Issac was ready, his heart had been pounding in his ears non-top since before he even made it up the mountain. Whatever happened afterward he would deal with but right now he was going to have some fun.

Oh, he couldn’t wait. Before today Issac rarely got the chance to fight people one-on-one. Usually, he either sniped them from a distance or created an elaborate trap that finished them for him. And using magic, forget it, they all died way before he would even get the chance.

But, first things first though. Before he can even think about having an epic battle inside of a crumbling factory bathed in fire, Issac first has to get this guy's meaty paws off of his Pancho. This thing wasn’t cheap let me tell you.

Faster than Markine could stop him Issac’s hands flew out, grabbing a hold of Markine’s hand that was holding him up. Now, Issac knew that he didn’t have enough strength for this next part. So, as he took Markine’s thumb Issac began threading his magic through his muscles and into his fist, temporarily increasing his strength in his arms.

Just enough so that he could twist away Markine’s thumb to the point of breaking.

“AARGH!”

Markine shouted in pain as he was forced to drop Issac. He backed away holding his hand to his chest. Not wanting to lose his momentum Issac began attacking Markine.

Punching, and kicking, Issac attacked Markinge in a flurry of blows, each time landing another hit on Markine. But Markine didn’t even seem to know that he was being attacked, all he did was cradle his hurt thumb in his hand. He looked confused as if he couldn’t understand that he was hurt.

Issac kept his guard up as he backed away, trying to catch his breath. Issac stared at Markine in disbelief, not one of his attacks had hurt him. Issac knew that with his magic he should be hitting as hard as a professional boxer, and yet Markine was just standing there with not even a scratch on him.

Right now, the only reason that Issac could land any blows was because Markien was too distracted to even notice them. But Issac knew that Markine’s shock would soon wear off and then his full attention would be on Issac.

That is why Issac decided to back off for a moment. Before he could find a way to hurt Markine Issac had to keep his distance. The main thing that Issac was watching out for was another of Markine's fast hits.

Any more hits like that and Issac didn't think he would be getting up again.

Issac’s protections were able to deflect most of the damage from that first punch, allowing him to get back up with no problem after taking a crippling blow to the chest. But multiple hits like that would overload even what the enchantments could handle destroying them and leaving Issac defenceless.

At most Issac’s magic could hold off two, maybe three more hits. Before that happened Issac had to find a way to put down this roided out cabrón.

“ I don’t know what you did, but you are gonna wish you hadn’t.”

In an eerily calm voice, Markine finally looked at Issac. No longer was his mind elsewhere, now Issac had Markine's full undivided attention. If before Markine was the definition of cool then now he was rage. The veins on his skull pulsed with increasing pace, his face almost blood red and his hands opened and closed, as if they were already grabbing his neck.

Issac could see that Markine was holding in his rage, trying not to let it show, trying to keep it from killing him then and there. For whatever reason Markine still needed Issac, he needed that money. He needed it so much that he had to physically stop himself from killing Issac.

But he couldn’t stop the hate from behind his eyes showing. Issac knew that if he lost this fight then Markine would try to fill Issac with enough pain and suffering to break him.

Ok then, he couldn’t lose.

But again, faster than he could see Issac was backhanded by the back of Markine's hand, crashing straight through the office door and back into the main building.

As he flew through the air Issac found himself blinking out of consciousness for a short while, that was the second time that Markine had landed a hit on his head. Thankfully the protections on his hood covered his entire head and not just on the fabric.

Still, both hits to the head left him unconscious long enough to the point where he couldn’t even right himself in the air, leaving his body to crash limply onto the floor below.

Immediately after waking up the first thing that Issac noticed was the choking smoke. Black smoke rose into the air, filling the ceiling and gathering together condensing into itself until it became almost like a black wall hanging over people's heads.

The second thing he noticed was the flashes of heat that came from his back as he lay on the heated ground surrounded by flames. When Issac had first stepped into the warehouse the fire had just begun to spread, but now Amazon lumber was fully engulfed by the flames.

Due to the protections surrounding Markine's office neither one of them had noticed just how much the fire had spread, leaving it to go unchecked. Authorities hadn't even gotten the chance to climb the mountain to put out the flames, they were still stuck at the bottom forced to stop whatever remained of the Southern Angels.

“Hahahaha.” Laughing as he climbed to his feet Issac became glad that he was still wearing his poncho. While the thing wasn't able to stop him from feeling the heat he knew that if it wasn't for his poncho he would have already been cooked alive by the flames.

Looking around Issac noticed for the first time just how much of the warehouse had already been consumed by the flames. It was as if someone had come and painted the entire inside of the warehouse a bright orange-red.

With this much damage being done it wouldn't be long until the entire building came down.

Already creaks and groans were ringing throughout the warehouse, if Issac didn’t finish this fast then he would find himself buried under a literal ton of flaming hot steel.

.

Though after thinking about it Issac theorized that if worst comes to worst he could always try burying Markinee in this blazing inferno.

“ I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU REGRETT EVER STEPPING FOOT IN BRAZIL BOY!”

At the top of the stairs, Markine stood, hands clenched atop the railings, searching through the smoke, trying to spot him. Issac pushed himself under the stairs, hoping that Markine didn’t sense him.

Issa just didn’t get it. How can this guy punch so fast, I mean come on, Issac could move three times faster than an average grown man with his magic but this guy was somehow punching faster than he could react.

Issac knew that Markine was using some kind of spell to move faster than humanly possible he just didn’t know how.

This wasn’t like with Leo, with Leo, it looked as if he could only use the magic stored inside of his rings. Useful for quick spells on the go but lose those same rings and you are finished.

Markine didn’t have any rings on when they were fighting and nothing else on him seemed to radiate the same kind of magical energy as those rings. But then again Issac didn’t try to look all that hard.

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Surrounding that office was a box of magic so intense it cut itself off from the rest of the building. Just from the intensity, Issac knew that the protection of that few square feet of space was far greater than whatever Cutter had over Manuel's mansion.

The magical energy within that room was so great it saturated everything, and everyone, inside of it. Issac was able to see magic in all of its beautiful colors but paint everything in the same color and some things get lost in the background.

Luckily he was punched through the door, getting him out of whatever control Markine had over that room. While it might just be paranoia, Issac wasn’t prepared to fight inside an enclosed space that his enemy controlled.

Issac was running out of time, if he couldn’t find a way to stop Markine from performing his spell then the only other option left would be to disrupt the spell. Somehow.

Taking a mental inventory of what he had left Issac realized that besides his rifle his only choice of weapons were his two rattling sticks, a couple of extending staffs, and two tactical hunting knives.

None of which would help him right now in this situation. Just by looking at his body Issac knew that nothing short of a tank would be able to get past Markine’s defenses.

Issac’s armor, on the other hand, was barely holding up as it was after protecting him from Markine’s seemingly light punches, a few more punches like that and both him and his armor would be broken.

But they wouldn't last long anyway, especially with this blazing hellscape constantly putting pressure on his enchantments.

So that left his magic, and if he was being honest with himself he had gotten lazy in his pursuit of magic. After nearly ten years of discovery, he had only created two ‘spells’. The ease of his hunts made him complacent in the nonexistence of any combat spells leaving him to create a parlor trick, and radio relay of the human mind.

The only one that he could see working would be ‘Mind’ and even then he had never tried on a magical person. The best case scenario it doesn’t work, work is that Markine piggybacks off of his attempt and destroys Issac’s mind.

All of a sudden something crashed into the floor, shaking the entire warehouse and nearly blowing Issac away from his hiding place.

Instead of taking the stairs like a civilized man, Markine decided to ignore them and jump past three flytes of stairs crashing straight down to the smoky floor where he had last seen Issac disappear.

Again showing off his abnormal body he crashed onto the floor so hard he cracked the concrete and left a small indentation where he landed, he then proceeded to walk off and search for Issac, as if the easy thirty-foot drop was nothing to him.

“ WHAT'S WRONG YOU LITTLE SHIT, ONE PUNCH AND YOU RUN!! COME OUT AND FIGHT.”

For the first time outside of that room, Issac was able to get a good look and what kind of man Markine was. A golden earthly glow hugged Markine's massie frame like a blanket. This glow not only seemed to act like a shield for Markine but, Issac noticed, it also seemed to penetrate into his muscles, feeding them and strengthening them.

And unlike Leo, Markine seemed to keep a steady wall of magic covering his body in all directions. If Leo’s protection was a gas then Markine’s was a solid brick wall. Earlier he was able to overcome whatever this defense was by putting all his pressure on one small specific part, but now he wondered if such an opportunity would ever present itself again

Watching him from under the stairs Issac realized that Markine had no way of finding him through the smoke. All he was doing was blindly stumbling and swinging around, hoping that Issac was there. This Issac realized gave him time, time to make a new spell. And the fire around him would act as the perfect fuel to jump-start it.

As he sat under the stairs waiting for his magic to form around him Issac watched as Markine crushed boxes and threw materials all around the warehouse trying to brute force his way through the smoke.

Issac, on the other hand, could easily see Markine’s magical silhouette as he searched around for Issac. Like a lightbulb in a dark room, Markine stood out against the black backdrop around him.

He was just that bright.

As he felt the magic around him grow in density Issac decided that it was time to shift the stage into the next act.

Releasing the magic around him into the air Issac stood up and started stalking around the glowing silhouette of Markine, activating his boots as he went, masking his footsteps from Markine.

Then using his magic Issac created a type of tunnel starting from his lips and then bouncing it off of any walls. What this did was guide the vibrations of his voice, carrying it away from where he was standing and placing it somewhere else.

Effectively letting him throw his voice around, further confusing Markine as he couldn’t find where the voice was coming from.

“ Don’t worry, you big lug, I'm still here. I’m just curious about something.”

As he talked he positioned himself behind Markine. From there he was able to stand and watch as Markine continued to make a fool of himself, wildly swinging his arms through any obstacle in his way, hoping to find Issac and end this creepy uneasy feeling building up in his heart.

“ WHERE ARE YOU! I THOUGHT YOU WERE THIS BIG BAD INFA THAT HUNTED HIS PREY TO INSANITY!! BUT INSTEAD ALL I FIND IS A SCARED LITTLE BITCH!”

Pulling out his rattling sticks Issac crouched down behind Markine, waiting, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. As he waited he pushed as much of his magic as he could spare into his weapons, forcing all of it to collect at the very top of the sticks.

To give himself as much magic as he could he shut off the small amount going to his lips and shoes.

Instantly Issac’s footsteps could be heard again. And then from directly behind him, Markine heard a voice speaking out to him not even a foot away.

“ How much can I make you bleed? ”

Even as Markine whipped around to face him Issac was already in motion, pushing off from his feat Issac leaped up from where he crouched down. Flying over Markine’s head as he had already started to blindly swing at whatever was behind him.

Landing back to back with Markine, and using the magic concentrated tips as points Issac stabbed both of his sticks behind him, hoping they would be enough to puncture Markine's magical defense.

“AURGH” Even as he heard the shout of pain behind him Issac knew that he hadn’t stabbed as deep as he had wanted. Even without his magical defense, Markine’s body was just too dense, barely letting Issac stab two inches of his rattling sticks into his body.

Back to back to Markine Issac was able to feel as Markine started to turn his body, swinging his arm behind him hoping to catch Issac. Forced to leave his weapons barely hanging off of Markine’s body, Issac dove straight to the ground barely missing the swing even as the force of the blow caused him to be launched forward.

Disappearing back into the smoke Issac waited for his next chance to strike. As he did he progressively caused the black smoke to gather further, centering the clump of smoke around Markine.

“ AAAAHHH WHERE ARE YOU... SHOW YOURSELF, Stop dicking around FIGHT!”

Even as he hid inside the smoke Issac couldn't help but answer back. “ You do know that I’m right here right, there is no reason to shout all the time.”

Barely ducking out of the way as a crate flew over his head Issac realized that even with all the smoke had been centered around Markine he barely acted as if it affected him.

Whatever that shield was around him it also seemed to filter out his air supply, otherwise he would have been down on the ground choked out.

Forcing the smoke to continue to condense around Markine Issac rushed forward deciding that he would at least try to help the smoke along. Without his sticks he was only left with his knives, grabbing them in a reverse handle Issac started hacking and slashing at Markine.

Issac ran around Markine, attacking every square inch that he could reach. Every last bit of his focus was on Markine any movement and twitch made him move to another spot before he could attack Issac back.

Issac wasn’t risking another attack, especially with how damaged his armor was.

Every attack, every slash of his knives would just slide right off of his shield. No matter what angle or how hard he slashed nothing got through his shield. Issack tried to concentrate what little magic he had left into the edges of his blades but whatever he did have wasn't enough.

Circling and slashing, that was all he could do as he waited.

He tried to at least aim for Markine’s eyes, but he kept his head well guarded. Blocking any attack towards his face with his arms and nearly catching Issac a couple of times as he did.

He tried kicks to the back of his knees, trying to at least throw him off his balance and get him down on the ground. But Markine was just too large to be affected by the little bit of strength that Issac had left.

This continued until finally, Issac got too greedy in his attacks.

He thought that he was finally getting through the shields around Markine. He tried to focus all of his attacks right at the center of his back hoping that continual attacks would be the trick that got him through.

Had he been paying more attention he would have seen Markine spin around bringing his fist for a brutal haymaker. By the time that Issac realized the danger that he was in it was too late, he didn't have any time to duck out of the way.

The only thing that he could do was bring his arms up for protection.