Nathaniel looked at the black cave threatening to crumble and tightened his grip around the handle of the sword forged for him by Hephaestus and rubbed any dirt off of the reflective shield gifted to him by Athena. The gods know if he can't see anything out of it, his soul is going to Hades... Or wherever his victims go. Taking a deep breath, he entered the cave.
What did that asshole King even want with the Gorgon's head? And why as a wedding gift for his queen amongst the many expensive gifts people brought? Did he have some sort of vendetta against it?
Nathaniel was roused from his thoughts as he bumped into something. "Anathema," he cursed and rubbed his arm. As his vision adjusted, he bit his tongue to hold back a horrified scream when he saw the stone statue of one of King Polydectes' guards. He looked around and saw two more, one with his arms broken off and the other with his head on the floor... So that explains why Polydectes sent him to kill it.
He walked deeper into the cave and the further he went, the more statues of the Gorgon's victims he saw. There's one of a young man with an athletic build who's shielding two people- one with curly hair and one with short messy hair. A young woman with hair covering her right eye and another with her hair in a pixie cut hold onto each other for dear life. Next to them is a burly young man holding a much shorter girl with dreadlocks tied into a bun. The last four he sees are two young men and women shielding their gazes from something with one hand while holding onto one another with their other hands.
Nathaniel flinches as one of the pigtails the shorter woman had her hair tied into falls off and crumbles on the ground.
He sighed and pat the shoulder of the boy with a lyre strapped to his back before continuing his way towards the end of the cafe, trying his best not to be deterred by the horrific sights he saw along the way.
'What were they doing here?' The redhead wondered. They all seemed to be townsfolk judging by their clothing- two looked better off than the others, though- none of them had any business venturing into this cave when they knew the Gorgon resided in it.
Well, no matter. He'll avenge them all and finally bring the Gorgon's reign of terror to an end.
Hearing the faint hissing sound of snakes, Nathaniel's first instinct was to hide behind a rock until he remembered what Hades gave him. Quietly as he could, he reached into his satchel and pulled out a bronze helmet. While it may look normal, this helmet functioned much like the cloud of mist that the gods surround themselves in to become undetectable.
With the helmet on, Nathaniel was undetectable as he began to walk backwards towards the Gorgon with his reflective shield in the air. He moved the shield around a couple of times until he caught sight of a lone figure shrouded in the dark. The Gorgon.
Still walking backward, Nathaniel took precise, careful steps towards the monsters. As he crept closer, the hissing became louder, but it was still sort of quiet like there were only one or two snakes hissing. Nathaniel positioned his mirror, and there it is.
The stories may have exaggerated the Gorgon a bit. People who have made contact with the monster described it as having scaly green skin and no legs, only a ten-foot-long tail covered in spikes that could wrap tight around the victim's torso and squeeze them until their faces turned blue and the cracking of ribs sounded right before the remains punctured the lungs and heart or the spikes of the tail pierce through their skin and eventually organs, whichever comes first. When lifeless in its' grasp, the Gorgon opens its' mouth to reveal the four rows of teeth covered in-you guessed it- blood and a forked tongue. And if the Gorgon so chooses, it feeds the remains to the thirty venomous six-foot-long snakes growing out of its' scalp. And it does not matter if you manage to escape being the Gorgon's dinner, because as soon as you lock eyes with it, that's when you become another statue to add to its' collection...
