Chapter 35: Two Birds

The battle had become a deadlock, each side not gaining any headway. The Grassvalley has tried and failed to recapture The Gorgon. Even with superior numbers, every opportunity was systematically stopped. The two remaining Spheres that has been circling the battlefield, has been successfully destroying as many links as the Grassvalley tribe been making. Furthermore, with the random firing of the lasers from the Gorgon, was making progress impossible. Though some of the mana infused arrows hurt it, no real damage could be done.

Edwyrd who had destroyed two of them, has been having a rough time with the other two. After the first two were destroyed, the Gorgon had instead kept the spheres close to the other members of the tribe. If Edwyrd were to take a shot while so close to his allies and miss, it could unintentionally kill one of his own.

The battle continued slow, then the Gorgon suddenly stop firing its laser and turned to on direction. It stared in this one direction, completely ignoring the Grassvalley tribe’s attacks. Gaelin stared in confusion, but quickly realized what it was looking at. Because of earlier problems, the group who were preparing the spell had moved further into the woods, the direction it was currently string in was there general positioning.

The Gorgon open its mouth once again, it started gathering energy and Gaelin immediately understood the situation.

Gaelin: “DON’T LET IT FIRE.”

The Grassvalley tribesmen, fired the remainder of their arrows, infusing them with mana, but it worked against them. The arrows were absorbed into the already massive ball of energy, inadvertently speeding up the charging process. With the amount of energy it received, the Gorgon was nearly ready to fire.

Gaelin: CHARGE IT, WE CAN’T LET IT STOP THE SPELL.

With it mouth wide open, there was no fear of being turned to stone and several of them rushed it. As they drew close, several of them were rddiled with holes, while others were sent flying. The spheres, now having destroy enough links, returned to their original objective, attacking anyone who would cause the Gorgon harm.

Though it didn’t matter anymore, the Gorgon was done and Gaelin watched on helplessly as the energy was fired. It tore through the trees, barreling right for the group spell casters.

*Snatch*Snatch*Snatch*

Gaelin: “What!?”

Spectators watched on as the Gorgon unleashed the massive amount of energy into the sky. Right before impact , the meamed suddnely veered skyward. As the beam die down, attention was drawn back to the Gorgon, who was once again strapped down with vines. Snyare plants had appear beneath it an was now forcing it to face towards the sky. It didn’t take long for the sphere to rip away the plants and then launch an attack at the source.

The Grassvalley tribe watch in confusion. The Gorgon was now firing laser and magic, but it wasn’t aiming at nothing. To the men and women of the tribe, it looked as though the Gorgon was attacking air, however, Gaelin and Edwyrd caught on quick enough. This monster was too intelligent to fire randomly. Something or someone was drawing its attention, an invisible foe to all, but the Gorgon.

Gaelin: “Fall back, don’t engage.”

The men did as they were told, moving out of range of the flailing beast. Gaelin order his men to heal themselves and keep away. He then turned to the Gorgon, it had all but forgotten them, a rage in its eye he had yet to see. Edwyrd joined his father, he was fatigue from all the energy he was using.

Edwyrd: “Are we really going to just watch?”

Gaelin: “He bought us some time, I won’t needlessly interfere. However, when the spell is ready, rather he is clear or not, I will end this.”

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*Boom* *Crash* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

Nathan dodge continuously, the moment the Gorgon saw him, it has been launching attack after attack. Nathan knocked back one of the spheres still flying around, causing it to crash through several trees. Just as he did the other came around for an attack. Nathan reflexively dodge it, but the attack was not done. The Gorgon quickly fire the scattered lasers at him, Nathan attempted to avoid them, but there was just too many.

Nathan: “Oh crap.”

*Wroooom*

A barrier rose up around him, shielding him from the lasers.

Nathan: “That was close, thanks Iris.”

Iris: “Master, why must we do this, did you not say we wouldn’t get involved unnessasrily?”

Nathan: “You see how it reacted when it notice that spell, whatever there preparing, it might hurt it…..a lot.”

Iris: “Surely you know, they have no intention of allowing us to vacate before, they unleash it?”

Nathan: “Which is why I have Anais watching them, she’ll let us know when to move. Right now, we need to worry about this keeping it distracted and who better to distract it, but me?”

Iris: “It sounds as if you’re proud.”

The lasers fire wasn’t dying down, the scattering fire was weaker then the full blast. The shots couldn’t break through the barrier or maybe Iris just became stronger from all the recent level up. Either way the laser wasn’t a big deal, however the spheres that protected it were, Nathan could dodge them to a degree, but with a force that could rip off a man’s hand, he didn’t want to risk being struck. Nathan turned his attention to the Gorgon for several seconds, he felt something was off. Something simple it wasn’t doing, something everyone does involuntarily.

Nathan: “Iris, when I say so, I want you to place a barrier around the Gorgon.”

Iris: “Why?”

Nathan: “You’ll see, here they come get ready.”

The two sphere, arranged themselves next to each other, before spiraling straight into the barrier. The Barrier was shattered and Nathan and Iris quickly moved away. The Gorgon laser stopped for a moment, realigning itself, it prepared to fire again.

Nathan: “NOW!”

A barrier rose up once again this time encircling the Gorgon. All its laser fire was successfully stopped. Just as he predicted the Spheres may a beeline for the barrier, attempting to smash it, in that moment, Nathan took off. The spheres spiraled once again and smashed through the barrier, as soon as they did Nathan was there.

*Shink*Slash*Slash*Slash*

The Gorgon surprised, was helpless as Nathan slashed it several times.

Lucky for Nathan, two of his slashes seem to do more damage. Blood sprayed from the wound Nathan made, it was grotesque watching blood pour from an eye, but at least he knew he hurt it. Plus, he figured out what he had suspected.

After his assault, Nathan quickly jumped away, as he did one of the spheres tried to take off his leg.

*Fssshhh**Bang*

A well place fireball, knocked the sphere off its course, narrowly avoiding Nathan.

Nathan: “Thanks for that, Iris.”

Iris: “I wish you wouldn’t do such things.”

Nathan: “This was worth it, get this, I don’t know why, but that thing can’t blink.”

Iris: “What?”

Nathan: “I was thinking something was weird, normally when something makes contact with your eye, they will involuntarily close, but not once did it do that.”

Iris: “If what you say is true, why would it allow itself to become so vulnerable?”

Nathan: “Those spheres flying around, they were probably supposed to make up for it.”

Nathan watched as the Gorgon slowly recover from his attack, the rage for him slowly returning.

*Loud Roar*

Iris: “Its infuriated.”

Nathan: “Don’t worry it can’t charge us anymore. If it can’t close it eye, it can’t roll.”

The Ground shook began to shake, Nathan jumped up, the ground beneath him exploding with jagged rock. With so many, he had nowhere to land and was straight into the thick of it. Nathan use his remaining snyare to grab him and toss him away, planting more in his flight path. He tossed himself around and around, just like before the Gorgon could not keep up, but the spheres could. During one of his toss, a sphere shredded the snyare in its back swing, throwing off Nathan’s trajectory. The other sphere headed straight for Nathan. Nathan waved his hand and several Uzy popped up, firing at the sphere and causing it to veer in its flight path, only able to swipe at him.

Nathan got back to his feet and they stared it other down. However, that was short lived. The energy from before, had become even stronger and stole alls attention. The Gorgon, quickly launched the spheres at Nathan, who dodged the obvious attack effortlessly. The sphere continued their assault, not giving Nathan any chance to counter. In the middle of fleeing, Nathan stole a glance at the Gorgon.

Nathan: “Oh no.”

The Gorgon had open its mouth and was preparing to take out whatever was gathering that energy. Nathan dashed toward the Gorgon, only to be stop and forced back by the Gorgons defense spheres. Nathan try to force his way through, but it was useless.

Iris: “Master, get back.”

Nathan turned to Iris, who had several small stones circling her. Nathan got clear and the stones were launched at the spheres. It didn’t do any damage, but they did distract them long enough for Nathan to get away. With the interference gone momentarily, Nathan made another attempt for the Gorgon.

*Fssshhh*

Nathan: “What the!?”

Nathan jumped back again, several fireballs had landed in front him forcing him away from the Gorgon once again. Turning, he saw Anais running toward him, hand still aglow from the attack she just launched.

Nathan: “What the Hell, Anais?”

Looking in her face as she drew near, she was panicked.

Anais: “GET AWAY FROM IT!”

Nathan needed no more explanation, he quickly ran towards Anais, Iris right behind him. Then, his Threat Detection was going off, one of the strongest vibes he had so far. From above, like a holy figure, it descended casting a veil of light all around, bright even in the day.

Nathan: “Oh………crap.”

Nathan Scooped them up and dash away, he didn’t get far before the the spell tough down. Engulfing the Gorgon, the blast continued outward, destroying everything in the vicinity.

Anais: “MOVE FASTER!”

Nathan: “I’M TRYING, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WARN US BEFORE THEY FIRED.”

Anais: “NO IT WAS A SET UP.”

Nathan: “WHAT!?”

ANAIS: “THEY KNEW YOU WERE FIGHTING AND THEY KNEW I WAS WATCHING, JUST LIKE YOU SAID, THEY WERE AIMING TO KILL US.”

Even with his speed, Nathan couldn’t outrun the blast, it was catching up to him and it would soon overtake him.

Nathan: “IRIS, TAKE US UP!”

Iris: “WE WON’T MAKE.”

The area behind them erupted, throwing him into the air. That was it, when he hit the ground, the energy would overtake them, it was over. While falling, he grabbed the girls and braced for impact. As he was about to hit the ground, he noticed his shadow, with the intense light it was definite.

Nathan: “(The hell?)”

He thought he was hallucinating, because not only did he have two, one looked as though it was reaching out toward him. It took a second, but he recognized the silhouette.

Nathan: “……….(Celes!?)”

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Saria: “Gaelin, what have you done?”

Further away, out of the blast range, the Grassvalley tribe watched as the area had been leveled. They had quickly evacuated all the nymphs in the area, telling them that the Hero said to them to move away. Gaelin figured that they would move if they thought the hero was telling them to.

Gaelin: “Lady Saria, it was necessary and we both know that this entire area will return to normal within days.”

Saria: “Don’t play coy, you knew he was down there and you lied to my sisters to remove them. They would have never allowed you to do that if they knew he was still there”

Gaelin smirked to Saria.

Gaelin: “Who on Leseres are you referring to, the only thing “I could see” was the Gorgon and for some reason the thing went mad and started attacking thin air, it was very strange. So, I took the opportunity and gave the signal, do you mean to say I shouldn’t have, was there any particular reason why? Was there someone there?”

Between where she stood and Gaelin, lightning struck, the men around jumped back, but Gaelin stood calmly and confidently. He knew she would not strike him down. To everyone around, Saria anger was unwarranted, it seemed she was angry over the Gorgons death. Realizing getting angry would do more harm than good, she calmed herself and the lightening stopped. She and Gaelin locked eyes for a moment, she knew he knew exactly what or who was down there. She said nothing more, then turned and flew away, heading down towards the site.

Saria: “(Celes, I hope you made it in time.)”

As she flew away Gaelin called some of his men over.

Gaelin: “Follow her, if there is anything alive and it’s not a daughter, kill it.”