LSRO: Chapter 302 - Render Them (Patreon)

Hey there wonderful people. So here's another chapter. Should be at least one more coming tonight, perhaps even 2! And then I'll be mostly back on track.

Starting to pull a heap of threads together.

I'm so excited!

Enjoy!

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Chapter 38

Render Them

Quinn was so distracted by Milaro’s display of strength, by the blood dripping from their attacker’s noses, eyes, and ears, that she narrowly avoided a blow to her leg. Had her scales not automatically protected her with one of the thickest shields she could imagine, the blow would likely have severed her limb. But just because it didn’t cut through flesh, didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. She screamed, a short, strangled sound, before pushing her opponent back with a violent gust of wind that threw them into the opposite wall.

Testing her weight on the leg, she realized she’d probably gotten herself a bone bruise. She funneled magic through her system so that she could at least function with the injured leg. Quinn concentrated on her own battles instead of paying attention to those of others, which she probably should have been doing the entire time. Now, she had a more stringent reminder to pay attention in the constant throbbing that ran through her body from the bone bruise.

If she didn’t get her scattered thoughts together, she wasn’t going to survive this battle let alone the upcoming ones, and then where would they be? She honed her focus on the two spinoboli in front of her. Scales reinforced around the injured area, making sure it was doubly protected in case somebody wanted to go for the weak point they’d created. At least with the healing applied, she could move freely again. A bit of pain wasn’t anything to be scoffed at, but at least it no longer proved an impediment to the battle.

Quinn utilized wind to push away and destabilize her opponents, keep them off balance, and caught the flat of their weapons with the wind taking away immediate dynamics. She also utilized a small gravity well to trip them, and intermittent sections in the floor having to change them constantly so that they didn’t grow used to their locations. Applying heaviness here and there to their weapons also enabled Quinn to keep them off balance and their weapons unwieldier than their attackers expected from them. They couldn’t approach her without tripping, falling, or even swinging themselves off axis because of the gravity and wind attacking them.

She could use fire, but within the room, it probably wasn’t well advised, considering there were drapes and the couches that had been pushed to the side of the room by the initial onslaught were also flammable. While she loved fire and just how well she’d managed to melt some of the initial weapons, Quinn realized that it wasn’t the best thing to use in enclosed spaces. Inhaling smoke was never fun.

Even though she was intent on paying attention solely to her own battle, Quinn had to keep a portion of her mind focused on the rest of her party members and their attackers to make sure that she wasn’t immediately needed or she didn’t need to increase the shielding protection she’d extended out to them. Most of all, she was aware of Aradie flying through the room, dive-bombing wherever she could, those laser eyes constantly disarming everybody. A laser to the hand will make almost anybody drop the weapon they’re holding.

The owl aimed to disarm them, to make sure that they couldn’t attack eventually, because as much as they might not like it, they needed to question their attackers to find out the information they didn’t have. Who was spying from Halschius? Because Hal was not going to be impressed. Quinn didn’t want to be in that person’s shoes when he found out.

Quinn wanted to reiterate that point and did so through internal communication. Just make sure you don’t kill them. We need them alive enough to answer questions.

She could almost feel Eric’s glare, but couldn’t spare the attention to double-check that he really was glaring at her. You’re no fun, he said, grumbling even in her mind. 

Quinn groused herself. Well, this wasn’t meant to be fun. It’s meant to be fighting.

Aradie cooed throughout all of them and added, We never said that they had to be unharmed, just not dead. 

Quinn suppressed a chuckle, focusing on her own fight. She gritted her teeth. Just how far could these attackers push things?

She knew Eric, Aradie, and Malakai seemed to be dealing well enough with the Green Imps and the two spinoboli who were attacking them. But that was a lot of attackers for the three of them. And it was really only the speed of the trio that allowed them to keep up with the attacks. 

Traveling with only five people had been a mistake. Quinn should have anticipated that the alarm meant that Halschius might actually be in trouble and require more forces than just five of them. Still, she wasn’t a mind reader, especially not of alarm systems.

Checking mana and health levels, Quinn was surprised to see that they were holding well within the parameters she’d set. And she blinked as two of the Greenish Imps fell to the floor, effectively bound by chains that, well, looked like they’d originated in hell. Their links were thick and black with a red coursing through them, like lava kept them hot, helping maintain immobility in its victims. The Imps cringed, but their faces went slack, as if they were unconscious, their chests rapidly rising and falling.

Quinn glanced at Eric. “Alive?”

“Of course.”

And that’s when she noticed that his chest seemed to rise and fall fairly rapidly. It made her feel slightly better about their captives. She barely managed to focus on the next incoming attack, keeping all of her buffs up over the team, the healing, the mana regeneration, the shielding. The shielding. She double-checked it was keeping the sound in to prevent them being overrun by another group who came to the aid of this one. Maintaining so many things at once was starting to drain at her power and overwhelm her senses. She popped an energy ball into her mouth when she had a fraction of a moment to do so.

Aradie’s voice spoke in her head. You don’t need to worry about the soundproofing. Just stay alive and don’t let your opponents kill you.

Wasn’t planning on it, Quinn responded in kind. A slight snark to her tone, considering she didn’t need to be told the bleeding obvious. That whole being alive thing is kind of contagious.

I’m just looking out for you, Aradie said. It’s a lot to keep in mind.

Quinn grunted. Her owl wasn’t wrong. And Quinn had no idea how they were supposed to take on another four of these groups and protect Kajaro. She also wasn’t entirely sure why they should be protecting Kajaro. It seemed to be such a weird thing to come full circle. 

This time, both of her attackers decided, apparently, that it was a good idea to attack Quinn all at once. A part of her thought enemies should take a page out of their book. One on one was always easier. They were ever so slightly out of sync, so when Quinn accessed her earthen powers this time, she caught the first one in a blockade, yanking their feet into a tight rocklike hold, lurching them forward to twist and fall on their arse as one of their calf bones shattered, piercing the skin. A scream rang out, and Quinn cringed.

Luckily, the sound seemed to distract the other attacker, who failed to dodge their own bit of earthen binding. As they ran through it, the earth rose higher, grasping their knees and thighs. When they toppled over, their bones splintered from the force of their run. Their head hit the corner of one of the jagged earth shackles that held their teammate in place. The sickening thud upon impact was a crunch of flesh and bones - wet and hard at the same time. 

Quinn refused to look, but she knew the attacker was no more. Two down, not exactly the way she intended, but accidents happened. She pushed it to the back of her mind. They weren’t done yet; she could reflect later. At least utilizing the earth was an efficient way to dispose of people, or at least to stop them in their tracks.

Her living Spinoboliboli opponent was trying to free themselves, all four of their arms now freed from holding a weapon. Quinn thought it had been unlucky on their part. With four arms, they could usually catch themselves, but that one had been dual-wielding. If this wasn’t a lesson not to do that, she wasn’t sure what was. Maybe she’d pushed a little too much power into that last one. Quinn turned briefly, ensuring her shielding was strong enough to fend off any potential projectiles the still-alive Spinoboliboli might fling her way in anger.

She blocked out the sound of the hysterical Spinoboliboli trying to push the body of their fallen comrade off them and concentrated on her HUD. She tried to send a message through to Lynx, knowing her current group would barely survive the next four groups of these guys with their current resources. They needed at least another hand on deck.

Lynx, are you able to come through and help us? We overestimated our proficiency and underestimated their numbers.

She wasn’t sure how long it would take for him to reply or react, but she didn’t expect the Library manifestation to literally appear next to her within seconds of sending her message. She raised an eyebrow when he appeared almost instantaneously.

“I’ll talk to you about it later,” he said. “Just remember you are the Librarian, effectively a part of the Library.” He shrugged and left to survey the area.

Quinn turned around and realized that almost everyone had been taken care of while she’d dealt with her own attackers.

Malakai and Eric were handling the last of the Spinoboliboli who’d been attacking them. All four imps lay bound on the ground, unconscious, their chests rising and falling rapidly. The other Spinoboliboli attacker also lay bound, but it was obvious that the chains Eric had used were causing this one pain. Quinn had nothing against hurting them in defense, but this seemed unusually cruel.

“Isn’t there anything else you can use to bind that one with?” she asked.

Eric raised an eyebrow in her direction. “Sure, I’ll just go get rope and do it manually.”

“No need to be sarcastic,” Quinn retorted.

Eric coughed. “There’s always a need to be sarcastic.”

Quinn supposed he was right. Once Malakai had their last opponent down and out, the elf went about binding them.

“Anything you can tell me about them yet?” Quinn asked.

Malakai looked at her, just short of a glare. “No. Not yet. As you can see, I’ve only just managed to subdue this one. I hope that’s okay.”

“Not you too. You’ve been hanging around Eric too much.” She left him kneeling next to his prisoner and turned her full attention to Milaro. He was crouched next to his attackers, and Quinn realized there’d actually been four of them. One of them appeared to be dead. She hadn’t even noticed him originally.

“When did...?” she began.

“Immediately,” Milaro said. “I may have been slightly overzealous with the first attempt.”

Quinn frowned. She wasn’t used to seeing this side of Milaro. He’d never really lost control around her before, or his temper, although Nishpa’s injury had brought him close. He crouched down next to them, watching their faces. Blood still seeped out of their eyes, nose, and ears. So much blood made it look like their faces had been pummeled in, but she knew better. There was no physical damage to them, not outwardly anyway. If anything, Milaro’s damage would be less noticeable once the blood was cleared away. She shivered. That was exactly the type of torture she wasn’t really okay with.

Milaro frowned, and there was an edge of anger seeping through the mask he wore, as if he was trying not to let on how deeply disturbed and irritated he was.

“What is it?” she asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

He glanced up at her, and it looked like he was fighting with himself, like he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to tell her what he was actually thinking, or if he was trying to make something up on the spot. He sighed, his shoulders falling, the tension leaking out. “They don’t have anything more for us. No new information, no new names, no new locations. They were just simply under orders here. They know nothing.”

“How do you know that?” Quinn asked. “I didn’t hear them speak.”

Milaro raised an eyebrow. “They didn’t have to. If you’re skilled enough with mind magic, like I very obviously am, I can get into any thoughts and pull them out if they don’t know how to shield against me... sometimes even if they do. I knew exactly what I was looking for, and frankly, we need the information. They just don’t have it.”

Quinn nodded, and a thought struck her. “Is that the mind capitulation device?”

She wasn’t entirely certain, but the grin and nod that Milaro gave her unsettled her slightly. That book was going to come back to haunt them.

Eric cleared his throat, interrupting her thoughts. “Let’s render them unconscious for a bit, Milaro.”

The elf stood and nodded, wiping his hands on his robes. “Yeah, we still have several more groups to get through.”