Chapter 181: Book 3 Chapter 44: Fair Fight

Dantes leapt down, shifting into himself, and landing perfectly on his feet as he did so. He drew his pistol and aimed it at Drake.

“Ooooh, a pistol? Another weapon of the cowardly and meek, but at least one that draws blood. Go ahead and sh-”

Dantes pulled the trigger and the bullet bounced off of Drake’s chest with a spark.

Drake let out a low rumbling laugh. “Well, I do have to say I appreciate your bloodlust.” He took a few steps toward him.

“This a hostile takeover? You going after Diamond, Argenta, and Fritz next? I knew you were ambitious, but we’re all a cut above Niklas and Mondego.”

Dantes extended a wand through his hand and sent his will through it. An arc of lightning shot out and slammed directly into Drake’s face, but it had no effect and he kept walking toward him.

Dantes held his ground, shifting wands and drawing his dagger as he began to call on the vermin of the city. Drake’s building didn’t have any anti-vermin enchantments, it may have before the academy was sealed, but it had long since faded.

“I’m not here for a takeover. I don’t think I’d excel in your particular line of work,” said Dantes, aiming the new wand at Drake. “I’m here because of your connections to Godfrey. I know that you’ve been talking to him, that the second he asks you to, you'll betray Rendhold.”

Drake chuckled a bit. “Oh that? Come on, guys got to eat. Rendhold’s going down either way, I may as well make some good money on the way out. Make sure my boys get out okay. It’s just a city, not like I can’t just move.”

Dantes sent his will through the new wand, activating a push spell and shooting out a wall of invisible force toward him. Some of the furniture around him was pushed back, but Drake was stopped for less than a second, pushing through like it was nothing.

With him closing in, Dantes raised his wooden hand and sent his fingers out like stakes.

For the first time, Drake didn’t simply walk through them, instead he sidestepped, grabbed the extended fingers, and threw them and Dantes across the room.

Dantes swiftly drew the fingers back, and automatically reoriented himself in the air to land on his feet.

Drake clapped a little bit. “Oh, very nice. Good reflexes. I’d bet that after me you’re probably the second best of the Fingers in a straight up fight,” he grabbed a massive stone that was being used as a table and hefted it over his head. “The distance between number one and number two is pretty extreme though.”

He threw the stone with surprising speed and Dantes barely dodged it, feeling the air from it blow back his hair as it flew past. As he recovered, Drake closed the distance, and threw a punch that seemed to have more force behind it then the rock did. Dantes dodged that blow, as well as the flurry that followed it.

Drake was massive, but he wasn’t slow, and his strikes all used the perfect amount of force, no motion was wasted. His footwork, the one area where Dantes was still better than Jacopo and Zak, was immaculate keeping Dantes on the back foot the entire time.

Dantes brought sunrise out of his arm and sent his will through it, shooting blinding light all through the building, but rather than falling back or wincing in pain, Drake continued to throw punches and move forward based on where Dantes had just been. Still, with him blinded, Dantes was able to put some distance between them and pulled another wand out through his wooden hand.

Drake’s vision eventually recovered and he turned to look at him, laughing at the wand in Dantes’s hand. “Don’t bother with that, you’re just wasting our time.”

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Dantes ignored him, and shot a blast of small rocks at him, that skipped off of him as he was made of steel.

“This enchantment,” he said pointing to his amulet. “It protects me from all forms of indirect damage. Magical attacks, poison, bullets, arrows, rocks from a sling, all of that. Diamond made it for me while we were having a fling. It turns out that the enchantment lasts a lot longer if you still allow normal direct physical damage.” He brushed a bit of stone dust off of his bare chest. “The only way to beat me is in a straight up fight.”

Dantes smiled widely. “I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those before.”

Drake smiled back. “It shows, but hells, there’s a first time for everything.”

“Maybe, but not today.”

Dantes fixed his attention on all of the vermin he’d been holding outside of the building until he figured out Drake’s enchantment.

“Attack.”

Rats and roaches flooded into the building like a tidal wave and smashed into Drake. He roared and began punching, and stomping as he fought against the tide. His massive fists and feet killed dozens as he fought against them, but it was in vain. His skin was rapidly covered in the lacerations from rat bites, and roaches swarmed his mouth and ears, one of them managing to tear into his left eye and blind it. �

He made one final push to climb onto a nearby counter and get away, but they followed him as they went.

Dantes leaned casually against one of the support beams holding up the ceiling. “Seems to me that an enchantment like that would only lead to a particularly painful death. You probably should’ve thought that through.”

Suddenly, there was a burst of flame from where Drake had fallen. Dantes could feel the deaths of a thousand rats and roaches as they burned, and stumbled backward from the heat, clenching his teeth.

Drake pushed himself to his feet, he was a red shortsword in his hand with a blade that was burning with flame.

“You know, I just bought this from Lydia because I thought it looked cool, but it’s nice to know it has a good use too.” He swung the sword in a wide arc, and flame burst from it, scorching a few of the remaining rats and roaches that hadn’t yet pulled away.

Dantes looked at Drake. His left eye was destroyed and he was bleeding freely from hundreds of rat bites, but he was still a formidable foe, and with his fiery shortsword he would be able to drive any vermin away, on top of being more dangerous at close quarters for Dantes himself. He raised his dagger in an aggressive stance and pointed it at Drake.

“Oh? Are you going to fight me like a man after all?”

“Come closer and find out.”

Drake smiled in a way that didn’t reach his eyes. He was acting like the fight wasn’t trouble for him, but the truth was Dantes was winning. He’d lost nothing so far, and had already nearly killed him. He needed to re-take the initiative and finish the fight soon.

“Do you need my help?” asked Jacopo from within the council meeting he’d endured. They were finalizing the vote to release Dantes.

“Maybe, I have one more idea. If it doesn’t work, I’ll need you here.”

Jacopo sent a mental confirmation to him, and started to plot out the best way to reach him quickly.

Drake and Dantes began to circle one another, fire still burning away at smoldering rat corpses and furniture.

Dantes faked a step forward, and Drake lifted his sword forward to catch a blow, but instead of Dantes’s dagger, he threw his gunpowder horn at him instead. The gunpowder ignited, and Drake’s sword flew back from the force, though he managed to hold onto it, and his remaining eye was momentarily blinded.

Dantes took that moment to leap forward, and drive his dagger deep into Drake’s gut lifting and twisting it as it struck true, warm blood dripping down his hands.

Drake howled in pain and stumbled backwards. Dantes reached for the grip of his sword in an attempt to disarm him, but Drake slammed his left fist into Dantes’s side and sent him flying across the room.

He slammed into the wall and wheezed as he struggled to breathe and pushed himself to his feet.

Drake kept coming toward him, dragging the fiery shortsword behind himself even as his blood dripped down the dagger protruding from his stomach.

Dantes laughed, a garbled choked sound, and held up his other hand, the one that had released his dagger. In it, was Drake’s medallion, shining in the light of his fiery blade.

Drake’s remaining eye widened.

Dantes sent his will through the wand protruding from his palm and fired another bolt of lightning from it. It slammed into Drake and his body flew backward where it hit a stone counter. His back snapped like a thick branch leaving the top of his body sprawled on the top of the counter, while his legs hung limply from its side.

Dantes pushed himself up, focusing on healing his injuries as he brought himself to his feet. He fixed the clasp on the necklace and placed it around his own neck, feeling his fingertips tingle as he did so.

He stepped toward Drake’s lifeless body.

“I told you. No fair fights today.”