Inferno Ascended

"Ras!" Glax caught up with him in a few more strides. His Valosian colleague was standing in a strange position, as if he were about to defend himself against something. He didn't move when Glax came close.

"What is happening?" Glax looked into the face of his big friend, whose open eyes were red. Tears were streaming from his tear ducts. The eyes looked like they were going to explode at any moment.

"Dude, stop. Stop, I get it! Don't try to do anything else, you will end up hurting yourself. Something happened, and you are paralyzed! Okay, don't try to talk or anything. Don't explode your veins or your brain."

He looked around, now even more attentive. Some of the grass was dented, there were bloodstains on the limestone floor of the entrance.

He looked into the mausoleum, anguished at having to make a decision. The horses were approaching, and he didn't know if he could leave Ras there alone again. At the same time, inside was Alexandre, a teenager, to fend the invaders for himself.

Emerging from the clearing, the group of horsemen was led by Proctius, the last person Glax expected to see there.

"You?!" The captain aimed his gladius at the Valosians.

"Proctius, the mausoleum has been invaded. Alexandre is in there!" Instead of trying to explain anything, he hoped Proctius would at least be a capable captain.

Without hesitation, and leaping off the horse in one movement, the intimidating captain shouted at his men,

"Watch out! Gorgons! If you let that happen to you, I'll cut your heads off myself! Look around for accomplices!"

He bolted into the mausoleum, with Glax right behind.

With the corner of his eye the valosian saw that Proctius men split up in two teams, probably to search the surroundings and the building as ordered by the captain. The bitter-wood torches hung on the walls were alight. All of them. And it was weird.

Luckily, Glax knew the way, and guided Proctius through the mazelike mausoleum.

"What are you doing here, Glax?!" Proctius grunted.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking it?! I have reasons to be here! But what are your reasons?"

Proctius responded neither, but he snarled,

"You must have been on a ship heading north. But you're here with Alexandre! This cannot be a good thing."

Since it was purely rhetorical, Glax saved his breath to run more.

"Did you see how many medusas there are?"

Although the word Gorgon made some sense to him, despite remembering the name of a cheese. Medusas were gorgons, or something like this.

"I didn't see anyone."

He knew he would have future issues to explain why he was doing here, but he left it to think about later. They found an unknown man lying on the floor. He was with a gross wound in his belly but he wasn't bleeding, he was alive like Rasmus, but paralyzed. Proctius used his gladius to quickly dispatch it to the New Hell boarding queue.

As they descended the last flight of stairs to the crypt where Chriseis body was, they already heard the sounds and voices.

Glax started his 'sword'. 'Why do my weapons never have enough ammo or battery?' He couldn't use the electric arc to reach the distance. There wasn't enough power for that. And even if he could, Glax was afraid he might not be able to control the weapon.

Three enemies found them on the stairs, while two more tried to pass Alexander's improvised barricade, the only thing that kept them from reaching the tomb. And himself.

Glax, more out of instinct than tactics, parried the hatchet that almost hit his side. When the two metal surfaces met, sparks flew from his sword. His enemy looked at him with surprise and awe. Glax also lost his triumphant smile when he saw his opponent's face. The triangular face with separate eyes and prominent forehead, from which two small curved horns protruded, frowned in fury, foreshadowing a new attack.

'Thanks for wiring!' Glax parried the attack again. The satyr, or at least that was what Glax thought he was, again avoided the sparks, frightened, but pulling another weapon from its tattered cloak. Glax left in time to avoid taking a treacherous thrust of a dagger, which the satyr cleverly used against him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Glax realized what was going on around him.

Proctius launched himself at the biggest of enemies, someone who used an ax against the improvised barricade that Alexander had created. Landing violently on the creature, the Fury captain pierced the giant man with his spear. But the towering figure seemed not fazed at all by his attack.

Wait, was that a minotaur? A real minotaur? The creature was at least two feet taller than Ras, and although on his back he looked like a huge man with a Viking helmet, he had an animalistic and very inhuman face. 'Okay, once picked, cannot turn back, Proctius! He's all yours!'

While Proctius and the extremely strong mythical being were fighting each other, the woman, or rather the medusa, took the place of the minotaur to attack Alexander.

Glax spun his sword in a semicircle, and the satyr instinctively moved away. Glax cleared the way, and he thought for a moment he was doing very well. Unfortunately, it wasn't a real lightsaber. It almost tempted him to make WOHHN WOHHN sounds as he moved his sword nimbly like a sith.

Glax was hit in the elbow and the pain spread throughout his body. He even bit his tongue, and his sword fell to the floor. A third man, apparently human this time, slammed into him from the side with a small shield. The vambrace absorbed part of the impact, but his elbow joints sent a sign to the universe and back.

Glax immediately felt his arm go limp. But he wouldn't let that happen.

TIC.

The clock stopped and then returned as much as it could, just a few seconds. Enough for none of this to happen and Glax not to have his elbow fractured. Next, it was he who, knowing in advance what his enemy would do, raised his leg high enough for a frontal kick. His sole halted the shield and knocked the opponent to the ground.

'Yay!' His next move was to use his sword against the satyr, who came at him with his ax and dagger. He tried again to use his power to turn back time. His plan was to use this to hit exactly where he was supposed to.

However, nothing happened! His distraction allowed his opponent to smack the ax handle in the middle of his face, partially deflected by his mask. His head bobbed back and forth, and when his eyes unblurred, he saw the smirk of the satyr, again wiring his next move.

'Oh, my mojo isn't working?'

But to his surprise, his next move seemed to be a headbutt with his horned forehead. Glax was sure as hell he wouldn't recover from it.

"I'm not a metalhead, buddy!"

He used his blunt sword sideways, to strike the satyr, as if it were a baseball bat. When the energized metal bar hit the opponent's face, after a brief SZHHHH, the satyr rolled his eyes and fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Although Glax had not seen potatoes in Stygia.

"Oh shit!" It had been ugly.

Upon witnessing this, the other man stepped back, heading for the stairs. Proctius was still struggling with the minotaur.

The medusa was forcing her way through the door that Alexander had defended up to this moment. Glax knew the boy was trying to avoid facing the gorgon, for fear of his power. The medusa was an almost normal woman, except of course, due to the fact she had snakes in place of hair, and wings.

She jumped over the barricade, and spread her wings to envelop Alexander. Glax threw his body against the back of the deadly gorgon, just as she opened her mouth to spray her poison on the young warrior Kroton.

Alexandre turned, trying to escape the foul spray that was, without a doubt, what paralyzed a man. The Valosian rolled to the side, but saw the boy topple over immediately, his muscles tight and perfectly paralyzed.

'Not today!'

He tried to use his power again to go back as long as he could. He bent the time as much as he could, feeling everything blurred and requiring much more effort than before. 'Damn it, I need to get it. How does this shit power work?!' Something finally gave way and time bent to his will, but only until the moment when he slammed into her back. He couldn't bend time more than that.

All he could do was try to hit her with a deadly shock from his mythic weapon, even if he couldn't redo his collision. But perhaps, it's outcome. This time he raised his arm, not to hit the gorgon with the shoulder like the first time, but with the sword against her head. His finger turned on the power for the full amperage.

The flash and the horrendous scream told him he was successful. Glax felt her body convulse next to his.

Her body spun, at her last moment, and the Medusa sprayed her potent poison on Glax's face, collapsing shortly thereafter. Lifeless.

The Valosian felt some of the liquid touch his cheek and neck, and immediately felt a bitter taste in his throat as well.

'Oh shi-it!'

::::::

A few minutes passed, while Alexandre ran out and found that there were no more enemies to fight. The boy returned to his side.

The young Kroton examined him quickly, and then looked at the creature lying at Glax's feet.

Glax tried to move his gaze down, but it was impossible. The boy ran and came back with a cloth, which he wiped over the Valosian's face to remove the poison from the gorgon. But the toxin had already taken over his body.

"Oh, I'm glad it wasn't a lot! She had already spent most of her poison, I think! What did you do?! What is this strange sword?"

Glax fingers were curled around the mythic sword, and unable to let it go.

'Um, you know very well that I can't answer, sonofabitch!' Glax wasn't even happy that they won. He had been poisoned with a massive dose of mythological Botox!

But he could hear and he knew the minotaur was dying behind him, just as he heard Proctius heavily panting from the exertion of fighting such an opponent.

"Oh, aw, Champion! You let one of them escape! Should I have left the minotaur for you?!" Proctius came up behind him, mockingly, placing a hand on his shoulder.

'Ah, the funny guy.' Glax couldn't really roll his eyes.

"He defeated a medusa!" Alexandre exclaimed.

"I defeated a minotaur." Proctius grunted.

"But he defeated you, too." It was Alexander's prompt reply.

"Shutup, Alexandre." Proctius gnarled, spitting on the floor.

Alexandre was pacing in front of Glax. The Valosian tried to relax his muscles and not suffer. He hoped the effect would wear off in a few hours. But his # 1 fan couldn't keep his mouth shut for long.

"A fucking gorgon! He just hit her once, and she fell instantly dead."

"Hm. Don't you think it was a tie, little bro?" Proctius appeared in Glax's field of vision, with a condescending expression on his face. He must have been trying to play the good brother-in-law for the son of the archigeos.

"As my father says, who is standing here?" Alexandre defended his teacher. "Wow! Even the snakes are dead!"

"UH" Proctius kicked the medusa's body, then bent down, and stood up with a handful of small dead snakes in his hand.

As with Rasmus, Glax's eyes watered from the effort to look. He tried to remain calm, even looking at Proctius's malicious smile, who spoke, lifting the snakes at Glax's gaze,

"I haven't forgotten Armorion, Glax of Valosia. Take some tokens."

The last thing Glax saw was Proctius' fist coming up against his face.. Then everything went dark.