Chapter 169 - 166 - The Night of Many Knives
The Enchantress walked down the sloped street in the twilight with her chin held high and a bounce in her step. Each stride was taken deliberately and confidently, and her body moved with a lithe grace that captivated all who looked at her.
She still retained the glow of a newlywed, and couldn't hold back a smile.
Finally, after three long years of seemingly endless delays, she had married the love of her life.
She had to focus to keep her hands from stroking her belly as she walked.
Soon, she would have to give up what had become her signature look.
Currently, she was wearing form-fitting, supple, black leather armor with metal plate inserts and a simply wonderful number of sheathes for hidden knives, on top of the obvious sheathed knives. The armor covered most of her neck, down to her wrists. Armored fingerless gloves protected her hands while highlighting her manicure. Leather boots with steel-toes and soles came up almost to her knees, and added two more inches to her height. Over the armor she wore a loose midi skirt that ensured she had total freedom of movement while also providing more room to hide knives.
Oh, and it was more proper and chaste, she supposed.
She kept her hair long, because James loved it, but tonight she had it pinned up and out of the way.
All of her armor and every single one of her knives, hidden or no, was enchanted to the absolute maximum.
There was a reason she was known as the Enchantress.
She had done the leathers and knives personally. But she insisted that James Smith and Enchant the jewelry and accessories himself.
It was more romantic.
And, well, the metal parts of her armor, he did those, too.
He just had a way with getting the most out of each individual piece, and weaving everything into a whole set…
Plus, when she wore his crafts, it was like he was embracing her all the time, no matter where she was.
She squirmed a little bit in joy.
The Enchantress continued walking down the lamp-lit boulevard towards the apothecary district to collect the standard set of potions that would ensure a safe and easy pregnancy. And, if she wasn't yet with child, would ensure she soon was.
She passed one hooded figure, roughly her height, and thought nothing of it until she heard a soft, feminine voice whisper.
"...found you…"
Her [Danger Sense] pinged, faintly. A knife slide from her sleeve into her hand and she came to a stop, looking over her shoulder.
The woman's face was hidden in shadow, covered by her hood. Her body shape was obscured by the cloak.
And then her entire body lit up in Isabella's [Threat Awareness] like one of her husband's flashbangs.
The woman no longer known as the Naked Blade didn't hesitate. She spun, throwing six knives in a single movement, and then took off running.
[Haste]
[Fleetfoot]
Active defense enchantments came on-line in the next breath.
[Repulsion]
[Shadow Concealment]
[Magic Nullification]
Given the environment, she opted for Dark-type enchantments. [Repulsion] to ward away missiles, [Shadow Concealment] to obscure herself and lose her pursuer, and [Magic Nullification] to cover anything else.
And yet, a knife, one of her own knives, was thrown back at her, aimed at her shoulder.
She tracked it effortlessly with her [Threat Awareness] and [Knife Awareness] skills, and by long familiarity with the [Repulsion] enchantment, was able to divert the knife towards her hand, which caught the knife even as she continued to sprint down the road.
The pursuer was hot on her tracks, even with the Enchantress' magically-enhanced speed.
She turned a corner, and flexed an [Inertia] enchantment woven into one knuckle stud of her left glove. Her apparent mass reduced to a fraction of what it really was, and she leapt from the street level all the way up to the roof four floors above.
Behind her, she left a flashbang stunner on a proximity trigger.
Finally, while still ascending, she dropped [Shadow Concealment] and [Repulsion] and activated the [Invisibility] James had enchanted into the ring she wore on her right pinkie finger.
She landed, and inhaled sharply as she felt the stunner she'd left behind dismantled.
And the pursuer was leaping from foothold to foothold up the walls of the alley beneath her, as though she knew exactly where Isabella was despite her invisibility.
Isabella wanted to stamp her foot and pout. That was a Master-class enchantment on a Master-quality ring!
Instead, she activated [Lightspeed Haste], [Seven League Step], and [Arrowbane] and leapt from roof to roof, trying to get away from her pursuer.
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And yet, she couldn't get away.
No matter how fast she was, the cloaked figure kept pace.
No matter how she twisted and changed direction, the figure never lost track of her.
No matter how many traps she left behind, they were all dismantled before they could detonate.
And eventually, the figure started drawing closer even as they raced through the sky above the city.
"...not letting you get away…"
Isabella started to get scared.
She stopped holding back.
She dodged around one temple spire and swung back around, launching another six knives.
And yet the pursuer started dodging before she could even detonate them.
BOOM!
Six overlapping explosions resounded as one, blasting the figure back, but even before the light faded, a stone clipped Isabella's shoulder.
Despite the explosion.
Despite the invisibility.
Despite [Arrowbane].
Due to her reduced inertia, the stone knocked her off balance, rotating her awkwardly as she fell back, and away from any hand or footholds.
Isabella saw as the pursuer used the force of the explosion to reach the side of a building and push off in her direction.
[[[[[Repulsion]]]]]
Five enchantments of [Repulsion] activated at once, flinging Isabella away from the pursuer's outstretched hands, and Isabella threw more knives.
[Knife Throwing]
[Accuracy]
[Critical Hit]
The enchantments on the knives were particularly wicked.
[Virulent Poison]
[Rot]
[Invisibility]
[Acceleration]
[Piercing]
[Stagnation]
[Implosion]
[Explosion]
Finally, above them both, she threw the knife that James had begged her not to create, and then begged her never to use.
And she activated the [Ice Nullification] bracelet James had made for her.
The pursuer dodged every knife, and even the dual explosion and implosion, focused solely on Isabella.
So when the wide-area [Fimbulwinter] enchantment went off, it actually struck the pursuer.
An explosion of deepest winter, coldest blizzard, enveloped a quarter of the city of Cordova. All standing water, here and there in puddles, froze instantly. Moisture in the cracks between rocks froze, expanded, and shattered stone with an instantaneous and overlapping crack! Moisture hanging in the air precipitated out, becoming fog for a moment, and then fell to the ground as diamond dust. Impossibly fine and tiny snowflakes fell on every surface.
Even with [Ice Nullification], Isabella felt the cold in her bones. She rapidly counteracted it with [Safety] on one stud earring and pushed her [Temperature Regulation] ring to the max, nearly overloading it.
But she could still move.
A bright light shone at the top of the Wizard's Tower, visible miles away high above the rooftops of the rest of the city, and a wailing siren sounded.
The signal that the city was under attack.
"Haaaah!"
The pursuer screamed, and golden-yellow energy burst from her body, blasting away the cold and forming a battle aura around her.
Isabella bounded away, terrified to feel that gaze upon her.
She ran, and leapt, and flew.
And the pursuer was gaining on her.
She threw out every knife she had for emergencies.
[Void Hole]
[Blinding Judgment]
[Homing Missile]
[Stasis Field]
Nothing worked. The pursuer dodged them all, save for the knife with [Stasis Field], which had its enchantment dismantled entirely.
Isabella began channeling her magic into the amulet she wore around her neck.
She continued running, but with her magic power diverted into the amulet, she was slower. She made up for this by returning to ground level, letting gravity aid in accelerating her, down tighter and narrower alleys until she found herself at a dead end.
The pursuer crashed into the ground with an explosion of golden light, smashing a crater into the street.
"Finally!"
She leapt forward, hands outstretched, towards the terrified Enchantress.
And then the Enchantress vanished.
[Teleport]
There was almost a sigh as the fabric of space slipped against itself and Isabella appeared in James' workshop. The amulet was overloaded and disintegrated into dust. She collapsed to the ground, panting, and a half-armored James halted his frantic movements.
"Isabella!"
She was covered in hoarfrost and missing almost all of her knives. He tried to force a potion to her lips, but she pushed it away with one hand.
"I'm… okay…" she said through heavy breaths, but didn't quite sound like she believed it. She sniffed, and her eyes watered, and then the emotions crashed over her like a wave.
James simply held his wife in his arms as she sobbed into his chest, the two of them sitting on the floor.
He forced himself to stay strong, to support Isabella.
But whoever had done this was going to pay.
Dark thoughts of powerfully enchanted weapons filled his mind as he stroked her back.
By all accounts, from then on, the Enchantress remained within the Royal Castle.
Almost one hundred knives were recovered during the city-wide cleanup.
There were no leads on the pursuer, though traces of her passage were evident in cracked walls and pavement.
While this author believes that the opening salvo of the war was the attack on Puco Rancero and the assassination of Marquess Sanchez, all agree that, at the very latest, the War of Demonic Aggression was underway on the Night of Many Knives, when the Wizard's Tower sounded the alarm.