Chapter 239: A Voice Like Smooth Molasses
Updated from novelbIn.(c)om
As the waves of men and barely disguised demons crashed against the shattered wall, Bee dove forward into the breach. She dipped to the left, trying to give the dragon's companion space to continue his one-man stand without getting in his way, but her approach still distracted him. He snapped his head over to glance at her, though his sword never stopped moving, quickly assessing the newcomer and deciding whether she was a threat.
His evaluating gaze quickly turned to shock as he actually registered Bee's appearance. The champion's eyes darted between Bee's broom and her face, confusion growing by the second.
His mouth moved, but Bee couldn't make out the words over the screaming of defeated enemies that covered the ground around him like macabre rugs. At least he didn't attack her. Deciding that actions spoke louder than words, Bee just bared her teeth and lunged forward with her battle broom to skewer a demon. With a casual flick of her wrist, the demonic corpse flew to the side, smashing into a soldier sneaking up from the side.
Though all humanoid, a scan of the incoming enemies revealed a generous share of glowing red eyes, horns, jet-black fur, and sharp talon-tipped fingers. She wasn't sure how the enemy had convinced these men to fight alongside what were now clearly demons. Had the kingdom's men always known about this? It didn't quite make sense to her, as they had made so much effort to hide the presence of demons amongst their men before. But now that they were attacking, maybe stealth had gone out the window.
Whatever was going on with the enemy army, one thing was certain: she still had no idea how to change their minds about this war. If there was a way to convince the humans to stop or change sides, then she'd have tried it in a heartbeat. But she didn't have much hope of that. Judging from the aggression of the attackers, human soldiers included, she didn't think they were being 100% rational at the moment. Any efforts to do something about the misguided souls fighting against them might be in vain.
Bee quickly raised the bristled end of the broom and slashed it in an arc in front of her face, deflecting two of the three arrows coming at her. A simple side step and twirl allowed her to slip out of the final one's path while also bringing the bladed end of her broomstick to bear. It speared forward, stabbing through the helmet of a soldier who was flanking Archibald. The sight of the falling body made her squeamish. But she couldn't think about it. Not right now.
Her martial skills had certainly improved along with her levels, and she was doing a decent job holding back the tide with just her broom. But the hole in the wall was a wide one. Even with the champion acting as a wall of death on his side, she wasn't confident in holding her own like this forever. Letting go of the broom with her off-hand, she thrust it forward palm first and let loose a Scouring Strike. Sandblasted forward in a wide cone before her, and she averted her eyes as it stripped the flesh from the enemy's bones. The sight reminded her of what Void had done to those bandits in the mountains so long ago. The idea that she could do the same now... Well, there was no time to think about it right now.
After a few seconds, the skill petered out. She felt her energy reserves dip in response, but just grasped her broom and kept swinging.
With a thought, she extended her Holy Aura and her Repair skill over to Archibald as well. She could see the small wounds he had taken over time begin to close up as the energy of the aura washed over him, bolstering him. It didn't quite work as well as it did on Void's followers, but it still had a noticeable effect.
Quickly, she fell into a rhythm of using skills and her broom to hold her section of the wall. The dragon's champion hadn't actually moved from the center of the gap, so she was holding more like a quarter of the gap while he was single-handedly holding the rest. From the corner of her eye, she watched him fight and was surprised she didn't see a single magical skill manifest from him. It seemed to be pure blade work, endless grace in motion. He still didn't seem like he was moving faster than an average person. Still, every step he took, every small slide of the feet, left him in the perfect position to block the next invader and destroy them with simple thrusts and slashes.
Nothing seemed even close to touching him unless he was mobbed by huge amounts of force. When a particularly large push came, Bee would try to pull a few off of him onto her section of the gap. She knew he was level 69, but still. With how long he had been asleep in stasis, a performance like this blew past her expectations. Perhaps that explained why he wasn't using magical skills and his apparent slowness. But whatever it was, she was just grateful for the help. It was doubtful whether she could hold this herself.
"Huh?" Was Archibald's only response. Bee sighed and repeated herself, this time slowing down the words even further.
After she was done. Archibald nodded. "Yes. That's me. I appreciate the note. I assume that it was you who left it. Also, I don't understand why you are all speaking so fast and choppily."
Bee waited impatiently for him to take his sweet time finishing.
"I'm speaking normally. I don't know what you're talking about," she defended herself, slightly self-conscious now. She did think that she spoke a little more formally than most, but she never entirely got rid of the slightly middle-class accent she had picked up.
"Why are you speaking the high tongue so rushed-like? If you want to speak casually, why don't you just speak common?" Archibald asked in his weird vocal style.
"High tongue?"
"Yeah. For formal occasions? It was a bit of an odd choice to use for battlefield commands, but I guess I could see it."
Bee rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I think some things have changed since you were last awake, Mr. Smith. This is the common tongue, and as far as I know, there isn't any high tongue."
Archibald sighed, shoulders slumped in defeat. "I guess I better do some studying, then..." The declaration was followed by a string of totally incomprehensible words that she assumed were in his common tongue. "Also, don't call me Mr. Smith, thats my father."
"I am sure you'll get used to it. Now. Do you want to hear about what happened with your master?"
"Master?" The dragon's companion asked in complete bewilderment.
"Yeah. My master recently talked to yours and thought you would like to hear the latest updates." Bee clarified.
"What master?" For once, the question came out rushed enough that it almost sounded normal.