Chapter 21: Fighting within the Shadows

"CORALIA, HIDE MY MOM IN THE HOUSE"!!! Isaac shouts out in anger before jumping to his feet and rushing towards the front door to the bakery. Isaac in that quick moment felt unparalleled distress. The killing intent he felt wasn't something that he felt before, it made him feel weak in his knees, but it was like the killing intent was trying to tell him to come outside or else. So Isaac did what any person would do and go outside to the front of the house. Before Isaac can fully leave though, Coralia grabs his arms and looks at him with eyes that are almost pleading with him to not go outside. Isaac smiles at her as if to reassure that he will be fine before saying, "Make sure my mom is safe Coralia, I'm counting on you. I'll be back before long". Isaac then goes outside while Coralia watches him leave with a look of sadness on her face.

Outside the bakery, two men are standing there, in between is the same youth of the Dormer family, Victor. The two men are familiar to Isaac, they are the two shady men with daggers on their hips (Chapter 4). Back then, Isaac had no way of knowing though, was that these two were mages, and not only that, they were a level higher than him.

"Boss Victor, is this the brat who has been causing you troubles"? One of the shady men asks, playing with the dagger that he took from his his hip, running his finger along it, as if the sharpness of the blade was dull.

"That is correct". Victor laughs out, then the smile on his face becomes vicious. "I hope you'll take care of him for me. Oh right, You guys can take care of the brat's mother in anyway you'd like". He laughs boisterously before walking off into the darkness of the night. The two shady men finally get serious and flash a evil smile towards each other, suddenly one dissolves into the dark and completely disappears.

"What!? Where did he go"!? Isaac wonders as he tries to search for the shady man that just disappeared in the darkness. What Isaac can't see right now is a shadow on the ground, darker than the shadow already currently on the ground, begin to move towards him. As Isaac continues to try to look for the shady man who disappeared in the darkness while keeping an eye on other one shady man, but suddenly he lets out a piercing scream. The back of Isaac's leg was stabbed. When Isaac looked towards the wound, he sees the upper half of the body of shady man he had been looking for, coming out of his own shadow. Isaac stares in bewilderment at what he is seeing before the shady man grabs the knife out of Isaac's leg before he begins laughing.

"HAHAHAHAHA, never seen tier 1 shadow magic brat"? Isaac quickly runs away to allow him some space to maneuver away from the shady man. The other shady man who was still just playing with their knife, also begins to laugh. When he is finished laughing he says, "Of course this greenhorn magi wouldn't have seen shadow magic Jay, lets just play with him to death, then we will have our fun with the brat's mother for a couple of weeks before killing her"! They both grin evilly at Isaac as if torturing him was a great entertainment to them. Isaac glares hatefully at the both of them before running off towards the forest.

"Tch, scared him off, I'll go follow him". Jay says as he melds into the darkness and goes after the direction Isaac just left in". The other shady man decides to go and give himself some early entertainment and knocks on the house's door. When nobody shows up at the door he busts the door down.

"We have never came over to this bakery to collect our "taxes" only because Isabella had a connection to that Bitch of a librarian". The shady man says walking through the door, obviously referring to Kanade. "Our luck is good today though, we saw Kanade leave town today, which means we can turn up the amount of fun we normally have without being caught". He thinks in his head as he starts searching through the bakery.

Back with Isaac, Isaac is running at his fastest speed towards a clearing in the forest he feels like he will gain an advantage. In the forest, there is a open spot clear of trees where the moonlight pours down from the sky. But before Isaac reaches that clearing, he wants to do some analysis. Isaac noticed that while he was running towards the clearing, though he couldn't see the shadow approach him, he could feel it zone in on him thanks to his magical sense. Whenever the shadow would get closer to him, a knife would go hurling at him from behind, thanks to Isaac's acute sense, he was able to dodge the knives while keeping his attention on the shadow.When Isaac dodges another knife coming from the shadow, Isaac backflips and gathers magic into his hand.

"Summon". Isaac says as the purple hunting knife is summoned into his hand before he throws it at where he could feel the presence of the magic the shady man used. Isaac watches as the shadow deviates from the path of where the knife will land. Isaac watches this and smirks. Isaac wanted to confirm if he aimed at the shadow, could he still inflict damage, the fact that the man known as Jay deviated from his knife's path, shows that he isn't invulnerable when he is in the shadow.

"Let's see how he likes it when I use the shadows to my advantage to". Isaac thinks as he begins to weave through trees at a very fast pace, before he disappears behind a tree. Isaac feels the shadow pass right by him before he summons the throwable spear and aims right where the shadow will be. The spear travels through the air, slightly illuminating the path it is taking before hitting the shadow. Isaac sees that the spear caused the shadow the man became to dispel before the man tumbled on the ground, grabbing the spear out of his left shoulder blade.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT BRAT". Jay yells, as he begins to disappear again into the shadow. Isaac knew his trick wouldn't work again so he makes a break for the clearing. Isaac is losing blood due to the wound on his leg, so once he reached the clearing, he realized he needed to end the fight fast.

Once Jay reached the clearing, his shadow form dispelled under the moonlight. He grabs a sword that was tied on his back before slashing his sword out in anger. "It's the end of the line for you brat. I'm going to enjoy pleasuring your mother until the very moment I take her final breath when you're dead"! Jay begins to walk closer to Isaac, but before he can get any closer, fierce winds begin to blow from where Isaac's location is. Magical energy begins to surround Isaac as he raises his hand in the air Isaac's eyes begin to glow with purple energy as his dual bladed polearm is summoned into his hand, but different than the normal times that Isaac has ever summoned his dual bladed polearm, both blades are glowing with purple magical power. A second later Isaac's eyes returns to normal and he stares at the weapon in his hand before looking back at jay.

"You won't be able to see even a strand of her hair, because I'll be making sure you die".