The three soldiers in front of Lenna screamed in unison as her geyser of black and orange flames burned and rotted away their flesh. Their armor did little, but was not entirely ineffective, to help them. All three dove, rolled, or were tossed by the others out of the geyser as they flung themselves away from her pillar of agonizing death. All three of them were heavily wounded but not a single one had been killed, yet.

Lenna charged forward, towards the solitary reinforcement who had been spared her fury thus far, and kicked the soldier that was in her way with all of her aura and mana enhanced strength. The soldier, who had just gotten scorched and whose skin had started to rot, was not prepared for a running kick to send him airborne. He spun in a full circle through the air before he impacted a stalagmite, causing it to burst into a cloud of dust and minerals, and then down onto the cold stone floor.

The fresh soldier raised his shield to stop her but she didn't care. Her armor of ire was still active so he could try and attack her if he so wished. He tried to meet her charge with a shield bash from his position of solid footing but hardly slowed the rampaging V'Nova. Lenna hit the soldier's shield like a runaway cart and he was launched away into one of the thicker and taller stalagmites that had nearly reached its counterpart that was coming down from the ceiling. It broke and toppled down on top of him as she turned and finished off the other two soldiers who had not impacted pillars of sediment. They were both dead within a few seconds of each other as she stomped one of them into the ground and then removed his head from his neck, and then grabbed the other by the helmet and rammed her sword through his helmet's eye slits and let her flames burn away everything within.

Lenna had just finished off the two at her feet when the fourth soldier had finally managed to extricate himself from the rubble of his collision. Lenna charged at him again. The soldier was wise to how horrible of an idea it would have been to meet her head on, so he tried to dodge to the side, only to find himself tripping on the nearby rubble. Lenna would not fall prey to the same terrain obstacle so she leapt the final six feet to him. Two fireballs went off elsewhere in the cavern. She drove her sword down with all of her weight and strength as her knees impacted his kneeling form. He had barely been able to catch himself and get his shield up but they both knew that there was no way that his position would prevent him from getting thrown around like a child's kickball, again.

The adamantine blade of the blazing V'Nova punched into the heavily enchanted shield of a V'Nova soldier. Lenna's aura blazed and raged, melted and rusted, as it aided her sword in its descent. An oval hole of melted and rusted metal was forced open by the tip of her sword coated in the legendary metal. Her sword had only managed to pierce the shield by a few inches before her knees impacted the shield as well. As her full weight slammed into the soldier, he was shoved back and down before being forced into a backwards tumbling roll. Lenna went over him as he started to roll and was forced to finish most of a somersault before she impacted the ground as well.

Both Lenna and the soldier tumbled for a few feet before Lenna got her boots in front of her momentum and they slammed into a large fallen stone. She had just stopped, and hadn't had the time to even move, before the soldier came crashing into her. He rolled over top of her and she caught him by the pauldron. He barely had enough time for his eyes to go wide as she slammed him off of her and onto the ground beside her. Lenna rolled on top of him as she forced her sword into position between her and his neck.

"May your next life be less violent than this one." Lenna prayed to Lua on his behalf and then grabbed her sword, with her offhand that had formerly had him by the pauldron, by the blade and forced it down until her crossguard and tip of her blade impacted the stone. His gargled cry of protest and pain was short, as was the amount of time it took for him to truly die. She had just noticed that a breeze had started to pick up in the cavern when that observation was interrupted by a shout of fury and rage.

"Lenna!!!!!" Lenna heard from behind her and barely rolled off of the fallen soldier in time to prevent a strike fueled by the will of all of their ancestors from bearing down on her. Lenna had rolled onto her knees as she turned to face the newcomer. That was why she was able to get her sword up in time to block his attack with her sword still held on either end. His attack hit her like a fallen building and she felt the weak mineral stone beneath her knee and boot be ground under the impact. Her hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, back, and right knee all protested painfully from being forced to absorb such a ridiculous amount of force.

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As the radiant proof of her counterpart's oath faded slightly, it imparted a divine heat into her own sword, Lenna was able to see into the other paladin's eye slits. His anger was all encompassing and the power he brought to bear was far greater than any normal V'Nova paladin. There were only two options for who he could be and Lenna was almost certain which one was correct. He was either a patriarch from a nearby V'Nova controlled city, or he was a councilor of Contantis who had come to end her personally. She was certain it was the latter. Something about the familiarity of his voice and the way that he had said her name reminded her of someone specific.

Farlen V'Nova was a man known for his incredible strength and direct, straightforward, ruthlessness. He was a man who truly embodied what Isaac called 'the V'Nova way'. He only went forwards. He only went through his problems and that was why he had been stuck at level nineteen for three and a half centuries. He had literally been stuck at nearly maximum level for longer than Lenna had been alive. Alita had seen eleven rulers in just the time that he had been stuck at nearly the pinnacle. Lenna was screwed. He was her paternal, once removed, cousin. The only one other than her mother and Jala to still be alive from that entire generation of her branch of the family. The man's son was the one Isaac had killed and discarded at the beginning of his fight with Jallen V'Nova..

Lenna let out a grunt as the tip of her sword scratched against her faceplate. She felt the leather on the inside of her left gauntlet part as her adamantine blade was forced through it. His sword had managed to trade cuts with hers so they were practically locked in place together. It was no mere bind of the blades but irreparable damage from only a singular exchange that now compromised the integrity of both swords.

—

Alexander and Shamesh were completely surrounded. 'I cannot do that again.' Shamesh telepathically sent Alexander. 'Not without knowing that it will work.' His first word of power had been forced to overcome some kind of soul protection item, like Isaac and Lenna's rings, before it had even been able to take hold. After that, it had then struggled against the maximum level target until it finally tried to implode his heart. The death defying item that the assassin possessed had then taken any and all of the damage for him, leaving the assassin completely unharmed. If Shamesh tried it again, and the same thing happened, he would barely have enough mana left for the four less lethal assassins who supported the leader, let alone the leader himself.

'Then we stall.' Alexander sent back with as much resolve and conviction as he could muster. If they could hold out until someone else arrived, then they had a chance. As it stood, however, the two of them together didn't have a high chance of slaying just the lead assassin.

The lead assassin had already landed a dozen feet from them and risen from his crouched landing position. If he was going to give the two wizards time to converse, they weren't about to start flinging ineffectual spells at him.

'Very well.' Shamesh agreed and reached out with both of his hands. Telekinesis grabbed hold of every large rock and bolder around them.

Alexander hadn't even waited for Shamesh to reply as he cast a defensive spell. They had seamlessly switched rolls as the more experienced and versatile, but weaker, wizard took on the roll of defender. "Rage on my behalf o' wild winds." Alexander chanted and a twenty foot wide tornado began swirling inside of the cavern. The high winds would make talking hard, and would keep the smoke away from them, but the real benefit was how much more difficult it would be to hit them directly with any projectile weapons.

Rocks and boulders started flying towards the incoming lead assassin as Shamesh threw everything around them at the legendary assassin. Neither wizard knew who he was but that didn't mean that he wasn't legendary wherever he was from. It was impossible to reach that level and not have your exploits whispered in taverns late at night. The assassin in question dodged every single one with utterly perfect movements until Alexander's winds started to catch him. The combination of Alexander's high winds and Shamesh's relentless assault of projectile terrain features meant that not even the lead assassin was able to reach them directly. They had entered a momentary equilibrium as both sides attempted to figure out a way to get the upper hand on their opponent. Both sides knew that the wizards were on a time limit, their mana could only hold out for so long, but they also knew that the lower leveled drow in the cavern were being turned into corpses at a rather rapid rate.

It was during this state of equilibrium in the approximate center of the cavern, the beginning of Lenna's paladin versus paladin battle, and the end of Edward's skirmish with half of a squad of soldiers, that Isaac finally returned to the edge of the cavern. His mana was barely halfway refilled and he noticed that Shamesh and Lenna were both in the same state almost instantly. His mind took in the battlefield and he came to a few quick conclusions. Edward was about to win, Lenna was most likely going to lose but it wouldn't be quick, and Shamesh and Alexander were going to die. Two of the archer assassins were lining up shots while calculating the wind speed of the tornado already and neither wizard was any wiser.

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