"Damn..." Isaiah closed his eyes multiple times as smoke rose from his brows, "That was hot..." He turned to the assassin and once more shot out another stream of lightning, the assasin by that point dodged before he could aim and struck him down by the chin, "Gah!"

"Now then, cease all resistance."

"Heal!" A voice came from behind as Nicole finished her chanting and a white light filled his body,

"Good!" Isaiah stood up and rubbed his wrist,

The assassin clicked his tongue as took out another knife from his pocket. At the same speed as before, he once again threw the knife towards Isaiah who raised his hand and stopped the knife however he was not the target. The assassin used the opportunity to run straight for Nicole.

"Lower your hands and surrender, or she dies." The assassin held his knife close to her throat as Nicole held still, her eyes pleading to Isaiah to do something.

Isaiah lowered his arm and the knife fell.

"Good... Now raise your arm and turn around."

Isaiah raised his arms, but with a swipe of his chin, the man was suddenly blown away by an unseeing force.

"Gah!"

Nicole ran behind Isaiah as the latter cracked his muscles. "Why don't you surrender?"

"Your tenacity, good, your magic, excellent, your skills..." Like a bullet, he leaped faster than Isaiah could react as the two crashed into the ground far away from where they last stood, "Lacking!"

Raising his arm, he began to pummel Isaiah who raised his arms to protect his face. Nicole quickly grabbed a tree branch nearby to help Isaiah but before she could enter the battle a knife flew towards her legs, creating a shallow cut on her right thigh, its poison rendering her unable to move.

"Peter!"

Isaiah meanwhile kept on defending. He tried to launch a counterattack but not only was his attacks deflected and countered, his position made him vulnerable. Realizing that his physique was too weak to help him, he turned to magic.

The assassin was caught unawares when a pillar of earth struck him from the cheeks, breaking a few teeth in the process. But he was able to regain himself, leaping from tree to tree to gain altitude before throwing a set of knives towards Isaiah.

Isaiah stood up and raised a mound of earth to protect himself, then he broke the wall into pieces of sharp objects and threw them towards the assassin who took out his largest knives and cut through the bullets.

"This... This is fun!"

"Is this also fun!" Isaiah launched a bolt of lightning towards the assassin who was unable to dodge the attack. Lightning raged in his body as he fell to the ground with a loud thud. That said, he was still able to get up,

Coughing and spitting, he grinned. His clothes were mangled and his once gentlemanly air was now gone. Instead, it was replaced with that of a madman,

"Good, good... You should be at least this good if you could hold out against Titan himself."

"You sound too confident for someone who is about to lose."

"Lose? Ahaha, perhaps if you did not have a healer."

"Making excuses now are we?"

"Indeed I am... Now, I hope you can prepare yours."

Both then created some distance, with Nicole hiding behind Isaiah to recover her mana,

"Just hold out for a bit..."

Isaiah prepared himself for a defensive battle, covering his hands with gravel.

The assassin took a deep sigh and played with a new knife, "Now then... I was told you are a lightning type, but it seems you can use other types as well. That said, your mastery seems to be subpar, you are wasting mana like no tomorrow. You are a weak man."

"You aren't too accurate either... You're fast but weak."

"Oho, have you ever heard of the word testing the waters? I've heard you managed to fight back against Titan, I was only trying to measure myself against someone who could stand against that beast" The grin on his face grew wider, as he suddenly leaped, spun his body, and kicked Isaiah at a speed much faster than the last one. Isaiah found himself suddenly blown away from where he was standing. He already had no chance of dodging his previous attacks, but now it felt far too strong.

"Let us begin the fight, mage..."