Chapter 122
Seven Dogs group took the stage to polite cheering. Although they were fan favorites they had the unfortunate luck to be up against actual heroes. Given the opportunity to choose who to cheer for the crowd had quickly sided with Redguard with the exception of a vocal, and inebriated, minority. It made for good fun.
“BEGIN!” the announcer shouted and the combat began.
The match would not be one of wits but one of pure combat ability. Two copies of a dungeon, side by side. Redguard's side immediately spread out. Their tank's Figurine, Lt. Fries, stepped forward and scanned for threats. His group spread out behind him and made preparations. Some cast pre-fight buffs that would make them stronger while others just waited for their enemy to make their appearance.
On the Seven Dogs side things had begun differently. It was one healer in the back surrounded by four men, all who had at least one dog as a combat pet. The dogs all stepped forward as if taking the position a tank normally would. It was an odd formation and not one that would usually be used in a dungeon. For entertainment purposes though it worked wonderfully.
At the same moment the dungeon boss appeared. Jay leaned forward and laughed when he recognized it.
It was a Librarian!
Not the normal Librarian one would find in any library on Eden but instead the kind of Librarian that had guarded Ashagi's library. Jay wasn't sure if what was on the Dungeon Room table was the same as what his group had encountered in Ashagi but they looked close to one another.
The Librarian was roughly 8 feet tall – no one wanted to get close enough with a tape measure to get an exact height. The creature was covered in layered robes and its arms were too long for its body. At the end of the arms were hands with exaggerated talons, one of which was clutching a library book.
The eyes lacked pupils and glowed a yellowish white as if lit from within. The Librarian's face was pulled back in to a snarl and showed mismatched dirty teeth. The robes made it impossible to see where its feet were positioned.
A total of seven dogs shot forward and tried to latch on to the Librarian as soon as she made her appearance. Redguard however kept still and instead had their mage Sgt. Kirin start lobbing magic at them.
Sgt. Kirin smiled as her Figurine raised a staff and a stream of tiny bullet like orbs streamed out and towards the enemy.
The Librarian on both sides screamed.
On Redguard's side the Librarian had used a book to bat away the magical orbs as if she were playing tennis. Sevendogs' side didn't fare well either as their Librarian shook off the dogs, grabbed them, and flung them back at their partners.
That was enough watching for Redguard and their team exploded in to movement all at once. Sgt. Cherri rose in to the air and began to throw javelins of flame that she conjured out of thin air towards the Librarian who was forced to move to dodge them. Sgt. Kirin's figurine went down to one knee and used one hand to strike the ground next to her.
A rumbling was heard as sharp shards of rock split out of the ground itself around the Librarian. Some of the shards pierced its body and the Librarian was unable to move for a moment.
The shards didn't stop but continued to grow out of the ground. Still kneeling, Sgt. Kirin made a fist and twisted it forcing the shards to grind the Librarian's body between them.
While that was going on Lt. Fries and Sgt. Combs ran towards the boss monster. The Librarian began to make sweeping attacks with long talons. Occasionally she would breathe out a cloud of some kind of gas and the two would have to evade it while it chased them until it dissipated.
Meanwhile Sevendogs group was faring poorly. The dogs that had been touched by the Librarian were struggling to get up. They had bright luminous marks on their skin and hair where the Librarian had come in to contact with them. The luminous marks began to slowly spread across the dog's fur coats.
The more of the dog the marks covered the worse the dog fared. Already two were passed out on the ground, completely covered in glowing markings.
“Don't let it touch you!” yelled the Sevendog's healer.
That posed a problem. Sevendogs Group relied on their..well, seven dogs. They didn't have a mage or an archer – they just had a healer and four people, each of whom had a trained dog or two. That would be enough for most simple monsters but an angry Librarian, that was something else completely.
And they were already down two dogs. Five remained standing, most of which had minor markings from where the Librarian had touched them.
The dogs attacked again, this time rushing the Librarian but pulling back the last second before contact was made. The dogs spread out to surround the Librarian and she responded by turning in a circle as she tried to face all of them at once and failed.
It worked, for a time. The dogs would nip at her to get her attention then a dog behind her would go in for a chew.
Had the Librarian been a human the dogs might have stood a chance, but unfortunately for them that was not the case. The Librarian breathed out a mist that formed an orb and began to chase after one of the dogs.
The dog fled but the mist followed. The dog ran back to its partner but only succeeded in dragging the mist over to them as well. Things came to a head when the mist, the dog, and the dog's handler all ended up in the same space for a moment.
The handler's Figurine screamed as its skin sloughed off and left goopy piles on the ground. The dog fared similarly and small mounds of hair and flesh trailed behind the dog and its handler before they succumbed to their injuries and lay on the ground motionless.
The other handlers took a step back unconsciously and tried to come up with a plan that didn't involve getting melted.
The Librarian turned to face the handlers and the sole healer. With a scream the Librarian charged, claws outstretched, one book held under an arm, robes flapping behind her.
The three remaining handlers and single healer fled, all in different directions. The Librarian reached out with one long arm and flicked a razor sharp talon at one of the retreating figures. The talon neatly slashed the back of one of the handler's legs and they went down. The Librarian pounced and lay one hand against the prone handler's head.
The Figurine on the ground screamed and thrashed as a notification appeared on the screen.
“XP attack, one level removed.”
The people around him gasped. Most attacks did damage to a person's health. Occasionally they would do damage to their belongings as well. Rarely however an attack could affect a person themselves – such as an experience point draining attack. What everyone had just witnessed was the Librarian suck out one whole entire level from a player's Figurine with only a moment of contact.
“XP attack, one level removed.”
The Figurine on the ground continued to scream as they had their class levels repeatedly drained one by one. The other members of Sevendogs Group sent the remaining dogs to attack the Librarian from behind but the Librarian just stood and took it as she concentrated instead on draining every last drop of xp from the prone Figurine. Her health dropped continuously as the dogs attacked her while she focused.
Notifications continued to display at the top of the Sevendogs' side of the Dungeon Room table until they stopped and a new one appeared.
“XP attack unsuccessful, target is level 1.”
The gathered crowd all muttered in horror. To live an entire life of fighting to accumulate experience points only to have it all sucked away in one bout of combat was terrifying. That Figurine no longer had access to any of their Combat Abilities save for one as they were now only a level 1 character.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The Librarian turned and slashed open a dog with one talon which caused the others to momentarily flee. She turned back to the prone Figurine and began a fresh attack. Only three dogs remained.
“Class: Scout-Beastmaster removed. Target is now unclassed.”
The audience became audibly upset and anyone who had hoped for a Sevendogs win now understood just how bad a spot they had gotten themselves in to. The prone victim no longer had any class abilities they could use – nor did they even have a class it seemed.
“Converting XP...”
The Librarian concentrated for a moment before smiling widely with grotesque yellow teeth. Her health began to replenish and soon she was at 100% health once again.
The three remaining handlers sent their three dogs to nip at the Librarian's heels as they attempted to attack with swords. The healer would have attempted to heal the injured in their party but how does one heal a missing class or siphoned xp?
The combat devolved in to the Librarian hunting their party down one at a time before sucking them dry of xp and then ripping their class out of their bodies.
Finally Sevendogs' side of the table went quiet. The Librarian stood victorious over a field of slain challengers.
On Redguard's side things unfolded differently.
The Librarian was given no chance to make contact with the party members. Ranged combat was used almost exclusively. It worked wonderfully for a time.
The Librarian was down to only 53% health when Lt. Swan yelled, “Almost 50%, get ready for phase change!”
As the Librarian's health ticked down to 50% the Librarian roared. Its head flipped back and its legs unfolded and along with its extra long arms it wiggled free of the shards coming out of the ground and began to chase Lt. Fries on all fours with a galloping gait that looked unnatural. The fact that it was moving quickly made it even more disturbing and it soon caught up to Lt. Fries.
The Librarian opened her arms wide and its talons glistened in the light as it raced towards Lt. Fries' Figurine.
Right as it struck Lt. Fries it wrapped its arms around his body.
Or would have. It certainly meant to. What happened instead however was that Lt. Fries' body began to visibly dissipate in to motes of light that shot past the Librarian's open arms and swirled around its body only to coalesce behind its back in to solid form.
Lt. Fries now stood behind the Librarian, back to back. He placed one foot diagonally behind the other then stepped to the side with the other foot. With a sudden motion he flipped his sword in his hand to a reverse grip and stabbed behind him but close to his body.
The Librarian took the strike poorly and screamed as it shot away from Lt. Fries.
And towards Sgt. Cheri.
She made a complicated gesture with her hands and interlocked her fingers together.
Snakelike tendrils glistened as they shot out of her back and over the Librarian in parabolic arcs. Once past the Librarian they shot towards its body and wrapped around it tight, trapping its arms. The tendrils faded but the Librarian was still held fast.
The others didn't wait but reacted instantly. Lt. Swan sent a flurry of pebbles that elongated in flight in to sharp needle like objects. They struck the Librarian with a sickening squelch before bursting. The creature fell to the ground as she was struck and her skin cratered from the wounds and Sgt. Combs raced forward. Sgt. Kirin remained on the ground, kneeling, eyes closed, head bowed.
With a mumbled phrase Sgt. Combs heaved and with a mighty effort executed a grand overhead slash.
He was still many feet away from the Librarian but his overhead slash sent a magical circle of whirling blades speeding towards the struggling enemy.
The Librarian pulled free of its bonds just as the circle of blades struck it and chewed in to its body. It happened so fast the audience almost missed it but no one missed the sound of one of the Librarian's arms hitting the ground after it had been lopped off.
The crowd was NOT on the Librarian's side. Even those that had been rooting for Sevendogs Group were angry. They weren't rooting for Redguard, exactly. Instead they were merely rooting against the Librarian that had defeated their favorite team so brutally. They cheered wildly every time Redguard landed a blow against the Librarian.
Sgt. Cherri once again rose in to the air and sent enough flaming projectiles for an entire combat engagement streaking towards the Librarian. The room lit up with a fiery red light as the fiery lances streamed through the air.
Even a Librarian can only take so many flaming javelins to the face.
The Librarian collapsed and moved no more.
The crowd burst in to applause and cheering and whistling but the Dungeon Room table continued to run as if the fight was not over.
Jay checked the Librarian's health. 25% remaining.
The corpse began to sizzle and the crowd quieted down, although some screamed. As the sizzling increased the Librarian's body began to dissipate in to a dark sticky pool on the floor. Slowly, a luminous figure rose from the pool. A ghostly copy of the Librarian that had stood there a moment before rose to its feet and screamed shrilly. Its new body had regrown its lopped off arm.
The Librarian no longer had a physical body but a ghastly one instead. It hovered rather than stood. Its surface was a constantly shifting grainy gray, the only splash of color being its red eyes.
Lt. Swan yelled, “Cover!” as he caused bright opalescent oval shields to spring in to view in front of each party member.
The Librarian attempted to slash at Lt. Fries with one ghostly talon but the talon bounced off of the immaterial shield hovering between them. The shield would not have stopped a physical weapon but the Librarian was no longer a purely physical creature.
Lt. Fries didn't need an invitation and responded in kind. With a muttered phrase his sword bloomed in to a dark light, a black glow enveloped his sword's edge and flickered like a flame. With a mighty swipe he lopped off the same arm he had cut off earlier in the fight.
The Librarian was apoplectic with rage at having its arm removed a second time and was turning to attack him once again.
Again, however, Redguard's enemy had focused on the wrong thing. Once more the members of Redguard had been merely playing with their enemy, playing for time before their true attack landed.
A crouched Sgt. Kirin had been motionless for a good part of the fight after her initial attack. She had remained kneeling on the ground as she had prepared. Now, finished with those preparations, she rose to her feet gracefully and tilted her head back.
With closed eyelids she turned her face until she was pointed directly at the struggling Librarian.
“SHOT OUT!” she yelled and her group mates all fled, away from the Librarian.
Confused, the Librarian paused for a moment as her prey finally fled before her. This was more like it she thought to herself. With a smile she got to her feet once more. She was a little ungainly thanks to her missing arm but her ghostly form managed just fine.
Sgt. Kirin opened her eyelids and the room was covered in a white brilliance.
“BRACE!” yelled Lt. Swan.
The group members all crouched or grabbed on to something.
A white bar of yellow light shot out from Sgt. Kirin's eyes and moved towards the Librarian. It moved oddly, more like liquid than light. When it finally made contact with the Librarian's ghostly flesh it rapidly spread and expanded to cover it entirely.
The Librarian wasn't still while all of this was happening and attempted to run from the approaching bar. Even though the bar appeared to be moving slow it was still moving much faster than the Librarian and it was quickly wrapped up in the light.
The Librarian screamed once, loud and shrill, before the Librarian exploded outward in motes of light. The sudden violent burst threw the other Figurines hair and clothing about but the Figurines themselves stood fast, braced against the force of the passing pressure wave as the world dissolved in to chaos around them.
After a moment the noise and light was gone, as was the Librarian. All that remained in the center of the room were the Librarian's ashes.
Redguard's Figurines stood about the room. No one looked even slightly injured.
The room was silent for a beat.
“WINNER: REDGUARD!” broke the silence and the room once again broke out in to clapping and hooting and whistling as the crowd all cheered the performance.