587. Thousand Greatest Hits

The guardian extended like a whip blade, filling a large part of the room. The echoes—so aggressive only moments ago—leaped out of the way, avoiding any damage. Judging by their actions and the occasional bolt they’d shoot at Dallion, it was obvious that they composed one team. This was the first time that Dallion had fought against a party composed of echoes and a guardian. The combination was unusual, though considering everything else unusual about the tome, he couldn’t say he was surprised.

Out of the hundred instances Dallion maintained, eighty were in a permanent state of getting killed, leaving him twenty realities to choose from. It was clear that he would have to spend more time training the basics if he wanted to grow stronger. Having eighty percent of his instances killed was the equivalent of winning one battle out of five.

Pages sharp as razors skimmed past, striding everything they touched similar to a curling. In a few of his instances, Dallion used the armadil shield to protect himself. Thankfully, there were no serious consequences. As sharp as the parts of the guardian were, they didn’t have the properties of a crackling.

While Dallion was doing his best to block the millipage’s attacks, Nox leapt, clawing through the creature in halt. Deep black cracks formed on the spine of the caterpillar’s back. There was a loud crack, after which half of the guardian broke off, falling to the ground. Unfortunately, things didn’t end there. Moments later, the second half of the guardian sprang to life, starting an attack pattern of his own.

Damn it! Dallion thought. That’s what splitting meant! He had mistaken it to be combat splitting, but it wasn’t. Against such an enemy, indiscriminate line attacks weren’t going to work.

Nox, get back! Dallion ordered. Don’t attack it!

Barely half a dozen of Dallion’s instances were safe now. The entire space was filled with green cones, marking the danger areas. Dallion had to combine several skills to remain safe. At this point, it was no longer possible to use his guard skill bonus—there wasn’t enough space for him to complete a full guard sequence. The only option was to do what Veil would have done: go on an all-out attack.

Attaching the armadil shield to his back, Dallion summoned his hammer, slamming the side of the guardian with all his strength.

AGGRAVATED STRIKE

Dealt damage is increased by 100%

One of the guardians slammed into the wall behind. Blunt attacks were clearly useful, although Dallion had hoped to do a lot more with that hit. Despite its weak traits, the creature was capable of defending itself quite well.

The second guardian darted at Dallion, spinning as it did. Pages of paper flew everywhere, each as sharp as a blade. In a single action, all but two of Dallion’s instances were shredded to bits. The echoes, too, switched from attacking Dallion to protecting themselves in order to avoid an onslaught.

Pulled back by Lux, Dallion heaved the hammer right at the guardian’s head.

CRITICAL STRIKE

Dealt damage is increased by 200%

MODERATE WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 20%

A pair of rectangles emerged.

What the heck? Dallion wondered. Using one of his instances, he looked down at his body. There was a page sticking out of his thigh. It didn’t hurt; if it wasn’t for the rectangle, Dallion never would have known that he’d been wounded. That didn’t make things better.

MINOR WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 5%

This time the pain was noticeable, coming from the wound itself. Without a second thought, Dallion pulled the sheet of paper out. His fresh ripped as it did, as if the page had turned into a series of arrowheads.

Seen anything like this before? Dallion asked as he summed his thread splitter and slashed the page in two. There didn’t seem to be any changes.

This is a generally common book guardian, the echo replied. This one just happens to be a bit more advanced. It’s just a guess, but I would venture that several prime hunters have defeated it to establish control. Either that or there have been that many successful invasions.

Dallion summoned his hammer again, then threw it at the nearest guardian. The millipage rolled in a ball, deflecting the strike without any damage. At the same time, the other guardian extended in the direction of Dallion.

Changing weapons again, he summoned the dartblade and shot two bolts from almost point-blank range. Both bounced off, although the creature did guardian stop.

Dallion tried to fly to the nearest wall, but the moment he got close, a trio of echoes attacked him, destroying all instances that came anywhere close.

Gleam! Dallion ordered. Deal with one of the guardians.

The shardfly emerged, flying directly at its target. Several sets of wings cut into the page as she clashed into the millipage, filling the air with sparks. No rectangles appeared.

Arts, acrobatics, athletics, attack, Dallion thought as he spun in the air, evading the dozens of pages that flew in his direction. For seconds he slashed them with the thread cutter, letting the guardian come closer and closer. When the creature was a foot away, Dallion summoned his hammer and then performed a point attack right in the nose of the millipage.

The force of the attack passed through the guardian like a wave. Pages shot out in clusters like the stages of a controlled explosion. Similar to large confetti, they blocked the view in all directions.

CRITICAL STRIKE

Dealt damage is increased by 200%

There was a time when Dallion would have considered that a good thing. Thankfully, he had grown much wiser since then. The fact that the pages remained pages and hadn’t faded away into nothingness made it clear that the guardian was still alive. More importantly, it also meant that the pages were still alive as well.

“Careful!” he shouted, slashing as many of the pages as he could. However, for every three that he managed to destroy, one managed to cut him, causing a minor wound.

Death by a thousand cuts was a metaphor Dallion remembered from his time back on earth. Here, it was the exact thing. Sensing blood, the pages flew towards him like a shoal of piranhas, dealing as much inflicting damage at a greater rate that Lux could restore. Dallion’s health steadily decreased as he became surrounded by a wall of paper.

Fighting a book was unlike anything he had experienced before. Rather, the closest thing he could think of was fighting a flutter of shardflies. The characteristics of those creatures were similar, although when facing them, Dallion was in the open and able to use his mass attacks. Doing so here risked destroying the very information he had come to gather.

Multiattack, Dallion thought. With dartblade and threat splitter he let out a series of attacks, piercing everything in vicinity. To be more effective, he also used the bonuses of his reaction trait, doubling his actions.

THOUSAND GREATEST HITS

(+2 Reaction)

Doing a thousand sequential hits is always a good strategy. Just make sure you don’t receive a thousand sequential wounds.

A blue rectangle emerged, momentarily blocking his view. Several dozen pages took advantage, attacking from his blind spot. His health was down to half. Combining acrobatics and attack, Dallion twisted in the air, using his legs to kick away as many of the pages as possible. In times like this he regretted not having blades on his boots.

Uh oh, he heard Gleam say.

What happened? Dallion’s heart skipped a beat. Did you kill an echo?

The echoes are fine, annoying as they are. I sliced up the guardian.

Having all echoes intact was a relief, although having a guardian sliced up was concerning, especially given the phrasing the familiar had used.

Dallion concentrated. For a split-second time seemed to freeze, as he evaluated the situation, calculating the optimal motion to deal with the pages surrounding him. Line attacks were out of the question, however, point attacks weren’t especially if he aimed directed one straight up.

Fastening his group round the handle of the threat cutter, Dallion did the attack. A point of pierce shot up through dozens of layers of paper, creating a wide opening.

Lux didn’t need any orders, thrusting Dallion up to momentary safety. To be doubly sure, Dallion let go of his dartblade and summoned his hammer, which he threw straight down. Blunt attacks couldn’t do much damage against paper, but they were enough to slow the flock of pages from going after him immediately. At that point, he saw them: the guardians that Gleam had created. There were a dozen of them, all small snippets of what the guardian had been. Nox had stepped on one with his paw. Dallion could see cracks seeping through the millipage, causing pages to crumble off. It was safe to say that at least one guardian had been dealt with. However, that left eleven more.

Nox, Gleam, get back here!

The familiars obeyed. As they leaped back up towards their owner, the multitude of pages flew back down. Like insects, then flew into the guardians, sliding in until their size doubled.

Three down, twelve to go, Dallion thought.

On the positive side, at least there appeared to be a finite number of pages. That made things quite easy. At Dallion’s present level, it would be a while before he’d be out of stamina. The greatest danger was receiving more damage that his firebird could restore. The second greatest—that he’d split up and destroy one of the echoes, possibly the one he needed.  

“It’s over,” he said, adding a sensation of helplessness in his words through his music skill. “You had your chance. I’ll keep cutting you up until there’s nothing left. You know I have the stamina to do it. Better give up and avoid the pain.”

There was no response.

“I’m not here to harm you. As I said, I just want to learn about a specific mission.”

Not to stop you, dear boy, but you’re fighting books, Nil said. Book guardians are immune to music.

Of course, they would be, Dallion thought.

The guardian apparently was of a similar opinion, for all its parts gathered together. Like a rat king, the tails of all the caterpillars merged, creating a cross between a snake and a hydra.

Out of habit, Dallion summoned his hammer and threw it down again. Two of the guardian’s heads grabbed the instrument midair, before it could cause any damage. The guardian was much faster at learning than most Dallion had seen. That only meant that he had to win on this go. Getting ejected and returning would put him at an even greater disadvantage.

Ready, Nox? Dallion asked. It’ll be like old times, just with a bit of a challenge.

The crackling purred.

Gleam, you’ll be defense. If it tries a page attack again, you deal with it.

It’s annoying constantly dealing with your trash.

I know. I promise to find a way to level you up.

The promise appeased the shardfly who fluttered to Dallion’s head.

Six of the eleven heads of the guardian pulled back, shrinking to half their size. Many of the pages bend, forming layers of scales. From here on, it was all a matter of tactics, rather than brute strength.

Nox, here’s the plan. I’ll separate the heads and you finish them off.

Sounds like fun, the cracklings replied.

Just don’t attack the last one. I’ll need that alive.

Splitting into instances again, Dallion flew down at the guardian. The creature pulled back. Its six contracted heads shot up, extending as they did.

Shield! Dallion thought as he turned around. The armadil shield extended, protecting Dallion’s entire torso. Several of the heads slammed right in. One managed to move to the side just in time to escape, though not for long. Dallion was counting on this. As the paper caterpillar passed by on the side, he performed a slash with his thread cutter. The hardened pages were little to stop the lethally sharpened blade. While it didn’t have the strength to cut through them, the weapon slit along them up to the smallest of cracks, then continued in like a paper knife through an envelope.

CRITICAL STRIKE

Dealt damage is increased by 200%

One of the guardian’s heads was instantly severed. Immediately, Nox emerged, leaping off Dallion’s shoulders and onto the head.

“That’s one,” Dallion said.