Dream leeches are fickle creatures, as Varin would soon find out. His knowledge of them is quite sparse, and its because the one currently tearing apart the Duvell Library is the second in recorded history. The first one might as well have been one of legend. The only account of one that exists is in a field journal from the 8th century. It’s a rather long tale, one of adventure, betrayal, and one supremely drunk wizard, and Varin read it one time about 12 years ago. Luckily, the only thing he remembers in detail was how they killed it. Of course, it was with means currently unavailable. For the other details, we’ll simply have to fill you in as we go.
Dream leeches (a rather rudimentary name that betrays their true nature) sport at least ten tentacles. When engaging prey, they employ at least 4 of them for offense. The rest are saved for traversal. 3 out of 4 of the attacking tentacles really favor using bookshelves as weapons, and when using them on a particularly hardened creature (our dear Varin), they engage a “Fly-Swatting” Technique. This meaning they bash the creature over and over, the tentacles alternating in turn, until they believe it to be dead. Unfortunately for Varin, he is not. Though in the present moment he wishes he were. According to the most recent battle statistics Dream Leech attacks have a 100% accuracy rate. That’s right. Their prey get hit 100% of the time. For a total of 17 times. 18. 19.
Varin sprung back to consciousness before 20 landed. He wished he hadn’t. He threw his hands out in front of him to block the blow, and the wood split apart all around him. He looked back, just to make sure that his weld spell was holding up. Sure enough, Opal was still safely encased. Her hands bouncing up off the sheen of the wispy sheath. He couldn’t hear what she was saying, but it looked like it was an absolute freak out.
He turned back to the Leech. Its now empty tendril was busy grabbing for a new book case, and the remaining 7 arms were busy seeing which one was up to bat. Varin jumped, flipping through the air on up to the second level. He wanted a better vantage point to see how best to tackle this thing, but he knew he couldn’t stay long. Staying up there would just encourage the thing to come up and destroy yet another level of the library, which he was pretty sure his client would be none too happy about. He landed on the railing, his arms circling like wagon wheels to keep balance, and stepped backwards onto to the floor, peering out on the floor below him.
Varin went to work on his fingernails, biting them as he looked across the ground floor. The place wasn’t absolutely ruined, but it would be soon. The Leech was busy slamming away at the Sheath he cast over Opal. Varin wasn’t worried about it breaking. He’d seen the shield take much more damage than that, but he did worry about how the librarian might be reacting on the inside. He needed to come up with a plan, and he needed to come up with it fast.
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His knowledge of the creature that was wreaking havoc just below him was embarrassingly low, he was lucky that he knew enough just to recognize the damn thing. He couldn’t remember the exact method of killing, but he remembered reading about the wizard’s singed eyebrows after the killing blow had landed. Whatever it took to take the creature out was immensely powerful, and most likely outside of Varin’s own capacity to generate.
He looked back towards the librarian’s desk. The area was relatively untouched, and his bag was still sitting off by the side of it. Varin didn’t have the power to destroy this thing, but there was one thing he could do.
The leech, tired of trying to smash Opal, took one of its spare bookshelves, and launched it towards Varin. Varin vaulted over the railing, his grip cracking the wood as he pulled at it, launching himself down towards the floor. He landed with a roll and sprung out from it into a leap towards the desk. His arms outstretched to snatch the bag, the Leech plotted his course through the air, and a second bookcase flew out to intercept. The hit landed, breaking against his body and sending him sprawling towards the main entrance. His back cracked as it bounced against the wall, and he coughed up blood as he struggled back to his feet.
From what he could tell, there were at least 3 cracked rips, and a punctured lung. Each breath brought sharp stabs into his chest, and he forced himself to keep drawing air, feeling the pain lessen with each gasp. His body was busy trying to knit itself back together, but it wouldn’t be fast enough to keep him on his feet.
He needed to end this. And he needed to end it now. As another book case made flew over he planted his feet on the wall and launched himself off, trying his best to ignore his skin burning and splitting as he slid across the floor at lightning speeds. His hand barely came up in time to brace him against the desk and he used the other to snatch the bag. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to look through the bag for the right rune to do the trick. He simply charged the whole thing with all of his energy, and threw it as hard as he could into the Leech’s filmy skin.
The bag landed without a hitch, glowing bright as it sunk into the Leech’s skin. It’s heat growing in tandem, he could smell the burning flesh as the thing roared out in pain. It tried to grab the bag out of itself, but by then it was already too late, Varin ducked behind the desk for cover. The Leech, expanding like a balloon from the sheer energy, roared out one final time before the balloon burst in an enormous blast of black muck and viscera. Once the bulk of it settled Varin inched his way up, peering over the desk. It was over. With a wave of the hand he dissipated the sheath over Opal. He planted a hand firmly against the desk, telling his body to stand up and walk over to the probably traumatized librarian, but all he could muster was a simple cough of blood against the wood top as he crumbled onto the floor, and for the second time unconsciousness took him.