Re: Butterfly (Reincarnated as a Butterfly)

3-52. The Rescue



After only another second or two of hesitation, the spiders began moving, skittering away from William's body at a pace that would have impressed a professional sprinter.

Adon felt their slight apprehension at leaving William behind, but it was mixed with a confidence that Adon would take care of their comrade—and a healthy dose of fear for their own safety.

The spiders knew the danger that they were all in, just as well as the butterfly did.

Adon could tell, without looking, what the world behind him had turned into. Everything was collapsing, there was no more floor, the ceiling was caving in, the walls were crumbling, and the air was filling with dust. It was enough to fill the most stalwart heart with dread.

As for the butterfly, he just flapped harder and kept his laser focus on reaching William. Now that Goldie and Samson were getting away, the young lord was the only one who needed saving—unless one counted Adon himself, of course.

But he knew he could fly fast enough to evade this unnatural disaster if he had to—unlike William, who was completely helpless. Adon's task was made easier by the fact that the monsters were not precisely targeting him. As became clearer and clearer with each passing moment, the creatures were destroying everything around, because they could not sense the location of their enemies. That was precisely why this cave-in was necessary to their counter attack, despite being a rash move from the Quugaarpak perspective.

The arthropods were small and lightweight, while William lay unmoving like a piece of stone debris, with the result being that it was impossible for the monsters to locate them without poking their heads out into the tunnel. Given what had happened to the three Quugaarpaks that were in the tunnel with the arthropods and William, Adon guessed the wounded Quugaarpak had warned its friends against that.

So the race was on to reach the young lord before this unseeing force of destruction swallowed up the area where he lay.

Dirt and stone fell to all sides, as Adon tried to outpace the tunnel collapse.

It almost threw him off when he heard a crunch and squelch of crushed bone and flesh behind him. He instantly sensed that one of the Quugaarpaks had died, crushed under a piece of falling rock. Adon was fairly certain that it was the one he had been communicating with earlier, destroyed in the cave-in that it had ordered itself.

That was sad. He could not allow himself to dwell on it, but this whole small trek had been disappointing. Failing to secure the Quugaarpaks as allies was unfortunate enough, but considering that they could dig at such incredible speeds—and the collapse rapidly unfolding all around him was evidence of that—converting them into enemies might have been outright catastrophic.

Then again, at least they don't know much about us, Adon thought. The only ones that did are dead or about to die, in large part thanks to William…

At least that might minimize the consequences of making these new enemies.

Adon shaped his body into the most aerodynamic form he could, flattening his wings relative to the wind to cut through the air and get the last burst of speed he needed to clear the remaining distance.

As he shot to within a few feet, he was already starting to use Transformation. Adon had figured out how he was going to handle this situation, and now that he was close enough to effectuate his plan, his body reshaped itself to be fit for the task. Wings became arms and legs, while his torso expanded drastically, and his head shifted into a humanoid head.

Adon had decided his quasi-humanoid form was the best one to rescue William while also pulling himself out of danger. The shoulders, hands, arms, and legs that humans had were perfect for something like carrying an unconscious man away from the site of his injury. Human limbs were also incredibly adaptable in case something else came up, like the need to fight while maneuvering William's body. There was nothing better that came to mind in the heat of the emergency.

His momentum carried him forward the last couple of feet. Adon landed and skidded, the simple leather shoes that he had materialized onto his feet tracing a pair of short grooves in the dirt.

A part of him wanted to marvel at the elegant and extremely functional form he had made for himself—Adon was truly getting better at this every time—but there was no time for that now.

He reached down, grabbed hold of William's arms, and began to drag him away.

The original plan had been to carry the young lord, but the tunnel was collapsing so quickly that Adon's first priority was to just pull William away from the small area they occupied, so that the two of them wouldn't fall together into the dark abyss that was opening up where Adon and the others had just been.

To Adon's pleasant surprise, the metal armor that William wore did not seem to increase his weight by very much. Perhaps it was made to be particularly lightweight.

Adon coughed at the dust that filled the air nearby and started dragging harder and faster, aware he was not safe yet. The ceiling could cave in his head at any moment if the beasts recognized that something was still alive in this section of tunnel.

As if to emphasize that point, a boulder came down just overhead, and Adon had to twist William and himself to the side so that they would not be crushed.

The pair slammed against the wall and almost through it, as it turned to powder at almost the same moment they struck the surface.

The boulder hit the ground where the two had just been, and it simply kept going, smashing a hole through the floor and presumably continuing to fall through the next level of these tunnels.

Adon did not bother looking down after it, instead shooting back up and dragging William at an even faster pace. The sweat began to pour down, but Adon did not allow himself to wipe it away, nor even to breathe, as choking and coughing on the dusty air that was all around them now would only slow him down.

The butterfly just kept going through the cloud of grime. The only thing that he could see clearly was William.

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As he pulled, Adon got a good look at the young lord's face and spotted an injury that the spiders had not noticed or had not seen fit to mention in light of the emergency. Despite William's best efforts to protect himself by reinforcing his front with mana, he had some light burns to his skin. The fire had completely burned off his eyebrows and the minimal facial hair—peach fuzz, really—that he had grown since entering the dungeon.

The back of the young lord's head was definitely far worse—it was still gushing blood as Adon dragged William away from certain death—but the facial burns gave additional credence to the idea that William had focused on protecting the spiders and divided his attention in a way that might have endangered his own life.

If the explosion had been just a little bigger…

Adon found himself softening on the young lord, who he had disliked almost from the beginning of their acquaintance. Anyone who would risk his life to save Adon's friends could not be that bad of a guy. Even if he resented Adon—and the feeling was obviously mutual—William was far from a waste of space.

It helped motivate Adon to continue giving his all to saving William.

As the butterfly dragged the noble further from the collapsing earth, straining every muscle in his newly shaped humanoid body to keep the young lord out of harm's way, the zone of destruction stopped gaining on them as quickly, then slowed down and began losing ground, and finally stopped.

The monsters appeared to have decided they had destroyed their own infrastructure enough. Surely nothing would have survived the sheer onslaught they had unleashed. Certainly not immediately after having also been at the center of a cave explosion.

Adon himself did not stop. He acted as if the monsters might resume their attacks at any moment. For all he knew, they would. He did not hear their thoughts. He was not capable of adequately understanding them even if he could, since they had their own language, and more importantly, his full focus was on his task right now.

The butterfly paused only long enough to hoist William onto his shoulders in a fireman's carry, and he pressed on. Everything was focused on maintaining this Transformation. He did not know how long he could hold it, but he needed to accomplish everything to resolve this emergency before he returned to his usual shape.

And after another dozen steps, he suddenly found himself almost putting his foot down on a large spider.

Looks like we survived another disaster that should've killed us, Samson sent, looking up at the bottom of Adon's shoe curiously, as if wondering what that was doing there.

Adon smiled at the two spiders scurrying at his feet.

"I thought you two got away," Adon said, speaking using his actual mouth for a change. The sound was slightly rusty and unnatural, but it was still his voice, as deep and rich as ever, and he was glad to be able to hear it.

We did get away, Goldie replied. But we did not want to run far from what you were doing. Just think, what if you had needed help?

Adon nodded. "Of course, I should have known. I appreciate it."

Now that you have accomplished the part of the mission that required speed and dexterity, perhaps you should return to your normal form, Goldie added.

We can take it from here, Samson sent. Helping William, that is.

"You guys?" Adon asked, raising an eyebrow.

Don't judge us by our size only, Samson sent. Not mama, at least. You remember that you're not your usual size right now either, right?

Adon felt his cheeks growing slightly red. "I remember, yes."

Before his eyes, Goldie began to use Transformation. She was applying it in a much simpler way than Adon—just increasing her size significantly from her normal manhole cover-sized spider shape to become a spider the size of an adult human. It was a big change from the perspective of a normal person, but Adon knew from experience that the relative simplicity of the alteration meant that it was probably much more easily sustainable than his human form Transformation.

That's fine, Adon sent, his body already slowly reverting back to a butterfly as he communicated telepathically. I mean, thank you for the help!

You already did everything else, Goldie sent. You warned us, you dragged William's body out of danger… You give yourself far too little credit, as usual.

Right, Adon transmitted quietly.

He didn't know what else to say to that gentle, kindhearted criticism. "I'll try not to do that" seemed inadequate and mainly pathetic.

He fluttered his wings, landed on William's head, and began using healing magic again as Goldie latched onto William's armor with her mouthparts and began dragging the lump of young lord back toward the entrance of the cave. Samson quickly joined Adon on his perch and began assisting, using the same magic—the only affinity that Samson had begun to develop any grasp on.

Together, they slowed and eventually stopped the flow of blood from the back of William's head, then closed the hole there completely, and finally got around to healing the burns to the front of William's body, light though those were. By the time the two paused their efforts, the young lord appeared to be as good as new, aside from the fact that he was still unconscious. Adon could not tell if William was pale from blood loss or had any other visual signs of having been injured, due to the lack of lighting, but he was at least reasonably confident that William would make a full recovery—and probably awaken fairly soon.

Did either of you get any injuries? Adon sent after he and Samson had repaired all the significant damage to William.

Samson simply shook his head.

Nothing that shedding my skin will not cure, Goldie sent. I just need to eat again. But besides the hunger, I feel very good. Powerful and energetic. Any damage was minimal.

Adon felt that he understood her condition from that. He felt the same way. They had probably both just received a decent infusion of Evolution Points from surviving that near death experience, and he realized he had not checked on them in a while.

I need to do that, he thought.

He looked into the distance, trying to gauge how far away the entrance of the tunnel might be. But it was something that Adon could not make out from where they were, not even in the form of a small, distant light.

Perhaps this was as good a time as any for some housekeeping.

Do the two of you mind if I take a few minutes to go through my Status? Adon finally sent.

No, you do what you need to do, Samson replied.

I am focused on dragging William and will not be very good conversation anyway, Goldie sent.

Got it, Adon sent.

He opened his Status.


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