Bibliomancer
Page 30
Another major difference—for the first time in his life, Sam realized going the lone wolf route wasn’t an option. For better or worse, he needed other people. As much as he might like to—as convenient as it might have been—he simply couldn’t do the group assignment by himself this time around.
Bill didn’t sound hopeful in the slightest.
“Look, Arrow,” Dizzy threw her hands up in exasperation, “I don’t know what to tell you. I thought they’d be here too, but obviously, Sam and Finn weren’t as interested in teaming up with us as I thought, okay? Since they clearly aren’t coming, there’s no reason to wait around any longer. Let’s just go kill some Mobs before this day is a complete waste.”
Without another word, she turned and stormed off, her back ramrod straight, her fists curled into angry balls. Arrow grimaced, shrugged, and offered quiet words to the others. Sphinx nodded in reply to whatever Arrow had suggested, and together, the rest of the Wolf Pack set off after Dizzy’s retreating back, the whole lot of them looking utterly dejected. Disheartened. Defeated.
Sam waited for the blue-robed Mage to shoulder his way into the flow of human traffic, then ventured out himself. He followed behind, keeping a solid fifty paces back, though his gaze never left the bounty hunter nor the members of the Wolf Pack. This did complicate Sam’s plans, but it didn’t necessarily change them a whole lot.
He needed to talk to Dizzy and the others, and he needed to do it well away from nosy citizens who would report him to the authorities once he started yapping about allying with the Wolfmen. How exactly he would accomplish that with the Mage around, Sam wasn’t sure, but he figured he’d cross that bridge once it was on fire and threatening to burn him alive.
Sam made it through the Northern Gates without a problem. That was a big relief; he had worried that the Mages might have someone posted at every entrance to the city. Luckily for him and unfortunately for humanity, the chainmail-wearing gate guards didn’t have any interest whatsoever in people leaving the city. From the look of things, their job was to prevent unsavory folks or dangerous monsters from coming into Ardania, not to deter honest, monster-killing adventurers from exiting the city’s enormous gates. Aside from the Mage in blue who stuck out like a sore thumb, there were no spell-slingers in sight.
For the next two hours, Sam followed the party and their unnoticed stalker, keeping a healthy distance as he stole from bushes to trees to rock outcroppings. One thing Sam learned almost immediately was that he was terrible at stealth. Every footfall sounded like thunder in his own ears, and he somehow managed to step on every twig that had ever fallen from a tree branch.
It was an absolute wonder that he wasn’t caught in the first five minutes out the gate. His only real saving grace was that the Mage in blue was equally terrible at stealth. The guy, maybe in his late thirties with a mop of shaggy brown hair, made just as much noise as Sam. He was so focused on tracking Dizzy and the Wolf Pack that he didn’t bother to look back even once.
As for Dizzy and the others, they were so preoccupied with slaying bunnies and foxes that they didn’t seem to notice the blue-robed Mage stalking their trail. Honestly, why would they? They had no idea what had gone down at the College and therefore had no reason to suspect they were being tracked. Unfortunately, even after two hours, Sam still had no idea how to handle the situation on his hands.
He felt fairly certain he could get Dizzy’s attention but not without also tipping off the magical bounty hunter. The second the enemy Mage spotted Sam, it would be royal rumble time. The problem was, Sam had no idea how strong this guy was. True, Sam had been hitting the books hard over the last few days, but he had no idea how effective his new spells would be. For all he knew, the not-so-sneaky Mage in front of him could’ve been a Master of battle magic. The chances of that were unlikely, as the College probably wouldn’t waste a Master Mage on trailing a bunch of Travelers… but there was no way for Sam to be certain. Not without picking a fight.
But as Dizzy and the Wolf Pack crept up to the tree line, something happened which ripped the choice right out of Sam’s hands. They’d barely entered into the shadowy canopy when an actual wolfpack, ten strong, leaped from nowhere. The entire pack seemed to materialize from thin air, fur bristling, muzzles snarling, drool hanging down in great strings as they closed in around Sam’s friends on all sides. Worse, loitering in the trees overhead crouched down on a particularly thick bough was a different threat—a Wolfman Shaman. A Shaman that Sam recognized from his near brush with a sacrificial stone altar. Yurij BrightBlood.
A pack of wolves that large and guided by a Shaman with untold magical powers was as good as a death sentence for Dizzy and the others. Sam had no idea how much they had leveled since he’d seen them a week ago, but there was no way that it was enough to take out the actual wolfpack arrayed against them. Not without a little magical backup.
If Sam jumped into the fray, he might be able to turn the tide of battle, but he would sacrifice any element of surprise he had and would instantly alert the blue-robed Mage to his presence. It was a lose-lose situation. But what choice was there? If he didn’t help, he would live, but his friends would be dead, sent for a half-day wait for respawn. Then Sam would still need to go through this same rigmarole, and there was no guarantee that things would turn out any better next time around.
It was now or never. Steeling himself for battle, Sam reached to Bill and summoned his new spell books, instantly pulling them from Bill’s Soul Space. Instead of two volumes springing to life around him, a full complement of six books took to the air. Spinning in a slow orbit, each volume glowed with soft blue witchlight. With a thought and a trickle of Mana, Sam activated Papier-Mache Mage, clothing himself with the odd but familiar conquistador-style armor.
He opted against conjuring his Quill Blade for the time being; ranged attacks were his best option in a fight like this. Then before he could second guess himself, he leaped into motion, breaking from cover as he charged the wolves already tearing into his friends.
“Not today, fur-faces!” Sam’s voice was quiet but excited.
“Kai, I need you on the right flank!” Dizzy boomed even as she lashed out with her enormous maul, the blunt face connecting with a shaggy-furred head. She sent the creature scrambling with a yelp. “Sphinx, you’re playing zone coverage. Arrow, we need suppressive cover fire! Make sure these things don’t get behind us!”
It was too late for that. Three rangy wolves had already maneuvered behind the party, and try as Arrow might, he just wasn’t quick enough nor accurate enough with his bow to pin down all three wolves at once.
Sam could fix that. Inside of a few heartbeats, he was in range. Instead of bringing just one book to the front, he brought two books forward, one at the ten-o-clock position, the other at two-o-clock. Since he had the Dual casting ability, he could launch two spells at the same time, though it would reduce the overall accuracy and increase the spell failure rate. That was a price Sam was willing to pay. Besides, with some of the upgrades he’d made over the past few days, he didn’t even need to directly land a spell to break up the ambush.
With a war cry, Sam unleashed a double volley of Paper Shurikens. Two folded stars—one burning with soft orange light, the other radiating arctic-purple power—screamed from the pages of the volumes on his left and right. The
first Shuriken landed with a bomb blast. It cut through fur with razor-sharp edges, embedding in flesh with ease, then exploded with eye-searing heat and force. A single clean hit and there were wolf pieces scattered across the densely vegetated forest floor.
Damage dealt: 39 (34 Paper Shuriken + 5 Fireball)
“Rabblefrabble!” Sam shouted in shock. He had added what he thought was a rather simple Fireball spell to each page in the red-leather volume. He’d expected a little extra fire-damage to each attack, maybe. Certainly not ninja-star hand grenades that he could launch at a rate of one-point-five per second. The Fireball added to the Shuriken made the entire damage pool have an area of effect, though it was only about three feet in diameter right now. Unsurprising, as this spell was starting at Novice one.
Meanwhile, the arctic-purple Shuriken had a more subtle effect but one that was equally brutal in its own special way. When the paper blades hit home, they unleashed a powerful burst of icy energy which clawed across a target’s body like fingers of frostbite, inflicting extra cold damage over time.
Damage dealt: 25 (20 Paper Shuriken + 5 ice damage over three seconds). Target slowed 12% for three seconds!
Unfortunately, these new spells of his didn’t discriminate between friend and foe, which meant he’d have to be very careful in just how he used them. Two of the three wolves were down in seconds—dead or dying—which freed up Arrow to take out the third wolf with a flurry of carefully aimed shots that punched through fur and muscle. It was a good start, but Dizzy and company were hardly out of the woods yet.
More wolves flooded in and converged on Dizzy. She was drawing aggro like the heavy-hitting tank she was. Kai and Sphinx both moved like greased lightning, the Monk delivering lightning-fast blows and blinding-quick kicks, while the Roguish Assassin hurled knives and slashed at vulnerable muzzles. There were just so many enemies.
In seconds, they were on the verge of being overwhelmed. Sam considered the situation only for a thin moment before toggling books, rotating his Ice Orb tome to the back and bringing a regular Paper Shuriken volume to the fore. With the press of bodies and the ebb and flow of battle, Sam couldn’t reasonably expect to launch spell-laced folded stars without also inflicting friendly fire. Thankfully, he was far more accurate with his regular Shurikens… and he had another new trick to try out.
Five wolves were clustered before Dizzy like the fingers of a curled fist, fighting together in a unified front. It seemed to be a brutally effective tactic that forced Dizzy to play defense, constantly protecting herself from snapping teeth or tearing claws, without ever having the opportunity to strike an offensive blow in return.
Against Sam, staying clustered together like that was going to prove to be a terrible idea. He focused on the beefy wolf right in the center of the fist—his fur black as midnight, his eyes the color of molten copper—and unleashed a regular Shuriken, triggering the Bookmark effect as the spell took flight.
The folded paper screamed through the air like a buzz-saw, slicing past Dizzy’s face by a bare inch before dropping and sinking into a hunched, wolfy shoulder. Dizzy glanced back over a shoulder, her eyes flaring wide in surprise at the sight of Sam. She gave him the merest nod, then threw herself back into the action. Curious to see just how Bookmark worked, Sam turned and fired a Shuriken away from the black-furred wolf. He felt a giddy sort of joy as the paper star shot out and curved like a boomerang, swinging around in a vicious arc before slamming into the wolf’s side with deadly accuracy.
Then Sam watched in shock as the Shuriken zipped back toward him, rejoining the book. A pop up appeared in the corner of his vision.
Skill gained: Paperang (Novice I). Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Being a Bibliomancer ain’t cheap! But with Paperang, the costs can be marginally mitigated by responsibly reusing your weapons of death and destruction! Effect: Paper Shurikens and other items classified as Paper Origami have a 1n% chance, where n = skill level, to return to the caster for reuse unless the item is destroyed beyond the point of recovery on impact. Paper Shurikens and items classified as Paper Origami that do not hit their target or another object have a 2n% chance of returning to the caster.
Luck +1!
Sam dismissed the notice immediately and fired off a third Shuriken, this one from the red volume augmented with Fireball spellscript. An orange, glowing star burst forth, following the same trajectory as the last Shuriken. It curved sharply like a… Paperang, slamming into the wolf’s rear. The spell roared, enveloping the wolf in a bonfire, burning it and the others around it for a total of thirty damage to each of them.
Things were still bad, but maybe they could win this. The last week had felt rather exhausting and more than a little hopeless, but for the first time since escaping the College… Sam found he was having fun! This was what he’d come here for! To fight the long odds with friends. To learn new skills. To adventure, quest, and win! This was what his life had been missing, and now that his goals were almost in reach… he needed to fight harder than ever. He was not about to let someone take this away from him.
“Sam, behind you!” Arrow jarred Sam from his moment of elated clarity. The archer looked positively frantic as he thrust a finger straight out, pointing at something just out of Sam’s sight.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sam wheeled around just in time to see the blue-robed Mage hurl a jagged lance of lightning. Oh snap. Sam scrambled left but far too slowly. The bolt of arcane energy slammed into him like a wrecking ball, lifting him from his feet and sending him cartwheeling through the air. Sam landed in a huff, head spinning, legs oddly heavy, bright starbursts of pain racing along both arms while his hair stood on end. Wow, the guy could throw a mean metaphysical punch. If not for Sam’s Papier-Mache Mage, he would’ve been dead—no two ways about it.
Health -119 (449 damage taken. 330 damage absorbed by Papier-Mache Mage.)
Skill increase: Papier-Mache Mage (Beginner IV). Taking damage grants you insight into how to not take damage the same way again! Yay!
He had invested four hundred Mana into that armor when he designed it, and it was gone in a single hit? As it stood, he was down to twenty-one health. A gust of wind or a tossed rock was liable to kill him at this point. Sam couldn’t afford to take even a glancing blow from the lightning Mage.
A sharp *snap-crack* rent the air as another arc of lightning blazed toward Sam. He barrel-rolled to the right, narrowly avoiding the blast as it smacked into the space he’d occupied seconds before. Earth, grass, and stones kicked up as the blue-white arc carved out a meaty crater in the ground. Sam forced himself to his feet, calling forth a jet-black book. It had formerly been the Fundamentals of Core Cultivation… but it had a new purpose now.
The pages *snapped* open and vomited a javelin of black toward the enemy Mage. The lightning Mage conjured a dome of blue light, no doubt a Mage shield of one sort or another designed to absorb or deflect damage. Sam’s Ink Lance landed like a hammer blow, but instead of shattering against the blue barrier, the black substance splattered, morphing into a blob of tar-like goop.
Ink Lance currently dealt three points of acid damage each second for fifteen seconds. Sadly, the blue shield merely *sizzled*, robbing the spell of its damage-dealing component. Luckily, that was only one portion of the spell effect. The ink began to writhe with a life all its own, tentacles of black questing along the conjured shield. Inky fingers dripped on to the Mage’s upraised arms and promptly began to climb.
The Mage let out a squawk of shock, his shield dissipating as he fought off the strands of black inching across his body like a plague. The sheer stickiness of the creeping ink slowed the Mage, gumming up his fingers, wrapping around his wrists, making it harder for him to move—or cast spells… or evade. Suddenly, Sam had a little breathing room; he stole a look behind him at the desperate battle between the Wolf Pack and the actual wolves.
Things were going better, thanks in no small part to Sam’s involvement, but his team still wasn’t in the clear yet. Sam rot
ated his regular Shuriken Tome to the six-o-clock position and cast a fresh round of folded stars, targeting a shaggy-furred she-wolf busily assaulting Kai. The first paper star went wide, but the second hit true, and Sam capitalized by triggering Bookmark. Pairing his Dual casting and Sightless casting abilities, Sam began to spam Shurikens at the wolf while focusing his attention back on the blue-robed College Mage. The ink had finally stopped spreading and was drying on to the Mage’s robes—how inconvenient—sadly taking the movement restriction debuff with it.
But the ink had done its job. Sam brought his Ice Orb tome to the fore, launching a glittering purple star at the Mage. The bounty hunter wasn’t even remotely prepared to defend against an ice-based attack. The first star slammed into him, dropping the Mage to the ground as a rime of white ice spread across the Mage’s ink-splattered robes. Sam hurled another round of stars, pulling his standard Shuriken around to join in the attack. The Mage, though busy crawling away, had the presence of mind to conjure his flickering blue barrier to life once more. Sam’s stars bounced away harmlessly.
No, that was unacceptable. Sam couldn’t give this man a chance to regroup. He needed to end this now. With a roar, Sam conjured his Quill Blade and charged. In seconds, he was on the Mage. He shot forward, thrusting the tip of his summoned sword into the magical barrier. The blade bounced away, but the shield flickered from the impact.
The shield was no doubt drawing from the Mage’s Mana pool, and if it worked in a similar fashion as Mage Armor, then all Sam had to do was drain the shield of enough Mana, and it would dissolve on its own. Poof. Gone. So, with a fury born from the need to survive, Sam launched a series of attacks, thrusting, chopping, slicing—his blade carving away a chunk of the Mage’s Mana pool with every blow he landed. Then it happened.