Chapter 96 The Risk Of Death Is Always There

Three warriors faced off against the living weapon known as Lenna V’Nova. Isaac Wexler had given her as much space as he could and was now standing on the sidelines near her latest victims and the healer that had saved their lives. Lenna gave him a quick glance and he crouched down next to the healer.

“Can you move them back any farther?” He whispered to the weary cleric of Halya.

The other man shook his head. “Not without risking reopening their wounds.” He looked up from one of his patients at Lenna. “Why?” He asked and then looked over at Isaac.

Isaac gave the man a nod with a frown and glanced at Lenna. “We’ll be fine here… probably.”

Lenna eyed her opponents. The large man with a greathammer in thick leather armor, the lithe man covered in daggers without any armor on at all, and the man with a whip who was also in leather armor. None of them seemed to take their lives very seriously with the combination of armor and weapon choices. ‘Hammer and leather armor is objectively wrong.’ Lenna thought to herself. The setup lacked good armor to protect the wielder of such a heavy and slow weapon.

‘Who doesn’t wear armor?’ She asked herself while eyeing the rogue with all the daggers. ‘Someone with a deathwish. He’s going to get his wish. I can’t focus on all of them at once.’ Her eyes drifted to the man with the whip. ‘If that’s magical it might be a problem, otherwise I might be able to ignore him.’

Her opponents nodded at each other and the man with the whip started to move off to her right side. ‘Their plan is simple and effective, against another warrior.’ She thought. She wasn’t used to having so much time to observe while in combat. It was making her nervous more than anything else.

The man with the whip got around to her two o’clock position and stopped. Lenna pretended not to see through their plan. She took a deep breath and took one step forwards. The whip flew at her at blinding speed. It cracked and coiled around her hand and sword hilt. The other two sprung into action, they charged straight at her with the larger man moving to her offhand flank. The rogue came straight at her, head low, ready for what was bound to be some acrobatic maneuvering in an attempt to get to an opening in her armor.

Lenna turned and tried to cut the whip. Her blade couldn’t cut it. ‘Just as I thought, the same as that longsword earlier.’ There was a spell that could be used to hide the magical signature of magic items and it appeared that some of the gang members had indulged themselves. “Come forth,” Lenna began. All watching watched with wide eyes. Isaac with a grin. The gang members in horror. Fireball was the most widely known spell in the world. Everyone knew its incantation by heart. Children played wizards and warriors and yelled it at each other.

The rogue and greathammer warrior were still twenty feet away from her, almost perfect distance. She knew exactly where to place the center point of the most famous third level spell. “Ember of a dying star.” She pointed at the rogue, just above his head to be precise. An orange dot formed for but a moment before almost instantly expanding to a twenty foot radius. The dot formed a few inches in front of and above the rogue’s head.

The explosion threw his head backwards, breaking his neck instantly, and slamming his body against the ground so hard it bounced. One down. The large warrior got his arm up in time to guard his face and staggered a few feet to the side from the blast but seemed to weather it with relative ease. The man with the whip was tossed to the ground a few feet from where he had once been standing. He still had a firm grip on the whip and was already shaking his head to clear it as he tried to stand.

Lenna had simply turned away from the blast and had barely shifted despite being two whole feet within its radius. It was hot, it burned, but only for a moment as Isaac’s death flames killed the after effects the fireball had on her body. She didn’t waste any time. She yanked the whip free of her hand, yanking it out of its owner’s hand and tossed her sword up, keeping it parallel with the ground while it was in mid air. She caught it in a grip taught to her a century ago. Two fingers on either side of the hilt, each wrapped lightly around the underside of the crossguard, her thumb on the flat of the blade an inch in front of the crossguard.

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She stepped forward while keeping the sword in its same location in relation to everything except her. Lenna launched her sword with fire enhanced strength like a javelin at the whip wielder. He looked up just in time for the blade to punch through his armor like it was paper. Her aim had been slightly off at that distance but it did the job of removing him from combat as it took his right arm off halfway in between his elbow and shoulder. The bone severed completely but some of the flesh and muscle still remained as the crossguard slammed into whatever the blade hadn’t cut.

The man let out a blood curdling scream from the pain and fell with the momentum of the sword. Lenna’s blade clanged against the ground a few feet from her target. She turned to face the hammer wielder, now without her own weapon, and raised her hands, balling them into fists. She didn’t need a weapon to win a one on one. She was a V’Nova. A warrior whose name itself was legend and she was showing Safeharbor’s citizens why.

The larger warrior covered the last of the gap between them with a growl and finished it in a heavy overhead slam. Lenna reached up and caught the hammer by its head. Her bones creaked. Some fractured in her wrists and it felt as though her forearms were about to fold in half. Isaac’s flames healed to bones quickly but not instantly. Luckily for Lenna the moment the flames needed to work was given to her by the shocked warrior who had, in all likelihood, never had someone catch an attack like that.

Lenna’s knees had threatened to buckle but her body held firm. She shoved the hammer sideways and grabbed it with her offhand. She swung her right fist directly into the warrior’s chin with a quick burst of crimson flames and her aura coating it. The fist collided. The goliath had leaned into the strike and his head had jolted to the side only a few degrees. His jaw held firm. Lenna’s eyes widened at the absurdity, not that she was one to talk, and she yanked her hand back.

The larger warrior had released the hammer with his left hand and moved to grab Lenna’s right. “Let my flames,” She started and the warrior moved with more speed than she thought possible. He grabbed her hand and tried to crush it beneath the metal gauntlet. It was working but Lenna wasn’t about to stop her chant. “Consume all before me.” She ordered mana itself. She released the hammer with her left hand and rotated her hand so its palm was pointed towards the large man’s face.

He released the hammer as well and got his hand in between his face and the flames a second after they had started boiling his skin. He staggered back while releasing her hand and crossing his arms in front of his face. The hammer fell to the ground with a thud. Lenna quickly ducked low and grabbed the hammer’s shaft with both hands as soon as her fire had stopped.

She stepped and spun, building as much momentum as possible. Fire burned across her hands and the hammer. Her flames and aura pushed the attack to its maximum. With her own growl and all of her strength she finished the spin and slammed the head of the hammer into the goliath’s left side. His armor did little to help. His ribs caved in. His left hand shot down and grabbed the hammer even as he staggered a few steps to the side from the impact.

‘The highest level here doesn’t disappoint.’ Lenna thought. Her opponent stepped towards her even as his left lung was filling with blood from his shattered ribs. He lifted his right hand and drove it towards Lenna’s face with everything he had. She turned and stepped in under it. She grabbed his wrist, pulled and ducked her shoulder low. His own momentum and her throw rolled him over her and onto his back on the hard stone.

He hit the stone hard. A wet groan of pain escaped his mouth along with the air that was knocked out of him. Lenna backed off, breathing heavily for the first time. “Yield.” She told him. “You don’t deserve to die here.”

He rolled onto his good side and tried to stand. Lenna shook her head. She let him struggle to his feet. He towered over her a whole foot and a half. “Good… fight…” The warrior wheezed out.

Lenna nodded to him. “Yes. You’re tough.” She complimented. Her breathing was quickly returning to normal. Soon the only thing different about her from before the battle to now was her halved mana reserves.

After a long, tense moment, the goliath gave her a nod. “You… win… this time.” He told her.

Lenna smiled inside her helmet. “This time.” She echoed. He turned and started walking slowly towards the healer who was looking at him with undisguised horror. The warrior coughed and blood came out. Lenna shook her head. It was only then that she noticed the healer had moved to the other side of the makeshift arena and had finished amputating the whip wielder’s arm. ‘He works quick.’ She thought.

She looked at Isaac who was standing on the sidelines with a wide grin. “That has to be the first time I’ve seen you hit something and it ignore it.” He commented.

Lenna chuckled quietly and shook her head while taking a few steps towards him. “The first time in a long time.” She replied. “Goliaths are legendary. He didn’t disappoint.”

Isaac laughed and his grin widened. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”

Lenna shook her head. “The rogue…” Her voice trailed off.

Isaac shrugged and his grin turned into an understanding frown. “He wasn’t wearing armor. The odds of him dying were always high. If you would have hit him with the same punch you hit the big guy with, it would have folded him like a pretzel if not outright killed him.” He offered.

“Yeah…” Lenna replied. She wasn’t averse to killing, that much was obvious, but it would have been better if everyone involved could have survived. She didn’t know if the rogue deserved what he got. Maybe she was lucky and he was as bad as their target, the reason they were there in the first place. But maybe, maybe she wasn’t. Maybe he was a good man who just worked for a bad boss. She doubted she would ever know.

“Try not to worry about it alright.” Isaac told her. “The risk of death is always there when…” Isaac’s voice trailed off. His brows furrowed in pain. Lenna’s eyes went wide. He looked down to see a crossbow bolt had buried itself in his chest.