked like he was about to argue but realized that it would be counter intuitive so he kept his mouth shut. “Isaac?”
“Yeah?” He replied.
“What is my job?” She asked him leadingly.
Isaac thought for a moment. “Bodyguard… I guess.” He answered.
“And who is my charge?” She questioned further.
Isaac gave her a flat look. “Me.” He told her just as flatly as the look on his face.
“Good.” She replied. “Now, be a good charge and wait for your guard to fix it.”
Isaac narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance. “I can’t.” He replied in the same flat tone. “It’s only going after me and at this rate it’ll catch up before you are ready to kill it.”
“Just be patient.” She told him. “We’ll figure something out.”
Isaac huffed. “This monster is obnoxious.” He grumbled but closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall of the wagon.
Keith took that moment to open his eyes from his own meditation. “I felt your mana from the other side of the caravan.” He explained. “Why can’t you just kill it with whatever you used to kill the Ori-Masa in the first place?” His eyes searched Isaac but found no badge. “You are double platinum, right?”
Isaac opened his eyes but only stared at the ceiling. “It’s immune to my magic. Otherwise it would have died before the worm showed up.” He stated. “The worm is too but I could have torn it in half by now.”
“Your magic?” Keith asked. “You only have one kind of magic? I can try to teach you something that’ll work on the monster. You obviously have more mana than me.” He offered. The more he talked the more the scent of alcohol reached Isaac from across the wagon.
Isaac looked down at him and noticed that although he was sober, at that moment looked disheveled in a way that only someone passed out on a barstool could. “It won’t work.” Isaac explained simply. “I can only use one type of magic. That’s why it’s so strong.”
Keith frowned. “I’ve never heard of anything like this.” He thought aloud. “What class are you?” He questioned.
“No.” Isaac replied simply and closed his eyes again.
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Keith was silent and took the hint. After a long moment of staring at Isaac he closed his eyes again to continue meditating. The wagon rocked and swayed a few more times as it moved back the way it had come. After a few minutes their peace was ended by a call from Wo Lu.
“We’re out of time.” He said loud enough for those on the wagon to hear. “It’s starting to… wiggle.” A small amount of humor at his own words slipped through the serious facade that attempted to match the situation.
Isaac took a deep breath and stood up in a huff. “I need a metal ball the size of my fist. Maybe a little bigger.” He said and jumped down from the wagon.
“I have one.” One of the guards with a crossbow said. “It’s still attached to the chain though.” He reached out with a spiked flail.
Isaac raised an eyebrow. “That might work.” He said and accepted it. He took his magical sword and stabbed the blade into the space between the last link in the chain and the spiked iron ball. He walked over to Claus. “Step on this for me would you.” He told the larger man. It was more of a statement than an order but Claus obliged as Isaac set the ball on the ground.
Once the ball was firmly under the goliath’s boot Isaac put his full weight behind his sword and the link popped off the ball. Isaac stumbled forwards at the sudden lack of resistance. Claus handed him the ball and they all moved back from the monster. It was starting to wiggle like a worm and the rib bones were still trying to drag it forwards. The problem was that it was working and it had reached a speed akin to a man walking. The wagon was starting to have trouble maintaining the same speed.
Isaac took a deep breath with closed eyes. He cushioned his hand against the spikes on the iron ball, which was a little bigger than his closed fist, with hardened shadows. Death mana flowed through his body and death flames started to drip off of him. He ramped up the power flowing through his body to double what he had used to kill the Ori-Masa. He knew that he would only be able to maintain it for around fifteen seconds but that was fine. If death flames didn’t work on whatever he was fighting then he just had to use them on himself and beat his opponents to death with brute strength. It was time to try and solve the problem the V’Nova way, again.
Isaac reached back and threw the ball with all of his incredibly enhanced strength. He forced it forwards even faster with the shadows. The iron ball passed the fifteen feet between Isaac and the monster in a tenth of a second. Isaac felt his arm try to burst apart under the strain but his magic repaired the damage before it even began. The spiked ball impacted the mass of flesh with so much power that it was lodged a foot and a half inside and sent ripples across its surface. The monster stopped moving for a second.
Everyone was silent at the spectacle. The amount of strength shown was far beyond what any mortal could produce without some insane boosting magics. An iron ball moving at the speed of a crossbow bolt was not something anyone wanted to be on the receiving end of. Even more so when one realized that it was five pounds of iron with half inch spikes sticking out of it. Isaac heard the guard closest to him audibly gulp. Isaac just sighed. He could tell that he did no real damage to the monster. The brief reprieve was appreciated though.
“Now give it back.” Isaac ordered and gripped the ball with the shadows that had helped propel it. He pulled and pulled but the shadows weren’t enough. The spiked ball was stuck inside literal tons of flesh. Isaac scowled as the monsters ‘body’ refused to give the iron ball back. “I said.” Isaac began through gritted teeth. He let his boosting fade and instead poured more shadows out to try and grab his projectile. “Give. It. Back.”
After a dozen seconds of Isaac trying and failing to withdraw the iron ball the mass of flesh started to move again. The mass started to seal up around the projectile and Isaac wasn’t having any of it. He poured out a massive amount of shadows and punched them into the mass around the ball. He used his shadows to reach around and behind the ball and then pulled with everything he had until finally it was dislodged. Isaac stumbled backwards as his shadows washed over him and the ball painfully impacted his hand.
“Bastard.” Isaac cursed and dropped the ball while healing the puncture in his hand from one of the ball’s spikes. He scowled at the monster again. “I don’t think dropping the cave on it would kill it at this point.” He stated to no one in particular.
Wo Lu, who was standing to one side of him but away a few feet, nodded in agreement. “No physical attacks will work if that barely slowed it down.” He agreed.
“Kahtesh’s lightning didn’t even phase it.” Isaac added. “The only thing we’ve tried that works is fire.” He took a deep exasperated breath. “I’ll be back.” He grumbled and teleported to the other side of the monster.
Out in the main cavern Isaac watched the monster stop moving for a second as it tried to reorient on him. Once it realized he was behind it it started wiggling its way back out of the tunnel to meet him. Once it was back out it turned itself sideways and started rolling at him like a log. Isaac teleported to the other side of it with a bored look on his face. The monster slowed to a stop and then rolled at him again. Isaac teleported to the side of it to try and get the monster to turn back into a ball shape. After some more teleports Isaac was running out of mana again. The monster was back into an extended teardrop shape, as if it were falling at high speed, which was better than Isaac had hoped for.
Reappearing with the rest of the group Isaac wearily drug himself back up onto the wagon and laid down with his feet hanging off the back. “I’m out of mana.” He told Lenna. “How much longer?”
Lenna shook her head. “A few hours.” She told him. The monster had only existed for around half an hour by that point. Lenna needed around seven hours of meditation to get all of her missing mana back.
“I’ll have enough to start working in another hour.” Keith said. He only needed enough to start attacking with some low level fire spells. Low level for him anyway. Keith, at level eleven, could cast even sixth level spells where Lenna had only just gained the ability to cast forth level spells recently.
Isaac put his arm over his eyes. “Wake me up when something else decides to go wrong.”