All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 291: Fighting Fire With Fire

As the runes flashed and the tunnel opened, Bee ran through it as fast as she could, chasing after Archibald. His extra levels on her were really showing in the physical stats department. She felt a slight rippling in the air as Void whipped past her. Gritting her teeth, she poured more energy into her legs, trying to push off the ground harder and run faster. But she could only go so fast.

She burst into the massive dome at the end of the tunnel not too long after the others did. She looked around and immediately locked her eyes on where the demon that had been impersonating the king lay crouched off to the side.

"That one is mine," she muttered, preparing her broom for action as the leader of the demons taunted her master.

At first, Void didn't do much besides sealing the escape route and releasing Daedalus. Her hands shifted nervously on her weapon. If her master hadn't been here, she would have been far more nervous about the whole situation. But with its presence, she felt confident in victory.

The second that Daedalus was free, he roared forward, billowing his slightly divine-tinged fire at the demonic being of flame. Bee noted Daedalus's odd change of appearance with no small amount of wonder. Still, she didn't have time to really consider it as she lunged toward her own target. It had gotten away last time, but she was stronger now, and she didn't have anyone she needed to protect. Even better, it wasn't focused on her; instead, it was propping up illusions, trying to trick her master into thinking that the other demon Lieutenants weren't where they were. But she was going to stop that.

The tip of her spear lanced through the illusion protecting it and nearly speared through its nose before it diverted its attention from its tricks to trying to survive against her. The broom came up and battered its weapons away while the handle snaked toward its limbs and face. She moved in accordance with all of her skills, her pathfinding and broom proficiency working together to perfectly cut off the demon from the rest of the fight.

She hurled alchemical ingredients and mixtures she had prepared just for this fight. Powders flashed in the air, blinding the demon, and sprayed across its skin, burning it. It howled, but no real damage was done. Anything she managed to inflict on it regenerated nearly instantly, but that didn't mean she wasn't getting in its way and slowing it down.

With a blast of Scouring Strike to the face, she made it falter, causing it to regenerate its eyes just long enough for her to slash off one of its limbs. It started growing back, but she was already going after one of its legs. Keeping up her whorl of attacks, she forced it onto the back foot.

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I launched towards the opponent who had been taunting me, my divine sword extended in front. It talked too much. But when we met, my divine sword slammed into the shield and skidded off to the side; it had been deflected. This was the first thing that I had ever failed to cut! That was not good.

I spun, slamming the sword into the shield again with as much force as I could muster, pressing with my rotational angular momentum and using Air Manipulation to force myself even faster to aid my Thrusters. Still, the blow just bounced off. The Black Knight, full of death energy, braced its shield against the ground and didn't even slide backward. It reached toward its back and drew a serrated blade, swinging toward me in a counterattack. I easily dipped below it, firing my Sanitation Lamp at its feet. It shuffled back out of danger and intercepted the beam with its shield again, somehow proving impervious to that attack as well.

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The Earth Lieutenant came from the side, attempting to tackle me out of the air, but I managed to dodge just fine. Its fist left a crater on the floor. This one, fortunately, didn't seem to be able to block my Divine Sword as I sliced off its forearm. But the rock once parted from its body, just crumbled into the floor as a new limb began to reform in its place. I tried to pull the severed pieces into my dustbin, but the little bit of rock I got before it merged into the floor turned out to be just rock and contained no energy or demonic essence at all.

I struck again at the earth Lieutenant using a borrowed stone cutter's skill and hit it in the center of its chest. The whole thing cracked and fell into four evenly pieced segments that lined up with the geometry on my blade, but it didn't stop those from moving back together. Even as I pulled one of them into my Void dustbin, I found that the rocks were just rocks.

As it rose out of the floor behind me, attempting again to strike, I moved out of the way and was slammed into the spiked shield. The armored casing on my side cracked ever so slightly before my skills repaired it nearly instantly. These things hit hard. Worse, fighting two at once was a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. Time to try my tried and true main strategy.

Getting close to the Death Knight, I attempted to pull its shield into my Limitless Dustbin. But just as the mountain beings had been, the piece of equipment was too conceptually heavy. I started to expel the Void to take it indirectly. As the impossibly black mass expanded out of me, the Lieutenant desperately yanked its shield backward, staggering several steps back and pulling it from the partial bubble that was forming.

That was yet another surprise. Nothing had managed to escape my void bubble like that. Sure, I had only managed to barely touch it, but that really didn't bode well. This Death Knight was dangerous.

Before I could reach forward with the void, the earthen demon came in from behind, forcing me to turn and defend. The extra combatant made holding the Void bubble and preventing being hit too much for my processing power to maintain.

It didn't seem like they could really do much to me, but I was having trouble really damaging them, too. I looked around, seeing if maybe one of my allies would be better suited for this fight. Maybe we could trade places, or I could help them out to improve the situation a little.

Beatrice was taking care of her illusion Lieutenant just fine. More than fine, actually. I noted that it was unable to mess with me as it had before, focused as it was dealing with her. Still, I looked over and found Archibald trading blows with the shadow creature. He kept teleporting around the ancient human, but Daedalus's companion moved gracefully, never taking a heavy hit and returning punishment just fine. He didn't need my help, but he also didn't look like he had any attention to spare.

Daedalus, though, was chasing the living flame all over the place. It tried to scorch him back, but Daedalus seemed to be completely unaffected by the lesser flame as he kept roaring at it, and the demon withered in Daedalus's breath. I headed over in that direction, taking my opponents with me and making sure that they couldn't turn and hit one of my human friends. When I got a little closer to the dragon, I turned and sprayed some water on the Flame Demon, seeing if I could help Daedalus out a little bit. The water boiled into steam before it even got there. It did distract it a little bit, though, and that let Daedalus bathe it in flame, taking away its energy and slowly diminishing it.

But that wasn't enough. Not having any other ideas, I turned and sprayed the Black Knight's shield with one of Beatrice's very corrosive acids. It was one of her most potent brews, meant only for the most serious of stains. I thought this was a fitting use.

I watched as the acid splashed on the metal, hissing as it ate away at the shield. Huh. That might work. That was the first time I actually managed to damage the shield. Spraying some more caustic liquid on the Stone Lieutenant, I finally managed to see some results as it flinched away. Interesting.

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