LSRO: Chapter 306 - Regenerate (Patreon)

OMG You guys! Do you see that? In before midnight! I must be improving.

Having a blast writing this section of the book. It's fun, and I love action as it moves things along nicely. Don't worry - it'll keep moving. We're starting to weave a whole heap of threads together so when book 5 is done there'll be all the pins lined up to knock down in book 6!

Or at least, that's the plan.

Here you go:

~~

Chapter 42

Regenerate

The pain that shot through Quinn burned like it was trying to ignite her. She struggled to maintain consciousness. Those spikes were a nasty surprise, seemingly specifically tailored to go through any Cosmicisodracus scales. She didn’t like the ramifications of that, especially not the level to which that implied the siblings had been cooperating for this specific result. If she fell unconscious, her shields would fall, and they weren’t done fighting. She couldn’t afford to let herself give in to the lure of darkness.

Mal sat next to her, desperately funneling healing into and around the area. He knew healing a lot better than she did and was more well-versed in anatomy. Although, perhaps he’d had to read up on Cosmicosodracus anatomy. 

Slowly but surely, the darkness at the edges of her vision receded so much that she managed to heave a sigh of relief and take Mal’s hands away from her. She held them and looked at him. “You can’t give me all your energy. I’ll be okay until we get back. But you have to save something for him. Because if he dies, we get nothing out of all of this.”

Malakai gave her a withering look as he turned to watch Kajaro as well. Serpensiril greenish blood dripped down Kajaro’s body. Although ‘dripped’ was probably generous; it was more like a gush, definitely not a trickle. He looked worse for wear, but it was impossible to get through to him right now.

Malakai sighed. “Fine, but are you sure that’s enough for you? Because having you keel over dead just so I can save him means that we have no Library anymore.”

It was easier now to funnel her own energy into the shielding, reinforcing it, since right now she couldn’t fight herself. She sincerely gave it some thought, and nodded. “I’m absolutely fine. Well, I will be.”

From where they were sequestered behind an overturned desk, Malakai and Quinn could observe the fight. He made as if to go back into the fray and she stopped him. “No, you’re the only one who can heal him as soon as you can get to him. That’s what you need to do. And to be capable of it, you have to regenerate some more mana, and look for an opening.”

She wasn’t entirely sure how much time had passed since she’d initially been hit by the spike. It had to be some time, however. It allowed her to observe the fights. For some reason, she wasn’t particularly worried about her group. 

A serenity settled over her. A certainty that they’d survive with some scrapes.

Blood flowed, but more of it from their opponents, Eric and Milaro, taking minimal damage. Their flying combatants evaded everything. Quinn got that odd sensation that came along with thinking that things were a bit too easy. Down to the second that their opponents fell and didn’t get back up, she was still expecting another penny to drop.

Now that Eric, Aradie, Lynx, and Milaro seemed to have polished off the last two previous attackers. The one that had been concentrating on Kajaro seemed much larger, stronger, and far more formidable. Maybe it was the other coin. Malakai’s gaze darted between their group and Kajaro. But the Spinoboli was never out of reach. He seemed antsy, trying to get to his other patient, for he needed to be closer in order to have his heals work.

Pain permeated Quinn’s entire abdomen, and she suppressed the pained groan, not wanting to worry anyone. She was fairly certain some kind of toxin had been introduced into her bloodstream with the spike and closed her eyes briefly, basically begging her body to seek out such intrusions and take care of them. Once they got back to the Library, she’d be fine.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw that Milaro, Aradie, Eric, and Lynx were beginning to lure the other Spinaboli toward them. Like Quinn had previously noticed, this one was an advanced version. An advanced soldier, even perhaps. It moved fluidly, aware of every one of their movements. Eyes narrowed, arms at the ready. When it turned, it didn’t allow a clear path through to Kajaro. Like it knew that they needed to save him. Just as they knew that the Spinaboli was there to finish him.

And as this fight began, Quinn realized it was much more like what she’d been expecting the entire time. Since the Spinaboli had four arms, she thought they would be much more difficult to kill and had been mildly disappointed at the easy victories they’d had. This one, it danced fluidly, its arms reaching practically 270 degrees. It could extend its limbs across in different ways she would never have guessed something could bend. It seemed to be completely and utterly dual-jointed and wielded not only weapons in the upper two arms but what appeared to be its spell workings or magic workings, at least from the bottom two. Something about it reminded her of a marionette. Quinn had a sneaking suspicion that it could also cast from the weaponed arms while armed.

Quinn watched, entranced. It was sincerely like a dance, with multiple partners all having to dodge each other and their opponent’s multiple arms and weapons. The Spinaboli moved in an agile fashion, arms rotating widely, taking the focus of each one of its attackers. Fireballs, ice, spears, and any measure of spells that Quinn couldn’t identify. A lot of them earth-based piqued her interest and made her wish that she’s already absorbed more books.

She frowned as Eric took the first hit. It slashed into his thigh, sent him tumbling to the ground, but he managed to pull his wings in and thus not damage them badly. Even so, at the same time, the creature slashed out with a throwing knife from one hand and a spell from another at Aradie and Lynx, who were dive-bombing it. They only narrowly avoided it.

Milaro, on the other hand, danced with it. Hundreds of tiny cuts began to appear on its arms and legs and torso. It squealed in anger, sounding oddly like an excited piglet. Quinn couldn’t quite reconcile the sound with the appearance of the Spinaboli, but it only seemed to double down its focus, mostly on Milaro, and yet he didn’t buckle.

Quinn understood now what Malakai had been saying, and she wondered why she ever underestimated Milaro. He moved like an assassin, like something she’d only seen in movies before this. His spells appeared at their targets without seemingly needing to be launched from him, and yet she could also see the fatigue setting in around his eyes, the way the surrounding skin, the crow’s feet, crinkled with concentration. There was also discomfort in the way he held his shoulders, filled with tension and worry. She couldn’t blame him for feeling exhausted, but at least he was making short work of this creature.

It didn’t take long for Quinn’s healing regeneration to kick in and assist Eric in his regeneration, and he was back up in the air, flinging his own little fire bolts everywhere.

Aradie and Lynx continued to dive and distract as much as they could. Meanwhile, Quinn sat there, trying desperately to infuse more healing into her body. Whatever it was in her system meant her regeneration was barely keeping up with the damage she took. As long as she could maintain the buff until they got to a healer. She’d be fine.

That’s when she noticed a red blip in the corner of her HUD. Glancing down, she realized it was an alert about Kajaro. She turned, gasping softly, hoping the noise hadn’t drawn the wrath of the remaining Spinoboli.

She poked Malakai and gestured to the Serpensiril, who’d fallen to the ground by now. She could barely even tell if his chest was rising and falling. She aimed her thoughts directly at Mal, hoping the Spinoboli wouldn’t be aware of what they were doing too early. Can you make it to him, Mal?

He looked at her as if he wanted to say, Only if I have to, but then he sighed and answered, anyway. I’m trying to get over there, but right now I can’t get past. The Spinoboli is positioned in such a way that if I try to, it’ll see me and I’ll probably die.

A bit of distraction? Quinn projected to the others. She could almost feel Aradie’s grin in response.

Don’t worry, Milaro said, sounding strong and confident. We’ll tug it over for you. Just make sure you pay attention and duck out as soon as you get an opening.

Malakai nodded, and Quinn suddenly felt uneasy. Not that she didn’t think he could do it, but she was worried that they had to. And she couldn’t help the feeling that it’d all end up being for nothing. Quinn stayed where she was, wedged behind the overturned desk. It was in her favor, as she was mostly hidden, especially since she wasn’t even sure how fast she could walk right now, despite the fact that the wound was closed and had received at least some cleansing. The amount of internal pain was something Quinn hadn’t been prepared for.

They needed to get back to the library as soon as possible, but right now, none of it was looking good. She reached out with her senses just to double-check that there weren’t any other groups doubling back to join this one, but no, it really did appear there was only one survivor left.

She followed Malakai’s slow progress toward Kajaro. Dodging blocked spells, body parts, and the rest of the detritus. The staff behind the Serpensiril appeared to be doing their best to hide and blend in with the wall, leaving him to die in peace. As Mal got closer, Milaro taunted the Spinoboli even more, pulling it away from his grandson to keep him safe.

Finally, Malakai was almost all the way over. He must have admonished the staff because suddenly they were moving forward and helping with Kajaro. But from the way Mal’s brows pinched, Quinn was worried that there was no way Kajaro would make it through this. The irony being that they needed his help. They needed his help to understand exactly what they were up against.

She hoped he’d be able to tell them something and wondered if that made her callous, that she was more concerned about the information they would or wouldn’t get and less concerned about his death. Then again, homicidal sociopaths didn’t really deserve sympathy, did they?

Just as he was about to reach Kajaro, a rain of ice spikes beat down suddenly on Malakai and the rest of them. Quinn funneled as much energy as she could into the shielding when she saw it, which wavered briefly but luckily held. The Spinoboli screeched, this time in anger, like an angry eagle, and Quinn took it as a compliment.

Luckily, the distraction of the ice rain, which had probably taken all four hands to cast, meant that Milaro was able to take advantage of the opening and go in for the kill. This time, Quinn watched. Suddenly, the Spinoboli, who was no longer concentrating exactly on its opponents, clutched at its head. It moaned and screamed, and blood began to run down, black as night. It came out of its nose, its mouth, and its eyes and ears, dripping like melted tar.

Milaro frowned, made several complex motions with his hands, and suddenly the Spinoboli was encased. Not in ice like Quinn was wanting to do, but in some sort of restrictive binding that looked impenetrable. 

“That’ll do it. We need at least one of them alive for questioning,” he said, sounding angry. Quinn couldn’t blame him. None of the weaker ones had any information for them. This stronger one had to have something.

She struggled to push herself up as it became evident that the fight was finally over. Eric was limping. Lynx and Aradie were fine. Milaro looked like a small wind would knock him over, and still, he came to Quinn’s side and assisted her over to Kajaro.

She stumbled to toward the Serpensiril, noticing how his snake hood flared around his face. His eyes were already beginning to glaze.

“You can’t die yet, you bastard,” she said.

“Seems you are incorrect,” Kajaro sputtered out, green blood oozing from his lips.

“No, no, no. We needed you to give us the information,” Quinn said.

Kajaro sighed. “You know, you took my lives. I only have this one now. But since they came for me, to shut me up... I have been slighted. So you, Milaro, you can take whatever memories out of my head you want. I give you full access. But you don’t have long.”

His breath became raspy there toward the end of his speech, and Quinn could practically tell that he had minutes at most. Milaro moved closer.

“With me, Quinn,” the Elf king said, gripping her hand.

Kajaro looked up at her, blinking, his eyes slowly clouding over. “Her too, then.”

Milaro took Quinn’s hand and placed it on Kajaro’s head, and they were both sucked into a maelstrom of thoughts.

~~

I mean, I know it's not that bad a cliffy, right?

Much love

KT