Stopping at the librarian's desk, Lily instructed Norbert to place them on the table, having arrived at their destination. Norbert placed it down, seeing the tower wobble for a moment before they stilled; Norbert stepped back thinking he saw the desk lean under the weight, wiping his brow and flicked his wrist at the end, pretending to move the sweat that accumulated when moving the great tower successfully.
He poked his head around, seeing the annoyed look at the librarian as she stared at the looming tower of books, not wanting to touch it or send the entire tower toppling to the ground. The trio walked away, Norbert bowing apologetically at the mess he left the librarian.
Catching up to Lily and Count von Count, asking, "Is it ok to leave them with that?" Norbert asked them.
Lily turned around before shrugging her shoulders and continuing towards the stairs. Norbert is standing on the steps going down. Lily, Count von Count and Obsius going to the stairs leading upwards, already several steps up.
Backing up the stairs, Norbert followed, wondering where they would be going this time, if not back to the portal room. Shrugging his shoulders, Norbert followed them upwards, his curiosity peeking with every step, wondering what could be up here.
As he continued further up, until he was just at the top of the room, Norbert gazed down at the library, all neatly organised. The sea of books is on the left-hand side. Staring down, they continued as far as the eye could see, row after row of bookshelves until they all formed into one.
Whistling to himself at the sheer quantity of books, not even able to see all of them at once, Norbert began to think, would there be even more books on the next floor?
Making his way to the top step, the others continued forward as Norbert looked around, seeing square marks out and walls dividing the area. The hall is once again primarily empty, stretching as far as he could see. As Norbert looked around, on his second sweep of the room, he spotted several people, all by themselves, flinging spells against lone targets. Norbert would see a dome light up before him when a spell missed—a dark blue circle formed on the dome before dissipating.
Norbert watched as the runes around it turned down, slowly dissipating until they weren't there. Norbert turned to Lily, and an idea started to form in his mind of what she would want from him. Walking forward, Norbert went to the closest one, standing with his arms crossed as he observed the man throwing spell after spell.
The dummy being chucked at, staying completely still as it was swarmed with spell after spell. Norbert watched as he examined what was happening, piecing the information he had just crammed into his brain. Going with the first basics, Norbert watched the red waves shooting out. Not feeling any heat from behind the barrier, Norbert gazed at how the man conjured the spells.
Norbert saw the pattern as the man went through his stances. He started with his finger out; a single jet of flames shot forward before he withdrew it, opening his palm and letting it go continuously, with no pause between the adjustment changes. He was moving his left hand in an underarm throw; a firewall engulfed the dummy and went around it. Half the sphere the user did now lights up in a faint blue colour.
Norbert watched the man as he changed position, imagining the dummy couldn't see correctly, his vision being engulfed in flames. The man began to run forward, unable to catch up with the flames that he used. When Norbert imagined the vision would be clear for the dummy, the man would come forward, kicking off him and shooting himself backwards.
Fire on his foot propelled him back to the normal position. As he kicked forward, Norbert could feel the heat it generated, the flames changing from red to white hot as they concentrated on the target; Norbert saw the dummy start to smoke slightly before it was snuffed out. The heat caused the object to char as it would slowly repair itself before Norbert's eyes,
Going back to the man, Norbert saw he was breathing hard, panting at the exhaustion of what he had just undertaken. After several moments, what Norbert would call half a rotation, the man stood up straight, wiping his brow as sweat dripped off it, forming a pool where he was standing, seeming to bleach the stone under him a darker colour. Norbert wondered how many other people had stood in the same position,
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As the man started the circuit over again, Norbert changed his focus to the magic being thrown, trying to review all the books he had read about the spells being thrown at the dummy. He pondered his thoughts on how to go about this fight and how he would stop it. Going through his options, he thought he might survive if he just sat there and took it, but he was unsure of its visibility.
Having no way to block the fire, needing to run out of the way as the man once more changed to the kick, a wall of flames charging forward, that idea within Norbert crumpled.
His fingers glided over his weapons, resting on the dagger as an idea came to mind. He was reaching down as he tapped his fingers over the blade's hilt like a gunslinger tickling their weapons to jump into their hands.
Pulling up, Norbert whipped the dagger into his hand, flicking his wrist forward as he sent his right arm away, not letting go of the dagger, feeling the jolt going up his arm in response. Norbert felt the other side, seeing that they were only on his right side so he couldn't throw anything.
If he had his sword turning back to thought and saw the wall of flames coming towards his way, Norbert shook his head, for against this fire wielder, he would need some way to close the distance.
Nodding his head that an idea was at least forming, Norbert walked away, going to the next person practising and walking several paces away, looking at the next fight before him, and once more, he stood there as he watched the woman go through her stances like the man before.
From what he could tell, using lightning, the bolts of electricity jumped out from her staff. Each one has a longer draw time compared to the man before. Also, this time, a circle formed in the air as the woman concentrated before tapping it with her staff, activating it and sending lightning out.
Norbert watched as the woman repeated the same spell repeatedly. Norbert wondered what she was doing, not moving and just standing there doing nothing different. He shrugged, not knowing anything about magic and spells; he had nothing to stand on.
Norbert wondered if he had a way to take it on, seeing the lightning not arc at all, just going straight like a charging bull where it was directed. The points on the dummy changed slightly when the mage changed her position.
Nodding his head, he would have to stare down the charging bull and move out of the way at the last moment or be hit with however many volts she was producing. As he looked, he counted the time the lightning sustained for and how long until the next one.
Staring at her, counting, seeing it sustained for two seconds and took four seconds for it to be charged back up, Norbert tried to gauge the distance of how soon he would be able to react—staring down the beam, seeing if it moved slightly or if it was in a fixed position. Whatever changes were small enough that Norbert could rely on it moving by itself out of the way, arching like a drunken man that electricity chose to move through sometimes.
Nodding his head, he formed a plan of what he would need to succeed in battle, seeing that no matter the distance, if he had the right timing, he would be able to make it to the mage and take her down, as long as they didn't have another spell up their sleeve to counteract someone quickly rushing.
Shaking his head, Norbert started walking to the next person he could see, only for Lily to tap him on the shoulder. Spinning around, Norbert looked down at the woman.
"Yes?" Norbert asked his guide.
Smiling back, "Any idea what you need to work on?" She asked him.
Norbert nodded as he looked back at the fight he had just left. In his peripheral vision, Norbert stared at the man, throwing another stream of fire. "Two things to work on. First is a range attack, to throw an opponent off." Norbert said.
Lily nods, not giving any other form of positive or negative feedback. Norbert was breathed out as he thought of the next thing, saying, "How would people usually protect themselves from spells?" Norbert asked Lily.
Lily just laughing at the remark. "That's a convoluted question, and why did you do all that reading before? So put that knowledge to use and answer it yourself."
Norbert nodded as he stared back, thinking over the texts, remembering a common theme in some. Norbert answered, "Two common ways: either use a spell to take the brunt of the force, either dissipating it or changing the trajectory." Norbert said, looking down at Lily, who nodded in approval, waiting for Norbert to continue. "Or, to have some protection, I'd assume in the form of armour to help stop it from blasting on you?" Norbert asked as he looked down at Lily.
Nodding her approval, "Full marks to you." She responded.
Norbert gets an annoyed look. "But I can't do either of those things. Well, with the assumption that gear to offer that protection would require the user to pump mana into it?" Norbert asked.
Only receiving a nod in return, Norbert threw his arms up in annoyance. "So what am I supposed to do?" Norbert asked her.
She grinned as she looked behind Norbert, following her gaze at Count von Count, who grinned the same grin on his face. Norbert stared as he walked over to them. Stopping before Norbert, he leaned in, whispering two words to him.
"Get good."
Norbert just stared at the vampire, using all of his self-control not to strangle him.