CRACK!
Lightning struck again, this time for Isaac.
He didn't dodge. Couldn't. He just braced, teeth clenched, arms crossed.
The blast hit like a sledgehammer made of fire.
BOOM.
He flew back, slammed into stone, tasted blood.
Then silence. Smoke.
The scorched air still crackled.
Ash coated the broken ground, thick with the scent of burnt flesh.
Geoffrey stepped through the haze, untouched. Lightning flickered around his fingertips, calm and cruel.
"You don't look like much," he remarked casually. "Farm boy, was it?"
"With that hit, you should have turned into ash," Geoffrey said, eyes narrowing. "And yet... here you are."
Isaac didn't answer.
He was still on his knees in the wreckage, barely. Smoke curled off his body. Blisters bloomed across his skin. The sickles trembled in his grip.
His body screamed with every breath. His vision pulsed. The world kept spinning sideways, and he had to bite down just to stay conscious.
