~JST POV~

It didn't make any fucking sense. Why would a library be here of all places? 

The progress of crawling moss could be tracked all the way down to the bottom of the stone walls. Falling sunlight, sifted through the twisted jungle trees painted the library in bright shifting splotches. Through the delicate windows one could easily make out pristine books, undistrubed in the wilds of the jungle. The once hard wooden door was a contrast to the complex structure. Resting as if in eternal sleep surrounding the building were portions of the walls that had crumbled off. Small animals, of a type I hadn't seen previously, hid under the failing roof, content to take advantage of sentient contruction. Despite the evident decay the structure was sound and well built, stretching further back than to the sides. It gave the impression one was in the shadow of something once great. Through the decay and ignoring the overgrowth I could see how it once would've been, towering tall and imposing upon the jungle, the massive building was indeed impressive.

"This is what George and Jones found earlier." I said picking my steps forward.

Tufts of grass, strangely uninteruppted by jungle brush, popped unevenly out of the dirt. A symbol of a battle hard won.

"Now what's an abandoned building like you doing out here?" Cobb's jet black eyes landed gently on the structure, contemplating.

"Sir, not to nag or anything but the sun's coming down, we need somewhere to hole up. Still, doesn't take that high a priority after seeing what you guys can do, established watches would be good enough if we don't want to risk it in there." George pointed. "For all we know there could be traps or some kind of magic waitng for us."

"Or a bear." We all looked at Jones. "A really big one." He corrected seemingly unfazed.

"Jones not now." Cobb said.

"Wrong. Don't worry George we shouldn't be in any trouble with all three of us on alert." I told them.

"George we'll be fine. If they aren't warm blooded, they'll still move the air, if not then JST's got a ten meter bubble." Cobb told George. "And now that we're down here I can feel through the earth again, it's still probably not as accurate as JST's Arena but its another layer of awareness."

"What is your plan in dealing with traps?" Jack asked, his hand rested on his katana's hilt. His voice was as light as his stance. It was a valid question but also easily solved.

Something was off with the building, there were no other structures within a few miles of this place. I wholeheartedly agreed with Jack's tense attitude. There could be danger lurking despite this calming setting.

"We'll have JST walk ahead he has the best spatial awareness." Cobb reasoned.

Meanwhile the spartans were eyeing the building in awe, they seemed impressed with a library for some reason.

Have they seen buildings like this before? Actually, that's probably why. All they've seen are Greek and Roman buildings huh?

By the time our talk was resolved I had reached the door. I reached for the handle and pushed it open, the wood creaking on old hinges.

Entering the dungeon

Malvolio's Library (Aged) 

"Aged?" I said. " What's that mean?" 

"The age determines the difficulty of the monsters. The longer a dungeon has been there the harder the monsters inside. If I remember correctly it goes Young, Old, Aged, Mythical, Legendary and Prehistoric. Young is anything below 150 years old. Old are dungeons that are 150 to 500 years old. Aged dungeons have been around anywhere from 500 to 1000 years. Mythical dungeons range from 1000 and 10,000 years old. Prehistoric dungeons are anything above that." Cobb was right behind me. "I had done reasearch last log."

"But still to think we found a dungeon this early, an aged dungeon especially, it should be within our abilities but only just. If It were with anyone else I wouldn't think we could clear it." Cobb continued. "Especially with George and everyone I don't think we would be able to clear it at all."

"Then high alert the whole time?" Jones suggested.

"Sounds good." I said entering the library. "Keep an eye out for anything weird. I don't like the fact this place is in the middle of nowhere."

The first room was expected considering this was a library. There was a receptionist desk and on top of it were a stack of books. They were perfectly preserved. On the walls were various paintings and where there weren't paintings there were shelves filled with books even though this was only the entrance. Deviating from the normal vibe of a library, there was a rather large fountain taking up the middle of the room. Unlit torches lined the walls of the room as well.

"Where's that sound coming from?" Jones was hearing something we couldn't.

"There's nothing of the ordinary man." I told him looking around. I did hear water though.

The room was silent as far as I could discern. Nothing seemed to have been distrubed in quite a while and yet at the same everything seemed practically new. Eerie.

"Who seeks passage into Malvolio's collection?" A voice boomed from the room.

What the fuck!

Instantly I was on alert. Cobb tensed, and Jones' hairs were up. Leave it to them to be the first to react. I could see the slight tilt of Jones' body, as if in position to attack. Moments later his presence seperated from his body and it only took me a second to realize I was now staring at an illusion. Then Cobb's body followed, George's rifle was raised and his eyes were scanning the room. The spartans were taking defensive positions and Jack had crouched low, ready to attack. I withdrew my sword from my belt, condensation sending drops of water out of the sheath.

"You seek entrance water bearer?" The voice boomed once again. 

"Yes." I said after missing half a beat. Is he talking about my sword? I still couldn't find the source of the voice.

"You, warrior. I speak to the water bearer, not some wielder of a paltry enchantment." My grip tightened. If I could only see him he would be dead already.

"Yes." The illusion of Cobb spoke. "We all seek entrance to Malvolio's library." His voice was strong and confident and though the illusion couldn't be reliable he didn't seem very nervous at all.

Something itched at the back of my mind and I knew Jones was getting in position on the ceiling. Warrior's Bond was kicking in. Something was preventing Cobb from giving me any signals, something is preventing him from using any magic otherwise I would have been privy to our enemy. Instead I watched the clones of both my brothers.

"Only the truly worthy, one's even remotely capable of clearing the library can enter." The voice had a fluid aspect to it, each word connected to each other in sleek perfection yet it seemed powerful nonethless. It sounded like magic and it probably was. It's something you pick up while playing these games. "So that Malvolio's knowledge can spread and leave this place." There were ripples in the fountain.

"Prove yourselves, warrior, water bearer, child." He spit the last part, easily, considering he was a water elemental and had just risen from the fountain.

He had all the parts of the human in less detail, there were no fingers or toes or facial features, instead those were all replaced with smooth water. Inside of him the flow of crystal clear water could be discerned but the body stayed together despite the current. Does water damage damage a water elemental? No time like the present to find out.

I ducked under the first watery appendage, and held my breath, a habit I picked up after fighting in an underwater cavern system. Water formed around me but didn't stop me from hacking away, I did no damage at all, in fact I think he was taking the water right off my sword because it came back dry everytime.

Jones dropped from above and cleaved a portion of the arm off which then neatly reformed. As he fell he took the other arm as well, which reformed too.

"You cannot hurt me with the physical, fools." Jack had moved forward to decapitate the elemental form and the spartans moved to join him. "Insolent children!"

I could hear the thump against Jack and the spartan's chests.

A powerful rush of water pushed us all back, leaving almost everyone sputtering and gasping for breath except for me and Jones. The wave was powerful enough to knock the air from us but nothing my scales couldn't handle, I had no idea how Jones escaped but I wouldn't put it past him. Cobb had split the water like Moses and was moving forward, through the tide and towards the elemental. Wave after wave came again and only careened to the side in the face of Cobb's magic doing nothing to stop his advance. Impressive.

"Deny my magic but you cannot kill me no matter-" It got hit in the face with a book. It turned to glare at me.

Of course it was me. I couldn't find anything to do so I just threw books at the thing. It sucked up some of its water but only or a moment. The book was ejected from the water completely dry.

"Stop that!" It thundered as I pelted it.

Cobb began seperating pieces of the elemental using his magic but that didn't seem to be the correct way to proceed. After watching the books eject he smiled and backed off. Oh, this was gonna be good I could feel it through the bond.

"Foolish human!" It said after regenerating its body once again.

"Distract him boys." George's bullets were the only thing that actually worked, they were made of sand after all. It seemed the swords and weapons of the other animations seemed to retain properties closer to steel and wood rather than sand. George's bullets however reverted back to sand when embedded and soaked up some of its body, still the sand was ejected but it was clear it was taking some of its concentration.

"My katana does little." Jack said pausing beside me. "Why do you not fight?" 

"You guys are enough to distract it. I just wanna watch." Too bad I couldn't ride it. Cobb's plan was still

"Then help me out a bit." George said rolling away from a whip of water and ending up beside me. He unlatched his pistol and handed it to me stock first in perfect efficiency, before sprinting off into a new position.

Oh cool. This I can get behind.

I decided that if I were an elemental I would not like getting shot in the face, so i then proceeded to shoot it in the face. Unfortunately I became a target so I had to fall back on old training, tumbling to the side in a controlled roll, coming up on my knee and taking measured shots, in the face of course. In the end my shots paired with Georges were slowing it down noticably but it really didn't do anything to stop it. This was however, an ideal distraction.

"Your sand does nothing but annoy me fools!" Despite that it seemed angry.

That's when the birds struck, flapping wings assaulted the elemental and plunged into its body drinking it up whole. The massive swarm assaulted the thing leaving no vision of anything except wings. My Warrior's Bond actually gave me a heads up but something George said made me do a double take.

"Flying books. Alright. Keep moving George. Ignore and forward." George was talking to himself again, something I noticed happening everytime we see something even slightly magical. "Ignore and forward." He repeated.

Warrior's Bond actually gave me the impression of birds, I had no idea how Cobb was gonna pull it off but I had complete faith. Instead they were actually the books around the rooms tucked into their shelves coming alive in an imitation of diving birds. Even now I could see them wriggling out of the shelves and catching themselves, flapping hard, getting their bearings, and diving straight for the water elemental. By the time I watched the process a second time my eyes followed the flying book to what was once the water elemental. As it was now it was just a pile of soggy books. I couldn't find the face otherwise I would've shot it.

"I do not know how you have brought the books under your command but I concede." The water elemental said. Cobb had walked up to the pile of books in the now soaked up fountain.

"Magic." He smiled stupidly. Thats his most used joke and it's not even funny. In real life its misleading but in here it's a viable answer and he finds it insanely funny for some reason, the idiot. Some things we just don't agree on, he thinks dumb jokes like that are funny when I enjoy decapitation but whatever.

In a bright flash the torches surrounding the room lit up in searing heat. They shot towards us in thin deadly streams, I caught one on my sword and another on my shield. The rest dissipated. Fireballs followed the fading trails of fire and again I caught two. The rest merely disappeared in their trajectory.

"A master mage? Of fire?" A silky fierce voice resounded across the room. Whereas the last voice echoed in the chamber, starting in the middle and bouncing off the walls this voice came from the walls and met in the middle in a powerful yet unmistakenly feminine sound.

Swords of green fire took shape around Cobb as if to challenge the very nature of the elemental herself. 

"Green fire?" She said surprised. "One with Fire Magic in the Advanced tier conjures green fire? Posei what of his strength with water?" 

"He practices only in the Intermediate tier, laughable." The soggy pile of books replied. "He does however possess Water Magic." He mumbled. He sounded defeated, well he was defeated but his voice sounded like a petulant child.

I was tempted to shoot one of the puddles of water and hope it was his face. 

"Two elemental magics? Strange indeed." The fire elemental said. "I concede." 

Instantly a gust of wind threatened to push us out the door, it was countered by another, but my sword had already planted itself into the ground. Immediately the wind was still, Cobb hadn't even moved. Oh wait that's just an illusion. I forgot that they were both illusions but I saw Jones inflicting real damage earlier so where did he go? Jones had somehow managed to hide himself and leave a decoy again. Wait, was I watching the real Cobb splitting the tide or not? Jeez how much were my brothers coordinating there? Jones' Illusion Magic apparently had some type of power to mimic magic signatures too because the elementals have been directing their conjectures at Cobb's clone. Then again it could've been the green one doing that rather than the spider brother.

More blades of wind, only felt through my Arena, were cancelled. A particular batch of strong ones met my blade and shield

There was only a whisper out of earshot and one of the flames flickered. I felt a familiar presence behind me.

"There's four elementals in here, the wind one is soft spoken but he said 'He knows the wind.' to the fire elemental who is named Falme." Jones whispered behind me and tapped my shoulder signalling his leave.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It made sense Jones had the best hearing after all.

It felt as if there was a whisper in all of our ears. "I concede." 

Then, predictably the earth started rumbling and I fell into a stance used for perfect balance in unstable environs, my body fell with the towards vibrations and righting itself at the last moment. The method allows one to stay upright using the least amount of energy which I had actually learned from an accelerated game world, meaning the stance was invented completely within game but also completely viable. It was invented in a biome where earthquakes were part of the natural cycle and homes were built upon loose foundations.

Cobb raised a single huge pillar up to the ceiling, breaking the floorboards and sank it back down into the ground. At the same time the rumbling stopped and I reverted to just standing normally.

Four voices started arguing this time with a strong bass mixed in somewhere, the effect was beautiful but didn't hide the fact that they were arguing.

"Four?" One questioned.

"Impossible." Another refused to believe.

"He knows the wind. And he is Jjerg." A whisper.

"To have that much understanding, it is on par with a Mastery skill." One reasoned.

"Near impossible." 

Swirling into existence were four humanoid bodies. Fire came from the torches, water flowed from the books, earth came from the floorboards, and wind was barely visible.

"I concede." The earth elemental said.

"You may enter at leisure." The water elemental said.

Passage into

Malvolio's Library (Aged)

earned. 

May enter and exit at leisure, guardians of the entrance will not hassle those who have earned passage. Those who have earned passage will be given Malvolio's Mark. This may influence future interactions.

A glow surrounded us brothers but left George, Jack, Gaius, Lucius and Marcus alone. Likely because they were with Cobb. 

I called up the relevant information.

Malvolio's Mark

Signifies approval of the legendary scholar and librarian Malvolio.

Effects:

+Reputation with libraries across Twoen increases.

+May influence future interactions.

I made a sharp, short sound that was easily ignored unless you were constantly on alert for it. Even if heard it could be easily accepted as some weird unimportant noise.

"Yes?" The invisible boy asked.

"I want to fuck with them. Tell me their names." I said under my breath.

"Falme, Posei, West and Thear." He responded, chuckling. "West is the wind and Thear is the earth." 

"Ok but get Cobb over here, magical accent and shit remember?" I told him in a whisper. "It'll be better if I got them down perfectly. Oh this better be good." I grinned.

"Falme, Posei, West and Thear." An unmistakable voice said from my left. The accents and pronunciation were different but somehow they embodied the elements and it was something you could do in the real world too. Cobb was the only one who bothered learning it though. A previous game used an accelerated world as a blank slate, in it the elements created their own language that reflected their natures since then it has been implemented in many different games and has become as intertwined as swords or staffs in the gameworld. For now however i'm only going to use the four elemental accents.

Cobb had sent his creations ahead. I could make out his curious expression with my Arena, Jones had the same look save for a small grin.

I walked in between them heading for the double doors that were swung open, welcoming us deeper inside.

I locked eyes with fire. "Falme." My voice was a jolting staccato that somehow continued smoothly, a flickering flame.

"Posei." The accent for water was fluid, soft, and slightly slurred. The sound lingered as if the noise brought condensation to the ears, not quite ringing but remaining in your eardrums in the same way a gurgling stream hides in the sounds of nature.

Earth was hard. "Thear." And the accent reflected it, it was sound given the illusion of solidity. There was no lilting, or sing song aspect, but it was thick. A proper pronunciation in earth was always slow, very slow, but never a whisper.

In contrast wind was lilting, sing song and free. "West." Sharp whistling sounds are always added, but that's beyond me. The accent revolved around getting a whisper to project through sharp noise, but not sharp enough to disrupt the air. By far it is the most difficult of the four.

Their expressions were unreadable. It didn't matter since shortly after they talked amongst themselves as I walked away smiling.

"A master of four and one who speaks?"

"Absurd. What would a child be doing with them?"

"Perhaps he is dangerous as well."

"But the warrior knows. He did not do anything during the trials."

"Barely. Yet the mage cleared us himself. Only the nature of Posei hindered him."

"Yes and what of the others? The sword wielders, the archer, the spearmen?"

"There were weapons among them I did not recognize, perhaps the child is a tinkerer? A blacksmith?"

"What secrets does the child hold? Who is this warrior?"

I turned around at the door.

"The child is my brother and he is just as dangerous as us. As to his secrets?" I pointed. "Well, he can tell you himself." I said smugly. I love bragging about my brother. But I really love bragging about myself.

"I'm the more dangerous one though." The elementals seemed confused for a second when I winked.

Jones emerged in the middle of the four, seemingly unaffected by the wild nature of their bodies. "Secrets?" He asked.

The elementals turned to the small figure and their bodies had their own versions of surprise, Falme flared, Posei's current got swifter, West swirled faster. Thear seemed to be the only one impassive he simply turned around and regarded Jones.

"I guess I have a few but none of them are yours." Then the clone, rather than poofing, disappeared in an instant as if deleting from existence.

"Planar shift? A plane summoning?" The fire elemental yelped.

"What is a summoner of such calibur here for? Impossible!" Posei yelled.

A pause of contemplation.

"Malvolio's library holds much." West chimed. 

"Truth." Thear declared. "They can only be here for one reason."

"To seek knowledge." West and Thear surprisingly seemed to get along the most, bouncing off each other in the conversation despite their conflicting natures.

"Have the sentients stopped wearing clothes?"

Quickly I lost sight of them acutely aware of the angle of my dangle. I regarded the multiple shelves surrounding me. To the left and right were rows upon rows of bookshelfs.

Finally I caught up with the rest who were in snug alcove cut out from the bookshelves. A study area was cleared out and books lied about haphazardly, through the spots from which they fell I could see only more bookshelves. The rest of the group were looking around and browsing the titles but none seemed as excited as Cobb.

Then there was something beautiful in between the bookshelves, it was a wooden masterpiece, incomparable to anything at the moment, all my desires and wishes culminated into a single item. 

A chair.

"Oh my god fuck yes." I jumped onto the chair. "Yes." I sighed.

"Really, we logged out not two days ago." Jones said.

"Yeah but two days without a chair. I can't do that shit." I snapped back. My butt sunk into the chair. Bliss.

"Maps, encyclopedias, fables, legends." Cobb dropped his burden onto the nearby study table. "Prorge's Monsters of the North, Contos Spellcraft, 7 Reasons To Hunt Dragons, there's so much!" No doubt Cobb was getting excited about depth and whatnot.

Something brushed against my Arena for a split moment. An angry mass of blue spotted fur shot for Cobb's back. I moved to cover him but Jones had already intercepted the beast. He rolled to the side with the beast and was brought down. It slashed and ripped against Jones shoulder. Jones yelled in pain and jabbed it in its throat, its moment of shock was all I needed to cut its head off with a diagnol slash across the neck, begrudgingly leaving my paradise. The blood easily came off with the help of the water on my blade.

After Lucius - or Marcus, can't tell - pulled the body off of Jones they took positions closer to the group. 

"It looks like it came from the otherside of the bookshelf." Cobb said. "It's a Knowlguart. Level 47."

"You okay, kid?" George asked lending a hand.

Jack ran around to peer on the other side of the bookshelf. "There is nothing."

"I'll be fine, just have to ease up on the shoulder." Jones said. "Besides you've seen me fight." He grinned taking the hand.

"Don't remind me."

"We are not safe, they are keepers." Jack said glancing through the peepholes in between the shelves.

As he finished, another Knowlguart, perched above on the bookcase just outside my range, leapt onto the study table. It took a swipe at Cobb but a gunshot pierced the quiet ambience of the library as well as its head. The body maintained momentum and flopped on to the floor beside the head of the first attacker. I turned to George but he already had his pistol holstered and his main weapon up. He saw me glance at him.

"My rifle was down, faster to draw the pistol."

I know that George, i'm not stupid.

"Sir." He added. I eyed him suspiciously but there was no sarcasm evident.

"I got the next one." I said already feeling it approaching. 

The blue creature dived through the opening created by the three thick books that Cobb had removed. It growled at me as it stood to full height. The Knowlguart matched me in height but its strength was lacking. I raised it up on my shield and slammed it onto the floor breaking its spine. As it made its final noise Cobb said something interesting.

"Three Knowlguarts for three books?" 

"They come for the books?" Jones asked. "Neat." 

Cobb held the books with him as we continued deeper into the library since he didn't really need his hands. Cobb had glowing balls of water surround our entourage, flame encased in water, so as not to danger the books. We came upon what was surprisingly a directory. A sign read "1". 

It was a magnificent desk made of top quality wood, encircling a table that held various dusty scrolls, ledgers, and unimportant papers. Spread across the table and held down by thick books was a map that was dangerously yellowed, as if someone was studying it. To the side of the desk was a board that held a map of the library or what once was a map of the library. Instead it was fading and splotched by what was likely blood, very old blood. Nearby, on the desk was an old book flipped to the last page covered in blood.

"Well it is a library." Jones said.

"For what reason do we venture here, my liege?" Gaius asked. "Are mere books worth the price of death?"

"I'm not your liege Gaius, for the last time." Cobb said annoyed. "And yes you can learn a lot from books. Especially when you're not from here in the first place." He was looking at the book on the desk.

"Strength above all!" Marcus shouted. To which Lucius pumped his chest in agreement.

"Keep it down spartans." I told them as their defacto leader. "Books are useful even if they are boring." 

"Especially when you're not from here in the first place." Jones likes to be annoying. 

Just ignore him, Derjar.

"We cannot read, captain." Lucius said grinning.

"Too bad." I said, not really caring. "What you got there bro?" 

"It's an encyclopedia." 

"Blood." Jack glanced around.

"Some type of four legged beast, large and powerful but nothing to it. A Coregath."

A roar in the distance caught our attention. Something huge was moving through the shelves knocking books down left and right, then in a burst of hard covers and flapping pages a monster appeared. It had grey fur only disturbed by occasional discolorations, its face was round and ugly, like a cute pug without the cute. I could feel its weight from here vibrating through the carpet.

"Fuck!" George yelled from behind,

I caught the Knowlguart behind me, twirling around as I drew my sword across its neck. I stepped back from a long grappling arm and struck below the left shoulder of the next. I ducked under the next, planning to deal with him later and slaughtered the next in line, with a powerful vertical slash across the face. Turning around and similiar horizontal slash gutted the recovering Knowlguart. One took advantage and knocked me in the kidney, but I quickly turned around and brought its head into my knee, killing it instantly. Still more came. I launched one of the blue beasts over my shoulder and into the next one, like a scavenger Jones was there to sever their spines.

Jack took on three retreating one step backwards and letting them run into his blade, shoving the bodies aside and taking another step forward. George was dual wielding his pistol and his combat knife, he was near Cobb taking care of those Knowlguarts that got too close with his knife. As I watched him catch one against his body, he followed a short jab to the nose with an elbow to the face, he got his pistol under the chin fired and stabbed its heart before letting the body slide off and meeting the next one. 

Cobb was preserving mana, shooting out streams of fire, just enough to catch onto one of them. The rest of his efforts were spent supportng the team but mainly the spartans who were recklessly charging the middle of the incoming horde. Occasional shards of stone would find their spots nestled in the neck of an unsuspecting Knowlguart. At times a fireball would clear out a particularly bad concentration of enemies.

"They seek the books!" One of the spartans yelled. All the Knowlguarts were pouring out between the shelves, where they came from I couldn't say but they numbered in the hundreds and I assumed that's how many books were displaced by the charging behemoth.

"They're still trying to kill us anyways!" Jones yelled back.

He was in constant motion but I saw his left shoulder catch a beast in the neck and pop. His whole left arm jerked a bit and suddenly he lost one of his daggers. 

Instantly I powered through like a lineman bashing bodies aside and throwing into their friends. Jones had resorted to dodging, but his right hand would occasionally flick out and draw fatal amounts of blood despite his awkward positions. I scooped him up and held him between my arm and my body, covering him with my shield. As we moved back to the group our horde of Knowlguarts eventually dwindled. The directory had four clear paths to it that extended a distance I couldn't make out, suspiciously larger than the outside. On the section of path that the previous hulking monster appeared from Knowlguarts were still pouring from the surrounding bookshelves, some even leaping onto the beast from the higher shelves. It wildly bucked and slammed the blue furry bodies against the bookshelves but it only displaced more books and summoned more of the tenacious book guardians. Even now on the other paths I could see some coming to assist, they seemed as limitless as the number of books. They were hopping from the tops of bookshelves or diving through the wholes where books once were all in an attempt to kill the monster and fix the books. I'd assume the books on the floor had their single guardian killed or something like that.

We cut through the remaining Knowlguarts and reached Cobb. 

"Thanks for the lift." Jones said, his arm hanging at his side. "Can you?" He said gesturing to his arm.

I grabbed his arm and popped it back into place without any uneccessary pain, still he whimpered like a hurt dog. 

"Maybe next time grab my arm where I don't have slash and rip wounds yeah?" Jones glared at me. Oops.

"I needed a good grip and angle." I lied. Sweating just a bit.

Sorry bro. I completely forgot. That was definitely a lot of uneccessary pain.

Jones gave me a look and walked over to Cobb who then washed his wounds with a gentle stream of water.

More Knowlguarts came and I positioned the spartans and myself in between them and the rest of the group. Geoge was positioned inside the directory on top of the desk for higher ground and better range.  George used his rifle to shoot over the shoulders of the spartan formation while Jack was still figuring out how to use George's pistol. A bullet pierced the head of a Knowlguart that was entangled with me and I looked to George in thanks but he was mowing down enemies to the left. Slowly I turned my head to Jack who was looking at me guilitly. 

Stupid samurai.

"He stopped knocking the books over." Cobb was leaning against the directory desk and peering over to the beast who was still in constant battle with the Knowlguarts only 80 meters away.

Sure enough the amount of enemies coming slowed again. By now the bodies littered the floor forming a nice soft blue carpet, occasionally stained but still really soft.

"It's not supposed to be smart." Cobb rubbed his chin.

"Hold!" I told the spartans before heading over. "What do you mean?" I moved from my position and they spread out a little more to cover the same area.

Jones was sitting on the desk kicking his feet reading a book. "The Coregath has limited intelligence. It says right here." He pointed to page containing the unmistakable image of the beast in front of us.

I grabbed the book and flipped through. Deep forests? By large water sources? Endangered species. Easily angered.

"What's it doing in a library?"

"We think it came from the book." Cobb said. "Hard to say but its the only explanation and this Malvolio person seems like someone who would go to great lengths just to protect his knowledge. Strange though since I don't sense any magic. I could try but I don't think freezing up for a few hours is the right move right now."

"You think it came from the book?" It was a stupid notion but we did hear the roar right after the we picked the book up.

"Bro, did you ever open those other three books you picked up?" Jones asked Cobb. 

"No, I didn't. But Prorge's Monsters of the North and 7 Reasons to Hunt Dragons? I don't know about you guys but I am not fighting a fucking dragon in a library. Contos Spellcraft? I'm not keen too on fighting some obscure magic right now. Still, the knowledge is tempting. We'd have to choose which books we actually wanted and think we could handle."

"Well, the Coregath is heading this way so what do you want to do?" I asked, noticing the charge.

"Yeah I can feel its eyes on me." Cobb said adjusting himself.

"You do not want to get hit by that JST. Examine Enemy says it has massive power, no obvious weakness." 

I charged forward and pillar of earth broke ripped through the library's carpet and launched me at the thing. I hit the beast straight on with a flying knee I put everything into. The conditions couldn't have been more perfect. My knee jarred from the impact, I lost a few scales but my knee was in tact. The Coregath collapsed onto the carpet, its face which used to be ugly was now really ugly. My knee had caved in part of its face and head but surprisingly it didn't seem dead. It probably has brain damage but it didn't get back up fast enough. Now that there weren't many Knowlgaurts annoying Cobb and the spartans earth spikes shot from the floor and impaled the beast in the neck and face.

"Easy." Cobb said walking up. 

After a small discussion we decided that we should explore the rest of the library before settling on our theory, it didn't make sense for that to encompass the whole challenge of the dungeon if we could easily figure it out and avoid all trouble. We ventured further with the only break in the monotomy being the study areas that had nice exquisite chairs. Shelf, book, bookshelf, bookshleves, carpet, it was all the same. Eventually however we did realize that this was unreasonably large on the inside than it was on the outside regardless of how massive the structure was. We found multiple directories on the way but all were in similar states to the first one. We did however realize that there was an improvement of directory quality as we moved deeper. 

When we finally came to directory number nineteen it was the least ruined so far. The map was in tact and I followed Cobb while the rest stayed alert. On top of the board in which the map was plastered onto a quote read "Fend Five That The Reward Will Be Decided By." Something we would probably be privy to if fucking Malvolio put a preservation spell on the directories.

"Dammit Malvolio. If the directories were maintained we would've known that earlier." I said. "Look" Pointing to the sentence.

"Oh. Does he mean choose five books to fight?" 

"Probably" I said.

Cobb scoured the directory looking for clues that wouldn't have lasted the test of time in other previous eighteen. He moved papers, parchment, and scrolls around before he found something engraved in the desk itself. 

"Only defeated books are allowed for checkout." He quoted slowly.

"We can just stick to encyclopedias." I placated.

"Fuck that!" Cobb snapped. "How are we supposed to get anything good!" He yelled. This drew the stares of the group.

"I'm opening this fucking book." He slammed one of the books he was carrying onto the table and flipped it to the first page. 

Contos Spellcraft: Lost Magic.

"What the fuck man?"