Marcus fell to the ground, clutching his wound with a hand while trying to crawl away.
Just as the masked man raised his knife to strike at Marcus again, an arrow dug into the man's back, causing him to stumble forward.
"What the-" Just as he turned around, a second around pierced his chest, with only two hits from arrows, the man began disappearing, his body quickly vanishing as he let out a faint groan of pain..
Everyone turned their heads to where the arrows came from. Calliope was standing on the desk with a bow and arrow.
The twin clerics immediately rushed to Marcus, their staffs started to glow once they began to heal him.
"So it seems these weapons have an effect. But ours don't." She jumped down, placing the bow and a quiver on a nearby table.
"Are there any more weapons?" Celestine asked, Calliope went behind the librarian's desk and knelt down to check..
"Oh, there is." Standing upright again, she placed 3 more weapons on the desk counter. A warhammer, a rapier, and a flamberge.
"I suppose take what you can, there's one more here but I will hold on to it." She took out a longsword, decorated as well. Before placing it on her waist.
Colton and the others approached the desk, one by one they grabbed a weapon that best suited them.
Celestine took the rapier while Quill took the bow from the table. Colton grabbed the warhammer.
Each of them was heavily decorated with engravings and symbols, more for display than any practical use.
"Neat, I should have brought my actual sword for this mission but this works." Marcus grabbed the last weapon from the desk, a flamberge. His wound had already healed completely from the help of the clerics.
The 4 spent time inspecting their weapons.
"Hmm, a manual." Calliope took a book from the desk, one with a title on it, but Colton still couldn't understand what it meant.
"According to this. 'After brief experiments, blacksmiths are now ordered to make weapons that will be endowed with any of these 4 weapon attack types by mages and witches. Mental, Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual.' What is this?" Calliope was only more confused from reading the text.
"Weapon types? The only types there should be are blunt and sharp." Marcus remarked, while still checking his new weapon.
Celestine began practicing with the weapon, thrusting her rapier back and forth like she was in a fencing match.
Colton took a few swings with his new weapon, it was smaller and lighter. Though he felt an odd desire to keep holding onto it, like something was forcing his hands to continue holding it.
Calliope started reading from the book, her sword loosely dangled left and right while moving around.
"This one is about criminals and prisoners. Interesting, is that why that bandit was there?" She asked herself.
"Check the other books, maybe we can find something like this." She ordered. The 4 cautiously opened each book they could find, on the floor or on the table.
Suddenly, another bright red light appeared, from Quill. She promptly dropped the glowing book, moving away with her bow aimed forward.
In moments, a figure emerged from the book. This time, a swordsman in chainmail and a metal hat, he carried a short sword in one hand and a small shield in the other.
"I swear, I did not run from the battle! You have to believe me!" He started repeating the same sentence over and over, starting to look around at us.
Annoyed, Quill fired. The arrow landed in the back of the soldier, hitting a part of his back not covered. He stumbled forward, but did not die or look wounded.
"Let me go back to the battlefield, I will prove my worth!" He rushed at Colton. Quickly he raised his weapon in front of him, trying to block the attacks.
The soldier only continued, saying the same words over and over in a panic.
After a few more blocks, Colton pushed the man back, and with the hammer, he slammed it straight at the soldier, sending him back.
"Fine, I will show the enemy what a true soldier of our kingdom can do!"
The man got up, without delay he ran towards Colton again, his attacks were stronger and faster, Colton continued trying to block, starting to feel more tired as the attack did not stop.
Colton started to swing his hammer, testing the soldier and moving him away. He managed to strike the soldier a few times but he only became more violent.
The two continued exchanging blows, until Colton saw an opportunity to attack. Thrusting the pole to the soldier's face, he managed to push him back and stun him for a brief moment.
Colton began swinging his weapon again, striking the soldier continuously until slamming the hammer into his chest, throwing him back.
Before he could get up, Marcus walked towards the man, stabbing him, ending the fight.
After a brief moment, the body began to vanish, and the glow from the book disappeared.
Colton took a few breaths, he managed to protect himself against each attack without a scratch. He remembered what the soldier had said before he was killed. How his tone shifted from a panic to sudden determination.
He had never seen anyone in his career change so suddenly, not a prisoner or a soldier.
As Colton questioned himself on it, Calliope grabbed the book.
"This one is about deserting soldiers. So it seems that these types of books spawn something that relates to it. I suppose this is what the book talked about with monsters." She explained, using a storage spell to store it.
The group looked at each other for a while before Quill broke the silence.
"That soldier was either resilient or somehow managed to take an arrow to his back."
"I've seen guards take stabs and slashes to their bodies without issue." Marcus replied. Quill though still looked suspicious.
"Don't know, he didn't even show an ounce of pain from that. I doubt even a soldier can have that amount of strength."
While everyone stood around in awkward silence, the twins walked up to Calliope, whispering something after reading a few more of the books.
"Whether the soldier endured it or not does not matter. We still need to continue our order. And it seems all four of you have a new task to perform. To fight more of those…Things when they come."
Before anyone else spoke, she walked forward, heading to the path of bookshelves.
"If the twins translated correctly, the library should hold more knowledge the deeper we go. So our new objective now is to start exploring this library."
Everyone nodded their head after she spoke, all agreeing to this sudden new task.
"It seems this place holds more questions than answers." Celestine commented, Marcus let out a chuckle before they all joined Calliope.
Once everyone was ready, they all began walking deeper into the library, moving farther from the scattered and destroyed stacks of books.
"When the time warrants it, or we suffer too much damage or experience any problems, we will return back to rest." She added.
Everyone started to feel uneasy and weary as they descended deeper, a shared feeling of fear was present in everyone.
The shelves stretched far, what seemed like half an hour of walking, only led them to continue walking down the same pair of shelves.
They periodically stopped to catch a breath, some continued looking at their weapons, others sat on the ground, while some just stared off, their path and the area around them still lit up by the same bright orange glint.
Calliope spent her time reading more of the books, confident that the group can handle the next enemy.
While they continued walking, Marcus became more and more irritated.
"This was the same two bookshelves we've been walking through. When does it end?" He complained, tired from the long walk.
"Quit whining, you agreed to this." Quill interjected, although annoyed as well, she was more mature for the situation.
"We have been walking for what? An hour, and still gained nothing. And we can't even read these things to pass the time." Annoyed and bored, Marcus grabbed a random book and opened it.
To his horror, a bright red glow emanated from it. Everyone started to move away as another figure started appearing before them.
"You idiot…" Quill muttered under her breath.
"Well, I am fair. I'll deal with it myself." He took the weapon off his back, preparing for a fight.
Before it could even fully appear, Marcus approached it and began taunting it, gripping the flamberge with both hands while everyone else moved away.
A knight fully covered in iron armor landed above the book, longsword in hand. A symbol of a red shield was painted on his chestplate.
"I was chosen as the wall of the kingdom, I must serve it with pride!" It turned towards Marcus, immediately he changed his posture into a fighting stance.
"A knight? Only killed one before but this should be fun."