Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 12 To Be Fair, I Was Invisible

Isaac stepped around the bend in the passageway and drew his longsword. He cloaked himself in shadows and disappeared. The three ogres never saw nor heard him coming. They were all preparing to leave their temporary resting place to continue their flight from some unknown monster. Unfortunately for them they were going in the way Isaac and his companions needed to go.

—

The first ogre felt something sharp slice deep across the back of his knee. One of the tendons severed and he let out a howl of pain. He turned and swung but met nothing but air. He looked to his brothers and demanded to know who cut him. Neither of their weapons were bloody and as they were yelling their innocence the second brother collapsed to the ground howling.

The second ogre had a long gash across the back of his ankle. Then the first ogre felt a blade finish off the second tendon behind his right knee. His leg gave out and he too collapsed to the ground. The ogres began swinging in random directions trying to hit whatever creature was cutting them apart. The third ogre swung wildly and clipped the second ogre’s eye with his spear.

The second screamed and punched the third in the side of the knee bringing him too to the ground. The first felt a gash open up on his back and swung around, sweeping his spear around him, hitting something. His spear had clipped some unseen object. The ogre couldn’t tell what it was but he knew he felt resistance for a fraction of a second. He stabbed out in that direction a few more times but once again only hit air.

The third brother was sliced across his back and he went into a frenzy. He started swinging wildly not knowing nor caring what he hit. He only wanted to kill whatever evil creature of the dark was playing with them. They had been running for hours now and his mind was fraying. The only thing that mattered to him was killing anything and everything that would do him harm.

The second brother was hit a few more times by the third’s wild swings before he managed to get some distance by dragging himself across the ground. The first met him and they sat on the ground back to back looking for any sign of their invisible assailant.

Minutes passed with nothing happening. The first wondered if whatever it was had moved on after realizing they would not go down quickly. The second wondered if it was just biding its time to strike at them again once their guard was down. The third yelled at his brothers. He claimed that whatever spirit had attacked them was mad because they had pressed on too deep into the inner world.

The third wouldn’t stop yelling. The first knew that the noise would be bringing the other monster that was hunting them there quicker and tried to calm his brother. The third kept yelling and rambling. Eventually the second had had enough. He punched the third in the face. The third retaliated and soon they were a bundle of fists blood and muscle.

Then the first cried out in pain again. Another gash, more blood, more pain. Then another and another. After the third slash of steel on flesh it was gone.

A moment later the second brother’s second eye was slashed. Now blind, he just continued to flail and strike out randomly. He lost his other ankle to the unseen blade. It was as if the shadows themselves had decided this tunnel would be their graves.

The third ogre had snapped. In his mind everything around him meant him harm. Everything around him was trying to kill him. He grabbed his brother, the one who was now blind, and stabbed him in the throat with his spear. It was the only way he could be sure the other ogre wouldn’t hurt him anymore.

The first ogre, seeing this, threw his spear at the third brother. It stabbed deep into his shoulder and another howl of pain was its reply. The first ogre then felt another slash across his neck. He reached out to grab whatever had cut him. His hand closed around something but he couldn’t see or even feel what it was. His hand felt nothing even though he was squeezing his fist closed.

Then another gash opened up on the inside of his wrist. His hand opened and his eyes began to grow dim. He had lost a lot of blood. He was tired and needed rest. After a few more deep breaths he laid down and closed his eyes. He would rest, just for a little while, then he would kill whatever had hurt him so. At least that’s what he believed. He would never wake up again.

The third ogre was panting, he had lost a bit of blood as well, his muscles were tired from so much flailing and fighting. He could barely lift his head. Then he felt pain again. Another wound opened up, this time on his neck, he tried to swing out but even though he felt some resistance he couldn’t tell what he had hit and he knew he hadn’t hit it hard. Then he noticed a new slash on his hand.

He panted and panted. Exhaustion was starting to win out over blind terror and frenzy. He huffed and then felt the gash on his neck open wider as it was struck again. He tried to roll over but his body wouldn’t listen. Soon there was another strike and he felt his own blood start to pour down his throat. He coughed and then lost consciousness as blood loss overtook him.

—

Isaac stumbled back towards his companions and released his shadow cloak so he could once more be seen. “Ouch… they… have… some… grip…” He got out between labored breaths.

Aria ran over to him and quickly started to heal him. “What happened?” She asked as she felt her magic heal a fractured rib and then a second.

“I got careless and one of them got lucky.” Isaac said and then took a deep breath, glad that he wasn’t in excruciating pain anymore. “I got grabbed. It tried to crush me to death in one massive hand. You weren’t kidding when you said they are freakin’ strong.” He nodded and straightened his back. “They were kinda slow which is probably the only reason that worked.”

“You really did it. I was sure you had lost it when you said you could handle them alone.” Aria replied and continued to look him over for injuries. She noticed a few more scrapes and gashes in his armor but no other injuries. “Rest a moment and then we need to keep going.”

Isaac sat against the wall and Aria offered him a waterskin and a rag for his sword. He took a drink and then cleaned his sword before sheathing it. He liked the leverage and reach of his longsword but he preferred a one handed fighting style and it was just too heavy for him to use like that. He didn’t doubt that Claus could one hand it fine but Isaac was very well aware that he was not Claus.

Aria went to see Isaacs handiwork for a minute and left Isaac to rest up. Claus and Isaac happened to meet gazes at one point and the larger man just gave him a nod of approval to which Isaac returned with a nod of thanks. He didn’t voice his thanks partly because he was listening for whatever had been chasing the ogres but mostly because that would have taken more effort than he was willing to spend.

Isaac’s adrenalin rush had worn off and he was feeling it. His muscles hurt from being pushed so hard even if it was for only a little while. His two minute break part way through to regenerate mana had helped but not very much.

Thinking back on the fight he noticed a few things. One was that on a few occasions he had come very close to being stabbed. Only ever very close however. Every time a spear head approached at an angle he couldn’t dodge he would just turn his body a bit and a spear head would glance off his armor leaving behind just another scratch or gash on the rapidly wearing out leather.

The second was that despite having died already he was having fun fighting for his life. The rush of dancing on a razor’s edge where only his skill and luck kept him alive. He reveled in it. His muscles burned, his mana was empty, but he had never felt more alive than during that battle dancing through their fury of stabs and sweeps.

The third was that he felt a connection to them. He could tell that his power was resonating with them. His death mana had started to beg to be let out and put to work. It felt like at a touch he could have saved any of his recent victims by simply allowing his death mana to run through their mana pathways like it did with his hands.

“Magic is weird.” Isaac said aloud absently while staring at his hand.

“Hah I guess it is.” Aria replied as she approached. “You really took them apart in there. It’s hard to imagine one level three human could do something like that.” She looked at him and squinted her eyes scrutinizing him again.

“To be fair, I was invisible the entire time and they were pretty stupid. The one actually killed the other one for me.” Isaac replied and then took another swig of water.

“Well, either way, if you’re up for it we should keep moving. I still don’t wanna see whatever they were running from.” Aria declared. She walked over to Isaac and offered him her hand. He took it and she helped him to his feet.

“Yeah. Thanks.” He replied and reached for his backpack. He reattached the waterskin to the side and stuffed the rag in an empty pouch. “Alright let’s….” His voice trailed off. He felt his power resonate with something. Whatever it was trying to reach out to was far, far stronger than the ogres.

His eyes snapped to the path they had taken. He remembered back a little ways there was another tunnel that had opened in the ceiling. That was where the ogres and now their hunter had come from. He drew his sword and motioned for Claus to move in the direction of the fresh three corpses.

“What’s wrong?” Aria asked worry in her voice as she prepared to cast a spell.

“It’s coming. I can feel it.” Isaac replied in a whisper she could barely hear. Claus moved the petrified scout behind the three of them and off to the side in hopes he wouldn’t get damaged in the ensuing battle. Right as Claus had set his bundle down and turned to face Isaac and Aria the three of them saw the monster’s face pear around the corner.