[System Alert]
> Insanity Index: 87%
Warning: You are being affected.
Skill ???????? is slightly in effect.
The notifications pulsed in Isaac's skull like war drums, the words clawing at the edges of his focus. His boots crunched over broken glass as he limped toward Claire and the second intruder.
"Oh… you actually killed him," the skinny man said, nodding toward Blade's corpse. His tone was a lazy mix of surprise and mockery
Isaac ignored him. His eyes locked on Claire—bloodied, burned, and barely upright. But she still stood in her stance, her knuckles white, her flame lion growling faintly beside her.
He raised his hand. Crimson mist slithered up his arm and coiled into the shape of jagged spears.
They flew toward the intruder in a blur.
The man didn't move. Wind screamed to life around him, forming a cyclone that shredded the spears mid-flight.
"Is that all? You're strong… maybe you'd be interested in join—"
He didn't finish. The shredded spears dissolved into mist again, swirling tight, closing around him like a prison. The air shimmered as the crimson sphere snapped shut.
Isaac's voice was cold.
"Shut up. Why do you people love talking so much?"
He turned his back on the writhing sphere and limped to Claire, fishing out two health potions from his storage ring. He downed one without hesitation and shoved the other into her hand.
"Maya. Where is she?"
Claire's voice was ragged. "I… I don't know. I had to send them away when we ran into these two."
A sharp crrrk cracked through the hallway. Claire's head whipped back. The crimson sphere splintered like glass, mist scattering into nothing.
The intruder staggered forward, clutching his head, his eyes wild and bloodshot.
"Why… why… WHY DO YOU ALL REFUSE TO LISTEN?!"
A cyclone erupted from his body, wind lashing like whips, hurling broken chairs and chunks of plaster through the air.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! People like you don't deserve to walk among the chosen!"
Isaac slammed a palm to the floor. Crimson mist boiled upward, condensing into layered shields. The wind smashed against them, sparking faintly where pressure met mana.
"Can you fight?" he asked Claire.
She nodded without hesitation.
The intruder's voice rose into a scream. "STOP TALKING! DON'T IGNORE ME!"
He dashed forward, slicing his hand through the air. Razor wind tore through the crimson shields like paper.
Isaac tilted his head. "Oh… abandonment issues?" He jerked his thumb at Blade's corpse. "So we've got 'Daddy never told me he was proud of me'…"
Then he gestured lazily at the skinny man. "…and now an attention addict. Perfect."
The intruder's eyes twitched with rage as he lunged. But before he could reach Isaac, Claire's flame lion intercepted him, slamming its massive jaws into his arm with a sickening crunch.
The man didn't even scream—he just grinned through the pain and blasted the lion away with a concentrated wind bomb. The beast skidded across the tiles, claws gouging the floor.
"Why do I keep attracting weirdos?" Isaac muttered. The crimson mist flared again, not in spears this time, but as strands, spreading in all directions like creeping roots.
The moment the intruder crossed into range, the strands snapped together, solidifying into a thick, barbed web. The wind-user thrashed, the threads digging into his skin as they pinned him mid-air.
"Hahaha! This again? Do you really think you can hold me?" he laughed, his voice trembling with mania.
Isaac smirked. "No. I just needed to buy time."
A deep whoosh tore through the air. A flaming arrow streaked from behind, punching through the intruder's back. His scream was swallowed by the roar of fire as his clothes and skin ignited.
Isaac didn't waste a heartbeat. He blurred forward, crimson mist swirling shaping itself into a blade . he swung in one clean motion.
Severing the intruder's head
Isaac turned toward Claire, deadpan. "Attacking from behind? That's so not cool."
She stared at him, utterly unamused. "It was your plan. And I'm not the one holding a severed head."
Isaac looked down, frowned, and casually tossed the head aside.
"You're right. Don't want to catch his mental illness."
Without waiting, he started walking, crimson mist still curling faintly around his boots.
"It's time to find Maya."
Claire followed, her eyes fixed on his back. She muttered under her breath,
"You don't have to worry about catching his illness. Whatever you've got is probably worse."