Chapter 45. Can she dodge a crazy shellfish asshole?

Chapter 45: 45. Can she dodge a crazy shellfish asshole?

"What does this spell do?"

I pointed at a spell in the ghostly book I had no idea about. Dr. Rhiannon closed her eyes for a moment, tired, since we’d been doing this for a while, mid-fight, like background characters.

"This one summons an army of skeletons, but don’t get your hopes up, they’re very fragile and it would drain my mana pool completely."

To be real, I did get my hopes up, but something like that was basically useless. Still, I wasn’t giving up that easily.

"Alright, then what does this spell do?"

I pointed at another strange text in the ghostly book, no idea what to make of it.

"You’re pointing at the description of the same spell you just asked about. The next one is a surgical spell that slows down heartbeat."

I turned to Dr. Rhiannon with sparkle in my eyes, and her expression got even more bitter.

"No, it requires direct contact, and it’s a surgical spell. Are you even listening?"

After a lot of messing around and finding nothing, all I could do was stare at the ground beneath us. Surprisingly soft, no grass, cold, it would be so nice to just lie down and sleep. Perfect death spot.

"Don’t you have any spell that can help us? Think of something besides sex toys for a second."

Dr. Rhiannon looked up, holding her chin, thinking hard, immediately getting brain fog and visibly stalling out. Just as I was about to write her off for future strategy sessions, her face lit up.

"Muffin!!"

"Look out!"

Seraphine and Dr. Rhiannon both shouted at me. When I turned, faster than I intended, everything slowed down, and I saw a polearm closing in on my neck.

Before I could process anything, a small, broken mirror, webbed with cracks and leaking ghostly fumes, appeared in front of my neck, facing the polearm, and it went inside the mirror.

Dr. Rhiannon had cast a spell, that’s why I was alive, that’s what actually happened. But my body decided I should be dead anyway and shut down into shock for a moment, until Dr. Rhiannon shook my shoulders.

"Don’t just stand in one place, you two!!"

Seraphine shouted from where she and Mandrisska were fighting. They were four blocks away from us, and that was by Seraphine’s choice. She was trying to draw Mandrisska away from us, but Mandrisska caught on and threw a polearm at us like it was her own weapon.

"I think we should run around in a circle, or some other path, until we figure something out."

I nodded and started running in a loop like a kindergartner. From where we were, it was hard to track every moment of Seraphine and Mandrisska’s fight. But overall, I could tell Seraphine was pissed at Mandrisska for attacking me.

"Wait, what kind of spell did you cast to save me?"

I asked Dr. Rhiannon while running and keeping an eye on the fight. She gave me a bragging smile, which she’d earned, since she just saved my life. Even though I only had a few hours left to live.

"It’s called ’Not the Real Me.’ I called on the spirit of a girl who broke a mirror thinking she could create a safe personal space inside it, but ended up bleeding to death because of the break."

"Sorry, why am I telling you the backstory? That spell basically gives me access to a small room of my own inside the mirror."

Dr. Rhiannon laughed awkwardly, thinking she’d just used a normal spell, nothing complicated.

"I’m guessing you haven’t seen or been in a fight before! Do you know how much of a difference that spell could make?"

Dr. Rhiannon made a silly "I’m an idiot" face, with no clue why I was getting worked up in the first place.

"No, I mean, we can definitely hide inside it, if that’s what you’re asking, but–"

"I’m talking about using it as a weapon."

That stopped Dr. Rhiannon, forcing her to actually think about it. She’s not a fighter, so I didn’t expect her to get there on her own. Not in a bad way.

"Look, the mirror’s a gateway to a kind of room, right? So use one gate on the polearms Mandrisska dodges, and open another gate facing her. In other words, I need you to redirect them."

Dr. Rhiannon glanced over at the fight as I explained what she’d need to do. And once she understood how much of a difference she could actually make, her mouth fell open.

"I think I can definitely do that!! Thank you, muffin. You’re really smart."

Honestly, I was feeling pretty smart right then, she just hadn’t realized her spell could be used that way, and anybody could’ve come to the same idea I did. We stopped running in circles like dumb kindergartners and made our way back toward the fight while I worked out the rest of the strategy.

"Dr. Rhiannon, I think you should levitate, if ’Not the Real Me’ doesn’t use the same mana, it’ll give you a better view and keep you safe. Also–"

I leaned in to Dr. Rhiannon’s ear and told her the rest of the plan. She listened carefully, understood every word, and nodded with a thrilled smile.

"Now it’s my time to shine!"

With a jump, she cast the levitation spell, flying upward while I curled around, pulling both her hands forward to cast "Not the Real Me."

"Spirit who shattered the glass to flee what was real — lend me the room you found beyond it. I shape thee: Not the Real Me, open."

Seraphine noticed us but was busy throwing polearms at Mandrisska, who was in the process of dodging. Which was exactly the state I wanted them to be in.

As soon as Dr. Rhiannon cast "Not the Real Me," three small, ghostly, broken mirror frames appeared behind Mandrisska and pulled the three dodged polearms inside.

Then the broken mirrors disappeared, and with a shift of Dr. Rhiannon’s hands, they reappeared, one open beside Mandrisska’s ear, one over her heart, and the third beside her other ear.

The polearms shot out of the mirror gates, targeting two of Mandrisska’s weak points. Mandrisska wasn’t caught completely off guard, she noticed the mirrors and the three polearms closing in. Her compound pupils shrank, her face went blank, and she used vibration void to counter them.

Her priority was deflecting the two aimed at her ears, so she focused the vibration void upward, and that was her first mistake.

The third polearm pierced her heart, from the back, and lodged itself in her chest, sending waves of pain through her with every struggling heartbeat.

"Aha!! You guys did it!"

"Yes, we did."

Seraphine shouted, cheering happily, Dr. Rhiannon finally proving herself. In intense pain, Mandrisska tried to pull the polearm out, only to realize the feathers weren’t rigid, they acted like miniature needles, digging into her flesh, blood vessels, heart, and two of her ribs.

"Ahhhh, damn you humans!!!"

"Even the smallest movement will cause pain, and if you really want to pull it out, you might have to rupture yourself, bitch!"

Seraphine said proudly, indirectly showing off her polearm’s actual ability. Dr. Rhiannon cheered in the air over the small victory.

"You two, don’t stop. She isn’t down yet!!"

Seraphine didn’t over-celebrate the small win, as she shouldn’t, calling her remaining polearms back and throwing them again.

And the process repeated, Seraphine threw polearms, Mandrisska dodged them knowing they’d come back at her, Dr. Rhiannon opened the mirror gates and redirected them at Mandrisska, who struggled to counter them.

Luckily, she didn’t end up with another polearm in her body. On the third round, Mandrisska realized dodging wasn’t an option anymore, she had to deflect and cancel the momentum of the polearms so they couldn’t be reused.

Which worked, she canceled the momentum of most of the thrown polearms with her claws. One she couldn’t deflect passed through the mirror gate and was redirected.

She could definitely counter one, that’s not a big deal. But whether Mandrisska could counter a crazy, selfish asshole was another question entirely.

How about I get close and ask her myself?

A body-sized mirror gate opened in front of me, and I happily jumped into it. I passed through a dark, foggy room, and another mirror opened, placing me right in front of Mandrisska.

Mandrisska was busy dodging the one polearm she’d missed, while I landed right in front of her. She did notice me, though, her other claw already moving, presumably to hit me.

"No, you don’t!"

Seraphine screamed, calling back the polearm still stuck in Mandrisska’s chest. It pulled back, ripping through flesh, blood vessels, and heart. The pain was unbearable for her, more than enough to make her claw back down.

The blood and flesh-coated polearm flew back to Seraphine. Meanwhile, I pulled two bottles of instant damage potion from my belt pouch, stuffing one in her mouth and one into the hole in her chest, giving them a slight push to break them.

Then I let myself fall into another mirror gate just below me. My job was done, now Seraphine would launch the final blow.