Here b Dragons!
Chapter 13
It had been a challenge and yet here they were. The massive library complex was right in front of them. While perhaps the main building was huge, it was all the attached buildings that made it take up so much space. Though they'd been told before even leaving that this complex had several below ground levels that were more safes than library.
The main building was clearly stone while several of the additions were a different construction. There was no fence or gate or any method to keep people off of the property. However, where they were there was an enormous wide open courtyard area that was all stone.
Even as early as it was there were a number of people walking in various directions directions. Some were entering the complex area like they were. Others were leaving and looked tired. Others were going from one building to another.
They saw humans, elves, gnomes, halflings, and even a few that they weren't sure about. "Ready?" Rick asked her and removed a potion from his potion bandolier. Kate followed him. Together they drank the first one. Then remove another one and drank it.
They'd done a lot of talking last night. If there was going to be either the first or last chance at stopping them now would be that time. These two potions just added a lot to their defense and ability to take and limit any damage.
Rick took Kate's hand and they walked across the courtyard headed for the main old building then found someone to ask for directions and find the person they were after, if he was even there yet.
All of the people walking everywhere ignored them as they walked. Now would be a bad time to charge them. They would see anyone coming at them and give them time to be ready for them.
Then suddenly someone showed up right in front of them, causing them to stop and release the other person's hand. His race was difficult to tell. He was old, like seriously old, and sickly-looking. Even as old and sick as he looked, it was his height that stuck both of them. He was just over 7 feet tall. Dog growled very menacingly and was ready to bite him.
"Be so kind as to hand over the Green Star metal and you can leave alive. Or I will remove them from your corpses." Even his voice sounded sickly though he also sounded deadly serious.
How had he suddenly showed up within arm's reach so fast and easily?
"I'm afraid I have no idea what you are talking about. You have obviously mistaken us for someone else." Rick was ready to go around this old man who couldn't possibly be a threat.
"Dead it is then," he stated and vanished just as fast as he had shown up.
"Uh-oh." Rick didn't like the way he said that or how he simply vanished. Most spells meant you had to say something and maybe even make a gesture or two. This guy simply vanished. Rick drew his sword and looked around. He'd no sooner done that when an enormous and misshapen spider with forelegs that end in wicked-looking barbs and long. It was standing on 6 long thin legs and globs of foul smelling green goo dripped from its fanged mouth. The evil of the creature just oozed from it in waves.
It instantly took a swipe at Rick and missed. Rick retaliated with two swings of his own and was rewarded with two solid hits that did some serious damage and left two large gashes in one of its forearms.
Kate chose to reach into her backpack, pulled out a gem, and threw it at the stone floor where it broke and a large Earth Elemental suddenly appeared who instantly took a swing at the creature and missed.
Rick was faster than it was and got in two more swings and was rewarded with two more hits. This time the same forearm was sliced off. The spider not exactly howled but made more a chittering sound that might be pain and anger in one.
Then right next to it a different creature showed up. This one looked like an immense roughly humanoid toad with arms in place of forelegs. Its mouth was filled with rows of blunt looking powerful teeth. Long spines went down the length of its back.
Suddenly a multicolored lightning like effect leaped out from it and tried to strike Kate, however, her dexterity had her dancing to miss it as it and she danced around each other. Then both of them could smell this new creature. The smell was horribly foul and it had both of them almost wishing to vomit. Damn, but it stank to high heaven.
They were both too busy to notice or hear all the yelling and screaming that was taking place around them as people started running instead of just walking.
Then the spider decided to try and bite Rick and inject him with its venom but all it did was glance off of his armor. The Earth Elemental took another swing at the spider but missed again.
Rick took two more swings and connected with its head this time and cut two large slices into it. The damage was severe and the spider dipping down low as it started to bleed all over the place throwing blood everywhere.
Kate had had enough of this and decided to shift into Dragon form. She quickly ripped off five straight attacks. Two claws from her front legs, two wings, a bite, then spun in place to swipe her tail at the toad looking thing. She hit it all five times and was rewarded with seeing green goo oozing out from all five locations.
Suddenly a second huge spider showed up next to the first one. Thanks to the size of them Rick found himself almost surrounded. "DAMMIT ALL! Are they duplicating themselves!?" He couldn't believe this shit.
The new one instantly used one of its foreclaws to strike at him. This time this one actually managed to hit him and it hurt a little but thanks to one of his potions it was more of a scratch than a solid hit.
The immense toad tried to bite Kate and use both of its claws to hit her. All three hit her but thanks to her potions it felt more like a mosquito bite than a solid hit.
The Earth elemental kept on trying to hit a spider but he was going to miss each and every time so he was basically out of this fight and the spider was ignoring him anyway.
Rick took two swings and hit the first spider twice and watched as he almost cut off its head. He saw it collapse to the stone paving. A moment later it vanished in a puff of smoke. That gave Rick a clue as to what was going on here.
Kate stayed right where she was and attacked physically five times again and hit all five times. Her toad now had ten gashes and was oozing green blood all over its body. Though the stench of this foul thing still had both of them trying to swallow down the vomit that was threatening to come up.
Rick's new spider took a swipe at him with its foreclaw and missed so badly it was almost stumbling all over itself.
Suddenly behind Kate a new creature showed up. It was a cross between a human and a vulture. Strong long limbs for arms. It was covered with tiny gray feathers. A really long neck that ended with the head of a vulture and large feathered wings. Showing that it could fly if it chose to. It also had a short tail. The entire creature was a mix of gray and purple. It immediately took a swing at Kate and hit. Again the hit was barely a mosquito bite.
"They're being summoned. See if you can find the magic-user who's doing this and kill him to prevent more of them from showing up," Rick called out and took his two swings and was rewarded with two hits to one of its foreclaws.
"Magic-user, huh." Kate jumped up into the air and allowed these two to take a swing at her and while they both hit, the damage was a mosquito bite. Getting away from that toad thing eased her already queasy stomach.
Rick's spider tried to bite him and inject its poison but he missed. His 50% chance of having an enemy missing him was so far actually working this time for which he was grateful. Especially with Kate gone he was betting he was about to be surrounded.
The toad moved over to Rick, tried to bite him, and missed. While the vulture leapt up, flapped his wings, and almost caught up to Kate since he was much faster and weighed a lot less.
Kate had gained only a little height but chose to look around. The place was mostly empty, she saw. Everyone had run away not surprisingly. Movement showed that the vulture creature was following her but she ignored him for now. She also saw Rick had the spider and the toad to contend with. She needed to find this magic-user!
Rick took two swings and was rewarded with almost slicing off one of the spider's foreclaws which had still more blood being sprayed all over as it chittered at him madly.
Kate felt the vulture bite her tail but it was another mosquito bite and she ignored him.
The toad tries to bite and hit Rick with a claw. Unfortunately for Rick he managed to hit both times. However, the damage was a mosquito bite. His immune system got to work fighting off the poison that was injected from the bite.
Kate saw one person that wasn't running and he was rather tall, really thin, and looked just like the guy that had shown up in front of them so she flapped her wings to reach him.
Meanwhile a new creature showed up. This one was an impossibly large red Tyrannosaurus Rex. Now Rick really was totally surrounded since thanks to the size of each of the three there was no more room for another one.
It actually bit him and this time it actually did hurt a little. What was worse was that the bite had hold of him and now it was trying to lift him up off the ground and swallow him whole which was not good.
Then it got worse. This new one was effectively holding him in place for a moment and it allowed the other two to get in their own hits. The spider hit him both times with its foreclaws and was now trying to rip him into two pieces while the toad bit him and injected still more venom.
Kate landed next to the tall, thin, and sickly-looking man, raised her head, inhaled a deep breath, and breathed her gas breath weapon at him. That actually looked like it hurt a lot.
Rick shoved his sword into the Tyrannosaurus Rex's mouth and was rewarded with hearing it scream from the pain. That also covered him with dinosaur spit that actually made it into his mouth. It did cause the damn thing to let go of him at least.
Kate watched this guy growl at her and reached for something. Kate took the opportunity to bite him and succeeded easily since he wasn't moving.
Rick needed to cut the odds against him so he stayed with the damn spider. If he could kill it he would at least have some space if he needed it which wasn't such a bad idea now that he was thinking about it.
Rick swung twice at the head of the spider and succeeded in almost cutting its head off. He now had an opening that he was going to use soon.
Kate watched him finish and a lightning bolt hit her body which really hurt and pissed her off.
Both the toad then the dinosaur tried to bite him. But he had room to move and his 50% miss chance worked perfectly and they both missed him. Now he was running which allowed a free shot at his back; only one hit except the toad claw didn't really hurt. Rick shifted into his Gold Dragon and pumped his wings hard to gain some altitude.
Kate felt the stupid vulture biting her tail that really didn't hurt all that much. She shifted back to human and used her staff to hit this old sickly-looking man in the head and saw his head snap to one side and he stumbled.
Rick was gaining a little altitude and started a slow turn and was just in time to see a group of soldiers come running out of the library and charging the spider and toad, though it was going to take them a little time to reach them. One good thing about being in the air was that he was out of range. He just needed a little time to circle around and breathe on these two.
Kate felt the vulture hit her in the back though thanks to her potion it was a mosquito bite. Though the lightning bolt she took to her chest was another matter. That one hurt a lot.
Kate took two swings this time and hit him both times. Both of them were body blows and she watched him react to one by doubling over from the pain then the second one came in and he collapsed to the stone paving.
Rick was turning and just about in position to breathe on these two and saw both of them were waiting for him. He was betting the spider was flexing down so it could jump up at him since he wasn't really all that high up. He also saw the soldiers getting closer.
Kate took it to her back yet again but ignored the mosquito bites. Except this time these tiny little object started to adhere to her body and each one felt like a bee sting so now it was starting to hurt.
The magic-user was down and trying to raise back up while looking up at her. "Please!?" He needed that Green Star metal. He was horribly sick and dying and was betting he only had days or maybe hours. He wasn't even sure if he had what it took to use the stuff correctly or if they even had enough. He was so fearful of dying he no longer cared what this stuff did to him. Just so long as it cured him and he lived.
"NO!" Kate hit him in the head with her staff as hard as she could and he fell to the stones with blood coming out of his head from her strike.
Rick breathed his gas breath weapon on these two and overflew both of them. As he did they both simply vanished as did the vulture. The man who summoned them was dead so there was nothing left to hold them here.
Rick made a wide turn and landed slowly close to Kate and walked over to her just as she was healing herself using one of her tattoos followed by drinking a potion to heal even more.
Both were soon drinking every type of healing they had. Cure poison, cure disease, and heal wounds.
Now they were both looking down at the body of the old man as the guards kept running. They just had farther to run now.
"He actually begged me to give him the Green Star metal." Kate was still amazed by that.
"He doesn't look overly healthy," Rick added as he now cast a spell and took all the magic items he had on him along with searching him for everything else. Maybe they could find a reason for all this off of him later when they had time.
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The guards only knew these two were involved somehow. So they were escorted to someone who was in charge after ordering that Rick and Kate hand over their weapons. Yes, they had seen Gold Dragons but those Dragons were now gone. Rick and Kate soon found that that person was Horustep III.
He had the guards hand everything back to them and escorted them deep into the library until they were in a beautiful room filled with scrolls everywhere in this beautiful round room. They had taken so many turns, gone though enough doors, and down then back up stairs that they were so lost.
"I've been expecting you. This room is protected so you may speak freely. You're actually a little early." Horustep III was dressed in simple robes and from what they could tell he had no weapon.
Kate asked her first question. "You have any idea who that guy was?"
"I've not yet had an opportunity to view him. I will eventually. Based on what you tell me I would say he was a very desperate man. He was also a summoner. To summon Demons speaks of great power and still have control over them. …Have you had much trouble?" He was willing to just talk for now.
"A little. I would think our biggest problem was a Pirate who was also a Black Dragon." Rick heard Kate agree and she rolled her eyes.
"I like your dog." He was clearly loyal and smart. For him to live through all that told him the dog was clever enough to stay out of the way.
"Dog is smart. He knew I didn't want him involved in any of that so he blinked away and watched." Rick bent down to scratch his ears.
"Before we finish can you suggest a magic user that can teleport all of us very far away? We have a plan after this is over," Kate asked him.
"I can write up an introduction with my name attached. He will give you a good rate. May I have the Green Star metal now, please?" Horustep III held out his hand and was a little surprised that Rick began to strip and even took a half step back.
Horustep III watched as Rick took a tube out of his stomach and raised an eyebrow at this. Rick handed over the tube that was indeed in his stomach. He looked it over and opened it as Rick got dressed again.
Rick was still getting dressed as Kate watched him tap out one of the gems or metal pieces or whatever they were. He held it up to his eye and looked it over before putting it back into the tube and closed it again.
"Here is your pay." He reached into his robe and pulled out one bag at a time and handed over 500,000 gold pieces in the form of gems. "I believe that concludes our deal. It would appear that your choice of messengers for this task was correct." He was impressed enough by them.
"If you will wait here, please," Horustep III asked them. "This will take me about an hour or so."
"I'm not sure just where we are now to get back out. At least not easily." Kate laughed softly a little.
"The Library is rather large," he agreed. Then he knelt down and Rick and Kate stepped back and watched as he moved a series of tiles in the floor. Then suddenly a portion of the floor opened up. "I'll be right back." He stepped into the hole and they could tell he was walking down a spiral staircase. Then the floor closed up again.
Rick made a guess. "Vaults." He could only guess just what was down there and how far down it really was.
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Rick had pulled out a handful of jerky pieces and given them to Dog along with his collapsible water bowl. Even Rick and Kate were presently chewing in a piece of jerky.
"How big is this city again?" Kate questioned him thinking they could move to a better inn for the night tonight.
"Doesn't matter, we're not staying. We find our magic-user and we're leaving. I have something to show you." Rick smiled at her.
Kate grinned. Moving immediately to a city they were both going to get to know well sounded like a really good idea.
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They were both working on their second piece of jerky when suddenly the floor started to open up and eventually Horustep III came up out of it. A little small talk and a whole lot of walking later they watched as he wrote in a scroll the name of the person they wanted. Then he escorted them to the front door.
"Across the courtyard, turn left, and you'll eventually find the college right in front of you. Simply hand each person this until you reach him. …May your lives be filled with happiness and joy." He was no fool. He saw love for the other in their eyes.
Rick shook his hand. "Thank you. Perhaps we will meet again."
"Anything is possible," he responded and accepted a kiss to his cheek from Kate and watched them walk away. "You have chosen well, my master." Horustep III spoke to empty air. He wasn't a shifter, but then he didn't need to be. He was a human with Draconic heritage and Dragon blood pumping though his veins.