After driving away from that crazy redneck or whatever he's called, I find another patch of woods to settle for the night.
I thankfully slept a dreamless sleep and woke up perfectly refreshed. Today is May 24, meaning I still have a good bit of time to get to California. I have already made it to Texas, meaning I'm only two states away from California. But, those two states are some of the driest parts of the country, which is where Egyptian monsters love to settle. If I'm not mistaken, there will be intense hybrid activity around the Colorado River, the only source of water in the area.
I return onto US 66, which is where things quickly go downhill. The road is in disrepair for much of its route this point going forward. The road has been outright bypassed and not paved over by Interstate 40, meaning there are not many roads going much of anywhere. I could parallel the road on Interstate 40, but I have a sneaking suspicion there's somewhere I need to go down the abandoned road. Not being able to drive at 200 miles an hour off-road, I'm forced to drive at a standard sixty, meaning my travel time has just quadrupled. I'm going to be on the road for so many extra hours now.
As usual, something decides to interrupt my drive. After about two hours on the road, my front right tire suddenly goes flat, causing my car to spin out of control. I do my best to keep it under control, but the car suddenly turns hard to the right and flips, forcing me to abandon the car. The protection spell was not enough to keep the vehicle intact, and it crumples into a cactus. I fly off to the side, relying on my control of the air to cushion my fall.
Once I stand back on my feet, I scan my surroundings for what caused my tire to pop. Not seeing the immediate cause, I walk over to my junked Avalon. There are long cactus spines poking out of the tire. However, those spines don't look like plant material. I carefully pull one out. The spine is much thicker than a standard spine, almost like a blown up photo. The spine is off-white and hard, and is smooth and slimy like a tooth. This has to have a magical origin.
Still not seeing the creature, I take a look into the Duat. Unfortunately, though I can see there is a creature, its form is the shadowy, hazy figure that is typical of a hybrid, not a discrete creature from one pantheon. I quickly conjure up my wand and staff, then use those to cast a spell.
"Sun-ah!"
I cast out the spell in all directions. Then, one of the cacti around me starts to shimmer. The shimmering turns into a humanoid figure, and then into a shadow. A female figure walks out of the cactus, which promptly fades behind her. She has smooth, light green skin, and long, spiky blonde hair. Her facial features are of indeterminate ethnicity, intermediate between Arab and Caucasian. Her eyes are fierce and deep emerald green. She wears a dress decorated with the same spines I found in my tires earlier along the frill. If not for the unusual skin color, she would pass for perhaps a Gypsy or Jewish teenager, but she clearly is not a mortal.
"What kind of nymph are you?" I ask her forcefully.
She squints her eyes at me.
"Arthur Romanchuk, Child of Olympus, Duke of Ragnarok, you have overstayed your welcome in the mortal realm!" she replies. "Stand down and I shall be merciful!"
"Again, who are you?" I ask again. "If you're going to kill me, stop wasting my time!"
Without another word, she launches volleys of spines at me. I will my gloves into gauntlet form, then engage the shields inside of them. The volleys of spines have much more force than they look like, for my arms are actually rattling and shaking as I strain my muscles against the force of the spines' impacts. Finally, after a solid five minutes of standing my ground, she stops her volleys. Immediately, I charge right at her. For an inexplicable reason, she stops moving as I attempt to punch her.
Her form suddenly shifts fluidly into a cactus. I slam the cactus, my fist containing all of my running momenta, and it all falls flat against the plant. I feel myself fly backward at the knockback the cactus manages to turn back onto me. I once again use air currents to cushion my fall backward. I quickly stand back on my feet and prepare to charge again.
Then, her form flickers once again. In place of the cactus, a giant serpent forms in front of my eye. The snake has a hood like a cobra. Its eyes and skin tone are the same color as the girl. All down its back, the conspicuous pattern of a diamondback rattlesnake emerges, and those same cactus spines adorn its backsides like a hedgehog or porcupine. This is not a Greek snake, for Greece had no cobras. I believe this is a descendant of Apophis, the Egyptian master of chaos.
"Decided you need a downgrade, eh?" I muse.
The serpent opens its mouth to reveal a pair of long off-white fangs, their luster making them glimmer like satin. Then, streams of clear liquid blast out from them towards me. I quickly back up and engage the shields once more. The foul-smelling poison streams hit the shields and flow off the metal shields harmlessly, but the continuous, powerful streams leave me pinned down. Knowing that this creature is likely a minor deity and also a hybrid, I have to think of a better way to incapacitate it.
I shift my stance to allow me to only use one shield to block. Then, I conjure up a boomerang and throw it as hard as I can. The weapon flies through the air, then swings back and hits the back of the nymph's head, dazing it. Once the streams of poison end, I pull out the wand and cast onto each of my gauntlets a khe-fa spell. I then take my dagger out and carve into each gauntlet a rune I don't quite recognize. It appears as a capital F with the two lines turned up forty-five degrees. If this represents an F, I don't know which Norse god or goddess could it be, for so many Norse gods have F names. I could have casted the rune of Freya, which would be about as useful as asking Aphrodite to fight for me. Nonetheless, feeling this is the right one, I leave the rune on and charge at the nymph.
The nymph, being fresh out of ideas, suddenly collapses back into girl form. Now deciding she wants to talk, she holds up a hand and begins yelling.
"STOP!" she pleads
I stop in my tracks and stare daggers at her.
"Give me one good reason not to cast yourself to Tartarus right now!" I yell back.
"Know who you are fighting against, young hero," she says. "You cannot possibly hope to defeat my master. The prophecy will ordain you to pay the ultimate price even if you win. The gods will pay! You may wield the powers of Europe, but you will not survive this war! You may win, but you will not be there to see!"
"I have no clue what you're talking about, and I don't care!" I yell. "To Tartarus with the prophecy and your cursed master! I will cast you down there right this moment!"
"You will pay, Arthur Romanchuk," she says. "The age of the gods has met their end! No more deities, no more pantheons, no more-"
"You," I say calmly.
I backhand the nymph as hard as I can, one gauntlet at a time. The spells seem to take effect. As soon as my hand makes contact, a massive fist appears in the air and strikes her hard into the ground, repeating with each backhand. Then, that rune from before materializes in the air. It glows a bright green before turning grayish-brown, then flies down and embeds itself into the nymph. The nymph suddenly begins to wither as though she has dried up. Slowly, the nymph fades away, eventually settling as a dried cactus on the ground before me.