Outside Influences

To her chagrin, Bel found that she wasn’t immune to the cascading chaos that she’d unleashed. As an increasing crowd of panicked beasts were freed from their cages it became increasingly difficult for her to find a spot safe from rampage. Her snakes hissed angrily as she backed up against a partially standing wall, edging away from the rush of frothing mouths, wild eyes, and whipping tentacles.

Bel glanced towards the distant exit from the cavern. I could make a break for it, but if Crystal sees me she would just follow me out. As long as she knows that I’m hiding here she has to come inside.

Bel turned back to what was left of the interior of the maze of hallways and quick ducked under the slashing paws of a passing fox-worm.

Not that staying here is completely safe, she grimaced. Bel tensed for a fight, but the creature snorted and continued running, its aggression more instinctive than purposeful.

The sky shrimp that strode through the air above her though, looked more menacing. It glowered down at her, its head and eyestalks nearly skimming the giant-height roof. Bel wondered if it had something personal against her – maybe she’d stunned it while the giant’s had been using her as a tool?

Whatever the reason, the shrimp decided that nothing else mattered besides attacking her. It soundlessly dove at her with malice radiating from its twitching mouthparts. Bel tensed her legs to jump backwards, but her body was knocked over when one of the rock burrowing worms emerged from the ground behind her feet. The shrimp raised its pincers in triumph as it fell towards her prone body, but before it could reach her she was surrounded by a wild stampede of thunderhooves.

Bel curled into a ball and hoped that Kjar’s armor would protect her from the worst of it as the panicked creatures danced around the worm and Bel. The worm curled over and dug into the ground again, but the angry shrimp kept chasing Bel, which push it directly in the path of the panicking herd. The shrimp lifted its legs aggressively as it stood in their way, but the herd fearlessly blasted a wave of rocks at the crustacean. The shrimp easily blocked the attack with a solid wall of air, affirming its place as an apex predator.

The lead thunderhoof was uncowed though. The large male reared up and slammed his forehoof into the shrimp’s face, sending it flying off to the side.

Too much chaos, Bel though, good for Dutcha, not so great for me.

She cast around for any remaining bastions of sanity, but saw that any fortifiable positions were filling with the rapidly organizing giants. With a grunt of effort, she instead hauled herself towards the burrowing worm’s hole and tipped herself over the edge. Bel had lost her spear somewhere along the way, so the moment she hit the bottom she grabbed onto her most reliable weapon: a head-sized rock. When the shrimp jumped in after her she was ready to bash its brains into a paste.

The thunderhoof had already done a good job on the insect, breaking one of its antenna and leaving cracks in its carapace, but the shrimp wasn’t down yet. The damage did give her a good point to aim for, though.

Bel’s rock hit the monster in the side before it could orient itself, slamming it up against the side of the burrow. She didn’t hesitate to perform James’ recommended double-tap, slamming her stone into the shrimp’s head until she could feel the energy of its core leaking out. Bel greedily soaked up the essence and her core expanded past the fiftieth threshold.

If I’m clever and just pick off weakened monsters and giants, maybe I can just outgrow Crystal, Bel mused. I won’t even have to put myself in danger if I stay out of sight.

Her fantasy was immediately crushed by the sound of shifting stones moving down the burrow hole. Bel pumped a small amount of extra energy through Kjar’s sight just in time to see a mouth full of teeth close around her left arm. She screamed, more in shock than the pain that hadn’t yet reached her brain, and a twitch of her core blasted a shockwave from her engulfed hand. Bits of tentacle and slime exploded, filling the tunnel and completely covering Bel.

As she cradled her arm – punctured by dozens of tiny teeth – her first thoughts were of disappointment that she’d been forced to use some much energy on something that wasn’t Crystal. As her heartbeat slowed, her mind finally caught up with the attack.

I guess now I know their natural habitat, she thought, glancing down the worm’s tunnel. The tentacle-covered terrors were perfectly suited for moving quickly through tight burrows. She imagined that their powerful digestive abilities would also be useful to eat through the rocky exterior of the burrowing worms as well. Unfortunately for Bel, those same digestive powers were now causing a horrible burning sensation all over her body. She frantically brushed herself off, trying to remove as much of the monster’s innards as she could.

After stomping in circles for a minute to prevent herself from shouting in pain, the burning sensation finally faded. The moment that she was no longer afraid of losing vision in her only good eye, Bel centered herself with a deep breath and immediately set about digging through the bits of slime and tentacle, eager to find the creature’s core. She poked at the pieces with an elongated rock, wary of getting more unnecessary slime on her fingers.

This time, she promised herself, I’m going to get that ability.

She finally found a dense, smooth lump of jelly that she guessed was the central part of the creature’s anatomy. She grabbed it and carried it away from the burrow opening – she didn’t want to be interrupted – and took several deep breaths to calm herself. Then she sent her senses deep into the creature’s core.

Unlike her last attempt, this time she had the self-liquify ability to compare to the liquid-dodge from the slimeballs. Combined with the familiar patterns of minor body modification and liquify, she had the new ability’s components completely hemmed in. Bel studied the patterns on her core and on the monster’s carefully, noting similarities and differences between them.

James had taught her the word “epiphany,” but Bel had never once understood what it meant until that moment. It was as if she gained a sudden understanding that all houses were assembled from wood, stone, and nails: the pieces were the same, whether it was a one room shack or a two story mansion. Not only was she following the new ability this time, she was also gaining insight into her own abilities. She could see now that the patterns engraved onto her core for her different abilities were redundant. As fast as her thoughts, her core shifted the patterns merging them into a more perfect whole, like a painting whose foreground and background were finally united. Bel traced the pattern for liquid dodge onto her core with an energetic flourish.

She kept her eyes closest as she finished, getting a feel for the changes that she’d made. The modifications and the new ability had all gone onto Dutcha’s path, something she didn’t know was possible, but had felt correct in the moment. The entire feel of her second core had changed; no longer a discordant blend of multiple meandering melodies, it now felt more united. Bel could also tell that her second core would have trouble accepting patterns that couldn’t mesh with her liquid abilities: that was the price of her improvements.

Dutcha must be so unstable because she’s balanced between so many different directions, Bel realized. Her core, assuming spirits have cores like me, must be absolute chaos. No wonder she gets along with Lempo.

Bel felt a pang of worry that she had lost out on something when she changed her core. A couple of her snakes even peered at her, concerned about her mental state. She gave them a quick pat.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured them. “I think my core is better like this. Some chaos is okay, but maybe there’s such a thing as too much.”

She set her gaze on the far side of the burrow. “And speaking of chaos, it’s time for me to cause some more trouble. You girls want to go hunt some giants?”

Her snakes flicked their tongues in affirmation. Sparky tossed a bit of magma in Bel’s direction with her enthusiastic tongue flick, and Bel had to gently shove the snakes back on top of her head.

Bel licked her lips as she padded down the burrow, unarmed but dangerous. She tried to settle her raw nerves by fantasizing about collecting another spirit snake as she approached the dim illumination that marked the far end of the burrow. I should finally get my last snake once I survive with mess with the giants and Crystal. Something that would get along with Sparky and Flora.

Bel paused at the end of the burrow for a full minute, listening closely before slowly poking her head out. She expected to emerge in an area closer to the original animal pens, but instead she found the area completely changed. Most of the walls had been reduced to rubble, which had destroyed the majority of the torches as well. Shadows consumed the space, and the terrible noises of just a few minutes prior had yielded to an unsettling quiet that was undercut with an occasional shout or screech.

Did somebody win?

Bel looked around slowly, doing her best to avoid drawing attention to herself. She saw a few animals sneaking from shadow to shadow, but nothing bipedal. Some slow movement underneath a torch was a slimeball that had wrapped its stomach around some unfortunate victim. There was no sign of Crystal and, other than a few corpses, no sign of the giants.

Her heart hammered in her chest as she realized that death could be waiting for her in any direction.

Where would the giants go? she wondered. And is Crystal still fighting them? Or is she back to tracking me?

Then she recalled the hole in the ground. The giants must be running, or at least retreating to some place easier to defend. If I can get ahead of them, then Crystal will have to fight them to get to me, right?

She looked around nervously. I’m nowhere near strong enough to fight her, not unless the giants have already half killed her. Maybe I should try to get back to Orseis?

Bel bit her lip as she remembered the state of the entranceway to the underground city. No, I don’t think I’ll be able to get out.

She glanced at the tattoo of Kjar that ran down her right arm. If only I was strong like Kjar, she lamented.

How am I supposed to take down Technis if I can’t even take down something that his servants made? And speaking long-term goals, how am I supposed to get through Technis’ Barrier? How am I supposed to kill Technis?

She remembered the raw power on display when Kjar descended to Olympos and struck down the Dark Ravager. I’m nowhere close to that… Didn’t Lempo promise me some help? Aren’t I supposed to meet up with some gorgons?

That thought reminded her of the severed gorgon head that the giants carried around. I hope that wasn’t what she meant.