REAL Chapter 8

"What's this?" distantly, she heard a female voice say. Snaust's heart felt empty.

"Some local vermin" a male voice replied from somewhere far above.

"Dispose of it. We are almost done anyways" the woman replied, just as a basalt column the size of a telephone pole struck the clawed man in the head, knocking him back several feet.

“...It is indeed true that verbiosity leaves you vulnerable” purred Binah, her hand still crackling with yellow energy.

“Snaust…is not vermin! Snoust is…Snoust!” she wheezed, a spark of light welling in her small chest.

“Four versus two, this is starting to seem unfair” grumbled Roland, as he dusted himself off and wiped the blood from his mouth. “But I’m not complaining”

Snoust had interrupted the flow of battle, giving the participants a moment to regroup. But just as suddenly as she had intruded, the bad lady in black surged with power and sent thin lines of energy rattling towards the group. The good red lady was fast enough to intercept, but Snoust could only watch as her attempt to cut through the attack resulted in countless burns, halting her in her tracks. It was as if the bad lady’s attack had briefly sucked the incredible strength right out of her. Snoust could tell that the red lady was really fast and strong, but couldn’t stand a chance against the bad lady and her weird powers.

Snoust quickly took a moment to analyze the situation. Miss Binah was wise and powerful, and even had similar clothes to the bad lady. Snaust knew that would at least be a fair fight.

“Miss Binah, please don’t let her hit the red lady again, you should fight her instead!” shouted Snoust, through agonized breaths, every word an ordeal.

“Who the hell are you?!?” Roared the Red lady, steam rising from her fried head as the eyeballs on her sword all turned to stare at Snoust.

“She’s right” spoke Binah, as she dropped a rippling birdcage on top of the bad black lady.

At this moment, the three syringes protruding from the back of the clawed man’s arm began to twitch as he re-approached the battle.

It was getting dark, and Snoust was struggling to stay awake, but she was helping. To defend Miss Angela, to defend the library, to defend her home.

“Mr. Roland, that Claw is going to attack, please block it with your strongest weapon...”

“Yes mam…” sighed Roland, but the sarcasm was lost on Snoust who was entirely focused on staying conscious.

As Mister Roland clashed with the claw, the library began to violently shake. Books fell from their shelves and papers drifted slowly to the ground like snow. Zena spoke from underneath a pile of golden chains and locks “Enough, This place will be expelled as planned, prepare to be sent very far away” with exasperation in her voice. “Beget not fear, you are simply being relocated where you belong”

Snoust couldn’t really understand what she was saying anymore, but there was a sudden lurch, silence and dry air that stung her skin. As the dark encroached around her, she heard some fluttering sound nearby, and tiredly turned her eyes towards the noise. Ah, the pages from the book she was making as a gift for Miss Angela. They must've gotten dislodged from their safe spot inside of her shell sometimes earlier. Some of them were shredded by the man's claw, others undoubtedly lost never to be found in the fall, different ones stained crimson, the letters she spent so much care in drawing made unreadable by her own blood.