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"Ready?"

"Ready."

Daria had a practice sword carved from tripidian bone in one hand, and a dragon scale shield in the other. She handled both with ease and came at Srida with speed she still couldn't believe the hellhound had.

Srida only had the spear to defend herself, which was strange because she was used to being on the offensive--striking at others rather than evading their blows. She most certainly hadn't expected Daria to rush her. Half on reflex, she lunged at Daria anyways. The ball tip of the spear would leave a nasty bruise if it hit, but hellions healed quickly and it would be gone in hours at most--not that Srida ever managed to hit Daria anyways.

The hellhound was good--too good for Srida as things turned out. Daria had been expecting the lunge and twisted to the side, evading the blow by a hair's breadth while maintaining her forward momentum. Srida saw it happen in that sense of slowed time she experienced when striking, and found was already committed to the motion. She couldn't back out in time to save herself.

Daria's practice sword crashed into Srida's ribs, striking her with such force is knocked her bulk to the side slightly and forced the wind out of her. If that had been a sharpened blade, it would have sliced her in half.

Srida cried out in pain and flinched away from the hit, but otherwise didn't move to continue the fight. In one quick motion, she'd lost.

Daria grinned at Srida off to her left.

"Figured I'd shake it up."

Srida wheezed, trying to get her breath back. "Did you have to hit me that hard?!" she gasped, clutching her ribs.

"Are you going to make that mistake and overreach with your strike again?"

Srida thought about that for a moment, wincing as she touched her ribs. Daria had been able to hit her like that because she'd been unable to back off out of her strike due to her momentum. She'd committed too much of her serpent body to the blow, and not used enough spear for reach.

"Not after getting whacked that hard," Srida grimaced. It felt like her eyes should be watering from the pain, but that didn't happen down in the umbral plain. Her hairsnakes were writhing violently however, something that happened when she was experiencing extreme emotion.

Daria shrugged. "I did warn you."

It was true. Daria had explained that mistake to her multiple times, but her practice over the last few days had been about power and precision, not controlling how her blows committed her. Fast creatures would be able to exploit a clumsy serpent, an important lesson it seemed that she'd just been taught the hard way.

"Come on!" Daria said loudly, prodding Srida with the practice sword. "Up! Push through the pain! Again!"

She lightly jabbed Srida in her aching ribs making a burst of anger flash through the gorgon. She knew her ribs hurt and had deliberately prodded her there! The sudden burst of rage almost made Srida lash out right there, but there was fire and focus in Daria's eyes. It was true. She had to fight through the pain.

Srida was up in a standing position almost instantly, spear in her right hand and her left held freely behind her. The one-handed stance would force her to reconsider how much power she used. The muscles in her arms were like iron, but even they wouldn't hold onto the spear during a full force strike with only one hand.

Daria's grin was feral and approving.

She came at Srida again in the exact same way she'd come last time. Srida struck again, watching through narrowed eyes as Daria twisted the to same side to narrowly avoid the spear, raising the practice sword above her head. Slower this time, Srida managed to stop herself and start to pull back, but she hadn't accounted for how fast Daria had been moving towards her. She wasn't in a position to strike at Srida's ribs like last time--Srida was upright like a human this time--but her shield hand was held up by her chest and in a position to bash.

"Too slow!" Daria roared, releasing the handle of her shield and delivering a vicious uppercut.

Srida flinched her head back just fast enough to avoid the full force of the blow and was only clipped by a single knuckle on her chin. The impact still made her head ring, and as she reeled back, her focused slipped and Daria slammed the practice sword into her arm. The blow had enough force it would have cut through her arm and into her chest if it had been real.

Dead.

Srida hissed at her--legitimately hissed like a snake--and got an approving growl out of the hellhound.

"If you had avoided that I'd have been down a shield," Daria said, her voice cutting through the fog and seemed to envelop Srida's head. That uppercut would have knocked her out if it had been a direct hit. "And you could have blocked that blow with your spear and probably taken me. I can't punch with that speed if a shield is on my arm, so I need to drop it when I try that."

The words faintly registered in Srida's mind, but she was still seeing spots of light in her vision.

"Don't bully the gorgon Daria."

The voice sounded bemused more than anything, and Srida could see Bendali looking over from thirty paces away with a mirthful expression.

"I want to see how her fights while hurt," Daria answered. "Just in case she gets hit."

Bendali was nodding as she walked towards her, patting her on the back with one of his tentacles as Srida rose to a standing position again, trying not to sway from dizziness. That blow to the chin had left her stunned.

"Her eyes aren't focused," Bendali said, pointing to her and taking the practice sword from Daria with one of his lower hands. "Srida!" he said suddenly, the furry side of the tentacle gently slapping her face. "Don't get hit!"

Then he vanished.

Realizing what he was about to do, adrenaline surged through her and pushed the dizziness back to some degree as her hairsnakes fanned out, desperately searching for where the displacer beast was going to materialize.

She coiled up into a defensive position, ready to dodge away in any direction when he slipped out of four-dimensional space again. He predictably appeared behind her, but fortunately her hairsnakes gave her vision of him and she flattened down to the ground, the sword that could have struck her in the center of the back flying just over her head.

Bendali had jumped as he swung so his feet didn't touch her bulk and was unable to reverse his direction, leaving him open to a strike in the back from Srida as he passed her. Dizzy and dazed as she was, Srida was still able to lunge forward, driving the ball of the practice spear into his back.

Or that was the plan anyways, but he blinked into nothingness the moment she came close to touching him. Srida hissed again, quickly pulling back into her defensive stance before he had the chance to materialize again.

Somehow in that timeframe he managed to get behind her again, and performed the exact same attack at her, flying out of nothingness and swinging at her back. Srida ducked, but this time he didn't pass over her. She raised herself to strike again--this time with more speed and power--but he wasn't there. Instead, he had anchored his two back tentacles to the ground by driving the spikes into the dirt, and reversed his direction midair.

When Srida lunged forwards, nothing was there and she only registered Bendali's trick through her hairsnakes when he was already halfway towards her back. There was no sword in his hand anymore, he'd just dropped it to the ground and lunged at her unarmed. Perhaps if her head had been clear she'd have been able to twist out of the way, but in her current state she'd only started reacting when his legs had wrapped around her hips, his lower arms had grabbed hers by the wrists and subdued them, and his upper arms had put her in a choke hold.

I'm a half snake and I just got out wrestled, she thought dimly. Her body might be a good one, but by the gods of the astral plain, she was outclassed.

Bendali was quite smartly using his tentacles to cover his face and eyes to prevent Srida from biting at him with her hairsnakes, and his vicelike grip around her neck was already making his vision go dark. Desperate, she twisted in the air and slammed herself into the ground back first, making Bendali take the brunt of the hit.

It sort of worked. She felt the back of her head collide with the displacer beast's jaw as the two of them hit the ground with a heavy thud, but the impact knocked the wind out of her--or would have if her airway hadn't been closed off by Bendali's grip--and left her somewhat stunned as well. His chokehold loosened briefly as he was stunned by the impact, then his entire grip tightened as he braced himself for the rodeo. She only had moments to shake him.

Srida raised up again and prepared to bash the two of them into the ground again and started down. She was moving as fast as she could but didn't intend to actually follow through. The blow had been hard on her, but it had probably made Bendali's head ring and he likely wasn't going to suffer another. Halfway down to the ground, Bendali vanished.

Srida stopped herself instantly, pivoting up into an upright stance and gasping for air, searching for her spear at the same time. She couldn't constrict Bendali for a win, he'd just vanish. She needed a spear strike for the victory. Just as she scooped it up off the ground, the displacer beast appeared a short distance away, he hands held up in a gesture of peace. Three of his hands, at least, the forth was nursing the back of his head.

"Well done," he grunted. "I didn't expect you to actually go through with that first one."

Srida breathed a sigh of relief, and against her better judgement, relaxed. One could never know with Bendali or Daria. They were amiable people, but took training extremely seriously and liked to catch people off guard. They wanted people constantly on edge, and claimed it was what would keep her alive in the umbral plain.

"We can take a couple minutes after that," Daria said lightly, collecting her practice sword from the ground. "Wait for your head to clear."

Srida gave her a tiny nod, coiling her body up and leaning against it. It was the closest position she had to sitting on the ground but was more akin to sitting in a chair than anything else. The adrenaline from the fight was fading and the dizziness from the impacts were coming back in full force. She didn't even notice Daria was sitting on the ground next to her until she spoke, making Srida open her eyes--a mistake, due to how much the world was spinning.

"You really look in rough shape," she said, sympathy in her voice.

Srida grunted. She objectively knew that Daria was right about needing to be able to fight through the pain, but it didn't make her feel better about it or lessen her immediate anger. Instead she just let her head rest back over the edge of her body, staring up at the ceiling of the giant cavern before closing her eyes again.

"I am not used to this," she finally said, trying to keep her voice steady.

Daria barked a laugh. "Bendali, have you ever seen that before?"

Srida heard him chuckle off to her right. "Not on her." His voice was laced with humor as well, but a bit more subdued. Perhaps he had a headache as well.

Annoyed, she cracked an eye open again and tilted her head towards them. "What?" she demanded irritably.

In response, Daria reached over behind Srida's head and poked a hairsnake, which was hanging limply towards the ground with its eyes closed.

"I've never seen you keep them completely limp before," Daria grinned. "It looks strange on you."

The eyes on her hairsnakes opened, all of them staring right at the ground. She's closed them because she'd wanted darkness for a moment.

"I'm dizzy," Srida growled, "and moving them around kind of exacerbates it."

Daria pondered that for a moment. "I suppose that makes sense."

A moment of silence hung between them, a moment perhaps a little awkward for the talkative Daria, but Srida just used it to try and stop the world from spinning so much.

"That was good though," she continued. "Most people wouldn't be able to shake Bendali once he starts doing that."

Srida cracked an eye open at her. "He still had me. Do I look like I'm able to fight back?"

Daria glanced around nervously. "I don't think you realize," she said quietly. "When Bendali stops the fight like that--you've beaten him. Don't you notice how he's already gone?"

Srida didn't bother to open her other eye, but just surveyed the area around her with a couple of her hairsnakes. It was easier than moving her head. After a moment of looking and not seeing the displacer beast anywhere in sight, she grunted again.

Her effort to do below the bare minimum in search and speech seemed to amuse Daria slightly. "His head is probably spinning worse than yours, and he was using his tentacles to stay upright."

That made Srida open her other eye.

"Huh," she finally said. It also helped that her head was already starting the clear.

"Yeah," Daria said with a wry smile. "He's really good at hiding the pain but I bet he wouldn't have been able to catch a stone I tossed at him. Not worth getting piledriven in the chest by a gorgon with a practice spear, eh?"

With the amount of pain Srida was in at the moment, the thought of that was somewhat amusing, even if the reality of it would have probably been several broken ribs. But her faint--if mirthful--smile slipped away when she realized something.

"My head's so bloody foggy I'd forgotten you're the one who delivered that uppercut," Srida growled.

Daria's smile turned back into a feral grin. "Well you'll need to best me then." With that, she stood up and gave Srida a light pat on the shoulder. "You'll be good as new in thirty minutes, so take fifteen. We'll go over this again for a couple hours yet."

Srida leaned back over her serpentine body, closed her eyes and allowed her hairsnakes to go limp again, but not before transferring the practice spear from where it lay at her side to her hands. Knowing Daria and Bendali, the next drill was going to begin long before she was ready, and with almost no warning.

Unsurprisingly, a surprise attack was exactly what happened. Daria gave her what felt closer to twenty minutes to recover before the sound of her footpads alerted Srida to a second round of sparing. She deflected the practice sword without too much difficulty and managed to hold the hellhound off for a while, but eventually took a blow to the arm which would have been followed up by something fatal in a real fight.

The afternoon--or what felt like the later part of the day in the land of perpetual low light--continued on in that manner. Srida got hit a lot, though she did land a meager share of would-be-lethal blows on Daria was well, once using the tip of her tail to catch the hellhounds ankle as she feinted to the side. Srida managed to nimbly wrap it around Daria's leg before dragging her foot out from underneath her and bringing the practice spear's ball down right in the middle of a helpless Daria's chest. The sound of the air leaving her lungs in a huff was the most satisfying thing Srida had felt to date, and after that when Srida got hit, Daria's blows were noticeably lighter.

The two of them continued with this for at least a couple hours, going on for so long that Srida couldn't help but think about the incredible amount of stamina she seemed to have. An hour of this would have been an extremely intense workout for a human--they were sparring at full power--and had been doing so for hours with very little break. Even the strongest of men wouldn't be able to do this for more than one or two, never mind the better part of a day.

Daria took it far better than Srida--it seemed training could still increase one's stamina even further--and pushed the gorgon to the edge of her limits. By the end of the training day, Srida was bruised, battered, and had wanted to throw up for the better part of the hour.

Eventually Daria wordlessly held a hand up and put her practice sword in the rack, making Srida heave a sigh of relief. In the past such a gesture had marked the end of the training for the day and everyone involved had assured her nobody would be trying to get the jump on her once it was over. They wanted their soldiers well trained and vigilant, but not jumpy. That did seem to fly in the face of conventional knowledge for Srida, but it was a rule everyone adhered to for some reason or other.

"We'll make something out of you yet," Daria said, her trademark feral grin back on her face. "Though it shouldn't take too long, usually the first year is where everyone gets most of their skill."

That made Srida purse her lips a little bit. With each day that passed she was coming to terms that it was going to take a long time to make it back to the overworld. A year was nothing to the hellions down here, but it was a significant amount of time to people who only had eighty.

You just don't want to be trapped down here for an eternity, Srida reminded herself. Once she'd gotten out and purged her soul of umbral magic, Andreas could still go up into the astral plain once he'd died naturally--and not back down here.

While those thoughts had been drifting around her head, Srida found herself responding. "Really? It seems like people would only get better over time."

Daria shrugged. "Maybe a bit, but the difference is marginal. Especially since we're going to spend so much time each day working you, these first fifteen months or so is when you'll learn a lifetime of knowledge. Not really needing to rest helps speed up the process." Daria grinned again when Srida moaned at the notion of training days similar to this one for the next year.

Not needing to rest was true, but it sure didn't feel like it. Srida had certainly gotten to the point where she felt like she was on the brink of collapsing, but the failure had never come.

"It's absolutely miserable though!" Srida complained. "Are we really in such a rush it needs to be-"

Daria's sigh cut her off.

"We really aren't," the hellhound said quietly, as they entered the stone hut that was the dining hall. Inside a couple succubi were preparing the innards of rockfruit with some spices that Srida didn't know the origin of yet.

"But Gowris is antsy," Daria continued, lowering her voice a bit. "And I'm not entirely sure why, which worries me."

Srida gave her a concerned look, hoping to coerce her into continuing, but Daria just made a motion with her hand and gave her a look that together said for the topic to wait, then graciously took three bowls of rockfruit from a succubus all for herself.

"Just because you don't need to eat, doesn't mean you'll recover as fast if you don't," Daria said lightly. "Fill yourself up, you'll need the strength tomorrow."

Srida gave her a small nod and the succubus who was dishing the bowls heard that and got another six out and put them all on a stone platter for her, quickly filling them with the pasta-like food. Srida's eyes bugged out a bit when she saw how much food was being served.

Freya--the name of the succubus dishing things for her--offered a crooked smile in return. "You're a gorgon!" she laughed. "You think you can get away with eating as much as someone a tenth your weight?"

Srida looked at the total of eight bowls on the platter. "I don't know I can fit that much in my stomach," she said faintly.

Freya's crooked grin widened warmed slightly. "You'll be surprised. Your body needs it."

Srida eyed the succubus warily, wearing only an apron and nothing else, then took the food, heading back over to where Daria had seated herself. There didn't seem to be fixed meal times here, the kitchen just worked around the clock and people came and went as they grew hungry. There were busier times but there wasn't one of them, with only a few dragonborn at the far end of the room eating with a lesser devil.

Unfortunate, the lesser devil had been. Few people came down in such a weak form unless they had tried and failed to purge their soul, leaving a bit of the umbral taint upon it and unable to ascend to the astral plain after death. It made Srida a little nervous a similar fate awaited her when she did escape the umbral plain, but she tried not to let those thoughts worry her too much. That was a problem for when she escaped this place--if she did at all.

Srida coiled her lower body up at the edge of the table at a height that approximated sitting and started working on her food. "Why's he anxious?" she asked, pulling the conversation back to where it had been a minute ago. "What happened?"

Daria played with her food for a moment before answering, pushing the rockfruit strands around in circles. "I don't know," she finally said. "And that's what makes me nervous. Last time he was like this, there was a small invasion force coming our way."

Those words twisted a knot in Srida's stomach. The last thing she needed right now was a very real chance of being killed and trapped down here.

"But it's hard to know," Daria continued. "He's really the only one that ventures far from this place and has an idea what's going on out in the world at large." She looked deeply unhappy as she said that.

"We're a small fish in a big pond," Srida muttered.

Daria gave her a curt nod. "We're very conveniently in a place that doesn't have an upper hellion. But that doesn't mean the rest of the world is so tame."

Daria might have slowed down her eating but Srida sure hadn't. After her first bite of the rockfruit she'd realized she was ravenous. "They can't _all _be mentally enslaved to the upper hellions though, can they? Don't get me wrong, I know they rule...but is it that absolute?"

All Srida got out of the hellhound was a shrug. "We really don't know honestly. Perhaps inside their border's things are a little laxer, but what we know for sure is their invasion forces are always under that influence, and nobody really wants to risk themselves going into upper hellion territory."

Srida looked down at her third bowl, already half empty. When had she finished the second?

"Except Gowris," Srida pried. "He knows."

"Gowris does have his ear to the ground," Daria said carefully, "but he tends to keep a lot to himself. Or at least he doesn't share it with me." She shook her head suddenly. "I don't know Srida. The man is definitely on our side, but he certainly has secrets. I think it's because he's worried about someone in the town getting captured and being forced to talk."

Srida nodded slowly, holding the now empty third bowl of food up to her face and discreetly using her long tongue to quickly clean it out while she pretended to scoop the last bits out. Daria didn't seem to notice. "He's keeping his cards close to his chest," Srida said. "And that implies he has a powerful secret."

Daria's stare grew more intense. "Of course he does!" she hissed. "But that doesn't mean you should try and figure it out!"

That subdued Srida a little bit. "I just find myself worrying about this region as a whole," Srida said quietly, "I don't like the idea that tyrants are right around the corner, but all we know about them is that walking into their territory is basically enslavement."

"Well, not for you," Daria grunted. "You got lucky."

Srida stopped shoveling food into her mouth long enough to give Daria a flat stare. "Doesn't mean they'd let me slither away like a good little snake. I'm sure they have other tools."

Daria sighed. "Likely. But you'd at least have a chance to escape at least, unlike me."

Srida's eyes were downcast again. The hellhound sounded really defeated in her statement. She couldn't even dream of exploring the world.

"Is there any way you should get the hypnotic resistance?" Srida asked carefully.

Daria's defeated expression didn't change. "The hellhound tree is pretty far from where the naga's point even begins. I've pieced it out. I could become a powerful cerberus in the same time that I'd get hypnotic resistance."

Cerberus. Stillrock didn't have any of those, but the hellhounds spoke of them in awe. One had to go over a hundred years as a hellhound without dying to get that body--a tall order for a group of people whose job was to fight for a living.

Srida bit her lip and nodded. "So it's better to go for that instead and aim for safety, then try and branch for the resistance."

"Yeah," Daria sighed, then looked up again. "But I imagine Gowris will have you in his pocket soon enough. Scouting out regions likely--hell, he might even try and get you to immerse yourself in other areas for a while, try and communicate with other hellions under Thesuis or Morano. You just might be our eye into the outside world."

With each word Daria spoke it made Srida's stomach tie itself tighter in a knot. That was literally the exact opposite of what she wanted! Srida needed to know what was going on in the larger world at no risk to herself, not go out into it blind and just hope she learnt something!

Still, she kept a thoughtful look on her face, expression completely calculated for the situation. If she hadn't been so concerned about preserving her human magic, Srida likely would have been extremely gung-ho for such an adventure. She was entirely safe from their enslavement, and as a new spawn she would regenerate quickly, despite her gorgon body. Starting as a gorgon was the closest thing the umbral plain had to good genetics.

"That sounds risky," Srida said carefully and swallowing another mouthful of rockfruit. She was on bowl five now. "But kind of fun at the same time."

Daria smirked a bit. Apparently she thought so too, which explained the traces of jealousy in her voice. "Well, don't even mention that to him yet. The man is sensible, but he's also stubborn. If someone suggests it and he thinks it's a bad idea, it'll be bad forever. But if he comes up with the idea himself..."

Srida bit her lip again, but not for the reason Daria likely assumed she did, and then gave the hellhound another tiny nod.

"Well then let's keep it off the table," Srida said in a light but tense voice, and hoped her smile wasn't too pained. "And not bring it up to him anytime soon."

Daria nodded in return. "Of course. Once you're more than comfortable with fighting," her wolfish grin was back. "Then we'll see what we can get done."