Even expecting the unexpected, I could not have, under any circumstances, anticipated a wild two-headed dog barging into the palace. While my close acquaintance was riding atop, the said dog, and shouting not very descriptive warning.
What exactly did she mean by informing me about a trap? What trap? From the enemy? Were there more of them? Was there a trap inside of the palace prepared for intruders? Or perhaps some other party, other than the king and the monsters, is trying to use the complicated situation for their own gains? Too many questions, Medusa's warning created, with no answers in sight.
In essence, I could not have faulted her over it, since she was a civilian and thus had no training on how to properly report, but the exact moment she chose to appear, was less than fortunate. Civie appearing in the middle of an active combat zone usually did not end up well for the said civilian. In the worst case, it could lead to good soldiers being put on trial for war crimes.
Either way, it was proven on several occasions, that Medusa could protect herself, should the need arise. Moreover, there was Persephone and Orthrus at her side. The three of them, at worst, would be able to defend themselves from the enemy, that was near them.
Yet, all three of them appearing here completely negated the reason why I left them behind and that was to keep my precious and very limited supply of coffee beans, safe. Nonetheless, the pot was tightly wrapped inside a bag, made out of spider silk. Which was securely attached to the improvised saddle on Orthrus's back. At least for now.
I did not dare to look away from the enemy for longer than was absolutely necessary, in order to assess the situation, right after Medusa arrived on Orthrus. Once I knew it was my allies, who barged in the the midst of the fight, I refocused right back on the faster and more agile enemy. Because doing anything else would be outright stupid. The other one, who was thrown out of my way, once I engaged them, was now in Orthrus's reach. And a bark with a growl from the two-headed dog, let me know that he was ready to deal with the other snake monster, should she prove to be dangerous.
But the appearance of my close acquaintance, Medusa, did complicated things. Limiting my options on how to deal with the monsters, simply because these enemies were looking similar to Medusa. Should I just kill them in cold blood, in front of her, it would undoubtedly impact our relationship. And that was something I could not afford at such a critical moment, given that Hades's offer to work in the Underworld had proven to be an off-chance trap.
Unlike the professional soldiers, Medusa was not desensitized to the killing of humanoids. She certainly had no problems, with the more monstrous-looking monsters, like the fire horses or the flying pig. She managed to avoid most of the fight against Athena and Artemis and as was proven during our travel through Lavant, she did not like seeing people killing each other.
Moreover as mentioned before, these two monsters had the exact same body plan as Medusa, with autonomous snakes for hair included. Given that Medusa treated her snakes as her children, I might be committing a war crime by killing the two. At least in my acquaintance's eyes. Even if it was the fault of the two enemy snake women, for engaging in a fight. If anything it was them committing the the atrocity of dragging children into the battle. Yet, it did not mean, that I could not incapacitate them in other ways, like knocking them out while binding them with my spider silk, leaving their fate for the king to decide.
Thinking about it, this resolution might be even preferable, given that the king's pride was likely hurt by being forced out of his own city. And, if he was able to deal with the perpetrators himself, it should boost his ego and perceived power. The only real problem with this might be anyone who managed to witness Medusa and Orthrus in their real form. But then again, whose story would the king likely believe, that of a peasant, or the one who caught two monsters? In the worst case, the witnesses would have to be discredited, as drunks or other substance abusers. I was sure that being able to cast decoy formulae, would be helpful in this endeavor.
"Gorgons?!" said Persephone, from Orthrus's back in a surprised and slightly wary tone of voice.
Apparently, the surprises did not end up with the sudden arrival of my companions, as Persephone seemed to recognize my enemies. Her knowledge about the enemy would have to be explained, but not at this moment. Right now, I had to somehow deal with both women with snakes for hair, who were not Medusa.
"Orthrus hold that one down!" I ordered the two-headed dog to incapacitate the enemy, which was closer to him.
While I would deal with the other, the faster and more agile one, but also the one I managed to slightly injure since she was now instinctively nursing the cut on her arm. As I observed, the color of the blood was not the typical, red hemoglobin, or even the darker blood that usually monsers of Olympian making were bleeding. Gordon B's blood was distinctively sparkly shining, but neither in gold or silver, but rather bronze or copper. At the same time, I could see the wound already closing itself.
This, of course, was bad news, since it would be harder to incapacitate them, compared to an average human or a monster. But at the same time, it was good news, since I could handle them slightly more roughly, not having to fear accidentally snapping their necks.
Thus, I reinforced the protective film around my body and propelled myself towards the more agile monster, also known as Gorgon B, since Gorgon A was held down by Orthrus. Even hurt, the Gorgon B still had great reflexes and managed to avoid my initial strike. Backing out, she slithered between the pillars, leading me away from my allies. A clever tactic, if it was not for a small detail of me being able to deal with her and her comrade at the same time. What chance did she stand on her own? Unless of course, she was preparing some kind of a trap for me.
Or perhaps not. She might have been leading me away, so the other one could attempt to free herself and presumably overpower, all three of my companions, which was unlikely to happen. Either way, it was necessary to end the skirmish as soon as possible and get the full details of Medusa's warning.
As I moved forward for another strike, she avoided it in a quick manner, just like the first one. I had to admit, that she might have made a terrific aerial mage, the quality and agility were both here. She was certainly better than some of my soldiers, from my second life, at least before I properly retrained them. Should she be able to use magic and have a steady hand with firearms, I would have loved to have someone as gifted as her in my mage battalion.
Sadly that was not here and now, but a lifetime ago. On top of that, she was my enemy, for which I could not have any sympathy. And even if it might have been a waste of monstrous resources, it had to be done.
Gorgon B, avoided several more of my attacks, but eventually, she made a mistake in positioning herself in such a way that allowed me to tackle her to the ground and strangulate her into unconsciousness. Her arms and legs and snakes flailing and attempting to bite me, but the protective film took care of that. Eventually, she slumped to the ground, her pulse still strong, signaling that the fight was over and the enemy was still alive.
I quickly moved the unconscious Gorgon B towards my little group and incapacitated Gorgon A in a less brutish manner than her comrade. While assuring Medusa, that they were both still alive. Since I could see a bit of terror in my close acquaintance's eyes. The next step was to bind both Gorgons in such a manner that they could not escape. As established before, there was the only material that could withstand the inhuman strength of monsters, I had access to.
Sadly the only possibility of how to produce the spider silk was in my true monstrous form. Which meant disabling the transformation formulae and revealing my inhuman nature to possible witnesses. The illusion spell might be applied, but direct physical contact could easily disrupt the illusion, which was going to happen, given that I needed to manipulate the spider silk. Alas, there was no other way to go about it, as I needed to secure the two Gorgons.
"If you could kindly look away, please?" I asked my two humanoid companions.
I would rather that my companions did not have to witness this gruesome affair.
"There is no time for that Arachne! The king sent his army to storm the palace!" said Medusa in a panicky hurry, getting out of the shock of how I handled the Gorgons.
It seems that just knocking them unconscious, was the right course of action since Medusa managed to get over it so quickly.
King's action was not unexpected though. I would have done probably the same, should I be in his place. After all, believing a single individual, to be able to deal with the monsters, which managed to fight a whole company of men and drive the king out of his city, was unlikely. Therefore he must have sent his elites to deal the final blow to the monster while they were distracted with me. Moreover, he could not know how long would I last and thus had to act swiftly. Certainly a better strategy than using the meat waves to drown the monsters in the bodies of soldiers, which I suspected to be the king's original plan.
"What Miss Medusa is trying to say, Miss Arachne is that her real form was revealed in the camp, due to a highly stressfully situation, and during our escape, the king ordered his whole army to kill us, therefore we optioned to escape on Orthrus, in order to warn you!" said also slightly panicked Persephone.
Whether the king of Carthage was planning to use me as a distraction all along was a moot point at this stage, since Medusa's real form was revealed along with Orthrus. Most likely the king would now consider my little group as allies to the monsters that drove him out, or at minimum, his enemies. That was proven by his intent of sending a whole army to kill us instead of just a group of elites to use me as a distraction.
Great! Brilliant even! Was this a moment when Being X finally reared his ugly head, telling me he was behind everything from the very beginning? But time did not stop, and no annoying disembodied voice could be heard, neither did I suddenly feel the urge to pray to the self-proclaimed god. Meaning, that this was not Being X's doing, but rather the king of Carthage being a man and falling for Medusa's unnatural beauty. All men are wolves after all.
Despite that, I still needed a plan, to escape the city, while avoiding a human army and two angry monsters. In essence, the two could possibly somewhat negate each other, yet the king's forces greatly outnumbered, both the monsters and my little group. So, the prospect of the two Gorgons unwittingly buying me enough time to escape the city was not all that great.
Moreover, they might as well attack me or someone from my group, for some stupid reason like revenge. After all, even masked Orthrus occupied quite a bit of space and thus was easily spotted. And with him the rest of my group.
But what if Orthrus could be taken out of the equation? The hellhound was capable of teleporting back to the Underworld as long as Persephone went along with him, and since Medusa and I already agreed to work there, perhaps a transport could be arranged for the two of us.
Meanwhile, my person and Medusa would mask ourselves as avera-looking civies, melding into the crowded population of the city. Perhaps pretending to be some kind of merchants, who sold their goods and are now waiting for a ship to their home island of Sicily. This should take care of the cover.
As for the monsters... They were securely bound, their snakes for hair included, and unconscious for now. Meaning that the king should be preoccupied with them, while at the same time I and Medusa, would just disappear. Whether the king perceived it as a feud between two groups of monsters and did not pursue me and Medusa any longer, or had the city searched for the two of us, remained to be seen. At worst I would have to take more precautions to stay under his radar. How lucky that there was no radar for monsters, or any radar for that matter, and human soldiers could be bribed.
"Miss Persephone, yourself, and Orthrus, will teleport back to the Underworld and then send a ship for myself and Medusa. Meanwhile, Medusa and I will change our forms to something less recognizable, pretending to be regular merchants, on their way to Sicily," I explained my plan.
There was nothing else to do, besides enacting it. The monsters would be bound and left for the king to determine their fate.
"You wanna ship? We have one!" croaked the Gorgon B as she regained her consciousness in an impossibly short time.