“Why the hell are we chasing a cat, mate? Scratch that, run faster!” Twonger first asked and then yelled to the group.
Andy heard the same thing Twonger did. There were crying sounds coming from the stacks around them. It sounded like a group of babies had suddenly surrounded them. While he had no idea what that meant, he had also seen enough horror movies to know nothing good came from crying babies in a horror environment.
“What are they, Twonger?” Andy yelled to the alien. He hoped he had recognized them.
“Could be many things, but every single one of them is likely to kill us all. Adding into just how scary yer little library already is, I’m not particularly keen on the idea of finding out if I know exactly what kind of monster this is before it eats me.” Twonger shouted back.
“I don’t think it matters exactly what you are keen on. We aren’t outrunning these creatures!” Ralth shouted.
His warning came too late for Andy to think of another potential escape as several small shadowy forms appeared in front of them. Each one looked about the size of a baby with a small bald head, but that was where the resembled ended. Their arms ended in claw-like hands, and they each had a dozen spidery legs. The crying was the worst part for Andy as he felt it push deep into his brain. Every new scream made his brain feel like it was going to liquefy.
“Oh, we are right fucked. A god damned packed of spider screamers is exactly the type of horror I expected. Don’t look into their eyes, and do your best to ignore their crying. If you feel them in your brain already, well, I’m sorry. It’s a horrible way to go.” Twonger raised his right hand, and a shining golden sword appeared in it.
Andy heard his warning as though it was through what felt like jello growing in his mind. He had to fight out of this. It was hard to hear anything else Twonger had said, but he was sure it wasn’t good. He tried pushing mana into his brain and found his channels felt sticky. The more he tried to push the mana around, the more it bled into the places it started. He started to feel sick to his stomach. This was getting worse, and he didn’t know what to do.
Luckily for Andy, Mr. Wiggles apparently did know what to do. Andy watched as the cat leaped onto the head of the thing that was staring into his eyes. The cat then plucked the eyes straight from the sockets and crushed them into its mouth. Andy felt the fog in his brain clearing as he finally fully comprehended Twonger’s words.
“Listen to Twonger. You don’t want those things in your head.” He yelled in agreement with the alien.
“Yeah, listen to me!” Twonger slashed out with his sword into the group of monsters in front of him. “We’re all gonna die, so ya may as well get any desires you have to smash a baby’s skull out of your system while you have the chance!”
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Andy watched Bill and Ralth begin their own attacks but noticed the dogs holding back for some reason. “Bug, is everyone okay?” He called to her.
“Erm, yes, sorry. Things are weird. We’re coming.” She answered.
Andy thought that was strange but didn’t have time to dwell on it as one of the creatures had grabbed his leg. He dropped a small globe of darkness on it and drastically reduced the gravity in it. It vanished with a last cry into the void far above their heads.
He felt control of his gravity ball disappear and watched as Bill grew it in size and altered the shape, turning it more into a giant rolling pin that swept down the corridor, knocking all the advancing spider screamers into the air. Ralth was quick to follow up on their momentary gain with his own assault. It was the first time any of them had seen his new powers in action, and they were undoubtedly different.
Suddenly, there was a second giant rolling pin. This was one above the monsters and glowing bright white. It began to spin rapidly, hanging in the air like a fan blade, and every beast it touched was reduced to ash.
“I’ll hold this as long as I can. Start tossing them into it in any way you can!” Ralth’s voice was full of pain.
“Yeah, baby tossin' time! We might just live through this yet!” Twonger screamed as he started flinging the monsters into the fan blade hovering above them.
Andy was beginning to understand how it had taken Cal so long to figure out how to stop this man. He was either insane or pretending to be, but either way, he was amazing at fighting. By the time they were done, Twonger had easily killed more of the monsters than the rest of the group combined. He was glad he was on their side for now.
“Man, if you guys can keep that up, what the hell are we so scared of? How the hell did you even manage to get to this skill level with as little mana understanding as you have?” Twonger was laughing as he spoke.
“No time, we can talk about it later. We have to follow the cat. If we get stuck out here as the cleaning staff start to emerge or we get caught in a patch of darkness, it won’t be nearly so easy. So what I’m saying is back to running!” Andy finished his statement with a resumed chase of the cat.
After twenty minutes of running past enough noises to give Andy nightmares for the rest of the loop, they finally stopped. He was drenched in sweat. He was about to comment on how amazed he was Andrew had made the run but then saw that he hadn’t. His older self was slung over Ralth’s arm, complaining.
“What now? Why’d he stop here?” Bill asked.
“No idea, wait. What’s he doing now?” Andy answered.
The cat walked up to a door on a reading room and knocked twice, meowed three times, and then seemed to scratch some design in the door. It opened up to reveal a face Andy recognized as Mr. Wiggles’ owner looking at them all.
“Wiggly, what I have told you about running it off. It’s getting much more dangerous in here, but I see you’ve brought guests. Alright, everyone, get in here.” She said.
“Yeah, I know she’s a Gryalth, but we met her before, so just listen,” Andy said.
There was a loud howl somewhere in the distance. Everyone was through the door within moments.