22 [Upgrades]

Fate/Defiance

Chapter 21 [Upgrades]

By theMadLad

Beta: Old man of the mountain

It had been a few more days since Icarus took in Atalanta and he was finally able to take some time to process the previous battle.

He was unable to think over the situation due to how busy he was taking care of Atalanta and getting her situated, it also didn't help that she had run away for a time.

But now he could.

He would often have thoughts of the centaurs he killed, especially the one he had slaughtered, Onias. Sometimes he would have bad dreams and wake up in a cold sweat seeing the centaur's face the moment he beheaded it.

But he kept strong, burying any queasiness he felt while trying to overcome the feeling it gave him. He wouldn't allow it to hold him back, what was done… was done. He could only move forward.

Icarus groaned as he sat up, with his bruised body mostly healed other than the broken rib which would take him some more time to recover. Thankfully the blessed bounded field helped accelerate his recovery.

Hmm? Was that sniffing he heard?

Icarus turned to see Atalanta on all fours sniffing some of the equipment he had looted from the centaurs and their camp before hissing at it.

…Then she pounced.

"Atalanta!" Icarus roared as she started to tear into his new materials! Her head swiveled to his before taking a defensive stance while opening her mouth to show her crooked sharp teeth.

"Hey, don't give me that shit!" Icarus yelled as he stood up while suppressing a flinch from the pain on his side.

She hissed at him in defiance as he glared down on her, he knew he couldn't show any respite as Atalanta was currently like a wild animal—if he relented she would lose any respect for him and walk all over him. But seeing him stand his ground caused her to eventually relent with a yowl, before sauntering off on all fours.

Icarus sighed as he watched her leave. He was honestly tired of dealing with this shit so frequently, but he had already accepted the responsibility—so he would do so regardless.

…Besides, it reminded him of something that he would always abide by.

Compassion.

Icarus firmly believed it to be humanity's greatest trait other than intelligence. It might seem idealistic or naive, maybe even foolish, but he wanted to always stay compassionate.

He didn't wish to be someone like Gilgamesh or Merlin, who while admiring and loving humanity as a whole… could care less for any individual who didn't catch their attention. They cared only for a man's accomplishments, not the man himself.

It was rather arrogant to compare himself to such 'inhuman' figures who held a much broader and 'higher' view of the world and judge them so. But was he not the same in some way? This world was one that used to be entirely fictional, nothing but a gacha infused facsimile of his own.

He knew secrets about it that others could only fantasize about. But in the end… he was only human, regardless if in a fictional world or not. So he would view things as a human should, with compassion. For that is what he believed separated them from all the other creatures of the world, whether in this life or the previous.

He felt a weight to his side, and turned to see Atalanta curling into him, craving attention. He gave a pat to her head before taking out a piece of jerky and feeding it to her while she purred.

Icarus smiled as he watched her eye's lock onto the food before quickly eating it whole, licking his hand to make sure she got all of it.

He was glad he saved her.

He didn't care that she was some future hero, because right now she was only some crazy feral child who loved to hiss at clothes on the floor.

…And that was enough for him to care for her without anything in return.

He sighed as he thought about her future self's obsession with saving children, partly due to her poor childhood. He hoped to alleviate that burden from her heart in some way.

It also caused him to think of the current era, where children born disabled were usually killed, and even if not, they would still be heavily ostracized and thought of as punishments from the gods.

Even the nobles of Athens advocated for it. Still it was especially prevalent in Sparta, where children would be inspected by elders upon birth and swiftly killed at any sign of deformation.

It was a ruthless and pragmatic form of natural selection.

He was lucky he was born healthy.

He winced as he sat up while commanding Atalanta, "Come on, time to learn." She seemed to understand his intention and quickly scrambled to get away… but not before being caught and dragged away.

"Don't be like that, reading is important! ~Don't you know that the more you read, the more that you know! …And the more that you learn, the more places you'll go~!" Icarus sang as he hopped along while carrying Atalanta by the scruff of her clothing.

…Not to mention that reading was also extremely useful in this time period. Although Atalanta didn't care, she could only whine in reluctance as Icarus forced her to anyway.

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It was some time later, after Icarus had Atalanta sound out the various sounds pertaining to different characters of the language, that he finally had some time to thoroughly examine the things he collected from the centaurs.

In between Atalanta's antics and his own injuries, he had been unable to get a good look at what he had gained.

So, while he had Atalanta distracted, he decided to give it a thorough look through. First off, he had not collected any of their corpses. While he did take some of their hairs to use as thread, the same couldn't be said for the rest of their bodies.

…But, if Paimon just so happened to stumble on a food source consisting of horse men—it was none of his business. It wasn't like he could have directed the hungry bird eating up all his food or anything!

Heh… It was so fucked up.

But it was honestly necessary.

He didn't want to use their corpses out of disgust, especially towards essentially pillaging their dead half-human bodies. He also didn't want to look at the people he killed, he still needed some time to process and get over it.

It didn't help that the addition of Atalanta only added more stress to his already tense self. She was another mouth to feed, which was a heavy burden due to his injuries leaving him unable to hunt.

He would soon run out of food if he didn't leave them Paimon, but it still didn't make him feel any better about the act though…

Anyways, the objects that Icarus had managed to loot were mostly weapons and materials. Things such as the hide or cloth that they used for their camp's tents, or swords and bows along with an abundance of arrows.

He had Atalanta help him set up one of them that the two of them could sleep in so they no longer had to be out in the cold, or worry about rain.

There were also more convenient things such as firewood or tools like axes and chisels. Now he didn't have to make his own, which Icarus was immensely grateful for as it freed up much of his time.

There were also some herbs and plants with medicinal or esoteric properties that could be useful in the future.

…and alcohol, tons of alcohol.

That was pretty much it, just more of the same stuff.

Which Icarus was fine with.

This battle had given him something much more valuable than supplies afterall, battle experience. It was his first time facing intelligent opponents that could speak and act as a group, instead of just a horde of individual units. It also taught him how to improvise without a weapon at hand and against an opponent with a hostage.

But that wasn't to say he made no mistakes.

He made plenty of them.

He didn't anticipate suddenly entering combat and neglected to bring a proper weapon, but that was no excuse—he should have prepared for that.

Icarus also made mistakes while confronting the centaurs. He should have just killed them when he had the chance, and while he did use the moment to reassure Atalanta—it would have been better to just kill them off first before comforting her after.

He underestimated them after he had so easily dispatched their comrades… and that was almost a grave mistake.

Thankfully he was able to improvise enough to save the day, especially with the help of the poisoned shit blade. He made sure Paimon was well fed the day after.

The fight also helped him think of improvements for his wings, specifically the defenses. While his wings could take the blow from the centaur's devastating kick, his body could not. Icarus felt a wince of pain from his side at the thought.

He dreaded the thought of going against one of Greek myth's more powerful monsters if that was what just the centaurs could do. But there was only so much he could do for now, he needed to work his way up to that point, and he could start right now, by overcoming his defense issue for his wings.

First he made sure to put Atalanta to bed, laying a blanket over her to keep her warm as she coiled herself around the bear skin clothing for comfort.

Then he headed to another area of his clearing to set up one of the tents he had taken. He made it using the largest one available. It was intended to be a makeshift workshop where he could build and make upgrades to his gear without Atalanta interfering and getting herself hurt.

It took him some time to finish setting them up all alone, but unlike pretty much everyone else in this era… he could work at night. While he assumed that those more knowledgeable in magic could do the same, everyone else didn't have access to anything other than torches for light.

And torches were simply too inconvenient for most things other than traveling. Lamps simply wouldn't be invented for a few hundred more years, and they wouldn't be mass produced in almost a thousand.

But that wasn't the case for Icarus.

So, with an Olive Oil Lamp lighting up his workspace with light, he got to work even in the dead of night.

He had a rather devious idea for his wings' upgrade, but first he made sure to check they were in peak condition. He also had to clean the blood that remained on most of the feathers. While it might have brought him feelings of disgust, the action also helped him overcome it.

Then after finishing their maintenance check, he got to work on an invention that would not be made until the 1700s AD.

The coiled spring.

While he could make a normal Shock Absorber that would take the energy from a blow and dampen it before dissipating the energy into another form such as heat—he didn't intend to.

He wasn't sure how it would interfere with the world's current laws of reality, and it wasn't what he wanted to do anyways. He wanted to not just absorb the energy from a blow, but store it as well, as opposed to just dissipating it.

So, Icarus got to work on two thick coiled springs that could be fitted to each wing through a connecting point at the back. He melted down some of the new supplies of metal he had taken from the centaur's weapons alongside some of Paimon's recently grown feathers.

Paimon was very sad about being bald again.

Poor Paimon.

Then after making a mold while being aided with his magic, he slowly created two coiled springs. He also made sure to make them extra tight, as it would make them harder to deform and in turn require more energy to influence.

So while less effective at negating energy for small amounts of force, it was especially effective for large amounts of force. He didn't worry too much for small attacks, as the material for his wings was high quality enough to mostly negate them.

After finishing the coils, he got to work on what would help him store the energy, compressors.

He had to be extremely careful, as a Spring Compressor could quite easily kill him if handled poorly. He had modified his compressor to hold the spring's compression after an attack, storing the energy for use in retaliation.

Suppose he had them equipped to his wings at the time that the centaur had attacked him. In that case, he could have suddenly released the spring's compression after the attack and thrown the exact same force they used back at them—ending the fight with a sudden and lethal blow, all while negating the damage it intended to cause in the first place.

It was a deadly trump card, one which when played at the right moment, could end a desperate fight in an instant.

Icarus was satisfied with his new additions for now, and left his wings out so that his new components could slowly be converted into the same alloy that the rest of the wings consisted of.

He then had a few more ideas he wanted to create, but it was getting too late and he was already exhausted from his latest creation. So, he decided to carry the oil lamp down to the tent Atalanta rested in before blowing it out and going to sleep beside her.

She must have noticed him arrive, as she quickly curled up to his side while making some cute mewls. Icarus gave her a pat on the head in response before falling asleep as well.

Over the next few days he spent most of his time teaching Atalanta or working on inventions overnight. They had also decided to have the tent's top uncovered most nights unless it was raining, as the stars were simply too beautiful to miss out on.

He had the idea of using the wing's reflections to make him invisible by redirecting light, but he simply didn't know how to do it yet. It was something that was more 'magic' than what he had been doing so far, and he honestly knew very little about anything magical outside of making things.

He really wanted to learn illusions, as it would have made it much easier to sneak up on the centaurs when they had Atalanta hostage.

But while he was unable to simply disappear from view, that didn't mean he couldn't distract others instead.

Smoke Bombs, he made smoke bombs.

I-It was a man's romance!

Icarus had created them by making small beads that held a compressed bounded field filled with smoke. He had first burned plenty of leaves over a fire before forcing the resulting smoke into the bead using the bounded field. He made it so when impacted with sufficient force, the beads would implode before rapidly diffusing the smoke around the immediate surroundings.

It wasn't very nice to breathe in due to the amount of ash in the smoke, so he made sure to add a small facemask to his clothing that he could use at any time.

He also made one along with some smoke bombs for Atalanta as well, making sure to show how to properly use it.

And finally, he made one last invention.

A mounted crossbow hidden on his wrist.

He still had no proper training in anything combat related, so he could only rely on ranged, deadly, and easy means to attack with—which was exactly what the small mounted crossbow was.

It was an extra weapon in case he lacked anything else on hand, he made it specifically so he would be in a situation without his bow like he was earlier.

He had based the design on a game he had once played in his past life, with the bow's limbs connected through a small wheel that allowed them to both retract and spring outwards.

It was placed on a small bracer at his wrist that was attached to the mirrored arm guard on his right hand. While on his left hand he had a small sleeve filled with small darts ready to load onto the crossbow. While it might have lacked the sheer power of his compound bow, it was just as deadly when combined with the poison from Paimon's lethal shit.

It only needed to penetrate the skin.

With his upgrades completed, he made sure not to leave Atalanta out, as he started to train her how to wield a proper bow slowly. But he was by no means an expert trainer, and could tell that Atalanta's talent could allow for much more that he couldn't teach.

He needed to find Chiron.

He was already uncomfortable being unable to wield a weapon properly, and that wasn't even the only reason he was desperate to find him. Chiron knew much more than just fighting after all.

Icarus made up his mind.

After his alloys finished being applied to the wing's upgrades, he was going to focus solely on finding the wise centaur.

Even if he had to fly to Mt. Pelion damnit!

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Author's Notes

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Leave a like if you did!

Sorry for lateness, was reworking the patreon chapter last second and got delayed.

Silly Icarus, wanting to be compassionate in the Nasuverse? Tsk Tsk Tsk.

Icarus goes over the lessons he made during the previous battle, and adds a few upgrades as well! Upgrades that will probably be very important with his next encounter!

Leave some comments with your thoughts, I greatly appreciate them!

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