Chapter 94 Bravo. Bravo!
Isaac pressed his hand against Lenna’s back and focused his shadows back into dark mana. He poured the dark mana into and over Lenna’s body inside her armor. With his eyes still closed he started to turn the dark mana into death flames. Once the transition was completed he stepped back. His hand lingering on her back for an extra moment. A thin thread of mana flowed from Isaac’s hand to Lenna’s back. All of this had happened in the moment it took for the dwarf to throw his little tantrum.
Isaac stepped around to the side of Lenna and put on his best fake smile. “Hold on now friend, I’ll make you a bet. Say, a hundred gold?” Isaac offered.
The dwarf started. He hadn’t noticed Isaac until he stepped out from behind Lenna. “Psh, a hundred gold to put up with you lot longer than necessary.” The dwarf countered but hadn’t given the go ahead his minions were waiting for. The bounty he had just put on Lenna’s head apparently not being the green flag.
“Now, now, you haven’t even heard what the bet is on.” Isaac returned without dropping the smile on his face nor the one in his voice. There was a twinkle in his eye that some of the more perceptive among the onlookers caught. Those that did felt a shiver run down their spine. “I’ll bet you that my favorite champion will beat each of yours in a one on one battle, right here, in the street.”
“My Lord,” Lenna cut in before the dwarf could return fire. “One on one is insulting.” She could feel the power flooding her body. Each muscle had near limitless stamina, every wound would be healed near instantly, she felt like she could take on an army without breaking a sweat. She felt, invincible.
“A hundred gold is pocket change.” The dwarf spat. He had taken the bait. Lenna’s perceived arrogance was enough to push him to action. If he didn’t take the challenge it would make it look like he didn’t have any faith in the one’s he trusted with his life. That would not be a good look for a noble, for a gang leader, a kingpin, it would be like blowing out a wall of a building and hoping the roof wouldn’t sag.
Isaac’s grin turned predatory. “Well then, if a hundred is pocket change, and Lenna here thinks a one on one is insulting, how about this?” Isaac offered. “Lenna will fight one of your minions in a one on one, then she will fight two at once, followed by three, then finally the remaining six. If she fails I’ll give you twelve hundred gold, it is a one versus twelve after all. If she wins then you owe me twelve hundred gold and the man we came here for.” Isaac then gestured at the mage in the back who was the closest one to the dwarf. “The last battle will need to be a six versus one because I doubt that mage and the two crossbowmen would last more than a few seconds.”
All the red flags were up. Any onlooker knew that this was bait. The entire situation felt rigged. Even the dwarf knew as much but the gold was starting to blind him. Twelve hundred gold, even for him, was a lot. Was it enough to warrant stepping into an obvious trap? Not really but his pride was put on the line and the gold was too shiny to ignore, especially when Isaac pulled a platinum coin out of thin air and started flipping it.
The dwarf looked to the side and saw a young gang member watching from the sidelines. “Fetch me a chair and some wine boy.” He ordered. He turned his head back to face Isaac. “Twelve hundred to the winner. If I don’t get it by the end of today I will hunt you down.” The shorter man threatened.
Isaac grinned. The entire time they were talking he had been moving the mana thread connecting him to Lenna. He had moved it down to the ground along with where they were tethered together. The mana left his foot in a tight line and connected to Lenna’s heel. He covered it in shadow mana completely as if he was trying to make himself disappear. The tether disappeared to all but Isaac and Lenna. He was feeding her as much as he could keep up with. Some of it was lost on covering the distance between them but Isaac figured it would still be enough.
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His main concern was other magic disrupting it somehow. A fireball might send his mana scattering, he didn’t know. Isaac knocked on Lenna’s pauldron once and gave her a genuine smile. “Don’t take it easy on them, I put a lot of money on you.” He advised.
“What if one of them dies?” She asked. Her question was honest but she hadn’t whispered it. Her opponents gave each other looks, one of them sneered, one of the crossbowmen swallowed hard. The large man with the greathammer cracked his neck.
“Then they die.” Isaac said with a shrug. “Just go for victory. Victory means they either surrender or can’t fight anymore. Take that as you wish.”
Lenna nodded to him. “Understood.” After a moment Lenna took her eyes off of her opponents and glanced at Isaac. “My Lord, not going to wish me luck?” She teased.
The light teasing caught Isaac off guard and he got a good laugh at it. “You, you don’t need it.” He replied in between bouts of laughter. “Do you want a flower or something?” He joked.
Now it was Lenna’s turn to be caught off guard. She blinked at him and was extremely glad to have her helmet on at that moment. “Um, no, that wasn’t, that won’t be necessary.” She stammered.
Isaac’s smirk couldn’t have been taken from his face at that moment. “Just, focus on the task at hand, my Lady.” He advised and gave her a respectful nod.
“Understood.” Lenna replied and grounded herself with a few steady breaths. It was almost time to engage in some good old fashioned bloodshed. This was the easiest way to solve problems. She never liked politics. Despite the V’Nova clan being full of idiots and meatheads it still had its fair share of politics. All of which Lenna had always ignored completely. That was one of the reasons her mother had told her to stop going to the balls and soirees.
A few lower ranked gang members soon arrived with a chair, a glass, and a bottle of wine for their boss. “Who’s the strongest among you?” He asked his guards. The fact that he didn’t know was not a good sign, for him anyway.
The woman with the longsword and leather armor walked out to meet Lenna. “I’ll fight her.” She told her boss and the rest of her fellow bodyguards.
Lenna smiled under her helmet. The woman in front of her was one of the two that she felt were the strongest in the group. The two women drew their swords and faced off against each other. Neither moved a muscle afterwards. Both of their forms were perfect, practiced, trained. Lenna was too focused on the battle that was already underway to think about anything else but Isaac wondered how a warrior of that caliber was in the employ of someone like the gang leader a few yards away from him.
“Your move.” The woman told Lenna. Lenna inched closer until they were only a few feet apart. “Not going to use all that bravado?” She taunted.
“It’s not bravado.” Lenna replied. In a split second her blade was already most of the distance to the other fighter. The other woman parried it with ease but the illusion on her sword dropped from the impact. Her blade was also magically enhanced. Lenna had already assumed as much and was ready to parry the other woman’s counter attack. They traded blows and parries a few more times but it was clear that the other woman was faster.
Lenna knew her armor, she knew herself, and she knew how strong Isaac’s healing was in the event she underestimated her opponent and her blade. She waited until her enemy attacked horizontally from Lenna’s left. Instead of blocking or parrying with her sword Lenna raised both hands. She let go of her sword with her offhand and blocked the incoming blow with her forearm and bicep. She chopped downwards with all her strength in her main hand right towards her opponent’s head.
The other woman’s eyes went wide and she struggled to get her sword into position to block the incoming attack. Because of the speed, she hadn’t had the opportunity to parry the attack and instead had to block it blade to blade just above her head. Lenna stepped in and drove her left fist into the other woman’s gut with fire enhanced force and concentrated aura pressure. The woman’s feet left the ground a good three inches as she was forcefully doubled over around Lenna’s fist.
Lenna drove her hilt down onto the woman’s head giving her an instant skull fracture and concussion. Her face was launched at the ground. Her nose hit first and broke on the stone street. Lenna reached down and grabbed the woman by the back of her collar. She stepped and spun, flinging her out of the way. The woman covered around six feet before hitting the ground again and rolling on her side.
Isaac winced at the potentially triple concussed woman. He could tell she was still breathing but he couldn’t have helped her even if he wanted to. He looked up at Lenna and gave her a smile. He clapped a few times slowly. “Bravo. Bravo!” He told her. “A classic performance. I expected nothing less.”
The dwarf watched on in mild shock. One fight was not the end. There were three more to go and each one was stacked more in his favor. “You won’t be so lucky next time.” The dwarf spat and took a long pull from his wine bottle, completely forgetting the glass.