“I have a headache now too.” He'd already had one, but the information-dense memory packet had exacerbated the issue. Ava’s memory had been something akin to high-definition television. Everything had been in focus all at once, to the point where he struggled to fully understand what he was looking at when she had turned her attention toward the Swarm.

He got the impression of teeth. Lots and lots of teeth.

“So, what wave was the Lancer a part of?”

“Third wave. I managed to evade the fourth and the second never made it past the shields.”

“How many got in?”

“Just six. You were unlucky to have one land so near to you.”

Maybe a little unlucky, but it could have been closer. This was still within the range of plausibility. Ava was a mechanical marvel of magic and technology about the size of a large IKEA. The fact that one of six had made it to him was not so unreasonable.

“I believe it is time for you two to move.” Ava sounded distant again in a way that told him she was monitoring something more urgent. It was honestly really kind of her to be paying him so much attention in this situation. She had just met him, after all.

“Can I have a few more minutes for the headache to go down a bit?” He was resigned to the rest of the pain. The leg and ribs wouldn’t be fixed anytime soon, but his throbbing head still had the possibility of subsiding soon.

“You do not have the time to wait any longer. While you were processing my memory, the Swarm was moving closer to you. They don’t even seem to be doing it on purpose. Are you cursed, or something?”

‘What do you mean? Are they tracking Cael by accident?’

“Well, it certainly looks that way. They are not moving with purpose, but every turn they make coincidentally leads them closer to you.”

‘How long do we have before they’re here?’

“You have a few minutes before the first should arrive, but less time if you wish to escape without being detected and chased.”

Cael furrowed his brow unhappily, but he did start moving. What other choice did he have?

He pushed himself into a sitting position against the wall. He couldn’t properly see what state his leg was in, but Tar was able to map out the injury for him.

Cael’s body was slowly mapped out and displayed in his vision by Tar. It was almost funny that Tar could feel Cael’s own body better than he could.

“How do you even feel that?” Cael asked when his veins began to appear as well, highlighting where they intersected the slash through his leg. A big red semi-circle halfway up his thigh. Cael was pretty sure that it went through part of the bone.

‘Are you forgetting that I dismantled you two days ago?’

Right. That would do the trick.

With an uncomfortable flailing of his functioning limbs, Cael forced himself to his feet. He groaned at the stabbing pain in his ribs.

A bit belatedly, his side was also mapped out. The damaged ribs were also highlighted in red.

“Move right, along the wall.”

“There won’t be any crawling, right? I actually don’t think I can do that right now.” Cael raised his leg so it wasn’t dragging against the floor and almost fell back down again from the pain.

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‘Don’t try raising your leg. The muscles used to do that are the ones that got cut.’ Cael would’ve appreciated a warning beforehand, but that was on him. It made sense if he had stopped to think about it.

Unfortunately, this meant he would be dragging the leg behind him as he ran from the Swarm.

He forcefully calmed his breathing. It was agitating the broken ribs.

But how was he supposed to move? Hopping sounded like the worst for both injuries, but he didn’t think he had much of a choice.

“You’re running out of time,” Ava warned.

Memories of the Lancer came back and his heart began to pound again.

This dungeon was a nightmare.

“Ava, can I ask you for a favor?”

“On it.” Before Cael could even ask, he heard one of Ava’s elementals melt out of the floor and begin to sculpt. “Loud thoughts.”

“I figured.” Cael smiled a little. It was certainly more convenient than having to describe a scooter to a magical artificial intelligence. Not that it was really a scooter anyway. That would still aggravate his thigh. It was more like a bike with no pedals.

“Done. Try it quickly.”

Cael reached out toward where he had last heard the tapping of tiny metal legs. His hand bumped into a pair of metal handlebars, but the bike managed to remain upright thanks to the pair of training wheels he stubbed his toe on immediately after.

He hopped forward and awkwardly wiggled his hips onto the hard metal seat. Once he’d situated himself, he kicked the bike forward.

“It’s stuck,” Cael noted when the bike didn’t even budge.

“It’s still connected to the floor. I didn’t want you to knock it over.” As she said this, the bike tipped ever so slightly to the side before leveling out once more.

Assuming it was now disconnected from the ground, Cael pushed the bike forward again. It took a bit more effort than he had expected, but maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised. It was a bike made entirely out of an unknown metal. If anything, he should have been impressed by how soundlessly it moved without any oil to smooth the turning of the wheels.

Once he got it moving though, the bike was able to keep going without issue. An object in motion, and all that.

With relatively little difficulty, Ava was able to guide him out of the room. There was no door to open or close, just a gap in the walls that led into a hall where he was instructed to take a left.

Steering was a bit of trial and error in the dark, but Cael was able to get by without bashing into the wall more than once. Of course, that one collision had resulted in a loud metallic clang from his hollow bike.

“Do you think-” A pair of screeches bounced toward him from both sides. “Never mind.” Cael sighed heavily.

‘You totally jinxed us by even trying to ask that.’

“They would have heard either way. He jinxed you by crashing.” Ava countered.

He held one hand against the wall to balance himself and make sure he didn’t crash again.

Another screech came from behind and Cael sped up. He didn’t quite fancy being eaten, but apparently, that was going to take more work than he was happy with. Obviously, he still had to do it though. He didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

The wall under Cael’s hand disappeared as he presumably passed another room.

“Do you want to go past the slowest one or the least perceptive one?”

“Can the slowest one move faster than I can?” He whispered. With his [Luck], it didn’t really matter how perceptive they were. He would probably get noticed anyway.

“A bit. However, the slow one may alert the rest of the Swarm where you are.”

“Wow, then I don’t like either of those options. Is there any way we could kill one of them?” He appreciated that she was trying, but having his options limited to ‘likely death’ and ‘near certain death’ wasn’t that great for him.

“Cael, I hate to tell you this, but my strategy for killing the Swarm onboard has always been to just wait for them to die on their own. All my weapons are too destructive to use internally.”

‘What about your elementals?’ Tar proposed.

“The elementals are all too low leveled to damage the Swarm.” She responded, almost sadly.

‘Metal elementals can do practically anything in a ship like this.’ Cael could feel Tar’s elemental superiority complex working under every word he said. It didn’t make him wrong, but he was definitely biased. ‘If you don’t think traps will work, you can always divert them. They can place walls where they shouldn’t be or even carve out the floor beneath the Swarm. Depending on how the Swarm reacts to them, they can also lead them away from us manually.’ There was a brief pause as Ava considered Tar’s words.

“Alright, let's try it. Stay still for a bit while I test them.”

Without another word, Cael slumped in his uncomfortable metal bike seat. He could appreciate a break, even if it was just for a few seconds.