Instructions to the library came easy enough. Tahir spent some time moving through the thick crowd of the marketplace that he parted with the others in, but after a while he grew tired of it and decided to make his way onto the roof. He moved to an alley, and with a very well-timed and well-contemplated leap to avoid accidentally breaking something by overusing his aura, hopped up fifteen feet onto the rooftops, and started using the walkways between them. At first, he wondered if he was doing something wrong, given that he scarcely saw anyone else using the walkways on the other roofs around him. He glanced down onto the city below to see multiple guards glancing his way. They didn’t seem to pay him much mind, though. Perhaps they saw the platinum pocket watch and decided not to bother. Either way, he moved much faster by using them, and the view helped with locating his destination.
Once he finally reached it, the Nagyermend grand library did not disappoint. It easily competed with and perhaps even exceeded the library in Balrech. With row upon row of tall, imposing bookshelves, the quiet shuffling of papers and parchment, and the smell of ink in the air, Tahir could certainly see himself spending a lot of time here, but he decided to keep the first visit fairly short as he honed in on a particular topic: the dangers he might find around the desert. The canyon where the ruin loomed was a half-day’s walk on foot, plenty of time for any number of things to happen until they could arrange a faster method of transportation. His experiences in the previous ruin told him that he didn’t really know what to expect from the ruin itself, especially one with 60 floors.
So he looked for common desert dangers, and managed to find a good selection of materials to learn more about what he sought. There were the obvious things like bandits and sandstorms, and much more informative writings on local monsters. Land sharks that practically swam through the sand, giant worms that could swallow horses and camels whole, and even undead - the risen bodies of those who died from lack of water or resources while moving through the desert. The latter of those were supposedly rare, but another common danger -common enough to be written about at least- lay in falling through patches of sand into sunken ruins that might have been full of undead.
Tahir took a copious amount of notes. He didn’t expect to encounter any of these things right away, but he didn’t want to go out into the desert completely clueless about what he might find. Between going to the ruin itself, training with Murabi, and any number of other things to potentially take up his time, he might not get the opportunity to come to the library like this too often. Though he didn’t expect to find anything, he also wanted to see if he could find any writings on spirit magic that he hadn’t found in Balrech, though the amount of information he could find probably wouldn’t give him anything new than what he’d learned from Merenthyl.
Still, there’s plenty about the magic that I don’t know. He thought to himself, thoroughly zoning out of the passage he read about merchants reporting on ancient ruins and sand getting in their supply of cabbages. Like the fact that they’re sharing their experience with me, for one. Even though that was still a theory from Meti that he was in the active process of testing by leaving Mikharma to train with Murabi.
Before he could decide to delve deeper into any of the topics he’d collected, a low rumble and the sound of shouting from outside the library brought his attention away from his pile of books and scrolls. He didn’t particularly like the sound, it sounded like trouble. Then again, it might have been Mikharma’s influence through their bond, but he found himself getting antsy. He didn’t want to stay still with the prospect of danger nearby.
So, he stuffed the notes he’d taken into his bag, and rushed out to see what the rumbling was about. Another tremor caused him to quicken his speed to get out the door, coming across an odd and surprising sight. Rampaging in the square just in front of the library, Tahir could see a strange creature with a bulbous worm-like body, as long as two horses, with several limbs carrying it along and flailing about as it caused turmoil in the area. People ran and rushed to flee the crowded scene as its limbs slammed into and cracked tile, stone, and brick. The creature gave Tahir an odd, uncomfortably familiar feeling, but he’d never seen or read about anything like it before.
Whatever the case, scanning the area caused Tahir to spot the still or struggling bodies of guards who’d arrived at the scene and been thrown aside by the creature, so Tahir felt like he needed to do something about it. He didn’t want to think about what it might do if it got further into the city, or even in the library behind him, and was allowed the thrash about like that in an actual crowd.
I can feel your distress, hunter. What is wrong? He heard Mikharma over the bond. Without giving an answer, he focused aura to his eyes and let Mikharma share his vision. There lies an issue in simply running up to fight it. Tahir had Mikharma at tier three, and using aura excessively would break his bones like before. Fortunately, he’d used mostly aura and only a bit of his mana to summon her, so he’d have enough to cast a couple of key spells. Beginning to cast, he called upon knowledge that he learned from Dahlia. Cursing the circumstances for not giving him the time to summon her for her affinity. As the creature thrashed, roots from nearby trees sprang forth and wrapped around it, tightening fiercely and restricting its movement.
He didn’t want to use other large-scale magic with the chance that he might miss, or even hit other people caught in the crossfire. As the roots tightened, and subsequently began to break from the fierce thrashing the creature immediately started against them, Tahir immediately began casting his second spell. The lingering smell of lightning pervaded the space, as a stormcloud rapidly formed and gathered in the spot above the monster. As the casting continued, Tahir felt an immediate sense of danger. He looked around to figure out why, and spotted a sizable bolt of fire flying toward him. Unable to evade, he instinctively brought his aura forward to block it. The flames collided with his aura shield and burst, sending him skidding back several feet, but leaving him unscathed, unable to disrupt his casting. It seemed like his aura shield didn’t cause him any physical duress while he had Mikarma summoned at tier three, so he’d certainly keep that in mind.
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He quickly found the source, a figure in a burgundy cloak that completely shrouded their face at the edge of the square. After seeing him still standing, the figure quickly began to cast another spell, but they were too late to prevent Tahir’s from going off. From the storm cloud, a bolt of lightning crashed down on the restrained creature, causing the ground to tremble and a loud reverberating boom.
The creature twitched, and writhed, before falling still and beginning to fade away before Tahir’s eyes. The figure who cast the spell, stopped their casting of another, and paused to give a loud cough. Tahir thought he saw blood hit the ground at the figure’s feet, and he widened his eyes in surprise. Quickly, before the creature’s body could disappear completely, he cast the soul sight spell that Merenthyl had taught him, and it confirmed a suspicion that had just occurred to him. The creature was some kind of fiendish spirit, and the figure was their contractor, suffering backlash from Tahir destroying the spirit’s body.
Such backlash only occurred in the face of using an inordinate amount of mana or aura to summon the spirit, usually more than half of a given pool. In any case, Tahir needed to figure out what this spirit mage was doing. He could have been possessed, in which case destroying the spirit’s body would have stunned it for long enough for Tahir to talk to them at least. Being able to cast spells with that thing rampaging didn’t really convince Tahir that he was possessed, though. Either way, casting two advanced spells back to back drained Tahir considerably, he hoped the backlash from destroying the spirits physical body would hinder the spirit mage enough for Tahir to subdue him with intermediate and basic spells.
Without warning, his sense of danger flared up again, though this time, he could feel the intense heat of magic honing in on him before it reached him, causing him to dive forward as a blind burst of white light crashed against the space where he’d stood just a second before. He recognized the magic - a divine bolt. “What is it now?” He said to himself as he glanced toward the source of the magic. A woman had arrived on the scene who looked around his age. She had tanned, sunkissed skin, long and very dark brown hair, and two large furry ears, which looked similar to a jackal’s, pointing straight up on either side of her head. She dressed in all black, accented with an elaborate set of gold jewelry, including gold bangles that marked her as a member of the guards, but wearing an entirely different uniform than Tahir had seen from the others.
“Stand down, spirit mage!” she shouted to Tahir. “‘Else your death will not be painless!”
Taking the opportunity, the hooded figure stumbled out of the square and broke out into a run, ducking into a nearby alley. This caught the woman’s attention, and Tahir decided to hold off on attempting to talk her down. At the very least, he wasn’t going to take the fall for this guy just because he also happened to be a spirit mage. Taking a deep breath, he carefully gathered aura into his legs and leapt, jumping over the woman and sprinting down the same alley.
He heard her shout after him, but Tahir focused on stopping his flow of aura to his legs instead of listening. He’d used enough to get a boost so that he could catch up, but he couldn’t keep it up for very long. In order to avoid hurting himself, it felt the same as trying to control each of his toes for every step he took. He also only noticed after he’d started running, but he felt a rush of exhilaration that quickly passed. The thrill of the hunt, the feeling of the start of a chase that probably caused him to jump so quickly after the fleeing figure. Miharma’s affinity affected him more than he thought.
Deciding to lean into it for now, he looked around to track his prey. Thankfully, spots of fresh blood on the ground allowed him to figure out which turns he took, spying the figure halfway down a long alley that opened out straight into a busy street. He was trying to lose Tahir in the crowd. Gathering the last of his mana, he called upon the teleportation magic he learned from the traveler. Jumping some seventy feet ahead and cutting off the figure before aiming a swipe at his chest. It bounced off, lightly cutting into the cloak they wore, which Tahir expected since he didn’t put any aura into the swing, but it got the intended effect of getting them to stop in their tracks. Tahir readied himself for another swing, but the man barely took a step before he coughed up more blood at his feet, and then simply collapsed.
Tahir held his blade, poised to strike, panting from the run, and waited a bit before he finally lowered it, watching the unconscious man on the ground in front of him. He had no idea if that priestess could follow after them as quickly, but Tahir wanted to find some sort of evidence on this guy so he had a chance to clear the air. He’d barely started to kneel to search the man’s belongings, but the sound of something above drew his gaze. Said priestess, coming down from the roof and landing next to him. He barely had time to stand, before she grabbed him and slammed him into the wall of the alleyway with a snarl.
The impact cracked the wall she slammed him against, but thankfully Tahir’s aura shield spared his spine from sharing the same fate. She looked like she wanted to rip his throat out as she kept him against the wall, a foot above the ground. “I surrender.” Tahir croaked. There were probably multiple misunderstandings going on here. Tahir thought she looked too bloodthirsty to just try to explain, and thought better than to try fighting his way out of her grip.
“Good. I’ll be taking you in now.” The woman said, after a moment, lowering him to the ground. “Give me that sword, and be still, or I will cut your head off.”