Chapter 30: Fight and Flight

Nathan leapt up into the trees, only to have it come crashing down to the ground. Leaping from the collapsing tree, he quickly jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the massive boulder that been trying to crush him for fifteenth time.

Nathan: “Hey, give me a chance to catch my breath, would you?”

The Gorgon around and continued its pursuit.

Nathan: “Guess that’s a no.”

Nathan has been trying to lose the Gorgon, but no matter what he did or where he went, the Gorgon always seemed to find him. If he wanted to get away he had to figure out how it was tracking him. Good news, was it seemed to know who killed its baby, that meant it wouldn’t target anyone else. It so blind with rage, Nathan wouldn’t be surprise if it completely ignored any other attacks.

The Gorgon speed increase and like always, Nathan planted some seed in its path. The Uzy didn’t do any harm, but the Snyare, with enough of them could hold for a split, given Nathan a chance to get out of it way. Though it wasn’t as fast as Nathan, in this forest, nothing but tree stood as obstacle for sprinting. Nathan having to interweave through the forest, was putting a halt on his speed and going out into the opening wasn’t a strategic move when you’re trying to lose someone.

Nathan jumped up another tree and got ready to jump to the next, when he stopped hear the Gorgon crashing behind him. He looked over, the Gorgon remained stationary.

Nathan: “Hmm what’s it up to?”

The Gorgon opened its eye and Nathan quickly looked away.

Nathan: “Oh no, I don’t know about your baby, but I know you can turn me to stone, you need to try something else if you’re going to kill me.”

Suddenly, Nathan’s “Threat Detection” activated, something was off, but he couldn’t risk looking. An intense light shined all around, in the shadow of the tree he wasn't sure what it was. Wasting no time, he quickly jumped away from the tree, only to have the tree and several others, disappear in the wake of an massive energy blast. The wave tore through the tree line, destroying everything caught in its path.

Nathan: “A fricking laser, of course the giant eye has a fricking laser.”

Nathan quickly leapt from tree to tree, as the beam followed him, wherever he went. Then beam prove too slow to catch Nathan, so the Gorgon change its tactics. Aiming the energy towards the ground quickly blasting away the base of the trees, toppling the green giants. With the trees now all falling, Nathan was too late to take foot hold and was in free fall.

Nathan: “Shit!”

The turned its beam back to Nathan, still falling. Nathan quickly pointed to the ground, as he did one of the Snyare he planted quickly whipped up and snatched him down, narrowly avoiding being caught. The plant flung to the side, another Snyare caught him and flung him once again.

Nathan: “Woohoooooooo!”

Around and around Nathan was toss, no matter where the Gorgon aimed the beam, Nathan had a seed planted which joined him in his game. Soon the Gorgon loss track of him all together and slowly the blast subsided. The Gorgon’s mouth close and the Gorgon hover to the ground. It couldn’t see him but it could tell he was close. As it looked around the Gorgon caught a shadow from above and immediately closed its eye.

*Shhhhlllllsssssshshshhhhhhh*

Nathan was surprised to see how easy it was jumped onto the Gorgon’s back. Slashing downward Nathan blade collided with the hard-outer shell of the Gorgon. Before it could react to the strike Nathan, thrusted the sword into its eyelid, to his surprised, the sword penetrated a bit.

Nathan: “So, your eyelids are brittle huh, good to know.”

*Slash**Bam**Bam*Bam*

Nathan mercilessly bashed at its eyelids, chipping away with each strike. The Gorgon rotated to the side, attempting to shake him off, causing Nathan to lose his grip. Nathan stabbed and slashed at the Gorgon, before being tossed away, but to his luck, the sword remained, it wasn’t too deep, but it was enough to keep it lodged. He quickly manipulated his Snyare to take hold of the sword, pushing it deeper, trying their best to shove it through. Catching himself, Nathan watched on as the Gorgon tried is best to get away. However, something wasn’t right, it seemed to be having more trouble than he thought it would.

Nathan: “Hey, no way you should be having this much trouble or maybe, your still weak, aren’t you? Yeah that’s it, no way you recovered from child birth, then a fight, using all that mana and firing that beam didn’t help, did it?

A low groan could be heard, Nathan was pretty sure this thing understood what he just said. The Gorgon rotated continuously, ripping plant after plant to shreds.

Nathan: “You’re going be all day that way, I pollinated this entire area while I was tossing myself around. You can keep shredding them, they’ll just keep sprouting up. At least for a while anyway, you could just open your eye and let the sword fall out.”

The Gorgon continued to spin, it rotated until it felt the blade was no longer being grabbed. Smacking the blade against a tree, the blade was dislodged, but not without leaving a gash in its eyelid. The Gorgon turned around several times, but Nathan was nowhere to be found.

Sensing his whereabouts, it found that Nathan was moving away from the area. Moments after speaking Nathan, took off leaving the Gorgon behind with its struggles. Like always, he had no plan to fight it and saw no reason to stay.

*Loud Roar*

_

_

Nathan sped through the forest, he watched as animals scampered away, hearing the Gorgon roar, mostly likely from frustration.

Nathan: “No, no, no, tantrums will get you nowhere.”

Nathan believed his stalling tactics, were working a bit too well. The Gorgon had become blind with rage back there, wasting a trump card and allowing Nathan to do a bit of damage. Soon he would hear the sound of trees being smashed, he’d just keep up this tactic until they reached the trapping area.

He still didn’t understand why it could find him so easily, since its weak, it never opens its eye, in fear of being attacked, he dismissed that idea. But, it didn’t matter, once he gets back, he would be leaving this all to the Grassvalley Tribe. Upon that thought Nathan stopped dead in his tracks, a thought occurred to him.

Nathan: “What if they don’t confront it?”

This thought hadn’t crossed his mind before, why would they fight on his behalf, the Gorgon hasn’t actually targeted any of the nymphs. Even if they are waiting for him, there no guarantee they were friendly. There was a high chance that they would leave him to the wolves, after all, Lynn, just did the same thing. They could even upfront and attack him.

Nathan: “Shit, I need a way to make them fight.”

The wind blew past Nathan and he instinctively reached for his blade, he had the feeling again, he was going to get attacked.

*Swish*

Nathan reflexively dodge, then swiftly took out his blade and slashed at its attacker. His blade met its target and his assailant was spilt in two. He was suddenly bombarded with attacks from all sides. Nathan dodge around them, casually slashing at whatever came near. Bounding to the trees tops, looking back he saw that the forest floor was now littered with those plant monsters from before.

Nathan was sure Anais said she wiped them out, this must have been the force that was stopped by the tree. Nathan reflexively dodge again, leaping to a nearby tree, they were in the trees as well, he was completely surrounded. The roar wasn’t from anger, it was call for reinforcements. Nathan soon heard the familiar rumbling.

Nathan: “If you can’t catch it, suppress its movement, pretty damn smart.”

*Growl*

The plant creatures all got ready to attack. Nathan Raise his hand and did Uzy pop up from the ground.

*Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click*

Nathan: “Fire.”

Seed bullets swept over the area, filling anything caught in the flurry with holes. Nathan quickly leapt to the ground, an area now cleared of monsters, staying in the trees wasn’t good, they provided cover for the ones still amongst there branches.

*Ding**Ding*

Level Increased!

Level Increased!

Nathan: “Oh, I’ll checked that later, that rumbling getting to close for comfort.”

Nathan ran off again, as he did, the plant creatures that survive continued after him. He also noticed that there were a lot more up ahead. He no longer had the luxury of running through the trees, he had to go out into the open. He could take the plant creature, but why risk on of them getting lucky, plus they were a nuisance enough for the Gorgon to catch up to him. Taking them on while simultaneously avoiding the Gorgon, was something he wasn’t willing to do.

Nathan jumped out of the woods, only to meet up with the Gorgon coming right at him, it must have figure he come out and went on ahead. Nathan jumped out the way, only to be swiped by one of the Plant creatures, that had followed him out of the forest. The swiped through off his landing and he, couldn’t completely dodge the Gorgons attack. The force of the blow threw him several feet and he quickly caught his balance. He checked his Hp, even with the armor equipped, the amount of damage he took was way over what he estimated.

Nathan: “Heal!”

More and more of the plant creatures poured out of the forest, launching attacks as they did. Nathan quickly grew some Uzy and had them fire into the trees, soon the wave of plant creature slowed, but it wouldn’t be long before they come around. Nathan sped off once again, trying to put as much distance between him and the forest, but the Gorgon wasn’t going to let him.

Nathan: “Dammit, get out of the way.”

Nathan couldn’t shake the Gorgon, it couldn’t catch him, but it wasn’t going to let him get away anymore. No matter how Nathan looked at it, no matter which way he went, he would eventually end up back in the woods and waiting for him would be the Horde of plant creatures.

He needed a way to sever the link that they have with the plant creature.

Nathan: “No, I don’t need to server the link, I just need to figure out how they seeing me, if I can stop that, I can avoid them all together.”

What was it, what could they possibly be using to locate him. As Nathan neared the middle of the open area, a river came into view. It wasn’t large and with those large stones, he could easily jump it. Nathan looked behind him, the Gorgon still hot on his trail. It wouldn’t belong, but the Gorgon would have to stop before crossing the river. Nathan took his chance in leaped to the first stone. Casually landing on the first, he immediately jumped to the second, but immediately wished had had looked before he leapt. Several Plant creatures were hiding in the blind spot of the stones.

Nathan: “(How did they?)”

Nathan thoughts was cut short, as they all attacked, Nathan pulled out his sword and blocked the attack, but the force sent him spiraling to the waters below.

*Splash*

Nathan quickly got himself together and stared up from beneath, something seemed strange. The Gorgon along with the plant creatures all seemed disoriented, as if they couldn’t pinpoint his location. Was it because of the water, if that was the case he now understood why they could find him. They were tracking his scent, surprising since none of them possess anything that look like a nose, but the Gorgons eye did turn out to be its mouth as well.

While he still underwater, he moved up stream as quick as he could. Thanks to his abilities, he could stay underwater for long periods of time, as he swam away he could see a lethal number of plant creatures flooding the area behind him. As he thought, the plant creatures began launching blind attacks. Normally this wouldn’t do any good, but with so many, if he had stayed, one might have gotten lucky.

That was only one of the reason he wanted to get away, besides the crowd of Plant creatures, there was one other thing he was sure was going to happen eventually. Sooner or later, when it got its strength back, it would activate that enchantment and this river will be instantly gone. In that moment, it would find him.

Nathan continued up stream, taking a quick breath before diving back down, hoping nothing around him notice. He didn’t know how far he swam away, it has been about Twenty-five minutes since he last saw anything. Plus, the current wasn’t particularly strong, he could keep swimming like this for miles if he wanted to.

Nathan: “Huh, waaahh, ooph!”

Instantly, the water around him was gone, dried up suddenly from the intense heat, which also immediately stopped. The heat wave had only lasted a second, but that’s all it needed to dry up all the water around. The forest around him seemed completely fine, it didn’t last long enough to cause any harm, even as he now, the river was slowly filling again. Nathan Jumped up out of the rising water and took off into the forest.

He was sure they pinpointed his location and now that they know which direction he traveled, the river wouldn’t do any good. Now he had a head start, he wasn’t going to let it go to waste, activating his “Pollination” ability, he zig-zagged through the forest. From this point on, anything following behind him, will be decimated.