Chapter4:Medusa's Gaze

AN

This chapter took a bit longer due to exams at school and some personal stuff.

Feel free to leave a review! Helpful criticism is appreciated, flaming will be ignored.

Re-uploaded the chapter: fixed a small error and changed the format of Aphrodite's speech.

/AN

Ray caught up with Kratos and Jana as fast as he could. Athens was crawling with monsters and he sure as hell did not want to stay behind. Things had gone pretty well till now… well, except that Cyclops-bit. And the blood and killing. He had not seen that much blood in his whole life. And he had never killed before. Thinking about the past half hour made him shiver even though the air was quite warm. He wondered how Jana was doing. The way she had been acting had surprised him, especially because she was completely against killing. He actually was, too.

Still, he had stabbed a Cyclops' eye only moments ago without really thinking about it… But it had been the only way, right? If he hadn't done it, he would've been dead by now. It had been necessary to survive. But it just didn't feel right to Ray. And he knew there were a lot more enemies waiting for them. But what worried him most was the Temple of Pandora. Several parts of it were difficult as hell in-game - and probably impossible in real life. Especially the way Kratos would take to return to Athens.

Jana was struggling with her world view, which was based on solid science. Thus she had always dismissed the existence of mystical creatures, gods or dimension travelling as impossible. But now it looked like she had to rethink her view. She had no problems to do so, but she would need to find an explanation for all the things she had seen. Like Ray, she was feeling troubled about killing monsters, even though she had not done it as… impressively as Ray had with the Cyclops. But kill was kill, no matter if it was impressive or not and Jana was against killing.

The girl wondered if she would ever come back to her own world and what had happened to her body back home. Was she dead or in coma or had she simply vanished? She had no clue.

Kratos entered a corridor hoping to find a way around the destroyed gate. It was lit up by torches and led the three into a wide hall filled with stacks of big metal cubes. A screeching sound echoed through the hall. As Jana looked around she that noticed, that turning cog wheels were jutting out of the walls. The noise was really getting on her nerves.

They walked around the hall, looking for another way to get out. Two of the stacks were standing on wooden boxes. Ray remembered the room: it was the first riddle and pretty easy to solve. One had to destroy the wooden boxes. This would reveal the exit, which could be reached by jumping from stack to stack. Ray was searching for a way to let Kratos know without revealing his knowledge, but Jana was a bit faster.

While walking around she had detected a glimmer of light shining from behind a metal box on top of a stack in a corner. "Guys, I think, I've found the exit!" she called out to the others. Ray grinned. Jana was awesome when it came to noticing and remembering minor details, but often sucked when it came to the obvious stuff. She would probably find all chests when playing GodofWar. And she would remember their exact locations like she was remembering all StarTrekTNG episodes. Ray had never understood how she managed to do that.

The three of them gathered around the stack. It was three boxes high, one wooden and two metal ones. Kratos drew the Blades of Chaos and eyeballed the lowest crate for a moment. Jana and Ray took some steps back as the Spartan swung his blades in a wide arc. They sliced through the planks with ease. Two more strikes and the damaged box was crushed by the weight of the metal crates, blowing up dust and wooden shavings.

Kratos did the same with the wooden box under the stack in the middle of the room while Ray and Jana proceeded to the single box at the other end of the hall. A loud crashechoed through the room as Kratos destroyed the second crate.

Ray glanced at the metal cube in front of him. It was higher than him and they'd have to get up there somehow. Kratos walked past them and launched himself into the air. He landed on top of the box.

"Well…" Ray stood closer to the crate, jumped, grabbed the edge of the box and finally pulled himself up. Jana did the same. Her increased physical power surprised her once more. At home she could have never done things like that. Kratos had jumped to the next, two boxes high stack already. Ray took a short run-up and leaped to the next stack. Again, he grabbed its edge and climbed up. Watching her friend, Jana took a deep breath and went after him.

She made the jump and pulled herself up. They proceeded to the next stack, balanced their way across a narrow ledge and finally - after another couple of jumps - reached the exit of the hall.

The next room was smaller and nearly empty. Some sacks and planks were leaning against the walls and the way out was blocked by what seemed to be a yellow energy field between two statures. Ray knew what the sight meant: a new godly power for Kratos but he wasn't sure which one it'd be.

The entrance was located several meters above the stone floor of the room.

"There's a lot of weird stuff going on today." Jana noted while glancing at the energy field.

"Yeah." Ray shared that view. Running around in a video game and killing monsters wasn't something you'd do every day.

Kratos made his way down to the floor and walked towards the energy field. The kids exchanged a short glance and climbed down themselves. The Spartan stepped on a low platform in front of the statures.

As he did so, the face of a woman became visible in the energy field.

"Aphrodite." The warrior greeted her while Jana and Ray stayed back some meters.

"Kratos.The gods are pleased with your progress, but your current skills will not be enough to defeat the minions of Ares. I offer you the power to freeze your enemies where they stand."

At that point Ray heard a silent hissing noise from the ceiling. The boy looked up and saw Medusa, one of the Gorgon sisters from the game, sitting on top of a box hanging from the ceiling. He poked Jana in the ribs – or tried to, because she was wearing armor – and gestured at the snake-like monster. The girl noticed it too and bit her lower lip.

"But you must earn such a gift." The goddess continued. Kratos had heard the hiss now, too and glared at the purple Gorgon. It was naked, small snakes were winding around its head and it had claws instead of fingernails. The snakes gave another, louder hiss and the creature disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, only to reappear moments later on the floor some steps away from Jana and Ray. Both of them backed up towards the wall, readying their shields and spears. Kratos drew his blades.

"Medusa, the queen of the Gorgons! Bring me her head, Kratos, and I will give you the ability to wield its power!" Aphrodite said. The Gorgon hissed dangerously, turned at Kratos and rose to its full size. Ray and Jana exchanged scared looks.

"Stay out of its field of view or you are screwed!" Ray advised his friend.

"Yep, I read about that." Jana answered. Kratos charged at the beast instantly, swinging his blades with insane speed. But Medusa was fast, too. It sidled out of the reach of the chained blades and made its way behind the Spartan, where it tried to attack him with its claws. Kratos spun around and landed a hit with the blades. The Gorgon hissed and Jana saw green beams of light shoot out of its eyes. Kratos rolled to the side, but the beams followed him.

The Gorgon had ignored Jana and Ray till now and currently had its back turned on them.

"Hey, you! Come and get me!" Ray shouted in an attempt to draw Medusa's attention. He changed to his sword and tried to strike the monster, but missed. Jana saw what the boy was up to and joined the attack. She even managed to give Medusa a scratch with her spear.

Now, that the Gorgon was more or less encircled by three persons, it wasn't able to get away easily and Kratos had the chance to deal some serious damage. Jana and Ray weren't good fighters but they were able to keep the Gorgon busy. It tried to turn the three of them into stone but it never had enough time because always someone else used the opportunity to attack it from the side or behind.

After a couple of minutes Medusa's movements became slower and its defense weaker. In the game the player would have to perform the finishing move now. In reality Jana had used her spear to pin the Gorgon's snake-tail to the ground – or tried to. Medusa's sideling movements didn't make that task easy. Kratos grabbed the Gorgon's head, slammed it onto the ground and began to twist it into different directions.

Medusa screamed and hissed while trying to free herself. Her tail whipped round and sent both Jana and Kratos flying a couple of steps. The Spartan got up again and charged at Medusa immediately. They went to the floor as Kratos started another attempt to rip the monster's head off. Finally, with a triumphant roar, he succeeded. The body of the dead Gorgon turned into black smoke and the Spartan held up its blood dripping head. Jana was back on her feet as well.

"Freeze and destroy them all with Medusa's gaze and the power of the Gorgon will be yours!" Aphrodite announced as three Minotaurs climbed out of holes in the floor. Jana, Ray and Kratos gathered in the middle of the room. The monsters approached them slowly. The Spartan held up the head and activated its powers. Green light beams shone at one of the Minotaurs and it began to turn grey.

Jana and Ray took on the other two, not with the intention to kill them, but to keep them off Kratos' back. It wasn't going to well because both of them weren't really fighting but trying to evade the Minotaurs' strikes most of the time.

But the strategy worked out. Six Minotaurs were turned into stone and smashed by Kratos rather quickly.

"Go with the gods! Go forth in the name of Olympus!" the goddess finally said and the yellow energy field faded into nonexistence.

"We aren't doing too badly, I'd say." Jana stated while looking at Medusa's head.

"Yeah, we are still alive…" Ray said. He knew there were more powerful opponents waiting for them. And there was still the Temple of Pandora. He'd need to tell Jana more about it when they were alone for a moment. He was feeling bad for not telling Jana about the challenges to come but he was afraid Kratos might overhear them.

Kratos didn't comment on that. He put the head away and walked through the exit into the next area. The kids followed him, ready to defend themselves.

"Are you all right?" Ray asked Jana as they left the room. Jana nodded but the boy noticed she had a couple of scratches and smaller injuries but nothing to worry about. Looking down himself he realized, he didn't look much better. He hadn't noticed the injuries till now and decided to ignore them for now.

The next corridor lead around a corner and ended in a dead end. The only way to proceed was a ladder at the end. As soon as they reached it, a group of at least five undead soldiers climbed out of the floor. Kratos killed three of them rather quickly with his blades while the other two went round him.

One of them attacked Jana, who blocked its strikes with her shield and managed to kill it by stabbing the creature with her spear. The other one went for Ray, who after blocking and dodging the attacks got help from Kratos. The Spartan stabbed the monster in the back, killing it instantly. It turned into black smoke.

The Spartan put his blades away and climbed up the ladder, Ray and Jana close behind him.

Jana suddenly heard a buzz from behind her and looked over her shoulder. A dead Athenian hoplite was hanging from a beam, a cloud of flies surrounding the corpse. She wondered how the man came up there, turned around again and continued climbing. She had no time to worry about the poor guy's fate right now. But one thing was clear to her: They had to help the Athenian citizens somehow.

The next room contained a lever and a ballista. The exit was blocked by a solid looking door. Kratos had a quick look at the ballista and pulled the lever to line it up with the door. Then he walked over to the weapon and fired it. Jana and Ray readied their weapons as the arrow hit the wooden gate and blew it to pieces.

But the corridor behind the door was abandoned. The three walked inside and looked around, their weapons still drawn. There were two ladders, one of them leading down, the other one up to a ledge.

"We split up." Kratos said with his usual frown. "I will take the left way while you check out the right one. Don't get yourself killed." He walked off to the ladder, climbed down and vanished from Ray's field of view.

"What the hell..?" The boy muttered surprised. In the gamed Kratos trusted no one. Why would he do so in real life?

"Looks, like he wants to speed things up a little." Jana commented frowning a bit. "Let's better get going. I don't want to meet the guy when he's pissed off at us." Ray had to admit, she had a point there. Splitting up would indeed speed things up, what made it the logical choice at this point. And a pissed off Kratos would be bad. Very bad.

"Yeah, sure." he said. They climbed up the ladder and ended up on a balcony hanging several meters over the place where they had battled the Cyclopes. Before they could say a thing, three portals opened up in the floor and Undead started to climb out.

"Wouldn't you know it…" Jana said sarcastically. The Undead approached them and suddenly the sword of the foremost lightened up with blue light. The creature jumped but both kids managed to get out of the way and the attack hit the stone floor, leaving a burn mark.

"Shit, this is bad!" Jana cursed while blocking another attack of one of the Undead. Ray agreed with his friend. Fighting enemies who are able to use magic while you can't use it yourself sucked in his opinion.

Ray changed to his sword, because he found it easier to handle than a spear. He tried to slash the Undead closest to him but it blocked and countered the strike. Ray dodged and aimed at the leg of the Undead who didn't see the attack coming. The blade cut through its leg leaving a deep, bleeding wound. The Undead moaned in pain and stumbled backwards, giving Ray the chance to finish it off by slitting its throat. The creature turned into smoke.

Jana was defending herself against the other two monsters, another magic attack barely missing her head. Ray jumped on the back of one Undead and Jana stabbed it, while it tried to fight the boy off. The last Undead wasn't that much of a problem, as it was two against one now, and was taken care of pretty fast.

"Jeez, I thought we'd be dead…" Ray said and moped some sweat off his brow. Jana nodded while looking around. A short ladder was leaned against the wall left to the entrance. Jana glanced up the wall uncertainly.

"We are supposed to climb up there, right?" she asked with a sight.