Bel could hear the sound of weapon upon flesh as the scrattes rushed into the dhvaras with heedless abandon, but she didn’t even look. Her full attention was on gigantic, semi-molten rock bear that stood six times her height and was staring her down with bored contempt.
Bel held up her hands in a placating gesture. It’s a spirit, right? she thought. Maybe I can reason with it?
“You’re a big, independent spirit, right? Why are you doing stuff for these losers?”
She pointed at the spirit’s handler, who was still spluttering with anger from the ground where he’d fallen after being hit with her glare.
The bear tilted its head, opened its mouth, and made a high, keening noise.
Ah, damn. Why did I think that I would understand it?
Luckily for her, she had some help. Her little molten head snake perched atop her brow and hissed loudly at the bear.
Hey, hey, don’t be so confrontational, she thought desperately as she stared up at the spirit’s menacing horns.
Her snake hissed, the bear keened, and the scrattes and dhvaras kept fighting. The staff-wielding spirit-bear handler hauled himself up from his prone position with a bit of cursing and a slight limp. He snarled angrily at Bel and tugged on the chain, clearly annoyed that she hadn’t been squashed and seared into cinders. Bel could see a small glint travel up the links and into the bear – apparently the dhvaras’ method of control. The bear shook its head when the light jolted into it, and its eyes narrowed with focus.
Well, things aren’t going to get any better if I just stand around.
She charged straight between the bear and the dhvaras, once again cursing herself for her lack of a weapon mightier than a puny rock. The bear crashed back to the ground, planting its front legs into the rock like a man hammering sand. The ground around it was pulverised and Bel was sent sprawling. She saw that the Dhvaras man was staggered as well, but the molten bear was the real threat.
Bel rolled to her feet and rushed straight at the closest length of chain between the dhvaras and the spirit. It had been impervious to lava, but she hoped that liquify would work a miracle.
She dove, sliding painfully across the rocky floor, and grasped one of the hand-sized links. The metal was startlingly light and perfectly smooth, made out of a material that was new to her. She pumped all of her free strokes through liquify and into the link.
Her energy was quickly absorbed, but she couldn’t tell if her ability had done anything. She slammed her stone onto the link repeatedly, but when she checked for a result she only saw a few indentations.
A shadow abruptly blocked out the light from the third layer’s ceiling and Bel looked up and saw of the bear’s massive paws on a collision course with her head. She shrieked in a completely involuntary and extremely embarrassing manner before diving to the side. Her quick reflexes saved her from being immediately turned to a paste, but the concussive force of the bear’s strike sent a spray of molten stone in her direction.
Bel threw her arms over her eyes and channeled mana through Thermal Regulation in a desperate attempt to stave off any serious injuries. Kjar’s armor once again proved to be impervious to mortal attacks, but Bel’s arms and lower legs stung with the heat from hundreds of tiny impacts, burning her body before her ability could shunt all of the heat into her snake.
She howled in pain as she writhed on the ground, but a moment later she grit her teeth and forced herself to her feet. She glanced at the controller, who was holding his chain up in cruel triumph. He jerked the chain, sending a jolt of light down the length of it.
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The light stopped halfway to the bear, right where Bel had been working on the chain. She grinned when she saw what happened; the bear had finished the job that she’d started, shattering the single link that she’d weakened.
She looked up at the massive spirit and saw that it, too, was staring at the broken link.
For a few moments the three of them were all frozen, looking at the severed chain. Bel was pleased, the controller was fearful, and the giant horned magma bear seemed to be confused. Eventually Bel’s spirit snake hissed at the bear, breaking the stalemate. The bear tilted its head, puzzled by its situation.
The tall dhvaras could obviously see that his situation wasn’t getting any better – he bent his legs and sprinted in Bel’s direction. His long, spindly legs darted gracefully over the rocky landscape and Bel barely had a chance to blink before her was right in front of her. Bel used her body modification ability to quickly sharpen her nails into something more threatening. She held up her hands, claws out.
The spirit handler swung his staff. The heavy blow knocked all of the air from Bel’s lungs and sent her spinning through the air.
Crows, he’s strong.
Her head slammed into a rock and her vision exploded into stars. Bel was vaguely aware that all of the snakes on her head were hissing with urgent displeasure, but she couldn’t seem to get her body under control. She could only watch as her attacker reached down to the shorter chain, helpless to interfere.
Then a large, glowing paw slammed down onto the dhvaras. When it lifted the tall man was still moving.
Persistent like a cockroach, Bel cursed. Then the bear smashed him again. From his newly flattened look Bel could tell that he hadn’t survived the second blow.
The bear sat back on its haunches, shaking the ground once again. Bel warily rose to her feet, keeping her eye the spirit as it slowly examined its hand. Then it looked left – and right. A struggle broke out on its face, and Bel watched in shock as it began to split down the middle.
The two sides shoved and pushed at one another, clearly taking advantage of their newfound freedom to get into a fight. Bel watched as the large spirit slowly dissolved – a leg grew four new, smaller legs and walked away, one of the horns took inspiration from Bel and slithered off, and the two larger sides finally separated and stormed off in their own directions.
What the heck…, Bel thought, I wonder if Dutcha ever has trouble staying in one piece? The rapidly disassembling spirit reminded her how Dutcha had left swarms of smaller spirits in her wake. Bel decided that Dutcha must have had a stronger sense of self than the magma bear, which at that point didn’t have any remaining pieces any larger than Bel.
Cradling her aching head, Bel made her way back to the smashed corpse of her foe. She prodded it gently with her toe and was relieved to find that his cores were still intact. She greedily pulled the essence away, expanding her own core by two thresholds.
She squinted as she felt around in her cores, but the only new thing she found was a weird ability to break things down into their constituent parts. What’s that good for anyway?
Bel grunted as she slowly stretched and assessed her new injuries. She’d been bleeding a bit from her head, but the blood flow had stopped, at least as far as she could tell. Her legs and arms were dotted with disgusting little divots from the spray of molten rocks, but since she’d survived the attack she didn’t feel too unlucky. She was far tougher than she’d been back in Satrap, at least.
Slow and steady, she thought, that’s what James always says.
“Now,” she muttered, “what happened to Orseis?”
Bel wandered back to the scene of the scratte’s battle and saw the spoils of their combat: a small oasis, surrounded by greenery. Orseis floated happily in the water, apparently unbothered by the unspeakable things that the scrattes were doing with the corpses. Bel turned away before her stomach heaved. She was thirsty, but she could wait a minute for the travesties to die down.
Is Lempo teaching me a lesson about moving faster? Make progress or she’ll team me up with the worst possible people?
She stared up at the ceiling, ignoring the sounds of glee from the scrattes behind her.
I’m really missing Flann right now. And Beth and James. I wonder if he’s missing me too? Or is he still obsessed with Daran?
Bel sighed as a feeling of loneliness swept over her. She touched her earring, but calling only went one way. For all she knew, she’d missed her brother’s call during one of her fights and now she would have to wait for hours to hear from him again. She didn’t begrudge Daran all of her brother’s affection – he’d talked nonstop about meeting a fantasy princess for years after all – but she couldn’t deny feeling a little abandoned.
Well, at least I know that my mom cares about me, in a weird, messed up way.
Bel stared at a few of her head snakes as they writhed about.
My mom said that I could meet up with some other gorgons, right? I wonder what they’re like.
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