Library system reset lim.., p.44
Library System Reset: Limiter (A Magical Library LitRPG Adventure), page 44
“Do you want a seat?” Nishpa said, flitting back and forth as if she didn’t know how to deal with the loss, keeping herself in between Milaro and the Salosier.
There was an ever-so-brief scowl that passed over Sarila’s face, and she shook her head. “No, I . . .” And then she laughed. It was a cold, cutting sound that ripped through the underlying white noise in the room. Derisive, full of hatred, full of something that shouldn’t belong in laughter.
A ripple of power passed through her.
“Do you guys have any, any idea how complex a task it has been to stay in plain sight all these years?” Her voice had changed, the timbre of it completely different now.
“What do you mean?” Nishpa said, although Milaro was quite certain that Nishpa was just stalling for time. He could feel people running toward the room, the slight thrum of the webbing giving out an ever-so-faint notification.
“What do I mean? You know what I mean. You can tell. I can feel it. There’s something that senses other in here. I’m surprised you couldn’t sense it immediately, Milaro. Getting a little stodgy in your old age?”
Milaro resisted the urge to react, knowing it was exactly what she’d planned for. He fed more power into the web and was now certain that this was the Sarila she’d always been. This was no imposter. The mask she’d worn had simply been too good.
“Are you waiting for something?” she asked, but then shook her head with a chuckle. “It doesn’t really matter.” She shrugged, reached her hands up, and flexed her shoulders. “We can get down to it shortly. Ahhh, I get it. You feel like you need to understand me, don’t you? That’s why you guys will always lose.”
Nishpa couldn’t suppress the slight gasp that escaped her.
“See, I knew it.” Sarila stretched her arms out and cracked her neck from side to side, which was a very odd movement for a literal tree person. “What you don’t understand is that I don’t care if you understand me. I don’t need that sort of validation from you because I believe in what I’m doing, and I know that I’m right.”
Without any warning or telegraphing, she pushed a wall of force out from her. She obviously hadn’t quite understood what the security web did, because her magic was shut down almost immediately. She scowled. Nishpa and Milaro managed to put distance between themselves just as Hilrick and Nordon, Milaro’s grandsons, burst into the room.
“Grandfather, if she’s . . . oh, I guess you know,” Nordon said, his words petering off as he realized what was happening.
“Yes,” Milaro echoed, “we definitely know.”
Sarila crunched down on something in her mouth, and Milaro felt the sense of power swell.
“Watch out,” he said.
From the glare his grandkids gave him, Milaro realized they’d noticed. How could they not have?
A sudden wave of anti-growth magic hit the table in front of Sarila.
Nishpa barely got out of the way of the wave force before the web hit in. The web was designed to protect anybody secured within it from potential harmful attacks within the boundaries of it. But the force with which Sarila cast her magic overwhelmed it ever so slightly on initiation. She sent out a second wave like she had backup generators helping her push out so much power. Hilrick and Nordon managed to counter it, breaking it before it reached Nishpa and Milaro. Even though the webbing stepped in to help, that was when the dam broke.
Nishpa fired back several force spells of her own while Sarila peppered force bullets all around, trying to break through the defenses of the web. Overall, if Milaro hadn’t just enforced them, those bullets probably would have cut through the weakness. At least some of them would have.
Milaro didn’t like to think what the damage would have done. He activated the web’s ability to analyze and had it suck in several of the bullets. He needed to know what they were up against. But even so, he still had to put more power into the webbing and reach into the reserves to repel some of the attacks himself.
Sarila flung more and more power at them, and then the black smoke that had permeated her eyes began to spill down her body. It didn’t change her look. This was not an illusion, nor was it a parasite trick. She was a hundred percent Salosier. He frowned and watched as the smoky screen began to form into black, dog-like creatures that stood about three feet from the ground. And when they opened their shadow mouths, he saw rows of serrated teeth. These were things the webbing wasn’t designed to keep out. They registered for all intents and purposes, as animals.
The vicious shadow dogs began to bolt around the room toward his grandsons. He knew they were perfectly combat-capable at both offense and defense. And toward Nishpa, who hovered enough up off the ground that even with their giant jumps they couldn’t reach her. And for him.
All he had to do was apply a heavy dose of body armor around his form, and they couldn’t penetrate it. But it did sap a lot of mana and energy, and some concentration. With a few of them set on attacking him, it meant his attention was divided.
For a few precious seconds, it left Sarila free to set up her incantations while they were preoccupied with the shadow dogs’ initial onslaught.
Two for Nishpa and two for Milaro. One each for his grandsons.
The creatures locked on to one of Milaro’s arms and, while not penetrating through to the flesh, he had to push a lot of energy and power into his shielding to make sure that they didn’t. Something black and sludge-like oozed out of their mouths. That was an infection waiting to seep into the bloodstream if he ever saw it.
However, even worse than that, it began to give him suspicions that perhaps the injury Escadril retained from the original attack when they went to retrieve the book wasn’t actually what killed him. It made him wonder just how depraved Sarila was. He remembered seeing fading bite marks in Escadril’s wounds, and had assumed it came from the fight. But he was no longer so sure.
Fighting off the dogs and splitting his attention was difficult, but just as he’d taught Quinn, Milaro was also a master of splitting his attention. Nishpa, high enough above them that she could fire down her attacks on the offending Salosier, wasn’t bothered by the dogs even if they kept attempting to jump at the fae. Her distracting attacks were enough that Sarila couldn’t finish her incantations. Every time the vicious black smoke began to bubble up like a strange concoction in a cauldron, Nishpa managed to interrupt her.
Over and over again she interrupted her as Milaro took care of the shadow hounds. He kept a watch, making sure she was fine and monitoring the progress being made. All the while using pinpoint offensive force and ice attacks to slice through the shadow beasts and siphon off the energy that maintained their forms.
Nordon and Hilrick defeated their own pups and came over to help Milaro with the last two that’d belonged to Nishpa.
Even with that, it happened too fast for Milaro to register and react to.
Sarila, angry, annoyed, and frustrated at the fact that Nishpa had successfully interrupted every single one of the incantations since she cast the dogs, finally lost her temper.
Power exploded out from her in a massive wave that hit Nishpa dead on with destructive force.
Milaro heard the wet thud as it rocketed into his friend, and he scrambled to catch her while calling down as much power as he could from the web and to squash Sarila in front of him. The blast hit her with such force the ground trembled, while his grandsons took care of the rest of the dogs. But he didn’t even look at his handiwork. He no longer cared if Sarila was still alive for questioning.
At the same moment, Quinn, Aradie, and Malakai burst through the door, panting, just in time to see Nishpa land in Milaro’s outstretched arms.
58
NO REMORSE
Malakai rushed into the room, stepping in to reinforce his cousins’ position. Quinn and Aradie darted over to Sarila, positioning themselves between her, Milaro, and Nishpa. Milaro cradled Nishpa as if he wasn’t quite aware that they were already in the room. His eyes began to storm, a swirling vortex that Quinn knew wouldn’t bode well for any of them if he lost control.
She stepped quickly toward him, tapping him lightly on the forearm. He looked up, the storm in his eyes receding. “Quinn.”
“Yes. Focus.” That’s all she had time to say, because Sarila was regaining her equilibrium after the massive hit he dealt to her. This was no standard Salosier. Quinn was pretty sure she was even stronger than Escadril had been, despite how delicate she seemed.
Still recovering, Quinn sent out her own protective barrier to keep the unwelcome guest down. “Gravitas.” She commanded it.
But the Salosier was powerful, and despite how much power she’d obviously already used up, she didn’t appear to be against burning even her life force to make this work. Somebody with nothing to lose was a dangerous thing.
A few more shadow dogs emerged. They were focused on Hilrick, Nordon, and Malakai.
Aradie darted in several times with laser attacks specifically aimed to keep Sarila from completing her spells, but it appeared that the Salosier didn’t need to use incantation magic for everything.
Quinn could feel the life force magic, the healing magic behind her as Milaro poured energy into his friend. She couldn’t look at Nishpa, not right now. It would probably break her. All she could cling to was that there were very faint life signs coming from the currently disfigured flesh in Milaro’s arms.
Anger boiled in the pit of Quinn’s stomach, but she pushed it down and tried to return to logic, tried to figure out the best way to pull all the information from this evil tree that she could. For the first time ever, a sense of calm swept through her, because Quinn decided she was willing to do anything to gather that information and make this person pay.
Sarila began to laugh, and it echoed throughout the entire room.
Quinn sent a message through the system to the Library and Lynx, apprising them of the situation and asking them to send medical help if they could, or at least to ready a hospital room for Nishpa. They’d transport her as soon as she was stable.
The anger fueled Quinn and yet it didn’t take over. She separated her emotions again, but this time felt completely in control.
Sarila’s laugh continued, even as Quinn glanced briefly at the elf cousins and saw them battling the shadow dogs. One of them lunged for Malakai’s throat, but the shielding she’d extended to him rebounded it halfway across the room. He didn’t even pause, but dove after it, his swords dancing.
Quinn thought he looked rather magical.
The Salosier’s laugh cut off as Quinn buffeted her with another gust of wind, focused directly in the gut.
Sarila coughed as Aradie made another pass and a bit of what looked like smoky sap dripped down from her mouth. “You had to make it more difficult, didn’t you?” Sarila said. “This would have been easier if you’d just sent the damn Librarian like you were supposed to, stupid bird.”
Aradie swooped, attacking her with laser eyes again, managing to lop off one of the Salosier’s fingers. Sarila howled in pain and the strange, smoky sap dripped onto the carpet, followed by a sizzling sound, which made Quinn realize she didn’t want to get hit by the acidic blood.
“You and Narilin, that’s all it was supposed to be,” Sarila spat. Instead of casting, she leaned back and hurled what looked like a ball of energy toward the Librarian.
Quinn barely managed to duck out of the way with her reflexes boosted from her ability to condense perception and reactions, plus the combat training she’d done with Malakai.
Sarila followed with a ball of force and pushed back toward Quinn. But Quinn’s shielding had evolved since they fought Drav and Kajaro. There was power behind it, contained within it, with fire meshed in between the shielding walls, so white and hot that it couldn’t be seen until a side burst, which Sarila managed to do. The flame roared out toward her. She backed off, yelping, as several fingers on her right hand caught fire. It took her long enough to put them out that a couple of them cracked and dropped to the ground as well.
Quinn gasped in mock surprise. “Looks like you’ve still got fifteen fingers. Let’s see if we can change that.” Aradie hooted, but it sounded more like a laugh as she dove in once again.
This time, Sarila was ready for them, having slowly regained some of her capabilities since Milaro squashed her with his shield. The Salosier’s shielding didn’t hold up to the night owl’s lasers, and Quinn took advantage of the opening to focus a fireball straight at Sarila’s arm.
Quinn had her suspicions about just how sick Escadril truly was. Besides. The Salosier could still talk just as well with a limb or two fewer as she could if she was whole.
One of her hands dropped onto the carpet and Sarila looked up at Quinn with pain and shock on her face. “You’re not supposed to be able to do that.”
Quinn cocked her head to one side. “I’m not supposed to be able to do what? Read some of the books in the massive bloody library I’ve got at my disposal? I beg to differ,” she continued. “Those books, I’ll have them all memorized soon, and none of you will stand a chance.”
Not waiting another second, she leveraged more pinpointed fire directly at the Salosier. This time, however, she missed, and she allowed the spell to dissipate when it didn’t hit its mark. Sarila barely dodged out of the way. With half of her forearm missing on the right-hand side, she seemed slightly off balance.
Milaro hoisted himself up. Nishpa’s wounds had begun knitting back together. Enough that she no longer looked like a malformed lump of flesh. He had her gently cradled against his chest. Quinn could still feel the magic running from him into her, trying to heal her. The stormy look had returned to his eyes.
“Don’t,” she said. “Save your energy for her.”
“And the shields!” Malakai yelled.
It took a few seconds, but Milaro backed down. Quinn was quite certain she could feel the protection grid all around them strengthen.
Malakai darted over to help Quinn, now that there were only a few couple of left for the others. Hilrick and Nordon had obviously fought together so much that their fighting style was seamless.
Sarila hissed as another one of her summons went down. “You think you’re clever.”
Quinn lamented the fact that the nice Sarila she’d met, or at least that she thought she’d met when she went to visit Escadril and check in on him, was definitely not this woman. “How long?”
She laughed again. “As long as I’ve been here. As long as you’ve all known me.”
Quinn saw Milaro wince out of the corner of her eye. She knew he was angry that he hadn’t realized that this person was a plant, was a traitor.
A plant traitor.
Quinn squashed the slightly panicked laughter that threatened to break free for a second.
The smoky sap began to drip down from Sarila’s mouth, just like it would in blood if it were a human. Quinn pondered that, wondering how close their anatomies were. She couldn’t quite compare them properly yet, even though she’d absorbed both types of book.
“Were you planted there to make sure Escadril, and the Balisors remained rivals?” Quinn said, trying to keep her busy with answering her questions, while Aradie swooped in and out, strategically hitting places so that Quinn would be able to build up the usual ice prison she kept their prisoners in. But the more Quinn learned, the more she grew to believe that this person was truly evil. It was a strange phenomenon for her. Sometimes people were just too evil to die.
Sarila laughed, as if trying to prove Quinn’s point. “Of course! I was there to make sure you never stood any chance of fighting against chaos. That is the entire point. And once he was injured, Escadril was easy prey. But the best thing is when your position appeals to more than one faction.”
Quinn blinked. She could barely recognize her own voice when she spoke. It was cold and filled with a level of menace that she hadn’t realized she was capable of. “Are you trying to tell me that Escadril wasn’t mortally wounded when we brought him back?”
“Of course he wasn’t,” Sarila said. The Salosier suddenly fell to the ground, the kneecap shot out by one of Aradie’s laser shots she hadn’t seen coming. She practically crawled across the ground, still desperately pushing force walls in front of herself to ward off attacks.
“He wasn’t dying,” Milaro said, his voice filled with so much venom, Quinn had to double take to make sure it was really him.
“Of course he wasn’t. An existing wound is easily infected without raising any suspicion. Easy as pie, you people. You’re so gullible.”
Quinn blinked. There was nothing good in this Sarila. No matter what she’d meant to Narilin or Arilin and Marilyn and Jane, this person? This was the real person. “And there are more factions?”
Sarila pealed with laugher, the sludge loss obviously affecting her. “Getting twice the reward for doing the same thing is wonderful.”
“Bet the Librarian screwed up your plans,” Malakai said, taking another shot with his bow. This time, he’d managed to pin her foot to the floor.
“Librarian’s emergence just altered plans. We’ll still get there, or one of them will, don’t you worry.”
“Ah, but your part is now done,” Quinn said.
“Escadril’s dead, and he was part of your defense force. You’re welcome.” Sarila coughed again, bringing up more of the smoky, sappy blood. She coughed again, racking the entire frame of the once-delicate Salosier, missing multiple fingers, half an arm, one knee, and her foot nailed to the floor.
As if trying to be kind, Malakai nailed her calf on the other leg in the same way. She halted abruptly and fell to the floor, the force spell she’d been gathering beneath her hitting herself in the stomach and winding her, causing more blood to escape.
She laughed. It was a mad cackle, as if there was nothing sane left inside her.
