Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 9 Should Have Sent More.

Lenna V’Nova withdrew her longsword from the basilisk's eye. She shook some of the blood off the blade and then looked down at herself. She was covered in dried blood. None of it hers. Giant spiders, shadow-wolves, and now a basilisk hand painted her a myriad of reds, browns, and green.

‘I need a bath. Well now’s as good a time as any. At least until other monsters realize the basilisk is dead.’ She reasoned. She walked waist deep into the water and started peeling off each piece of armor one by one.

As she removed each piece she washed it off in the once clear mineral water. The water was slowly spinning due to a hole in the bottom of the lake draining it and a hole in one of the walls filling it. The hole in the wall was bigger however it was so low on the wall that once the water reached it the lake would stop rising.

Eventually she was able to strip completely and wash herself. This was the first time she was out of her under armor in four days. As soon as it was all off she sat down in the water and a huge wave of exhaustion hit her. The last four days of running and fighting with little sleep was getting to her.

This rest, even at the cost of a fight, was well worth the possibility of some of her uncle’s assassins catching up to her. She sat there and soaked for a long while and stared into nothing. Simply letting her tired body and mind rest in the lukewarm water.

After she felt sufficiently rested, or perhaps she could feel something bad coming, she pulled herself out of the water. She started walking towards her backpack to get a clean set of dry clothes. As she walked she had an idea.

She felt for the wrathful flames inside herself the way she would normally to cast a spell. It was the same as feeling for her ancestors’ power like she had been trained oh so long ago. Once she made contact with the power she pulled on it as if she were going to coat her blade in flames.

She instead directed all the power out of her body in every direction. She closed her eyes and a wave of heat poured off of her. Her use of mana like this was incredibly inefficient and she soon realized so she cut the power to conserve mana. She was hoping for an instant dry but instead just turned herself into a sauna as steam poured off of her for a few seconds.

‘Well, that’s why I just hit things instead of making new magics.’ She thought to herself. She redressed and rearmed herself despite still being half soaked. A growing sense of unease was overcoming her and she knew better than to ignore it.

She had left her armor by the lake so she walked back over to it in order to rearm herself. No sooner had she finished donning her armor she heard something. If she hadn’t been listening she never would have heard it even in the dead silence of the cave. A quiet scrape of leather on stone. Almost imperceivable.

She grabbed her sword by the hilt, letting the scabbard fall to the ground and turned towards where she had come from. She took a deep breath, listening. Then another. Then she closed her eyes and focused. A second later she heard it again, leather of stone, rougher this time. The enemy was lunging at her, probably at her throat, she swung downwards in the direction she thought she heard it from.

Her swing was met by a grunt and she opened her eyes to see a shroud spell give out. The spell was not designed to touch more than one person’s mana at a time and her sword made them a complete circuit. He had attempted to block with his pair of spiderfang daggers but her strike blew through his blades and cut a gash into his leather armor.

Her blade didn’t even draw blood but that didn’t matter. Now she could see him. He was a tall and thin drow male with short hair and sharp features. His armor was scraped and cut in several places, all new by the looks of it, and painted with blood. His chase had been an eventful one it seemed.

“Die traitor!” He yelled and lunged at her. She cloaked her blade in flames and stabbed forwards with all her strength. The blade tore through his armor and cooked him from the inside. No sooner had her blade stopped, hilt deep in his chest, he grabbed her sword arm and smiled.

She swung her other arm back in as powerful a backhand as she could manage. She felt her hand hit something hard and soon saw another assassin leave invisibility, stumble, and stagger a few feet away. His jaw was broken and his mind reeling from the sudden strike.

“Damn… You…” The first assassin said as the last light left his eyes and he crumpled to the ground. She yanked her blade out of his chest and swung it in a wide ark all in one motion. She heard a and felt a slight scrape of steel on leather and saw another assassin leaning backwards.

He had dogged her attack almost perfectly but that short moment of contact was all that was needed to break the spell. “Shit.” He whispered under his breath. He too was now no longer hidden and within melee range of the angry Oathbreaker. He moved to cover the second assassin, the one with the broken jaw, and squared off against her.

She knew continually that it was a trap. She didn’t know why however. “Let my flames consume all.. ugh” She was cut off by a dagger bouncing off her faceplate. The fourth assassin was now revealed and had thrown a dagger at her to interrupt her spell. The third lunged at her throat in her moment of distraction.

She tucked her chin and took the strike to the faceplate, knocking her head to the side. She went with the motion and swung at him. He danced back and circled her as the second assassin stood up. They circled her at an even distance from each other. It was impossible for her to see them all at once.

She focused and pulled some of her power out. Throwing it in all directions she knew they would prepare to counter whatever spell she had just cast. Instead they were met with a light breeze of hot air. The momentary change in the pace of battle caused them to pause for a second.

That was all she needed. “Come forth ember of a dying star!” She yelled as she turned to ensure one of them would be directly behind her. They all lunged, trying to stab her in the throat before the spell finished. They were too slow. Everything went orange as flames exploded out from right in front of Lenna.

The two to her front left and right got the worst of it. Their bodies charred and on fire flew across the cavern. One hit a wall and the other went into the water. Lenna was launched backwards. She was bruised from head to toe. Her ears were ringing and her eyebrows were singed despite her casting the spell at waist height.

The assassin with the broken jaw was impacted by an airborne Lenna in full body armor. His one hundred and forty pound frame was not ready for two hundred pounds of magically reinforced steel hit him mid lunge. His blade snapped on her backplate. His nose was crushed by her shoulder. Both he and Lenna laid on the ground in a daze.

Lenna was the first to move. She raised her head just enough to look around. She turned her head to look behind her but was met with pain from whiplash. She heard leather and steel scraping on stone and knew she wasn’t alone. She turned and started to get up.

The assassin was already on his feet. His second blade now in his right hand. There was blood pouring out of his nose and leaking out of his mouth from the broken teeth. He stared at her with eyes full of nothing but hate. For him, everything was worth it as long as she died. He looked unsteady on his feet.

Lenna was almost out of mana. That last stunt had taken most of her mana to pull off. She had to choose between saving some for healing or trying to get rid of the last assassin with it. She obviously chose violence.

She raised her hand towards him and said in a flat tone: “Let my flames consume all before me.” Flames shot from her hand in a cone towards him. The assassin dove to the side and turned his left side to face her. He dodged most of the flames but enough still hit him.

His left arm was on fire. His hair was burning. His left eye was burned closed and was leaking some kind of liquid. He stumbled one step then lunged at her. He screamed a guttural, wet, scream through all the pain and blood in the way. She reached out and caught his hand with her’s. She could see the fury. It was as if there wasn’t even a person inside him anymore.

She tried to stab him through the heart but he turned his body and her blade stabbed into his burned, ruined arm. The blade was too deep to withdraw easily so she let it go and punched him in the head with all the strength she had left. He crumpled, unconscious but soon to be dead. He would either drown or bleed out within seconds.

Lenna turned and looked for the other three corpses counting her assailants. The first one was a few feet away, mostly just ash now, he was already dead before the Fireball. The second was at her feet, blood still pooling, he had just stopped breathing and was in his death throes. The third was crumpled against the wall still on fire. The fourth was face up in the water with his stomach facing down, the explosion must have snapped his head to the side so hard his neck broke.

‘I need another bath.’ Was her first thought after the battle. Her second thought was said out loud. “Uncle, you’re getting soft in your old age. Only four? Should have sent more.” She then walked to the wall, slid down it so she was sitting with her back against the cold stone, and fell asleep.