Ruby Red - Chapter 21

Silence. To some it's soothing, peaceful moment where the hustle and bustle of everyday life becomes non-existent and the stress just fades away. To Hunters though, they know that silence means danger. As Daniel concentrated, he hoped the silence would break and give some indication of where his enemy was. He knew he couldn't remove his blindfold as doing so would essentially leave him open to a fatal surprise attack. Without his sight, he had to trust his hearing and any vibrations from the ground as means of telling him where the Gorgon lurked.

As Chris backed up through the shop, he kept checking out of the window to see where the Gorgon was hiding. Then he noticed something as he backed up. There was another statue. And another behind that. The shop was filled with the stone men and women who had been shopping inside. Chris quickly realised something. None of these ones had any sort of shock on them. All seemed to have been turned in an instant.

"There's no way they saw the Gorgon. They would have been freaked out" he thought to himself "Plus the glass would have protected them from directly seeing it"

Then he clicked.

These people hadn't seen the Gorgon, they had heard it. But if that was the case, the people outside would have been turned in an instant when they heard the Gorgon... unless. Pulling out a pair of earphones from his pocket, he plugged them into his phone, turning his music on to full blast.

"Not one Gorgon. Two"

Flying around the corner came the upper half of a woman with a snake for the bottom half, charging towards Chris. Jumping back, hit landed standing on the wall as the contents of the shelf next to him were forced to fly off the vibrations slammed them.

Pressing his hand against the wall, a large spinning pentagram appeared. Reaching inside of it, Chris pulled out his sword. Jumping at the Gorgon, Chris started to hit the Gorgon as it tried blocking back. Intense swings were hitting each other as sparks flew off one another.

-----

Hearing a slight knock as Chris hit the window of the shop he was in, Daniel's ears perked up. A loud screech then erupted as something jumped towards him. Bending his legs back so his body got closer to the ground, Daniel felt the air directly above him get cut up as the thing flew above him before it landed on the floor. Flicking the revolvers, he made the barrels spin wildly as blinding lights shone out.

"In pectus pectoris nos fides , permissum meus bovis perpes"  he shouted, making the light burst off the guns into what looked like stardust. Daniel then aimed the revolvers to wear the hissing was coming from and started to fire wildly. The bullets didn't stop though. Even after the barrels should have needed to be reloaded, the bullets kept firing as the triggers kept being pulled.

"Kassi, what's happening?" Matt asked as observed Daniel fighting the Gorgon, though blindly, still efficiently as every shot landed on the Demon.

"That Purifier is one that Daniel made himself" Kassi answered as she watched the bullets pouring into the Demon "He makes the bullets keep firing by duplicating them in the barrels. Though it weakens the bullets themselves down, it makes it efficient when he's going into battles where he might not have any time to reload"

"He had to use Seals though, is it that powerful?"

"He draws that power directly from himself with every shot he takes. Without them Seals, he could collapse from exhaustion within thirty seconds"

Suddenly from behind the pair, a man ran down from one of the aisles screaming before being pulled to the ground. Upon hitting the floor, his body turned to stone as a hissing sound came around the corner...

-----

Lowering his guns, Daniel listened for any noise from the creature before he raised his voice.

"Hey, you dead yet?" he called out "I know you can talk so answer me"

"It'll take more than a few mere bullet wounds to take me down" the Gorgon answered in a mature and feminine voice, with a slight hissing on the s'.

"Surely you have a name" Daniel said "Gorgon are high level Demons, and you lot love to give yourselves names"

"Aren't you a clever Hunter" the Demon answered "I'll give you three guesses"

"A Gorgon who you can't directly lay eyes on" Daniel said confidently "You wouldn't happen to be Medusa would you?"

"My my, you're a smart one. Whatever made you come to that conclusion?"

"Perseus didn't get the right Gorgon when he went after you and your sisters. He just got one of those subordinates you sent out. I suppose it couldn't be helped, especially since he wasn't a Hunter"

"Ahhh, the days when we Demons used to rule these pathetic lands... and then you humans discovered Purity"

"So where are Stheno and Euryale?"

"Setting a trap for your friends. Once you Hunters are out of the way, we'll take that Deman you're holding back to Daedalus and get our reward"

"You mean being slaughtered? You know what he wants Icarus for! Why would you let him go ahead with his plan?!?!"

"If you know what he wants Icarus for, then you should know what we want him for!"

"You're not taking Icarus! Us Hunters have worked way too hard to prevent Icarus from being known about, especially since there are those out there who would want to use him for malicious schemes!

"It was a mistake bringing him with us, especially with Daedalus doing what he's been doing already! He probably would have been safer if we'd just left him at our room... but then I would have been paranoid about what you might have tried to do there. But you know what! I'm not gonna pay the consequences! Lets end this!"