"It seems this one dabbles in magic. Portal magic. We can simply return to where we were earlier with this." Calliope explained. The group sat down on any vacant seats nearby.
The clerics began reading from any books they could find while the others rested. They both wrote down what they could on the papers Calliope brought.
While resting, Calliope started to form a portal in front of them before dissolving it after a second. She continued forming portals over and over, even though she was heavily disciplined, she started to toy with the spell like a child.
Suddenly, in the middle of her toying with it, the book began to glow, oddly this time in blue. Everyone looked at her, starting to pull out their weapons in anticipation for a fight.
But the book did not spawn anything, instead it began to slowly fade away. Soon fully disappearing while leaving a blue glow in her hands.
While looking down in confusion, she raised her arm forward. Immediately, a portal formed, no longer needing the book and spell written on it to conjure one.
"Knowledge book…" She began to repeat it a few more times.
Before the others could stand up to try and help her, she casted a storage spell, quickly pulling out the two books they had taken earlier.
"These types of books can be absorbed by their users if given enough time…" She explained, quickly walking towards Marcus.
She ripped a page out of one of the books, handing it to Marcus
As the page settled on his hand, it began to fade away as well. Marcus looked up like he had a sudden realization.
"I have never seen this type of combat technique with a flamberge before." He spoke in amazement, his eyes wide open as if he had a sudden clarity, the information that was once contained in the book was now fully transferred to his mind.
A few moments after, she tore out another page, this time handing it to Colton.
As the paper lingered on his hands, he quickly began to see images, hear voices, information rapidly being transferred to his head and being understood almost immediately despite being unreadable to him and not having a chance to even glance at a single word from the texts.
Even from the sudden rush of information, he did not feel confusion nor a desire to question any of it. Taking it all in as if it was knowledge he already had for a long time.
Combat techniques, methods, and stances he could use with his weapon, all transferred to his mind without reading a single word from it.
"So this is how knowledge is transferred. Only these books can be absorbed by the body. The rest are too simple to be absorbed." Calliope muttered to herself, looking down at her book and flipping more pages.
She handed out some more torn pages to Celestine and Quill. The same thing happened to both of them, quickly looking down at their weapons with new knowledge given to them.
The group soon started practicing in different spots of the place, trying out what techniques and methods the pages had given them.
"If the book suits the individual, it will fully transfer all information to them. Same can be done for single pages torn from the book." Calliope explained further, no longer reading. Now reading off memory.
Everyone continued practicing with their weapons, becoming more accustomed to them as time went on.
Calliope though began to rummage through the stacks of books, discarding them quickly before grabbing one in particular and staring at it deeply.
"Mages may identify books that scribes and other mages have placed great knowledge into by a distinct glowing mark only visible to them." Calliope continued to talk, Colton tried to take a look at the book, but could not see what symbol she was talking about. Seemingly only Calliope and the Clerics could see it.
Colton could not understand a thing she was talking about, but understood enough that it would help them.
"It would be best to keep this for later on. We had enough fights for today." The book disappeared from her hand, sent to Calliope's storage.
While standing next to Calliope, Colton saw the rest of the group sitting near each other on a single table, talking to each other.
"Rest for now Colton. Something else may come up from what I read. Another realm other than this."
"Another realm?"
"Indeed, a portal to enter such a realm exists somewhere here, but for now it is best to rest. The journey would take longer and we may fight far stronger opponents."
After talking to each other, the two parted ways, Calliope walked to the librarian's desk while Colton went to join with the other three.
He sat down with the rest of the group, Marcus and Quill were busy talking to Celestine on the battle earlier.
Upon sitting down, Quill turned to him while the other two kept talking.
"Say, Colton. Have you ever stayed for long outside the kingdom walls?" She asked, eager to try learning more from her newfound teammate.
"I grew up outside the walls, then after gaining a higher rank I lived near the royal buildings." Quill's eyes widened after hearing the answer.
"Born out the walls as well too. At least I'm not the only one. From a mining town hmm?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
"I heard from a few merchants and patrols who talked about you. I came from a hunting town, generally we were taught to be more observant and have a better ear for things." She explained. Colton knew of a few hunting towns, each one had a unique trait that set them apart like arrow design or clothing. But he struggled to understand which village she came from.
The two continued to talk, losing track of time and simply gaining new information on one another while Calliope and the Clerics wrote on the desk.
Their conversations were quickly cut short upon seeing a bright glow from the corner of their eyes, Calliope had opened a book and a figure was already starting to spawn from it.
"Another fight?" Marcus irritatingly said, preparing his flamberge for combat. Before any of them could step away from the table, Calliope ordered them to stop.
"I'll handle this myself, just stay back." The group heeded her order, moving farther from the area while the clerics hid behind the desk.
A figure dressed in purple and blue spawned from the light, promptly landing on the floor.
A moment after, it started to speak. "The portals must be maintained…They must not crumble…" It spoke in a deep but weak voice.
Calliope slowly walked towards the man, raising her sword to prepare a strike. Suddenly, as the blade was inches from the man's head, everyone seemingly froze in place. Colton tried to move his arms or legs, but felt something holding him down.
Within seconds, everyone started to float, and were violently thrown around. Healers, the fighters, and Calliope were tossed to walls, bookshelves, and tables.
Out of everyone though, Calliope managed to stand up, only suffering a scratch. In little time she rushed towards him, tables started to float while the man barely moved, still staring at the desk.
The tables were thrown towards her, slamming to the ground or grazing her, splinters and wooden chunks flew around as more continued to rise and try to strike her.
The rest of the group still felt stuck in place, the clerics managed to struggle and get up, while Colton and the others remained on the ground. Unconscious or cursing silently at their positions in the moment.
Calliope swung her sword at the man. But he simply dodged each attack without effort, both moving quickly around the open area. The lack of tables making a makeshift arena.
Calliope kept on swinging, slowly losing her stamina and energy but not relenting.
As the battle went on, the man raised more tables upwards, not using his hands nor eyes, seemingly well experienced with this magic.
Seeing this Calliope closed her eyes for a brief moment and muttered a single phrase. "Foren protect me." Afterwards, a blue transparent rectangular shield appeared in her left hand.
"Foren? You serve him?" The man was surprised, stopping for a brief moment to look at Calliope.
"You must be a fanatic cult then. Harming a portal maker." Calliope stayed silent, wasting little time she rushed onwards.
Tables were thrown at her, each time she deflected with her shield.
Getting close enough, she swung just fast enough to catch the man.
A long gash formed across his body as he began vanishing. The remaining tables started to rain down after the last piece of his body vanished.
She looked around, breathing heavily, the shield she used disappeared as well. The twin clerics made their way to her, raising their glowing staffs.
The rest of the group, no longer held down, got up as well. Seeing the extent of the damage.
They were all injured, either from cuts or simply from being thrown hard at different places in the library, scattered from one another.
After aiding Calliope, the twins rushed to the remaining soldiers. Visibly injured as well.
"I deeply apologize for that. I believed I could take out one of those things myself. Though I did, I was not expecting this damage." Calliope briefly spoke, with a slight hint of remorse in her voice.
"It's alright Ms Calliope. The twin clerics are here after all, we can return to the adventure and task in no time."
"At least my clothing and weapon ain't destroyed i guess." Marcus remarked, annoyed but relieved that the battle was over.