Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 13

"Where is he!?" Darian came at him again, faster this time. Perseus took a step back and raised his shield, and Darian crashed upon it with his own. Instead of letting the weight difference send him to the floor, Darian drove his weight into his feet and into the air. Up and to the side, he slashed out at Perseus, and again the man took a step back as he brought a sword up to deflect. "Where is Pegasus!"

"You are the ones who shot him!"

"Better that than let a murdering psychopath leave with him, a slave to him!" Again, faster. Darian ducked lower, sliced up, and again Perseus took a step back, but Darian didn't let him. He got in close, shoulder in, and spun out his shield hand to crash it against the bigger man's breastplate, toppling him. "Where is he? Where is he!?"

Perseus got down, far down, further than Darian expected. Before he knew it, a giant gold shield was underneath him and launching him into the air, flipping him several times before he landed twenty feet away on his stomach. Chest crushed and back bent, the wind burst from his lungs and refused to come back. He raised his head, focused through the pain and blurry vision, and rolled to the side as Perseus stabbed his sword down and into the rock of the mountain next to him.

"Your beloved horse — bleeding profusely I might add — is in the acropolis with Andromeda." Perseus stomped after him, his eyes glowing to match Darian's. "Defeat me, Bellerophontes, if you can. Pegasus is mine. And soon, so will be Medusa's head."

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~~Chimera~~

It was like swimming in bone. There was no blood to these enemies, nothing for him to sink his teeth into, nothing to tear and bite and rip apart. There was little satisfaction in smashing bones to powder.

But when swords started to cut into him, atop the spear wounds that were still healing, pain was a marvelous stimulator. He had no shield to defend himself; perhaps he'd look into getting one made for him when this was done. The humans would owe him one, and a shield made for his strength and size would be a grand thing indeed.

As the skeletons swarmed him, the idea made him smile. But their sword bites drew his attention back to the pain, to the immediate, to the sight of his own blood dripping onto the mountain road before the bridge. The great bridge was behind him, and the undead swarmed over it to crash against the mob's phalanx. The phalanx was holding though, and that too made him smile. Queen of the Amazons was a true marvel.

Otrera was close to him, out of range of his sweeps, but close enough he could still see her as he destroyed the bones around him. And destroy he did. They were just bones, and without the protection of muscle, skin, sinew, and blood, bones shattered. He dove through them, leaned in to tear them apart with his arms and claws. When their swords raised to stab at his face, he stood up, and kicked out in horizontal swipes. What few managed to not shatter, or ducked, he stepped onto and ground their bodies into powder.

Some of the undead dropped their swords from the impact, and in the chaos, they scampered up his body. Without weapons, they could do little damage, but they clawed and bit with their weak fingers and teeth, enough to hurt. He roared and reached up to grab them, but they hid in between his shoulder blades, and he spun around to try and dislodge them. But he was no fool, he had a job to do: kill everything. He did not let the undead upon him distract him for long before he got to all fours, and dove into the mess of bone and swords.

Otrera was doing fine, though she was drifting back onto the bridge, and stood upon it at the gate where it connected to the sea cliff. Sword and shield up at all times, the Amazon cut any undead who approached her into pieces. Some were smart enough to block with their swords, but the Fate's Child was strong enough to send them down to their knees where a sword cut through the spine, behind the chest, and shattered their core.

The mob phalanx broke. Shields fell to the sides, and the sea of bone poured between the broken dam. Moments later, an inhuman shriek joined the mess. The gorgon joined them.

"Medusa!?" Otrera stood in the middle of the bridge gate, cutting nearby skeletons as they ran past her. "Where's Darian!?"

Medusa did not respond. She was transformed, her mane of pythons high in the air, like striking vipers. What few of the crowd managed to get a glimpse were stunned before their attention was forced back to the undead at their feet. But that changed when Medusa threw herself upon the bridge onto where the skeletons clashed against the humans.

Massive tail and body swiped through the undead, and knocked a dozen of them back and over. Many fell off the bridge, many fell apart, some shattered completely. And what ones did not shatter were torn apart by the serpent's massive claws. She struck out, fast, faster than Chimera knew the colossal creature capable of, and slashed. Claws cut through bones, and her python hair struck out to grab and rip and tear.

Before long, the waves of undead crashing into the mob stopped, if only for a moment, and the phalanx reformed. The unending sea of bones and swords were too busy with the giant serpent to keep attacking the phalanx. They cut and slashed and pierced her scales, and she bled, but did not falter. Her monstrous shrieks broke through the noise, and her snake body crushed yet more of the tide.

"Enough." Andromeda's voice rolled down the mountain and into their ears. A sorceress's trick, no doubt. "If you must all die, then you die. I will find a new city to sacrifice."

Chimera blinked up at the white robes far above. She did not lack for confidence, and her voice of ice froze the air around them. Staff raised, arms up, she slammed the staff grip down upon the stone once more.

Everything started to shake. Chimera knew the feel of earthquakes, of Gaia's voice and life, but this was not it. The skeletons faltered, the phalanx faltered, and Otrera and he struggled to remain standing as the ground fought against them. Only Medusa and her serpent body were left standing as the vibrations of the ground, the bridge, and the very air grew until Chimera could feel it in his bones.

And the water started to move.

Near the edge of the mountain road, Chimera looked out over to the water below, and gasped. It rose as would a mountain from the ocean floor. Blackness cut through the blue, lit by the sparkling stars and the falling torches, and rose higher until it pierced waves and dark depths. A mass he could not understand, only a stone's throw away, started to reach up from the sea near the cliff, and latch onto the rock with a tendril as large as the entirety of the mountain road.

"Do not stop fighting! Get up!" Otrera managed to get back to her feet, but even with both sandals planted to the wood of the bridge, she couldn't hold her balance. Everything was shaking, the waters churned with rancor, and a low moan Chimera could not hope to match started to grow louder over the panicked cries of the civilians.

And louder. Loud enough Chimera raised his hands to try and block it out, but the deep groan of the sea vibrated through the air until he could feel his organs tremble in his gut. He stumbled around, leaned against the mountain, and stared out over the sea where the rising peak of dark continued to surge upward. It rose higher than the bridge, and then twice that, and higher again until what trickle of sunrise had been teasing the horizon was lost behind its mass. Water poured from its surface, and crashed against the sea with thunderous applause.

As the mountain of black rose higher, the air grew wet, and harsh. The clear skies started to howl, and low clouds formed from nothing. They pooled around the monstrosity's rising head, covered its titan eyes and teeth in a haze of mist, and dripped rain over the sky.

A hand — a limb of some sort rose from the water, and it too sent the sea cascading over its body as it broke through the water's surface. It crashed into the mountain, and what rumbling there had been before became a roaring earthquake that ripped everyone off their feet again. Even Medusa tumbled and fell against the wood of the mighty bridge.

Then it bellowed. A powerful stink of death and decay poured over them as it roared against them, and everyone covered their ears as the sound sunk into their bones and teeth. Another of its tentacles climbed from the sea depths and onto the mountain of the bay, each limb a slow-moving mass, as if they were watching the sea itself strike out. Heavy, slow, inexorable, and merciless. Barnacles spotted the deep blue skin of the tentacle as it wrapped around the cliff, and its main body soon stood as tall as the very mountain the acropolis sat upon.

Cetus, still alive after thousands of years. Not once had Chimera ever seen the creature, only stories. And the stories paralyzed him, as the creature did now.

It roared, and the air broke apart. Again another of its limbs broke through the sea surface, and up into the air, high above them, each claw upon its fingered hand as big as Chimera himself. There would be no fighting this monster.

And yet, as the hand came down toward the bridge Otrera and Medusa fought upon, Chimera ran forward. Movement almost stopped, the air heavy and thick, the rampant panic slowed down until it was all a gentle dance. Everything seemed frozen in time as Cetus's great limb fell toward the bridge.

"Chimera, what are you doing?" the beast said. Its horns came from the shadow of the bones around Chimera's feet, and soon too did its eyes and teeth. The gold mane of its head flickered through the death around it as it dragged itself up out of the ground to stand in front of Chimera.

And still everything was slow. Chimera's movements, Otrera's and Medusa's, the people, what few skeletons remained. The world came to a near halt as Chimera started running toward the bridge. All of it at near dead stop, except for the beast and his words to offer it.

"I'm saving Otrera and Medusa." And he was. His feet dug into the rock beneath him hard enough to tear open dirt and crush pebbles. He was sprinting, he could feel his lungs fight for the energy to catapult himself toward the Amazon, but the world slowed until he could see the drops of sea water raining down upon them move through the air.

"You'll die."

"You do not know—"

"Look, you worthless fool! Cetus is as old as the Earth and Sea. It will turn you into a bloody heap of severed limbs the moment it touches you."

Chimera grit his teeth. But still he moved forward.

"I made a promise."

"You will die!" The lion darted around, light as the wind, unaffected by the slowness that stopped the world around it. "You will die and all of your hopes and desires along with you."

"And so will you."

"Fool! Coward! Disgusting, worthless! Stop!" The lion got between him and the bridge, roared its defiance, and slashed at him. Its claws passed through Chimera's body as meaningless as a light breeze. "Everything you have lived for, survived these centuries for, will be gone!"

"It was not worth what you have done to me, beast." The damn thing would never understand, driven by pure instinct and rage. What was the point of living if all you had was your own thoughts, and no one share them with?

"I'll leave you alone. I'll stay in the shadows and just watch then! I'll let you have your peace, just stop! You can't die!"

Chimera smiled, and kept moving. The beast's voice faded, became a quiet whimper of a mewling cat, and passed through him as the giant moved through it. It reformed behind him, at the edge of the bridge, and Chimera made only the smallest glance over his shoulder to see it crying out after him.

The beast would never understand. But Chimera did.

He grabbed Otrera. She was struggling to find balance in the unending quakes, and could only stare at him with wide eyes as he grabbed her waist with his hand.

"Chimera! What are you—"

He threw her. Light, weightless, the tiny, beautiful Amazon flew through the air, off the bridge, and onto the mountainside road. No time to see how she landed, now time to see if the woman would thank him, or hate him, curse him or love him. No time to see how any of that small bundle of hope and joy would grow. No time for any of it. Sorry.

The undead that fought for their balance were easy to ignore. But Medusa was still surrounded by them, and some of them were strong enough to latch onto her and bite her, claw at her, some even still had their swords and stabbed her scales and thick snake muscle.

Throwing her would not be so easy. She was heavy, large, and in her panicked fighting, tried to push him away. But he got his large hand underneath her center, and the other under her torso. And he threw her with every last ounce of strength he had, until he felt his knees click and his back scream.

But he succeeded. The gorgon crashed onto the road not far from Otrera, rolling with the hard impact of her huge body. Saved, for now. It was the best he could do, and he smiled up at the oncoming monstrosity above him.

He managed a quick peek at Otrera where she sat against the cliff wall. Images slipped into his mind of the two of them, holding each other in the woods. Images of the two of them hugging each other, her little body in his arms, how her waist fit into his palm, how her kiss was tiny against his lips. How her—

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~~Medusa~~

She'd never been thrown before. She'd never had to land hard either, and especially not when transformed. Her heavy body hit the rock earth, rolled over itself along the mountainside road, and crashed into the flat wall of the cliff. With a few dozen feet of snake length to deal with, thick and heavy muscle, it made the impact harsh and painful. But she managed to get her bearings quickly, put her claws to the ground, and get up to look at the bridge.

The sea creature's hand collided with it. For a split second, a single tiny moment, she could see Chimera on the bridge, directly underneath the monster's hand. Directly where Medusa had been. He was looking her way, Otrera's way, and there was a smile on his face.

The bridge shattered. An explosion of splinters and water erupted, and the air cracked with thunder as the bridge shattered inward, before exploding up and outward. Medusa threw herself to the ground and covered her head with her claws. Snake hair did the same as best it could, flattening to her body and coiling against itself while wood and bone and bodies rained down upon them.

Medusa forced herself to stand once the wave of destruction was gone, and looked out to the bridge. But there was no bridge. Most of it was gone, and what little was left of it was on the other side of the bay. The people were in ruins. She could see many were still alive, on what little was left of the bridge, and they were scampering to get up and away from the sea monster. Many started to carry injured people, and many more stood there with heads up and bodies frozen.

Medusa peeked down over the destroyed bridge. Bones still rained down from above, and splashed into the bloodied water before sinking. Bodies were everywhere as well, and not all of them were dead. Many were ripped apart, and others cried out with gargled voices before they sank beneath the surface.

There was no Chimera.

Stomach wrenching, she turned away. Otrera! She looked to the Amazon, but the little warrior was on her side against the cliff wall, and her eyes were closed. Medusa reached down and touched her, and relief washed over her; unconscious, but breathing. Being thrown through the air was not a pleasant business, and the Amazon must have hit her head when she landed.

A roar broke the air once more, heavy with thunder and the stink of rot. The sea creature raised its hand, a cumbersome motion that took time, that sent splashing waves over the people and the mountain as it fought against its own weight. Its tentacles tightened against the bay cliff, until rocks started to fall into the water from the power of its grip.

It killed Chimera.

She shook her head and looked at the hand it was lifting. The hand was as big as a temple. And it had landed directly on the giant.

It killed Chimera.

She choked on tears, and shook her head again as she raised her claws to her monstrous face. No, no no no. Otrera! Otrera... Chimera... She shook her whole body and slammed her tail length into the ground. She shook and squeezed her own arms in a tight hug, and wrapped her mane of pythons around her until she wanted to curl up into a tight coil.

But the sea creature's roar forced her to look its way.

It killed Chimera.

She lowered her arms, stood up tall, and stared at the giant beast, the towering monolith of blue and barnacles and death. She stared at it, and slithered higher up the mountainside road, up along the path, until she was staring it straight on.

And it noticed her. From high above where mist clouds had begun to form around its head, it looked down at her, and roared its might and power until she could feel the vibrations in her intestines. It roared until her bones trembled, and her scales inched along the sand from the shaking earth.

And she returned it with her own. Her monstrous voice, layered with rasp, hiss, and a harsh shriek of high-pitched fury cut through the deep, bellowing waves of its roar. Her mouth opened wide, fangs and forked tongue on full display, and her snake hair did the same. She shrieked until her voice was a banshee's cry on the mountain air.

Gold erupted from her face. Yellow snake eyes as wide as they could be, she poured herself into her gaze, and screamed into the air as the golden glow of her eyes surged. It expanded more, and more, until she could no longer see anything but gold and the blur of the mighty creature in front of her. Until it was a wave of gold against the distance, against the size, until it was a crashing tide of gold radiance against the mass before it. Until the sky was lit by her and her alone.

It roared its defiance. Its tentacle limbs tightened around the mountain until a new torrent of rocks fell into the sea, and it raised its hand to brace its colossal weight against the mountain road near Medusa. She felt every tremor, every breath of the entity as it shifted its mass toward her. It was going to crush her.

But she did not stop. She screamed into the sky, spite and contempt pouring out of her, until she could feel new layers of her monstrous voice emerge, until she no longer sounded like herself. Until she sounded like a host of banshees.

A loud crack nearly broke her concentration. For a moment, she thought the mountain was falling on her, but she couldn't stop. The beast's head approached, teeth on full display in a face of warped flesh. It got closer, and closer, and as it did, again she heard the snap of cracking rock, and something else, something like flesh grinding. Something like a sound she was all too familiar with: the sound of a human being turned to stone. It got closer, and closer, and it brought its teeth together, gnashing them with its slow, cumbersome, titanic movements until it was only fifty feet from her; a small distance compared to its size. But it got slower still, and slower, until it stopped.

Its skin started to change color. The dark ocean blue, covered in barnacles and other bits of the sea, started to turn. Grey crept up its mass, clawed up its arms, its tentacles, and up its alien face. Grey overtook its shape, its mass, until its roar was silenced, until its movements were petrified, until the sea calmed around it.

Until at last she heard the crunching of bone — if it had bones — and skin and muscle constrict, freeze, and solidify as stone became it. Until it was done.