Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 50 I’ll Fight Her First.

The group of four, Alice, Edward, Isaac, and Lenna, headed downtown to the arena. It was really just a massive sand pit with stands a dozen rows deep circling it. There was one section for VIPs and two entrances that were opposite each other. The pit was two hundred feet across and a perfect circle. They all stopped about fifty feet in to discuss what was to come.

“I’ll fight her first. She’s the one that is actually getting tested here.” Edward said while looking at Lenna before he turned to Isaac and continued speaking. “After your little display in the Guild Hall I’d say you are at least level fourteen. What is your highest level spell?”

“That is what I’m trying to hide.” Isaac replied.

Edward looked at him for a moment before sighing and nodding. “Alright.” He walked twenty feet away from the rest of the group. “Okay knight. What’s your name, class, and what level do you want me to put on your guild card?”

Lenna walked out so she was ten feet from him but still twenty feet from the other two like he was. “Lenna. Paladin. Level ten.” She replied curtly.

“Nothing else huh?” Edward asked and drew his sword from its scabbard before sheathing it again and drawing it once more. The second time he drew it the blade was dull in both color and edge.

‘Did he just switch swords? That’s so cool.’ Isaac thought to himself.

Lenna drew her sword. “That’s it.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Alice yelled before running back towards where they came from. She returned a few seconds later with a dulled longsword that was almost as big as she was. “Dulled weapons, remember? No deaths today.”

Lenna nodded and sheathed her sword before grabbing the one from Alice. She returned to her position. “Ready?” She asked Edward.

He tossed his scabbard to the side and held his sword with one hand. The dull backside of the blade was resting on his shoulder. “When you are.”

“You want both hands.” Lenna told him.

Edward raised his eyebrows for a moment in surprise before grabbing his sword with both hands and nodding to her.

Lenna crossed the ten feet between them in two quick steps then a lunge. She brought the dulled longsword down in a vertical chop like a machete. Her whole weight was behind it and he moved to block. In his arrogance he assumed that he, being a higher level than her, could simply block her attack.

A moment before impact her blade ignited and she slammed her aura down on him. The combined weight of her aura and her flame enhanced strike pushed him back a few inches in the sand. His knees almost gave out. His sword had only managed to almost stop her strike. Her blade hit his toga at the shoulder and then it was stopped by some invisible force. The flames didn’t even burn the cloth even though they were obviously close enough.

Lenna followed her strike up by transitioning into a quick stab. He parried her attack and went in for his own. She hacked into his sword instead of simply blocking it. The blades recoiled and then met again. After four more exchanges Edward disengaged.

“You are quite good, elf.” Edward told her.

“Let my flames consume all before me.” Was Lenna’s reply as her cone of fire flew at him. He dodged to the side and sliced hard at the edge of the cone. The little bit of flames that would have hit him were smothered by his strike. The sand directly under his swing was disturbed by the wind pressure of his blade.

Lenna didn’t wait and closed the distance again. “How’d you know?” She asked as he was forced to block another one of her heavy strikes.

“Your swordsmanship is too good for a human paladin.” He replied and swung at her only for her to chop into his sword again. “Too much time to train. Not enough real combat.”

He spun with the recoil and drove a lightning quick slash toward her helmet on her off hand side. His eyebrows shot up as she uppercutted his sword with her free hand. Her hand was coated in fire for only half a second before it went back out. She needed to conserve mana. Lenna brought her blade down in a heavy diagonal strike towards Edward’s shoulder where he had been hit before.

He struck her blade with his to knock it off course. He quickly turned his blade around and swung for her head. She leaned back and it skipped off her faceplate. ‘It better not break again.’ She thought. She stepped back and he pressed the fact that she was now on the back foot. His first strike was powerful but fast. He was planning to use it to keep the momentum in his favor.

Lenna had other ideas. She slammed her blade into his as hard as she could. Her blade bit deep into his. Every attack that she had made had always been aimed at his sword. The same place on its blade in fact. She had made sure to spread out the punishment on her own blade but concentrate it on the same place on his.

She yanked hard and his blade snapped. He stumbled from the jolt and she stumbled from how hard she yanked. The two met eyes with only five feet between them as they regained their footing. “I have trained for two hundred and fifty years. What about you?” Lenna asked.

He lunged at her with his broken sword. She ignored it and swung at his face. He parried her flaming blade with his bare hand and stabbed the broken edge of his sword into the weak part of her armor around her armpit. It didn’t faze her and she drove her fist towards his elbow.

In a blindingly fast movement he parried her fist then drove the hilt of his sword into the side of her helmet. She swung with her sword. He parried and hit her again, this time with his broken blade. Lenna was heavily winded and running low on mana at this point but she was not one to lose quietly. “Come forth,” Another parry and counter attack. This one Lenna blocked with her forearm. “Ember of a dying star.”

Isaac watched in awe as Lenna blew both herself and the Guild Master up. She went flying ten feet back before impacting the sand. Edward slid seven feet back with his knees bent and his arms crossed in front of his face. His toga was gone and in its place was a set of full-plate that shone in the arena’s torch light, only on the back though. The front of his armor was blackened and he coughed.

Isaac jogged over to Lenna as she struggled to push herself up onto her elbows. “You are freakin’ crazy.”

She looked up at him and took his extended hand. “I am freakin’ exhausted.” She replied, borrowing his word.

Edward shook his head to try and clear it. “Yeah…” He groaned out. “Alice. Give her level ten and whenever she says she leveled up just mark it down.” He staggered over to the receptionist who handed him a vial of red liquid. “Thanks.”

“What if she lies about it?” Alice asked.

“Then she lies. I’m not getting fireballed every time she says she leveled up.” Edward replied. He looked down at his armor and sighed. “Bedazzle” He said and the armor changed back into his toga and pants.

“Wait. What was that?” Isaac asked.

Alice looked over at him with a defeated look on her face. “An enchantment for those with too much money to waste.” She replied.

“It was NOT a waste.” Edward replied. “Imagine if I would have tried to fight her while actually wearing a toga.” Alice just shook her head wearily in response. “Give me a minute and then I’ll be ready to get blown up again, mister shadow sorcerer.” Edward told Isaac and sat down in the sand.