Chapter Twenty One

  “I know you’re out there.”

  Miranda watched with gritted teeth as Isaac shuffled awkwardly out onto the pebble beach. His walking stick, clasped tightly in two shaking hands, sent rocks clattering across each other with every slow, halting step. Seeing him in the dim moonlight, Miranda might have mistaken him for a zombie had she not known better.

  She wished it was a zombie. She could deal with a zombie. Isaac, though…

  Miranda had traveled all across Nyr. She had seen things that even Derrick and Aaron wouldn't have believed, and fought monsters that would have turned their hair white. Despite all of that, Isaac still made her skin crawl.

  Nobody in Miles’ trio was to be taken lightly. Zara was a bloodthirsty little psycho who was completely and utterly devoted to the Shield Warden guild, and Miles himself had to be just as strong in order to keep her under control. But Isaac was on a whole different level—not that you would ever realize it just from looking at him.

  “It’s you, isn’t it, Miranda?” he asked, his voice as dry and brittle as sunbaked earth.

  Miranda pressed her lips together, suddenly terrified to even take a breath.

  Isaac wasn’t physically intimidating. He would have been hard pressed to beat a chipmunk at arm wrestling. That could cease to be the case at any moment, though.

  He was the weakest member of the team, but he was also the strongest. He was the slowest, but also the fastest. He was completely unpredictable, and that made him dangerous in a way that Miles and Zara could only dream of achieving.

  OBJECTIVE UPDATED:

  DEFEAT ISAAC CAIN AND RESCUE DERRICK VELSTADT.

  Ashes and flame, Miranda thought, her heart sinking even deeper into her stomach.

  “You don’t have to say anything,” Isaac said, his voice carrying through the night like a mummified whisper. “I know you’re here.”

  He turned his head, eyes scanning the bank with just an almost inhuman intensity, and the Faun was suddenly one hundred percent sure that he could see straight through Eclipse Walk. There were spells and abilities that could do that—so many that she sometimes wondered why she even bothered with it—like the ecclesiastic vipers’ heat vision from earlier that day.

  His gaze passed right over her without pausing, though, and she let out a quiet sigh of relief.

  Stepping more cautiously than she ever had in her life, Miranda raised one hoof and set it back down a few feet to her right, careful not to disturb any of the loose rocks. Isaac didn’t react. Tugging her cloak tighter against her invisible body, as if it could possibly protect her, she took another step, then another, trying to get behind the emaciated man’s—

  “Miles said you would be back.”

  Miranda froze, her breath catching in her throat. For a long, tense moment, she just stood there, sure that he was about to whirl around and…she had no idea what would come next, which only put her even more on edge.

  He didn’t move, though. His eyes were fixed on Derrick, and there was a sense of satisfaction on his face that made Miranda’s hand twitch with the need to ram Eagle Feather into his back. He would have deserved it, after turning her best friend to stone. He was still in his base form, too, which meant he was as weak as a newly hatched chick. She could be the fox in this proverbial henhouse, a gleaming metal fang in each hand.

  “You are one self-centered slur, aren’t you?” Isaac asked.

  Miranda’s eyes widened.

  “You only care about getting what you want. That’s what Miles said. You act selfishly, put everyone around you in danger, and then feel bad about it later.”

  Miranda’s hand touched Eagle Feather, but she forced herself not to draw it. Poaching dungeons from another guild’s territory was bad enough, but murdering one of their members would be to declare war on the entire Shield Warden guild—a war that Miranda wasn’t sure Underwing could win.

  Isaac chuckled hoarsely. “You’ve made one big flaming mess this time. Miles knew it wouldn’t be long before you came back to try and sweep it under the rug.”

  Miranda forced herself to ignore him. Luckily, she had other, less lethal ways to deal with creeps like him.

  He hadn’t used a spell to petrify Derrick, of that she was sure. Weapons that had the spell imbued into them were out too, so long as Miles was around. A petrification potion was the only remaining option.

  That meant there was an antidote. The fact that he’d bothered to petrify Derrick at all told her that Miles wanted to bring them in alive. They wouldn’t want to wait for the potion to wear off, but neither would they want to carry a man-sized statue all the way back to Sequestrinous.

  And if there was an antidote, it would be in Isaac’s inventory.

  Crouching down, she crept in close until she was less than a foot behind him. There, scarcely daring to breathe, she reached out her hand. Her fingers tingled as Pickpocket took effect, and…

  “You’re probably behind me right now,” Isaac said, “trying to pickpocket the antidote.”

  Ashes! she thought just as the success notification flashed in front of her eyes, and Isaac spun around with his hand extended. Normally, her victims had no idea when they had been pickpocketed, but Isaac had reacted the moment it happened. He must have been watching his inventory the entire time, and seen the item disappear.

  She leaped backwards, sending up a splash when he landed in the stream. Isaac’s hand closed only on empty air, but his head snapped around to focus on the splash.

  Miranda cursed. Even though she was still invisible, the spot in the middle of the creek where she was standing would be as plain as day. She mentally cancelled Eclipse Walk—no use wasting the MP now—and Isaac’s face split into a cruel grin as she faded back into view.

  “Deathgate!” he declared.

  Miranda cursed her own stupidity and watched as his character box changed.

  ISAAC CAIN

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  LEVEL 21 BLACK MAGE

  (DEATHGATE SHAMAN)

  VRENZIEL ELHOKIM

  LEVEL 26 AQUAMANCER

  (TIDESTRIKER)

  Isaac raised his walking stick in both hands, holding it like a quarterstaff. The muscles in his legs had already expanded until they were nearly five times thicker than they had been before, allowing him to stand on his own.

  The rest of his body followed suit, his arms and chest filling out right before Miranda’s eyes until he sported a lean, wiry frame. Nowhere near as large as he’d been when he had fought Aaron, but virtually unrecognizable compared to his usual haggard self.

  Miranda’s eyes flicked toward his character box. Tidestriker. What on Nyr was a Tidestriker? The fact that it was a rank in the Aquamancy class meant it had something to do with water. Looking at him, though, she could have sworn that he was becoming some kind of melee fighter. The way he stood, the way he held his staff. It all pointed toward someone who wanted to get in close and beat her into a bloody pulp, not throw spells at her from far away.

  Her mind began to race. Her survival could quite literally depend on whether or not she figured out what he was capable of before—

  “Wavestrike!”

  Too late. Isaac spun his staff, and the creek seemed to pull away from Miranda, leaving her standing in a puddle that barely covered her hooves. A moment later, it surged back toward her as a six foot tall wave.

  “Ashes!” she cursed again, leaping out of the way—but not quickly enough.

  Her cloak billowed out behind her when she jumped, and the wave caught hold of it as it passed, yanking her back down into the water like she had a noose tied around her neck. Luckily, the creek was shallow enough that she was able to roll back to her hooves and spring upright again, sopping wet and coughing.

  Her cloak suddenly felt like it weighed fifty pounds, her dress clung to her even more tightly than it normally did, and she had to send her hat into her inventory to keep the brim from flopping down into her face.

  “Wavestrike!”

  She was already moving before the water could draw back, skirting around the wave and dashing toward him. Eagle Feather was in her right hand, and Midnight Frost was in her left.

  Isaac’s transformation may have made him stronger, but a Tidestriker was still obviously a magic-based class. That meant that the safest place she could be right now was right up in his face, forcing him to fight her hand to hand.

  She looked into his eyes as she closed the distance, expecting to see alarm or shock—instead, her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw him smirking back at her.

  It was too late to abort the attack. Lunging at him, she lashed out with both daggers.

  Isaac moved with speed and grace that rivaled her own, deflecting both blades with a single fluid swing of his staff. He followed it up by spinning to face away from her, and then thrusting the thick length of wood behind him like he was making a trick shot while playing pool. The staff wasn’t sharp, but ramming it into her stomach was still enough to knock the wind out of Miranda’s lungs with a pained “Oof!”

  Her health bar fell. Not by much, but enough to tell her that she was in serious trouble.

  Before she could recover, Isaac came at her again. Whirling back around to face her, he grasped his staff like a sword and swung it in an overhead strike that would crack her skull like an egg.

  Miranda had just enough time to raise Midnight Frost, deflecting the attack and forcing Isaac to take a step back to keep his balance.

  FAIL

  She pressed the momentary advantage, darting in close and lashing out with her silver dagger.

  She had underestimated him. Whatever a Tidestriker was, it obviously specialized in magic and melee combat. Classes like that weren’t uncommon, but they usually resulted in a Hero who was only semi-skilled in two specialties rather than a master at one. Still, the level difference between her and him was going to do a lot to bridge the gap in skill.

  Miranda struck, Eagle Feather glinting in the moonlight like a flash of lightning.

  Whatever the case, she had daggers and he had a staff. At a distance, he would have the upper hand. The closer she could get, though, the better off she would be.

  Sure enough, Isaac didn’t have the time or space to react, and Eagle Feather scored a nasty looking cut on his shoulder. He cried out, aiming a kick at Miranda’s chest, but she sprang backwards before he could touch her. His health bar appeared as well, falling until it was roughly equal with her own.

  And then it began to climb back towards the top.

  “Oh, come on!” she blurted out.

  The healing process was slow, but with such a minor wound, it only took a matter of seconds before it was fully healed.

  Miranda glared at the uncooperative health bar—and suddenly, she was there again.

  A night not unlike this one. Cool, mossy stone beneath her human feet. The full moon shining almost as brightly as the run. A hulking shape shaking the ground as it came for her…

  And a health bar that refused to stay down itself.

  “—verwing!”

  Miranda snapped back to the present, and realized that her body had moved on its own. Anger and betrayal were burning inside her heart at levels that she hadn’t felt in nearly a decade—both of them directed squarely at herself. In the heat of the moment, she had reacted instinctively, hurling Eagle Feather at Isaac and teleporting right up to him.

  So many horrible memories had been born during the last thirteen years. So much pain. She would never be able to forget them, but she had done everything in her power to bury them where they wouldn’t be able to hurt her anymore. Whether he’d meant to or not, Isaac had just dredged up one of the absolute worst ones, exposing her to that pain all over again.

  And for that, she was going to make him suffer.

  She reappeared directly in front of the Deathgate Shaman, Eagle Feather and Midnight Frost becoming a pair of twin blurs in the light of the sickle moon.

  Isaac moved just as fast, batting away the black dagger, but taking another slash from the silver one. He grunted in pain, but before he could retaliate, Miranda struck again—and again, and again!

  Eagle Feather slammed into his staff, leaving a gouge an inch deep, and Midnight Frost’s tip darted across Isaac’s skin, leaving a bloody trail behind.

  Isaac spun the staff, trying to wrench the silver dagger from her grip before she could pull it free, but she sprang into the air and performed an elegant cartwheel, following the trajectory of his spin perfectly and dislodging the blade just as she landed. As soon as her hooves were on the ground, she launched into another attack.

  Each time she struck, he managed to block one of the incoming attacks, while the other found its target. None of them were life threatening wounds, but each one brought his health bar down just a little bit further. His HP would begin to tick upwards again less than a second later, but whatever spell he was using to constantly regenerate health wouldn’t do him any good if Miranda could keep whittling it down faster than it could come back. She just had to hope she would be able to keep this up until—

  “Aquatic Substitution!” Isaac suddenly yelled.

  Miranda drove Eagle Feather forward, piercing him straight through the chest—and his entire body promptly melted, splashing down onto the rocky beach around her hooves.

  “Wavestrike!”

  Miranda threw herself to the side half a second before the wave struck the shore where she had been standing. Whirling around to face the stream, she saw Isaac standing in it.

  No, she realized. Not in it, on it. His feet were planted on top of the gently flowing water as if it were solid ground, and his eyes glinted wickedly as his health bar rose back toward full HP yet again.

  “Ashes,” Miranda hissed, drawing her arm back to fling Eagle Feather at him.

  “Water Clones!” he declared before she could move.

  He drove the tip of his staff down into the stream, causing a single perfect ripple to spread outwards from where he stood. When the ripple was seven feet wide, it abruptly split apart into five separate ripples, forming a pentagon around Isaac.

  From the center of those ripples, five pillars of water began to rise. They quickly took shape, forming legs, torsos, arms, and heads. Each of them even clutched a staff identical to Isaac’s. They were made of water, and their skin was translucent and gently undulated with every move they made. As soon as their bodies were fully formed, though, they began to solidify.

  Within seconds, Isaac was surrounded by five exact copies of himself.

  Miranda's eyes flicked uneasily from one of them to the other. “Ashes and flame!”