Instant Hero Potion

The Librarian and the Lady of Dark Magic 2

"Ah shit," Loreane groaned, unbeknownst to her, Syrene was saying the same thing. Gilliam was polite enough to keep his disappointment internalized.

She could just make out that Syrene's legs were shaking, though she couldn't be sure what the cause was, she might be scared or just tired. Of course both was an option as well. The mages had done the dragon's share of the work so far, it was probably only fair that she try to fight Estella now to give them some time. She didn't love her odds now that she'd seen what Estella could actually do, but what choice was there at this point?

There was one thing she had going for her in this situation, lots and lots of ruined temple pieces to throw at Estella and use for cover so she jumped to action on that strategy. She threw a piece of pillar at Estella and immediately ran to a pile of bricks that used to be high up in the wall, ducking low so Estella's blast destroyed it instead of her and kept going. She tried to move in a zigzag pattern, closing the distance with her and Estella in the hopes she could catch and restrain her or even just deck her again. Estella's blasts came more slowly than Syrene's and exclusively from her hands to boot so at least she didn't have to deal with an incredible rate of fire. Though wherever Estella's blasts hit there was suddenly an awful lot less cover left behind.

The shrapnel of the blasts rained down on Loreane but they didn't do damage, so at least 'propelled by magic' projectiles didn't do any extra harm to her. About every third or fourth blast from Estella would at least graze her and while she hadn't taken a hit that would stop her, the pain was starting to accumulate. Loreane was annoyed that nothing she was throwing was getting through, simply blown apart by Estella's beams and 'whip' or whatever that trick of dark magic was. Loreane saw an opening, a large set of jagged stones around where the altar had been. She could throw those in really rapid succession, without having to dash and dodge about. Maybe something would get through finally.

Loreane had noticed that the mages had met up and it looked like Gilliam was treating Syrene or had at least given her some kind of potion. She couldn't afford to give them too much attention considering that she was busy. She stopped short when she noticed her pants were nearly gone as well, leaving her shamefully exposed in barely more clothing than her ridiculous bikini armor. By sheer luck a larger than usual death ball sailed in front of her just as she stopped. Right, life or death, no time to be bashful.

Loreane grabbed a large slab of wall and deliberately drug it through the cluttered debris, spraying rocks of all size in what was generally Estella's direction before letting it go. Loreane didn't bother to watch what happened to the rocks she sent Estella's way and jumped over to the group of them she'd been aiming for. She just started to try to pull the first of them from out of the pile of rubble when something cold wrapped around her ankle. She barely turned her head in time to see it was one of those tendrils of black and purple power before it drug her off her feet and into one of the other rocks. From one to the next to the next it drug her along into and then through the entire cluster of larger rocks she'd intended to use as projectiles.

She felt a little sore as the tendril lifted her up into the air but she thought it might only be because she was a little tender from the dark magic attacks. From what she'd experienced so far it seemed unlikely that she felt that much just from being slammed into a few rocks. However it meant she was now helplessly dangling in the air.

"Well that's certainly useful underwear you're wearing isn't it? That's why you survived that attack earlier. Don't you think that's cheating?"

"Don't even go there, you don't have a leg to stand on."

Estella moved the large slab of wall that Loreane had thrown at her just before her plan was foiled in between herself and the other mages allowing a beam of light and a ball of fire to splash uselessly against it.