Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 03

He could do this. He didn't need Pegasus. He could chop this guy down like an axe to a tree. He could—

Everything went black. The ringing in his head increased a thousand fold. He remembered a fist coming down at him, and him bringing his shield up, but the brute force of the impact had smashed the shield down against his body and helmet. He was squashed into the ground like a bug.

"Hold still." The Chimera took a single step toward him, raised a leg, and brought it down.

Darian managed to bring his shield up — he had no idea where his sword was anymore — and braced against the giant's foot with both hands. He might as well have been trying to stop an avalanche. His arms started shaking the instant the monster started putting weight down against him, and Darian could feel his armor grinding against the stones underneath him.

"Heroes are meant to die," the Chimera said, and he leaned his weight onto his foot. The bastard must have weighed almost two thousand pounds, and Darian could feel his bones threaten to break trying to keep the beast from crushing him under his own shield.

A familiar thud of sound eased the weight. Only when the giant removed his foot did Darian realize that he hadn't been breathing, and he started panting with desperation when pressure against his back and arms was gone. It was like someone had lifted a boulder from his body.

When he finally managed to look up, he could see an arrow sticking out of the giant's chest. And then another, and another. Each sank inches deep into the Chimera's chest, and each earned a grown of pain and frustration from the huge beast.

"L-leave him alone!" Medusa said. "We d-d-don't need to fight!" The gorgon had drawn her bow, and she'd fire several shots straight into the giant. When her arrows did nothing to hinder him though, Darian could see her jaw drop open and her eyes widen. She looked terrified.

"Serpent." The Chimera roared, an actual roar, loud enough that Darian could hear it through the choir of pain in his head. He ripped the arrows from his chest, threw their bloodied and ruined shafts to the ground, and started to walk toward her.

The whole situation had gone from bad to a nightmare in a single moment. She's trying to save you from dying, you stupid man. Get up. Get up! Darian rolled onto his knees, forced himself to breathe, ignored the cracked ribs and the concussion, and just moved. Do something you stupid, stupid man, before the only thing you care about in this world gets killed.

He slammed his shield into the giant's leg. His weight was barely enough to even grab the giant's attention, but barely enough was good enough. The Chimera turned around with a snort, reached down, and plucked Darian up like a toy, fingers around his neck. For a second, Darian thought for sure he'd been hiding his sword behind his back, and he was going to stab the Chimera in the neck. Or maybe he'd fallen on his spear and had grabbed the tip, hidden it in his palm, and was going to drive it into the Chimera's eye.

But he didn't have any of that, just a shield, and the Chimera was more than happy to yank it off his arm and throw it to the side. It was a really stupid plan, but at least he was focused on him again and not Medusa.

"Enough, Bellerophontes."

The savage threw him, hard, and sent him colliding into the solid stone mouth of the cave the giant had been sleeping in. Darian flopped against the curve of stone like a fish before falling to the dirt. This time, he didn't get up. He tried, pushed his hands against the dirt, but his muscles refused to lift him, as if the weight of mountains sat on his shoulders. Pain had blurred into a weird storm of highs and lows, each striking their own chord of misery, each knocking the wind out of him. And the Chimera was marching toward him.

"Your serpent friend can wait then, if you are so eager to die."

He coughed up blood. The taste of it on his tongue was hilarious. How long had it been since he'd tasted his own blood? Probably the last time he fought the Chimera. The metal taste made him smirk, and he gave the giant the same smirk as the Chimera approached him.

The best smirk in the world.

The Chimera snarled down at him. "You mock me? Fine." The giant put his foot out, and raised it. He was going to crush Darian's head like a grape.

Fitting, Darian supposed. He'd crushed the giant's face with a boulder after all. Gods, he really wanted to get up and save the day, to save Medusa, even if he died in the process. That would be the end he'd prefer.

He smiled at the ground, a small smile no one else could see. He'd known her for such a small time.

A loud whip snap, a blur, and a harsh wind sent the Chimera flying to the side. Darian didn't see what happened, but when he looked to the side, the huge giant of muscle and scars was on a knee, and a massive crack had been made into the stone of the crater where he'd struck the wall.

"... wha..." Darian raised his head, and stared.

Medusa slithered between the two of them. Her snake hair had grown into a massive mane of giant pythons. Her neck had spread out into gigantic scales and the crown of a cobra. She was still wearing her clothes, but he could see that no human skin remained on her body; it was all scales. Her hands held immense claws, and her head had distorted into the long snout of a snake, but warped and gnarled with a hint of a human's face.

"You will not touch him!"

That voice. Darian blinked at the giant snake creature, and shook his head, which of course sparked massive pain in his skull. Her voice was double layered, the soft woman's voice he knew, and a monstrous, powerful voice layered on top. Like someone had taken a snake and given them the voice of a titan, the second layer of sound shook him to his core, awe-inspiring and terrifying.

"Serpent..." The Chimera pushed himself up to his feet, tilted his head to the side until Darian heard the crack from his neck, reached behind his shoulder to grab the lion head, and placed it back upon his skull.

He didn't know she was Medusa, or probably who Medusa even was. Not that it mattered, they needed him alive; he was no good to them as a statue.

Medusa raised herself higher, and higher. With still twenty feet of her snake body on the ground, she could raise her head well above the Chimera, and she looked down at him with predatory snake eyes.

"We assssked for your help, not a fight!"

Her snake mouth had trouble with words, he could hear it, but when the words came out, her voice made Darian's spine shiver. He remembered how her mouth had opened, exposed her giant fangs, and had devoured a boar the same as any snake would. He remembered how she transformed when she turned people to stone. To see her transformed in front of him now, so close, defending him, he could see all the details of her monstrous body. It made him tremble.

"You were a fool if you did not expect one," the Chimera said. He leaned forward, and charged. His steps tore into the ground, destroyed earth and shredded it with the inhuman speed the hulking monster unleashed. Dashing forward, each step made the ground shake, and Darian blinked twice at the sight of the gravel around him vibrating.

"Medusa, get out of—"

Medusa charged into the giant. And instead of getting knocked back, she knocked him back and held on. Their hands locked, but it was the gorgon who pushed him back further and further, massive snake length gripping along the ground, until the brute was pinned against the crater wall. Trapped with his back to the cliff face, he wasn't able to stop the enormous snakes on Medusa's head, and a dozen of the long serpents snapped out at the giant. They bit into him, pulled and pushed against his huge muscles, and tore flesh open with their struggles. When he tried to use his bigger hands to overpower hers, her snake hair wrapped around his wrists and pulled his hands away.

The Chimera roared into her face, ripped one of his hands clear of her claws, tightened it into a fist, and drove it into the side of her skull. It was hard enough Darian could hear the impact, and it sent the gorgon down to the ground. The giant jumped, pounced on her, and mounted her before he started punching against her body. Each punch made a sickening thud of bone to flesh and scales.

She glared up at him, her eyes glowed yellow — but then stopped. She must have remembered he was useless to them dead. Darian almost called out to tell her to stone him anyway, but she braced a dozen feet of her thick snake body against the ground and rolled the two of them over before pushing him from her. When the beast tried to punch her again, she backed away, and started to slither around him in slow circles.

The Chimera kept his eyes on Medusa, but Darian could see a smile on his face, a smile he recognized. The dozens of teeth marks on his skin healed, but they also scarred, and joined what must have been centuries of battles. The creature's skin was a canvas of history and death.

He charged again, making the ground quake like a rampaging buffalo, and he pointed his head down enough so the huge horns of his animal pelt stood up like a crown. Medusa caught them, but with the direction and force of the giant, she might as well have been run down by a minotaur.

Medusa screeched down at the giant when he collided into her chest, but she didn't let him overtake her. She sank her claws into his chest and arms, and the two of them rolled over each other and skidded along the ground. Scales tore off, blood streaked where they left a crater of destruction, and the sounds of animals roaring and screaming filled Darian's ears; all coming from Medusa and the Chimera.

Then she picked up the giant, and threw him.

Darian pushed himself back, eyes wide, and kept himself out of the way as the giant crashed into the ground, rolling back into the rocks. The impact made Darian bounce. And it only got worse when Medusa slithered past him with a speed he could not fathom her huge body capable of. A darting snake, except colossal in size, Medusa tore through the ground with the same ferociousness as the giant, and just as the Chimera was getting up from the impact, she snapped outward with claws and fangs.

The Chimera roared in pain, more blood trickling down over his massive chest as the serpent dug into him. He tried to punch her again, but she rolled them both onto their sides, and rolled them again, and again. The Chimera tried to control the motion, but Medusa took advantage. She raised the lower half of her body, swung it up and over the bastard, and wrapped it around one of his arms and his chest, underneath the other arm. When the monster tried to free himself, she wrapped around the other arm, and rolled again. Like when she had coiled the boar, she grabbed onto the massive brute, and circled him with more and more of her length. When the giant started to break away from her thick snake body, her snake hair — huge as pythons in her monster form — latched onto the brute's neck and shoulders. Like a host of giant snakes at her whim, the snake hair helped pin him down with their bite, and forced him deeper and deeper into her tightening coils, until he couldn't even squirm.

"You will lissssten," Medusa said, and she leaned in close until the giant was only a few inches from her vicious, inhuman face. With the face of a snake demon, she looked far far scarier than the horned lion on the Chimera's head. "You will lisssten or I will sssssnap every bone in your body." She tightened more, and more, until Darian could see how much she was struggling to keep the brute coiled.

But it was working. The giant wasn't breathing anymore, Darian could see it in his face. He twisted and turned in Medusa's huge coils, but they didn't have the same strength as before.

Darian breathed deep, ignored what was probably a broken rib or two, and blinked away the pain ringing inside his skull. Shield gone, sword gone, spear gone, he felt very naked. He grumbled, dragged himself up to his feet, and managed to start walking toward Medusa and the Chimera.

"There. Defeated. Don't make her kill you, Chimera," he said.

The giant tried to growl at him, but his face was turning blue, and each attempt to make noise was met with a tiny gasp that did nothing.

"Medusa, you can ease up a little, I think he's done."

The giant snake creature nodded, and loosened her coils enough for the Chimera to get some air into his lungs. He struggled a few more times, but no matter how big his muscles were, the huge, scar-covered giant couldn't break out of Medusa's grip. The fact her claws were holding him down and her snake hair had bitten into various parts of his neck and shoulders was a delightful addition to how thoroughly he was pinned and trapped.

"This was no duel," the Chimera said.

"Of course not, you attacked me before a duel was declared! As if you'd care about a duel, animal." Darian looked around, found his sword, retrieved it, and pointed it at the giant's neck.

The giant grumbled, deep voice shaking the ground. So close, Darian squinted at him; the brute showed zero sign of being in pain, despite the many holes Medusa's hair of pythons were putting into his skin. Truly a monster.

"I... am defeated."

"Thank you. Now—"

"Not by you." The Chimera gritted his teeth until his fangs clicked across them. "You are no match for me, Bellerophontes, without your wings. But your serpent friend is. I surrender."

Medusa hissed, and in her fully transformed state, it was a raspy sound that filled the cobra hood she now wore. "You ssssurrender?"

The giant nodded.

"He's telling the truth, Medusa." It was written on the Chimera's face, the same sort of surrender of one animal to another. Say one thing about a warrior barbarian like a giant, they were simple creatures.

Medusa hissed again and turned to look at Darian. She was angry, and the sight of her demon snake face made Darian take a step back.

And she noticed. She looked away, lowered her head, and sighed a snake's sigh. Uncoiling from the beast, she loosened several rings of her long body before at last the giant was on his knees on the dirt, struggling to get air into his lungs with the same deep breaths Darian was trying to do. After backing away several feet, she brought her hands up to her chest, and suppressed her transformation. Scales vanished into her skin, her cobra hood melted into her neck, her snake hair returned to its usual size of tiny creatures, and her face became human once again.

"You have powerful friends," the Chimera said, and he stood up after another minute before he started stretching out his arms and legs. The lion that was draped across his head and back had goat horns, not sewn on but part of the dead animal's body. No such creature existed that Darian knew.

"The joys of being a Fates' pawn." He stumbled around, jealous of how quickly the giant healed, and Darian healed pretty damn fast. But after a while he found his spear and shield once more. "So, you'll help us?"

The Chimera grumbled again, a sinister sound Darian didn't like. "I'll help her."

Darian looked to Medusa. She'd managed to not destroy her clothes in the transformation, and she readjusted them to fit before slithering over to join the two of them. She met Darian's eyes, but didn't hold them, and instead looked to the brute.

"I beat you in a fight, sso now you'll do as I sssay? What sssstupid reasoning is that?" She was upset. Her hands were in fists, her S's were uncontrolled, and her snake hair was pointed at both Darian and the Chimera like they wanted to bite them. Worse, her scale eyebrows were furrowed, and her frown was penetrating.

Darian winced, took a step toward the giant, and leaned in to whisper. "She can literally turn you into stone with a glance. Be careful."

The giant blinked down at him, and his eyes went wide. First time Darian had ever seen the huge man so much as show a different expression than annoyance or amusement.

Medusa slapped her tail against the ground. "Darian! This is not a joke. He nearly killed you! I—"

The Chimera got down onto a knee, putting a dead stop to Medusa's words.

"I am defeated, Medusa. I serve you."

"Why?" she said, and she slithered forward to glare down at the kneeling giant.

But the beast tilted his head to the side and blinked at her. "Why not?"

Medusa threw her arms up in the air, and slithered away to start climbing the canyon wall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Medusa~~

She glared at the Chimera. He looked at her. Darian looked between the two of them. Uncomfortable did not begin to explain how they all felt.

They sat around a fire, and roasted a fresh kill over its embers. They had settled near the tree Medusa and Darian had slept by the night before. The night was clear, and the stars shown brightly. Whenever the fire licked toward the Chimera, she could see on his face only calm. Whenever it licked toward Darian, she could see he was perfectly content with how they had settled the situation. It made her want to smack the both of them.

"Ssstupid boys," she said.

The giant frowned, but said nothing. He was such a massive man, almost twice as tall as Darian, and probably ten times his weight. Scars everywhere, including a huge one over his left eye. The snake tattoo on his arm looked ancient, primal, and the dead beast the giant wore on his shoulders, a lion with horns, was one Medusa had never heard of before, let alone seen.

Darian inched a little closer to her around the fire. "I—"

"Ssstupid boys! All the fighting, and it meant nothing." She moved some of her snake length into a coil and rested the wall of scales between her and Darian.

"It didn't mean nothing! It just meant nothing to us. He's from a different time, and he's a giant, not a human. He follows different rules."

She glared at the small man beside her. "He's a dog!" Her words were laced with venom, but when she glanced the giant's way, he hadn't even flinched. He sat there, and watched the fire with steady eyes. The ruthless animal she had seen in his gaze was gone, and instead there sat a quiet, immovable object of power.

Darian shrugged. "Kind of, yeah."

"He could have killed you. Killed me!" If his own safety was no concern of his, perhaps hers was. Anything to get him to realize how stupid the whole fight had been. Their lives weren't toys to be thrown around, they were fragile and precious things.

The small warrior sighed and sat back down where he was. He looked sad. Good! Good...

She looked away and started to fiddle with her snake hair, entwining it with her fingers. The fight had been brutal, and she rubbed at her cheek where the giant had clocked her so hard she was sure he almost broke bone, let alone the host of bruises he'd given her elsewhere. But the three of them were all magical things that healed quickly, what was a few life-threatening injuries to them? The thought made her angry all the more.

She had defeated the brute though. The giant across the fire from her sat there because she'd defeated him so wholly, he had simply accepted it. Like a dog becoming a member of her pack. Animal! She frowned, glared, and even hissed a few times in his direction. Again he did nothing but sat there and stared into the fire.

Despite herself, she remembered the feeling of power when she had let the monster inside her out, how it had given her the strength to save Darian, and defeat the giant. She'd pinned him, tore into him, and broke him. Something inside her made her smile with the memory, but when she realized it, she got angrier again. It was not something to be happy about.

"... how are you going to find us what we're looking for?" she said. She made deliberate efforts to hide her S's. She was not an animal.