[Third Person's PoV]
As Lucian observed the Gorgon from above, hidden among the dense foliage, a conclusion crystallized in his mind 'It has to be a battle of attrition…' suddenly realization struck Lucian 'Damn it! I'm such an idiot,' he scolded himself. 'What a ti to have a brain fart. I could use a combination of my [Clairvoyance], [Foresight], and [intuition] to see. The hell was i thinking I couldn't saying I couldn't use my armor'
And it totally wasn't because the author didn't think about this and failed to reach this conclusion earlier, said the narrator.
Without hesitation, Lucian leapt from the tree canopy, the wind tearing past him as he descended. His arms spread wide like wings, his hair whipping violently behind him. In the blink of an eye, his blackened Curse Knight armor manifested over his body, plates of obsidian steel locking into place with ghostly clangs. His crimson cape unfurled behind him like the wings of a demon descending from the heavens.
Reaching toward the ground, he shouted with authority, "To , my steed!"
From the shadows beneath the trees, Sébastien burst forth—a towering black stallion, eyes glowing with cursed energy and hooves pounding like thunder. He launched into the air, intercepting Lucian mid-fall with graceful precision. Lucian landed effortlessly in the saddle, slapping the reins as Sébastien's hooves struck the ground. The duo surged forward, a blur of motion and deadly intent.
Lucian expertly maneuvered his steed through the forest, avoiding the Gorgon's petrifying gaze. His eyes remained veiled beneath Bartholow's enchanted cloth, a necessary precaution. Relying instead on the synergy between his supernatural senses—[Clairvoyance], [Intuition], and [Foresight]—he anticipated every movent, each danger before it beca real.
Wherever they passed, the ground began to crack and solidify into stone, cursed residue spreading like a plague. As they darted between the trees, the bow in Lucian's hands shimred with dark light before morphing into a sleek, nacing spear—perfect for close combat.
Exploding from the tree line with a mighty leap, Lucian appeared like an armored wraith from a nightmare, his silhouette a storm of vengeance crashing into the clearing.
The scene before him was desolate. dusa's once-standing shop was a shattered ruin, barely more than a broken foundation surrounded by dust and scattered debris. Towering amidst it all was the enormous Curse Gorgon, her monstrous form swimming unnaturally through the ground like a serpent in water—far too fast for sothing of her grotesque size.
Realizing that her petrifying stare was futile against Lucian's evasions, the Gorgon hissed in fury. Hundreds of serpents, extensions of her scalp, uncoiled and stretched forward like guided missiles. With deadly intent, they launched toward him.
Each impact shattered the earth, upending roots and sending debris flying. Lucian dodged between the serpents with masterful grace, Sébastien twisting and turning beneath him like a living shadow. He attempted to slice through the snakes with his spear, but they writhed and retreated too quickly to land a decisive blow. He grit his teeth and focused his attention on the main body of the Gorgon.
The cursed beast roared and slamd a massive fist toward Lucian. At the last instant, Lucian leaned aside and slashed across her forearm. The blade cut deep, cursed ichor spraying from the wound and hissing as it corroded the earth beneath them.
In retaliation, her massive tail whipped toward them, but Sébastien leapt with uncanny agility, clearing the attack. As they rose in the air, Lucian drove his spear into her tail, the blade digging deep. A furious screech followed.
A whirlwind of chaos erupted as the two forces clashed—Lucian and Sébastien, swift and tactical, weaving around the Gorgon who thrashed like a force of nature. They shadow-stepped through the battlefield, striking from unexpected angles. Yet, despite their coordination, the serpent heads continued to lash out, and Lucian took several blows as his speed began to wane.
But the Gorgon was not faring any better.
Both sides showed signs of deterioration after a series of exchange. Lucian's body and Sébastien's fra began to show gray, stone-like splotches—early signs of petrification creeping through their limbs. The air thickened with the scent of cursed magic.
The Gorgon began to struggle, her enormous arms pressing against the ground to lift her head. Her weight was increased more than tenfold due to Lucian's enchanted spear—imbued with [Gravity Pierce]—and continued grew heavier with each impact, making her every movent a labor.
Suddenly, Lucian's [Foresight] flared like a warning bell. His instincts scread—she was about to unleash a petrifying gaze, and Sébastien wouldn't be fast enough to avoid it this ti.
In that critical second, the Gorgon snapped her head toward them, eyes glowing with terrible power.
But before Lucian could give the command to vanish, Sébastien made the choice himself.
With a defiant neigh, the steed reared up and hurled Lucian from his saddle, flinging him safely out of the line of sight. As Lucian hit the ground and rolled to a stop, he turned back just in ti to witness his partner freeze.
The petrification overtook Sébastien in an instant. His body stiffened, gray spreading like wildfire until he was a perfect stone statue—forever captured in the final mont of his defiance, hooves high in the air.
"NO!!" Lucian's voice erupted with primal rage, fury igniting his aura like wildfire. Power exploded from his body as his [Dreaded Presence] surged outward in a tidal wave of malevolent energy. Dark mist bled from his armor, his rage tangible, nearly choking the air itself.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!" Lucian roared, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked. His hunched form radiated violence like a god of war incarnate.
The ground beneath him shattered from the force of his power, fragnts flying upward as he launched toward the Gorgon like a teor.
Sensing imminent destruction, the Gorgon's snakes slapped the ground, using the recoil to throw her backwards just as Lucian's punch landed.
The impact was cataclysmic.
The earth detonated beneath his fist. Cracks like spiderwebs sprawled for miles, the forest trembling from the localized earthquake. Rubble erupted in all directions as dust and shattered stone filled the air.
Lucian stood hunched, his cape whipping in the wake of his impact. Slowly, he straightened, grains of dust trickling from his armored hand. Though his eyes remained veiled beneath Bartholow's cloth, a fierce red glow radiated from behind it, piercing the fabric like twin suns of rage.
"I'll enjoy devouring you," Lucian snarled in a cold, gravelly tone. "Even if you taste like shit."
In a blur of motion, Lucian vanished and reappeared before the stunned Gorgon, his body moving despite the stiffness creeping into his limbs.
Before she could react, Lucian's fist drove into her bloated, scaled abdon with a thunderous blow. The force launched her off the ground, her body folding around the impact. Black, cursed blood sprayed from her mouth mid-flight as she was hurled backward through the clearing.
She flew like a ragdoll, crashing through several trees and smashing into the forest beyond.
Lucian glanced down at himself, watching in grim silence as the petrification continued its relentless spread across his body, at a much more rapid pace than if he was using his spear. The patches of stone crept over his limbs like a virus, faster now than ever before, but he had no ti to care. Not while the battle raged.
With his fist clenched at his side and his tattered cape whipping in the wind, Lucian launched forward, a streak of black fury tearing through the air like a living shadow. The ground cracked beneath him from the sheer force of his propulsion.
When he appeared before the Gorgon, she had already begun to recover. Using her serpents as makeshift limbs, she had lifted herself from the ground—her massive body suspended unnaturally by the dozens of snakes acting as tendrils of support. Her senses, dulled but still sharp with battle instinct, warned her just in ti. Her imnse tail lashed out, a blur of monstrous power, and struck Lucian mid-air with bone-crushing force.
Lucian's body slamd into the ground, the impact detonating dust and shards of earth in all directions. Blood spattered from beneath his helt as the ground cratered beneath him. But as the Gorgon lifted her tail to strike again, she suddenly felt resistance—an unnatural weight anchoring it down.
She couldn't see him—not clearly—but she could feel him.
Lucian was still alive. He clung to her tail like a tenacious parasite, using her motion to drag himself up while remaining grounded. With a firm step he refuse to let her raise her tail any higher.
His arms, now encased in stone to the elbows, trembled under the pressure. But his voice thundered through the clearing.
"You call yourself a Curse?!" he roared, his tone raw with fury and pain. "I'll show you what a REAL curse looks like!"
With a primal scream and a surge of divine fury, Lucian took a wide, grounding step backward. Stone cracked beneath his boots. Gritting his teeth, he poured every ounce of his Herculean strength into motion. Slowly—agonizingly—he began to spin her.
At first, the Gorgon resisted. Her claws gouged deep scars into the earth as she struggled for traction, but Lucian would not relent. With his strength multiplied by rage and blessing, he dragged her into a slow, circling arc. Then faster. And faster still.
The forest blurred around her. Her massive fra beca airborne, lifted entirely by the impossible strength of the man she had tried to destroy. The wind shrieked with the force of her rotation.
And then—with a final roar—Lucian released her.
She was flung into the sky, her body screaming through the air like a cot hurled by an angry god. Her shrieks were drowned out by the roar of the wind and the sound of her own bulk tearing through the heavens.
Lucian's arms were now fully petrified, frozen in place like a grotesque statue. He could no longer move them, but that didn't matter.
He crouched low. Shadows exploded from his back, unfurling into vast, leathery wings streaked with crimson energy. With a burst of unnatural force, Lucian rocketed skyward—faster than before—his entire being consud by fury and vengeance.
The sky trembled and thundered in warning as Lucian had surpassed the respectable limits. Clouds were pushed aside as Lucian breached the upper bounds of the battlefield, passing the airborne Gorgon in a blur of shadow and red light.
Behind him, the wings shifted. They morphed into two massive shadow appendages—hands shaped from pure darkness. They joined together, forming a colossal warhamr of inky void.
With gravity and montum on his side, Lucian swung the joint fist downward. It crashed against the Gorgon's spine with the force of a teorite. Her body arched unnaturally in mid-air as her shriek turned into a gargled howl of agony.
She plumted like a fallen star.
When she struck the ground, the earth itself seed to recoil. A shockwave burst from the impact site. A mushroom cloud of dust and pulverized stone erupted into the sky. The explosion left a vast crater in its wake—deep, jagged, and wide enough to swallow a temple.
At the very bottom, buried under layers of debris, rubble, and her own ruin, lay the Gorgon—silenced beneath the crushing weight of Lucian's wrath.
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