Chapter 23: Power Washing

Chapter 23: Power Washing

I trundled down the hall, Beatrice following along behind. Several minutes had passed since we had left the beautiful room, but she was still muttering under her breath. Honestly, I was starting to get a little worried. In the few days we had been hanging out together, she was very quiet and didn't speak much. Something must really be bothering her to make her change that habit.

It continued for long enough that I decided I needed to do something. We were only about halfway to our destination, but I stopped in front of Beatrice and gave her an inquisitive beep. She fell silent, coming to a halt right in front of me, and looked down. She seemed to consider her words before speaking.

"Master, I'm just trying to figure it out. I don't understand why. What was the point of releasing one of the 13? The destruction it would cause would be unimaginable if it got out. I understand you may have freed the others for training. Or for food and resources. But couldn't you have just left Nazareth'gak alone?"

I'll be honest; I didn't really understand what she was talking about. What did she think I released? What was this about destruction? Destruction was usually something to be avoided, as it caused a mess. However, sometimes you must destroy things to make them more presentable. I thought about that show my humans loved, where a house was broken down and taken apart to be rebuilt as a newer, shinier version. However, that was planned destruction, and the messes were controlled. Beatrice probably wasn't talking about one of those times based on the tone of her voice. Most of the time, destruction only caused chaos and more work for me.

After a moment of silence, her last question hanging in the air, I gave Beatrice another questioning beep. I tried to encourage her to go on and explain.

"Well, I mean, there is no way I'm going to become powerful enough to fight it by the time it is released. So I don't think it is a training aid for me. I don't know. Maybe you’re trying to find a challenge for yourself? I'm not sure how powerful it is compared to you. I suppose if you are also training and you want to fight it... Maybe that would be it. That does seem like it would cause a huge mess, though. Also, I'd rather not have the castle come down on my head."

That clicked with me. I didn't want to cause a big mess. Was something I did going to cause a mess? I still was unclear about the whole “releasing” thing. But if I was doing something that would result in an abnormal amount of cleaning required, I would absolutely stop it if I could. Unless that would be interfering with a human. Then again, I was here for training, so maybe I could become capable enough to clean up even the most intimidating messes. After all, messes were a part of life, and chaos was unavoidable... I resolved to train harder.

I think I had an idea now of what she was upset about well enough that we could probably continue. I resumed my precisely 3.18 mile per hour pace towards the large room with the big mess. Beatrice followed along more calmly this time. Her muttering had stopped, and she seemed to relax a little.

As we walked, she eventually began to speak again. But not in the mutter-under-your-breath stress kind of way from before. Actually, I doubted she realized she muttered under her breath previously.

"So, I'm not exactly clear what your plan is. But it seems like you have it under control. If you need help in any way, let me know. I am eager to learn from you. If you really can consider beating a legend like that... I can only hope to gain a fraction of your power."

Of my power? That made even less sense. Humans didn’t have the same power source as my kind did. Or did they? I still didn’t quite know what caused humans to function. Maybe she meant my suction power? I imagined Beatrice lying down on the floor, inhaling dust as I did. It was a funny thought. That was not how humans cleaned! Besides, she didn’t have any bristles, so she’d only be able to get surface particles if she did try to imitate my vacuuming technique.

Hopefully, she meant something more like general cleaning ability. In that case, I think she might be just as good at raw “power.” She could move much heavier things, with more freedom, and move much quicker than me. The only advantage my kind had was we liked cleaning more than humans. Also, we didn't get tired the same way. For a human to suggest that I might be more powerful than them was baffling. We were always more of a convenience than anything else. Maybe humans here were really that bad at cleaning?

I brought myself out of my musings when we arrived at the large room. Beatrice paused after she opened the door. Then turned to give me an unreadable look.

Type:

Lesser Demon

Level:

above

???

It hadn't offered any more information. But it was a lesser demon, so it shouldn't be a much higher level than her. Besides, it was still moving around without noticing her presence. It looked like it had cornered something. It juked back and forth in the opening of a room. Bee couldn't see past it well enough to see what it was doing. So she kept getting as close as possible while the demon was distracted.

She actually managed to get close enough that she could almost touch the demon before it noticed something was wrong. It froze for a split second before turning to look at her. But it was too late. The cleaver was already descending towards its head.

The cleaver impacted. The demon managed to get its forearm up in time. It took the hit near its elbow instead of being smashed in the face. In that moment of hesitation, an orange blur shot between its legs. Skidding into a sharp left turn, a cat fled down the hallway. Bee stumbled forward, having put all of her weight into the swing, completely overbalancing. It might not have been the best idea, but the heavy blade embedded into what felt like bone with a sharp crack.

A spray of black goopy liquid gushed from the wound, splattering all over her face and clothes. And only because she had overbalanced and was falling forward did the demon's other arm full of claws swipe towards her miss. Claws took a few strands of hair off as she fell to the ground. The momentum of the fall took the cleaver out of the arm of the demon. She was lucky to keep hold of it. She landed, sprawled out at the feet of the beast. Clutching its arm, it howled in pain. Thinking quickly, Bee repositioned the cleaver and slashed at the back of its ankle before it could recover.

Aiming for the tendon, she could see attaching its claws to its leg. She didn't swing with as much force this time as she did not have the same leverage but still had no problem puncturing the skin and tearing through the tendon, but did not come close to impacting the bone. This was good because it allowed her to maintain control of the cleaver. She wrenched her weapon free with little effort and scrambled back as the demon collapsed.

Safely out of range, Bee regained her feet. In the half second since she attacked, black blood sprayed everywhere from the two wounds she inflicted. Now she was thoroughly covered with the black, tar-smelling liquid.

The demon howled at her as it lay on the ground, not even attempting to struggle away. With its leg immobilized and one arm useless, it didn't pose much of a threat. The only thing it could do was call for help from its brethren. She came closer. With a few downward hacks, Bee finished it off.

Panting, Bee pulled in long lungfuls of air. The whole thing took less than 5 seconds. But she felt like she had run a marathon. Adrenaline pumped through her, and everything seemed to move slower. Her movements felt faster, sharper, and more precise. She caught her breath as a large number floated up in the corner of her vision.

LEVEL UP! LEVEL 5 REACHED.

CHOOSE A CLASS. MAID, DEVOTEE, BRUTE