Chapter 97 Command: Negation

The pain burning through Isaac’s chest was both new and familiar. He knew instinctively that this wasn’t the first time he’d been shot. He held his breath as the bolt had punctured his right lung only three inches from his heart. He slowly but firmly pulled the bolt out while gritting his teeth. His death flames poured straight from his reserves into the wound and it closed only a fraction of an inch behind the bolt as he withdrew it.

The pain was intense but the adrenalin rush dulled it enough that he could finish his task without even breaking his connection to Lenna. The world around him had gone still as the sudden attack registered to all who’d seen it and slowly even with those that hadn’t. Once the bolt was out of his chest he let himself breath and immediately began coughing like he had just almost drowned.

“Isaac!” Lenna yelled and took two quick steps towards him before his raised hand stopped her.

“I… okay…” He coughed out. A few seconds of trying to cough his lung out later and he finally managed to hack up the blood that made its way into somewhere it didn’t belong. Isaac straightened and looked around. He saw the crossbowman who was trying to stealthily reload his crossbow. It was one of the gang members that Lenna was about to take on.

Lenna eyed Isaac for a long moment before launching into action. She ran and slid along the stone ground towards her previously thrown sword. She scooped it up and shoved off the ground back onto her feet. The healer and the armless man were behind her. Isaac was off to her side a good twenty feet and the remaining gang members were about forty feet in front. Her eyes burned with fury. She had been only a few feet from him yet she hadn’t been able to stop that attack. If it had landed a few inches to the side she would have been burning all of her remaining mana on trying to bring him back to life instead of using it to end the cowards in front of her.

A warrior in light armor with a mace and shield moved in between Lenna and the back line, the two crossbowmen and the mage, he was flanked by a warrior in heavy armor with a greatsword and another warrior in light armor with a rapier. “Wait.” Isaac ordered the entire battlefield. All eyes shot to him. In one hand was the bolt that had buried itself in his chest and in the other a black void in the same shape and size. “One bolt for another sounds fair. It was an accident after all, right?” Isaac said and launched the shadow bolt with all the speed, power, and control he could muster.

The black void shot across the distance in between Isaac and the man who had shot him. The man tried to dodge but he couldn’t get completely out of the way in time. Isaac’s bolt cut deep into the crossbowman’s shoulder and stayed there for a few short seconds before losing its integrity and floating away. The man dropped his crossbow and his hand shot to his now open wound.

The enemy mage hadn’t taken his eyes off of Isaac since he had been shot. The mage could feel the mana coming from the silver eyed man and he knew that he was interfering with the makeshift tournament somehow. He couldn’t figure out how, however, so he stayed quiet. Watching what had just occurred caused something to dawn on the wizard. Isaac didn’t say spell chants for magic to happen around him. His eyes darted to Lenna and the memory of a thin black line connecting them for a few moments returned to his mind.

The wizard started the fight with a spell. “Command: Removal: Dispel” He ordered and mana listened. His mana lashed out at Lenna in an attempt to remove whatever spell had been cast on her. Nothing seemed to happen but that didn’t mean that nothing had happened.

Lenna charged, the dispel had caused her aura to flicker but nothing else. She was glad that Isaac’s magics were not spells at all but magical skills like wielding a sword. She knew the chant for dispel magic as it was one of the ones that every caster needed to be wary of but she couldn’t cast it herself. She used to be able to but her broken oath once again railroaded her options.

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“Let my flames,” Lenna began mid stride.

“Command:” The wizard started.

“Consume all” Lenna went on while covering another few feet in a single lunging stride.

“Nega…” The wizard continued.

“Before me.” Lenna finished. Her hand started to heat up.

Right as flames were about to start pouring out of her open hand the wizard finished. “. . . tion.” Her spell fizzled.

‘Dispels and counters. Dammit.’ Lenna swore internally. She went for the weakest link in their front line and planned to plow through the rapier wielder in one or two strong attacks. A bolt bounced off her armor. The mace and shield warrior moved to intercept her.

“Stars of doom heed my call.” The wizard chanted. Lenna changed course, trying to use the mace wielder as a shield against the wizard. She covered her face with her off hand, started to repeat her cone of flames spell, and began a powerful horizontal swing all at the same time.

Four small marbles of reality magic dove around the mace wielder and slammed into Lenna’s armor. The magic was only mostly stopped by her armor and she felt small wounds open up only to be quickly resealed by Isaac. She enhanced her horizontal swing with her aura and flames again. The magical blade was blocked by the man’s shield. Her sword cut deep, only stopping halfway through the warrior’s forearm, a full seven inches into the shield.

The warrior howled in pain and tried to back off. He turned right as Lenna was about to finish her chant again. “:Negation” She heard the wizard cast again and her flames died out in her hand.

‘Better that than him attacking I guess.’ Lenna thought and closed her fist before smashing the warrior’s chest with a left hook that took him two inches off the ground and six backwards. She spun and yanked. Her sword came free and the warrior’s arm poured blood like a fountain.

She shouldered the rapier wielder who had tried to get close to get a good hit in while she was distracted with his teammate. Another bolt bounced off her armor. She was about to begin her chant again when she heard something she really didn’t want to hear. “What I seek is thunder!” The wizard shouted and lowered his staff at her.

Lenna turned and raised her sword slightly just in time as a lightning bolt lanced out of the wizard’s staff, slammed into her sword, shifted direction slightly, punched into her shoulder, and then singed a line across the ground forty feet behind her. The roll of thunder echoing down the street. She felt her blood boil. Her armor heated up. Isaac’s death flames ran damage control but they needed time and that was something she didn’t have.

Her burst blood vessels were healing quickly but her arm was still in excruciating pain. The inside of her armor was painted red and felt wet. Her arm twitched as the nerves were rebuilt. Her vision blurred from the pain but she refused to let it slow her. She moved through the rapier wielder as if he wasn’t there. She uppercutted him in the stomach straight through his feeble attempts at blocking it. She grabbed his face and through gritted teeth started her spell again. “Let my flames”

“Command:” The wizard started his counter.

“Consume all before me.” She finished even as she regained control over her right arm.

“Negation” The wizard finished. Once again fizzling Lenna’s spell.

That was fine. That was part of the plan. Counterspell was a third level spell, as was lightning bolt, and dispel magic. The wizard had been burning through mana like there was no tomorrow and if he kept countering her first level spell he would run out of mana about the same time she did. A wizard without mana was a dead man.

She stabbed her longsword into the rapier wielder’s chest and turned, using him as a shield against the next crossbow bolt. The greatsword warrior was almost on top of her and was already bringing his sword down when she had turned. Instead of hitting her head his strike missed and caught her arm that was holding his companion by the face, then her cross guard of the sword that was now buried in the other man’s chest.

Lenna felt her forearm fracture, Isaac’s mana couldn’t keep up with the damage she was taking but she just needed a little more time. Her sword was forced downward with so much force that it cut another two inches directly downward through the rapier wielder’s armor and forced him to his knees, a second or two longer and his legs would have given out from the wound instead.

Lenna stepped back and started her spell again. She raised her sword just in time to deflect another heavy swing from the larger warrior with the larger sword. Again the wizard countered her spell even as she forced her aura out over the entire area. The wizard’s knees began to shake. The wounded crossbowman started stumbling away from her. The other crossbowman powered through it, as did the two still surviving warriors. The one with the shield was trying to get said shield off of his arm before he bled out.

The greatsword didn’t slow and its wielder continued to press the attack. Lenna was on the back foot as his strength rivaled her own, even when she was using her aura to enhance her attacks, with the added bonus of a larger weapon that he, unlike her, was two handing.

Lenna’s eyes went wide, as she parried the large man’s next attack, from the spell she heard next come from the wizard. She hadn’t started her next spell quick enough to force him to counter it and now she could only hope her will was stronger than however much mana the wizard had left.