Outside Influences

Bel shook off her sudden bout of nerves and began skulking around the remodelled cavern. What had previously been a mess of hallways was now a wide open space. It was now clear that the giants had simply walled off some of the areas to create structure in their mountain lair. With the majority of those was knocked down the space had reverted to its original state as a creepy, dimly lit cavern.

The smears of blood and occasional dismembered body part were just decoration.

Bel gingerly hopped over a giant’s arm. It still clutched a knife, even though the arm’s owner was still missing. She looked around the area, being sure to sweep the ceiling for hanging threats. Then she looked around for worm holes. The worms weren’t a threat, not unless she ran into their spiky bodies, but she’d seen several of the slimy tentacle balls and a sky shrimp lurking at the entrance holes waiting to snare unwary prey.

She didn’t see any immediate threats, so she quickly walked to the hand and pried its fingers from the giant’s knife. It was a sword in her hands, and a long one at that, with a handle far too large for her smaller size. Bel quickly liquified the handle and slicked off enough layers of the metal grip to turn the giant knife into a passable spear.

Probably the best weapon I’ve cobbled together yet, she congratulated herself. Way better than a rock.

She was feeling good about herself after her sudden epiphany and the changes it brought to her core, but she wasn’t going to pass on a nice, sharp blade. The solid feel of the metal under her hands bolstered her confidence as she slipped away from the giant’s arm. The feeling lasted until she turned the corner, when she locked eyes with Crystal.

The patchwork woman was nearly a hundred strides away, but even at that distance Bel could feel the frustration radiating from the patchwork woman. Crystal’s mouth split in a feral grin as she lifted a wand. Bel blasted her with a powerful glare and turned to run.

Crystal’s arm locked up for an instant before the air between them was split by a forked bolt of lighting. The incandescent attack moved eagerly down the open space, guided by Crystal’s wand. Small fingers reached out from the main bolt as it travelled, striking the remaining metal torch brackets that still protruded from the walls and giving them one final, violent moment of light. The bolt lost some of its power on the way, but the main body closed the distance before Bel could finish feeling alarmed.

At the last moment the blinding arc reared up like a snake and bit Bel’s new weapon. Energy travelled up the metal body of the spear and slammed into her body, tossing her back against the rock wall. When her senses returned to could see Crystal rushing down the passageway, the divine spear that she’d taken from the Garuda held up for a killing blow.

Ten strides distant, close enough to see the whites of her eyes, a net whipped out and tangled around Crystal’s body. A giant – who Bel blearily noticed was missing and arm – leaped from hiding and swung Crystal around in his net. With a mighty roar, he slammed her body into the opposite wall and two more giants emerged from hiding, weapons at the ready.

Bel forced herself to her knees and leaped in the opposite direction.

No way in hell am I going to sit around and see who wins that one, she thought. Thanks to the lower gravity she recklessly bounded away, her prior caution discarded in her hasty retreat. She was almost immediately punished for her negligence when a sky shrimp jumped out from a nearby crevice and attempted to imprison her with a cage of air.

Startled, Bel shrieked in fear before reflexively calling upon her new mastery to pull the air around her into a dense, liquid ball before exploding it in a shockwave aimed at the shrimp. The crustacean was pulped, its legs flying off in different directions as Bel crashed through its remains.

Bel quickly snatched the rapidly dissipating essence, barely noticing when she ascending another threshold, and bounded forward. She grabbed the corner of a rocky column and swung herself around a corner, out of sight of the fight she’d left behind.

Bel leaned over and gasped for breath. Sweat poured from her face and she swiped it away with her hand to prevent it dripping into her eye.

What the hell did Technis’ priests do to her? The giants haven’t slowed Crystal down at down at all! Bel complained bitterly.

Most of them must have cut and run too quickly, she realized. I’ll have to get them to fight somehow.

Bel looked around quickly. She was still breathing heavily, but she was ready to move. But move where?

They must have retreated to those stairs I saw.

Bel spun in place and stifled a curse. I have no idea where I am.

She crept to the edge of the remaining wall that she’d been using as shelter and peaked around its edges.

Nothing.

She clenched her jaw painfully as she looked into an open space with several partial corridors leading in different directions. The destruction started by the stairs, so I guess that I want to go where it’s worst.

Her lips twisted as she considered her options, and she took a few steps towards the different passageways to see if any clues leaped out.

The right looks the worst, I think.

Her snakes flicked their tongues in agitation, prompting Bel to sniff the air. It reeks of death too. Seems right.

She hesitated before entering the foreboding corridor. There were only a couple of lonely torches still burning along the walls. Their meager light only served to strengthen the shadows that lurked along the rest of the space.

I miss Flann’s fire.

She looked at a broken piece of one of the metal torch brackets at her feet, lying cold and broken on the stone floor. It was a large chunk of a broken shaft of metal nearly as tall as she was, and she guessed that it had to weigh at least as much as she did. Bel bent down and lifted it.

She staggered under the heavy mass, but the lower gravity meant she could lift the otherwise impossibly heavy shaft of metal. The momentum was unchanged though, and she found herself stumbling after the metal in unexpected ways. After a few minutes of walking in circles like a drunk she grew used to the sensation. Okay, new weapon procured. As long as I avoid lightning bolts, this should be fine.

Bel nodded to herself and started down the dark passageway. She moved carefully, checking the ceiling for sky shrimp, the holes in the floor for tentacle slimes, and the openings in the walls for ambushing giants. The thing that jumped out at her was none of those things, of course.

A large fox worm pounced from the shadows, surprisingly quiet on its large, padded feet. Bel strained to whip her club at it, but the inertia of the heavy metal resisted her and her timing was completely wrong. The fox worm raked its claws over her, spraying sparks as they scraped over the metal plates of Kjar’s divine gift. Once its claws reached the bottom of her skirt though, they tore through the soft flesh of her leg.

Bel screamed in pain and effort as her blood watered the ground around her feet. Her club accelerated as she continued her swing, until it finally made contact with the fox worm’s muzzle. The metal barely slowed as it struck, throwing off a wake of blood, bone, and teeth like a ship cutting through the sea.

Bel’s body was lifted from the ground from the force of her swing, her body pulled through the air behind her metal club. As she spun full circle Bel tensed her arms and tried to push the club downward for a second hit on the stunned monster when she completed her rotation. Her body lifted into the air as she extended her arms and forced the club downwards, but the fox worm’s skull was right where she wanted it.

A loud, wet splat announced the end of the ten-legged creature. Bel’s chest heaved as she waited for the adrenaline to fade. She held her club at the ready as she waited for a second ambush, but nothing emerged after a hundred heartbeats. She prodded the corpse with her foot, ripping the dead creature’s essence from its body.

Not even enough for a threshold, she lamented. Not that a couple of thresholds would make a difference with Crystal.

Then she looked down at her bleeding leg. Her abilities had quickly staunched most of the bloodflow, but it was still going to slow her down. She prodded it carefully while chewing on her lip. After working so hard to get that dodging ability from the tentacle slimes I should have remembered to use it, she berated herself.

Still, it’s a clean cut. I wonder if I can just put myself back together.

Bel ran her hand over her leg to get an idea of the extent of her wounds before shifting her weight to her other leg. Then she took advantage of her core insights to shift her injured leg into a liquid state. Like magic, detritus and clotted blood was forced out of her leg as the surface tension of her slightly rippling limb pulled itself back together. She stopped feeding energy to the ability a few moments later and flexed her leg.

Perfect, she thought, pleased with herself. It had eaten up some of her energy, but it was worth it to have her leg fully working.

Bel shook her head and continued her exploration, now keeping her senses ready for the fox-worms as well as the other threats. The tension clung to her as a thick sheen of sweat that beaded and fell down her back as more time went by without any surprises. She licked her dried teeth to stop them from sticking to the insides of her cheeks and waved her hands in the air to dry them, worried that the sweat would allow her club to go flying the next time she swung it.

How did Beth sneak through so many places without losing her daggers, she wondered. Or am I just too nervous?

Try as she might, Bel couldn’t settle her nerves. Knowing that around each corner she could be attacked by anything from a flying shrimp to the body of a killed-and-resurrected woman who lived only to follow her god’s twisted will was too unsettling.

Bel eased around another corner and nearly tripped over the body of a dead giant. Their upper half had been half digested, leaving a gruesome mix of half-melted bones and bloodless limbs. She looked around the space for the threat before realizing that the corpse looked familiar.

A glance up at the dim glow of a torch in the back of an alcove set into the wall confirmed her suspicion. That alcove has the giants’ shrine, which means that the door is right over there.

Bel sighed with relief as she quickly moved towards the door. Then she froze. The body of the first guard that she had killed was gone.

The door slightly ajar and about as welcoming as a spider’s web to a moth. Bel scowled at the sight of the obvious trap. The area around it had been battered, and there was some loose rubble lying in large piles to either side of it, but the area around the door was suspiciously clean. She approached it slowly, her snakes glancing in every direction as she focused on the door itself.

Bel knelt in front of the door and inspected the rocks. They were still slick with blood, even though the guard’s body was gone. She ran her hands along the ground, searching for a trail. When she found it, she wasn’t pleased. Someone had dragged the body through the door before closing it partway behind them.

So I’m not the first person here. Would the giants have set an ambush on the other side? Did all of them escape, or was it just a few?

She pondered for a few moments before giving it up. If I stay here, Crystal is eventually going to find me. The only thing that’s been delaying her is whatever is left of the giants, and I don’t think they’re going to last long.

Bel pushed her back up against the wall and tried to peer through the gap, but she couldn’t see anything on the other side – or at least anything suspicious. The area was lit by a few evercandles burning in small alcoves, their light reflecting cheerfully from the smooth, polished rocks. The lack of death and dismembered body parts set Bel on edge and she paused an arm’s length away from the opening.

It’s too neat, she thought, I don’t trust it.

Kjar help me, I sound just as paranoid as Beth.

She looked nervously at the chaos on her side of the door. I can’t really stay here though, can I?

Bel pulled in a deep breath and slowly released it. Okay, here I come.

She backed up a couple of steps and took a running leap through the opening in an attempt to leap over any ground level traps. When she hit the ground she rolled before popping back to her feet. In an instant she had her back to the wall. She brandished her club in front of her, ready to ward off any attack.

Nothing came.

Well, now I feel silly.

She glanced around the flat top of the room and saw nothing. Her eyes moved carefully over the walls. Other than a few dirty hand prints, there was nothing amiss. She glanced up at the ceiling and saw nothing but shadows.

Bel took a step forward and threw herself away from the wall, barely avoiding a spike of stone that rose suddenly from the ground.

“Hiding in the shadows is one of my sister’s favorite tricks, Crystal,” she taunted, “you’re nowhere near as good as her.”

A dark shape detached itself from the ceiling and dropped to the floor. Crystal looked worse for wear: half of her scales were missing, one side of her was covered in cuts and another side in burns, and her quiver of wands looked mostly empty. Bel wasn’t fooled for a moment. Technis’ patchwork people were unshakable. She had seen many of them perform their given task until exhaustion stopped their hearts, even if the task was as pointless as fanning a priest during the summer.

Crystal still had some of her wands, and the third arm fused onto her right elbow somehow granted her access to at least some of Beth’s powers. The blue shell embedded into her chest allowed her to call upon Technis’ Barrier, and the priest’s had enhanced her body with their typically detestable modifications. She gripped the divine spear in her left hand and her right hands wielded a dagger and a wand. She was a monster wearing the body of someone Bel used to know who would kill her the moment she could.

“You used to be a much more interesting person,” Bel muttered.

To her surprise Crystal tilted her head and responded. “And why do you think that?”

“The Crystal I know would have been curious about all of this stuff. Instead you’re just going around killing everyone.”

Crystal shrugged and pointed her wand at her head. “The priests put a mission into my head. Gotta get it done.”

Why is she bothering to talk? Bel wondered.

Aloud she said, “so you know they messed with your head? And that doesn’t bother you?”

She laughed, a quick manic cackle. “Of course not, stupid! They messed with my head so that I wouldn’t care. Why would you make a miserable servant?”

Bel looked at the wand. She didn’t know much about them, but the living Crystal had required a large amount of time to prepare them. The patchwork version of her had been launching attack seemingly nonstop, but Bel wondered if there was some limit to it. If she had a bunch of mana batteries shoved into her somewhere they would eventually run out.

Bel’s eyes narrowed. Maybe Crystal was in worse shape than she’d thought.

Then I have a chance, she thought hopefully.