All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 243: Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires

As the soldiers fled into the forest and the surrounding valley, Daedalus reached the end of their forces. Instead of coming back towards the wall for another pass, he banked sideways, laying down a perpendicular tract of burning forest in the molten ground. It would prevent anyone from the army from escaping out of the valley. And then, satisfied, he continued to burn everything.

It didn't take long for Daedalus to stop his careful approach of precisely straight lines. Soon enough, he circled in spirals and figure-eights over the roiling mass of enemies. These little ants had dared offend him. It was time to get revenge. As they ran into the cover of the forest, he couldn't help but laugh. Were they trying to defend against dragon fire with wood? As if that was going to stop him. He was the Red. He was Daedalus, the destroyer of demons.

Eventually, he noticed a few attempts to fight back. Arrows were nothing. He just shrugged the weak shafts off as he blasted through their ranks. Without coordinated volleys to damage his wings, a single shot here and there was practically beneath his notice. The demons were a bit more inventive, though. They would launch themselves or each other up at Daedalus, but they were nothing more than something to sharpen his claws on as he tore them apart and continued to rain down fiery destruction from above.

So when Daedalus felt a strong impact on the center of his stomach, he was thoroughly surprised. It actually knocked him off course a little bit and stalled his breath. Twirling in the air, he threw the attacker up even higher with a powerful kick of his hind legs while digging his talons in and raking them across its form body. The slate gray figure flew up in the air. Daedalus beat his wings to shoot up after it and catch it in his mouth. He bit down hard, splitting flesh that tasted like stone.

Then he whipped his head down and threw the thing into the ground, his serrated teeth cutting through easily. He watched as the legs flew helplessly off in one direction and the body in another. The impact sent a wave of ash and burning sparks even further into the forest. And the dry leaves of winter started to burn all the more.

The fire jumped from tree top to tree top, completely encasing the offending ants. Daedalus roared as he focused back on the fleeing nuisances in the forest and continued burning them all down. They would all learn to never anger a dragon.

----

As Bee watched the Lieutenant start to move, she heard trumpets signal a retreat of their forces. When she turned to the Nighty Knights member assigned to her location, she watched as the little girl closed her eyes. The Night Knight then shouted in her high-pitched child's voice, relaying the instructions from Felix. "We're pulling back to the castle and the city. We hold the innermost walls until the situation has changed. Anyone over level 30 should stay on the wall to watch the retreat."

Bee and Tony nodded to each other and split up, spreading out. There were a few other soldiers who had also made it over level 35, especially after the days of constant fighting. So the nearly 80 or so monsters of their army, along with several of the leaders, gathered along the wall to make sure that nothing snuck over as the weaker troops made it back to safety.

Bee couldn't help but agree with Arthur's decision to pull back. There was no chance they would be affecting this fight in any meaningful way unless they wanted to go directly to the dragon and demons. But why would they do that when the dangers were taking care of each other? She could only hope that the dragon would eventually lose interest and fly away, preferably before setting its sights on the castle.

When she looked around to find Archibald, she was surprised to realize he wasn't there. At least she couldn't see him on the wall with the rest of the stronger troops. When she started searching the horde of people below, She saw the strange man moving very quickly through the enemies. Running directly towards the dragon.

What the hell was this guy thinking? Did he have a death wish? Archibald was obviously a battle maniac, but this was too much even for him. Why antagonize the dragon further and risk earning its ire?

Suddenly, she realized something that made her slightly embarrassed. An epiphany, if putting two and two together, could be called that. Was this dragon Daedalus, Archibald's companion and Void's friend? It seemed like it had to be based on Archibald's reactions, but the dragon was not acting at all like how her master had described him. These were not the actions of a sophisticated, gift-giving, friendly dragon. This was the wrath of- well, she was going to say god, but it didn't match what her god would do at all. Judgment of old maybe would be a better term.

Eventually, everyone was clear of the danger, allowing the leaders to leave the wall. Each made haste, traversing as quickly as possible to the city or the castle, depending on where they were assigned. Bee was amongst the fastest, so she reached the gate to the castle first and started ushering people through. Her watchful eye marked people's faces as everyone made it in.

She was fascinated by the varied responses that the dragon's appearance caused. As Susan sprinted past her, she could hear her muttering under her breath, and she caught a lot of unfamiliar curses and creative turns of phrase that she'd have to remember for herself later on. But she also might have to see what Void thought about that. Would that language be considered unclean? She pondered that.

Captain Major, once he got close enough to the castle wall, slowed to a march and made sure everyone around him was catching up and getting through it in an orderly manner. They couldn't have a scuffle amongst their most powerful people right outside the gate. That would be disastrous. As he ushered people through, she could hear him yelling encouragement and orders. "Stay in line! The line is the shortest distance between two points, you numskulls. We need to stay in line. We're going to make it inside!"

As he organized people, he kept throwing out mathematical descriptions for what they would need to do in such a way that caused a number of confused expressions to emerge from the small crowd. Many of them knew what parallel was, but as for what the angles of their entry into the castle would do with their efficiency? At the very least, his constant talking seemed to keep everyone calm, at least calm enough to enter the castle in an orderly fashion.

Some of the passing faces had gone completely white, with their lips pressed together as the blood drained from their expressions. Others were on the verge of hyperventilating and looking around with furtive glances. A few people that Bee took careful note of were eerily calm. They simply walked into the castle like nothing was happening and they were just coming back from a nice shopping trip on their way home.

The worst, though, were those who walked listlessly with slumped shoulders and a vacant look in their eyes. Bee did her best to exude her Repair skills and Holy Aura over everyone, trying to bolster their spirits and help them maintain morale. But she was concerned that it wasn't enough.

With everyone inside, she shut the gate behind. They could only hope that Archibald knew what he was doing out there by himself.

Hastily, Bee climbed up on a watch platform erected behind the castle wall so she could track the action. It had enough height where they could see over all of the walls, though only the inner one was left standing.

Bee watched in horror as the dragon continued laying waste to the forest after burning the end of their valley. This was going far beyond anything that she had ever thought could happen. There was no option for retreat and no mercy, just one singular powerful being laying waste to anything in its path. The site of the Lieutenant crashing into the dragon broke her from her stupor.

---

Archibald shouted a string of expletives as he launched himself over the wall. It had been a large part of his job as Daedalus's companion just to keep him in check. And now here he was, rampaging again without a care in the world. Some things never changed.

Without Archibald on his back to keep him from destroying everything, Archibald was impressed that he managed to rein himself in from destroying the castle and its defenders. Still, he suspected that was more because Daedalus saw the castle as his property rather than out of respect for the people.

"Daedalus, you dumb brute!" He shouted up, trying to get the dragon's attention. Even if he was angry, Archibald was relatively certain he could survive long enough to calm his friend down. And once he did calm down, the red dragon would be so disappointed in himself. He knew that Daedalus had grown a lot softer over the last decade or so they had known each other.

Archibald wasn't exactly sure what the dragon had been up to in the last several thousand years. But if he'd at all continued on his trajectory, he likely would deeply regret burning the forest down for this. He took a lot of pride in his measured responses and lack of wonton destruction as time went on.

Suddenly, he saw the Lieutenant gathering power for a leap. Archibald increased his pace again. He was certain that Daedalus could tangle with a lieutenant. Assuming there was only one, of course. But without another option to contain the thing, the best they could hope for was for Daedalus to drive the thing away.

The dragons had managed that several times, and Daedalus was one of the most powerful ones. So he wasn't concerned for his friend's safety. Rather, this would probably be his best opportunity to be able to get Daedalus attention and board the dragon.

Once Archibald was in range, he sprinted forward a couple of steps and gathered himself low. With a mighty surge of his legs, he leaped high up after the Lieutenant.

Unfortunately, as the dragon and demon collided, they spiraled off to the side. It meant Archibald missed completely, soaring through the air and coming down in the canopy of trees below. He caught a branch to help break his fall, but it snapped in his hands, sending him thundering into the ground. The champion winced as his knees absorbed the shock.

Turning around, he located Daedalus as well as half of the Lieutenant falling towards him. Even as the Lieutenant fell, its two halves were already in the process of being pulled back together. By the time it landed, it was well into the process of healing.

Archibald waited for Daedalus to come down and continue his fight with the Lieutenant. Yet, instead of pursuing the enemy, he went back to immolating the attacking army.

Daedalus didn't realize this was a Lieutenant. Dumb lizard. Did he think his enemy was vanquished because he bit him in half? Archibald had a bad feeling that if his friend was really this far gone, it was going to take a lot more to get his attention. Archibald dashed away, ignoring the Lieutenant for now, and tried to hone in on where Daedalus was.

Charging through the forest, he ducked beyond the trees. When he finally got to the road, he was left with just a burning patch of molten stone in front of him as Daedalus soared off into the distance. He looked to the left and right and finally found a tall enough tree for his purposes. Quickly bounding up its trunk, he stood atop it, hoping that he might be able to reach the dragon from this height.

Slowly, he waited for the Daedalus to come back around. When he saw his opportunity, he leaped again. This time, he managed to catch hold of one of Daedalus's tail spines and, with both hands, held on for dear life as he flapped in the wind behind the dragon. Archibald desperately held on as he flailed around, shouting. "Hey, Daedalus! Wake up!"