Cal reached down for the mana and felt himself resisting his own push. If nothing else had yet convinced him something was wrong, this certainly had. Something, likely the squirrel in front of them, was controlling his thoughts and actions to some degree. His anger was threatening to boil over, and he worked to contain it. Then another thought, his own this time, asked why he was bothering to contain the rage. If ever it was needed, now was the time for a bit of berserker-level rage.
Cal complied and, instead of grasping for the mana to free himself, stopped fighting the rising urge to attack everything in his way without any regard for anything else, himself or others. The fog that he hadn’t even realized was there retreated from his brain as the rage welled up. He now had a clarity of thought. The creature that had dared invade his mind had to die.
“How fucking dare you?!” He snarled as he shot off several beams of lightning into its hulking form. To his shock, none of them found their target. Some sort of barrier had gone up in front of it just before they would have made contact.
“Cal, stop. I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t let you hurt our great leader either!” Ethel ordered him as plant vines started to erupt from cracks below his feet.
Cal was beyond his ability for a reasonable understanding of what was happening to him, the rage was the only thing pushing out the control, and every time it started to slip, he could feel the unwanted presence poking in again, so in a blind rage he turned towards the source of the new attack and channeled two balls of lightning on either side of it. Dimly, something, somewhere in the back of his mind, grappled with the intensity of mana he had channeled into his explosive attacks.
This was the only thing that kept Ethel alive as they both detonated, slamming her into the ceiling and then crashing her frail body back into the ground.
Cal turned back to the monstrous squirrel that had made his friend attack him and let loose another volley of lightning shots. This time, nothing appeared to save the creature, who was flung backward by the intensity of the discharge.
He screamed out, fur sizzling but still very much alive. “Smashers, where are you?!”
Cal felt several stings as bolts embedded themselves in his flesh. He quickly responded by pulling a stone shield from the ground. His effort was rewarded by the sound of many more of the bolts clinking off the outside of the stone. He turned one of the directions the firing was coming from and channeled another ball of lightning into the center of it.
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This time, nothing in his head worked to hold back the force, and the room thundered with the explosion's force. Cal was rocked off his feet, and the ceiling began to cave in. With the realization forcing itself into his mind that he had clearly overdone it, his rage finally started to clear.
“Dammit!” He yelled as the cave-in separated him entirely from the squirrel leader who had tried to take over his mind. He considered how long it would take him to get through the rocks when his thoughts were interrupted by a cough from behind him. He spun around on the spot to find Ethel still alive where she had fallen. She had managed to get herself to a sitting position.
“Don’t hit me again, please. I’m free of its control, I think. We need to get out of here before it has another chance to grab us, though.” She said as Cal watched her force herself to her feet, clearly in pain from Cal’s earlier attack. There was a bed of moss below where she had fallen. He realized it must have cushioned her crash and helped to keep her alive.
“Sorry, the rage that came over me, not entirely sure where that came from. Also, I think there was a voice in my head trying to get me to end the loop early. I almost did it, too, so I'm not sure what that was about. Here, lean on me. Let’s get into one of these cracks, and I’ll find us a good place to hide and recover.” Cal said as he helped Ethel to one of the bigger fissures in what remained of the room.
“Any idea how far what I’m guessing was his telepathy reaches?” She asked as Cal worked to close the cracks behind him and secure up the area they were in.
“I think he started to affect us as soon as we came in, and I’m guessing the longer we are exposed, the stronger his control gets. Hell, you managed to break free before I did.” Cal thought back to how willingly they had sat down with the squirrel leader despite the previous battles.
“Yeah, that makes sense. I think that’s when Tiffany made his escape as well. Smart Crab, hopefully, he gets back the others. I have a feeling we are going to need their help before this is done. You know that giant squirrel has to die, right? I don’t think we get to take a prisoner here.” Ethel was speaking as she worked to widen the cracks ahead of them by growing vegetation rapidly in the cracks.
“Yeah, trust me, I was already trying to. If he hadn’t had any control of you, I’m pretty sure I would have before he fully realized what was happening.” Cal joined Ethel in working on finding a path from their hiding place back out into the cavern system.
“Sorry about that. I tried to stop myself, but it felt like someone was stabbing my brain every time I attempted to do something counter to what the pressure wanted. I thought my head was going to explode when he exerted full control over me after I had broken free. I’m going to try to see if I can feel the vines I left around the other squirrels to figure out where we need to go.” She explained before sitting down.
“Alright, I’ll keep widening this area so I can add more rock between us and the squirrels on the other side,” Cal responded.