A couple of blocks away from the barrier, Lloyd stood at an intersection close to where the dragooun blasted its fire earlier. He observed the scenery before him, like an artist staring at their white canvas, thinking of what their next piece should be. But no artist could do anything without a base, so he grabbed his pen and began with one of his most important abilities of his.
[Recto-Verso Expansion]
To the eyes, it seemed he wasn’t writing, but rather flowing with whatever direction his pen went toward. Lloyd was simply starting, establishing a base. Being late as he was, he never received the reading Zoe had done over the town, so he lacked a page to write on.
This ability he used was a staple ability among writers and authors. It granted them the ability to utilize their spectral energy to create and expand their folio (page) territory, giving them control over the arena they chose — similar to individual spectral barriers. Every writer had a page of their own surrounding them. Without it, their pen and abilities were as useless as a magic wand turning into a wooden stick. Normally, writers would have control over fifty percent of their surroundings and, if against another writer, would aim to expand it to invade another’s folio, breaking their spectral barrier.
As for Lloyd, he was doing none of these things. He simply wanted a page of his own to copy Zoe’s page. But how would he do that? Some might wonder. Annnd that should be ten minutes!
Finishing that thought, he immediately recognized the little girl sprinting her way toward him. If she was anyone, she would have been mistaken for an elementary school student, but no, she was none other than Zoe Jaeger. With a small notebook under her arm, she ran as fast as she could to deliver it to Lloyd.
Earlier, he had given her a call due to the fact that he was late. Since transmitting a reader’s page to others exerted a lot of spectral energy — especially to inexperienced readers like herself — it was impossible for her to transmit another one to Lloyd. And so, the only solution left was the old-fashioned method.
“God…” Zoe was panting heavily as she slowed down before stopping in front of Lloyd. She took a moment to catch her breath and stretched her back due to the pain she felt. Her skills were that of a non-combatant so running almost two miles wasn’t entirely in her expertise. “Couldn’t I have just sent you this on the phone?”
“Wouldn’t have worked,” Lloyd rubbed his forehead with a disheartened look, “The old book doesn’t abide by our 21st-century rules, so what else can we do? Come on, hand it over. We gotta hurry!”
When writing as a form of magic started centuries ago, it was as simple as writing a word on paper and having them manifest immediately, but it was also limited to tools at the time. Come more authors, and it evolved much more to the state it had become in the current century. Of course, having it adapt to the current technology would be nothing but a pipe dream.
Discontent, Zoe reluctantly opened her notebook and tore a paper from it. The paper was filled with so many words you could not even see a single spot from the white layout it had in the first place, it was a jumbled mess of ink. But that was completely normal, in a situation like that. For a piece of writing to work on actual paper, one would need to write exactly as they did on thin air. And so Zoe wrote all there was about Clockwork town (again), which, suffice to say, did not exactly fit in one paper on both sides. Regardless, she managed to succeed. If Lloyd had her read and write the entire city again, she would not have done it.
As soon as Lloyd saw the paper, his eyes lit with excitement — even though a paper like that would scare anyone away mistaking it for a curse chant. As Zoe tried to hand it to him, he snatched it straight away like a madman who just found his long-lost treasure.
With a wry smile on his face, he turned to the page he wrote in thin air and slammed the paper on its non-existent surface. Just like that, the paper slowly disintegrated, merging in with Lloyd’s page, the jumbled mess of words eventually formed elegantly on thin air along with the previous sentences. As soon as the paper was fully incorporated into the page, its sentences disappeared, making space for Lloyd to write afterwards. He had no need for its words anymore as the spectral energy within him and his page allowed him to memorize and understand its contents immediately.
A long intersection ahead… A cross… The Marketplace…
Luckily, the draft he received was a new one so he had a rough idea of where the dragooun might be.
“So… what are you going to do?” Zoe asked.
“Hoho… Zoe, Zoe, Zoe… Zoe…”
She tilted her head slightly in confusion, weirded out by how he called her name multiple times with a sinister tune in his voice.
“I have a plan!” He raised his index finger in the air with the confidence of a scientist receiving a patent for their invention.
“Uh-huh…?” She still had the bewildered look on her face.
He struck his grip on his other palm, carrying a dumb plain, but happy, expression on his face. “We create parts of a cage trap throughout the area! And once the dragooun is in the right spot, we gather those parts together, and trap it! The perfect plan, righhhht?”
“No!” Zoe was immediately let down by Lloyd’s far from perfect plan, “Juno told me it’s a fire-breathing dragon, it would melt the cage within half a second.”
And the fact that it was far too much for the team, with one world-builder being Lloyd, at that point to create an absolute cage covering an entire town. Anything less could result in the spectral barrier breaking down and the endangerment of the civilians outside.
“Ehh…,” Lloyd lowered his head for a moment, before swiftly raising it back up, “Then how about—”
“And it breathes ice as well.”
Knowing Lloyd’s mindset, Zoe stopped him before suggesting yet another doomed plan. It was common knowledge that anything he would come up with would result in disaster, yet sometimes, when the wind is blowing in the right direction, he would become their only trump card. This was not one of those times.
Striking his hands like before once again, he suggested another plan, “We create a poison cloud!”
Not surprised anymore, Zoe shut him down. “Who can create the cloud? I know for sure you can’t. And did you think about us? About the rest of the people? What if it affects the dragooun, but affects us as well? What if it kills everyone?”
Geez, when did she become so strategic?
[You just can’t come up with something good.]
Why are you in my thoughts?!!
[I'm not.]
Both Lloyd and Zoe stared at each other with blank expressions for a good minute. The others were trying their best against the rampaging beast, and all Lloyd could do was stand idly, not being able to think of a proper method to stop it. Zoe was none the wiser. She refuted Lloyd’s plans because of pure logic, but to come up with a miracle to stop that dragooun, that would need more effort than she could make.
Before Lloyd could spout something else, Zoe’s phone rang aloud. She pulled it out to find that it was a group call from Erina, but no one answered. It seemed they were indeed busy dealing with the dragooun. Zoe answered and put it on speaker.
“About time someone answered!” Erina’s distinguishable voice came through, “Where the hell are you?”
Her voice was enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine. Even with her not there, Zoe still felt intimidated by her. As for Lloyd, he couldn’t bother, he knew very well what type of character Erina was and how to handle her.
Zoe tried to answer. “I-I’m with Lloyd at—”
“Lloyd?!! He’s here? That lazy bum?!!!”
“I’m not that lazy.” He blatantly interfered.
“What took you so long, dumbass?!! We’ve been waiting on you all morning. Stop watching those movies of yours so late at night, and maybe you won’t be late like today! You’re lucky we’re on a field mission. If it had been a normal day, you would have kissed your attendance score goodbye.”
“But you weren’t any better, Erina.” Zoe was right.
Erina might have not been sleeping, but she was slacking off as well. Her feud in the bread store was something to behold after all.
“Shut up! You were late eating that new marry-whatever of yours so don’t scold me just because I have a fine taste in bread. That’s straight-up oppression.”
“Do you even know what that word means?” Lloyd said in a mocking tone.
“I swear to God, don’t make me gut-punch you again. I’ll use my element.”
“I’d like to see you try.” He was challenging her.
That was a daily routine of theirs. Always challenging each other on the simplest of things, most likely in games. They would decide who would do what based on who would win whatever challenge they were presented with.
“You’re going down once I see you, birdbrain. I’ll—” For a second, she stopped. The sound of bricks and stones falling could be heard. It was clear she was in an area affected by the dragooun. “Oh dammit, I gotta go. Oh, shi—”
The call was hung up without notice. Zoe feared for Erina’s safety, giving Lloyd a look of worry.
“She’ll be fiiiiine…” Lloyd, on the other hand, trusted in Erina’s power and quick wit greatly. She might have been considered a brute and reckless by others, but she still always came up on top.
Erina was not the type to easily falter.
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