The undead monstrosity launched itself at Isaac at the speed of a runaway stallion. Its head snapped back and tore free of its neck from the sudden burst of speed. Its head twisted and tumbled through the air on its way down to the ground.

Normally, a creature running blindly forwards would end up tripping and landing face first, this one did not. The undead being of mutated bone and exposed muscle plowed through whatever ground got in the way of its feet. This total disregard for terrain led to waves of stone shrapnel being flung in whatever direction the creature was moving in.

Isaac dropped the power flowing to his sword as much as he could to lessen the aching pain resonating through his core. While he did that, he also jumped backwards, twisted to take the incoming blow at an angle, and started shadow-stepping. The only one of those actions that he did entirely consciously was the first. Countless fights had honed his combat sense and muscle memory to an incredible degree, nowhere near Lenna or Fable's levels but higher than most nonetheless.

The monster hit him with a sweeping swing that brought its long bone spikes that it called fingers to bear on his chest. The monster and its attack had been coming too fast for Isaac's shadow-step to complete but only barely. Isaac's jump and twist made sure the attack didn't hit him square and he was in the air to allow his body to simply absorb some of the attack's momentum instead of the entirety of the strike's force being applied to his chest. Before Isaac could even feel the strain from the blow, his shadow-step finished and he was in the air twenty feet backwards. He landed in a slide that removed the momentum he had absorbed from the attack. He straightened and dusted his chest off. The dragon scales hadn't even been scratched by the attack but his entire ribcage ached from the blow. If that attack had hit him square, or even if his feet just hadn't been off the ground, his ribcage probably would've caved in.

Isaac eyed that monster as it spun around to try and find its head. Isaac just watched it for a moment as it stumbled around towards where its head had landed face down. "So it's stupid." Isaac muttered to himself. He breathed calmly as he started walking towards the monster again. He let his death flames flow through his chest and then his head to make sure it was completely clear.

—

"Your mate," Nacen began with a quick glance towards Lenna. "He does not seem to be taking this very seriously."

Lenna shrugged. "He is the Lord of all that is Dark." She replied. "Why would something like that require his full power?" Lenna may have put on a brave face, but she was actually getting concerned. Isaac was only about as powerful as when he had broken them out of Safeharbor's cells. Sure, he had practically unlimited mana at that power level, but his boosting skill was entirely out of the question. That singular ability had carried him up to Fable's combat level and beyond. Without it, he was a rogue without help from his class and unlimited casts of Quick Step.

"If you say so." Nacen replied. "I would appreciate it if he kept the collateral damage to a minimum, no matter how he decides to end this."

—

While Nacen and Lenna were talking, Isaac had decided to add a new job to his resume. He had never considered himself a mortician, but he figured that taking apart bodies was a rather large part of the job. He also figured that he had seen enough corpses and was generally observant enough that he could reasonably tell a creature's cause of death as well.

At the moment, Isaac had begun an autopsy on a rather strange and mutated body. The exposed muscles were difficult to cut but his scalpel luckily had a variable sharpness feature. Unluckily, the sharper the blade became, the more pain he felt his chest and the less clear his mind got. Those thoughts were running through Isaac's head as he wove, ducked, rolled, danced, and shadow-stepped through, under, and around clawed swing after clawed swing. It could feel where he was but the first thing Isaac had done was toss a blanket over the severed head so it couldn't see to fight him properly.

Isaac slowly cut each limb off one by one, starting with its right arm and then its left. After both of its limbs were wriggling on the ground, Isaac baited the monster out away from the wall and its severed appendages. Duck the swing, slice inside of the elbow, shadow-step out of the backswing, roll with the edge of the other arm's follow-up swing, repeat. That was the combination of moves that dismantled the first arm and the second was much the same but without the final roll. Now though? Now he had to deal with it mindlessly charging chest first at him. He had no idea what it hoped to accomplish but its legs were powerful and it was at least twice as heavy as he was. An impact with it wouldn't be the end of him but it would be far from pleasant.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Isaac switched up his tactics to account for the much more mindless attack pattern. He sliced horizontally with both hands while he dove to the side out of the way of the charging monster. Each swing landed squarely on the creature's hip and cut and/or severely damaged multiple strands of corded muscle. Eventually he reached bone and found his sword stopped almost cold. The best he could do was scratch and nick the magically reinforced bones. By that time, the monster was moving noticeably slower but its damaged leg was still stronger than one of Isaac's healthy ones. It truly was absurdly physically strong. If it had any kind of actual intelligence, it might've been a problem. At first, Isaac thought that it was trying to figure out how to kill him but after it lost its head and all visuals of him, it devolved into a mindless zombie. A ridiculously powerful zombie, but a zombie nonetheless.

Isaac was forced to take a breather every minute or two. Each time he did, he lowered the amount of power his sword was using and fed some of that power to the rest of him. Once he was fully rejuvenated, he would bring his sword back up to where it needed to be and then got back to work. It took him two and a half minutes to get the arms off of the thing but, because he had to work around the bones, it took another five just to remove one of the legs. By then, there was a small crowd of soldiers and guards watching. Lenna, Shamesh, and Nacen were also standing around near the severed head and arms.

Despite the monotony of the fight, Isaac had to maintain his full focus entirely up until he had cut off the first leg. At that point, he kicked it away from the rest of the body and then took a breather. "Damn immortal bastard." Isaac grumbled. 'Shamesh, I am ninety percent sure this thing is being controlled by someone. Any ideas on how to find them?' He asked telepathically.

'I apologize, I do not.' Shamesh replied.

Isaac barely suppressed a wince from the pain of receiving Shamesh's return message. He dispelled his sword and pulled out a silver coin. He had heard something about silver being the bane of certain monster's but he really had no idea where he had heard it and why. He tossed the coin at the flailing corpse, which only had one leg and the top halves of both of its arms. The coin bounced harmlessly off of it.

"It's platinum, not sliver." A voice said from right next to him.

Isaac barely suppressed a jerk in the direction of the newcomer. He hadn't heard or sensed the man arrive at all. Isaac eyed the newcomer for a short moment and immediately recognized him as the man from the Guild Hall that had been distinctly not taking part in the revelry. His black greasy hair and ill trimmed beard were not that unusual but the way the man seemed to almost fade into the world around him was something that Isaac distinctly remembered. He had done it so seamlessly in the Guild Hall that it hadn't even stood out to Isaac then. Now that he had seen the man out in the wild, that was entirely different. In fact, Isaac started to realize that he had seen the man at least three, no, fo-five times while he and Lenna had been enjoying the city. He had been stalking them and the duo hadn't even noticed.

Isaac pulled out a platinum coin and raised an eyebrow towards the newcomer. The newcomer looked up to the sky and basked in Lua's light. It wasn't very late into the night but it seemed to be late enough for him because he nodded to himself and then looked back at Isaac. "Are ya blessed by any gods?" He asked Isaac.

Isaac nodded. "I am." He replied and narrowed his eyes slightly. "Why?"

"Because if ya wern't, we'd need ta find someone who is." The other man explained.

"To do something productive with the platinum coins?" Isaac requested clarification.

"Did'ja know you can skip fightin' wraiths by sendin' d'eir souls on d'eir way early?" Isaac's interlocutor offered.

Isaac nodded. "I did, but I never looked into how. I figured it was 'coins for the boat man' or something. I'm Isaac by the way."

"Cain." The newcomer replied. "An' I know who ya are, Darkness. I also know that ya'ren't leakin' mana on purpose." Isaac's finger twitched. "Relax 'ere partner. I'm the Guild Master. I'm supposed ta know these thin's."

Isaac eyed the man and his tattered long dark gray coat, worn traveling boots, greasy hair and face, and distinct lack of visible weapons. "I'm not one to judge by appearances, but shouldn't the Guild Master look more…"

"Presen'able." Cain finished for him. "Leader's been on me 'bout that fer ten years. People get used ta me."

Isaac nodded. "Fair enough." He replied. "So, what's this ritual with platinum coins?"

"Put a coin in each piece, a coin on each eye, an' an extra in the heart, if it's got one." Cain explained. "Af'er that, pray fer yer patron to pass 'em on. Simple as that."

Isaac nodded again in understanding. "I can do that." He replied and sent the message to Shamesh to start doing just that. "How many more tips and tricks like that do you have?"

"Oh…" Cain took in a deep breath and then let it out through his teeth. "'Bout a shit load." He seemed to give up trying to count them.

Isaac chuckled. "Fair enough. Have you ever thought about opening a school?" He wondered.

"I barely read 'n' write mi'self. How's I supposed ta teach it?" He asked Isaac incredulously.

Isaac waved him off. "Not that kind of school." Isaac corrected him. "An adventurer school. That way rookies would be coming in with some knowledge to help counter their inexperience. Like the spell-blade school Fable runs."

Cain eyed Isaac like he was swearing at him in a language neither of them understood. "Yer serious." He said with mild surprise, concern, and disgust in equal measure. "Nah, I'm only Guild Master 'cause Leader made me."

"You mean the Guild Leader?" Isaac wondered.

Cain nodded. "Old dragon bastard." He swore.

"Dragon?" Isaac asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cain's face went pale. "Shit."

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