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Outside Influences
Chapter 114 – Waiting Games

Chapter 114 – Waiting Games

Crecerelle knocked politely on the exterior panel that covered a small window flap on the Pillar’s exterior. She put her hands behind her back and waited patiently.

Then she grit her teeth.

After another minute, she began to fidget with her maul, wondering if hitting the window harder would help. Before she reached that level of violence, the flap popped open.

“Yes?” an irate voice asked.

Cress cleared her throat. “I’m checking on my companion again. She’s been in side for quite some time.”

“Only one person in a group is allowed entry at a time,” the voice declared crisply.

Cress shoved her hand through the tiny window, blocking the flap before the siren-mouthed woman could get it closed.

“You’ve explained that before,” Cress hissed, “but I want to know where my companion has gone. She’s been inside for ages.”

“We don’t disclose the whereabouts of any persons during negotiations for Pillar resources. We take privacy very seriously.”

“Hey,” a faint voice called from the background, “you’re missing some good bits! She’s trying to suck out the poison!”

The voice behind the window clicked her tongue. “I really have more important–”

“Just tell me if she’s still in there,” Cress interrupted. “What in Olympos is taking so long? She has tokens for all of us, for Lempo’s sake!”

Cress’ snakes rattled in anger as she finished yelling.

“Look, miss, I don’t make the rules, I just–”

“Come on,” the background voice called, “she’s breaking out in hives all over! She’s rolling around like a mad seal! You’re missing it!”

“Ugh, fine. Look, gorgon, every avatar on a quest for their god is going to have some objectors. Your companion has to deal with them before we’ll let you continue.”

Cress’ eyes narrowed and her snakes flicked their tongues with suspicion. “Deal with them? How?”

“Hey, you should be happy I’m telling you anything at all. She’s already done with three of them. It shouldn’t be too much longer before you’ll find out if she’s successful.”

The woman on the other side of the window prodded her fingers. “Now can you get your hand out of this thing?”

“One more question,” Cress insisted, “how many more challengers?”

The woman sighed. “Two more.”

Then her voice took on a mocking tone. “And one of them is going to kick… well, whatever, that’s private information. Remove your hand or it’s getting a lightning bolt.”

Cress grumbled, but she pulled her hand back. The flap quickly slapped shut, and Cress knew that the Pillar custodians wouldn’t be opening it for her again until Bel finished dealing with the objectors. The woman hadn’t said it, but Cress would guess how Bel was expected to deal with them.

Now she had to figure out a way to say it that wouldn’t send Orseis and Manipule into a panic. Being the leader is hard, she moaned internally.

Then she glanced back at the Pillar. I guess I shouldn’t complain, she chastised herself. I could be the one trapped in there.

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Bel limped angrily through the maze of tunnels and passageways, suppressing the urge to itch. She didn’t know what her new snake had been thinking when it bit her – it wasn’t like it could get away. Bel’s other snakes hadn’t been pleased either, and had quickly wrapped it up. Now, only its snout poked out from the mass of other snakes, it’s lines of vivid green on dark black scales standing out from the other snakes like a bright warning sign.

She looked at it with irritation and it responded with a muted his of triumph. The other snakes squeezed, and its hiss choked off.

“If you could learn to get along with everyone we would all be happier,” she lectured it. There was no remorse in dangerous snake’s eyes. Bel snorted and turned her attention back to the maze.

After her coughing and itching fit, Bel had finally taken a moment to eat. She had even fallen asleep, although not intentionally. When she awoke she’d been terrified that someone had sneaked up on her, but, except for the growing stench of death coming from the lizard-woman, the sand-filled room was unchanged.

She guessed that the last two objectors were settings ambushes somewhere. The Dhvaras would be waiting in a room with magma, assuming that such a room existed. The blind guy…

Bel shrugged. She was just going to have to find him.

“Or I could go back to a room with food and just wait them out.” She glanced at her snakes. “How long would it take for them to starve to death?”

Her snakes, preoccupied with their newest member, didn’t respond. Bel pursed her lips and considered her options. The Dhvaras should be easy for me to handle with my magma form, so maybe I’ll look for her first.

She tapped her metallic nails against the rocky wall. I have no idea where there would be magma though. Maybe the opposite side from the water?

Bel sighed and slumped against the wall to rest. She inspected her injuries to make sure that they were healing properly: the cut on her leg, the lizard bite on her left arm, the snake bite on her right, her bruised throat, the many tiny punctures from the plague-bringer’s water bullets… There were too many to count, actually.

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Hours of wandering had confirmed that the maze was very large. Bel even wondered if the size of the initial chamber had been a trick mean to fool her and her opponents. She’d wasted so much time that she was beginning to get nervous about her companions outside of the Pillar.

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What if Clark attacked? Would they be able to fight him off again?

What if they thought she’d left them? Would they give up and wander away?

What would happen to Orseis then? Could she get along with a bunch of strangers? What if she did something childish and pissed them off?

“When I see those Pillar people again, I’m going to–”

She stopped her muttering abruptly when she heard a slight noise echoing from the cavern walls. She was passing through a wide room with a low ceiling. The room still smelled of recently cooled magma, but she didn’t detect any odors of wrongdoing. Lavacicles – bits of lava that hardened as they dripped from the ceiling – lined the ceiling and floor like teeth waiting to snap shut. Some of the ones on the floor were large enough for Bel to hide behind, which she took advantage of as she carefully searched for the source of the sound.

The room had a dull, gray appearance, with light only entering from a few shafts that broke through the ceiling. It was eerily silent and unnaturally still, so if anyone had chosen this spot for their ambush her approach would have been obvious from the moment her feet touched the ground. Bel peeked around her lavacicle cover and slowly scanned the room. Her gaze settled upon a spot of crimson.

The old man. His bright red shirt and the cloth wrapped around his eyes made him stand out, even if his dark pants blended with the shadows. He was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed and was leaning back against another lavacicle. If Bel was still her younger and more naive self, she would have thought that he was asleep, or perhaps that he had wandered into the Pillar by mistake.

She wasn’t so foolish, at least not anymore. Bel was certain that the old man with the wrinkled head would gut her with the dagger at his waist the moment he got the chance. He was probably crazy anyway – for all she knew, he worshipped the god of bald people and hated her for having so many snakes.

She thought it likely that he knew she was present, so she couldn’t take him by surprise. On the other hand, the swordsman and the plague-bringer hadn’t known all of her abilities, so she guessed that the blind man wouldn’t know them either.

Beth always lead with her strongest hit, going for an instant kill, so Bel decided to do the same. She glanced at Sparky and nodded to the little magma snake before concentrating on her ability to mix spirits. The form of her snake melded into her own as the momentarily combined. Bel’s skin became hard like rock before cracking from her inner heat. She grew taller and stronger as the magma spirit’s form augmented her own, and as she swelled with strength the warm glow of her flowing magma illuminated the area around her.

The blindfolded old man stood and tossed his shirt behind him before taking a few steps to the side. He took a wide stance and flexed his muscled torso, casually stretching like he was preparing for a sparring match.

He little spirit snake’s thoughts mixed with her own and a proud confidence in her abilities filled her mind. This guy wasn’t taking her seriously, but she was going to show him what happened to anyone who underestimated her. With a ferocious roar, Bel charged.

She smashed through the small lavacicles in her way, but she grabbed at a few of the larger ones and hurled them in the man’s direction. Despite his covered eyes, he elegantly side-stepped the missiles. When Bel noticed that his movements began nearly before she even threw her attacks she snorted. Not really blind when you’ve got some kind of perceptive ability, are you?

Bel leaped towards him, but made sure to land far enough away that he wouldn’t catch her by surprise. He stepped back and took up a defensive stance with his hands guarding his face, although his dagger was still sheathed at his side. As Bel’s feet slammed into the floor, she channeled a liquid shockwave into the stone. It buckled and rippled as solid turned to liquid, and then exploded in a spray magma and stone.

The old man spun behind the nearest lavacicle, just barely dodging the deadly spray. Instead of his body being blown apart, the squat spike of stone that he chose for cover was pelted by the blast and collapsed.

Seeing his cover literally falling apart, Bel ripped a lavacicle free of the floor, destabilized it, and hurled it at her opponent. He once again reacted as she threw her attack, taking a step forward to push his feet against the remains of his cover and vaulting himself towards the ceiling with an impressive forward somersault. He grabbed onto one of the smaller spikes on the ceiling and pulled himself away just as the lavacicle exploded beneath him. Instead of slamming him into the ceiling, the old man had maneuvered so the force of the blast pushed him away from her.

Bel hissed with frustration and gave chase. The ground cracked from her heavy footsteps as she raced to catch the old man in a vulnerable position. Before his feet could touch the ground, Bel slapped her foot against the stone and launched another liquid shockwave through the floor. She grinned with triumph: this time the spray of rock and magma was unavoidable.

The old man spun on the balls of his feet, angling his body sideways to reduce his profile as he weaved between the spinning rocks. His hands were blurs as he knocked the incoming rocks together, deflecting the incoming globs of magma with some of the unmelted stone. Bel paused in stupefied disbelief as he managed to pass through the spray of debris completely unharmed. It defied belief.

Bel gnashed her teeth. There had to be some ability at work. Dodging so much should have been impossible.

But she and Sparky knew they were better than some old guy. Let’s see him dodge me, she thought.

Bel rushed the old man as his body finished spinning. She reached to grab him with her glowing hand, but he ducked under her grasping fingers and – through some magic – slipped between her legs. Bel spun around, hoping to catch the man with a powerful backhand, but he slipped just beyond her reach.

Beth had been able to do things like that, but Beth also knew Bel’s speed and dimensions from their constant sparring. For the old man to do it so easily…

He has to be using some sensing abilities, right?

Still, Bel’s current size and strength gave her the advantage. She advanced slowly this time, trying to hem her opponent in with a flurry of fast punches.

It wasn’t working.

He easily deflected her attacks with just the lightest touches and stepped just right to continually throw off Bel’s stance, frustrating her with his casual movements. His fighting style didn’t even feel that skillful to Bel, he just managed to end up in the worst places for her to deal with. She was doing her best to avoid overextending, but that meant that the man continued to slip away. He hadn’t even drawn his knife.

Worse yet, Bel could feel Sparky straining as her ability ran dry. She could try running more energy through the pattern, but she could tell that her little snake was running out of strength. Just before her fusion ended, Bel tapped the ground with her foot and sent another liquid shockwave through the floor. The blind man reacted even as her ability was still sinking into the stone, hopping backwards and dodging behind a thick lavacicle before her attack reached him.

The attack didn’t work, but it gave her a moment of protection as her body shed its outer layer of molten rock. In a few heavy heartbeats, Bel was reduced to her typical state. She was winded, and she had already spent a large chunk of the energy in her cores.

As if sensing her weakness, the blind man emerged from behind the stone and drew his knife. It rasped hungrily as it emerged from its sheath, and the edge shown with a deep, abyssal blue. Bel knew for certain that it was another divine weapon.

He advanced quickly, and Bel panicked. If he had woven between her attacks so easily before, what would he be capable of with a divine knife?

Bel knelt to splay her hands over the ground, intending to simply destabilize a large area and create an explosion that would consume both of them, gambling that she was tougher and had a better chance of surviving. The old me bent his knees and leaped, grunting slightly as he pushed himself into the air…

And sailed straight over Bel’s head. He had dodged her attack – but she hadn’t even used her ability yet.

Is he seeing the future? Bel thought hopelessly.

“I don’t suppose you want to talk things out,” Bel asked.

His lips twitched in a small, cruel smile.

“No point,” he rasped back at her with an old, disused voice. “You won’t last much longer.”