Chapter 98 Can I Punch Him?

“Reality, bind my foe!” The wizard yelled. Lenna felt space itself constrict around her like a snake.

“Heh, you’re mine.” She heard the greatsword wielding knight in front of her say as he turned and prepared to hit her with the most powerful horizontal strike he could. Considering his weight and the weight of the weapon Lenna doubted her armor would be enough. Even if the sword couldn’t cut through her magical armor the impact force was bound to do considerable damage.

“EEYAH!” Lenna screamed and forced her body to move despite the magic. She flexed all her muscles and blasted her aura out with as much power as she had left. The continual aura use was wearing on her. Usually she only ever needed to use it for a few seconds at a time. In short bursts the spiritual strain wasn’t even noticeable. Now however, she felt worn down deep in her chest and bones. The type of tired Isaac couldn’t heal away.

Her muscles bulged, her armor creaked from the strain as both its wearer and the space around it fought for control. The spell finally gave out after what, to Lenna, felt like minutes but was in all reality hardly over a second. Lenna barely had enough time to block the incoming strike with her forearms. She pushed up onto her toes to limit her contact with the ground. The impact shoved her back a few feet and she staggered back a few steps farther. Her left arm broke from the impact, not having been able to fully heal while suffering constant abuse, her right arm bruised but was mostly okay thanks to her left arm taking most of the blow.

Lenna’s left arm hung limp at her side. She rested the flat of her blade on her shoulder and locked eyes with the other knight. She heard a twang and turned her head slightly. The crossbow bolt skipped off of her faceplate and bounced off the ground. She glanced to her right and saw the wizard on his knees panting, the injured crossbowman was trying to reload his crossbow with one arm as the other was now bandaged and in a sling that looked to be made of his own shirt. The uninjured one was loading what must have been his dozenth bolt to fire at her. He only needed to get lucky once. One bolt, in just the wrong place, could be the end of her fight if not her life.

She felt Isaac’s magic reset the broken bone and could only pray that the other warrior would give her more time to heal. He moved. “Let my flames consume all before me.” Lenna chanted as she tried to turn her broken arm so its palm would face him.

“Command: Negation” She heard from the wizard who she heard collapse completely onto the ground just as her fires fizzled again.

‘Damn it!’ She cursed internally. That wizard was really pissing her off. Her plan had been to allow him to keep countering her so he couldn’t cast anything else but once that Reality Bind spell had been used, which resulted in her broken arm, all bets were off. In other life she would have thrown her sword at him to make a point. Now however, she needed to win.

Her opponent’s greatsword came down in a diagonal arc from her bad side. She swung her sword up in a clockwise direction with her aura pushing the blade as much as her arm was. She fought back a wince from the sudden movement even as her arm bones returned to being mostly intact. Her blade caught his and she leaned backwards allowing the blade to be redirected just over her face. The blade had passed so close that she could smell the oil used to polish it.

The other knight stopped his swing once it had pathed the entire way back to his left hip. Lenna stepped forwards and raised her blade’s tip to face the larger warrior’s chest. She grunted from the effort and drove it forwards. Fire coated her blade, her frayed aura pushed with everything it had left, her muscles drank up Isaac’s mana to allow them to keep working at a hundred percent.

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Her opponent swung back the way his sword had previously come. He trusted his armor against her sword. If Lenna would have been in the right headspace to notice, her eyes would have gone wide at the realization. Her blade carved a vertical gash along his breastplate as it was deflected by the magically reinforced plate armor. Its magic having been hidden by the same spell as Lenna’s first opponent’s sword.

Lenna kept pushing with everything she had and then some. Her blade finished carving a vertical line from the man’s stomach to his neck on his armor before skipping off his collar and getting stuck four inches into his helmet. If her angle had been off by even a degree her sword would have skipped off the side of his helmet instead of entering it from just behind the chin. She hadn’t even been aiming for this outcome. Luck, or maybe fate decided this victory. Her opponent’s attack lost most of its power as it bounced off her pauldron.

The knight collapsed at her feet. Lenna staggered back a step as she tried to yank her sword out of the magical armor it was now firmly lodged in. She was breathing heavily. She was tired to her core. Her injuries were mostly healed but she was still bruised all over. She turned and got her hand up in time to block a crossbow bolt aimed for her head. She staggered back again before solidifying her footing and taking a deep breath to ground herself.

‘Almost done. Hard part is over.’ She told herself. Lenna gave up on her sword and retrieved the fallen knight’s greatsword. She rested the flat of its blade on her shoulder as she held it with one hand. “Concede.” She ordered her remaining opponents. Her voice was barely audible even across the twenty foot gap separating her from that damned wizard.

The crossbowmen shared a glance before the wizard, who had pushed himself back into a sitting position and looked at her with anger in his eyes but no energy left to direct it. He raised his staff so the tip was pointing at Lenna. “Frost coalesce, impede those who stand against winter.” He chanted barely louder than a whisper. A light blue, to everyone watching, except Lenna who couldn’t see color, sparkling beam of light struck Lenna in the chest.

Ice formed where the beam made contact before the beam died, only a second after it had begun. Lenna took a few steps forwards. The cold feeling better than not. She was hot, sweaty, covered in mostly her own blood under her armor, and overall just done with this whole mess. She slowly closed the distance to the wizard who looked up at her. The crossbowmen hadn’t fired in over ten seconds. They hadn’t moved. They simply watched as Lenna stalked towards their teammate.

“I… surrender.” The wizard told her through quiet but deep breaths.

Lenna turned to ask Isaac a question when she saw the mace and shield wielder from earlier strap his partly broken shield back on and cinch it tight. He looked up and met her eye. “Oh I’m not done. Now that your magic sword isn’t a problem it is on girly.” His arm was covered in blood but the wound had closed.

‘Potion or he has his own healing.’ Lenna thought and took two steps towards him before stopping. She stood casually with the greatsword still resting half on her shoulder. “Make it quick.” She told him. Her left foot was half a step forwards so she could easily switch into a fighting stance but for now she was just taking a break. She didn’t know what kind of tricks this man had up his sleeve.

He chuckled. “Never heard that one before.” He said with a smirk and charged her.

‘If he didn’t use any magic earlier I doubt he has any now. Probably potions.’ Lenna reasoned. She waited until he was about ten feet away to make her move. She whipped the greatsword at him like a throwing ax with only her natural strength and took two quick steps forward.

The greatsword was blocked by the other warrior’s shield who ducked behind it just in time. He raised his head and lowered his shield just in time to see Lenna grab his shield. His eyes went wide as Lenna yanked and twisted. His arm was locked straight and she spun, twirling under his arm without loosening her grip on the shield. Since the shield was locked onto his arm his arm was pulled along for the ride which included a full forced rotation. His hand, which was locked into the handle on the inside of his shield, turned like a waterwheel.

The man let out a cry of pain as his wrist was sprained, his elbow hyperextended, and his shoulder was sprained in turn. Lenna skirted around him while still holding onto his injured arm. She kicked his knee out and slammed him onto the ground face first.

“I concede!” He yelled through the pain “Just let me go!” He cried.

Lenna shoved his shield as she released it. His arm bouncing off the ground. Nothing broken but plenty of joint damage. Lenna continued with what she was going to do before he so rudely interrupted her. Lenna asked a question while weakly pointing at the wizard who was still on his knees a few yards away: “Can I punch him?”