Fighting rift bosses and creatures like Hogg’s avatar already induced anxiety and left the heart pounding. After two years of delving, Nox had grown used to such dangers and quashing fears. Dimensional lords and their top brass no longer worried him. The case wasn’t the same for the gorgon sister. She had designed her domain to incite fear.
The dust-covered people locked in battle stances and displaying expressions of utter terror added to the eerieness of the throne room. The gorgon’s playful chatter made it terrifying. She slithered just out of sight, and Otis tried to pinpoint her location. He semi-regularly lost sight of her, and then she emerged on the opposite side of the room.
“I was jealous when I heard Stheno and Euryale had intruders in their domain, and then the pair of you came traipsing into mine,” the gorgon said. Her voice echoed off the curved walls and domed ceiling. “What was it? Did the face and breasts that tempted a god make you ravenous? Come to Medusa, handsome. I’ll show you what makes a goddess jealous.”
Unlike the hallways and rooms Nox and Brianna had encountered thus far, the boss room had no braziers or mana lamps. The doors creaked shut as soon as Medusa started speaking, surrounding them in darkness. Only three light sources remained: Ratra’s Bow, Brianna’s luminous tattoos, Otis’ eyes and the rows of crystalline growths on his back. They were usually clear or emitted a faint purple glow but then adopted the color of whatever essence Nox fed him. Now, they emitted bright sky blue.
The two delvers stood back-to-back and studied their surroundings. Nox surrounded them in a dome of Crystalize Essence, but they still kept their eyes low. If his theory was correct and Brianna had read the map correctly, the dungeon had no lord. Instead, the Gorgon Sisters acted as the bosses and shared the duties of ruling, maintaining, and growing the dungeon. The powerful Mind Magic and the sea of humanoid statues in an adept dungeon told Nox that the ruler—or rulers—hadn’t bothered to distribute or disperse their strength.
The fact that there were three sisters reinforced his hypothesis. Even though they were family, Nox imagined there was a struggle for superiority and always the fear of another declaring a war of conquest. So, as an immortal, almost divine entity, they wouldn’t want to trust a minion with protection or maintain balance. His hypothesis could be wrong, of course, but trying to solve the puzzle kept anxiety and fear at bay.
“By Fenrir’s balls, how are we supposed to deal with this thing?” Brianna whispered as their eyes darted to any signs or sounds of movement. “The second I unleash my chains, I’ll turn into a murderer.”
“Don’t think of these people as the living,” Nox said.
“What? How can ye say that?”
“That is indeed a cruel thing to say,” Medusa added. Her voice came from just behind Nox. He spun around and unleashed a powerful mana blast from the launcher gauntlet. An explosion of dust further clouded their vision as he struck one of her victims. Several cracks followed as the person crumbled. The life left their dazed eyes straight away. “Murderer!” The gorgon shrieked but then burst into laughter. “It’s alright. I’ll just replace Mahiko with you.”
“How could ye just kill her?” Brianna demanded, her voice turning shrill. Nox could hear the tense situation getting to her. “She was a person!”
“If you have any hopes of joining us on a permanent basis, Brianna, you need to know that the security of the party and our people comes above all,” Nox said. He didn’t care if his words came out cold. “We only sacrifice and endanger ourselves for one another.”
“That’s heartless. These are people! They’re delvers like us.”
“Look at them.” Nox led her away from the dust cloud and Otis’ latest sighting of the shadowed boss. “Han. Nihon. Alkebulan. There are also these people I’ve never seen before. I bet they’re from the western continent.”
“So what? Just because they’re not from our continent—”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Nox continued, lowering his volume. No one has seen this floating island or dungeon in a long time. It has been so long that local powers and states have failed to identify it. That means it either never passed through these lands or did so a long time ago. It came from the west after traveling across the ocean. Given its speed, these people have been here for a long time—years, if not decades.”
“Oh.”
“The only thing keeping them alive is the dungeon’s magic. The second we slay Medusa, they’ll perish. We do not have the ability to save them.”
“And the longer they’re around, the more fuel and cover Medusa has to torment us,” Brianna whispered.
“Exactly. So don’t hold back. Medusa is playing mind games. The second she gets in your head, it's over.”
Shrill laughter rang from all around them, and Nox swiftly assembled an idea. He pulled a sphere of essence glass from his satchel. Ever since his encounter with the Voidlings, he always kept a supply of light essence in Otis’ spatial storage. Finesse Shaping helped him scribe what he desired. It was difficult to concentrate, with Medusa teasing and taunting them while Otis simultaneously sent communication through flashing images, but he managed.
“Close your eyes a moment,” he whispered.
Brianna didn’t question him. He threw the sphere toward the ceiling and destabilized the essence just before it left his mana zone. It exploded with a flash so bright it stung his eyes through closed lids.
“I’ll rip your flesh from your bones!” Medusa screamed, telling Nox his plan had worked. Most dark dwellers didn’t often rely on their eyes. However, the artwork suggests she used her eyes to enchant and hypnotize her victims. So, Nox had hypothesized they were exceptionally powerful and sensitive. They now had an opening to reposition and hopefully gain the advantage.
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“This way,” he said, blinking the spots away. Brianna’s wrist was so thick his fingers barely met when he grabbed it. A white sphere of light floated overhead, lighting their way. Otis also repositioned so it didn’t interfere with his field of vision. Nox wasn’t surprised to find all the gorgon statues in the room had moved. However, how far they had moved from their original positions caught him off guard. They were much speedier than the specimens outside. It made sense. The gorgons in the boss room were most likely elites.
Medusa’s tactic was ingenious and would’ve worked if not for Otis crawling around the ceiling. Delvers would attempt to close their eyes or look away from her. Then, her elite guard would attack and use their Mind Magic, making things easier for Medusa. Nox was sure the creatures that initially enchanted him and Brianna were luring them to the throne room so their queen could add the pair to their garden.
“Get off my throne!” Medusa shrieked as the pair ascended the platform in the center of the room. Brianna stood guard, staying just within Nox’s mana zone. He ensured the dome of Crystalize Essence always touched her.
The elevation made it impossible for Medusa to hide. He saw a beautiful face peeking at him from between two statues. Her hair moved like weeds at the bottom of a river, and her eyes emitted a powerful green light. Pink essence glass rained just at the border of his spell a moment later. Medusa appeared human, but her mane of snakes wrapped around her naked form and completely enveloped her lower half. She didn’t walk. Instead, they carried her, letting her move much faster than possible for even a Haste-using human.
Nox desired the longbow’s power. Their opponent appeared physically weak, using magic, stealth and mind tricks to defeat its foe. Unfortunately, Medusa’s speed made it a poor pick. So, he settled for the short bow and combined it with the gauntlet launcher for the double shot feature. He opened with two mana bolts, trying to predict where the boss would be instead of where she was.
Both projectiles missed their target. Nox expected as much and continued firing. He wished to get an idea of Medusa’s full speed, defensive capabilities, and tactics. It also swiftly reduced the number of statues in the room.
“Do you trust me?” Nox asked as he found a method of breaking the current stalemate.
“I don’t have a choice right now, do I?”
“How much control do you have when enraged? Can you register and follow instructions?”
“Nothing complicated. Simple—”
“What about directions?”
“I can comprehend and follow those, but the more enraged I get, the more likely I am to ignore you and do my own thing.”
“That’ll do. I want you to run forward, unleash your chains, and use your large area attack.” Nox fired two mana bolts. The first forced Medusa toward the wall, and the other took out a snake scaling the platform. He didn’t expect the snakes to move independently, but it made sense that she’d send them forward separately to poison and weaken them. “Keep your eyes closed and become a windmill. I’ll tell you whether to get bigger or smaller and which way to go.”
“And you expect that to kill Medusa?” Brianna frowned. She hesitantly glanced at the statues littering the room. Nox could tell that the idea of destroying them disturbed her.
“No, it will limit her movements and let me nail her.”
“If you want to nail me handsome, just come down here.” Medusa’s sultry whispers sounded tantalizing as they danced around him. They appeared to come from nowhere and everywhere at once, and Brianna’s lack of reaction suggested that only Nox could hear them. More pink essence glass rained just outside his defensive dome. “I promise you’ll have a good time.”
Brianna appeared hesitant, but she played along with the idea. She walked backward, moving away from Nox while keeping her eyes on him. “Now?”
Nox shook his head. He waited until Medusa slowly progressed toward her prey. She was perhaps the most intelligent monster he had ever faced, but he expected gluttony, hunger, and desperation to drive her. As expected, she failed to resist the bait. Brianna was too tempting a morsel.
Medusa stopped behind a cluster of statues, and over a dozen snakes broke away from her entourage. They slithered toward Brianna. Her luminous tattoo-surrounded ears twitched, but she remained still. The woman appeared to trust Nox implicitly, and it paid off. Medusa crept after her minions. As soon as less than a dozen feet remained between them, he signaled Otis. The evolved gremlin finally unleashed the spell Nox had fed him.
The sound of glass shattering rang through the room. Then snow and ice shards rained from the ceiling. The temperature in the room immediately dropped, as did several statues. Much to Nox’s relief, none of the large chunks struck Brianna.
“Now,” he yelled, and she started her dance. The tattoo chains around her forearms came to life. The brightness around her significantly increased as Fenrir’s Chains glowed with angry crimson and orange shades. The spinning axes mowed down nearby statues as her windmill grew. Gorgon statues interrupted their path, but the force successfully knocked down a couple.
Meanwhile, Medusa fled, releasing her a mournful wail as Brianna’s axes and chains chopped her garden decorations to dry, bloodless chunks. Larger shards of ice interrupted her path. Her and the snake's movements appeared sluggish. The cold had done its job. Nox didn’t know whether the gorgon was coldblooded, but her minions certainly were.
“Right!” Nox followed up with the same dual lightning essence bolt he had tested against the giant cloudhunter.
The two projectiles flew side by side, a curtain of lightning dancing between them. One struck the ground just behind Medusa, but the other found a home in her shoulder. The gorgon shrieked and spasmed as the energy burned exposed skin, and snakes rained from her body.
Ratra’s Bow changed form. The gauntlet dissolved, and the shortbow grew longer. Nox nocked a long arrow made of frost essence glass. He targeted the little gap between the stunned bosses’ breasts and drew the longbow until he could no longer. Cold pulsed from the projectile, and snowflakes danced around him. The plummeting temperature and the drawstrength left him trembling. When he released the projectile, the recoil made him stagger back a couple of steps, and his bow arm flew upward. Nox almost smacked himself in the face with the solid mana weapon.
The air rippled as the arrow shot forward. Nox’s aim wasn’t as precise as he would’ve liked. The shaking, strain, and recoil almost made it fly too high. Instead of striking Medusa’s solar plexus, he got her just above the clavicle. It passed through her, and then icicles burst from the wound. Her yellow eyes instantly lost their light, but panicked movements suggested she wasn’t yet dead. The growing ice almost separated her head from her neck. Only a tiny strip of skin and a few strands of muscles kept it together.
“You can open your eyes now,” Nox yelled. “Finished her.”
The northern woman’s face had contorted into a snarl. Despite the burning rage in her unfocused eyes, she gracefully exited her spin and danced toward Medusa. Elegant leaps and steps helped her swiftly close the distance. Instead of relying on her chains, she tightly grabbed an axe in her left hand and cleaved through the remaining bits of Medusa’s neck and the ice. Then Otis leaped from the ceiling and scooped up the boss’s head. Nox had taught the gremlin how to store such trophies. He retrieved a giant jar of stasis fluid from his spatial storage and popped his prize in it.