Matthew Nesheim
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Chapter 60: A Surprise Visitor
🕑 Added 2023-08-08 17:00:01 +0000 UTCBefore she could strike again, the troll with the sword and shield was on her. Swinging his sword and then bashing with his shield, the troll beat her back into the next row of desks. To her left, she could see more trolls rushing across the open study area. Some were running toward her, but most were running toward Lefty and Narene inside the giant rotating bookshelves.
She parried a sword blow and then another shield bash. Then, when the troll tried a thrust at her chest, she stepped aside and retaliated with a blow at his head, but he blocked her easily with his buckler. This is getting dire, she realized as she spotted two more trolls approaching to her right. They’re going to flank me and if they manage to corner me, which they likely will, I’ll be pretty much good as dead.
Then, a stroke of luck. Hoping to knock her off balance, the troll swung his shield and missed, opening up his belly. She took advantage and thrust her Emberblade through a hole in his chain shirt. The troll’s eyes bulged as the point of the blade ripped through his internal organs and punctured his back. A ragged gasp left his lips as she ripped the blade free and then he fell to the floor in a heap.
She needed to get her back to a wall, and quick. The two trolls to her right were jogging along the outer row of desks and closing in on her fast. She decided to go back the way she had come. She stepped over the dying trolls as an arrow flew over her head and she instinctively ducked. This is getting bad. I wonder how the others are doing?
Just then, she saw Lefty floating down from his spot atop the ladder as he raised his hands in preparation for a spell. A howl of wind ripped through the library as a storm cloud formed on the floor directly between the mage and the first group of trolls. Wind and mist merged into a tempest with eyes. He’s summoned a storm elemental. As their new ally took shape, a lance of lightning shot from its eyes, felling the first wave of orcs in a storm of electricity.
Robes fluttering, Lefty landed behind the monster as he cried out to Calista, “Quickly! Get behind me!”
A pair of arrows whizzed past her head as she jumped over a desk and took off over the tiled floor.
Bookshelves were burning to her right as trolls walked through the flames, their skin aglow with the radiating flames.
A troll wielding a scimitar blocked her way, but she parried his blow and then spilled his guts over the floor. I’m lucky their armor no match for my sword’s magical bonuses. I just wish I knew what they were. Before she could step over the dead body, two more trolls appeared, flanking her on each side. She dodged a spear thrust and parried a sword blow, but then a bolt of lightning ripped through the air and struck both trolls and all she could do was watch as they stiffened, shuddered, and then collapsed to the floor.
Lefty’s voice came to her over the din, “Calista! Run!”
She took off again at a sprint as another wave of lightning crackled through the air. A few steps later, she saw the storm elemental take a deep breath and then a thick gray fog billowed out from his lips, obscuring everything in its path. Sprinting toward the fog, a long-handled axe came at her out of nowhere and she ducked, dropped, and rolled over the tiles and then the fog swallowed her. Blind, she felt her way through the mist, aiming toward where she had last seen the mage, until a moment later she emerged a few feet from where he stood.
“Good,” Lefty sighed in relief. “I didn’t find the book, but I found a couple scrolls that can at least hold these guys off a little longer.” With that, he unrolled a parchment and read through a handful of obscure words she didn’t understand. A heartbeat later, the floor cracked and opened up like a fissure as a wall of stone rose up around them, cutting them off from the trolls and the storm elemental.
As the scroll disintegrated in his hands, Lefty smiled. “That should keep them busy,”
“So we don’t have the book?” She asked.
Lefty shook his head, “No, we don’t have the book.”
“Actually, we do have the book.”
They looked to see Narene skipping over the carpeted floor of the rotating bookshelf with a leather-bound tome held high over her head. When she reached them, she flipped the book over to show them the cover: ‘A Brief History of the Family Loveless.’
She flipped it open. “It’s a wonderful book. Not dry reading at all. I made it through the first chapter and a half, just to be sure it was the right one and the author really does a wonderful job of …”
Narene’s voice was drowned out by the sound of thunder as the stone wall behind them shuddered. Lefty clutched his staff tightly as he listened to the battle. “We have to find a way out soon. I’m afraid what I’ve summoned can only hold these guys off for so long.”
“Well didn’t we find a secret exit?” Narene asked.
Calista shook her head. “No. Actually, Benson showed up and even told me there isn’t a secret exit this time.”
Narene’s face fell. “I thought for sure there would at least be something. How are we going to get out now?”
“We don’t know yet,” Lefty replied. “All I know is that we’re surrounded and everything is on fire.”
“Which is pretty much how things have been going since I arrived at this dungeon,” Calista added. A blast of lightning and another boom of thunder shook the room. “Our options right now are to either hold out here or try to fight our way through.”
Lefty looked at the stone wall and shrugged. “Well, I can’t say our current position is a bad one. I don’t know what level that storm elemental is as I cast it using a scroll I found on the shelves. As for the wall, it's not going anywhere unless either I unsummon it or someone else comes along and dispels it.”
“Eventually, Severin will come and dispel it if his guards can’t get through,” Narene said.
“Perhaps we can search the shelves for more …” Calista’s words were cut off by a crash and the sound of books crashing to the floor. Then all of them turned toward the rotating bookshelf just in time to see a sharp metallic leg punch through the nearest shelf and rip it apart down the middle.
Calista stared in horror, “Is that what I think it is?”
“I don’t know what you think it is, because I don’t know what it is,” Narene said.
“I know what it is,” Lefty said. “And it means this room is about to get a lot more difficult.”
Behind them, something was crashing through the bookshelves with destructive fervor. Sharp, pointed legs and metallic pincer-like mandibles were chopping away at shelves as tomes, scrolls, wood, and bits of parchment were sent flying.
“Do you have any more of those electricity spells?” Calista asked.
“Why? What is it?” Lefty asked.
Calista pointed as a section of shelves crashed to the floor. Eight curved, shining metal, lance-sized legs stepped over the wreckage as the giant mechanical spider-golem stepped into the room.
Lefty’s jaw fell, “Is that …”
“The same thing we saw in the room with all the mirrors and statues and sand? Yeah, I think Severin decided to send it up here for round two.”
