All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 240: Floatin’ Around At The Speed of Sound

I felt my thrusters whine in complaint as I pushed forward with all my might for the second day in a row. Thucydides bounced awkwardly on my much too-small chassis as I carried him. I tried to use Air Manipulation to help him stay on, but his awkward shape and size meant there was only so much I could do

It would've taken Thucydides to walk back in his current state, weeks we didn't have. Worse, his wing wouldn't heal anytime soon. I had figured, based on Daedalus's healing speed, that he would be able to fly in a few days, but apparently, his much lower level meant that it would take him weeks or months to heal the wound.

So I was stuck here carrying him. There was no chance I was going to risk taking him into my dustbin and having something unforeseen happen to him. Therefore, I could only carry him. It slowed me down significantly, but we were making good progress. We'd be back in just a few hours.

I originally planned on just taking him back to his cave, but Thucydides asked to be dropped back with the snowmen. Apparently, he liked to have someone to talk to while he was healing. I wasn't sure how good of conversation partners the snowmen would be, but he seemed relaxed about it, so I did my best to accommodate.

The massive white dragon shifted slightly and sent me tilting a few degrees. The disturbance started to exaggerate as I wobbled in the air, trying to maintain my flight path.

"Sorry." Thucydides groaned from above. "You're kind of digging in right underneath my rib cage and pressing on my bladder. Can we take a break?"

I whistled in frustration. There was really no great way to carry him. The sheer mass of the dragon meant that any point where I pressed up into him was going to be extremely uncomfortable. And if I got too far away from his center of mass, he just would fall off of me. Even at full output, I had no chance of catching him with Air Manipulation.

So we had to take regular breaks every 20 to 30 minutes for the dragon to lumber around and stretch. And also lick at the bruises I was leaving in his stomach and chest area.

As we landed, I gently sat him down and wormed my way out from underneath him as he pushed himself to his feet.

"I'm really sorry about this," Thucydides said. "I can't believe I didn't see that attack coming."

I made a calming gesture with my Grabby Arm. This was the 23rd time he'd apologized for getting injured, and I kept trying to tell him it was okay. But some of my frustration about the wasted time was probably leaking through. It was important to take care of my friends and make sure that I left affairs here in order. But my time away from the castle was starting to worry me. At least Daedalus, having gone back, would be able to help if there were any issues. But I was also excited to go meet the dragon's companion, and I knew that sometime in spring, the human army was going to attack.

So much to do and so little time. And this trip has already taken twice as long as I originally had planned.

The itch to get back constantly worried at my brushes. Once I dropped Thucydides off, the journey home would be a quick one. It was not much more than 26.21 hours or so if I pushed it at full speed and optimal pathing. It was unfortunate that I hadn't been able to destroy the Lieutenant in our fight, though.

We'd promised the mountain spirit to do our best, but it seemed it would have to wait a bit longer. Plus, I would really have appreciated the extra energy. The bits I had collected of the Lieutenant managed to level me up once already.

By converting the whole thing to energy, I was sure I would have reached the next skill. Perhaps I would even move a bit faster with the extra power. But it wasn't to be. I'd have to find that enemy later after I had made sure the castle was safe and everything else was taken care of. My to-do list was getting quite long as it was.

A few moments later, Thucydides and I were once again up in the air and doggedly heading towards the snowmen's village. When we finally arrived, the snowmen streamed out of the town to welcome us. Very oddly formal bows greeted us as we touched down, and Thucydides lumbered over. They first bowed to the dragon, and then they bowed to me. But when they bowed to me, they dropped to one knee and pressed their fists over their hearts in some sort of salute. I wasn't exactly sure what this was, but it felt kind of similar to how some of the more formal people at the castle treated me.

I merely waved at them cheerily and checked to make sure their homes were still clean. Surprisingly, they did a good job maintaining the order I had left them in. The streets were swept, and the houses were scrubbed freshly since I had seen them last. The only thing was that their latrine pits needed to be re-dug. It only took me a couple of minutes to bore new ones with my various skills and transport the removed material on top of the dirty ones. I really need to introduce plumbing to this world soon.

Still, I was proud of the snowmen. They honestly took to this cleaning stuff even better than some of the humans I had met. I even noticed that some of them had cleaned their fur until it looked pristine, rather than the dirty cream I was used to. I gave them a beep of approval, which elicited an even deeper bow.

With a quick goodbye to Thucydides, I promised to tell Daedalus that he was all right and what had happened with the demon Lieutenant. Then I was off. I blasted past a couple of mountains separating me from the ocean before I really turned on the speed. I felt the pressure wave in front of me build up through the air as I zipped. I could sense the rippling explosions as the air compressed before me. I continued to accelerate, blasting through the invisible barrier. I was truly going fast.

I took my Air Manipulation skill and started to split the air in front of me to prevent the drag from becoming overwhelming as I zipped back toward home as fast as I could manage. When I crossed the 1000 mph barrier, I started to coast as the efficiency of my thrusters started to decline. I experimented with a few different ways to cause a windbreak. Still, it only yielded minuscule improvements as I flew. I kept tinkering with it, slowly adding on speed. It was a nice way to pass the time as I headed home.

---

Bee leaned against the crenelation on top of the last defensive wall behind her. The two nesting circles of the castle wall and the city wall stood relatively unmolested, though the bits of industry that had cropped up in the area had long been dismantled and retreated temporarily. If this wall fell, the forces in the settlement would be split off from each other almost entirely. Small squads could be passed where they intersected, but it wouldn't be one united force anymore. So they had put much more effort into holding this wall than the previous ones.

They had a cycle of powerful people on watch, her being one of them. Though her shift was almost over as dawn broke on the horizon. But she still had 15 minutes or so to go. The enemy had favored dawn attacks recently, so she didn't let her guard down as Archibald popped up on the wall shortly after light broke on the horizon. They intentionally built this little overlap into the guard to make sure that the weaknesses in their schedule wouldn't be exploited, and they had enough manpower that no one was left too exhausted.

Yet they had held this position for a couple of days and done relatively well. This wall was the most sturdy and tallest of them all. Even the explosion that the enemy had used before failed before its impressive construction.

She and Arthur had done what was necessary, and Susan and Captain Major had done their job as saboteurs scouts admirably. The Nighty Knights had also been essential in their contributions, even if they weren't exactly happy about it. Still, the instant messages they provided had saved them many, many times. But of all people, Tony had actually gone above and beyond.

From starting at level 32, he had managed to wedge himself into enough desperate fights and hold his own that he had passed level 40, according to Scan. He might even hit level 45 if things stayed like this for another day or two.

"Shift's almost over?" Archibald confirmed as he started up the stairs to the top of the wall.

"Yeah. It's been quiet, luckily." Bee called down to him.

"Awww, that's no fun. How's Tony supposed to get stronger if things stay boring?"

Bee had to credit Archibald for a lot of Tony's growth, though the men had become fast friends, and Tony had spent a lot of time learning from the soldier. Archibald's weapon was a sword, but he knew enough about wielding clubs that Tony had been able to pick some stuff up. And just in mimicking the attitude of humanity's ancient champion, Tony had grown a lot.

Bee looked around as Archibald came to stand beside her. "Tony still not up?"

Archibald's massive shoulder raised up slightly as he spoke in his odd, slow accent. Listening to him talk was a bit infuriating as it took him three times longer to say anything. "Yeah. He's resting. We had a hard bout of sparring after I came off watch last time. He did well, but maybe pushed himself a little too hard."

Bee just rolled their eyes. Archibald was a true battle maniac. He never did anything halfway. And when it came to fighting, his biggest problem was leaving the wall too often to go chase down feints a couple of times. It was why Tony often ended up in such desperate straits.

Archibald looked out over the enemy's camp as he drummed his fingers on the parapet next to her. "It's too bad Daedalus hasn't shown up. That absolute monster would have decimated everyone already."

Bee shook her head at hearing him call his companion a monster. According to Archibald, he was the rational one who kept his friend in check, but after seeing him in action? Bee doubted it. The posh dragon that Void had told her about didn't seem to be the kind to lose control, and after seeing Archibald fight, it was hard to believe that he wasn't the real battle junkie.

"Sure, sure," she said, a smile creeping into her voice. "But then you wouldn't be able to go charge out yourself to fight their commander, would you?"

Archibald at least had the grace to look embarrassed. "Hey, Tony said he was going to hold the wall. And he did."

Bee just signed. It wasn't worth mentioning to Archibald that to hold the wall, Tony had to spend a ton of expensive alchemical resources that his little sister had made and a lot of Bee's personal stash as well. It set them back days in effort, and Archibald hadn't actually managed to find the enemy commander. If he had, it probably would have been worth it. But as it was, it wasn't exactly a useful tactic.

The goal was to stall the enemy for as long as possible and hope that Void returned. It became more and more clear that if they rushed the battle, they might very well lose. But Archibald didn't seem willing to wait.

"No," Archibald said, drawing out the word even more than he normally would. "No, I don't think today is the time to go out for some fun. I got a bad feeling about today, and we're going to need all hands on deck."