Chapter 1270 1270 Trading Seats
--- Nixilei ---
The arachnids were (mostly) banished and now it was just a matter of cleanup. Nixilei tried simply pulling away the silk threads but they were shockingly tough and very clingy. Not wanting to let go of the plane for anything less then Nixilei's full strength. The amount of time and effort it would take to pull them all individually or in small groups would be horrendous. Asteodia was already starting to feel the burning in her legs. The hour or more that would be required to clean the webs by hand would be far, far too much.
So instead Nixilei used the air blade to slice the webs as close to the plane's body as she could. It was still tedious, but it ended up being more a matter of minutes then hours like it could have been. A few spiders had to be knocked away during the process, but most that clung to the webs were left to fall away alongside the silk. Eventually, the plane was mostly clean and Nixilei was ready to swap. "So, it's time to switch. You ready Asteodia?" asked Nixilei.
lightsnοvεl.cοm "God am I," said Asteodia. "My legs are burning and I'll be happy for the break,"
"Do you want to keep driving?" asked Nixilei as she shrugged out of the suit. It was easy to undo it as she had yet to actually hop back into the cockpit. The extra arm space meant she didn't need to risk clocking her partner over the head to get it off.
"What do you mean?" asked Asteodia.
"The controls. I sat off to the side so that you could still see where we were going, but really it might be better for you to just take the centre and drive while I pedal and supply it mana," explained Nixilei.
"Ah, well I thought about it before, but the real problem is actually the pedals. Though, if you're not driving maybe you can use the arm pedals? They're really awkward and if it's too annoying I wouldn't bother, but it might work out. Anyway, yeah, I'm not sure how I'd be able to sit centre on and let you pedal, your knees would be in the way," returned Asteodia.
"Couldn't you have your legs on either side of mine?" asked Nixilei.
"Yes, but not if you're pedalling. Your legs would still move me up and down unless…" Asteodia, "Unless I was straddling you backwards or something, but then I wouldn't be able to drive so I don't much see the point," explained the elf.
Nixilei chewed on her lips for a few moments as she thought it over. "Surely there's someway we can manage this,"
"Well I could sit on your shoulders, but I'm not entirely sure if there's enough space for that, I might have to bend my neck awkwardly because of the wings, and I can't imagine it would be great on my back… but if you really want I could sit there. I doubt I could drive the plane that way though," said Asteodia, breath noticeably heavy from the exhaustion.
Now that it had come to Nixilei's intention she sighed and said, "Right, let's swap over now we can think about it after I'm driving," Asteodia nodded and pressed the lock button. With the plane certain to remain going forward, they swapped. It wasn't all that hard. Asteodia scooted forward so that Nixilei could slide down the back of the chair and then Asteodia hopped up onto Nixilei's lap. A bit of shuffling later, and Asteodia was off to the side Nixilei had been before, legs tucked in as much as possible so Nixilei could work the pedals without issue.
Nixilei had her hands on the controls, and soon the plane started to leave its 'locked' state. Nixilei wasn't entirely sure how hard it would be to drive the plane, but it was quite intuitive for the most part. Left was left, right was right, pulling on the wheel was up, and pushing it into the console was down. All of this Nixilei had picked up from watching Asteodia drive, and a bit of testing herself now she was in the drivers seat let her see how it all worked.
Most of it seemed exponential. So you pushed the wheel in a little and the nose bent down. You pushed it in a lot, and you'd probably be doing a flip. Not that there was space here for it. Still, the idea was sound at least. "Ok, seems like I've got it," said Nixilei. "Is there anything I need to worry about around here?"
"I mean… there's still quite a few spider webs," grumbled Asteodia. Her legs, bunched up as they were, still burned. Not truly able to relax. Still, it was a pain she'd put up with because it was more important for someone to be pedalling. "None of them seem to be in the way, so hopefully we won't have to cut through one again. I'm not sure we can handle them a second time, not while you're driving,"
"Do you want the suit then?" offered Nixilei.
"No, no. Probably best for you to keep it and then have me slide into the drivers seat should the need arise. It's not ideal, and maybe my legs would thank me for flying in the wingsuit, tough as they looks on the body… but I just don't see myself magically gaining the control over my mana needed to use the weapons properly. I think I'd just end up punching things in the suit if an attack came," said Asteodia.
"That would be perfectly fine," said Nixilei. "It might not be efficient, but I would be ok with that if you don't feel up to pedalling at a moment's notice,"
Asteodia's face scrunched up like she'd swallowed a lemon. It wasn't a bad idea, and the thought of saving her legs more pain was a pleasant one… but she also knew just how wasteful it would be mana wise. On top of that, there was no certainty she'd be able to properly catch up the plane, meaning Nixilei would need to turn around and get her, forcing them to waste time flying away from the platform. Huh, there was a thought. "Hey Nixilei, how do you think Ellenell is doing?"
"Hmm… hard to say. I mean, the wind hasn't been too bad, and I'm sure that whatever air current Ellenell ended up in will continue for a while… but I'm not sure that any of the weapons the balloon has could've stood up to something like the bird. Heck, I'm not sure it could stand up to the spiders and their webs. Thought he balloon probably would've tried to fly over the trees, maybe over the bird too," said Nixilei.
"I imagine the default response for the balloon is 'just fly over it'," said Asteodia.
"Yeah but it gets cold up there doesn't it? Considering the fact the balloon is kept in the air by hot air, the higher you are, the colder it is, the quicker you run out of hot air. So while staying high is probably better from a safety standpoint, it isn't one from a mana efficiency one," elaborated Nixilei.
"Counterpoint," motioned Asteodia, "The balloon is already supposed to be mana efficient. So even if you're only operating it at half efficiency, you'd probably still have plenty of mana to get to the two hour mark as long as you're not completely silly about it,"
Nixilei considered Asteodia's point as a tribe of monkeys started to pelt the plane with fruit. Nixilei found the fact that the fruit was normally sized instead of giant to be of greater note then the attack. The mostly rotten fruit just slid off the plane's shiny exterior. "I suppose it depends just how efficient it is, and where the upper limit for things is… though what's the point of this… I hesitate to call it an attack…" Nixilei trailed of unsure what to call it exactly.
"Yeah I'm not sure either… is it supposed to be an intimidation tactic? Perhaps they want us coated in fruit juice to attract stronger predators? That… are they smart enough for that? If true… why use rotten fruit? Surely you'd want fresh fruit to attract predators right?" questioned Asteodia.
Nixilei shrugged and said, "I suppose it depends on what the predators around here like, but generally dangerous predators don't care for fruit much. Rotten or not. Perhaps it's a signal to other monkey communities? If so I think the message is washing off,"
Nixilei was correct with her jab. The fruit juice was simply running off and the smell wasn't particularly strong either. It felt like only a short matter or time until it was blown away by the wind. "Do monkeys really need a reason to throw fruit at us? Perhaps they just found it fun?" said Asteodia. Nixilei chuckled. Perhaps it was true, but that seemed like a very odd reason indeed.
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