23: Grayman

They entered into a dark stone foyer where the walls glowed with magical rune patterns. Some acted as static sources of light to reveal the sharp angles of a squarish area.

At the center was a staircase, leading up into a floor concealed by magical cloud energy. A barrier of sorts.

Waiting at the foot of the stairs was an elderly man in long gray robes and long silver hair in a ponytail, showing off his rugged features.

Liran gulped when she saw his stern glare from his narrow gray eyes.

"So this sorry excuse of a bard decides to find a spine and see me." The man grumbled.

"It's, um, good to see you too Grayman." She meekly greeted him, and yelped as a bolt of lightning struck her backside to make her jump in the air.

"Too carefree." He raised a glowing hand: a long wooden staff appeared before it, which he gripped tight. "Divine Blood Code: Blood Code Lock." His deep voice resonated across the foyer and into everyone's minds.

Everyone yipped and squealed as an immense force, empowered by lightning magic, pushed them to their knees. They coughed on the gray mist that swiftly descended upon them.

Aiden yelped with confusion when he felt his lingxi stopped flowing through his veins. He tried to cast a blood spell and was electrified. "W..ait... we can't use blood codes?" He panted for breath upon recovering, with his hair stiff and sticking up to be like a spiky porcupine.

Grayman laughed. "Do your worst, I'll have your butts zapped all night."

Aiden hastily fixed up his hair and readied his weapons.

"You blocked our blood codes?!" Rat squeaked as he wobbled off Annoying Imp's shoulder and dropped to the floor with one leg twitching in the air.

Grayman chuckled. "If that's what it takes to defeat you, you really are nothing more than mucus spit."

Rat growled as he bounced back onto his feet. "It's musculus griseus!"

"Mucus, vermin, whatever." He aimed his staff at Rat: it was charging up with a dark brownish light. "You want to be more than mucus then fight me with real magic!"

Rat squeaked as he dodged a ball of mud, which landed next to him with a small explosion. "You crazy old man!" He squealed as he found himself playing a game of dodge the exploding mud ball, which had the ability to suppress his air magic. All he could do was scamper about like an idiot.

"Ha! Time to fight!" Bosnia grinned, feeling fired up. But as soon as she tried to activate her blood code she was twitching and sparking to make her froth at the mouth.

"Funny kijen. I locked down your blood codes, remember. No time to be a masochist." Grayman laughed as he used air magic to toss her about and make her eyes roll with dizziness.

Bosnia shook her head with a growl and fired up her fire magic. "Fine. Flame throws it is!"

"Oh?" Grayman's staff began charging up with multicolored light.

She squealed when a water ball soared toward her to put out her flames.

Liran's party scattered and ran about dodging a range of magic attacks: fire, air, water, terra, ice... each one was specifically aiming to suppress its opposite.

"Didn't Oliver give his sorry?!" Liran squealed as she dodged a rapid success of exploding mud balls aimed for her head. Like Rat, the magic was dampening her sound magic's effectiveness.

"He did. Both of you need to learn a lesson." Grayman bellowed as his staff moved off his hand and spun midair before him, increasing the intensity of elemental magic to take them down.

Clover yelped when a fireball struck her arm.

Annoying Imp did a dive to reach her and blocked oncoming ones with his terra magic to bring up a shield wall between them.

"Ha! Never thought to see an imp use his brain. Excellent!" Grayman upped the speed of his spellcasting.

Annoying Imp helped Clover up so they could keep avoiding the magic.

"Ugh! This is ridiculous!" Liran whipped out her lute to cast a healing and energy boost via her sound magic.

A soothing, melodic and ditty tune carried across the area to dampen the elemental magic's strength.

Aiden positioned his shield before him to cast an ice ball spell, negating the fire ball aimed for his face.

"Excellent! Now give it all you've got!" Grayman grabbed his staff and upped his assault.

The party fought a game of offense and defense for an hour until Grayman was certain they had exhausted their stamina.

His staff glowed with intense power and threat to wipe out the entire foyer.

Liran's eyes reflected the oncoming damage.

Grayman smiled as he raised it high and shot the power into the air. WELCOME TO THE LIBRARY OF ANDOR SAKRATU: ANDOR SCHOLAR WIZARDS, was written above their heads with fireworks.

"Well that's a switch." Bosnia panted with surprise at seeing the sparkling display of color.

The wise wizard made his staff and fireworks disappear with a clap then released the blood code lock.

The party's shoulders sagged as they felt a weight lifted and their bodies lighter.

"Wait, my lingxi's not only restored but my blood code spells have been upgraded to one level?" Aiden gasped with pleasant surprise.

"Applying external magic to the opposite a mage can manipulate will force your blood code to react. Under the divine blood code lock spell, this perk is actualized."

Aiden nodded and bowed with this thanks.

Grayman addressed each of Liran's companions to inform them of their blood code upgrades, which stirred excitement.

"I don't understand, how can the opposite of my ice magic give me an offensive ability to my blood code?" Clover asked herself.

"Under Divine Magic, the world rules relax to bend the code. Only under this power and pressure can more of your lineage ability be drawn out. It's a skill you've always had but couldn't use because of your generational lockdowns."

"I still don't understand, but thank you." Clover bowed.

"You could've told us that you were forcing a breakthrough out of us. I thought you were still mad at me." Liran pouted.

Grayman frowned. "Who said I wasn't?" He sighed and clapped his hands. A pair of porcelain-quartz maids in frilly white aprons over black dresses appeared.

"The homunculi will lead you to your rooms. Liran, you and I need to see the other scholars."