Chapter 128: Dogpile

Chapter 128: Dogpile

Bee looked up at Tony. That's right, he wasn't there for the whole infiltrator discussion with Susan. "Uh, you remember when I told you that she went to go tell people about us?"

Tony nodded. Bee looked at Susan to see if she wanted to fill in the gaps. Susan just gave her a shrug. Sighing, Bee continued. "Yeah, well, she has the Infiltrator class."

Tony cocked an eyebrow at Bee. "So you just... let her go inform on us then?"

"Well no," Bee said. "Void did."

"To be fair, I wasn't really telling them anything that would harm you all." Susan piped up. "Or at least, I didn't really have much more information than castle supply numbers. But with Void's presence I don't think there is really any danger to us, especially with the army's attention taken up by the undead at the moment."

"Okay, sure, Void does what he wants." Tony said slowly, clearly still processing the information. "So, deep cover. I take it you were a spy?"

"Of sorts." Susan hesitated. "Operative might be a better word. It was something that me and a few others had been raised for since we were very young."

"So what are you doing here then? Why turn on your handlers?" Tony asked, his face still not entirely trusting.

"Because I met Void." Susan stated simply. "I'm not really turning my back on them, either. Honestly I was telling them the truth and they thought I was brainwashed. Besides, a new god has been born. To let the world know if it is much more important than my previous orders."

Bee wasn't sure where the fanaticism came from. Sure, she was dedicated to her master too, but Susan took it to a whole new level. Maybe it was a regional thing? The commonly worshiped gods had few devoted followers around where she grew up. Mostly they were considered myths or, at most, relics of a past age that had long since retreated from the world. Disappeared ever since the major demon threats were repelled. There had been very little talk about them in the books she had read in the library so far.

Still, we were moving excruciatingly slowly. After 18 minutes, Tanu's arms couldn't take it anymore. At the pace we were moving, we were still over an hour from the road. The more I watched Tanu struggle with his burden, the more impressed I was that he had managed to get so far into the woods on his own. He was sure lucky to find a dog to help him survive the undead. Maybe the dog was lucky to find him, though. These smaller dogs didn't seem very helpful.

Tanu looked around at the ground. I guessed he was looking for a place to sit. To prevent him from further dirtying his pants, I floated a fallen log over to him with Air Manipulation. I then proceeded to nearly smack myself with my claw in frustration, stopping only because I feared I might hurt the dog on my back. Instead, I moved the dog over to the pile and lightly tapped my outer shell in frustration. Air Manipulation! How could I forget about that?

I wasn't sure about my limits, but I started hovering the dogs up one at a time, trying to see how many I could carry. Their flailing paws didn't make it any easier. It was like they were trying to fly by swimming through the air. That just was making the air circulate in ways that were slightly harder to control. Still, I was able to lift five before I could feel my circuits start to heat up. That should be more than enough.

After resting for a few minutes Tanu, the stupidly enormous dog, and I were ready to go. Progress was a lot quicker now that I had optimized our transport methods. However, referring to the dog's size every time I thought about it was starting to get repetitive. Normally I would have just let the humans pick a name, as was tradition, but I supposed that I could do it this time. Not that anyone would know about it. It would be my personal designation for the creatures. Once the humans picked a name, though, I would just call it that.

So what would I call it? Rather than try and optimize the combination of vowels and consonants myself, I ran a random number generator against a list of all the names I had ever heard of. Number 375. Albert? I didn't quite like the sound of that. Sure, it was a big name, but the dog wasn't fat, just big-boned. I quickly narrowed down the list to ones that I felt had some relation to the huge dog. Cliff?

Sure, Cliff would do. Why not. Cliff insisted on carrying one of the two smaller dogs that I wasn't able to lift. She watched the floating pack warily but didn't object to the new mode of transportation. The last dog was resting on my back, leaving me free to retract my arm and focus on carrying the fluffballs.

The rest of the trek back to the clearing around the walls of the castle passed in a blur. After a little while, I dropped to the ground and just rolled through the dirt, as splitting my attention was just too much for my poor hardware. Without his burden, Tanu had no problems keeping up. He was a hard-working kid; I just hoped that he wouldn't wander off again like this. It would be a shame if I had been just a little slower. Once we got to the clearing, I set the dogs down for a second. I needed a small break to let my circuits cool. That was more of a workout than I had tried in a good while.

Cliff was still going strong, but she wasn't willing to leave the pile of puppies. She stayed with us as Tanu, and I rested in the dirt. Sure, this method of travel was much faster, but it was exhausting. On the other hand, my Air Manipulation was getting more and more powerful. If I wasn't constantly redlining my outputs, then carrying a slightly lighter burden would have been easy. I was also draining my battery for the first time in a very long while. I had considered transmuting some matter from my dustbin, but with the unusual heat from my exertion, I didn't know what would happen. If I exploded with energy or heated up even more, I didn't want to risk damaging the dog on my back.

A few minutes of a low processing load and the cool air helped me return to a normal processing temperature. This wasn't the hardest thing I had done by a long shot, but it was a lot of effort over time. Now that I was a bit better, I risked transmuting a little bit of dirt. Energy topped off, and the processor cooled; I was able to lift all six of the dogs. Cliff still refused to let me take the last one, so I just let her take it. A few minutes later, we were in front of the gate.

I considered boosting over it, but I wasn't sure about lifting Cliff and everyone else at once. I also didn't want to take the other dogs where she couldn't reach. She seemed quite protective, and that just seemed cruel. So instead, I just rapped my claw loudly on the metal bars. The ringing echo filled the night air.

The castle door creaked open, and a few figures hurried down the steps as if they had been waiting for my return. As three people ran over, my sensors made them out to be Mary, Trent, and Talia. Talia wasn't able to contain herself and led the pack for most of the way.

"Tanu!" she cried as she caught sight of our forms through the portcullis. When she got the bars, she pulled up short. At the sight of the fluffy Cliff, she even let out a short scream. "Wolf!"