Chapter 47 Midnight Fable!

  Isaac boosted himself as best he could while endeavoring to make sure his sword would still be able to cut through Reality Shields. That was the only way that they were going to be able to kill King Malcolm through his Reality Shield armor. The problem was that Malcolm was also under the effect of no less than six separate buffs. ‘Strengthen, Quicken, Flight, Frost Cloak, Reality Armor, Null Freeze Shield.’ Shamesh had sent directly into his mind through their link as soon as he noticed the spells activating. He had obviously spent enough time in Alexander’s library to be able to identify the spells by sight but Isaac also got the feeling from Shamesh that there were more magics at play that he was simply unsure of. But none of that was even mentioning the sword spear of weaponized space itself that was held firm in the lich king’s right hand.

  ‘Just over three feet of unblockable, barely parryable, absolute cutting power. Great.’ Isaac thought to himself. He had seen a Blade of Oblivion at work before and nothing could stop a single swing of the blade. Solid diamonds with active enchantments for defense as well as animating the nearby gold had done nothing to stop the swing of Karthen’s shard of space. It was a ninth level spell that was absolutely not for the faint of heart nor the untrained. ‘Test his protection.’ Isaac sent Shamesh as he came in from the king’s left side. Lenna was charging straight in with her sword down and to the right. Both of their attacks were on track to come in front the same general direction in hopes that he would only be able to block one of them.

  Malcolm shifted and raised his shield to block Isaac while he drove his swordspear towards Lenna’s chest. She had just stepped up onto the dais and was still a full four feet out of her own range when the tip of a shard of space came flying at her. Isaac knew that Lenna was going to try to dodge to her left and bring her sword up to hit the haft of the swordspear in an attempt to knock it out of the way. He hadn’t even needed to think about it. He had seen the swordspear coming up as quickly as Lenna had. His own speed boost was a bit higher than a Quicken but he had an equivalent strength boost on top of it. He knew what he had to do in order to save his mate.

  “Move.” Isaac ordered the shadows inside of Lenna’s armor and she was yanked in the same direction that she tried to dodge as Isaac’s sword attempted to thrust through the dead center of Malcolm’s shield. Isaac had no idea what Null Freeze Shield did but he was confident in being able to break apart his sword if he absolutely needed to. If he was lucky, then Isaac’s sword would part Malcolm’s forearm between the arm strap and handle of the shield, that was the plan anyway.

  “Be-” Shamesh began. The best way to test someone’s defenses was a branch of total annihilation after all.

  Lenna tried to cut the haft of the swordspear in two but Malcolm reacted in an entirely unforeseen way. He launched backwards and to his left. The swordspear of oblivion swept across the space between Lenna and Isaac with lethal intent. The move was perfectly executed as it forced Isaac’s stab and Lenna’s uppercut to both miss while simultaneously making an attack against Isaac and interposing the dark mage between the king and Shamesh. On top of that, he had just barely missed clipping his own heel or the butt of the swordspear on the arm rest of his own throne. The move was far too perfect for it not to have been planned in advance.

  “Un-” Shamesh continued and could only hope that he would have a clear shot as soon as his spell was finished.

  Isaac barely managed to shadow-step out of the way of the instant death swordspear. He appeared directly behind the king and finished his stab but was met by a barrage of frozen feathers. Isaac vanished again and appeared opposite Lenna who had continued to chase after the retreating king.

  “-done.” Shamesh finished and a branch of total destruction tried to reach out and poke the king. At the same time, Shamesh had a correction for Isaac. ‘Frostfeather Cloak of the Empress, apologies.’

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  ‘It happens.’ Isaac replied as he and Lenna flanked the branch of reality magic. The king just pointed his swordspear at it and a Reality Shield appeared three feet in front of the sword blade. The Reality Shield and Disintegrate cancelled each other out in a pop. The Disintegrate had activated properly, and it had consumed everything within two feet of the contact point, it just so happened that the only thing within two feet was the rest of the Reality Shield and open air.

  ‘No automatic Dispel Magic attempts detected.’ Shamesh sent Isaac.

  ‘Telekinesis and play support. If you see an opening, disintegrate him.’ Isaac ordered his retainer.

  ‘Understood.’ Shamesh sent back and started casting Telekinesis. The support capabilities of the spell capable of throwing people around was not to be underestimated. It did have the drawback that someone with sufficient strength or mana could easily break out of it, but if they were ready and willing to be yanked about, it was one of the best support spells of all time.

  Isaac had an idea, a mildly risky idea, but an idea that might just grab them an early win. One thing that often went overlooked was how much true ‘awareness’ impacted spells. Something like Shamesh’s Telekinesis needed a target to lock on to. Typically, Isaac’s shadow-cloak would make such a thing impossible. The thing with the ‘intent’ portion of spells was that it often flexed the other rules a bit. Shamesh could still use his Telekinesis on Isaac even while he was shadow-cloaked, even though Isaac practically didn’t exist as far as the world was concerned, simply because he could still see him. The same would go for Lenna.

  “Midnight Fable!” Isaac called out and both he and Lenna vanished. Isaac’s boosting plummeted as he and Lenna switched which side they were coming in from seamlessly.

  “Stars of Doom,” Shamesh began as a distraction. It was a pretty obvious distraction but Stars of Doom were still technically disintegration spells and would give the king’s Reality Armor an absolutely horrible time.

  Isaac came in from the king’s right and Lenna came in from his left. He saw as the king readied himself to cast a Thunder Wave. It was the best defense against an invisible melee opponent as it would often break invisibility.

  “Heed my” Shamesh continued.

  “Hold.” Isaac ordered Lenna’s shadow-cloak just as the king erupted. Lenna weathered the shock wave with ease as the shadows refused to be dispersed but Isaac was tossed backwards with his own shadow-cloak turned into nothing but wisps in the wind.

  “call.” Shamesh finished and five tiny orbs of tiny disintegration all formed above his outstretched palm. Stars of Doom lacked the power necessary to punch through even heavily enchanted armor. Thick and severely reinforced Reality Walls and Reality Bubbles were all far beyond it, but Reality Shields and Reality Armor were only made to be strong enough to stop attacks. They were not designed to hold up mountains or trap raging barbarians in a cloud of white phosphorus.

  The king’s eyes immediately locked onto Isaac as the dark mage appeared but he hardly had enough time to be confused before he felt an overwhelming amount of bloodlust and power bearing down on him. He instinctively brought his shield between himself and the attack only to play directly into Lenna’s hands.

  Lenna appeared as she threw everything she had into one powerful thrust. Her mana flared, her sword practically exploded into orange and black flames as her aura and mana gave it everything she had, the sword itself was like a coiled viper waiting to be cut loose. The tip of her sword impacted the Null Freeze Shield buffed black iron shield like a ballista bolt from the first layer of hell. Lenna had been in the middle of a dead sprint, nearly doubled in speed by Quicken, and had then thrown everything both she and her sword had into the attack. An attack that the king had attempted to block.

  Lenna’ sword dug deep into the iron shield before all of the magics could even fully realize themselves and each other. Her sword impaled the iron bracer underneath and lodged itself most of the way through the king’s arm. While it did so, the Null Freeze Shield tried to do its namesake. It tried to freeze the attacking weapon, and its wielder, until they were left nothing but null, inert, ice sculptures. All of the ice on the shield quickly collapsed onto the sword only to instantly burn up. Not only did the entire seventh level spell worth of counter attack ice magic get utterly devoured by Lenna’s attack but so did the second one that automatically sprang up to replace it. The shield had apparently been the item that cast the buff on itself, and not some other hidden ward that was waiting for the king to dramatically slam his staff onto the ground. A third Null Freeze Shield appeared and the iron shield’s platinum enchantments looked like they had visibly dimmed. Lenna’s aura and mana were still doing their best against the incoming ice but it was the sword from Gilgamesh that really snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

  The sword pulsed once, twice, thrice, and then finally four times as it ignited the iron shield and the lich’s arm beneath it. Four of its uses were gone in an instant but that was fine, it had done its job. Well, the trio thought that it had done its job, and to a degree it had, but the king did not look too taken aback by his ice shield suddenly being impaled and on fire. Nor did he look overly concerned with his left arm and bracer also being both impaled and on fire. It would take a lot more than one successful vanish and switch to shake the king’s confidence and resolve. He would not let anyone keep him from getting his cold revenge on the ancient fire dragon.

  Amaranth Serentia V'Nova Wexler