Chapter 23

The dry cracking of a branch snapping under too much weight saw Diana spin around, turning to face three sisters whose look could turn a man to stone. Luckily for Diana, their stone stares did nothing to women. Her blue eyes met with each of the women in turn before she darted to the left, removing the trident from her back where she had been keeping it, where Arthur had always kept it; it was easily accessible when needed but did not impede movement. The long, golden handle shot out as she gripped the shaft, readying herself for battle.

Diana knew she would have a much easier time of this if she could get to the clearing, but with the three Gorgons it would be difficult. It was now evident to her that they had been herding her, directing her travels through the woods to get her to this very spot, while the thick under-brush blocking her movements, it did nothing but enhance the mobility of the sisters.

"Circe's manipulating you!" she called out as one of the sisters, likely Stheno, slashed through a log as thick as Diana's waist with her powerful claws. The log was right behind the Amazon and splintered, barely slowing the beastly creature down.

"And your Gods manipulate you, Diana, Queen of the Amazons, champion of the hated Athena," the snake woman hissed, her teeth sharp and venomous as the snakes framing her face, all wildly snapping, clearly feeding off the negative energy of Stheno.

The Gorgon surged forward and Diana was able to dodge, moving to the right when the beast went to Diana's left. Her feet were quick, but when she went to step over what she thought was a root and it lifted, Diana knew she was being caught off guard.

Euryale, the most moderate of the sisters, which is to say the least crazy, had managed to get Diana off her feet and into a prone position. The Amazon could feel the cold, tight grip of Euryale's tail sliding around her ankles, constricting and tightening as she wound her way towards Diana. "Champion of the Olympians," the voice was even, but still even from a distance in the shadows Diana knew the woman attached to the voice was angry. "Your Gods rape, pillage and plunger mortals with impunity, why should we allow their champions to continue on? You and Arthur defend the Gods when clearly they are the villains in this story, not us."

The Gorgon was smart enough to bind Diana's legs, but she left her hands and arms free, and when she spoke she gave up her position. Clearly, as much as they had fought and defended their temple refuge, they had never been in a real battle. Giving away her position was a mistake that would prove fatal to the middle sister. Diana thrust forward, launching the trident towards the origin of the sound, adjusting for what she perceived to be the Gorgon's height, aiming for her heart.

There was a wet sound as the trident sunk into flesh, followed by a pain-filled moan which quickly elevated into a scream. Diana felt the tail around her lower body loosen and was quickly able to overpower what was left of Euryale's grip strength, unwinding her tail and dragging the screaming, moaning Gorgon out into the small clearing where Diana had been felled.

"You Amazon whore!" she heard a voice call from behind her, the angriest, most aggressive of the sisters, Stheno, was showing her true form, surging forward from the darkness, her brass claws shimmering in the light that filtered through the canopy.

Diana, quick to her feet, dashed forward into the thick, dark bush, advancing on the dying body of the sister Gorgon, pushing through the dense foliage as fast as she could. Foolishly, she had thrown her weapon into the shadows, but she wasn't so much concerned with that. The Gorgons, with the exception of Medusa, were known to be immortal, which meant it was nearly impossible to completely kill them. Diana did not want any loose ends coming to bite her in the ass when she finally found her way to Circe, and a half dead Gorgon would be just the kind of thing that could really ruin her day.

Euryale was dying, or at least appeared to be, when Diana finally found the body of the Gorgon, the trident had gone almost the entire way through her, stopping only when the tines became entangled with her breast bone. Diana had to brace her foot against the body to free her weapon, but she was eventually able to free it, along with several feet of small intestines. Never one for a weak stomach, Diana continued on.

"Come and get me, Stheno!" Diana called the eldest sister by name. "Or can you not smell the blood of your sister!" She hated playing this game; despite popular opinion of Diana she was her mother's child, not her alleged father's, and death was seen as a tool, not something to be enjoyed but rather an unenviable task that was required.

Stheno was blinded by rage, just as Diana had hoped she would be. Just a little further, she thought, hearing the slashing and hearing the snapping of wet wood, the removal of living limbs from the trees as the enraged Gorgon slammed through the brush to her sister's aid.

As the screaming got closer Diana readied herself. Beating the Gorgons was half mental and half physical, and to get into the heads of the creature she merely had to think of how she would react should Donna be in danger. The answer was easy: blind rage. It was no different than when Arthur had reacted to the returning of Mera's headless corpse, a decision that still haunted Diana to this day, much like she expected what she was about to do to continue to haunt her for centuries to come.

As Stheno reacted to the screaming, diving for what she thought was Diana, the Amazon jumped off a tree branch, swinging down to the ground on her lasso, which was counter weighted with the dying body of Euryale. Stheno's slashing brass claws, which had been aiming for Diana's midsection, instead passed through her sister's, slashing and completely disembowelling the howling creature, hanged at the end of Diana's lasso. It was a gruesome scene, blood and entrails raining down, bathing the queen in unrivaled gore, but it got the job done with one of the Gorgons. Only two more to go.