LSRO: Chapter 305 - Worse for Wear (Patreon)

Weeeeee I think we might be back on track. Yay for dictation.

Really though - sincerely. I wouldn't be back writing without it considering hand is still half dead. Usable... if I grit through the pain.

Pain is not my thing.

Anyhu - I'm going to love the next few chapters.

Hope you do too.

~~

Chapter 41

Worse for Wear

Kajaro flashed a self-satisfied smirk at all those who entered, as well as those who were already there. However, if Quinn looked closely, she could see shadows around his eyes and his skin face gaunter than usual. He looked like an underfed snake. She also barely resisted the urge to send him careening into the wall behind him. As she took in the rest of the room, she realized that more healers and staff were actually cowering behind him, as if he was protecting them. Not everyone had combat affinities, and these healers were probably among those who did more beneficial casting than detrimental.

She knew there’d been a staff of about ten people around him. She wasn’t entirely sure of how many lay strewn around the floor, but from all the body parts and bits and pieces that she could see, she was quite sure that about half of them were dead. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Quinn wished there had been a carpet; maybe some of the entrails would’ve been disguised by the pattern on it. She frowned down at the arm that had hit the wall and splashed blood down her face. She scowled.

It was a lot to take in inside just a few seconds as they came upon their intruders already occupied. Kajaro’s expression showed some hope and a lot of trepidation. Quinn noticed that the Spinoboli, upon closer inspection, seemed sturdier than the ones they’d fought in the hallways. They were larger, and had paused, watching the newcomers, probably wondering what they were going to do. They were a wee bit scary. 

Kajaro bled from a couple of gashes along his body. Quinn frowned at the sight and Kajaro, as was perhaps not unexpected, broke the silence.

“Do you mind helping?” He asked in that weird, sibilant way. “This whole having one life thing is terribly overrated and mildly terrifying.”

Quinn realized that they didn’t have the luxury of time right then. While they weren’t outnumbered this right then, per se, she got the feeling that these opponents were overpowered. These Spinobolis and different variation of imp appeared to be much more robust than the previous ones they’d encountered in the halls. She glanced around quickly, trying to get other people’s input, but nobody would meet her eyes, all focused on the interlopers. 

Against her personal preferences, she offered Kajaro a stiff nod. She wasn’t sure she could bring herself to speak to the homicidal bastard, but instead, she decided to extend her shielding around him. She made sure to include the mana regen and the healing one. They couldn’t afford for him to cark it right there. Not to mention that if they did take all these opponents down, there’s still be six of them against him. Kajaro wasn’t going anywhere.

Malakai apparently sensed what she was thinking and looked very pointedly at her, raising an eyebrow in question. She shrugged and didn’t even bother speaking mind to mind. It was good for the Serpensiril to know exactly where he stood right now. She shrugged at Mal. “Can’t exactly interrogate a dead person.”

Both Kajaro and Milaro looked like they wanted to comment on that. Quinn was simply glad that neither of them chose to. 

And then the lull was over. Two of the Spinobolis and one of the imps turned away from Kajaro, leaving only two to face him now. Quinn was quite certain his shoulders sagged with relief. However, that meant these stronger versions of the Spinobolis were now facing Quinn’s group and they then split up so that they could take on Quinn’s group separately.

Mal leaned over, his bow safe in his hands. “These guys are so much stronger than the last ones we fought. My arrows will do nothing. I can tell it from here.”

Quinn frowned and muttered under her breath, watching the others approach. She wasn’t entirely sure how to instigate combat. “Well, can’t you use some of your specialty arrows?”

He glared at her. “I can, but I’m not entirely sure it’ll do any good against these guys.”

“Well, at least that’s something, right?” His glare intensified. Quinn shrugged. “Look, I’m not trying to be nasty. I’m just saying come prepared for the fights, Mal. I hope you’ve got more than one arrow up your quiver.”

He didn’t really have a leg to stand on, but she also was aware that some of his arrow types had high-end components and sometimes he needed to replenish their fuel. 

And that’s the moment when Quinn realized these new Spinobolis were more caster-oriented than combat. She barely twisted out of the way of a fireball aimed directly in the middle of Quinn and Malakai. Her magic shot out on instinct, allowing for both of them to avoid it even though it came quite close to Quinn. The remnants would have hit her if her body hadn’t reflexively sucked the oxygen from the fireball, effectively nullifying it. In removing the air from it, the structure effectively winked out of existence. 

The Spinoboli who’d fired it laughed. It sounded like metal grating on metal and made her eardrums ache. Then it smiled, showing off multiple rows of tiny, razor-sharp teeth.

“Ah,” it said in a strange accent she couldn’t place. “It is challenged.” It cocked its head to one side, studying her, and Quinn felt like she was an insect under a microscope for just a split second. The grin remained on its face. “And a Librarian. Two of my favourite things to squash. It would seem that in this case, I can eliminate two problems with one stone.”

“But apparently not with a fireball,” Quinn muttered, only realizing how unwise that had been once the words were out of her mouth.

The Spinoboli grinned again, this time wider, and dove toward her, surprisingly fast and nimble, which made Quinn realize that they’d definitely been fighting the grunts before this. Their ambushes likely weren’t as strong as she’d hoped they’d be against this new opponent. Because their previous ambushed hadn’t had an iota of this magical strength. 

A wave of power hit her as the Spinoboli moved. She didn’t even need to extend her senses for it.

And that’s when Milaro whispered in her ear, “I hate to break it to you and be the bearer of bad news, but my usual tactics are won’t work here. At least not until they’ve been beaten down some.”

Quinn tried not to let her worry show on her face. Milaro’s ability to make these bleed out of every orifice they had wasn’t available to them, at least not yet. That didn’t mean they couldn’t still attack and defeat these guys. It just meant it wasn’t going to be extremely easy.

She understood what he was saying. She’d been using the igneous rock around them to tap into the earth and force it to push up through and use it as a weapon. However, right now, they were positioned in an indoor hall with marble settings. She wasn’t entirely certain how to mutate those into something she could commandeer. Manipulating it as it was right now wasn’t going to happen. When she initially tried to tug at the ground, it resisted vehemently.

She sighed, cracking her neck from side to side. “Well, we shouldn’t be surprised because I think these guys are actually protected,” she thought. She activated her fire power, rolling it around in her palm, her scales protecting her. She wondered if these Spinoboli knew that she had fire abilities and fire immunity. Fire attacks were probably not the best thing to send her away unless you were aiming for her hair, which would probably get singed off her head because scales couldn’t cover the bloody stuff. But she was sure she could figure out how to grow it back later, anyway.

Since they were obviously using fire, it stood to reason that they were therefore also slightly immune to the element. Thus, fire wasn’t the best thing to attack these opponents with. The Spinoboli was done with its amusement over Quinn’s predicament. It decided not to wait for any of them to have the first go. Both of them attacked at once, and the imp.

Eric, it seemed, met his imp attacker halfway. Considering they were roughly the same size and could hover off the ground, it made a lot of sense. Malakai began to dig deep into his arrow repertoire so that he could assist both Eric and Milaro from a distance.

The other Spinoboli that hadn’t given Quinn the weird shark-like grin approached Milaro cautiously. Perhaps it was the one that experienced Milaro’s attempt to explode its brain within its skull. That definitely explained the caution.

The flurry of attacks by the imp toward Eric gave Quinn pause. It wasn’t easy to take down the imps and she knew for a fact that Eric had taken several of them down in the hall easily. These were more robust. And Milaro had enough on his plate with his own opponent.

Quinn had Lynx and Aradie to help her. Although Aradie would be flitting between all of them, swooping at their targets, she was currently focused on Quinn’s opponent, who was now circling her. She didn’t have time to worry about the prisoner. All she could do was focus on her own opponent. She’d worry about Kajaro later when they’d survived this attack.

Look at her being all optimistic. When they’d survived. She was proud of refusing to contemplate defeat.

She threw spell after spell toward her attacker. Any fireball sent her way was deflected by a simple oxygen spell depriving the projectile of its fuel. Sucking out the oxygen. Creating sand to extinguish fire if it was necessary and caught something on fire in the room. But creating specific items tended to be a large drain on her core, energy, and mana resources. It meant that it was easy for her to clean up after things while she was recovering. But right now, in the midst, she only used it in an emergency.

Her hair got singed. She could smell that horrible burning human hair scent lingering around her head. At first, the Spinoboli appeared to be a type of earthen and fire creature. She really hoped that was their main affinity. And thus she tried ice spears, sending them at them non-stop. She had, after all, grown quite proficient with those. It seemed, though, not to make even one whit of difference.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the imp Eric and Malakai were fighting had begun to flag. Its wings were partially shredded, which left it lumbering down on the ground. Even though Eric had some minor lacerations, he seemed in much better condition than the one he’d fought. However, it appeared that its partner, still facing Kajaro, noticed its state and moved over to join it. That, however, meant that Kajaro was only facing one opponent now, and that Quinn could worry less about still having a prisoner to interrogate than she had been.

She managed to sidestep a strange spell that she didn’t understand. It was only instinct that made her duck something that appeared to warp the air. If it could warp the air visibly, Quinn hated to think what it could do to a body. She reinforced her shielding as she glanced over at Kajaro. The thing was, he took a breather when the imp left, accidentally letting his guard down. It was like she could see the split second he did it. The Spinoboli attacking him got in a very clean shot. A gasp rang out through the room as Kajaro stumbled.

Quinn cringed, tried to extend her shielding, and realized that her energy levels had begun to get low. In the space of time it took her to pop another energy replenishing ball, Quinn’s attention waned for just that split second. Something hit her in the gut, whooshing air out of her, and punting her back into the wall behind them. It was followed by pain exploding in her gut and she realized this time her opponent hadn’t thrown anything based on fire, air, or earth. 

No, this time it had thrown a goddamn steel spike of some sort.

She could feel blood gurgling up and attempted to channel her healing toward the wound. They couldn’t lose now. She dropped down to one knee, reinforcing her own and everyone’s shielding. Pushing the spike out, she attempted to knit what flesh she could around it, but she was no healer, and while slowed, blood still seeped out. Eric’s imp fell to the ground, the second one already very worse for wear. Aradie swooped at the Spinoboli who’d hit Quinn. Laser eyes focused while Lynx joined her, also in avian form. The Spinoboli fighting Kajaro was also on its last legs.

But Quinn’s heartbeat in time with the playlist in her head. The whole fighting scene in front of her felt like it was a slow motion music video with her bleeding out on the side.

Quinn saw the Serpensiril begin to cast one of his electric void circles. She only hoped he’d succeed in taking his opponent out. 

Her vision began to blacken ever so slightly as the Spinoboli Milaro was fighting fell to its knees. 

The moment that happened, Malakai left his station next to Eric and dove for Quinn. Healing magic began to suffuse her, even as her vision began to blur.

~~

Come on. It's not a cliffy.

It's QUINN. I'm not THAT cruel. I promise.

Mostly.

BWAH HAH

Much love

KT