Chapter 72 Bad Blood

Isaac started ramping his buff up while simultaneously cloaking himself in shadows. As the dark mage was vanishing from sight the magic knight was casting buff spells on himself. First Quicken, then the frozen blue glow from the sapphire on his arm coated his sword, then two light blue lines formed above and below him blowing frozen mist towards each other, and finally a soft green glow enveloped his boots.

Isaac wasn’t completely idle while Fable was finishing his entire party’s worth of buff spells. Utilizing his increased speed and invisibility he launched at the magic knight. Fable jumped back without even being able to see Isaac just from the sudden feeling of imminent danger. As he jumped backwards his final buff appeared, the green glow on his boots, and three throwing spikes came at his face. The spikes had appeared from a mere three feet away but that meant nothing to Fable as he easily side stepped them instead of deflecting the throwing spikes.

Isaac abruptly changed directions as soon as the last throwing spike left his hand and threw two more spikes before teleporting fifteen feet forwards and throwing three more at him. Fable changed directions again to avoid the pair and then he noticed the other three cutting off his escape vector. He drew his second sword while knocking the pair of spikes out of the way and dodging the second volley of three in the direction the pair of spikes had come from. A fading silhouette appeared a dozen feet in front of him and he spun while sweeping his longsword behind him. He kept his rapier close to his body just in case he needed it, which he did, as he immediately watched the first volley of three vanish from mid air as if they had never existed.

Three fading silhouettes appeared along with spikes in mid air flying at him in a triangular pattern around him with only a quarter of a second between them. Fable knocked one of them aside and dodged into the second, letting it bounce off of his wooden arm, to avoid the third and sudden sense of impending death from the direction of the first. The frost coming from above and below him received a sudden hole roughly the size of the tip of Isaac’s sword and Fable’s eyes got a little wider. Fable stayed light on his feet as he glided across the sand on boots that seemed to find perfect traction a quarter of an inch above the sand. Suddenly the only action in the arena was the throwing spikes disappearing one after another. Fable waited and caught his breath while moving and changing his direction seemingly at random. There was no way to know when Isaac would attack again.

Suddenly Isaac appeared thirty feet away from Fable and the older combatant stopped moving. “Done hiding?” Fable questioned.

Isaac shrugged. “Going unseen is kind of my thing but you are an anomaly. Even though I make no sound, move no air or sand, and am completely unseen, you somehow always know right before I am going to hit you.” Isaac looked at the knight quizzically. “I am forced to question, how?” Little did Fable know, Isaac was taking the momentary pause in the fight to regenerate some of his mana. Isaac’s boost was only at half power because he had been maintaining his invisibility at the same time so even if he still felt like a threat, and he was, he was still able to catch his magical breath while they conversed.

“I can feel your bloodlust. You are dangerous, Lord Wexler, and I haven’t lived this long because of luck and strength alone.” Fable grinned, which was incredibly unnerving on the normally stoic knight’s face, and then he launched towards Isaac. “It helps that I’ve killed a black dragon before.”

Isaac ramped up his boost as Fable closed the distance. Isaac parried the incoming longsword with his own shadow coated blade that had materialized in his offhand. Isaac had no faith whatsoever in his backup shortsword’s ability to survive the clash without his shadows and he wasn’t willing to risk his favorite sword in the clash either. He felt the shadows get frozen by the glinting longsword in the brief moment the swords were touching each other. Fable’s rapier shot towards Isaac’s face but instead of dodging away from it, parrying it, or teleporting away, Isaac put his right hand in the sword’s path while his own sword vanished into his Inventory.

Fable’s longsword strike had left Isaac’s parrying blade in a somewhat awkward position with its crossguard pointing at Fable’s chest and its blade pointing towards the stands. The moment Fable’s rapier blade pieced into Isaac’s palm Isaac started moving his hand to the side. This caused the rapier to miss Isaac’s face by such a small margin that his ear received a nice gash that would have scarred if it was let to heal naturally. Fable’s eyes went wide as, in the moment where both of his swords were away from his body, Isaac stepped forwards and drove his left hand towards Fable’s heart. The movement caused Isaac’s blade to be pushed farther back towards his side and the pommel of his sword to point directly at Fable. Isaac shifted into a reverse grip mid swing and changed the punch into a forward stab as if he was trying to stab his pommel through Fable’s chest.

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Fable tried to jump back but Isaac pushed his right hand further down the rapier’s blade and latched onto the handguard. “Running?” Isaac questioned even as frost started to collect on his arms from the torrent of cold being blasted down from above and up from below.

Fable managed to lighten the blow substantially between his attempted retreat and a last moment twist of his torso but the pommel strike to his breastbone still hit as hard as a normal person’s strike would have. Fable was glad that his armor absorbed a bit of it as well because if it hadn’t then there was no doubt in his mind that his breastbone would have broken from the attack. Isaac dropped the sword immediately after the attack stopped and swung his fist up towards Fable’s face. “Limit Break.” Fable said and moved in a blur.

In movements that were hard for even super enhanced Isaac to track Fable let go of his rapier and grabbed Isaac’s shortsword out of midair while leaning back out of the way of Isaac’s punch and bringing his longsword back up in a reverse edge cut.

Isaac leaned away from the reverse cut just far enough that he only lost his arm at the elbow instead of before the shoulder and turned his dodge into a spinning back kick. Fable barely got his longsword in position so Isaac would kick into the blade before Isaac’s kick arrived. Isaac was prepared for it already and teleported behind Fable to finish the kick but Fable was prepared for Isaac’s teleport kick as well. “Deflect.” Fable chanted in an instant and a reality shield appeared to block Isaac’s kick. The shield tried to stop the incoming attack cold but the first level spell could only do so much.

Fable was tossed a few feet forwards as Isaac was tossed half a dozen feet back from the impact of his own kick against the reality shield. Fable recovered and turned around to see Isaac sliding to a stop. He watched as Isaac’s arm finished reforming and Isaac straightened back to his full height while flexing his new fingers. “You’re pretty good, old man.” Isaac commented before shivering, his teeth clattering. “I’m glad I took off my shirt, I would’ve lost another one but damn it’s cold.” He added and pulled Fable’s rapier out of his right hand with his left and tossed it to the side where it vanished before touching the sand.

“What level are you, really?” Fable questioned.

Isaac grinned. “Ten.” He replied honestly before teleporting behind Fable and driving a right cross into the middle of the old man’s spine. Again, right before impact, a reality shield appeared to block the attack. Fable whirled on Isaac from a different direction than he was expecting. Usually when someone turned they would lead with their dominant hand. Fable turned left instead of right even though he usually only used a sword in his right hand. This meant that his more normal arm was most likely his actual dominant hand and not his wooden one like it appeared to be. Isaac’s shortsword, that was still in Fable’s left hand, came down fast towards Isaac’s still outstretched right arm.

Fable’s attack met nothing but air as Isaac teleported a few feet to the side while pulling his right arm back, bringing with it his straightsword from his Inventory which caught Fable’s backswing arresting his movement and opening up his side. Isaac pressed the opening with an uppercut to the older adventurer’s kidney which was blocked by the reality shield which Fable had opted to continue channeling mana into. Isaac and Fable clashed another half a dozen times before they both jumped back and stood staring at each other. Fable was breathing hard and his spells started winking out one after another.

“If I was a dozen years younger I might’ve had you.” Fable told Isaac eventually.

“Oh?” Isaac questioned. “Why’s that?” He asked with pure curiosity.

“I’m too old to handle Limit Break.” Fable confessed.

“I thought you slowed down a bit after you used it.” Isaac commented.

Fable nodded. “Thirty years ago, I would have used it on you twice back to back.” Fable explained.

Isaac’s eyes went wide for a moment before he grinned. “You probably would have had me if Limit Break lasted twice as long. I knew you could do it but it still caught me a little off guard.” Isaac confessed.

Fable smirked at the compliment. “If you are going to lie about your level you should have made it more convincing.” He told the younger adventurer. “If you would have said fifteen it might’ve given me pause.”

Isaac’s grin only got wider. “What if it wasn’t a lie?” He asked the older adventurer.

Fable shook his head. “What if’s only matter if they are possible.” He replied.

Isaac chuckled and shook his head before he tossed his sword back into his Inventory and withdrew Fable’s rapier. “Trade?” He asked while he wound down his boost and casually closed the distance between them.

Fable nodded and the pair traded each other’s weapons back to their rightful owners. “You’re better at hand to hand than blade fighting.” Fable told Isaac.

Isaac nodded with a frown. “I know, I’m trying to bridge the gap but it’s going to take a while. Fist fighting is just more natural for me.” He explained.

“Well,” Fable began and offered Isaac his good hand which Isaac took. “good fight.”

Isaac nodded. “Thanks for the spar. You are the first real person to have ever kept up with me when I’m boosted like that.” He confessed.

Fable nodded. “Bad blood under the bridge?” He asked.

Isaac shrugged. “I think our bad blood has always been by proxy anyway. Having said that, make sure it stays that way.”

Fable started prying his wooden fingers open so he could stow his longsword. “Agreed.”