Chapter 48 – We Were Almost Librarians

With a table helping block that side, Eron was in a slightly better position- but Cam couldn't worry about that, not with half the swarm heading his way.

"Wish I could have grabbed a table, too." He sighed as he released a burst of flame at the first group to reach him; Unfortunately, there hadn't been a table close enough for him to do the same...

Cam ignored his notifications for the most part, knowing there was no point in watching the endlessly scrolling sentences detailing the damage dealt to the Bookbats, or their deaths- the trash mobs all had 4 HP, so any practically any damage would take them out, and, with how many there were, he doubted he could keep up with the constant influx...

Though he did keep half an eye on it, watching out for his clone even if he couldn't actually watch him... but the appearance of one notification, as well as his clone suddenly being beside him, almost surprised him.

Your clone's summon(Big Bunni) gored Bookbat for 5 damage(physical).

"I'll hold them back while you summon!" Eron shouted, fire spraying from his hand.

No more words were needed, as Cam understood what his clone intended; With the other side of their improvised cover partially blocked, it would be harder for the Bookbats to swarm in... and, despite being two Levels down on the Floor, their Big Bunnis were still stronger than the trash mobs. For now.

With two of them holding the other side, it was likely they could hold it for a while- especially since the trash mobs will attack the summons just as readily as they will attack Cam... and, with the more open side covered by him and his clone, their odds of surviving went up significantly.

"Why didn't you use Iron Skin while dragging the table?" Cam couldn't help but ask as he stepped back to summon his own Bunni before sending it off to help cover the other side.

"I did. Twice!" Eron huffed between bursts of flame. "A wave of them smashed past me between casts!"

Cam grimaced. He knew how difficult it was to perfectly time reapplying Iron Skin, and his clone had lost almost half his HP already... Dropping his greatsword, as the bulky weapon would just slow him down- and because the higher damage wasn't needed-, he quickly pulled out the Cracked Iron Mace as he stepped back up next to his clone.

The fight almost seemed to blur under the sound of fluttering pages; Individually, the Bookbats wouldn't even be considered a threat... but sometimes quantity made up for quality, and the numbers in front of them could absolutely kill them if they weren't careful. Death by a thousand cuts- or a thousand paper cuts, in this case, though Cam didn't say the joke out loud.

Maybe afterward, if they survived.

When clusters of Bookbats rushed towards them, Cam and Eron alternated their casts of Fan the Flames, not wanting to accidentally overlap and waste mana; When just a few came their way, the duo struck out with their weapons to conserve mana- and, in a few instance, Cam actually kicked some low flying mobs... and a part of him knew he would miss his strange looking slippers when they eventually needed to be replaced.

You kick Bookbat for 20 damage(physical).

It was honestly a ridiculous effect, the soft looking slippers doing his full strength in damage with a simple kick; A high Strength brawler could potentially wear his Rabbit Kickers for most of their climb in the Tower and be perfectly happy with it- assuming they were ok with kicking everything to death.

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His kicks were actually doing more damage than his greatsword, which was insane... and so much overkill against the trash mobs that it was almost sad.

Despite them being monsters, the Bookbats were apparently still paper, and the high intensity bursts of fire left scraps of smoldering paper and ashes drifting through the air- and Cam could only thank his luck that the bookshelf above them never caught fire.

After their earlier frantic scrambling in the face of the swarm, getting some cover in place and having their Big Bunnis to guard their backs turned the pace of the fight into a grind; Even pacing themselves, Cam and Eron's mana drained steadily... which only worsened as the time for their summons started to run out, and first Eron, then Cam, had to take turns backing off to resummon them...

Eron ran out of mana first, and the pressure on Cam increased as he was forced to pick up the slack on the large groups of Bookbats... until his mana ran out as well.

Their only reassurance at that point was that the swarm had thinned out drastically by then...

"That's, what? Maybe a hundred left? We've got this!" Eron panted, struggling to put on his cocky grin once more; While the pair had held the monsters back fairly well, some had still slipped through long enough to do damage to them. "I'll take the fifty on the left if you-"

"New plan." Cam cut in, ignoring his clone's joke as he backed up slowly. "We don't have to worry about setting the bookshelf on fire anymore, and there's less room under here for them to maneuver... so we let them come to us."

"Ah, come one! If you can't laugh in the face of death, then are you really living!?"

"Death by a thousand paper cuts doesn't sound like something I want to laugh at!"

"Damn, that's a good one!" Eron chuckled as he swatted a Bookbat out of the air. "But you know what is even funnier?"

"What?"

"Mrs. Elsbet was trying to get us a job after graduation... as a Librarian!"

For a second, the only sound that could be heard was the soft fluttering of pages as the Bookbats swooped past... then the pair burst out in laughter simultaneously.

"We were almost librarians... and we're burning out a library!" Cam gasped out as he kicked away another of the mobs...

"You know, it's almost... poetic, I guess, when you think about it." Cam sighed into the silence of the library.

The man and his clone had taken a beating, with Eron dropping to a third of his total HP and Cam not being much better... but having some cover, and their summons to guard their backs, had made the swarm manageable. For the most part.

"What is?"

"Well... Mrs. Elsbet was trying to get us a job as a librarian, and we just burned all these book monsters..." Cam spoke slowly, staring across the once pristine floor that was now covered with ash and charred pages. "It's like we're leaving behind the ashes of our old life, you know? One of those poetic rebirth stories that reference the fire bird- what's it called?"

"A Phoenix, I think..."

"Yeah, that's it!" Cam nodded, a small smile on his face. "This Floor is kind of a metaphor for us, you know? Reborn from the ashes, like a phoenix... or something like that."

"You suck at philosophy, you know that, right?"

"Shut up." Cam said as he shoved his clone, still smiling. "We survived, and we Leveled up. That's all that matters."

"Hey, Level 5 means a Perk, too! What are our choices?"

"I haven't checked yet." Cam answered, smile widening into a grin- he was just as excited as his clone was.

Because Perks could be game changers.