The party stood outside the boss doors. Each of their weapons glowed with Desiree’s Holy Imbuement.

  “Let’s do this.” James pushed open the door. Despite its size, it swung easily to reveal a massive room which, under any other circumstance, could be mistaken as a ballroom. This one room was the size of an entire floor of the library. The ceiling was high and decorated with skylights, ornate archways lined the walls, and at the very end of the long, rectangular room was a raised pedestal where a band might play.

  Or where a librarian might sit at his desk.

  Upon further inspect, James recognized that the walls were lined with bookshelves, each of which was packed full of ancient texts.

  The librarian looked up from his work. Even from a distance, James got the feeling that the reedy man was looking over his spectacles at them. But then he looked back down at his book, as if they weren’t worth his time.

  James and Inara exchanged a look. She shrugged and gestured onward, as if they might need to go closer in order to trigger the battle. He nodded.

  Their footsteps echoed loudly as they stalked toward the librarian. Virgil and James readied their distance spells as they approached, and with every step James grew a little more anxious. He knew he was still not close enough to attack with any precision, but the longer it took to reach the boss, the greater the chance that the librarian would be the one to initiate combat. Not to mention the cooldown of the Holy Imbuement, which was already starting to flicker on Inara’s scythe. He’d have to talk to Desiree about raising the level of that skill, to increase its duration.

  Finally, the librarian stood. His chair scraped obscenely against the stone floor as it was pushed back, and when he stood, he suddenly seemed much larger, as though sitting had condensed him into a harmless shape.

  A health bar appeared over his head, as well as a name. The Librarian.

  “Fireba—”

  “Hellfl—”

  “Silence!” The libarian’s voice rang like a shockwave through the room, and James could have sworn he even saw blue sound waves pulsing towards them before his vocal chords completely froze up.

  You have been Silenced! You may not speak for thirty seconds.

  James should be able to cast the spell without the words, but it was harder than it sounded. He had to focus on it totally and completely without getting distracted with any other thoughts, so the only skill he was really proficient at, for wordless casting, was Dodge and its variants, and that was fueled mostly by the adrenaline of the moment.

  Indeed, this seemed to be a more powerful variant of the spell than what Virgil had used during the previous boss fight. James found it difficult even to move under the force of the librarian’s skill.

  The librarian stalked towards them, his fury increasing with every step. “How dare you return to his place?” His eyes were locked on Virgil Disgust dripped from his every word. “It is because of you that these grand halls have been desecrated by goblins! You created those accursed summing circles and put one right on my doorstep!”

  James had a feeling like he’d gotten locked into a cut scene. But… Grimora didn’t have cut scenes, did it? The Warden had had a monologue, too, but they’d still been able to move. They only didn’t because they’d been interested in what he had to say.

  The Librarian’s voice took on a wistful tone. “I remember when you were a boy. You ran through these halls like they were your very own playground, and you knew even better than my aides where to find every book. It was an honor and a joy to watch you learn and grow, studying every text you could wrap your mind around.”

  His face darkened, his brows pulling together in exaggerated rage. “But you took that knowledge and twisted it to your vile needs. You put a relentless desire for revenge over the wellbeing of your fellows! You brought the whole world into ruin!” The librarian’s lips twisted into a snarl.

  “I’ll kill you! Alphabetize!”

  A notification flashed in front of James’s eyes.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  Your skills have been Alphabetized. You may only use them in alphabetical order.

  James’s skill list appeared in front of him. Then, with the sound of a deck of cards being shuffled, the skills reorganized themselves.

  Battle Axe

  Dip

  Dive

  Dodge

  Duck

  Fireball

  Immobile

  Mana Bolt

  Meditation

  Vital Pulse

  The librarian raised his hands. The room shook with a loud rattling noise. James could hear it all around him, like an earthquake except the floor didn’t move.

  You are no longer silenced.

  “Bibliobarrage!” Books flung themselves from the shelves like cannonballs.

  James… Well, James panicked. There were books coming at him at all angles, he only had one skill available to him, and he’d gotten pretty good at finding that agility window.

  “Battle Axe!” His heavy weapon swung through the air like a feather — if a feather was heavy and pointy and ready to do one metric fuck ton of damage. The axe slapped against one —two —three books in one swoop, but it wasn’t enough. It was an axe after all, and there were a lot of books.

  HP -20

  HP -20

  Critical hit! HP -30

  “Jesus! Ow!” James wanted to rub his forehead, but he was locked into the combat haze. Similar complaints rose up from his party members, and he watched, concerned, as their health bars dropped.

  Your turn!

  James cursed himself for already using his Battle Axe skill. Thanks to that Alphabetize curse, his next four skills all had to do with dodging, which would be swell during the Librarian’s turn, but was pretty useless at the moment.

  He gritted his teeth. It was a shame to not be able to use his Battle Axe skill yet. He’d just gotten it and was excited to see what it could really do. But that was fine. He’d gone this long without the skill anyway, and the axe’s inherent properties made it powerful enough to do well against his enemies.

  James roared and charged. And charged. And…charged. The damn room was a lot bigger than he thought, and his turn was almost over by the time he reached the librarian. He reared back with his axe, swung—

  —and missed! The Librarian leaned back, casually as Neo from the Matrix, and dodged the attack.

  James turn ended at the very end of his swing, leaving him frozen in an over-extended position. Not good.

  Inara was next. She rushed forward, but she wasn’t as fast as James and chose to stop early rather than end up in a similar position. Desiree made the same choice.

  Then it was Virgil, the only other party member with a ranged spell.

  He pointed at the Librarian. His finger trembled as he whispered, “Black Script.”

  James blinked. That was a new one. But of course, the Alphabetization skill was still in effect, and that must be affecting Virgil, too.

  Thick, black ink poured from Virgil’s fingertip. It snaked through the air like something alive, reared up over a fallen book, then struck. The book flung itself open, and the ink poured over every page. Ancient runes wrote themselves into being, so large and intricate that each page could only fit one; until the book itself rose up in the air, turned toward the Librarian, and flew toward him like a murderous crow.

  The Librarian flung his arms in front of his face, but this time, his timing was off and he didn’t quite protect himself from the strike. The book went straight for his face, flapping against his cheeks and forehead like a possessed bird.

  The boss’s health ticked down bit by bit, until it was his turn once again. He slapped the book away from his face and said, “Restoration Spell: Clean Copy.”

  A small puff of white smoke detonated within the book, and when it flopped back open, James could see its pages were entirely clear of those terrifying runes.

  Enemy turn!

  The Librarian raised his arms and repeated the previous skill. “Bibliobarrage!”

  Again, books rattled in the shelves that lined the room and then flung themselves towards the party, gaining speed the further they had to fly.

  James kept a close eye on the books, paid close attention to the timing, and at the right moment, he thought, Dip! His whole body went low like a limbo master, and the book sailed above his head.

  Dive! He lurched to the left, and the next book clattered to the floor.

  Dodge! Finally he got to look cool when he avoided the book, and this time two texts went flying past.

  Out of the corner of his eye, James could see Desiree doing similar acrobatics to avoid the attacks. Virgil was able to sidestep one or two, but he still got hit.

  And Inara, with her nerfed, broken stats, was hit point-blank by every single one. Her health bar was looking pretty battered, and James feared what would happen if she had to endure another onslaught. He had to finish this.

  What he really needed was one more book to come his way so he could use up his last defensive skill — Duck — and free up Fireball for the attack. But he had no such luck.

  Your turn!

  “Duck!” James sank into a squat, avoiding absolutely nothing in the process, but he gritted his teeth and ignored the look on Inara’s face. “Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!” He shouted the names of his skills as quickly as an auctioneer faster than Alphabetize could update his skill list, and three big spheres of flame shot out of his palms: one to the left, where it splashed against the books and began to spread, one straight ahead, where it landed square in the Librarian’s chest and knocked him back a step, and one to the right, carefully aimed to bypass his teammates and land on the second set of shelves.

  Flames whooshed into life, eager to lick at ancient pages and even the cracked, stained shelves which held them.

  The Librarian turned from the party, horrified by the sight, and James felt an infernal grin take over his face. That was more like it.