James A. Hunter

Libriohexer (Wolfman Warlock Book 2) - Chapter Thirty-Four

Added 2021-08-06 16:01:02 +0000 UTC

The orb of magic stopped above the central platform and immediately ballooned outward, turning into a jet-black cloud that filled most of the cavernous room. Ink began to fall, first in a spirt and then in a great torrent, drenching everything below. The magma toads shrieked as the inky rain sizzled against their fiery hides and even the Keeper seemed momentarily caught off guard. Two of the five frogs seized up on the spot and toppled over to one side, temporarily paralyzed. The ink pooled into small puddles and black tendrils wrapped around stubby legs, drastically slowing the toads down.

And not just them. The Keeper of the Forge had resisted the paralyzing spell, but the tongues of black ink were crawling along his limbs, gumming up the works and exposing him to more of Dizzy’s frenzied attacks.

Sam’s teammates, on the other hand, were completely unaffected by the falling ink rain. The droplets splashed against an invisible bubble that moved with each member of the team. And even though they danced and battled through pools of black, the ink actively shied away from them.

“See, I told you it would work!” Bill cackled triumphantly.

Sam hadn’t outright said the idea wouldn’t work, though, he’d certainly had his doubts. He’d used his new Master Binder abilities to enchanted each of the simple vellum cloaks with an Ink repulsion spell, which hadn’t been nearly as complicated as it sounded. The glass vials that they created to contain ink basically had the same properties. Applying the same principles to the cloaks had been a cake walk, especially with his Coreless Spell Infusion to power the items. The craftsmanship itself still left a lot to be desired, but function over form would just have to be his driving motto for a while.

“I didn’t say it wouldn’t work,” Sam protested, “I just said it was a big gamble—trying it in the middle of a boss fight without testing it first.”

“Phft. And waste that much ink. Hard pass.”

Below, the advantage had shifted. Kai and Velkan suddenly had the upper hand against the fiery elementals. Sam’s minions didn’t wear those cloaks, but they were naturally immune from the effects of the spell, and they exploited the sudden opportunity to their utmost advantage. They blitzed the temporarily paralyzed toads, conjured foxes lashing out with their fangs while their riders relentlessly stabbed and bludgeoned the incapacitated toads to death. When a killing blow was finally struck, the lesser elementals simply evaporated, leaving behind blackened scorch marks on the platform but no corpses.

Then, without missing a beat, Sam’s origami army turned on the reaming fire toads. The summoned elementals were now wildly outmatched. Bill continued to spam Ice-Orb Shurikens at the creatures, taking out sizeable chunks of their HP, but Sam wanted to contribute in a more concrete way. He pulled several books from the topmost shelf of his bookcase then dove toward the action. He dropped each book once he was above one of the toads. “Book 1 goes boom! Book 2 goes boom!” He shouted, triggering the pair of Book Bombs.

He’d augmented each with Ice Orb spells, so they erupted in showers of frosty blue magic.

Sam swooped around, pulled another pair of books free from the top shelf, and dove again. Thanks to his Quill Wings and his Floating Bookshelf he could basically play the part of ariel bomber. “Book 3 goes boom! Book 4 goes boom!” More eruptions of magic and mayhem. His ink mire spells was finally dissipating, but it was too late for the summoned fire elementals. Between Velkan, Kai, the origami minions, and Sam’s offensive spell casting, they didn’t have a leg to stand on. The last one died in a flurry of kung-fu fists and icy explosions, courtesy of Bill’s Shuriken casting.

As for the Keeper of the Forge, he wasn’t doing so hot either.

Dizzy had taken the brunt of the damage, but she wasn’t letting up for even a second.

The tank threw herself against the Keeper like an angry honey badger against, her war maul blazing through the air. Each blow landed with a resounding ring and a flash of sparks. She wasn’t personally doing that much damage overall—her skillset was definitely focused on absorbing punishment—but she was keeping him utterly distracted which allowed Finn, Sphinx, and Arrow to rack up some clean hits. They’d managed to drop the Keeper just below fifty-percent health. Without the Keeper’s summoned minions to get in the way, the entire Wolf Pack could focus their efforts on the Dungeon Boss.

With a warcry, Dizzy triggered her Meteor Charge ability. Red light bled from her skin as she rushed the Keeper, dropping her head low and ramming one of her metal pauldrons into his gut. The blow wasn’t meant to injury, but rather knocked the Keeper backward by a solid seven, right into center of the platform. Which had been their game plan from the get go. Kai broke left while Velkan circled right so they could come at him on all side, while simultaneously giving the ranged fighters an unobstructed field of fire.

The Keeper was back up to full speed now—the remnants of Sam’s ink rain all burned away by his scorching armor—but Sam could fix that. True, Sam only had one Ink Mire Storm Cloud spell tome, and he’d burned through that, but he still had a few other surprises tucked up his sleeve. Bill focused his offensive spell power on the Keeper while Sam called up another of his new spells, Mummify. With a flick of his wrist and a trickle of mana, more pages took to the air, carried forward by currents of magically conjured air. The pages glommed onto the Keeper, wrapping around his arms and legs. Clinging to his faceplate like an Alien Face hugger.

The pages almost immediately began to smolder and char on the edges, ruining the overall mummify effect, but they made impossible for the hulking Guardian to see a thing.

“Blasted pages!” The Keeper bellowed at the top of his lungs, blundering around blindly, clumsily swiping at the papers clinging to his armor. “I can’t see a thing. Very effective and terribly frustrating. Well done, indeed!”

The Wolf Pack tightened around him and intensified their attacks. Velkans claws left deep furrows in the steel, Kai’s fists dented his armor, and Dizzy’s war maul rang out like a gong with every hit. Sam’s own paper army was dishing out their fair share of damage as well, attacking the Keeper’s ankles with reckless abandoned. Ankle biters in the truest sense of the word.

Time for Sam to try his last big spell. A thick tome bound in jet-black leather rocketed to his hand. “Swarm,” Sam hissed, flicking the book out like a frisbee. The covers snapped open and the book floated midair. The roar of a hurricane filled the cavern, drowning out every other sound as a cyclone of paper erupted upward in a funnel. The pages folded themselves as they sprang from the book, miniature wings and beaks forming as the paper crows came to rudimentary life. They almost looked like paper cranes—if you didn’t know any better.

Sam hadn’t seen this attack in action yet, so he’d half expected to see the whirlwind form on the target.

Instead, it arched up into the air then descended on the Keeper of the Forge in a cone, narrow at the top and wide at the base. He’d spent a lot of extra time and mana to augment each sheet with a simple Ice-Orb enchantment so that the crows would deal frost damage against whoever he unleashed them on. The flock of conjured corvids moved with one mind, swooping and diving as they circled, their razor-sharp beaks jabbing inward like a thousand knife stabs, while blade-edged wings left icy slashes in their wake. The guardian’s health plummeted down, down, down with each pass of the murderous birds.

Amazingly, the crows were intelligent enough to avoid the other members of the wolf pack entirely, swooping within inches but never hitting them.

The grace and precision on display was uncanny.

Bellow, Kai bound up into the air, golden light coalescing around him, then he came down with a conjured fist the size of a wrecking ball. Endless Fury of the Monkey Fist. A sharp crack like a gunshot rang out, reverberating off the high ceiling. The Keeper’s health had finally dropped below twenty-five percent. An angry orange fissure formed in his horned helm, but quickly spread down the rest of his armor in a spiderweb of cracks and fractures. A second later the Keeper exploded, fire billowing out in every direction accompanied by a wave of metal shrapnel.

The explosion incinerated Sam’s paper minions on the spot, turned the whirlwind of crows in drifting ash, and hurled the rest of his team members back. Dizzy landed on the bridge, sprawled out on her back. Only sheer luck kept her from toppling over the edge and into the lava below. Kai and Velkan—both far lighter than the armored tank—weren’t so lucky. The blast wave hurled both from the central platform. Kai’s tail shot out, but there was nothing for him to latch onto. Sam watched in horror, knowing there was no way he could get to both of them in time. Heck, he wasn’t even sure he could get to one of them in time.

He was fast in the air, but not that fast.

Still, there was one thing that might work.

“Sorry, Kai!” he yelled, turning his attention to the tumbling Wolfman. Getting burned alive by magma wouldn’t be fun, but Kai would respawn. Velkan, not so much.

Sam focused on the falling Wolfman and opened his third eye, summoning the doors to his Interspatial Library. For now, he could only summon them within line of sight, but there was no rule that said they needed to be summoned on solid ground or even with a normal orientation. The doors appeared horizontally above the magma like a giant life raft and snapped open with a thought. Velkan plunged into the interspatial compartment and disappeared a few feet before landing in molten death.

The doors snapped closed and vanished as Sam closed his third eye.

Down on the platform, the light from the explosion had faded and the Keeper stood in the center. He now longer wore armor at all, but rather was a humanoid blob of white-hot light. A creature of pure fire.

“Good show,” he cheered. “I can’t ever remember a party managing to destroy my armor casing. It just doesn’t happen. I’m below twenty-five percent. Unbelievable, honestly. Maybe you really do have a chance at defeating me. Though…” he faltered and shrugged. “Probably not. My armor protected me, but it also protected others from my true nature.” He raised his hand a let loose a gout of magma as thick as a telephone pole aimed at Dizzy.

“No!” Finn shouted, thrusting both hands forward. A glimmering blue dome of ice formed in front of the unconscious tank. Fire met frost and curtain of white steam rose into the air, temporarily concealing Dizzy, Sphinx, and Finn from the deadly elemental. To buy them time, Sam activated Tome of Fire Shuriken and let loose with a barrage of folded stars while Bill spammed Ice Orb.

“I’ve had just about enough of you,” the Keeper said, turning away from the wall of steam and focusing his deadly gaze on Sam and Bill. “You’ve been an absolute nuisance! Again, well done, but I’m afraid the show stops here for you.” He raised both hands and let loose with a hail of fireballs.

“Evasive action, Wings!” Bill called. “We’ve got incoming!”

Sam barrel rolled right and pitched forward into a tight dive, avoiding a trio of fireballs. But there were more coming. So many more. Bill unleashed more Ice-Orb Shurikens, not trying to hit the Keeper, but focusing instead on the incoming orbs of flaming death. He managed to intercept nearly half of all the fireballs. The paper stars exploded on contact and the Ice-Orb effects blunted the explosive power of each fireball. That still left a lot of fireballs to dodge. Sam spun and rolled, but his Stamina was taking a beating. Staying aloft was relatively easy, but this type of evasive aerial action was the equivalent of running win sprints over and over again.

Below, Sam’s teammates had taken up the fight, slowly and steadily chipping away at the Keeper’s HP. The fire elemental just ignored them. The Keeper knew that Sam couldn’t evade forever, and unfortunately, he was right. He wasn’t built for firepower not fancy flying, though what he wouldn’t give for a few extra points into Strength.

Sam maneuvered over the center of the platform and just in time.

A stray fireball clipped his right wing and tongues of flames rapidly spread across his Quills. Sam let out a yelp as the spell holding him aloft fizzled and he dropped toward the ground. He hit with a grunt and felt something *pop* in his ankle. A lance of pain race through his body. He’d twisted his ankle more a couple of times in Judo and this felt far worse than that. Probably a minor fracture. He still had a few health potions lifted from the College, but those were stowed away in his Spatial Flask and he didn’t exactly have thirty seconds to stand there and chug a Regen Potion.

The Keeper stomped toward him and he had murder etched into the lines of his body. Worse, there was no one to stop him.

Dizzy was still passed out. Finn and Arrow were launching ranged attacks, and Sphinx had broken onto the platform to try and draw his attention, but the Keeper continued to ignore her blades. Sure, the elemental was losing health fast without his armor—down to almost ten percent now—but he still had more than enough life to take Sam out, and after that, the others would quickly follow. If they were going to win, Sam had to end this fight and he needed to do it now. He still had Shurikens galore and enough Book Bombs to choke a horse, but he’d burned through the rest of his new offensive spells.

No more minions to summon. No Ink Storms or Crow Whirlwinds.

But he wasn’t dead yet and he’d come prepared with one last emergency backup plan. He’d been hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but they were all out of options. With a grimace Sam gained his feet, which sent a renewed wave of agony running up his leg. He conjured his Quill Blade, canted his shoulders, and raised his sword into the guard position just as Bill had taught him.

“Good on you,” the Keeper said, offering Sam a begrudging nod of respect. “I really do admire your gumption. But if you have rely on blade work, this battle is already over for you. Being good with the blade is all about footwork, and you’re in no shape for fancy footwork—”

“That’s what I always tell him,” Bill muttered.

“You’re not wrong,” the Keeper agreed. “There’s always next time, though.” The Keeper of the Forge advanced, raising his hammer high for a killing blow.

“Foot work is overrated,” Sam said. “Look up.”

Sam opened his third eye and the doors to his Interspatial appeared overhead, once more horizontally aligned. The doors sprang open directly above the Keeper and a series of angry squawks poured out from the Spatial Library along with a host of feathered bodies. This time, instead of raining ink, it was raining chickens…

Floof and Blaze landed on the Keeper followed by thirty more angry hens and a very confused looking Velkan. The Wolfman was covered in feathers and shallow scratches but was alive all the same. Sam let out a ragged sigh of relief. He’d been fairly certain his brood wouldn’t attack the Wolfman, but they hadn’t exactly been thrilled about being crammed into a what amount to a glorified walk-in closet.

All that time pent up in the Library had made them disgruntled and they now had a perfect target to take their feathery aggression out on.

Floof let out a blood curdling cluck of outrage and attacked. Blaze was right behind, her beak punching into the Keeper’s molten body. The rest of the brood followed the examples of their fearless, feathered leaders. In moments, the fire elemental was swallow beneath a pile of beaks and talons and flapping wings. Sam wanted to join, but by the time he hobbled over with his broken ankle, the elemental was already dead.

Exp: 1,785 (Keeper of the Forge 1020 * 1.75 difficulty)

Sam ignored the popup. There would be time to read prompts and loot corpses once the job was done. But the job wasn’t done. Not yet. Killing the Keeper was only one half the battle. He fished a health potion from his Spatial Flask, chugged it in one long pull, then headed across the far bridge and toward the closed off armory. On the wall, next to the portcullis was a golden handprint, inlaid into the stone. The final activation rune. He pressed his palm against the marker and released a burst of mana that left him cold, shaky, and exhausted to the bone.

Now… Now the job was done.

Sam dropped onto the ground and leaned back against the wall as a flurry of notifications appeared.

Congratulations! You have claimed Junction 8 of 8. Reward, Exp: 500.

Quest update! A Den to Call your Own III. I am shook. Honestly, I can’t even believe it. You monkeys somehow managed to capture all 8 nodes of the Irondown Burrows, a lost dungeon located in the dark heart of the Forest of Chlorophyll Chaos. And you beat the Keeper of the Forge with a bunch of chickens. I couldn’t make this up even if I wanted to. As a Wolfman-aligned Guild you have officially claimed the Irondown Burrows and have successfully managed to convert it into your Guild Den. All of its resources and minions now belong to you and can be utilized as you see fit.

Additionally, you’ve finally earned the respect of the wolfman Shaman Yurji Brightblood, which is no small thing, believe you me. That guy HATES everyone. Technically, you’re supposed to get +1,000 Reputation points with the People, but since you’re already at Extended Family Status that’s virtually worthless. It’s not often that I so badly misread the situation, so I’m going to give you all +4 Characteristic Points to do with as you see fit. Also, some extra Experience points for not only completing the mission but entertaining me greatly. +7,000 Experience Points. Your Guild has also been officially included on the Leader Board. If the other players weren’t aware of you before, they sure will be now. That should make your recruitment efforts a heck of a lot easier…

Golden light surrounded Sam, lifting him from the floor in a halo of ecstasy, then gently setting him back on his feet. Between taking down the Keeper and clearing the mission, he’d just hit eleven for the second time, and he had four new points to distribute thanks to the generosity of Enterium’s AI. Although his first instinct was to drop them into Wisdom and Intelligence, after a moment of consideration, Sam decided against it. He needed mana to create his spells, but once his spells were cast, they took almost no mana to activate.

What he really needed now was to boost his Stamina, especially if he planned to continue his escapades as ariel support caster. Plus, these were essentially free points, so he decided to add three of them to Strength, raising his Stamina, and another point into Constitution, so he would be slightly less squishy.

Name: Sam_K ‘Merchant Ambassador’

Class: Libriohexer

Profession 1: Bookbinder

Profession 2: Chicken Keeper

Level: 11 Exp: 67,529 Exp; to next level: 10,471

Hit Points: 170/170

Mana: 723/723

Mana regen: 20.38/sec

Stamina: 198.5/198.5

Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)

Strength: 25 (20+5 gear bonus) (1.25)

Dexterity: 42 (37+5 gear bonus) (1.42)