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The sky was full of ten thousand spears, and they were coming for her.
Medusa dodged three, swatted aside a fourth. Dodged two more, working her way steadily towards where Saver -
Wasn’t.
An avalanche fell on the back of her head, driving her to her knees, and she rolled to the side, out of the way of the killing blow that would have followed.
“Is this the best you can do, Queen of Scales?” Vlad asked, staring down at her in disappointment. “Look at you, scrabbling through the dust like a pathetic creature of meat and bone.”
This time, she caught the first spear to fly at her and flung it after him as he vanished from in front of her to reappear across the field.
“Panting and sweating as you run through my garden. How can you challenge a perfect immortal monster?”
Gritting her teeth, she tore the barbed spear that had buried itself in her thigh free and advanced again.
“‘The hero must!’ your heart cries, and throw yourself forward, standing like a proud woman!”
This time she followed his motion, barely, and slammed an elbow into his throat a moment after he finished hissing, “Coward.”
“You can shut up any time,” she suggested, and barely missed getting her hands around his throat before a volley of flying spears forced her away from pursuing him so closely.
“But what kind of host would I be if I left you wanting, confused, ignorant?” Saver laughed, and then she was dodging too hard to listen to his drivel, spear after spear flying at her, filling the air around her.
“You will fail!” Saver told her as one, forked and then twisted around itself, buried itself in the ground and trapped one of her feet between its tines.
“The world will burn!” Another flying missile glanced off of the armor protecting her calf, and in the process all but tore the limb out from under her and spilled her onto that knee.
“Your Mistress will die!” She caught the third spear and threw it away.
“And all because you were too afraid of yourself, of your own strength!” When she looked back up it was just in time for her foe to seize her wrists with what she could easily recognize as the strength of madness and hold them forced away from both their bodies.
“How does that make you feel?!” Saver cried down at her, and Medusa leaned her helmeted face close to his neck.
“Hungry,” she answered, and fastened the jaws of the serpents pouring from her helm on every portion of his flesh that they could reach.
Saver laughed, and tore himself free, leaving bloodied gouges all across his body that healed even as he spoke. "Better. That's marvelous, really. You've taken a very important step! But now.. a monster can beat a man... but how does a monster defeat another monster?"
She ignored his babbling and charged, moving, now, more quickly that she’d previously been capable of, catching the single spear he managed to get on target and snapping it between massive brass talons a split-second before the other set slashed through the space where Saver’s ribcage had been.
The bats completely filled her vision for a moment, and the squeaking horde fled to coalesce back together into the laughing, bloodied figure of her enemy, fangs glinting in his grin. “You’ll have to do better than that,” he said, even as his face began to lengthen and his limbs shifted and flowed into a different form, and the second half of the sentence came from the muzzle of a wolf six feet at the shoulder. “Here, let me show you!”
The mass of the form he was wearing bowled her over, even with her increasing strength, and pinned her to the earth as he snaked those great jaws down to fasten onto her head and shake viciously. She could feel something strain in her neck, and the black metal of the armor cracked horribly under the assault, until she hooked her tail under his stomach and flung him away with a convulsive thrash.
She followed in a flash of scattered earth, landing atop his tumbled form with one taloned arm raised high to plunge the massive claws down and through -
- into the dirt as his body once again dissolved into the chiropteran swarm and fluttered out of the way.
This time she was half expecting it, and her serpentine hair flashed out, each strand swinging after a frantically evading target, sinking venomous fangs into every one they could catch.
When he pulled himself back together again, Saver looked distinctly ragged, almost ill, clutching at his chest as though pained, and many more bloody marks stained his skin and clothing beneath the cape. “Magnificent!” he cried, even so, as the wounds closed, “truly this is the hunger that Grey-Eyed Pallas Athene felt called to fear! Yes, by this shall you truly become the Master’s weapon!”
She ignored his rambling and reached up to sink razor-tipped talons into the breathing slits of her helmet, then tore it asunder as she settled back onto her tail - rapidly growing into a serpentine body longer and heavier than the rest of her - and raised and twisted her legs to present their great scimitar claws as rending weapons in their own right.
“Yessss...” Saver whispered, hardened grey stone dust creeping along his skin and hair, a moment before she launched herself at him. “Just like that, just a little more-”
Again, she sprang forwards, as quick as a serpent’s strike. This time, knowing the writhing nest of snakes flowing down from her head as forewarned, he dissolved even further, into mist.
Mist that, caught in the terrible gaze of Medusa’s legend, had no resistance to her Eye, and collapsed rapidly back into first a fall of dust and then into the supine, paralyzed form of Vlad III.
She leaned over his body, larger arms and smaller braced on either side, and looked into the still-conscious eyes, filling with realization.
“A monster,” she said, “defeats another monster by outwitting it.”
And then she opened her mouth to finish it.
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
The sky was full of ten thousand spears, and they were coming for her.
Medusa dodged three, swatted aside a fourth. Dodged two more, working her way steadily towards where Saver -
Wasn’t.
An avalanche fell on the back of her head, driving her to her knees, and she rolled to the side, out of the way of the killing blow that would have followed.
“Is this the best you can do, Queen of Scales?” Vlad asked, staring down at her in disappointment. “Look at you, scrabbling through the dust like a pathetic creature of meat and bone.”
This time, she caught the first spear to fly at her and flung it after him as he vanished from in front of her to reappear across the field.
“Panting and sweating as you run through my garden. How can you challenge a perfect immortal monster?”
Gritting her teeth, she tore the barbed spear that had buried itself in her thigh free and advanced again.
“‘The hero must!’ your heart cries, and throw yourself forward, standing like a proud woman!”
This time she followed his motion, barely, and slammed an elbow into his throat a moment after he finished hissing, “Coward.”
“You can shut up any time,” she suggested, and barely missed getting her hands around his throat before a volley of flying spears forced her away from pursuing him so closely.
“But what kind of host would I be if I left you wanting, confused, ignorant?” Saver laughed, and then she was dodging too hard to listen to his drivel, spear after spear flying at her, filling the air around her.
“You will fail!” Saver told her as one, forked and then twisted around itself, buried itself in the ground and trapped one of her feet between its tines.
“The world will burn!” Another flying missile glanced off of the armor protecting her calf, and in the process all but tore the limb out from under her and spilled her onto that knee.
“Your Mistress will die!” She caught the third spear and threw it away.
“And all because you were too afraid of yourself, of your own strength!” When she looked back up it was just in time for her foe to seize her wrists with what she could easily recognize as the strength of madness and hold them forced away from both their bodies.
“How does that make you feel?!” Saver cried down at her, and Medusa leaned her helmeted face close to his neck.
“Hungry,” she answered, and fastened the jaws of the serpents pouring from her helm on every portion of his flesh that they could reach.
Saver laughed, and tore himself free, leaving bloodied gouges all across his body that healed even as he spoke. "Better. That's marvelous, really. You've taken a very important step! But now.. a monster can beat a man... but how does a monster defeat another monster?"
She ignored his babbling and charged, moving, now, more quickly that she’d previously been capable of, catching the single spear he managed to get on target and snapping it between massive brass talons a split-second before the other set slashed through the space where Saver’s ribcage had been.
The bats completely filled her vision for a moment, and the squeaking horde fled to coalesce back together into the laughing, bloodied figure of her enemy, fangs glinting in his grin. “You’ll have to do better than that,” he said, even as his face began to lengthen and his limbs shifted and flowed into a different form, and the second half of the sentence came from the muzzle of a wolf six feet at the shoulder. “Here, let me show you!”
The mass of the form he was wearing bowled her over, even with her increasing strength, and pinned her to the earth as he snaked those great jaws down to fasten onto her head and shake viciously. She could feel something strain in her neck, and the black metal of the armor cracked horribly under the assault, until she hooked her tail under his stomach and flung him away with a convulsive thrash.
She followed in a flash of scattered earth, landing atop his tumbled form with one taloned arm raised high to plunge the massive claws down and through -
- into the dirt as his body once again dissolved into the chiropteran swarm and fluttered out of the way.
This time she was half expecting it, and her serpentine hair flashed out, each strand swinging after a frantically evading target, sinking venomous fangs into every one they could catch.
When he pulled himself back together again, Saver looked distinctly ragged, almost ill, clutching at his chest as though pained, and many more bloody marks stained his skin and clothing beneath the cape. “Magnificent!” he cried, even so, as the wounds closed, “truly this is the hunger that Grey-Eyed Pallas Athene felt called to fear! Yes, by this shall you truly become the Master’s weapon!”
She ignored his rambling and reached up to sink razor-tipped talons into the breathing slits of her helmet, then tore it asunder as she settled back onto her tail - rapidly growing into a serpentine body longer and heavier than the rest of her - and raised and twisted her legs to present their great scimitar claws as rending weapons in their own right.
“Yessss...” Saver whispered, hardened grey stone dust creeping along his skin and hair, a moment before she launched herself at him. “Just like that, just a little more-”
Again, she sprang forwards, as quick as a serpent’s strike. This time, knowing the writhing nest of snakes flowing down from her head as forewarned, he dissolved even further, into mist.
Mist that, caught in the terrible gaze of Medusa’s legend, had no resistance to her Eye, and collapsed rapidly back into first a fall of dust and then into the supine, paralyzed form of Vlad III.
She leaned over his body, larger arms and smaller braced on either side, and looked into the still-conscious eyes, filling with realization.
“A monster,” she said, “defeats another monster by outwitting it.”
And then she opened her mouth to finish it.
====================================================================================
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."