All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 38: Dust-Up

We reached the wall across from the entrance exactly 2,101 ft later. That made this room much longer than it could have been tall; it was more of a hallway sized for giants. It wasn't until I saw Beatrice looking carefully at the cubbies that I realized something was inside. They were skeletons, quiet, sleeping, and apparently once-living humans. I was thrilled that they weren't trying to attack us. The numbers would have been quite troublesome to deal with, but for some reason, they seemed to be peaceful. I sure hoped it stayed that way.

We continued along the far wall making a turn once we reached it. There was another set of doors precisely opposite to the position of the entrance arch. We skipped over that just to see how far the other wall was. We found a mirror of the previous one, walls and walls upon cubbies full of old humans. It was almost exactly the same distance from the entryway as the right wall, confirming that this room was a giant rectangular hallway. We retraced our steps back as we made our way to the doors. We would need to bring proper and more powerful lighting on our way back if we were to clean this on a regular basis. It would be hard for Beatrice to spot what she missed otherwise. The center of this room was still completely unexplored, but I let it pass. Beatrice seemed ready to move on.

Pushing the pair of squeaky wooden doors open, we exited the room.

***

Moving into the next tunnel changed little. It was the same flooring, the same relative dustiness, and the carvings continued. I tried to pay a little more attention to them in case they would help me learn about the squiggle picture shorthand later, but I was honestly more focused on route planning. The tunnel seemed to slope slowly down and wrap around in a giant spiral. If the rest of the tunnel continued like this, we would eventually be underneath the cavern we had just exited.

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It wasn't long until yet another skeleton came around the bend and challenged Beatrice. This one appeared to be a bit larger than the others. More importantly, it had a tool closely resembling the sword that the outside human had used. This would be a challenge. I didn't expect it to be more difficult to deactivate - my sensors indicated similar bone density and thickness. But that sword might make it much more dangerous. I didn't want to see Beatrice's arm get damaged again. But still, that was the point of her taking the lead here. Maybe this would be a good test of what she had learned. It would take courage, though. Putting yourself in a situation where you might break yourself was hard, even if it was for the sake of improvement. It was something that I was still learning to do myself.

I still hadn't seen enough of Beatrice to decide whether she was courageous. She did seem to get herself into a disproportionate number of dangerous situations. But whether that was because she was trying to improve or because she had no sense of self-preservation… Well, I hadn't figured that out yet. I was leaning toward the second option of how fearful she was. Hopefully, my being here to help would make her feel less afraid. Though there was a chance that I wouldn't be fast enough to support her if she was in trouble. Maybe she didn't think about that.

Beatrice started with the broom in hand as she no longer put it away between fights. I was glad that she was more comfortable using it, even in this slightly unorthodox way. It was still ultimately for cleaning up mess makers, though. Unfortunately, she had struggled to figure out what to do with the light source. This forced her to use the broom one-handed. A broom, indeed, was a two-handed weapon, and especially in these tight quarters, it was very unwieldy with one hand.

Still, it was vastly superior to the cleaver or the hunk of metal she had used previously. Either of those would have been very disastrous in this encounter. Not only did the skeleton have a sword, it already had longer arms than her. The extra reach gave it a considerable advantage. If she didn't have a long-reaching weapon, there was very little chance of winning this fight. But a broom overcame many of these difficulties. It had the reach. It also had an extensive section on one end to block and catch blows. The bristles might get damaged by the sword but should be able to stop an impact or two. Ideally, she would not have to deal with that at all.

My only genuine concern was the wooden shaft. I wasn't sure how it would hold up to a blow from a metal weapon like that. When we had the ability, I'd have to get her a metal broom shaft so that she could easily replace the bristles with a new fresh set whenever it got damaged. Then she'd be a true terror for anyone trying to stop her.

Beatrice was smart and was wary of this opponent. Her eyes fixed on the sword as it moved back and forth. Whatever skill the skeleton may have had in life with a sword did not transfer over with it in death. Instead, it waved around like a child threatening a chicken with a stick. This gave me some more hope for the coming conflict.

I focused on the data streams coming in. I had made a habit of trying to use my sensor data to model Beatrice's fights for two reasons. The first was that if I could better predict what she and her opponents were doing, I'd react quickly before she got too hurt. The second was because it might help me identify areas where she could improve or become more efficient. Of course, communicating those improvements was another matter, but at least I'd have the data.

She actually made the first move grabbing the broom by the bristles. She poked at the skeleton's skull, aiming to hook one of the eye sockets. The skeleton batted it away with its sword before she got too close. The opening move by Beatrice was too slow and too telegraphed. She had to stop showing her moves. Even though I had little experience watching humans fight, her feet and eye positions allowed me to predict precisely what she was going to do 89% of the time. And I wasn't even a combat expert. Sure, I had dealt with a few mess makers here and there, but that was about it. Still, she needed to develop her own style. I was just trying to figure out how to help her with that.

Beatrice tried a few more times; it looked like she was trying to use the eye socket as leverage to pry off the head of the skeleton. That was a good plan, but the skeleton didn't allow it. Understandable. Eventually, she gave up on the idea. Beatrice swung with as much wind up as she could in the small room with her single hand. The swing whacked into the arm of the skeleton. To their surprise, the bony arm dislocated from the shoulder joint and clattered to the floor. The skeleton looked down at its limb. Then they both looked up at the same time. Beatrice's eyes met the skeleton's empty sockets.

If perhaps it was bad luck, maybe it was poor planning, but the skeleton's remaining arm was the one holding its sword. So while the skeleton was down an arm, it really didn't seem too bothered. Beatrice quickly backed up. That was a good call. The sword swipe would have missed her anyways, but she might not have been able to get out of the way of a follow-up strike. She reset her stance out of the skeleton's reach and shrugged the pack on her shoulders. Beatrice had learned from her previous encounters to keep her backpack on. Otherwise, it provided too much of a tripping hazard, and she was unwilling to leave it behind. I found that keeping it on did slow her down by around 11%, but at least it didn't distract her.

Also, in one case, she had turned her back to the opponent and took a strike on the backpack instead of to the face. However, as soon as that fight happened, she immediately put her pack down and dug through it to ensure everything was okay. She seemed pretty relieved, or so I assume. But if she had valuable stuff in there that she didn't want to be broken, perhaps taking hits on it wasn't a great idea.

All in all, it seemed to be a fairly even fight. Beatrice would smack her foe with a broomstick, and it would miss her with its follow-up swipe. This went on for almost a full minute. Beatrice didn't manage to land any other damaging hits, and the skeleton never even came close to touching her. Eventually, Beatrice had enough and switched her grip on the broom. She held it by the handle instead of the bristles and tried the same tactic she had with the first skeleton. Surprisingly, she hadn't done this often, but perhaps she was trying to save it for emergencies, or maybe she didn't feel the need to. She planted the bristles against its rib cage and pushed.

The skeletons were really light. They seemed to be able to generate an unnatural amount of force with each swing despite how little mass they had. Still, when it came to picking one up, their total weight in my dustbin only totaled about 20 or 30 pounds.

It was with ease that she was able to push the skeleton back. Beatrice charged forward, arm extended, keeping the sword out of reach. The bristles connected with the target's chest. The skeleton tried to backpedal as fast as it could, but it wasn't very graceful. She only had to pursue it for maybe a dozen steps before it tumbled over. As it fell to the ground, she stomped on its feet before quickly retreating. Its feet and legs were a complete mess of shattered bone. It still grabbed its sword with its remaining arm. Then it tried to crawl forward with its single arm and leg stubs, but it was already over.

Taking the broom, Beatrice batted at the prone form, kind of like how someone might try to put out a small fire. Eventually, she managed to knock the sword out of the skeleton's grasp or knock the handoff off its arm. I couldn't tell which. But it didn't matter as she kept wailing at the pile of bones until it stopped moving. She paused for a second once it stopped moving to ensure it was really dead and then raised her arms in victory.

"Yeah! Level 10, baby!" she grinned, pumping her fist.

I chimed in a small victory tune. I tried to convey a heartfelt "good job." Still, that surprised me. Was she only level 10? I thought to myself. According to that voice, I was already level 20. The more I learned about this place, the more my suspicions confirmed that the humans around here were weak. And they didn't seem like they were very intelligent either. I had hoped this wasn't the case, but the reality wasn't so merciful. I didn't have time to continue my existential crisis about the morality of humans, though. So I snapped out of it. I'd reorganize my thoughts on the matter on a different day.

Still, this was a great accomplishment. At least, judging by her reaction, it was.

After a moment of rest and celebration, Beatrice turned back to me expectantly. "Okay, it's giving me three skills to choose from, Master. Which one should I go with?"

Before I could object or indicate my confusion, she was already continuing. "The options are Broom Proficiency, Prayer Leader, and Intimidation."