Chapter 65 Stranger And Stranger.

  Isaac and Lenna walked out of the person sized door opposite Gilgamesh’s desk. Immediately outside, they were met by a wide open space, large enough for Gilgamesh to land by the look of it. There was a pleasant cobblestone walkway that ran down the middle of the open space and through the clover ground cover. The open space was flanked by a wall that was high enough to block out the streets of the city and most of their noise. The duo knew that they were still inside of Altesia but from within Gilgamesh’s courtyard, they could have easily forgotten.

  The door closed behind Shamesh on its own as a soft stirring of mana could be felt. It was a pleasant little quality of life enchantment, much like the field of clover and its cobblestone walkway. “We’ve had a long day.” Isaac commented as soon as it was just the trio of them. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Gilgamesh could still hear them but that was fine, Isaac wasn’t talking to Gilgamesh but that didn’t mean that he minded if the dragon heard them. If Isaac cared about secrecy, then his shadows would have been working and not all but dormant within him.

  “Agreed.” Lenna said and stopped to take a deep centering breath. Isaac handed her the black parasol, which had surprisingly been one of the few non-gear items to survive the encounter. “Thanks.”

  “Anything you want to do before the normal shops close?” Isaac asked his wife.

  “Clothes.” She stated. “Shamesh?” Shamesh had started contacting Alexander as soon as they were outside of Gilgamesh’s office but turned his eyes toward Lenna to let her know that he was listening. “Ask Alexander if we should find a smith in the capital to work on our armor or if he thinks Stan and the Tanners would be sufficient.”

  Shamesh nodded and continued communicating with Alexander for a few more moments. While he did, Isaac led the group down the walkway towards the main rectangular guild building. The Guild Hall was made out of solid stone blocks in place of bricks and, even though Isaac had previously thought that its enchantments were capable of delaying a dragon, he still thought that they felt rather impressive. Now, after seeing both a young adult dragon, Chatohsha, and also witnessing a pinnacle ancient dragon in action, he realized that saying something was dragon proof should always be caveated with how old and powerful the dragon in question was that it was rated for.

  “Alexander said that the Smiths’ Guild will have the best smiths in Altia and they are the ones that should be seen when working on legendary armor. Stan is very experienced with standard gear but there are smiths present at the Smiths’ Guild who have made their living servicing such artifacts.” Shamesh informed the duo. “He also assured me that we are not needed in the short term and should recover from our mission in whatever way we see fit.”

  “Good.” Isaac replied. “Thank him for me. That is all.”

  “Yes.” Shamesh agreed and then a moment later his spell ended. Shamesh didn’t even need to ask before Isaac’s shadow expanded and began swallowing him up.

  “Rest well, buddy.” Isaac nodded and then turned his attention to the small door that led from Gilgamesh’s courtyard into the main Guild Hall as it opened just before they arrived.

  Standing in the doorway was a man dressed in a fine bronze three piece suit. The clothing looked almost like it was actually made of bronze thread but bronze didn’t move or flow quite as well as his movements suggested. His buttons were oxidized copper, polished to maintain a vibrant teal color. His tarnished copper hair was brushed back everywhere save for along the left side of his head where it was tightly braided against his skull the entire way back. All of his hair cut off right as his suit’s collar. His left eye glowed like polished brass but his right eye was just an empty socket. His eyelid still blinked as if there was an eye there but it was completely gone. His skin was closer to polished copper in its almost glowing reddish brown.

  “He is free then?” The man in the doorway asked Isaac and Lenna.

  “As far as I know, yes.” Isaac replied. He wasn’t sure who this newcomer was but he definitely knew better than to mess with him. The copper colored man in the doorway felt like a sun about to go nova. There was so much power practically clinging to him that Isaac was afraid a simple fall would wipe out the mountain. “Just for curiosity’s sake, you aren’t going to try and kill him too, are you?”

  The coppery man looked at Isaac with a mix of curiosity of his own and confusion. “No. Did you try?” His rather normal sounding voice returned. In fact, the only thing that made the man’s voice sound weird was that it was a bit flat. There was even less acoustics than a normal person, almost like the sound that wasn’t being projected forwards was being absorbed by something.

  “Oh hells no.” Isaac waved him off. “We just killed someone who was planning to though. He also came quite prepared to tangle with a dragon, even if he still wouldn’t have been able to win against Gilgamesh.”

  “Oh, I would win if he and I fought.” The coppery man replied. “In less than a blink, there would be nothing left.”

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  Isaac gulped just from the simple matter of fact reply that he got from the man in front of him. In fact, those words made him entirely positive that the man in front of him was actually just another ancient dragon. Probably the Guild Leader’s aid that was specifically marked as off limits for dragon slayers. Now that Isaac had met said dragon, he understood why. If any dragon slayer actually made the being in front of him angry or pressured enough to release all the pent up energy he was dragging around, Isaac doubted there would be a geographical location left after their encounter.

  The coppery man nodded towards Lenna and then towards Isaac. “Good day, Lady of Hellfire, Lord of Darkness.” He said and walked past them towards the Guild Leader’s office which was, itself, its own building. Once he was halfway down the walkway, Isaac just shook his head and led Lenna inside.

  As soon as the door closed behind them and the bustling noises of the Guild Hall could be heard, Isaac covered both his and Lenna’s mouths and one of their ears in his shadows so they could talk in private. “I think I’ve had enough of dragons for the next few years.”

  “Centuries.” Lenna corrected him. “Enough dragons for the next few centuries.”

  Isaac laughed. “True enough.” He agreed. “Let’s get some Adventurers’ Guild food before we go searching for a tailor and the Smith’s Guild.”

  “Agreed.” Lenna told him. “I am famished.”

  The duo walked out of the back of the Guild Hall into the main dining hall area of the Guild Hall. There were a handful of adventurers just being generally loud but everyone seemed to be decently well behaved. The duo got some mashed potatoes and horse meat patties. The horse meat was ground and baked into the patties with plenty of seasoning, eggs, and flour, which was probably the only reason it was decently edible. There weren’t very many reasons to butcher a horse, and very few of them resulted in a good meat animal. It did usually end up being cheap though which was why the guild had it to serve in the first place. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. In all, their meal was sufficient and edible which was the most one could usually hope for from the Adventurers’ Guild Dining Hall.

  When the duo were about to leave, a large man, just as tall but a fair bit wider than Edward, blocked their path. His bulging muscles looked like they barely fit inside of his shirt but every inch of him screamed melee combatant. Despite his huge size, his muscles were still decently lean. It was clear that genetics were the reason for their size but decades of hard work were the reason they looked solid enough to block a sword strike. His brown hair looked like it was at least trimmed up a few weeks ago and his beard was a bit scraggly but not too much so. His brown eyes glared down at Isaac in such a generic way that Isaac couldn’t determine the large man’s motives in the slightest.

  Isaac stopped and raised a questioning eyebrow at the massive man. He looked a bit worse for wear, but Lenna looked like she had gotten into a fight with a blender the size of a wagon and no one was sure who won. He knew that even though they looked a bit worn out, neither of them could possibly come off as easy prey for someone up to no good, and on top of that, they were still inside the Guild Hall of all places.

  “You came from the boss’s office.” The large man’s gruff voice stated.

  Isaac gave him a slow nod. “We did.” He confirmed.

  “You did a job for him?” The large man asked. This time Isaac actually picked up a hint of a raise in his inflection denoting a question.

  “We did.” Isaac confirmed once more.

  The large man grinned. “Good!” His voice boomed. “I am Aodhan Setanta! Fight me.”

  Isaac’s brows furrowed. “Why?” He couldn’t help but wonder. The man, Aodhan, had just made sure that Isaac and Lenna were strong enough to do a job specifically for the Guild Leader… “Oh.” Isaac said aloud as he realized the answer to his own question. Aodhan was even more of a battle junkie than Isaac was.

  “To prove who is strongest my friend!” The massive man boomed. He now looked quite a bit more excited, so much so that he was practically humming with it.

  “My gear needs fixed.” Isaac offered Aodhan a very accurate and reasonable reason why he cou-

  “No gear. Only fists and feet, like men.” Aodhan cut off Isaac’s inner thoughts.

  “Why not look for Walter or hang out in the arena outside of Nualt?” Isaac questioned Aodhan.

  “Too cold and wet.” Aodhan replied with a very accurate and reasonable response of his own. “And I have never fought Walter. The last time I tried, he shot me.”

  Isaac snorted a laugh. He had to wonder how bad of a day Walter must’ve been having for him to just shoot another adventurer. Obviously Walter hadn’t been trying to kill Aodhan, otherwise the massive man wouldn’t have been standing in front of him, but it was still crazy to think that Walter just up and shot him.

  “I’ll fight you.” Lenna told Aodhan. “The last time there was an arena, I was still too injured to fight in it.” She told her husband. “I would like to test my strength against one of the legendary warriors named Setanta.”

  “You know of them?” Isaac wondered.

  “They are a bloodline of warriors who pass down a spear that holds within the power of their ancestor, the demigod Berserker.” Lenna explained.

  “How long ago did Berserker die?” Isaac wondered.

  “Dragon Surge before the last one.” Aodhan answered. “He is still cranky about it.” He added with a huge smile. “We only use the spear when we must. Otherwise we will pop like soap bubble. His power is too much for mortal men for more than half minute.”

  Isaac nodded in acceptance of the information and moved on. “If you are sure you want to fight him, then it’ll need to be after dark somewhere, preferably with a healer on standby.” Isaac was apparently the voice of reason for once.

  “Under Guild Hall.” Aodhan spoke and pointed straight down. “Training yard for platinum and higher.”

  “That works for me.” Lenna confirmed. “I would prefer if the light was dim, you humans like everything far too bright.”

  Aodhan nodded. “Fair is fair.” He agreed. “Tonight?”

  “Tomorrow night.” Isaac cut in. “We just got done with an apocalyptic level bounty with Catastrophe, I think one good night’s rest before any more strenuous activity is warranted.”

  “Good, good!” Aodhan didn’t seem to care that Isaac had mentioned an ‘apocalyptic’ level bounty or Jane’s title in the slightest. ‘Whatever, this man doesn’t seem like he’s all there upstairs.’ Isaac thought to himself.

  “If that is all, Aodhan, we have armor to get repaired and new clothes to buy.” Isaac tried to bid the warrior farewell.

  “When will we fight?” He asked Lenna without even bothering to acknowledge what Isaac had said.

  “Two hours after sunset?” Lenna offered him.

  Aodhan nodded. “Yes. Two hours after sunset.” He agreed. “Bye.” He said abruptly and walked back over to his table and plopped himself back down next to a very ranger looking man who had his head in his hands.

  “Well, today just keeps getting stranger and stranger.” Isaac commented under his breath as he led Lenna outside.

  Lenna nodded in agreement. “It has been as amazing as it has been awful, yes.”

  Amaranth Serentia V'Nova Wexler