Ray led the way to the library. He paused when he detected a glow around the

building. It was just faint enough to be unnoticed under the campus lamps.

He touched the glow with his metal hand. He felt a wall in his way. He supposed he

should have expected that.

“Get out of the way, Ray,” said Johnny Mac. “Let’s see what this baby can do.”

He gestured with the rifle he had been given.

Ray stepped away from the wall as the boy aimed his weapon. One trigger pull

unleashed a series of explosions and smoke. Dogs howled and barked at the sudden

noise.

“That did a whole lot of nothing,” said Johnny Mac. He stepped back, smoke curling

from the barrel of the weapon.

“Probably installed a force wall to keep people like us out while she went about her

business,” said Ray. “People usually make one mistake with a wall like this. Let’s see

if she did too.”

“Lamp, can we go under the wall and dig up through the floor of the library?,”

thought Ray.

Affirmative.

“What mistake do people usually make with a wall like this?,” asked Johnny Mac.

“They forget people like me can dig a tunnel under it in seconds instead of hours,”

said Ray.

A hole appeared in the ground as blue flame washed out from the metal hand. Ray

climbed down inside of it and followed the tunnel to the wall of a basement. The

flame cut through the stone blocks in a second. He pushed the obstruction out of their

way so they could enter the library’s storage area.

Ray did a scan and pointed above them. That was where their librarian was keeping

Sandra and Sam. He wondered why.

“There are two sets of steps going up,” said Ray. He pointed at them. “I’ll take the

left, you take the right. We get our friends out first, then worry about putting our

villain down. Stay loose, don’t let her have a clear shot.”

“I got this,” said Johnny Mac. “This is just a boss raid.”

“Watch out for yourself, Leeroy,” said Ray.

“I got this, Ray,” said Johnny Mac. “Watch your side of the room, and we’ll be okay.”

Ray nodded. He jogged toward the stairs he had designated as his. It put him closer

to the summoner and her hostages. Johnny Mac would have cover for his approach

from the other side of the room.

They didn’t have to fight to the death, but Ray doubted the villain would just give up

after all the time she had put in building her monster trap.

He saw her trying to activate the circle just to spite him, and make him lose. He didn’t

plan to lose after finding out everything he needed to know to do the job.

“Lamp, get ready to transport Sandra and Sam at the first opportunity,” thought Ray.

”Then we’re going to have to come out swinging.”

Affirmative.

Ray made his way up the stairs. The spark in his arm showed him where all the other

players were. He frowned. He had to get the summoner away from the old people.

Then Johnny Mac could unload with his rifle.

That meant he had to call out to get her attention. He didn’t like that one bit.

“Hey! Bad Girl!,” called out Ray. He moved to use a shelf for cover. Could she see

through the walls like he could? “This is Raymond Gunn. This scheme of yours is

over. Why don’t you decommission the wall and stand down?”

A symbol wrote itself on the shelving left of where Ray was ducking. It blew up in

a column of smoke and flame. He winced at that.

“Missed!,” called Ray. “Your aim is as atrocious as everything else about you.”

“Why are you here?,” asked the librarian. “This has nothing to do with you, or the

Guild.”

“You’re trying to wipe out a chunk of the city, and maybe the rest of the world,” said

Ray. He crept to another spot so she couldn’t zero in on him. “This has everything to

do with anybody who wants to keep living.”

Another shelf exploded to Ray’s right. He automatically put the fire out with his

metal arm’s power before moving on.

“I have spent years working out the controls,” said the librarian. “I won’t bow to the

Guild now.”

“I’m not from the Guild,” said Ray. “I’m on a mission from the gods.”

Beams of orange force blasted through the shelves and flung the study tables through

the air. Ray raised his arm, not knowing anything but that he needed a shield. Blue

flame protected him as he was pushed back from the onslaught.

“I won’t bow to the gods either!,” screamed the librarian. Her hands summoned

orange symbols to carve Ray up like a turkey.

“Bow to this!,” shouted Johnny Mac. He leaned out from his cover and pulled the

trigger on his rifle. A stream of rockets roared across the room. The librarian created

a shield to block the rockets. She flew across the room under the impact.

“That’s what I’m talking about!,” shouted Johnny Mac.

The librarian flung a hex at him from across the room. He dove for cover as things

around him suffered a storm of cuts as if from an invisible chopper.

“Lamp, get our friends out of here before they catch some stray attack,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

Blue flame ripped from the arm and wrapped around Sam and Sandra. They fell

through the floor. Ray nodded as he moved left again. They were out of the way. Now

it was just the three of them.

Orange rods reached for him. He used his arm to block as he moved left again. He

flew through the air for a moment before bouncing across the floor. He hit a still

standing shelf of books.

Rockets filled the air as Johnny Mac moved right like a swarm of giant angry wasps.

They converged on the librarian as she surrounded herself with a dome of rock.

Explosions chewed at the wall, but didn’t get through.

“It’s over,” said Ray. He waved at Johnny Mac to stay back. “Come out and we’ll talk

to the authorities. You haven’t really done anything yet. Don’t make it worse for

yourself.”

The dome of rock turned into an explosion of spikes shredding the room. Ray threw

up a shield and was thrown against a wall. He lost sight of Johnny Mac. He hoped his

partner hadn’t caught one of those as he tried to pick himself up.

“I am done with the both of you,” said the librarian. “I’m going to leave. If either of

you get in my way, I will flay you alive.”

“That’s some big talk from a snaggle toothed hooker,” said Johnny Mac. He moved

to the right, using the shelves for cover.

Something crashed outside. Ray tried to ignore it. He had his own problems. He

didn’t have the attention to split on something new.

“Looks like we beat you,” said Johnny Mac. “No monsters are coming here. What you

going to do about that?”

“Then I have nothing to lose by killing you,” said the librarian.

The floor split apart. A figure in red and gold lightning hovered in the air. He caught

an orange wave of letter daggers that sent him into the wall.

“Another one?,” said the librarian. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Lamp, mark her so we can follow her,” thought Ray. “We’re going to have to let her

go so we can regroup before she kills us.”

Affirmative. Blue flame struck, gathering material for the device needed. It blasted

against her shield, blowing into a cloud of dust on impact. She backed out of the

cloud, coughing behind her hand.

She swept her hand around her. The air turned into a dragon, ripping the library’s

common room apart with its passage. Ray leaped forward, trying to get between the

destruction and Johnny Mac. A wall of blue flame blunted the effect, but he slid back

as the wind pressed on his temporary shelter. He hit an overturned table and tried to

brace against it.

The librarian was gone after the explosive wave passed. Ray dropped his shield and

took a moment to catch his breath. He could hunt her down later. He had to make sure

Johnny Mac and that other guy was okay.

“What was that, Ray?,” screamed Johnny Mac. “Just what the crap was that?”

“Exterminating maneuver,” said the stranger in red and gold. Electricity ran up his

body and coalesced into two burning eyes. “I fancy engaging in contention with her

anew.”

“Really?,” said Johnny Mac. “Because she just kicked our butts.”

“A singular clash isn’t the campaign,” said the stranger. “Our task is to pursue her and

arrest her on a neutral ground.”

“Lightner?,” asked Ray.

“Not specifically, Raymond,” said the lightning. “You could contend I’m possessing

him for the narrowed measure of time that I am required.”

Ray rubbed his face with his normal hand.

“You got all the words, didn’t you?,” he asked.

“I possess a wonderful vocabulary,” said Lightner. “It comes with my tremendous

mental capacity.”

“I bet,” said Ray. “Did you take down the wall?”

“Yes,” said Lightner. “Demolition is my favorite avocation.”

“What have you done?,” demanded Sandra. Her head poked out of the hole in the

floor.

“It’s Johnny Mac’s fault,” said Ray. “Explain to the nice librarian how you blew up

the library, her second home.”

“Wait,” said Johnny Mac. “This is not my fault.”

“Explain it to her,” said Ray. He started walking to the door. “I need to find a

bathroom.”

“It was this dude’s fault,” said Johnny Mac. He pointed at Lightner’s other half.

“I beg to differ,” said Lightner. “I destroyed the wall as requested while this area was

devastated.”

Ray slipped out while they were assigning blame for the library being ruined. He still

had things to do.

The dorm he had directed Ishvar to was surrounded by people and on fire. He rubbed

his temples and walked away from that before he could be roped into cleaning that

mess up.

One glance at the inner wall around the campus told him that Lightner had done a

thorough job blasting the construction apart. He had probably used his bare hands.

Ray wondered if Lightner had any sensory powers, but decided he didn’t. He needed

people like Ray and Johnny Mac to point him at the target. That was probably why

he had joined Lord Brian’s adventurers. He needed someone who could investigate

so he could bring down his full power.

And whatever he had, he had ripped up the wall despite its shield like a giant taking

bites from bread.

He needed to make sure the wall was down for the count when everything was said

and done.

It would totally suck if the thing still called a monster from the great beyond to eat

everything.

Before he worried about that, he had to find the librarian and deal with her before she

caused more trouble. He didn’t like that she had grabbed the old veterans that had

opposed the last demon door. It said she wanted them for a reason that he didn’t

know. He didn’t like the theory that she was trying to jumpstart her summons before

the Face of Ba’al could show in the sky.

He needed to deal with her, and he wasn’t going to let up now. She was on the

defensive. He needed to search and destroy before she got things back together and

came at them.

She had almost killed Johnny Mac. He wasn’t going to risk that again. It was better

if he handled things on his own.

And luckily he had a way to track her down right at hand.

But first he had to get away from the rest of his people before they got in his way and

held him down.

And he was going to need something to eat.