Lockeroom's Pandemonium

Chapter thirty: Fire God's Thrower

Silver Cassano stepped away of the burning Gorgon.

His face is blank and unreadable, making Aunt Mathilda and Lukas to undeniably took few steps backwards.

The burning whip suddenly appeared at his hands. The armor of fire surrounded his shoulders.

Then, with a flash of one forceful whipping, the Gorgon's head has exploded.

Silver planned to only cut it through its neck. But it seemed that the fire was too strong that it made her weak and crumble into ashes. That could have been the reason, he thought.

But his assumption was wrong.

The Gorgon purposefully made her head to explode into ashes.

Her burning body was now lying in the ground, but instead of flesh and blood being found at her neck, what Silver saw was a void, narrow space right at her neck. Like a mannequin’s body.

A space that tells the Gorgon's mimicking was not real—that its body was just like a cursed doll; lifeless, yet moving.

Silver was sure that Aunt Mathilda and Lukas saw it too.

And they for sure saw that pair of sharp golden eyes staring at them, right at the hollow of the Gorgon's body.

Silver stepped back.

He knew that he was confident he could fight that creature equally. But the fear kept him stepping back.

They were hearing series of hisses and a coarse, feminine growl.

“The real Gorgon,” said Aunt Mathilda.

Just as if it heard her, the Gorgon's body exploded like a wooden plain. From it, the revealing of a giant snake woman had happened. It was a giant snake, at least fifteen feet tall. Her lower body was of real snake, as if an Anaconda, and the upper body was composed of a human's half body. She was all green, and the her hair was filled with slithering small snakes.

It opened its mouth, and then needles started to release out of it. The players started to jump as they realized it was the same needle bomb they met early hour before this game.

The baby snakes started to fall one by one on its head. As it touched the ground, they suddenly shifted their form until being of the same image as them—the clones.

Silver held his weapon tightly. He jumped above using his spring jump skill, and brutally slashed his whip. Fire waves surged downwards, towards the cluster of clones that was about to attack them.

“I don't care whom I shall kill among you. You all are not real. And I don't have to play the rules of the game I never dreamed of joining.”

He looked at the Gorgon who was now looking at him as well.

He slashed his whip. But instead of waves of fire, a circular symbol started to appear at Silver’s front. It has unreadable scriptures and a group of circling line, creating a massive symbol of the fire.

“Skill: Fire god’s Thrower!”

The circular symbol started to glow brighter in red. Soon, a swamp of immeasurable fire bursted from the circular symbol. It rushed towards the figure of the Gorgon, trying to swallow every inch of her long body.

The Gorgon, however, felt no terror as the fire from Silver's attack was about to hit her.

Something peculiar happened then to the Gorgon's eyes. It shone in bright golden color.

Sooner then, the fire stopped moving. The rapid swirl of it has suddenly stopped—and became only as if a beautiful, intricate design of a sculpture art.

To be precise, the flame of Silver's attack had suddenly hardened, and became a single clump of stone.

“What?” The sense of shock and disbelief rushed through Silver's face.

He cannot believe that the skill he had thrown suddenly stopped moving and turned as a stone. It was far behind his imagined scenario.

But then, he recalled the story of Perseus, a greek myth hero. He recalled its adventures, its heroic acts.

He recalled the power of the Gorgon that Perseus fought: its ability to turn anyone as a stone.

“So this Gorgon was indeed, inspired of that Greek myth.”

Series of needle bomb attacked him. He jumped and used the flame that turned stone to dash and dodge the needle bomb. The explosion made the stone to crumble into pieces. By the last edge of the stone, he rocketed himself towards the Gorgon.

The Gorgon’s eyes became bright in golden light again.

But Silver knew what he was doing now.

A piece of lined flame appeared in his eyes. It was like a cloth, a blinfold, that covered his whole sight so that he wouldn't see the golden light that the Gorgon has been emitting.

He strengthen the heat from the flame that is surrounding his body.

A sudden distortion of heat had come at his front.

‘Heat obstruction,’ he thought.

The distortion was small and dot-like, with depth that short as a needle.

He moved his body, and miraculously avoided the upcoming needle bomb, despite the fact that a blindfold of flame has been covering his eyes.

‘Obstruction of heat, three o'clock, few meters,’ he thought.

With the sound of gunshot, he knew that it was an attack from Lukas' gun.

He twisted his body again for another set of needle bomb had attacked him.

He wielded his weapon, and whipped it in the air. He sensed the sudden hardening of the supposed to be wave of fire he would be using to attack.

Now he confirmed it. ‘She can turn non-stone objects as a stone. While for a real living person, she had to show her eyes first before she can successfully turn us into a stone,’ he thought.

Another whip of fire, and it turned as stone. He stepped on the stoned flame, used it to slide for it was curved, spun in the air as he reached the tip, and successfully landed at the Gorgon's nape.

But it was not just a simple land, for he whipped his weapon to cut the nape of the Gorgon creature.

He spun again, and avoided the giant tail that was about to attack him. He easily deflected it with the force he exerted on his whip. He let his body fall down to the back of the slithery Gorgon as he side by side, whipped and removed her scales.

Sooner, he felt that the heat on his body was little by little being dragged by something.

‘A whirlwind,’ he thought.

“Skill: Wind Demjin!” He heard Aunt Mathilda casting.

He stepped and rapidly dashed at the path of Gorgon's spine, upwards. As he reached the top of the Gorgon's head, he used his spring jump skill, making her soar up above the sky.

Sooner, he heard the Gorgon screaming. He can feel the heat in his body was twisting, being sucked by something. A whirl of wind.

He assessed the heat that was being sucked out from his body.

He have to make sure of what he was about to do.

Touching the surface of the wind demjin would make his body shred into pieces. But entering its epicenter would cause nothing to him.

He estimated his position with the heat form his body, calmly calculating, aware of what is happening.

‘There.’ Until he can feel it.

He let his body fall freely. When he knew he entered the main mouth of the wind demjin, he slashed his whip again.

And the same circular symbol he had once done, has appeared.

“Let me repeat it,” he calmly said.

“Skill: Fire god's Thrower!”

The same, bursting cluster of fire had bolted from the circular symbol the whip had produced. Its immense heat were felt even by himself.

Then the Gorgon screamed louder than what she has been doing.

Silver smiled.

‘Finally.’

He then removed his flame blindfold, and saw the situation of the Gorgon. It was now burnt, weak, and unable to move.

He had to move quickly.

‘I will make sure you will be mine!’ he thought.

But something weird had happened. He slashed his whip in order to produce a wave of slashing fire, to cut the head of the Gorgon.

But nothing came out.

The heat of his body was slowly escaping out. The flame armor in his shoulder disappeared as if it ran out of fuel.

Then it hit him.

‘The fire orb. I had consumed the available time for the buff of the fire orb.’

He was freely falling from the sky, and he can't control its speed.

“I—I need to cut the head of the Gorgon.”

He wielded his now ordinary whip and prepared to s***h it soon as he landed at the ground.

But he was late.

Just before he could cut its head, a fast wave of black wind already managed to cut the Gorgon's scaly neck.

“Ohh, Silver! Seems like you have ran out of your luck?”

It was Aunt Mathilda. She was covering half of her face with her giant handfan.

“Game is over, I am the winner,” she said, then laughed—irritatingly.