In a way, it was fun to play up the haughty attitude and cut loose, and unfortunately for Idiot Isaac, I wasn’t in the best mood.
Whatever else the fool had to say was overshadowed by the third ring. I planned to approach things slowly–for as cocky as I had been lately, I didn’t have a concrete plan when it came to Erebus’ transformation. It wasn’t like the others where the elements so readily called to me. In a way, I was bastardizing a utility skill not made for combat and forcing it into a mold fit for combat. But I could feel the shadows attached to my body, the ones stretching from and my feet pooling underneath me felt murky like water instead of sand.
A spear pulled my focus toward its tip as it slashed through the air and toward my cheek. I tilted my own to block and slide forward but my opponent stepped closer. Instead of a quick dash, it was as if he took three footsteps with one tap of his toes.
I raised my arm in time to block the mana-covered fist. It smashed into my chitin, and I felt something crack against the surface of my skin. My leg swept forward but Isaac stepped to the side and forced me to block a low sweep.
Five more blows followed and I found myself pressed back. Each block and parry on Isaac’s part led to another action that chained together. Eventually, I mistimed a horizontal slash and found the edge of his spear carve past my arm and up my shoulder. I slammed the back of my fist against his gauntlet and used the momentum to hop backwards.
“First blood is mine,” Idiot Isaac sneered. He flicked his wrist and discarded the blood. For a moment he stared at the droplets, examining the pale-pink liquid being absorbed by the sand.
His eyes scanned my shoulder and then behind me before narrowing.
“You. You’re not a beastkin. An illu-”
He intercepted my swing with a deft spin and adjusted his grip, slapping my spear away as he took a step back.
“Very well. Keep your secret for now. Even with your foolish insolence your identity will be of use to us. Best not to demask you yet,” he said.
“You talk too much,” I said.
“As do you. Now prepare yourself!”
I lowered my waist and slid forward, dodging the quick snap of his spear. It clanged against mine and he activated another skill. Pale-blue mana–nearly ethereal in appearance–coalesced into a pointed diamond near the tip of his weapon. He stabbed forward and I moved to knock it aside but found a sharp sting cut through more of my shoulder.
The bone-blade clashed against Isaac’s spear toward the middle and I willed it to wrap around. From a straight shaft to a twisted tentacle it wound around his spear and secured itself in place. Before he could pull back I charged. My left foot pulled me into his guard and I shifted my claws an at upward trajectory.
Bone ground against sparkling mana and was sent flying. A repulsive force forced my arm into my chest and a knee hammered my side. I tried to counter by punching forward. The ethereal barrier appeared but I continued, smashing into the mana and throttling my own into the tips of my claws.
There was a brief clash as the two mana types warred against each other, but the dark tendrils along of the chitin gave way. On reflex, I threaded another strand and forced it across my chest and into my limb. Blue caved under the cold-piercing nature of the shadows and I sank an inch into Isaac’s armpit.
He stomped and the ground erupted. Sand blanketed my body as kinetic energy sent me tumbling. I rolled twice before sinking my fists into the sand and fought against the drag. Thanks to my mask I didn’t have to worry about breathing through the sandcloud but the benefit was mute as I heard a faint clap that banished the partiucles in a circular wave.
Isaac stood at the epicenter, the earth around him undisturbed in a ring about a foot around his legs. His face was locked in a rictus snarl that seethed with fury. His right hand clutched at his side just underneath his arm. Bright red blood spilled between his fingers and into the shredded strips of cloth beneath the leather vest.
I made sure my mask displayed an all-too-wide grin and stood up. “You have some interesting skills there. Did I scare you with that attack?”
“áine. Don’t heal me yet. Let’s make him think we’re more injured than we are.”
She pouted, but the fight was just starting to become interesting.
I sent a mental prod inward and try to feel for how Erebus felt, but he was locked in. From the complex web of emotions sent through the link I managed to boil it down to one central idea.
Harvest!
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I cracked my neck and reached for my spear. It pulled from the ground and I raised my claws to splay them outward. From the tips Isaac’s blood dripped down and caught the crazed noble’s eye.
“Would you look at that? I’m surprised it doesn’t sparkle,” I chuckled. I flicked the blood free as if it were disgusting slime and rubbed my fingers together. The shadow mana scoured the blood clean, a feature I knew was possible from watching Erebus help filet some fish. For good measure, I scoffed and lowered my hand. “It turns out being a noble is only skin deep. Disappointing, false Isaac.”
Despite the taunt, the outburst of indignant rage I expected never came. Instead, he schooled his face and his lips pressed into a thin line. It did nothing to hide the fire in his eyes but I could have been imagining things. There was an increase of stars swimming around his pupils but whether or not that was due to his emotions or his skills, I couldn’t tell.
“I see I was hasty in my decision,” Idiot Isaac started slowly.
He raised his chin and took up a new pose. His spear faced my chest and he led with the same foot. His shoulders straightened and he lightly bent his legs, aligning his feet nearly an equal distance between his shoulder blades. Isaac’s hands adjusted and he leaned forward.
“No bark this time? I must say, I’m disappointed,” I teased.
“Cease the petty mockery,” he spat. I frowned but he moved forward. “I was mistaken to have placed you so beneath me. Your impressive display with both the lightning affinity and the fire should have been enough. But you continue to surprise. Well no more. You have proven yourself, Mordred. To have drawn blood from me and to even further surpass my guard is commendable. But it is a victory that I must pay by several fold. Now stand and prepare yourself. I will be taking your hands as well as your feet. If you manage to submit then I will stop there.”
He paused and exhaled. The starfield in his pupils froze and a singular star fixed itself at the center of the void. Mana radiated from his chest and into the armor, shifting outward into the enchantments. The runes hidden inside the stitching grabbed hold of the mana and pushed it through before spitting it out the other side in a thicker haze. A skill activated, centering around his legs as it stretched upward and connected, forming a bubbling wave around his torso that stretched and rebounded like a rubberband.
His eyes met mine and the spike of pale mana stretched over the head of his spear. “If you fail to heed my wisdom, I will be forced to remove your tail.”
“You’ll be banned from the arena,” I remarked.
“A small price to pay. My brother will secure our victory in the tier two competition,” he countered.
It's not as fun if you take this too seriously. Oh well. I guess it’s time to stop fucking around.
I said that, but over the next minute I was reminded of a simple truth. For as well as I managed to hold my own against the noble, I wasn’t able to keep up.
He was better than me; better at using a spear by a margin I couldn’t surpass.
Less than a year in Inoria had taught me plenty of lessons. There were enough lifetimes of misery to spit blood. But I couldn’t surpass decades worth of training, not easily and not in the moment.
Every spin, twirl, flick and snap was met with an equal countermeasure. When I secured a clash and struck against his armor, the band of repulsive energy would force me back, acting far stronger using the enchanted armor as a conduit to enhance the skill’s effectiveness.
For all the fighting I had endured, every painful injury and frankly bullshit amounts of misfortune the noble had years of experience wielding his weapon, as much as it frustrated me to admit.
My blade cut dirt, and his kick was canceled with my own. He turned the counter into a sidestep and tilted forward.
The false Isaac kept his cool, forcing his face into a mask that made his emotions impossible to read. But while his outward appearance methodically pushed me into a corner and triumphed against my attacks with superior technical skill, his mana was impossible to hide.
He burned cold, angry, and befuddled all in one.
As the shaft connected with my thigh, I let mine slide off and willed it to wrap around his leg. I secured the grapple and tugged forward and raised my claws from beneath his calf. Every new attempt had improved my grip on the elusive shadows. The chitin met the repulsion and I released the control of my mana pool and allowed a surge to flood my channels.
Beneath my fingers I pushed against the force and then slipped deeper. My hand plunged into reality and cut through, piercing past the defense and into the shadowplane. Erebus screeched a mind-crushing cry of excitement and laid his control over mine.
Isaac’s scowl dropped. “Cease this at-”
From fingertips to the second knuckle, I let the cold nothingness split before me and pushed! His eyes bulged and a pulse of mana slammed against me. The physical might cracked the chitin along my arms and forced my legs against the ground.
His mana clashed against mine and it tore away at the edges of the seam in reality, slowing my prying to a crawl as I stopped shy of my wrist inside the shadowy realm. Isaac’s feet flared its enchantment and he activated his movement skill, retreating ten paces before he slammed his spear into the sand and halted his momentum.
My eyes trailed the flickering void and I watched as the seam collapsed. It traced a line as my hand carved downward and into the earth. The unexpected stumble prevented me from acting so I slammed chest-first into the ground and felt the cold rush past my arm and up to my shoulder.
“You… Are filled with unexpected surprises. But now it ends…” Idiot Isaac growled.
I ignored him and stared into the abyss. It was impossible to see with my eyes, but my hand radiated a different light, an awareness that expanded into the void like a blurry bubble. And inside that bubble, something had just entered its cloud.
“Get up. Stand and face me so I may bring you low!” he declared.
The something grazed my claws and latched on, a serrated edge lining a slimy appendage that yanked my hand to the side.
“Did you hear me? I said stand, Mordred!”
“Will you shut up?” I yelled.
“Wh-what?”
I closed my fist around the entity and dug my claws into the rubbery flesh. It squelched and squeezed, not unlike Galarion when I slipped him into my skull.
“You heard me,” I said, moving into a crouch as I kept my hand just below the surface. “I said shut up. Your yapping is ruining this.”
He tsked and began to flood his armor with his skill. “You are done for, Mor-”
For fuck’s sake. Shut up!
I ripped my hand free and reared back. To his credit, the noble controlled his spear and aimed it toward my arm but his eyes bulged at the sight of the squirming beast in my grip.
“Catch,” I shouted.
My arm rocketed forward and I timed my mana to pulse at the apex of my throw. It solidified the shadows between the creature and the chitin and pushed.
From the noble’s lips, a girly scream filled the arena as the razor-lined monstrosity screeched mid flight.