chapter 35

i sit down with my blades on my lap waiting for Lynda. i pull out some poison that i swiped from uncle, who is widely proclaimed to be the best alchemist currently alive, and start applying the poison, a fast acting paralytic, to the short swords. after a light application of the poison i put it back in my inventory so no one would see it. after about 30 minutes Johanna shows up.

"yo, you're here early." Johanna

"wanted to give her enough time to prepare herself" jack

"i assume that isn't all you've been doing." Johanna

"maybe" jack

after about 5 more minutes Lynda finally show up.

"ready?" Lynda

all traces of the previous docile, blushing little snake are gone and replaced with excitement for a fight. not that i can blame her, if Johanna's to be believed then she's really strong so I'm getting excited as well.

"you will walk out into the forest at random directions for 5 minutes, after that the fight will begin. the first person to be go below 50% or be rendered unable to fight loses. no offensive magic, support magic is allowed. is that alright with both parties?" Johanna

"yes, it is." jack

"of course" Lynda

"ALl right then. start!" Johanna

i see Lynda slither off into the forest, twisting her body expertly around the trees, then she just disappears.

'magic, huh. two can play at that game.' jack

i enhance my speed with wind magic, which also has the sided effect of muffling sounds. and run through the forest and up a tree, where i keep running for about 4 minutes before stopping to take a look around and rejuvenate my mana through meditation, both things i can do at the same time thanks to the fact that i can see with my eyes closed. i see, or

rather feel, traces of illusion magic around several trees nearby.

'smart, using magic on other trees to confuse me.' jack

i jump to the left as a chain comes up from behind me missing me by a hairs breadth and lodging itself into a nearby tree. i jump onto the chain and run along it, hoping to find to one that though it. the chain is pulled out of the tree and another chain flies at my head from the side. i jump down and grab onto a vine, swinging up into the leaves of a tree. i sit for a second while weaving a spell, half way through the spell a chain comes from below and i have deflect it with my short swords.

'strong' jack

i lost 50 hit points just from deflecting that chain. i finish weaving the spell, which is a combination of illusion magic and psychological magic. i created six illusionary versions of myself that can act on its own but still allows me to control it. me and my six non-existent clones jump out from the hiding places just as both chains come from either side of us, unfortunately one of them gets destroyed in the process.

'ha ha ha ha ha, this is fun.' jack

i jump onto the nearest tree with magic surrounding it while another illusion gets destroyed. i mentally grip the mana and absorb it to fill my own mana pool, the first thing asmodeus taught me to do.

'damn it, not here.' jack

i send a quick burst of wind behind me as i jump knocking an oncoming chain back and sending me up above the forest where i quickly scanned for the most likely hiding spots. as i start to fall a chain comes up from under me, i twist my body with the help of wind magic and start running down the chain before jumping up and landing on the second chain which came from the side, i start to run Down the second chain before reaching the most likely hiding spot, which is surrounded with illusion magic. i quickly break down the spell and absorb the ambient mana while dodging 2 chains that lodged themselves in the tree.

'damn, not here either. it's not like i can just follow the chains, it would take too long.' jack

i swing on a vine over to the next tree with illusion magic surrounding it, only three after this one. after absorbing the mana i realize another blast of wind to throw myself through the air at the 4th tree, at this point my stamina is starting to drop but my mana is just fine due to the mana I've been absorbing from the spells, so this time i turn the mana into stamina, which was the second thing asmodeus taught me to do. this time there was a snake, but it was the wrong snake. the branch i was on brakes just in time for two chains to hit the tree and bounce out.

"thats cheating" Jack

"sorry, i couldn't help it." nymph # 2

"fine, but don't do it again." jack

"fine." nymph # 2

i jump up out of the way of a chain and fall only to grab a vine and swing onto another tree. this tree has no magic surrounding it. i deflect a chain and take 50 damage. i attempt to grab the chain but fail because it gets pulled back too fast.

'damn it' jack

i launch myself to another tree, the 2nd to last one with mana surrounding it. after absorbing the mana i jump up to the top of the tree to dodge the 2nd chain. i grab a vine and wrap it around the hilt of my short sword. i grab one end of the vine and enchant it to be extra durable and throw the sword at the last tree using the sword as an intermediary to absorb the mana.

'damn it. where is she? it must be natural camouflage and not magical.' jack

i remove the vine and jump up in the air in the same motion, narrowly dodging a chain. i keep myself in the air with magic for a couple seconds while i scan the surroundings.

'there' jack

i see the tail end of an obviously large black snake. i propel myself toward it using mana, by this point I'm down to about

50% mana, flying takes up a lot of mana. i land on the mid section of the snake and hear a gasp before slicing at the body of the snake with my poisoned short swords. 5 seconds later i can feel the snake stiffen up around the tree and i get a system message.

your pet/slave Lynda has been paralyzed

"so...you...applied...poison...too?" Lynda

she is speaking in grunts due to the fact that she is mostly paralyzed.

"of course i did." jack

just then Johanna literally ran up the tree we were sitting in.

"and the winner is jack." Johanna

as soon as she says that i give her the antidote to the poison.

"if i had gotten just one scratch in i would have won." Lynda

"the last person to give me that much trouble in a fight was Johanna." jack

"sorry." Lynda

and now she's back to her docile blushing self.

"the last time i had so much fun in a fight was the last time i fought with Johanna." jack

at this she perks up.

"it's about time we start heading back, it's almost dark." jack

"awww" nymph # 2

"why don't we spend the night in the forest, ghost, Lucy and Lilith are all already here. they just can't climb as fast as i

can." Johanna

"alright. fine, it's really hard to say no to you, Johanna." jack

"you remember it, Lilith may have taken my place as first wife but i always get what i want in the end." Johanna

end chapter 35

i had a lot of fun writing this chapter.

so, i saw that this game we call life is in the top weekly list, lets keep it there. hopefully we can get this story into the top active list as well.

so what does everyone think of lynda so far?