All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 79: A Dance of Disinfectant

Harold was unbelievably frustrated. He had spent the entire trip from Greg trying to warn the rest of the expedition about the ill omens that he and Wallace had gotten out of Patricia. So far, it had all been for naught. They refused to listen to the ramblings of a mad woman.

Sure, there was no denying that Patricia was mad. Stark raving mad, in fact. But that didn't just happen to people for no reason. Something caused her mind to break like that. Something that she remembered and had done her best to warn them about. contemporary romance

He had stayed an extra day to give her as much attention as he possibly could. Healing magic wasn't his field of study, but he wasn't useless, and he had more experience dealing with demon encounters than most people alive. Despite all that, there was little he could do.

Maladies of the mind were fickle things even at the best of times. When there were demons involved, everything became much more complicated. After spending a day questioning her and giving her medicine, he took an extra horse and galloped after the army to catch up. He'd arrived only a day out of the castle.

Harold had brought news for them, but he wasn't sure it would be enough warning. Things were going to get complicated. It would be difficult to keep the Lieutenant a secret while still making sure that the castle was cleared of danger. That was even assuming the best-case scenario, that the demon unclassified had since left.

He doubted they would be that lucky. More likely, the summoned demon was still there. Judging based on Patricia's testimony, the entire expedition would be hard-pressed to defeat it. The absolute worst-case scenario was that the summoned demon had freed the Lieutenant already.

Of course, the Lieutenant would be freed soon if not properly contained again almost immediately. But without intervention, they’d still have an extra month to try and reverse the fallout while it regained its strength.

Harold was hesitant to give the army commanders that level of information, but he was at his wits end. He left out some details, of course, evasively stating that there were demons held in the castle. Even that might have been more than he should have said, but this was his last chance to convince them to take the threat more seriously. They were right outside the walls trying to figure out how to best scout out the castle. At this point. Harold had no more time.

It was a contentious debate about what to do next in the command tent when one of the officers yelled, "Come on! That's not going to happen!"

All heads turned to the officer. Even his second-in-command glared at him. Harold had no idea what had so convinced the man the demons wouldn't free each other. He tried to defend himself. "Everyone knows they are no worse than bears. More afraid of us than we are of them."

When this garnered a round of even more incredulous stares, the man started to wilt. The commander roared at him. "Where in the five realms did you hear that? That's the dumbest crock of nonsense I have ever heard in my life!"

"Well, that's what my nan said." The man mumbled.

"Get out!" The commander shouted, spittle flying from his lips.

"My father will hear-"

"I don't care. Out!" As the man scurried out of the tent, the commander muttered. "Fool had probably never even seen a bear. More afraid of us, my boots."

When the commander turned to Harold, he seemed much more ready to hear the mage out. He briefly rubbed his forehead before continuing. "I'm sorry about the imbecile. His first campaign. You were saying?"

Harold, though, was no longer listening. He was listening to something else, a distant sound that had been masked by the argument. The blood had all drained from his face. In a panicked whisper, he responded. "We are too late…."

----

I was able to dodge the first few projectiles, but the demon wasn't dumb. It started throwing them ahead of and behind me too. With some help from predictive modeling, I was able to avoid each one, but when I realized the game it was playing, it was already too late. It had forced me further and further away from the doors.

When I was darting between two of the twisted metal bars with no escape, it threw a handful more at me. I was able to dodge all but one. But one was all it took.

A rod of metal slammed into my side, cracking my plastic shell. The force sent me flying into the wall behind. The stone gave way from the sheer impact, but strangely I didn't feel like I had taken more damage. I hung there, damaged and embedded in the wall, unable to even direct my sanitation lamp at my foe. The demon didn't chase after me to finish me off. Instead, it raced out the door that Beatrice had retreated through.

Frantically, I spun my wheels, trying to get out. But I was stuck in the wall with no traction, and they just whirred uselessly under me. Popping out my arm and directing my energy towards repairs, I began to wiggle myself free.

---

Bee stood panting at the ballista, trying to get her heart rate under control. The commotion from the room before her was intense. The struggle was going on for much longer than she and Tony had been able to delay it.

Of course, all things couldn't last, and she heard pounding steps as it charged through the door she was waiting across from. As it appeared she watched it trigger the tripwire and the swinging ax just bounced off its arm. Curseint under her breath, she adjusted her aim slightly and fired. Before even seeing her shot hit home, she turned, sprinting into the main hall and toward the main door.

Tony should already have moved to the third fallback station.

---

I was finally able to pop myself out of the stone wall. It was only 4.6 seconds, but that felt like years. As I landed on the ground, I used Air Manipulation to ensure that I landed wheels down already at top speed, racing after the demon. It wasn't going to get to Beatrice if I could help it.

As I rounded the corner, I saw the demon pulling a big spike out of its face. Taking advantage of its distraction, I got in as close as I dared and sprayed my most corrosive cleaner at it. I did my best to concentrate all of the liquid onto its right foot. If I could slow it down as much as possible, that should make it easier for my humans to contribute more.

The liquid bubbled as it made contact, causing the demons to look around in confusion. It locked its eyes on me, and my sensors registered a hole in its right cheek where it had just pulled the barbed bolt from. It seemed that Beatrice had got lucky with her last shot.

Not seeing her around, I assumed she managed to get away, and I geared up for round two. Concentrating on my lamp, I changed strategies. Instead of aiming for its eyes again, I stayed focused on its foot. The acid had already run its course as black blood oozed from the wound, washing the harmful substance away.

That same blood that had stopped my acid attack worked for me now, though. It was something that my sanitation lamp was perfectly suited to deal with, and it started to boil as I focused on it.

The demon only laughed. Completely ignoring the blood boiling in its foot, it turned around and ran after Beatrice.

---

Bee barely had time to get into position before the Lieutenant followed her. It looked like she had managed to hit it in the head. Not that it was doing much more than maybe making the demon angry. This time though, she saw Void was right on its heels chasing it down the hallway.

This gave her hope. If it was running away from her master, it must feel fear, and that meant they could do this. She saw Tony slide into place next to her. He had a bit longer to go around but had just made it in time. That was lucky, as the demon was in a perfect position.

She grabbed the other ballista that was set up next to her, aiming down the hallway right before the main entrance. With barely a second to aim, they both fired at once, taking the charging demon in the chest and face. It didn't even stumble.

Void saw their predicament and sprayed something at the demon's feet. It caused the demon's skin to bubble. This didn't slow the demon, but the liquid made it slip a little. This gave them just enough time to get around the corner and start running for the door. Maybe outside, they would have a chance to get away.

---

I desperately tried to get the attention of the demon as it chased Beatrice and Tony. The liquid only slowed it for a split second and didn't even get its attention. With few other options, I grabbed the bolt that it had dropped a little earlier and threw it.

The demon already had almost a dozen bolts in its torso, and it had just left them there uncaring. However, both times it had been stuck in the face, it had removed them. I doubted that it was because of the pain but rather the inconvenience. So when I threw the bolt at it, I aimed for the back of the head.

Throwing things was way harder than humans made it look. The weight of the bolt was almost enough to unbalance me. Instead of sailing through the air as it should, the thing tumbled end over end and bounced off the back of the demon's horned skull.

This got its attention, at least. It twirled around to face me in apparent annoyance. It ripped a bolt out of its chest to throw at me. I was able to avoid it, but as I weaved back and forth across the hallway, I knew what I was doing wasn't working. I was hard to hit, sure, but it wasn’t enough. Even if I could reliable hit this monster, I wasn't able to do any real damage or keep its attention on me.

When it came down to it, I just didn't have enough power. I needed more. With a thought, I transmuted all of the demons I had saved in my dustbin. There were 32 earth demons, as well as a huge assortment of elementals and other beasts that Beatrice hadn't wanted to keep during our exploration of the upstairs. The only thing I saved was the skeletons. I had plans for those.

The explosion of power was not quite what had happened down in the catacombs before. But it was close. Electricity shooting off of me, I shot forward like a missile. I crashed into the chest of the demon, and we both went flying past the entry hall. In midair, it threw me off to the side.

With an explosion of wood, I was launched through the doors to a familiar room. It was the large room full of pillars where I first appeared here. Skidding across the floor, I came to a halt in the center. I could feel my axle bent, and my Automatic Maintenance was working overdrive to fix the damage. It would only take a few minutes this time.

But that wasn't a minute I had. The demon, for the first time, didn't turn to go after its original prey but advanced on my fallen form. It limped slightly, and I could see where my impact into its chest had driven the bolts lodged there even deeper. Blood slowly dripped from the corner of its mouth, and its tongue lapped it up as the drops fell.

I could see a gash in the tongue where it must have bit it in our collision. I tried to move, to get out of the way, but my wheels only responded at half speed. Looking at the repair timer and judging how fast the demon was moving, I was going to have to stall for a few seconds.

Desperately I shined my light in its face, uncaring of the extra time it added to my repairs. It blocked the beam and let out the same low laugh it had been taunting us with the whole time. I shifted my focus and tried to burn the bolts driven into its chest, but even as their ends caught, the fire moved off of them and joined the flames on the demon's arms.

While I tried to stay ahead of the demon, I pushed my predictive models to their limits to find a solution, any solution, to this situation. It didn’t look good. But soon enough, my model finished updating. It said I only had one chance, and so I took it.