Libriohexer ~ 34!

“Alright,” Dizzy bellowed from the front of the party. “This is it, a chance to redeem ourselves! We ready to do this?”

Sam glanced away from the hulking doors that stood guard over the Irondown Forge and double checked his gear for the hundredth time. His Papier Mache Armor was already in place, and his Quill Wing Cloak hung down his back. Only one thing left to do now. He thrust a hand out with his palm extended. He felt the connection to his Interspatial Library buried in the void just outside of real space. He tugged on the invisible tether and summoned a hulking mahogany bookcase, three feet wide and six feet tall, covered in runes that burned with cobalt power.

He’d spent hours carving the delicate spatial summoning sigils and outfitting it with the scant few Monster Cores he had left in his possession. It had been a costly and time-consuming project, but looking at it… he knew it had been worth the sacrifice.

The bookcase had seven shelves and each was loaded down with books. So many books that the case would’ve been impossible to budge if not for the fact that it floated half a foot above the ground and trailed along behind Sam like an obedient puppy… except this puppy had teeth.

To the casual observer a floating bookcase might’ve seemed funny, but Sam knew the truth. That bookcase was an arsenal of destructive magic. Tomes upon tomes of Paper Shurikens. Enough volumes to conjure a small army of paper pets. Plus, plenty of heavy-duty artillery spells if things got out of hand; Sam was sure they would get out of hand.

“We play smarter this time,” Dizzy started laying out the strategy, absently adjusting a short leather cloak wrapped around her shoulders. “We know the Keeper of the Forge is going to try to lure us onto the platform so he can cut off our retreat—we need to make him work for it. I’m going to try to draw aggro, get him to focus on me while our ranged support peppers him from the rear. Sam, you’re our aerial support. Everyone knows what we need to do, now we just need to do it. Keep your heads on straight, follow the plan, and we’ll get out of here in one piece.”

She took a deep breath, faced the doors and kicked them like they owed her money. The great doors flew inward even as unbearable heat rolled outward in a tidal wave. They moved in a tight wedge formation, Dizzy at the head, Kai and Velkan at the sides, everyone else bringing up the rear.

Sam’s gaze slipped toward the vault on the far side of the room, piled high with weapons and armor and gold. This was the last obstacle that stood between them and victory—once they took down the Keeper of the Forge, the Irondowns would officially belong to the Wolf Pack, along with all the sweet, sweet loot secreted away in the armor. There was enough there to keep the coffers full for months, and they could use the weapons and armor to equip an entire resistance force.

The only thing standing between them and their goals was the Keeper.

“Do my eyes deceive me,” the Guardian boomed in delight, “or have my would-be masters returned? I was afraid our last encounter may have left a bad taste in your mouth. Never was fond of a mouthful of ash, myself.”

“Can’t scare us away that easily,” Dizzy called out, bringing up her maul and letting it rest against a thick iron pauldron. “We were cocky last time—overestimated our own abilities and underestimated yours. But we aren’t going to make that same mistake again. This time we’ve come prepared for whatever you have to throw at us.”

“It pleases my fiery heart to hear!” The guardian bellowed a happy reply. Despite his cheery disposition, he was exactly as intimidating as Sam remembered. Twelve feet of iron and steel and spikes all wrapped around a Core of impossibly hot, sentient magma. The fire golem peered at them from the slits of his great horned helm. “As I informed you during our last encounter, I am not a creature of destruction by nature. I yearn to refine, to improve, to forge and purify. Your untimely and gruesome deaths weren’t personal, I can assure you.

“But, I must warn you,” he continued in a darker tone, “I won’t go any easier on you this time around. If anything, this battle should be far more difficult since I’ve seen your fighting style and strategy before.”

He lifted his enormous golden hammer and pointed it directly at Sam. “Those fancy wings of yours won’t catch me unaware this time. I suspected you would be back for another bout, so I used my time to create some new and nasty surprises to truly test your mettle. I hope you’ve brought your best, because you’re going to need it. Now, enough talk. Have at thee!”

Sam was entirely unready when the double doors slammed shut behind them with a resounding *clang* and the Keeper of the Forge immediately conceded the central platform and charged across the connecting bridge like an angry rhino. That was both unexpected and hugely unfortunate. They’d spent hours talking through this raid and they’d built their entire battle strategy around their last encounter with the Boss. That strategy involved taking the platform quickly and boxing the creature in, while Dizzy kept the Keeper’s focus, and the ranged fighters took out the summoned minions.

Usually Bosses didn’t deviate a whole lot from encounter to encounter in video games. Apparently, Eternium took a very different approach to high-level boss raids. With a few steps, their entire plan crumbled.

Kai was the first to leap into action. He blurred across the bridge at superhuman speed. The Keeper didn’t even slow down—he was as wide as the bridge itself, and clearly intended to steamroll the monk and drive him into the magma flows below. But thanks to Kai’s new Simian Agility, he somehow slipped between the elemental’s enormous legs, then leapt straight up and landed on the golem’s back.

Kai grunted in obvious pain as the blistering heat radiating off the armor ate into his health. But then he started raining blows down on the Keeper’s head, his fists moving in a whirlwind of golden flashes. As a monk, Kai already had a Critical Strike bonus, but he also had a powerful Critical Strike ability that drastically increased his chance to land critical hits when attacking without a weapon. Since his new Gorilla Body ability passively restored health with every critical hit, Kai’s health regen somehow managed to outstrip the passive burn damage he was receiving from the super-heated armor.

Probably because he was landing ten blows a second.

The relentless onslaught surprised the Keeper just long enough for Sam to cast one of his brand-new skills, Origami Structure. In an eyeblink, one of the books on his shelf sprang to life and vomited a stream of paper into the air. Pages fluttered and flowed, binding together into a wall directly in front of the elemental juggernaut. That wall wouldn’t hold him forever, but it did halt his advance just long enough for Dizzy to dash forward and confront the Keeper head-to-head. She jumped onto Sam’s conjured wall and used the added height to lay into the guardian’s chest with her war maul.

The Keeper stumbled back from the sheer fury of her strikes. With Kai smashing fists into his head, it seemed like he couldn’t focus on rebuffing Dizzy. Slowly he fell back toward the platform, driven by Dizzy’s might. Sphinx and Finn bounded forward, taking cover behind Sam’s summoned wall then carefully picking their shots with ranged weapons. Finn launched foot-long spears of glittering ice, while Sphinx hurled shadowy throwing blades.

Unfortunately, the narrow bridge didn’t allow the Wolf Pack to adequately spread out, but Sam could fix that. He turned and jumped from the edge of the bridge, activating his Quill Wings. Sam caught a scorching hot updraft and glanced back, a grin spreading across his face. His bookshelf was still trailing behind, levitating in the air despite the fact that there was no floor beneath him. “Abyss yeah. I’m gonna exploit the feces out of that mechanic.”

“Velkan, Arrow!” He shouted over the din of the battle. “Hop on!”

He’d read the description for Summoned Shelf of Casting at least a dozen times, and there was no indication that the amount of physical weight on the shelf impacted its levitation ability or movement rate. The Wolfman and the Rogue didn’t even hesitate; Velkan sprang straight up and latched on with his claws, scrambling up the shelves like they were ladder steps until he was perched on top. Arrow, by contrast, bounded into the air like a trained acrobat with Cirque du Soleil, landing in a crouch with his bow drawn and an arrow ready.

Sam banked hard right, giving the elemental a wide berth, and coasted over the platform. Despite being locked in a heated battle with both Dizzy and Kai, the Guardian seemed to immediately sense Sam’s plan. He thrust one oversized arm straight out and started launching a hail of flaming fireballs; each as large as Sam’s skull. Sam dove and barrel-rolled, narrowly avoiding each blast, the whole while hoping the Keeper didn’t start taking potshots at Velkan and Arrow, who were basically sitting ducks.

One fireball tore past Sam on the left, missing his wing by a matter of inches, but then he was above the central platform and his passengers were leaping through the air to safety. The Wolfman landed just a few feet behind the Keeper and immediately went on the offensive, throwing himself at the golem of fire and steel. Everywhere his claws touched, the metal sizzled and corroded. Since Velkan primarily did piercing and slashing damage, he was at a significant disadvantage against a heavily armored enemy like the Keeper. Still, they’d come prepared.

Sphinx had unlocked her secondary profession a week back: Noxious Brewer. A subset of Alchemist that specialized in creating poisons instead of health potions. It was a natural fit for her; given her role as thief, killer, and infiltrator. With the Irondown Alchemy Lab at her disposal, she’d managed to whip up some pretty inventive creations.

In this case, a potent acid that had no effect on organics but was rust on steroids against anything metal. Velkan’s claws were painted with the stuff.

Arrow darted across the platform and onto the thin bridge that connected to the vault on the far side of the room. The bulky iron portcullis prevented him from going into the treasure vault itself, but the bridge would be much easier to defend and would offer him the range he needed to work his bow effectively.

The Keeper wasn’t having any of that.

“Jolly good show!” he thundered before he began to spin like a top. In a heartbeat he was a whirling dervish. The spin didn’t last long, just enough to put Dizzy on her heels while simultaneously tossing Kai into the air like an angry rodeo bull. The monk flipped through the air with wide eyes. His monkey tail shot out and latched onto Velkan; the Wolfman planted his feet and helped guide the falling monk onto the central platform. The Keeper used the second of breathing room to raise his golden hammer high and conjure his magma minions. Yellow lightning flashed overhead, and geysers of bubbling lava lanced skyward, landing on the platform with wet splats.

The lava quickly condensed and formed into squat toads made of liquid metal and living flame: five Lesser Fire Elementals. At least that was the same as last time.

Dizzy was already launching a fresh assault on the Keeper—supported by Sphinx and Finn—but Velkan and Kai suddenly had other things to handle. Three of the squat monsters advanced on melee fighters, while two more broke off and dashed toward Arrow, trapped between a rock and a portcullis on the far bridge.

“Showtime.” Sam conjured a second Origami wall, positioning this one right in the center of the far bridge. It wouldn’t last indefinitely, but the frogs wouldn’t be able to just bum rush Arrow and toss him into the flames below.

For his part, Arrow ignored the conjured fire elements completely and concentrated his fire power on the Keeper. His arrow tips weren’t made of metal but a rare obsidian glass. Like Velkan’s claws, they were liberally coated in Sphinx’s new poison. They punched through the Keeper’s armor like a knife through a pad of hot butter, taking off a little slice of health with every hit.

Sam needed to help free up the others. Despite having twenty books on his fancy new shelf, he could still only cast two spells at once through the power of Dual Casting.

<Bill!> he sent at the speed of thought, <Spam Ice Orb Shurikens while I bring out our new friends!>

<On it!> the book replied gleefully. An endless stream of glowing cobalt folding stars sliced through the air and slammed into the platform below. Bill didn’t seem to be targeting any single minion, but rather was attempting to draw their attention away from the rest of the Wolf Pack. Another book sprang from the second shelf down, this one at Sam’s command. With a small flare of mana, he activated the spell within.

A river of paper erupted from between the covers like a geyser, coalescing into the shape of a fox. Sam triggered another book, and another, and another still. In short order he had ten origami minions on the central platform below. Five foxes and five gangly Papier Mache Automatons. The automatons each wielded a mop, mallet, or buzzsaw.

“Mount up and attack!” Sam barked his orders at them. “Harry the minions, and protect the members of the Wolf Pack at all costs!”

Each of the conjured creature’s quickly scampered onto the back of one of the foxes. Mounted and weapons ready, they attacked with remarkable speed and agility. His minions were operating at a significant disadvantage since they were made out of paper and the elemental toads were literally living flame, but they were willing to fight to the last cinder.

The toads promptly ignored Kai and Velkan, choosing to focus on the creatures whacking them over the heads with mops and mallets. The toads opened their enormous mouths and hurled great gooey globs of magma, hoping to burn the opposition to ash. Sam’s minions were too fast. The foxes easily dodged the ranged attacks, pulling in close enough to lash out with snapping teeth before retreating to a safe distance. It was still a lopsided battle in favor of the fire toads, but Sam could help level the playing field a bit.

Another book sprung from the shelf and into his waiting palm. This was a more complicated spell, one that required not only significant resources but had an eight second casting time. Thankfully, the Keeper was still utterly focused on his battle with Dizzy and the fire toads had their froggy hands full with Sam’s paper henchmen.

Bill continued to lay down suppressive fire as Sam began to chant, reading the words carefully inscribed onto the first page of the book. Power built in the air around him and an errant breeze tugged at his hair. The pages of the book flipped frantically as he spoke and fat droplets of ink rose from the paper, forming into an orb of churning black power.

Sam spoke the final word of power and the inky orb blasted off like a rocket.