Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 77 Weak.

Isaac stored his sword belt and stretched. “Time to get to work.” He said to himself and walked in the front door. The six idiots were still playing cards. “Good.” He grabbed the two weapons that were still sitting by the door and tossed them out into the street.

“What was that?” One of the average looking guys said and looked up from his hand. He looked towards the door and waited.

“I didn’t hear nothin’. You’re hearin’ shit.” The dwarf said and played a card.

“Nah, I didn’t hear anything. Something moved but I don’t know what.” The human replied.

“Definitely losin’ it.” The boss’s little brother, child maybe, replied.

The first guy shook his head. “Maybe you’re right… somethin’ don’t feel right though.”

Shadows exploded and covered the room. They smothered the oil lamp that was sitting on their card table. They smothered the glowing stone in the ceiling and the one by the door. The one window was gone as far as any inside were concerned. The door was now a solid wall of shadows. All light vanished in little longer than an instant.

Isaac stood in the room and watched chaos ensue. He wasn’t invisible anymore as he was using most of those shadows to help him keep the room in total darkness. Shadows were still pouring out of him down onto the ground however. It was easier to control the shadows if he came at the problem from a singular direction. In this case, the floor. The shadows poured out of him, across the floor, up the walls, and finally connected in the center of the ceiling, essentially turning the room into a dumpling made of shadows. The filling of said dumpling was about to have a very bad time.

“D-D-D-Demon!” The dwarf screamed and fell out of his chair. Most of his friends tripped on theirs as they all bolted to their feet. He had seen Isaac and had gotten quite the first impression.

‘Shit. I forgot dwarves can see in the dark.’ Isaac thought to himself. “Well, that’s not very nice.” He told the dwarf in his dark gravelly voice and flashed the dwarf a grin. His eyes were pure darkness from his vision ability and it was clear the shadows were coming from him.

“Can it Shorty!” The boss yelled and pulled out his knife. “This is probably that shadow orb spell which means he can’t see us either. Just keep calm and wait. He’ll run out of mana eventually.”

Isaac laughed darkly. “No, no I won’t.” His eyes looked onto the dwarf’s. “This is your only chance, surrender.”

The dwarf nodded rapidly. “I-I sur…”

He was cut off by their boss. “Can it!”

“Walk out the door. My, associate, will handle you.” Isaac told the dwarf and gestured towards the door. The dwarf hesitated for a moment, obviously wary of getting anywhere near Isaac. “Go on. Before I change my mind.”

The dwarf started towards the door and tripped over a chair. He hit the ground face first and scrambled to his feet. He almost tripped again on his way to the door. When he got there he looked afraid to touch the shadows. Isaac sighed and opened the door for a moment. Light poured in, illuminating him slightly.

The dwarf all but dove out the door. Isaac turned back towards the rest of the group and sealed the door. “He really is a demon.” One of the average looking guys whispered. Isaac had lost track of which one was which and he honestly didn’t care. He was tempted to just refer to them as idiot one and idiot two.

“Stars light my path.” The other average guy, idiot two, chanted and Isaac felt mana start moving towards the man’s hand. He quickly smothered it with overwhelming shadow mana causing the spell to wink out just as it was forming.

“None of that.” He told them. He noticed the half-elf was looking at Isaac’s feet. ‘Can he see me?’ He thought. Isaac smiled and teleported right in front of the elf. “Boo.”

The man jumped and swung at him. Isaac grabbed his wrist and twisted it while sidestepping the punch. He drove his forearm down hard on the elf’s now straightened elbow. The crack was the only sound in the room for a fraction of a second. Isaac transitioned from the forearm strike into and chop and hit the elf in the throat. He let go of the elf’s broken arm and drove his fist in the man’s nose.

The elf tripped as he staggered backwards. He landed on his broken arm and wheezed out a scream. Isaac walked silently over to idiot one and kicked him in the groin. The man folded like a sheet of paper. Isaac grabbed the man’s hair and kneed him in the head. He heard and felt the man’s nose shatter on his knee pad.

“Shit shit shit. Where is he?” The boss demanded.

“I-I don’t know!” His younger relative yelled out in a panic.

“This… is boring.” Isaac complained darkly. He walked over to idiot two who opened his mouth to say something just as Isaac arrived. Isaac pulled a copper coin out of his Inventory and stuffed it down the man’s throat. “The boy next I guess.” He said only slightly louder than the man choking next to him.

“Stay away from him! Fight me like a man!” The boss demanded and swung his knife in the direction Isaac’s voice had come from.

Isaac moved around behind the boy and put him in a headlock. He moved shadows over the boy’s mouth and feet as he dragged him towards the door. The boy flailed and tried to pry Isaac’s arm off of his neck but he wasn’t strong enough and he couldn’t get his footing to try and fight back.

“Kid!” The boss yelled. “Lenny!” He was starting to sound afraid for his family member. “What did you do to him, you bastard?!”

The boy struggled for a few more seconds in silence. Once he was unconscious Isaac dropped him to the ground. “Goodnight.” Isaac said with dark amusement in his voice. “Lenny.”

“I’ll kill you!!!” The boss yelled and took a step towards Isaac’s voice, knocking over the table in the process.

Isaac let the shadows fade. He was almost out of mana and he wanted to actually fist fight someone. As light started to come back into the room the boss saw the carnage around him. Idiot two had finally coughed out the coin and was gasping for air in between residual coughing. Idiot one was unconscious in a pool of blood that was still coming out of his nose. The half-elf was barely breathing through the pain and was letting out pained whimpers. It was clear he was trying not to scream.

Finally his eyes fell on Lenny. He was unconscious. Still breathing but had saliva on the sides of his mouth. It was clear he had been choked out in total silence. The boss’s eyes burned as he met Isaac’s gaze. Isaac was grinning at him maniacally. “I’ll get you back for this. A hundred times.” The boss swore.

Isaac shook his head. “No. You won’t.” He squared off barehanded with the boss.

Lenna walked in the door, pushing the dwarf in front of her, with a firm grip on his shoulder. The boss scoffed. “Useless. The lot of you.”

Isaac made a shadow spike and threw it into the floor next to Lenny. He wanted the boss to attack and he knew how to make him. The boss snarled and lunged with his knife at Isaac. Isaac smacked the wrist of the knife hand and stepped in. He made a fist with his middle knuckle braced forwards so his entire punch would be concentrated on that one point. He drove his knuckle into the man’s sternum, breaking it.

All the air flew out of the boss’s lungs before he could even scream from the pain. The man’s body hit Isaac’s like a wall. Isaac’s stance was solid and the boss was off balance from his lunge. Isaac shoved him back and before he could fall over, followed up with a kick to the groin. The boss passed out from the double shock of pain before he hit the ground.

The impact with the floor seemed to shock his system back awake and his mouth opened in a silent scream that was followed by him vomiting on both himself and the floor. It was around that time Lenny started to regain his consciousness.

Isaac looked down at the older man in his sorry state on the floor. “Weak.” He turned around and faced Lenna. The dwarf peed himself. Isaac wrinkled his nose. “Let it go. You don’t want to catch idiot or something.” He told Lenna back in his normal voice.

Lenna released the young dwarf’s shoulder. “It’s not something you can catch. I hear one is born with it.”

Isaac chuckled. “Fair enough. Can you make sure none of them die?” Isaac gestured toward the boss and the idiot with a broken nose. “Those two might.”