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Srida handled the staff in both hands, practicing her striking once again. Sha had shown her the basic technique where she could coil her body like a spring, then lash out like a viper with spear in hand. Right now she had a practice staff--hardly more than a rod made of metal--and was practicing the 'viper strike' as he called it over and over. It was harder than she originally thought. Srida equated it to something like jumping. The first twenty or thirty times it wasn't particularly hard, but after that it started to become taxing. And she'd been at it the entire afternoon.

Leaning on the staff and relaxing for a moment to catch her breath, she watched Leo and Bendali practice. Leo had surprised everyone with an incredible aptitude for hand to hand combat, able to wrestle Bendali to the ground when only using two arms and two legs--and Bendali had difficulty beating him when they both used their back tentacles. When Leo used all four of his arms it hadn't been any contest at all, obviously.

For supposedly being the best wrestler in the region, Leo had pinned Bendali into submission far more times than he had beaten Leo. Shocked, they had spent the rest of the day focusing on teaching the new displacer beast how to use his tentacles properly. They never once used their claws hidden in the spades of the tentacles, but instead attempted to wrap the appendages around each other's limbs, effectively tying up their arms or legs. Once wrapped up, there was little the other person could do to escape as the tentacles were unnaturally strong--strong enough that they were able to lift themselves up onto a ledge with just one of the limbs, something Srida needed both arms to do when she was still human.

A little circle had gathered to watch the two displacer beasts wrestle each other to the ground yet again. Bendali had one of Leo's arms completely tied up this time, and while they grappled at each other with one tentacle, Leo had been able to wrap his other free tentacle around Bendali's neck by looping it and dropping it overtop his head. The moment the appendage grew tight, Bendali tapped.

"Damn," he said, untangling their mess of limbs. "I don't even want to know what you did before you died. How are you picking this up so quickly?!"

Leo just offered a sheepish--if somewhat smug--shrug. "I kind of would like to know myself."

Bendali just shook his head, breathing heavily and crouching down. "This was supposed to be an easy day he sighed."

After a couple moments, he looked to Srida who herself was resting a short ways away, walked over and sat on the ground beside her. "How are you finding it?"

Srida shook her head in disbelief. "Harder than I thought. I can hardly get any kind of speed anymore."

He nodded slowly and Leo came to sit down beside them, leaning against Srida's coils.

"I'm going to have to get Sha to show you how to wrestle," Bendali said finally. "I'd show you myself, but you serpents, you're on another level."

"Sha said constriction is pretty simple against most body types," Srida said, "but against other nagas is can get pretty technical."

"I don't know the details myself," Bendali admitted. "But it is indeed far more technical than I had originally thought. It's not just two hellions tying each other in a knot," he smirked.

"It kind of is," Leo laughed, "Is there another naga here who is a decent wrestler?"

"There are two other nagas," Bendali said flatly. "One of which refuses to join the guard, and the other who has an affinity for archery of all things." He glanced at Srida apprehensively. "I really hope you like to fight traditional, because from what I've seen them do over in the naga hive, it's frighteningly effective. They never have to worry about the upper hellions."

Srida raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"An incredible shield wall, the fact that they can strike from five times the distance a normal person can, not to mention a good chunk of them are hypnosis resistant so they don't have to worry about a direct attack from an upper hellion... the list goes on."

"Hypnosis resistant?" Leo asked the question, suddenly interested.

"Their ability to slave others to their will is from the naga power tree," Srida explained, recalling what Rose had told her the previous day. "It's a stronger version of hypnosis. So since most nagas have a weaker version of hypnosis, they're also resistant to it."

"And there's no way the upper hellions are going to risk themselves getting killed in physical combat," Bendali added. "Not with the amount of time it takes them to spawn. They'd probably drift for over a hundred years!"

"That's a long time to be in limbo," Leo said quietly.

"Enough to make anyone go mad," Bendali agreed, waving one of his tentacles in a large, lazy arc.

Leo and Srida followed his gaze to see Ceelia drifting overhead, slightly larger than average and her tentacles glowing brightly. She saw Bendali waving at her and drifted down to join the three of them, settling down like she was sitting on the ground herself.

"Things are going well I take it?"

Bendali nodded. "Leo must have been a professional bodyguard or something before. Even those we think were soldiers in the overworld don't pick up on things this quickly."

Ceelia gave Leo an approving look. "How are you handling the new limbs?"

Leo bit his lip. "The tentacles are weird," he eventually said. "And they add a new dimension to the fighting I'm completely unused to. But the extra arms are a godsend, even for the menial things..."

Ceelia frowned at his use of the term godsend but didn't otherwise say anything. "You'll get used to the tentacles pretty quickly," she said, one of her own coiling up the dark grey skin of her arm. "When I spawned you wouldn't believe how clumsy I was, and I couldn't even fly."

Srida tilted her head. "They were strong enough to support you?"

"Srida," Leo said, rolling his eyes. "I can lift myself off the ground with one of my own, and look how thin it is!"

Ceelia smiled. "Coordination was the problem, not strength. It's why I stayed in the lavalakes for so long."

"You swam through them like water?!" Leo looked legitimately shocked.

Ceelia's grin widened. "I can see through the lava like water. One of my abilities I spawned with."

Leo and Srida shared a disbelieving expression. "I just find that hard to conceptualize," Srida said.

Ceelia snorted faintly. "Imagine what I was thinking when I slowly gained consciousness beneath the surface. I didn't even realize where I was at the time."

Before Leo or Srida could comment on it, Bendali cut in. He hadn't really been following the conversation and looked to be deep in thought. "Ceelia," he said, his tone serious. "I think I'm going to expand my soul."

Ceelia looked at him with an expression as serious as his tone. "What brought this on?"

The captain of the guard had his lips pursed. "I figured I wasn't missing out on much, but after how easily Leo subdued me..."

"Probably best to get the extra two arms now in case you do die and lose the power," she finished for him.

Bendali nodded. "And it's a good time anyhow. These two can see exactly what happens." He gestured to Leo and Srida.

Ceelia rubbed her eyes. "Okay. Right now? Damn." She paused for a moment then looked at the two new people. "Someone explained soul expansion to you two, right?"

Srida nodded and Leo gave Ceelia a bit of a pained expression. "Kind of?" the displacer beast said. "I got how the time aspect of it works, but not the actual expansion process."

Bendali glanced at him. "Well it's perfect then. I'll try my best to explain what I'm feeling as I go through it."

Ceelia floated a couple feet up into the air and gestured for the others to stand back. "There might be a bit of discharge. Just give him some space."

The red lightning that had exploded out around Andreas when he'd first entered the underworld came to Srida's mind, and she moved back. Once Leo had moved as well, Bendali kneeled down on the sandy ground of the sparring ring and closed his eyes.

"So what I'm doing right now is pushing my magic into my body," he said slowly.

Srida raised an eyebrow. That was exactly what she had done with the demon's power to become a gorgon herself.

"Now I can't exactly see it," Bendali said slowly, "because it's more of a sixth sense when doing this, but I can sense a web of sorts. A small portion of it is glowing, and that represents my body as it is right now. If I didn't have enough power, I wouldn't be able to reach out any further, but since I do..."

The displacer beast kneeled in silence for a moment, frowning. "I'm trying to push my magic in a way that it flows down one of the strings. I can't really explain why, but I know this one leads to the next set of arms. There's a little nexus at the end of this string, and once I reach it..."

He trailed off again, obviously concentrating. "It's hard to push the magic through," he finally said. "It doesn't want to go, obviously. Not talking anymore."

The last part of his statement was strained, the veins in his neck bulging and he put pressure on himself. Ceelia floated down beside the other two, gesturing for them to step back a bit further. Once they had a good amount of distance, she spoke to them quietly.

"It's absolutely exhausting to do that," she whispered. "Any break in concentration, and it's like losing your balance and you need to completely start over. Right now he's trying to push the magic down that thread. If he makes it to the end of the thread to the little nexus, he'll start to grow another pair of arms. Then from there next time he had enough power, he can explore whatever threads that nexus has."

Srida nodded solemnly while Leo didn't give any expression at all. It took about fifteen minutes, and Bendali huffed angrily several times when he clearly botched the process and had to start over, but eventually he succeeded. He went from hunched over with his hands on the ground to suddenly upright with excitement and gave a little whoop.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Been such a long time since I've done that! Forgot how hard it was!"

Leo gave him a curious look. "But nothing is happening?"

In response, Bendali held his arms above his head, exposing the two spots where his other two should be. Right on cue, they started growing out.

"It's a voluntary change, remember?" he said, forcing the new limbs out at his will. "I'll be able to grow these in in seconds once I get used to it."

Even as he spoke a second pair of shoulders formed just like Leo's, followed by the upper arm, elbow, forearm and hands. It took him just under a half a minute to complete the change, the speed reminiscent of when Andreas changed himself into a gorgon. The slow manner in which he changed reaffirmed any doubts that Srida had--the process of soul expansion was exactly the same as taking on a demonic form. The only difference was humans who did it stole and existing power web, while the hellions had to create it themselves. Srida frowned. Did that mean that even though she still had a true, living physical body of the overworld, that she would still be generating that power? Her initial assumption had been no, but there was clearly more to it that she didn't understand.

Bendali was working out how to use his new limbs. In Srida's moment of introspection, he'd coopted Leo into a little exercise where they were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors! with all four hands. She slithered over to the two of them, bemused.

"I imagine you're going to try wrestling again," she smirked.

"Give me some time!" Bendali said, exasperate but in a joking tone.

Leo however was grinning. "His ego was hurt. He needs to take me out in a fair match."

The captain of the guard grunted. "If I lose more than I win to a newbie I'm going to be pretty upset."

Then he pointed to Srida with one of his lower arms, a little giddy as his two new limbs. "Come on, back to practice!"

The gorgon rolled her eyes in good humor, retrieved her metal pole and went back to her corner of the practice pit with her target. There were dents all over it where her pole had impacted. Hopefully with time, they'd be mostly in the center. Eyeing it with fatigue, she raised herself up and coiled her body like a spring once again. It was exhausting, but it certainly might prove useful to her before she got out of this mess.

***

The following days started to pass in a blur for Srida. The underworld was in fact quite a busy place, and there were no absence of threats either. The umbral scourge was universally feared, but the population was by no means a united. After several days of practice, Bendali brought Leo and Srida for a practice patrol around the farms where they grew the rockfruit. Having the largest food supply in the region meant that they were also under the constant threat of thieves and more coordinated raids.

Demons were an everyday problem. Bendali killed two imps on the practice patrol that day, and scared off a wild hellhound. The food supply kept the village fed, but the farmland was a nightmare to protect, particularly against a variety of different threats that could rob them in many different ways. Dark steeds--a flaming centaur--could simply outrun the guards. Naga's had to be taken down with bow and arrow, as attempting close quarters combat was guaranteed to end in death by constriction. Imps were everywhere. Wild hellhounds hunted in packs and were more interested in Stillrock's inhabitants than the actual rockfruit. It was true that the farm kept the village fed, but it brought a massive host of problems with it.

Watching the hellhound flee with a wound in its hind leg--one Srida had put there with her spear--she glance back at Bendali who watched her approvingly.

"Excellent strike," he said nodding, "I could hardly track your movement when you lashed at him. Good work."

"This is the regular?" she asked, a little confused. "Imps, hellhounds, to the point where over half the population has to defend it? It doesn't really seem...practical."

Bendali scratched his nose. "You would think that, but...hunting and gathering down here is incredibly hard. There's a reason so many try to steal from us. I'm just grateful were on good terms with Naveth right now."

When Srida and Leo gave him a confused look, he rolled his eyes. "Right," Bendali muttered. "Of course, you're new."

"Local tyrant?" Leo guessed.

Bendali shook his head. "Close. Kind of like what Ceelia is to us, he is to another nearby community." He gestured for them to follow along the patrol path.

"He's a really strong dragonborn. Can't really hold a candle to the upper hellions, but he'd give Ceelia a scare if they went toe to toe. He used to send people to try and steal from us."

"Why'd he stop?" Srida asked, falling in behind the two displacer beasts.

"Ceelia went over there herself and helped them set up their own farm," Bendali said simply. "She figured solving the root of the problem was better than fighting them off."

"But you can't exactly negotiate with the demons, only hellions," Leo said slowly.

"Or any who live under the rule of the--look! There!" Bendali quickly pointed to the stalactites far up on the ceiling of the underworld, probably half a kilometer up.

Srida and Leo quickly followed his gaze. "What?" Srida asked, confused.

"What the hell is it?" Leo said, clearly seeing something she hadn't.

Still searching the cavern ceiling, Leo stepped up right next to her and pointed so she could follow exactly where. It took her a moment to identify the anomaly, but eventually she saw it as well. Up on one of the stalactites was a dragonborn, clutching to the upside-down spire with his claws, doing his absolute best to remain still.

"How did you see that?" Srida asked, aghast.

"Training," Leo said flatly. "Never know where..." he trailed off, looking at the dragonborn.

Bendali didn't look impressed. "Probably waiting until nobody is watching the center of the field, then he's gonna fly down and rob us."

In his new lower two arms he held a bow, fashioned entirely out of metal with a wire in place of string, and a pully system to give it more power. Srida had never seen such a design before. Yet even with its clever design, there was no way he would ever be able to make the arrow even reach the demon lurking overhead, much less hit it.

"How on earth do we get that thing down?" Leo asked.

In response, Bendali took a small bone horn out of his bag, pressed it to his lips and blew. The resounding blare echoed all around the area, probably even audible in Stillrock.

"This horn is for when we need someone flight capable. I imagine Gowris will be here shortly." Bendali said, still keeping his eye on the dragonborn. It was moving now, wondering if it had been seen or was still hidden far from sight.

"That's the only way?" Leo asked.

"Unless you know how to make a weapon that can reach that far," Bendali grunted.

Leo frowned. "What kind of mines do you have here? Where do you get the metal?"

Both Srida and Bendali looked at him.

Leo bit his lip. "I might have an idea. Depends what kind of chemicals and compounds form down here. No wood, so the charcoal... Mind you the autoignition temperature, I wonder if that would work down here..." he trailed off again, deep in thought.

Srida racked her brain. Not much of what he'd just said made any sense to her, and she had full working memory of the overworld. Was he a scholar that he had internalized so much knowledge? Yet he was an incredible fighter as well.

"Leo do you remember anything about your life at all?" Srida asked, using her hairsnakes to keep an eye on the dragonborn lurking overhead. Bendali kept glancing between it and the two of them. He was intrigued as well.

He shook his head. "I know I'm not working with the same base information though. It's just that simple. I must be from a different part of the world."

"A place where they train scholars to be vicious fighters," Bendali grunted.

"Combat engineer?" Leo asked. "Does that mean anything?"

"Sounds like someone who'd be fixing trebuchets in the backline," Srida said.

Leo pursed his lips and didn't say anything for a moment, then the sounds of wings interrupted the conversation. Gowris had indeed come to answer the horn, having been on patrol himself and heard the call.

"What is it?" he asked, hovering about thirty feet above them. He was holding a spear like Srida, and had a longsword strapped to his leg. Apparently aerial combat what another beast entirely.

Srida gestured with her spear to the dragonborn hiding in the stalactites overhead. "Bit of a beasty we can't reach."

Gowris searched for it for a moment, eventually catching its red body hiding amongst the grey stone.

"Sneaky bastard," he grunted. "Guess you to will get to see what a fight in the air looks like. I'll drag it out."

"Just don't drop it on us," Bendali retorted.

The hovering dragonborn barked a laugh. "You won't let that go, will you?"

Gowris beat his wings harder, sending himself flying upwards, holding the spear in front of him.

"This is going to be a show," Bendali said mildly. "Gowris is an acrobat in the air."

The dragonborn above saw Gowris headed at him and made a break for it. It dropped into a dive, trying to gather speed before pulling up, hoping to get a head start. It was a valiant effort, but Gowris was simply physically superior to the demon. As he caught up to the demon, he flew above it, forcing the monster into a dive.

"If it didn't dive like that, he simply could have driven the spear into its back," Bendali explained, "the whole point is to try and be either behind or above your opponent, that way you can strike at them. The aerial jousting approach is simply too dangerous."

"Well it makes sense," Leo grunted. "Do they not use bows in the air?"

"Gowris can," Bendali said slowly, "but it's incredibly difficult. It's something he practices daily. Aerial archers are among the most dangerous soldiers in the underworld, and the rarest."

As he said that, Gowris allowed the other dragonborn to get behind him, then in one smooth motion snapped his wings out and slowed drastically. The demon was upon him almost instantly and for a moment it seemed like the two were about to collide, but Gowris was already starting to fall towards the ground. As the dragonborn passed over him, Gowris drew his sword and flicked it in a wide arc that clipped its wing, slicing the membrane.

"Very risky maneuver," Bendali said, "only really good against unarmed opponents. Any real foe with a spear would have skewered him then and there." The captain of the guard frowned. "Bastard's just showing off."

The demon roared as its wing was cut, falling slightly to the side as it lost lift. The air pressing on the split membrane was obviously stretching it open further and incredibly painful. Gowris was behind it again, and quickly gaining altitude to get above the demon. With its wounded wing, there was no way it could possibly keep up with his agility in the air anymore. But instead of flying directly above it and using his spear to jab it in the back, he continued to climb up towards the top of the cavern.

"He's going to go for a drop kill," Bendali guessed. "Probably going to drive the spear clean through it, or a fatal kick to the head."

"Like a peregrine falcon," Leo murmured.

Bendali was right. Gowris dropped from ahigh, diving down at a frighteningly fast pace directly at his prey. He aimed himself so that he passed just behind the demon's legs but was able to impale the spear into its back as he shot it by. The two aerial combatants were already considerably far from the three on the ground, but the wet thud of the spear going right through the demon's body was clearly audible.

Gowris' aim was impeccable. The spear impacted right between its shoulder blades, severing the spine and completely paralyzing its wings and lower body. As it dropped from the sky, he followed it falling to the ground, and caught his spear from the falling corpse, ripping it out before it was destroyed in the fall.

Bendali shook his head. "Now he's just showing off."

Both Srida's and Leo's eyebrows were trying to rise off their heads.

"If I was that good, I would too," Leo said flatly. "That was incredible."

The dragonborn circled back, spear in one hand and bloodied sword in the other. As Gowris landed, Srida found herself giving him a newfound respect. That wasn't just innate power he had, but an incredible amount of skill as well.

"Learn anything?" the dragonborn asked with a smirk.

"Yeah," Leo said loudly. "That I'll always be completely outclassed."

Gowris gave a bark of laughter. "I'll give you a hint, we're terrified of bows and arrows, which is why we fight so high."

Bendali glanced and Leo through the corner of his eye with a smile. "Did you see how that wing injury completely took it out before he killed it?"

Gowris nodded severely. "I've had an arrow go through my wing before. It's awful. I never want that to happen again." To show them, he spread his right wing out and pointed to a small scar between the second and third finger.

"Tiny hole," he said. "Made flying unbearable and really gave me an appreciation for needing to walk everywhere."

Bendali mocked a sneer at him. "Yeah, yeah big guy. We know you can fly. Go clean up your kill."

Gowris grinned and without further conversation took off again to collect the corpse.

"He doesn't get to do that very often," Bendali said lightly. "I know he doesn't actually miss the old days, but I think he does look back on them somewhat fondly."

"There used to be lots of fighting?" Srida asked.

The displacer beast gestured for them to follow and continued down the patrol path. "A lot more open conflict between settlements. I had some bad luck," he said. "Died a couple times with a decent amount of power stored. I spawned shortly after Gowris and Vyvyla, right during the wars. It was right when the upper hellions got really scared and essentially pulled all their forces into their fortresses. Left a massive power vacuum, and well...we made the same mistakes the upper hellions did."

Bendali sighed. "I think we're doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again. The few of us not ruled by the upper hellions immediately started doing exactly what they did."

"But we don't now," Srida said cautiously. Ceelia and Mathalus certainly ran the place, but how absolute was their control?

"Stillrock is the best place to live in the entire region," Bendali said immediately. "Ceelia might be strict at times, but do understand that she does what she does because she cares. She doesn't see herself as a ruler, but a caretaker. Compared to the other older hellions, that's a massive distinction."

Srida tilted her head at Bendali slightly. He'd been awfully quick to defend Ceelia, and Srida hadn't even mentioned the leadership of Stillrock. Yet it didn't really sound like he was covering for her...it was more sincere than that. Srida got the impression he truly believed what he said.

"What makes this place different?" Leo asked, "aside from...actually having fucking agriculture," he seemed to add as an afterwards grunt.

"The whole way it's set up," Bendali answered. "A lot of communities have a very strict pecking order. Stronger hellions can boss weaker ones around. It's just..." he had a slightly pained expression. "Well, it's less trusting. Ceelia's big rule is that everyone is equal, even if we aren't."

"That's a good rule to live by," Srida said slowly.

"Indeed," Leo agreed.

"It's trust," Bendali continued. "It's why the naga hive was so successful as well. They're a cohesive unit. Much more militaristic than us, but it works. They trust each other, and they thrive because of it."

Srida pursed her lips. "Those hellhounds seem pretty militaristic if you ask me." As she said that, she was looking over down into the cavern where groups of hellhounds patrolled around the edge of the fields. They had a habit of all sticking together, and it was very clear who was the leader among them.

"It's the pack dynamic," Leo said. "Right?" he looked to Bendali for confirmation.

"They're all like that," he answered. "And if you try and go against their alpha's, well... just look at Jorg. Poor guy basically got ostracized. I'm lucky I'm right at the top. They're all a little scared of me."

Jorg's resentment to the other hellhounds from the other day leapt into Srida's mind. It had been something she'd noticed.

"Dominance structures matter a lot to them," Leo said. "I kind of picked up on that. There's certain people they all seem to never question, even in a friendly manner. They just obey."

Bendali nodded. "I call them the alphas. Ceelia discourages the term, but...it's just how they work. It's built into their very person. You two will probably get that level of respect from them, just based on your bodies alone."

"The whole structure is great for guards though," Leo said.

"Unless someone like Jorg challenges a leader, then doesn't back down when they lose," Bendali said though tight lips. "Dumbass. That's where it fails. Normally he would have be killed for that, but Ceelia forbids that kind of thing. But now none of the packs will work with him. It's a lose-lose situation."

He turned to the two of them. "They won't be so tribal with you two, but if the alpha's _ever_get bossy for personal stuff, don't give them an inch. We tolerate their whole tribal system amongst themselves, but that cannot creep into the general population."

"I have noticed a bit of a divide," Srida said, reflecting on the communal meals from the past couple days. The hellhounds didn't really know how to treat other hellions. It was almost like a guy who got awkward around a girl he liked. It wasn't something that came naturally to them. "Not a bad divide, but it's there."

Bendali shrugged, leading them upwards into a tunnel lined with rockfruit. "I don't have time for their pack dynamic crap. Ceelia told me I can boss them all around, so I do. And they are all scared of her."