Acidic blood filled Sorin's mouth and burnt his flesh, revealing sharp, inhuman teeth that refused to let go. But he held on despite the pain and bit harder into the gorgon's collarbone, injecting a painful dose of acitoxins into her flesh to counter her poisonous blood.
The gorgon's acitoxins proved weaker than Sorin's—not surprising, considering that the gorgon specialized in neurotoxins. Unable to deal with the combination of Sorin's powerful poisons and his abnormal strength, she had no choice but to make him the sole target of her spiritual control and throw him across the room while he was still in his stunned state.
This moment of distraction allowed Sorin's team to finally react. A chilling cold filled the room as Stephan adopted his Artic Rune Bear form and pounced on the gorgon, thereby pulling her attention away from Sorin. Simultaneously, a fireball was cast in the space directly behind the gorgon's hair, burning away a third of the writhing serpents and resulting in an immediate and marked decrease in her control abilities.
The gorgon, realizing the threat Daphne posed, shoved Stephan away and pulled out a bow, then proceeded to shoot an acidic arrow at the physically weak and slow mage.
"Reee!" Lorimer came to the rescue and intercepted the arrow with a large and metal-enhanced body. The arrow pierced a shallow hole in his chest, but fortunately, his powerful constitution stopped the acitoxin from spreading.
"Incoming!" yelled Gareth. He transmitted an image showing five Bone-Forging cultivators heading their way. One had summoned three hawks, which Gareth kept in check using his Arrow Rain ability whenever they drew near.
"Let's see if the rat can save you a second time," hissed the gorgon. She loosed a second arrow while simultaneously paralyzing Lorimer.
Lawrence was too physically weak to block the second arrow, but fortunately, Astley was now free from the gorgon's spiritual influence and had already released the four remaining wolves in her grimoire. She sacrificed one of them to block the arrow and sent the other three to delay the mayor and his accomplices.
Sorin had seen better days. It took him a full ten seconds to regenerate the flesh on his face using the life force he'd pillaged by digesting the gorgon's poisonous and corrupted blood. By now, the Violence in his body was fully provoked, which did grant him increased regeneration, but prevented him from casting complex spells.
He summoned a six-foot-long spear of acid and took out his Dagger of Amplification before using his boots' spatial hopping ability to teleport twenty feet toward the gorgon and mount a pincer attack in collaboration with Stephan.
Lacerations appeared on his arms, legs, and torso from the teleportation's backlash, feeding his Blood Drinker Armor. His strength, speed, and defense increased just in time and allowed him to dodge the gorgon's blade and attack her with the acidic spear. It shattered her mana shield, then exploded to splash acid all over her protective robes, revealing a scale-covered body with powerful defenses.
"Freeze!" commanded the gorgon as Sorin closed in with his dagger. But this time, Sorin merely smirked and active Cobra's Gaze to fight back. The gorgon was struck with recoil, and Sorin used the opportunity to inject a double dose of Violence-infused acitoxin into her side.
The gorgon, writhing in pain and unable to mobilize her spirit, fell prey to Gareth's Shackle Shot. Then Stephan came in and activated his taunting skill, Natural Selection, which forced the gorgon to focus her reckless and empowered attacks on the durable bear.
Sorin was about to move in to help but stopped when he felt Gareth's ability influence him. He quickly understood the archer's intentions and retreated towards Astley and Daphne.
As Stephan's armor-covered body suffered deep, acid-filled wounds from the gorgon, Sorin used Hand of the Medicine God to draw out the neurotoxins from Astley and Daphne's bodies, immediately restoring their spell-casting capabilities to their peak state. Daphne cast another fireball directly in her blind spot and proceeded to launch an enhanced fireball at the approaching Bone-Forging cultivators.
"Stone Wall!" Mr. Stone, blocking the approaching fireball but simultaneously delaying their approach.
Daphne snorted. "Alter Trajectory. Fireball!" A second spell shot out and sharply lobbed over the wall. It was about to detonate when red runes blasted the spell and unraveled it.
"Counterspell," said a man in a calm voice.
"So the Master of the Mages Guild really is involved in all this," said Daphne. "He's a third forging mage, so I can only keep him busy while you guys fight."
Another image appeared in Sorin's mind as Gareth issued new orders. Astley was to summon additional creatures to tie down their Bone-Forging opponents while Sorin restored the team's capabilities. He started with Gareth, who immediately increased his shooting rate, allowing him to take down one of Mr. Langley's tamed demonic hawks.
Having taken care of their areal support, Sorin teleported over to Lawrence, once again taking damage in exchange for speed. That damage was quickly healed by the life force he then gained from absorbing Lawrence's neurotoxins.
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Now free from the gorgon's influence, Lawrence blended with the shadows and initiated his stalking sequence. When he revealed himself, it would be with devastating effect.
Lawrence's return also brought an additional benefit to their team: omnidirectional vision within 100 feet of the rogue's location. Sorin used this enhanced vision to dodge incoming stone spikes from Mr. Stone, an arrow from the fifth Bone-Forging cultivator in the group.
Stephan wasn't looking too good, and his body was riddled with poison. Sorin hopped onto his back and pressed both his hands on the bear's body. There was too much for Sorin to drink in, but he absorbed all he could to his upper limit before smashing one of their two-star healing potions on the bear's back to top up his faltering health.
By then, a minute was up. Sorin used his boots to teleport beside the gorgon and continue their duel. Thanks to Astley's timely support with a wave of wolves and a follow-up wave of muskaurs, Sorin and Stephan were able to fight her unimpeded.
Due to Stephan's powerful Natural Selection ability, Sorin was able to wrap the gorgon up with a Python Coil and constrict her movements. He then used a short summoned 'spear' like a dagger and his Dagger of Amplification to needle the gorgon's body.
Finally, the gorgon could no longer handle their combined attacks. Her body began to melt away from all the accumulated poison. "If you think I'll go peacefully, you're mistaken!" shouted the gorgon. "Symphony of Madness!"
Sorin felt his mind split into several pieces. All manner of deranged thoughts invaded his system; when he tried to attack the gorgon, he instead turned to Stephan and plunged his dagger and spear into his chest.
Fortunately, Toxic Metabolism was effective against corruption. He quickly regained his lucidity and turned back to the gorgon with the aim of finishing her off.
This time, it was Gareth who stopped him. One Shackle Shot after another bound him to the ground, opening him up to a savage counterattack from the maddened Stephan and a pincer attack from the gorgon's vicious claws.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Daphne was thrown into the mix. She directly cast a fireball between Sorin and Stephan, blowing them apart. Sorin was blasted in the same direction as the gorgon and used the opportunity to stab her several times.
He was close to finishing her off when suddenly, he felt a chill in the back of his neck. He hastily activated his boots to teleport to the gorgon's other side, barely escaping Lawrence's charged-up attack.
The gorgon's claw shot towards the now prone Sorin's heart. Given the hasty nature of his teleportation, he was unable to react in time.
"Reee!" Lorimer came to the rescue. The rat, now in miniature stealth form, was naturally immune to Madness due to his alignment with Violence. He jumped onto the gorgon's singed head and burrowed into her skull.
The gorgon let out a scream as she reached around to grab the rat. She succeeded in doing so, but not before he finished eating up what remained of her serpentine hair.
Having lost her hair, the last of the gorgon's influence faded. The party returned to normal, and Stephan, who'd suffered the most in the entire fight, landed an aggrieved Lunisolar Paw straight onto the gorgon's head, smashing it apart and ending her life.
Her death was the straw that broke the camel's back. The fighting stopped as suddenly as it had started. "Where… where are we?" said the mayor, pulling his hood off his head.
"I'm not sure," said the master of the Mages Guild. "But I do believe we are underground and fighting for some reason. Humans, by the looks of it."
"What's going on," moaned Mr. Stone, who'd been pinned to the ground by a pair of muskaurs.
"My precious hawks!" cried out Mr. Langley. "What happened to you? And how did you grow to become so big?"
"I have the most dreadful of headaches," said Mr. Faust, the archer, drawing back his hood. "Since you're human and clearly adventurers, would it be possible to end things peacefully and clear this situation up? We honestly have no idea what's going on."
"Everyone, ceasefire," said Gareth. "It appears they were under the gorgon's control."
"Gorgon?" asked the mayor. "What's that?" Then he saw the smashed-up corpse on the ground. "Wait, is that the Dark Lady? Did you all just kill the Dark Lady?"
Gareth nocked an arrow. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"None whatsoever," said the mayor hurriedly. "In fact, I have a two-star healing potion here. Does anyone need one?"
"Pass to me," said Sorin. He caught the potion and took a sip of it to confirm its contents before passing it to Stephan. "Drink it once your potion cooldown wears off. I think you'll need it."
"What about you?" asked Stephan.
"I'll be fine," said Sorin, gingerly touching his charred flesh. "There's poison around here, and it works much better for me than a healing potion. Speaking of which, let me see if there's anything to salvage from this corpse." He walked over to the smashed-up gorgon and rummaged through the pile of mush to find two relatively intact eyes that seemed to contain a lot of neurotoxins. He then surgically removed a few important glands that contained her neurotoxin stores, as well as her madness-filled core, which also contained a great deal of neurotoxins. "I'll be keeping these if you don't mind."
"I don't think anyone's going to fight you on it," said Gareth. "Though I need to ask, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," said Sorin, retracting his corruption-filled claws and scales. "It's a shapeshifting ability I gained after breaking through to bone-forging."
"Yeah, I was actually talking about the fact that your hands are simultaneously melting and regenerating," said Gareth. "It's disgusting."
"Oh," said Sorin. "Right." Thanks to the fox head medallion, no one suspected that corruption was responsible for his mutation. "We should probably get back into town. I imagine that the Dark Lady's death will cause local demons to act up. The townsfolk will likely also experience sharp changes in behavior. There will be a lot of cleaning up to do."
"Agreed," said Gareth. He turned to the mayor and his cronies. "I take it you five won't have a problem bringing us into town so we can bring this investigation to a close. My companion can testify in his capacity as an apothecary that the Dark Lady used potent poisons to control the five of you and influence the villagers."
"Indeed, I can," said Sorin. "This isn't a madness-induced affliction but something I can easily cure by spending a few days in your village."
"Of course!" said the mayor, greatly reassured by their words. "In fact, there's an entrance not far away from here. I'll naturally explain everything to the villagers and coordinate with the Master of the Adventurers Guild. We'll clear out all sources of trouble and help you conclude the investigation as quickly as possible!"