The Gorgon sisters all possessed the common abilities of petrification and formidable physical strength.
Yet, each specialized in slightly different areas.
Firstly, the eldest, Stheno.
Thud! Thud!
True to her name, she possessed monstrous strength.
Leading the charge, Stheno smashed through the barricades and barriers widely set up in the plains.
The defense lines meticulously erected by humans were torn apart like paper before Stheno's overwhelming charge.
Screech!
The second sister, Euryale, used her flying ability to soar through the sky, sweeping away all the human barrage from above.
Cannons, arrows, magical artifacts... she evaded them all, petrified them, and nullified them.
Among the sisters, she particularly possessed strong magic resistance, allowing Euryale to spread her membranous wings and block all human attacks from the air.
Screeee!
And the youngest, Medusa.
She possessed especially powerful magic and the evil eye, even among the three sisters.
As Medusa narrowed her eyes, the snakes attached to her head also simultaneously glared menacingly.
Flash!
Both Medusa's and the snakes' eyes shone simultaneously. A chilling yellow flash swept across the area with the petrifying evil eye.
Not only did the barrage of human attacks turn into stones in mid-air,
Crack, crackle...
Everything in the area turned to stone.
Dirt, grass, trees, insects... everything living in the southern plains turned into stone and solidified.
Everything within Medusa's line of sight was petrified without discrimination.
"Argh?!"
"My body's stiffening...!"
"Save me...!"
The power of her evil eye was so strong that even soldiers on the distant walls started to become victims of petrification.
"It's petrifying even from this distance...?!"
Atop the walls.
As dozens of soldiers turned to stone and fell, Lucas, in a panic, urgently issued orders.
"Don't look directly at them! Aim using the mirrors we distributed beforehand!"
"But, with that, our aiming accuracy..."
"No choice! Even if we lose accuracy, we can't afford to look at them directly!"
The soldiers reluctantly turned their eyes away or estimated the distance using mirrors, pouring crossfire on the Gorgon sisters.
However, even accurate shots didn't seem to have much stopping power.
As their aiming became clumsy, the Gorgon sisters approached the walls more easily.
"Captain Lucas!"
In an instant, the Gorgon sisters had crossed half of the southern plains, and the artillery captain yelled out.
"They've broken through the final defense line-!"
"So soon..."
Lucas gritted his teeth and looked around at his soldiers.
It was much sooner than expected, but there was no other way.
"As instructed before!"
Lucas raised his hand and bellowed with all his might.
"All troops, retreat-!"
Ash... I hope this strategy, as directed by our lord, works out.
***
"Huh?"
Medusa, leading her sisters in a relentless charge toward Crossroad, suddenly sensed something odd.
"...What?"
The barrage from the walls had suddenly abated.
And that wasn't all.
The soldiers who had been desperately firing something at them from the walls, those who were trying to block them with weapons... were quickly disappearing from sight.
Unable to understand, Medusa frowned with a hiss.
"Have they given up on resistance?"
Although she suspected a trap, it didn't make sense logically.
The walls were humanity's strongest and most formidable weapon against monsters.
It was impossible for them to set a trap while giving up all those advantages, and even if they did resort to such a shallow strategy, it would be too costly a deal for the humans.
"I don't know what they're scheming, but either way, it's fine..."
Whether they had given up resistance or made the foolish decision to abandon the city walls for some other plan.
These humans, continuing their insect-like resistance, would all be turned to stone and killed...!
The Gorgon sisters had approached right in front of the city walls. Medusa, who was about to leap over the walls using Euryale's flight, widened her eyes in surprise.
"Huh...?"
There before her was the strangest sight she had seen all day.
Creak...
It was open.
The city gate.
Casually, shabbily, as if to say, come in or not, it's up to you... the slightly open door creaked and widened its entrance.
Medusa couldn't understand at all.
Wasn't this the last line of defense for humanity? Why would they do this?
'Something's strange.'
Crash!
Medusa pulled the reins of her sisters. Stheno and Euryale immediately halted.
The Gorgon sisters, who had been charging relentlessly, now came to a complete stop in front of the open city gate.
"..."
The Gorgon sisters had stayed cooped up in their lair and were completely unaware of the outside situation.
They didn't know that as many as five commanders of the Nightmare Legion had perished on this front.
Nor did they know that the commander here had been crushing monsters with all sorts of bizarre strategies.
They knew nothing. But at this moment, Medusa sensed it.
'They have some plan.'
They were up to something absurd, opening the city gates and giving up the walls...!
"..."
But.
Did that mean they wouldn't enter?
"Ha. No way."
The Gorgon sisters had spent their lives, and even after death, turning the humans who hunted them into stone.
"Let's dive into your shallow trickery...!"
No matter what these humans were plotting, hoping to entertain herself and her sisters for a while, Medusa flung open the south gate.
Rumble rumble rumble...!
And inside the open gate,
"...?"
There were no traps.
Medusa, leading her sisters, entered in bewilderment.
This was a city.
A border city just entering its developmental stage, filled with old buildings, new constructions, and expansions.
But that was it.
No incredible magical devices, no deep pits, no ambushes... nothing.
The Gorgon sisters cautiously advanced to the empty city center's plaza. But they encountered nothing until they reached the city center.
The city was completely empty.
Really, the humans had abandoned it and fled.
"...Really nothing?"
At the moment Medusa muttered in disappointment,
Swoosh!
Suddenly, a figure darted between the buildings on the side.
Screeee!
Stheno immediately activated her petrifying evil eye. But.
Clang!
The opponent reflected the evil eye with a mirror shield and then ran off far behind the building.
"What?"
As Medusa muttered in confusion,
Tadat!
Tap!
This time, humans quickly ran off to the opposite side of the street.
Screeee!
This time, Euryale reacted. Her evil eye turned the whole area into a pile of stones.
But again, the humans evaded the direct hit with mirror shields and disappeared into the distance.
"What are they trying to do...?"
This kept happening.
Swoosh!
Tap tap...!
Humans popped out from all over the city,
Screee! Screeee!
And the Gorgon sisters, reacting instantly, wildly fired their petrifying evil eyes.
However, the city center was full of buildings, and the humans, reflecting the petrifying evil eye with their mirror shields, hid again behind the buildings - into the blind spots of the evil eye.
"Shit...!"
The Gorgon sisters were originally defensive-type monsters.
They indiscriminately killed anyone who approached their lair.
In other words,
'To all humans within a certain radius', they always used the petrifying evil eye,
Screee!
Screeee!
And if the evil eye failed to take effect and failed to petrify the opponent,
"Growl..."
"Scream!"
They moved on to the next process.
Throw!
With their strong bodies, inherited from the mythological era.
They would personally chase and tear apart any intruder into their territory.
"Sister Stheno?!Sister Euryale, don't..."
Caught in the humans' bait, Stheno and Euryale dashed off in different directions. Medusa tried to control them, but
Swoosh-!
She was forced to reflexively use her petrifying evil eye on a human knight that entered her sight.
Screeee!
"Ugh!"
And the human knight deflected Medusa's evil eye with a mirror shield.
By the time Medusa regained her senses, her sisters had run off somewhere in the city... and she was left alone in the central square.
"...What is this?"
Swearingly, she had never encountered such a situation in all her long years.
Medusa, bewildered by the illogical progression of events, heard a young man's voice.
"To target the Gorgon sisters, we first had to separate you."
It was the knight who had caught her attention just moments before.
"And it worked. As expected, a strategy bestowed by our lord. It never fails."
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed knight approached Medusa.
Lucas McGregor.
The acting commander of the monster front approached Medusa fearlessly, reflecting her in a mirror.
"Quite the bold one, aren't you."
Medusa, looking at Lucas with interest, tilted her head with a crack.
"I don't get it, human. To separate us, just for that one thing... you gave up the city walls and opened the gates?"
"..."
"You let us invade by collapsing the walls yourself...? What kind of insane strategy is that?"
"You're the one who doesn't understand, monster."
A fierce smile appeared on Lucas's lips.
"It's not you who invaded this city."
Simultaneously,
Thud! Thud! Thud-!
Starting from the south gate of Crossroad, all gates to the northeast, west, and south - every door slammed shut with a dull sound.
Medusa, incredulously, opened her mouth wide in astonishment at Lucas.
Sssshhh...!
Lucas, drawing a dazzling sword of light, roared with explosive energy.
"We've trapped you in this city!"
"...!"
"No matter what you shoot from your eyes! No matter how strong your limbs are! None of that matters! Like all the other foolish monsters we've trapped in this city... Your head will roll on this ground too!"
Realizing the knight before her was no ordinary foe, Medusa began to prepare for battle seriously.
"...Ha."
But she couldn't help it.
The smirk that leaked from her lips.
"A strategy of luring and then defeating separately. It was interesting, human."
Certainly, a knight like the one before her... could indeed put up a good fight against her.
"But it seems the other humans in this city aren't as strong as you."
"..."
"Will this strategy really work as well as you think?"
Lucas's brows furrowed deeply. Medusa laughed with a flick of her long tongue.
"They are very strong, my sisters."
Cold sweat ran down Lucas's back.
Indeed, Medusa was right.
'It was a bluff, but this strategy was intended to buy time.'
What is the game of tag?
It's a game where you avoid being caught by the seeker.
It's not about fighting to win, but about hiding and avoiding... such a reckless strategy.
'Hang in there, everyone.'
Lucas clenched his teeth, intensifying the flames of the [Bestowed Sword].
'We must endure!'
***
Crossroad downtown.
Back alley.
"Aaaah! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, aaaahhh!"
Crack! Crack, crack, crack!
A knight gripped in Stheno's hands had his limbs gruesomely torn off.
Blood sprayed everywhere. The knight, screaming his lungs out, rolled on the ground as Stheno threw him away like trash.
And he screamed no more.
"...Ah."
Another knight, holding a broken sword, let out a stupid groan at the sight.
There were two more similarly crushed corpses of knights nearby.
These four knights were veterans, part of Lucas's party, having fought in several battles.
But a direct confrontation with a legion commander-level monster decided their fate in the blink of an eye, and their lives were hopelessly extinguished.
"...Gurgle."
Stheno approached the petrified knight who couldn't move,
Screeee!
activating her petrifying evil eye.
"Aaa... Aaaa! Aaaaaa!"
Turning to stone while still alive, the knight let out a desperate scream. But the petrification did not stop.
Soon, the knight completely turned into stone. Stheno indifferently threw the stone statue to the ground.
"Grunt, grunt."
There were no more humans around to lure Stheno.
Naturally, since they were all dead.
Stheno had torn and petrified all the human heroes assigned to her area. There were no parties left to mark her now.
"Growl...?"
Scanning the surroundings with her pale eyes, Stheno's gaze sharply turned.
For a defensive-type monster like Stheno, any human within a certain distance from her was a target to be killed.
And currently, the place where Stheno sensed the most human presence was...
"...Hehe."
A white building visible not far away.
It was a temple.
--TL Notes--
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