All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 80: Spray and Pray

Bee and Tony rounded the corner just in time to avoid the Lieutenant's clawed grasp, with Void hot on its heels. They crouched halfway down the stairs for cover and watched as Void and the demon collided. A blinding flash of white and yellow seared their eyes, and they couldn't see the outcome of that exchange.

Still ducking behind the cover of the stairs, Bee waited for her eyesight to recover. When her vision came back, she saw Tony mouthing something but couldn't make it out. She reached up to touch her ears and felt a trickle of liquid running down the sides of her head. When Tony's eyes focused on her face a handful of seconds later, she pointed to her ears and shook her head.

Tony tugged on his own ear and nodded. Digging through her bag, she pulled out a quick heal potion she had stored for just such an emergency and downed it. Tony did the same. The potion was completely overkill for such a minor injury, especially considering that it could even regrow a hand or foot, but it was the only thing she could make to get them into fighting shape so quickly.

Hearing restored, Tony whispered to her. "What can we even do? That thing is way too powerful to take on."

"We were able to hurt it," Bee said, trying not to sound too discouraged. "If we can hurt it, then we can help Void handle it."

"Does Void even need our help?" Tony asked skeptically. She didn't miss that he had started calling her master Void rather than Spot now.

"We have to try." Bee insisted. "It didn't say it would fight all by itself. We can't let the master down, even if all we can do is provide a distraction. But still, that doesn't mean we need to be stupid about it. The Lieutenant set off all the traps along my route, so let's gather some of the stuff along your path, and we can reuse a lot of that."

Not waiting for Tony's response, Bee stuck her head over the lip of the stairs and could see flashes of light coming from the grand hall where Nazareth'gak and Void were exchanging blows. It seemed they were still probing each other, as the damage was not nearly what it was just a few seconds ago. Not seeing any opening, Bee just darted down the hall and rounded the corner as fast as she could. Thankfully Tony followed.

They didn't slow down as they sprinted to the first set of untriggered traps. The first was a bucket of potions balanced on the top of a servant's doorway. The double door on the right was open from where Tony had run through, but the one on the left would open as he was chased because the demon wouldn't fit through the narrow opening.

Tony reached up and handed it to Bee, who raced back to the grand hall. Tony stayed behind, rushing back into the hall to get the next salvageable piece of a trap.

----

I only had one hidden card, and I needed to play it. There was no more time for messing around. I was trying to use the pillars for cover to position myself, so I could unleash my attack from the right direction, but the demon kept knocking them down with swings of its fist. I was very glad we didn't just let this thing rampage. It was capable of making a mess so thorough and cataclysmic that even I didn't think I could clean it up.

Dodging the falling masonry, I positioned myself so that I lined the demon up with the doorway leading out of the castle. Right as I had it in place, Beatrice jumped out. She wasn't even armed with her broom but instead was brandishing a bucket. She hurled the bucket's contents forward, and the demon ran through the liquid in midair.

For the first time, the demon didn't laugh about this assault. This time, it screamed and tried to wipe at the sizzling liquid on its chest. It mostly succeeded, but now the liquid was burning its hands too, and it had driven the many bolts in its side even deeper. The scream it let out peaked my audio sensors' microphone input. Still, it wasn't slowed as it looked for its attacker in rage.

Beatrice had smartly ducked back out of sight as soon as she could, so the demon charged at me instead. With my chance ruined, I had to zip out of the way. I wasn't too concerned, though. I would have another chance soon. I worked my way toward where the majority of Beatrice's attack had splashed on the floor. With a couple of swipes of my mop, I retrieved all the liquid. Good, now I had a real weapon.

Not once did I take my sanitation beam off the target, but now I have two effective weapons. Unfortunately, the demon now had a second weapon too. It was a close call, but I managed to dodge the piece of the pillar that it hurled my way. The wall behind me wasn't so mobile. With an explosion of dust, the wall broke, and a gaping hole appeared next to the door. I hoped Beatrice wasn't standing there.

Now that range was no longer my friend; I went in close. I started using the lamp and spray bottle in combination, launching streams of the liquid that I had just gathered to coax the demon back into position. It still seemed to burn my opponent, eliciting growls of annoyance, and it went out of its way to avoid it. But if it thought it could land a blow on me, it would take a spray.

Despite its impressive speed, though, it never managed to land a direct blow. My predictive models and quick acceleration managed to keep me just one step ahead. That wasn't to say I was unscathed. Each time it barely missed me, an explosion of stone ringed its fist. The shards peppered my sides, filling them with scratches and making my repair work overtime. The terrain was also getting more uneven and harder for me to traverse.

Still, I was making progress. I saw Beatrice stick her head out again. There was some blood running down the side of her cheek, but she didn't look too damaged, thankfully. Finally, I had the demon where I wanted it. Right as it charged me from the door, I reached into the dustbin and loosed my army.

----

Bee had barely survived the wall exploding behind her. The explosion had thrown her sideways and rag-dolled her down the hallway.

Tony ran to her side, fearing the worst. The girl's small form was still, unmoving where it lay. Without a second thought, Tony grabbed another quick healing potion and gently tipped it into Bee's mouth. He held her, relaxing slightly as her faint pulse strengthened.

Bee coughed, spattering a bit of blood over her tunic as she struggled to stand once more. But Tony gently kept her laying where she was. "Bee, listen to me. This is too dangerous, especially for you. We've done enough here, and we need to get you to safety."

The younger girl stared up at him in confusion. "We haven't won yet… Void needs us."

Tony shook his head. "I really don't think he does. Look, I know you're strong and all, but this is a whole other level. I don't want you to get hurt, and…" He sighed. "I promised my Da to keep you safe, Bee."

As her wounds healed, Bee considered his words once again. The longer this fight went on, the more convinced she was that Void was just toying with the Lieutenant rather than treating it as an actual threat. Still, her master had asked her to do what she could.

Coming to a decision, Bee faced the farmboy. "Tony, if you want to retreat, I won't stop you. But I made my own promise to Void, and I won't go back on it."

She flashed him a smile. "Plus, Master is strong. He'll protect me, even against a monster like that."

Bee rose to her feet, a little wobbly but determined. The potion was sapping a lot of her energy, but she didn't have time to rest, so she pushed past the fatigue. After a moment, Tony joined her with a look of grim determination on his face. Together, they rushed to the next unused trap to salvage it.

The next trap that she had repurposed was a bit of razor wire. It took some ingenuity, but she and Tony had managed to set it up in the hallway just above head height for them. It would hit the demon when it exited, hopefully. When they were running back to get the next trap, a new clattering noise came from the active fight between the god and demon.

----

The skeletons had reformed in my dustbin early on. But even after that, they hadn't stopped changing. I was a bit more aware of their presence because of the more ways I could split my attention as I had leveled up. Over the last several days, in particular, I watched as power seeped into them. Changing them from the mid-level, somewhat basic skeletons they had been.

When they emerged, they no longer looked like the skeletons of humans. They had all grown several feet, and their bones were much thicker. Coming off them was a faint purple glow of power. An unending tide of armored legions poured from my dustbin. I hoped that this strategy would work much better than the last time I tried it with the demons.

These skeletons and demons were enemies like we had first guessed down in the catacombs. But it wasn't as simple as it seemed. To the demon, they were just skeletons. But when I was examining them in my dustbin, I could feel the utter hatred the skeletons felt for all demons.

As they came out, they formed orderly ranks, and the second each rank was formed, they charged the demon. They didn't fare very well. It was a bit of a disappointment to see my trump card shattered with a wave of a fist. That was just the first wave, though, and there was a lot more where that came from.

The second rank also was tossed aside, but they still didn't stop. By the fifth wave, they had driven the demon back a step from pure numbers. By the tenth, the first wave was already reforming. I only had 20 waves to let out, but they pushed the demon back. It was slow, and they didn't always make progress. But they weren't losing outright.

I spent a few seconds trying to heal the worst of the damage, but soon it was clear I needed to help. Coming in from the sides, I worked to keep the demon being pushed backward over prioritizing dealing damage. I wanted it outside where it could make a mess without hurting the castle anymore.

The skeletons were making some progress. It was hard to say they were really damaging it, but more and more thin lines and streaks of blood appeared on its chest. Their only saving grace was that unless they were completely smashed, they were back in the fight rather quickly. Their ability to reassemble themselves was much higher than the low-level ones Beatrice fought back against when we first went into the catacombs.

Additionally, there were a few skeletons that were not in formation. Those were much smaller than the rest. They started trying to sneak around the demon but kept getting dismantled and having to reassemble before trying again. I assumed they were the weaker skeletons I had cleaned up rather than the tomb guardians.

Eventually, we pushed the demon out into the hallway. But following it was a bit of an issue as all of the skeletons couldn't get out of the door at once, and only with their full numbers could they have any effect on the demon. It seemed to realize this advantage and stood at the doors sweeping wide with its fists and bashing the skeletons to pieces.

As I tried to formulate a way past this chokepoint, my sensors noticed as a pair of the smaller skeletons snuck out of a newly formed hole in the wall. A small contingent of other skeletons saw that and started to follow.

---

Bee watched in awe as endless tides of skeletons fought the Lieutenant. This was a weird sight. She and Tony were watching from a hole in the wall, waiting for the right time to strike. They had gathered throwable glass balls and flasks, but there hadn't been an opening yet. The swarm of massive skeletons completely blocked all angles of attack.

Focused on the combat as she was, Bee was confused when Tony hauled her back away from their position. A pair of smaller skeletons crawled out over the wreckage. They glanced around and saw the two humans but ultimately ignored them before sneaking around the demon who had just been pushed out into the hall. Were they assassins?

To check, Bee scanned the pair. The names seemed familiar. Where had she seen Skelly and Skully before?

Soon enough, more followed, and Tony and Bee just watched as skeletons circled around to attack the demon from behind. Once the flow stopped, the demon was completely surrounded. For the first time since they had awoken it, the situation seemed to be looking up. However, that didn't last long.

Letting out another roar that popped Bee's eardrums, a wave of force blasted out of the demon, throwing the skeletons in all directions. Only a split second later, the wave hit Bee and Tony, and for the second time in the last few minutes, she was flying back down the side hallway.