LSRO: Chapter 11 - Wormzilla (Patreon)

Worms don't really phase me, but giant slugs? Yeah, that's something I can't insert into a book. Slugs freak me out.

Let me know what you think of the chapter when you're done! Rough draft HAS been replaced.

~~

Chapter 11

Wormzilla

Giant worms were a thing of nightmares, but giant engorged bookworms looming over her when she couldn't even move were something even worse. Every part of Quinn's body pounded, each nerve on edge. Even as the creature rose up on its hindquarters, or hind section was maybe a better term, and screamed at her again. If it had arms, they'd probably be beating its chest like a gorilla.

As it was, the creature appeared oddly snake-like despite it being a worm. As if it was a very hungry caterpillar.

It was strange, the calm that came over her, even as she attempted to grip the sword in the hand that appeared to have lost all of its strength. The broom fell out of her grip while she was flying through the air. If she looked at what she just coughed up, it would probably be guts mixed with blood.

Her blood, because her insides felt more than just bruised. She wouldn't be surprised if she was bleeding internally.

Everything slowed down around her as if somebody had just recorded the entire scene on a slow-motion camera and was playing it back to her. Even the bookworm's movements were exaggeratingly slow. Little bits of her life flashed before her eyes, but not like she'd expected it to before her death. They talked it up really big, to be fair, you know, your whole life flashing before your eyes in the moment before you die.

Like a veritable saga.

This was proving to be a very, very long moment.

So long, in fact, that she found it a little easier to breathe now, and her left hand even twitched. Fine, it wasn't holding a broom anymore, but there was still life in it. More strength than she'd had a portion of her moment ago.

Quinn rolled her shoulders or tried to. Any movement still felt like a collosol mistake. The pain shot through her chest, but that's when she realized that this wasn't actually slow motion. Her life wasn't flashing before her eyes in some sort of ultimate showdown prior to death. Her pain traveled at a completely and utterly normal speed.

Something had slowed the bookworm's movements to a crawl. The creature moved as if it was trying to swim through glue. It screamed again, and even though the sound was about the same frequency and around the same speed as it had been previously, she could tell it was also full of frustration because its body was impeded.

Which meant it gave her time to get her bearings. It gave her time to build up some strength and to figure out some sort of strategy to maybe, you know, not die on her first couple of days in a different world.

As many mangas and webcomics as she'd read on the subject, this wasn't how the protagonist was supposed to go. Unless she wasn't the protagonist and she'd gotten it all wrong.

Still, she sucked it up and groaned as she moved. A grating sensation ran through her left shoulder and she really hoped it was just dislocated and not broken. It would hurt like hell putting it back in place, but hey, that was worth worse than a break that she didn't know how to treat in a magical world.

Even slowed as it was, the worm was still inching toward her far too fast for Quinn's comfort. She scrambled out of the way, barely making it, drawing air into her lungs. She looked around for Lynx, but he wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere. She pushed down the mild panic that rose at his absence. Not once in her life had she ever needed someone else to save her. She wasn't about to start now.

Regardless of how much fear and fatigue were trying to convince her otherwise.

Quinn managed to slip and slide through all the guts and body parts, falling occasionally as the boss worm continued to move like molasses. She had no idea when that state of being would end, so every second counted, now that she’d rid herself of her mind fog.

Finally, she managed to get herself propped up against a table. A table that didn't move out of her way in indignation and thus probably wasn't sentient. She glanced around.

Suddenly, Lynx flickered into view.

"Here." He placed something on the table and she could tell that he was paler. Almost transparent. Hell, she could see the table through his body.

And she could see the machete. That was a machete that he just put down. Rusted and on its last legs, but it looked like it still had an edge and was much sharper than her wooden sword.

Quinn was willing to try anything at that point.

Anything on a last-ditch effort.

"You've got this!" She heard Dottie's voice and she looked towards its origin. The bench was standing upright on what would appear to be its hind legs with its stubby other legs reaching toward the worm. It was as if Dottie was controlling it.

Okay, that was too bizarre. Quinn was gonna have to have a long talk with that bench if she ever managed to cut this bloody worm in half.

Compacting all the remaining energy she had, Quinn gripped the machete as hard as she could with both hands discarding the wooden sword to the ground. Her left hand was too weak to do anything on its own anyway.

Then she launched herself at the snail-paced moving worm that was slowly turning toward her. She sailed through the air, both hands gripping the machete's handle as she brought it down on the midsection of the creature with a resounding, squelching, shuddering slash.

The machete, despite its rust, tore through the skin as easily as through butter. It was far more effective than the wooden sword she'd been hacking away with. A fleeting thought about a book on machete fighting crossed her mind, but it vanished as soon as the machete hit the ground beneath the massive worm.

Each side of the creature began to shudder, spurting goop, guts, blood, and viscera everywhere. The ground beneath it shook so violently that even more books began to tumble from the shelves once again.

Landing awkwardly, her right leg gave out beneath her. Quinn scrambled back as fast as she could, an inexplicable premonition warning her of what was about to happen.

Suddenly, the two halves of the worm's body began to shudder even more violently, right up until the moment they exploded.

However, the shower of worm guts she expected didn't rain down upon her. Looking up, Quinn registered that Lynx had cast some sort of barrier around the massive creature. It flickered out of existence just as she noticed it, and she realized that Lynx's light was starting to wane. He had clearly drawn on far too much power.

Turning to her, he smiled wanly. Even his voice flickered in and out like static as he spoke. "You know, that took a lot more effort than I was expecting," he admitted. "I think I need to recharge now."

And then he was gone, leaving Quinn alone in a sea of worm guts.

Alone, that is, unless she counted the talking bench.

Wormzilla - Defeated
Status: Deceased
Danger Level: Neutralized
Mana Status: Dissipating

A strange wave of power suffused the air all around her. It wasn't actually visible, but more of a scent and sensation. It felt like this strange resistance to the air around her, and smelled like a whirlwind of colors and flavors all wrapped up together into something not entirely unpleasant, despite the amount of carcasses in the vicinity.

The aura emanated from the worm corpses and rushed through the library like a tidal wave of fresh air. On second thoughts, it moved into the library, because it very obviously remained contained within.

Even her own body felt a sense of rejuvenation from it. It lifted her mood and washed away some of the smaller aches and pains. And ever so slightly, it appeared that the Library itself gained some measure of vibrance.

A thought occurred to her.

Perhaps the magic the worms had devoured was released upon their death. With no other worms to take it off them, it dissipated back into its original host. Quinn just hoped it would help replenish the Library stores. Maybe that way Lynx could recharge quicker too.

Of course, she had no idea if that’s how it worked anyway.

Quinn sat there trying to muster enough energy to move, simply gaping at the emptiness around her. She'd been left to her own devices and the pain was starting to catch up to her.

Her body ached in ways she didn't even know were possible. There were parts of her torso she hadn't even realized existed.  Scrapes, cuts, bruises, and the Gods knew what she'd done to her left arm. But she was alive, and the worms, by the very obvious pungent aroma around her, were dead. That was a win situation, right?

She pinched herself just to double-check. One more bruise right now wasn't going to make any difference. And she was indeed awake because, even through all of the other pain, the pinch hurt.

Surely if she pinched herself enough she’d wake up from this decidedly odd dream? Since she wasn’t waking up though…Maybe she could fall asleep in this gelatinous sea of viscera. Surely just a nap wouldn't hurt?

"Now come on, love," Dottie said, her tone very mothering, pulling Quinn out of her contemplations. "Let's get you up and get you set, and we can probably help you get to the bathing room."

It took several moments for all those words to sink into Quinn's brain. "What? This place has a bathroom?"

"Of course, it has a bathroom, dear. It's the library. We've had librarians before. Organic ones even! All you organic creatures need those bathrooms. I'll take you to your quarters." Dottie laughed softly and muttered something about visitors to the Library and their ways.

Quinn ignored it in favor of digging out more information. "Wait, quarters? I get quarters?"

The bench appeared a little flustered as she answered. "Yes, yes, of course. We’re not uncivilized. I can only accompany you to the staircase, though. I'm not very good at navigating stairs, but I can if I must."

Quinn paused and looked at the bench who appeared to be very apologetic about the way she had treated Quinn initially and really did seem to be trying to step up and help take care of her in Lynx's extremely sudden absence. Quinn wasn't about to look a gift bench in the mouth and decided to give the seat the benefit of the doubt. "Okay, Dottie, just tell me what I need to do."

"Perfect. Give me a moment. Let’s figure out how to move you and help get you doctored up, shall we?" There was something about the way Dottie spoke and the way she sort of fussed around her that reminded Quinn of happier times, way back when her grandmother had still been alive and her parents had still been there.

Memories truly could hit at the worst of times.

"Now let's get you sat up, shall we?" And Dottie motioned with one of her very bendy bench legs.

It struck Quinn just then that this bench was not only sentient but could kind of bend herself into variations of her shape. Yet another question to file away to ask later. At this rate, Quinn was going to have a very large list of things she needed answered.

"Hey, Dottie?" She asked and realized it even hurt to draw in enough breath to speak. Maybe she'd bruised her lungs or something. This was not good. She needed more power. There had to be a way to gain more abilities and make things less dangerous for her. If there were killer engorged worms in the Library itself, there was no telling what else she'd encounter outside of it.

"Now don't you overexert yourself, dear," Dottie said, and there was actual worry in her tone. Quinn tried a wan smile and just shrugged, which again was a very bad idea. Her shoulder protested the movement with a distinctly huge amount of agony.

She ground her teeth together to prevent herself from crying out. "How are we going to get me up those stairs?" Because being completely honest with herself considering the way her vision was blacking in and out -- walking probably wasn't on the cards right now.

"Yes, that does pose a little bit of a conundrum," Dottie said, and suddenly there was a strange sort of scooter thing there.

It reminded Quinn of a dolly, but it was flat and had a handle sort of like those shopping carts that you got at those big-box stores. It was much easier to leverage herself up onto the platform that was only several inches off the ground instead of trying to walk or clamber her way into a wheelchair. It was difficult enough to maneuver with only one functional arm.

Made of something that seemed hardier than the plywood the base of these were often made out of, Quinn settled herself as comfortably as possible trying not to pant too loudly. The little wheels provided for smooth rolling, and Quinn couldn't tell how it was being moved as she lay down on the pallet. But the motion was soothing, almost relaxing.

"Are you okay down there?" The voice asked her with an accent similar to British that wasn't quite there yet.

"I'm fine," she answered, not quite daring to think that it might be the trolley talking to her. It could be the several bashes to her skull that she'd taken during the Wormzilla battle making her hallucinate.

The bench was trotting after them, and Dottie seemed to be oddly pleased with herself. That was another amazing observation because Quinn had no idea how she could tell that the bench was actually pleased with herself without the bench speaking, which Dottie was not doing right then.

"Yes," Quinn answered slowly, "I think I'm doing about as well as can be expected."

There was a little bit of a chortle from the trolley as it pushed her through the library and toward the front desk where she had originally entered it with Lynx.

"I think you're a little bit confused, aren't you?" It said again in that weird accent that was oddly lulling. "Yeah, I guess it is sort of understandable. Well, don't you mind, we will figure out a way to help you get up those stairs into your room, and then I promise you there's a couple of us up there that can help take care of you."

Quinn wasn't quite sure how to process all of this. She felt like she'd been taken to a fairy tale castle with talking furniture, shapeshifting holographs, and magical death worms.

The closer they got to the stairs, the less she could keep her eyes open. Quinn could feel her head lolling to one side, and the aching in her body wouldn't subside. All she wanted to do was close her eyes.

Despite how hard she fought to keep them open, she lost in the end. Her last thought before she fell unconscious was that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to fall asleep in a library full of magical things that weren't necessarily friendly toward her.

~~

Probably my favorite chapter title so far. Beware the Wormzilla!!!

Thank you for being here.

Much love

KT