LSRO: Chapter 56 - Mimic (Patreon)

Weeeee and here you have it - the last chapter of the first book!!!!

(It's okay, I'll be back with chapter 57 on Moday)

Enjoy!

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Chapter 56

Mimic

The mouth... lid... opened and closed so fast, so many times, Quinn scrambled further back barely registering that it wasn't actually moving toward her yet. The bloody chest table she had been about to open was a mimic, "A freaking mimic."

"What did you say?" Malachi asked, yanking her arm and pulling her further away from the monster.

"It's a mimic," she said, "a freaking mimic." Maybe it heard her curse that there weren't any monsters like in video games. This was definitely the last time she was ever going to mention that.

"What do you mean a mimic? That's a...Mishiminaghakufrepil." Malakai said, somehow twisting his mouth around that name.

Quinn spared a second to flash him an irritated look. "It's a mimic. Trust me, just use my word. It's a lot easier to pronounce and retain."

That was about the length of conversation they got before it somehow morphed its massive lid to reach over with its jaw that was filled with, oh, about four lines of serrated teeth and chomped down just where they'd been standing. If Quinn hadn't used her hovering as a defensive technique abilties to push them out of the way, they would have been toast.

Or... like a midday snack.

She racked her brain trying to think, trying to gather all of the magic and knowledge she'd absorbed to work for her in this position. As it was, she simply shot out an icicle and hoped for the best as she ran further away.

The massive chest heaved itself and opened its lid, for want of a better word, and growled out a massively challenging roar. If it had been a lion, it would have been the leader of the pack. Slobber and drool ran down the sides of its lips, or lid, Quinn was getting very confused, and dripped onto the stone floor where it sizzled and began to cause holes to appear in the ground around it.

"That's not good," Malakai said, freeing his sword from its scabbard, glancing at it, and then diving into his storage to pull out a completely different one that looked like it was made out of a golden material. Which was silly, it couldn't be gold, it wouldn't be hard enough to be a sword. She trusted him to know what he was doing.

In the meantime, she glanced around trying to find Eric, who had flown up and was quite literally casting what looked like a brimstone pillar to drop on top of it.

"It's not going to do anything, Eric, it's just going to absorb your power." The elf called out despite not appearing to look in the imp's direction.

Eric stopped, glanced down at Malakai and cursed under his breath. Quinn was happy she couldn't understand what he said. Instead, she simply tried to freeze the mimic. She shot out a plane of ice, leveling it to hit in between the open mouth and the bottom jaw. But it was far quicker to react than she'd anticipated, and it closed its mouth, making the ice only shatter a few of the front teeth.

It roared in pain and challenge again, the sound making the ground beneath her tremble.

Quinn couldn't help the shaking of her limbs. The flashing lights that guided them toward this city suddenly made sense as they became more and more intense all around them. In fact, it felt like she was standing in a 70s disco or at a fireworks display inside this Cathedral of Death. The lights kept going more frequently, pulsing like they were trying to confuse them with the colors, mislead their minds.

Really, if you want the book, just go up and take it. The voice that sounded through her mind sounded an awfully lot like her reasoning tone.

Quinn blinked. No, it was a mimic. It was an actual real live monster standing right in front of her. She couldn't just go and take the book. It had internal organs in there.

It's only one more book. We've got to get back to the library. Her calm mind voice insisted.

Quinn stopped, took a steadying breath, and felt the stone in her hand inside her glove still there. She could feel the soft ebb, the soft pulse of the library's presence with her. She knew she had to get the book back, but they'd have to kill the mimic first.

There's not enough time. You need to kill the mimic now. Just get in, get the book, and get back to the library.

"I can't dive into the mimic," she said, like she needed to reason with herself.

"What are you talking about?" Malachi snapped at her. "What is wrong?"

She blinked, looked around, and realized that she must have missed something. The stone ground next to her had a whopping big hole in it that wasn't there before, and she looked around trying to find Eric, who was darting in and out and stabbing the creature instead of using his magic. She turned and saw Aradie, who flapped her wings and screeched with her sonic power at smaller chests that surrounded them. The bird was barely keeping them at bay.

"Quinn, snap out of it." Malakai's voice barely penetrated the fog in her head.

Just come and take the book, her not voice said again to her.

And that's when she realized that the damn mimic was in her head. It was trying to get past her defenses and convince her to do something utterly stupid.

"It's in my head. Be careful, it can get in your heads," she cried out.

Already in yours, my dear, it said with this slimy whisper, letting her know it had given up all pretense of trying to be her own voice. In fact, it sounded far too like Kajaro for her liking.

She gathered all of her mental energy, everything she had learned from Milaro, everything she had gathered from the damn core. She was not going to let this bastard play with her thoughts. And when it taunted her the next time, when it encouraged her to just come on in, Quinn, you know you want the book.

"I don't want it that much," she said. "Get out of my head."

And with the last word, she pushed against every single thing the creature had thrown at her. Against every single tendril that was foreign in her mind. And she shoved them all straight back into the mimic's face. With so much force that this time, she made the ground and walls around them began to tremble.

The mimic roared in pain. Debris from the building's framing scattered around them all, like ashes in the wind. Quinn pushed back the dizziness she felt and focused on the creature again. Icicle after icicle, she aimed this time into its gaping mouth.

Stunned, it couldn't seem to move. Malachi let arrows fly. Eric took that moment to fire torpedoes of fire into its gaping maw. After a couple of seconds, it regained its wits, shook itself, and somehow leveraged itself up onto a multitude of tiny, tiny legs. The massive chest began moving toward them.

This was not what Quinn had been aiming for.

The creature was struggling. She could see part of the lid hanging limply to the side on the right. Several of the legs were completely immobile, being dragged by the force of the others. She had to stun it again. She needed to follow the train of thought that had been in her head back to its origin and attack it just like that again.

"We need to stun it," she said.

"Well what are you waiting for then?" Malachi said. "You did it once, do it again."

She bit her lip. "It might take a bit."

She wanted to ask if they could keep an eye on her while she prepared, but she knew that both he, Eric, and Aradie were doing all they could do right now anyway.

"Okay, I can do this." She shot ice onto the floor, making sure it stuck and readied some water creations to make it extra slippery when the time came. She hoping that the little legs would lose their purchase and send the mimic sliding in the wrong direction. Then she dove in.

In her mind, she looked for anything foreign and found one tendril left. It was clinging, sort of like the little feet that were carrying the mimic on the bottom of the chest. It reminded her of them. She grabbed onto it, took a deep breath, focused her mind, and sent another repulsion down the line, mimicking herself from earlier, as best she could. This wasn't something Milaro had taught her.

She could feel the power whoosh out of her. It wasn't quite as angry and as vehement as before, but she hoped it would do the trick, especially since they'd already weakened the mimic slightly. It raced into the creature, just as the little feet found the ice she'd laid out for them. Not to mention the constant hellfire being rained down into any opening the mimic gave and the arrows hitting the precisely correct spot, because Malachi's aim was perfect.

If Arity had been able to help them instead of fending off the little army of other pieces of furniture, they would have been fine. Just as the mental pulse hit it and stunned it, the feet lost purchase on the ground and slid. It was excellent, almost poetic timing. As the mouth stunned open and allowed Malachi the opening he needed, he grabbed his sword. He leapt into the air, and with speed and sheer force, he drove the sword into the side of the hinges and decapitated the mimic.

When it was three quarters of the way through the ice, it was obvious the stun had worn off. The mimic flailed, little legs, and gaping maw working overtime.

That's when Malakai lept in with his sword drawn and hacked away at the rest of the mimic. Each slice of his sword made a grating sound, followed by an anguished squeal from the creature. Foldish-black blood spurted all over the otherwise pristine elf, but he didn't stop. He hacked his way through the last 25% of that back hinge until the mimic finally flopped to the ground, amidst an onslaught of ice and fire.

For just a few seconds, complete silence fell over the area, punctuated only by the drip of blood from the mimic corpse as it hit the ground. Slowly, its body began to transform into a blob that reminded Quinn of playdough. Moldable into anything.

And then, the little mimics began to squeal.

"Get it, get the book," she cried out.

"No shit," Malakai said.

Then Quinn received multiple images from Aradie. She turned to face all of the small chests that Aradie had been keeping stunned with her sonic screeches. They were morphing, transforming through a glob-like sliminess into creatures that had legs.

"Oh no," she gasped, rushing toward the mimic corpse that was now just the same as what the globs had gone through to transform. "I guess they can just shift into any shape then?"

"Yes, of course they're a shape-shifting species," Malachi snapped at her.

She wanted to point out that there was an entire species that looked like furniture and that an entire species of chest mimics wasn't out of the realm of possibilities, but they were under a time crunch here.

"Quick, grab this, help me." Malakai handed her a dagger, oblivious to her inner diatribe, and together they literally tore the remnants of the glob apart, digging deep to find the book.

"Ow!" Malakai exclaimed.

"Did you cut yourself?" She whipped around to see, not caring that the tail end of her pony tail was now covered in goop.

"It's okay, it'll be fine. We just need to get back now."

Quinn didn't like the sound of that. "Put the salve-"

"I'll put the salve on when we're done." He snapped with urgency.

She couldn't force him to do it but she did make sure that she remembered that he needed it. And she could also be glad that the caustic attack the mimic had didn't seem to survive its death.

"I've got it." Her hand closed around the spine of a book. It was thick and she could feel the pulsing welcome it gave her. Pulling herself back from the massive slime, she shoved the book into the final satchel, sealing it shut so that it could purify.

The sigh of relief wasn't as prevalent this time, but a feeling of calm did suffuse her.

Meanwhile, Aradie was only having so much luck buffeting the rest of the creatures who could now walk back. What had kept them in their former chest, she had no idea and could only be thankful for. Maybe they had to follow the big mimics lead or something.

"Run, we've got to go." Eric called out.

"Where to?" Quinn yelled.

Eric literally stopped and hovered in front of her face. "To the doors. We need doors to get back to the library. That is how this whole thing works."

Without a second thought, she turned, yanked Malakai by the arm and sprinted toward the entrance they'd come in through in the first place. Yanking the doors closed so she could place her hand on them took a lot longer than she thought it would.

"Library, open a door now." Nothing happened. She put her hands in front of her, gripping the rock she'd been given by the library tightly. "Don't fail me now," she said, willing herself not to turn around. She couldn't look, she couldn't see how close the other mimics were.

"Come on, sometime today," Malakai called out her. She pushed her hands flat against the doors, willing her whole consciousness to reach through the pudding and find the damn library. A pulse resonated through her whole body.

"Library, open." She said as she pushed.

The doors pushed forward and they didn't open onto the desolate stairs in the darkened, stone-like countryside they'd just come in off.

It opened to reveal the front desk.

"Run!" Quinn stood at the doors, motioning the others to run through. "Quick, quick!" And only when Aradie, Malakai, and Eric were on the other side did she slip through herself, pulling them closed.

Lynx was already there, looking over her in concern. "Are you okay?" He asked.

She partially ignored him. "Malakai, Malakai needs, needs healing," she said, pushing down that frantic sensation that elevated her heartbeat. Her mind felt foggy too. She couldn't believe they'd made it. But they were back, back at the library and she was covered in slime, entrails, and oddly black-gold blood.

It took a little while to get everyone settled and Misha was already applying salves to Malakai's wounds.

Quinn hovered for a few seconds. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"It was very close to the limit," Misha said, "but he has an appropriate constitution to fight chaos in ways I wish we could replicate."

That was another hint. Quinn was dying to know more about Malakai's history, but this wasn't the time. She took in a deep breath as she toweled the mucus from the corpse of the mimic off her.

"I have erected a sanitizing shower to get anything out of, off you, out of your armor. It's equipped with chaos purification. You should go through it." Misha said without any inflection at all in their voice.

Quinn tugged the four satchels out of her storage ring and handed them to Lynx. "I don't know how long they need, but we got them."

There was invisible relief when Lynx sighed. "Thank you. That was, took a lot less time than I thought it would."

Quinn looked at them. "Trust me, it was longer than it had any right to be."

Lynx grimaced. "Thank you for getting them."

She gave him a tired smile. "How long do they need?" At his questioning look, she elaborated. "You know, to stay in the pouches?"

"Oh." He frowned and activated the console, tapping each of the satchels in turn.

Quinn grimaced at the display.

Laws of Chaos, Upside Down

95 hours remaining

Chaos Theory, Myth and Legend

89 hours remaining

Reality Combined, Chaos Fever Dream

82 hours remaining

Mastering Your Reality Through Chaos

86 hours remaining

She shrugged. "Guess we've got some time on our hands then."

Lynx smirked. "Well,  if you count taking care of the Library, checking in books, and getting your skills and abilities up a few notches - time on our hands? Then yes, we do."

Quinn laughed. "I think I'm going to take my time in that shower and rest up a bit."

"You deserve it." Lynx said, his voice quiet, but the thanks echoed through his double lidded purple sclera eyes.

She took that sincerity and went to clean herself off.

~~

Later, Quinn was showered, de-gunged, and completely and utterly comfortable in a nice pair of fuzzy sweats, slippers, and a big hoodie with somewhere she could shove her hands into. It was the perfect popcorn and movie night outfit, except she didn't have any popcorn and was pretty certain they hadn't been hiding televisions from her since she got here.

She made her way back down to the foyer and paused from her place on the winding staircase.

It gave her an overview of a Library that was no longer dilapidated, no longer a wasteland of ruined books and torn pages, and no longer completely broken.

A soft, golden glow permeated the entire area, books no longer littered the floor, instead they lined perfectly organized shelves all the way down as far as she could see. Even the upper level held its own magical glow. Furniture was perfectly placed throughout to allow patrons to visit the stacks and collections.

And the light that shone through the windows at the very top, was dark, like a moonlit night.

She smiled as she looked down at the desk and saw Lynx, Geneva, Eric, Finn, Narrilin, Malakai, Milaro, and Dottie all milling around it.

It all seemed so peaceful. Simply beautiful.

Sure, there were problems with the power source, the filtration system and still almost 17,000 books to retrieve. But they'd get there.

Quinn watched her new found co-workers, some she'd even consider friends, from where she stood on the stairs and thought, maybe, just maybe this whole library thing might work out.

~~

TADAAAAAAAA

And there's more to come weeeee

Let me know what you think.

Much love

KT