Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 23 I Appear To Have Been Injured.

Isaac had quickly realized that climbing was not his strong suit. For one he didn’t know how to tie any climbing knots and for two he didn’t know how to climb down and still keep his pitons. Climbing by itself was taking a lot out of him despite his above average strength. Luckily he had only had to climb twice as the path he took was supposed to be wagon worthy.

Several cave-ins had happened unfortunately and had forced him to take an alternate route. He was now incredibly happy he spent that platinum piece for a hand drawn copy of the actual map. The detour was only supposed to cost him about four hours but to Isaac, and his inability to gauge time correctly, it had felt like half a day.

He had just woken up from his third extended nap of his journey and was wondering how much farther he had to go. Looking at his map he noticed that up ahead there was a concentration of decently large caverns connected to each other by small tunnels. These caverns were marked with a danger warning.

According to the general store manager there had been an increase in monster sightings around those caverns. Thankfully they were small and weaker monsters but the increase in numbers was still something Isaac would have to be careful of. His usual plan of attack, going invisible and stabbing things and then walking away, would only work if he could kill all of his enemies before he ran out of mana.

At Isaac’s current mana level he could maintain his invisibility for about a minute without rest. If whatever he was fighting took any longer than that to kill he would be, in his own words, ‘Up shit creek without a paddle.’

Isaac had also decided that messing with the dragon skull would have to wait. At least until he was sure nothing would try to eat him while off in nightmare land. By now he was getting tired of traveling. It had only been three days but he was almost out of water and he was out of things to wipe with.

As he approached the danger zone he heard something. A sound like metal on stone. Then a loud yelp. Isaac covered his boots in shadows and started after the sounds. A minute later he found what was making them.

—

Lenna V’Nova was ready to pass out on her feet. She was about to find a hole to sleep in or at the very least meditate for a little while when she was met by an army. An army of shadow-wolves to be precise. She had stumbled upon a pack larger than any she had ever seen. All of those packs of two to four must have been scouting groups from this clan. She could no longer call it a pack.

Their numbers rivaled her own house. There were over two dozen of them. They were starving but seemed to be drawn towards the very same place Lua had told her to go. ‘One last battle and then a better life.’ She mentally told herself.

She let them back her up against a wall so they wouldn’t be able to come at her from behind. Each lunge was met by a flaming sword or a devastating punch. Lenna’s armor took hit after hit without much more than scratched paint. Lenna herself however was collecting bruises like a mouse does breadcrumbs.

She took another hit to her faceplate and she heard the rivet pop. She knew it was only a matter of time until the tiny piece gave out from the dozen hits it had taken. Regrettably there were no other options in most cases. Any attack going for her throat she would lean into and take on the chin instead. Each of these hits damage the rivets holding her faceplate on more and more.

Lenna struck another down and her flames began to flicker. She was running out of mana. She knew that if she ran out in the middle of battle like this it would definitely spell her downfall. In her already exhausted state mana exhaustion would take her to her knees no matter how hard she wanted to keep fighting. She really should have just opened with a fireball but in her sleep deprived state she hadn’t even thought about it. Now, she had to fight without any more flames at all.

—

Isaac watched as a pack of wolves lunged and snapped at the knight. One jumped at the knight’s face and caught a shoulder to the chest. Its snout impacted the knight’s faceplate and Isaac heard metal scrape on metal. The wolf was immediately slashed at but the strike was too high. The blade cut the wolf’s leg off at the elbow and sent it tumbling away.

The knight reached up with their left hand and in one motion undid the buckle and yanked off the helmet. Isaac could see, as the helmet was getting removed, that the faceplate was bent upwards on the right side. This effectively made the knight’s right eye useless.

What Isaac saw made his breath catch. The knight before him that was fighting for their life was not some hardened man like Claus nor were they a young inexperienced boy like Chris or Gregory. What his eyes met was nothing short of a goddess of war.

In the dark Isaac could only see in black and white. What he saw was ornate full-plate covered in blood and scratches. He saw silver hair that was half in and half out of its simple braid. He saw dark skin that looked soft but he could see the hardened facial muscles beneath it. He saw silver eyes that seemed to both take in everything and focus to a needle’s point wherever they looked.

Her jaw was sharp, her nose a straight line between her eyes that only seemed to sharpen them. Her chin was thin but not small. Her cheekbones were pronounced enough that their hardness wasn’t hidden by her soft skin. Her brow was set in a slight scowl in concentration. Her eyes were angled upwards at their edges and combined with her scowl gave her a look he would never forget.

From Isaac’s perspective he gazed not on a knight, not on a woman, but a wolf. What he saw was a lone wolf facing off against an entire pack and winning if the dozen or so corpses tossed about meant anything. Then those sharp predator eyes met his for the briefest of moments as they scanned the battlefield.

The wolves had backed off for a moment and seemed to be weighing their options. They all looked starved but simultaneously their shadows seemed stronger. Isaac could feel a slight connection to the knight as well as the air around them. Something was weird about this cavern that made these wolves stay here.

Isaac had a decision to make. He could either use the knight as a distraction and sneak past or he could go help her. He hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided that at the very least he was tired of traveling alone. He could only talk to himself so much before he feared he was going insane.

Isaac started running towards the knight and her foes. His steps were silent as was his gear as he coated his body in shadows and vanished. A wolf lunged at the knight, she slashed at its head but it managed to move slightly so the blade only cut off an ear and gave it a gash on the side. Another lunged from the other side and she threw her helmet at it. The helmet bounced off its nose and the wolf fell backwards in a whimper.

Isaac approached the rear of the pack and drew his sword. Another wolf lunged at her and she jammed her free hand down its throat. She pulled her hand back out while grabbing onto something inside. She turned and tossed the wolf at one of the other ones but whatever she was holding onto tore. The wolf tumbled along the ground and into one of its brethren’s corpses.

Isaac flew between two of the wolves and slashed at one. Much to his surprise the wolf reacted near instantly. It clawed out towards where the pain had come from. Isaac was still in the way and caught the swipe in the side. He pushed on. Then he felt the ache and warm liquid start running down his side. He realized in that moment that that was the side where his armor was damaged.

The knight saw the wolf get cut and its claw finish its slash with blood on it. She was breathing hard and didn’t know how much she had left in her. There were still too many wolves left and she could feel her arms slowly going unresponsive. Her knees were weak. Then a man appeared next to her. He moved in behind her and placed his palm on her back.

“Gods I hope this works.” Isaac said and focused his death mana through his hand into the knight’s back. If he could feel a connection to her like he did with other monsters then he should be able to heal her. He could feel a slight connection to the wolves too but only when he was close to them. They were too weak to have a strong connection like the dragon skull.

—

Lenna didn’t have the energy to stop whatever this hooded stranger was up to. She just let him hide behind her because her mind was too exhausted to process anything anymore. When his hand touched her back she got worried however. And maybe a little hopeful. At least until he prayed that whatever he was doing was going to work.

All of her worry was washed away in an instant. All her muscles relaxed for a moment and she almost stumbled. A moment later it felt as though cool water was running through her veins. Her exhaustion melted away like she was taking a hot bath. Her bruises began to disappear and her head started to clear. It was the most rested she had felt in days.

A grin spread across her face as she cut down the next wolf, then the next. She felt like she could fight on forever. Every muscle fiber was being repaired as it was damaged so she could keep swinging with everything she had. She put as much force into each strike as she could, making sure to kill each wolf in one hit, and the act didn’t slow her down in the least.

The feeling, for weary Lenna, was pure ecstasy. Whoever this man was he must have been a saint sent from Lua herself. This shadowy, hooded, stranger who could have, should have, just left her to die to these wolves had not only saved her life but also given her a taste of the heavens. In her mind this person must be protected at all cost.

She jumped in front of a wolf that dove for him and punched it with all her strength in the snout. It crumpled.

Now there were only three left. One was missing a leg, one had lost an ear and had a long gash down its side, and the final one looked perfectly healthy. The last one seemed to be their leader and looked to be realizing that she wasn’t going to go down at all anymore. Before the wolf could watch her slowly succumb to exhaustion but now she looked better than when they had started.

Whatever had been keeping the wolves there and trying to kill her looked as if it was about to break. Then they all felt a pulse of mana and the three wolves lunged at her. Lenna quickly finished them off without ceremony.

—

“Holy shit you are strong.” Isaac said to the knight. He then sheathed his sword and pulled his hand off her back. He moved the hand to cover his injury that was still bleeding everywhere.

The knight turned towards him and their eyes met. Their eyes, hers silver and his coated in shadow, gazed into each other before Isaac broke away and looked down at his side. “By chance, can you help me? I appear to have been injured.” Isaac said and then the darkness that had been creeping in on his vision won out and he dropped to his knees. His head was spinning. He had no way of knowing how much blood was too much to lose but he felt like he was rapidly approaching that amount.