The Greek temple-style doors loomed before our nine heroes. 'Bob, would you please open the door?' Nana asked. Bob gave a gentle smile before turning around, rearing his fist back, and smashing through the door. The group quickly ran inside to secure the area, expecting an attack at any moment, but nothing happened.
Stheno and Euryale quickly ran toward a crib at the other end of the room, with Medusa following in a protective and guarded manner. Emiya, remembering their previous experiences when they tried to wake up Asterios, quickly projected and drew back his bow.
As the three sisters got close, the shadows in the room began to tremble as eight red eyes opened in the darkness. The shadows under the crib expanded as huge spider-like legs emerged from the ground. Anticipating the danger, Emiya began to release arrows from his bow as they flew toward the legs.
Even then, Emiya's shots couldn't hit all the legs in that short amount of time, so Medusa had to activate her quirk to defend herself and her sisters. As she raced forward, her body began to change; she grew white fur and increased in size, her hands and feet transforming into hooves as she developed a brush-like tail. White angelic wings appeared on her back, and as a finishing touch, her head became that of a horse.
(You thought I was going to turn her into the Gorgon or give her petrifying eyes? No, of course not! I'm just going to make her turn into a Pegasus because this is Medusa before she was cursed.)
Quickly understanding the situation, Medusa's sisters jumped on her back as she used her incredible flight speed to dodge the giant spider legs that protruded from the shadows in the room. Seeing his friends in danger, Bob pulled out his cannon and began to shoot at the spider legs appearing from other shadows. Izuku, realizing Bob would need assistance, climbed up onto his shoulders and helped him aim for the exact points where the legs could appear. Mordred activated her quirk and raced after the sisters to act as a distraction, allowing the girls to save Asterios.
Leonidas began to project shields in areas where shadows were prevalent. Because his constructs glowed, they could illuminate the darkened areas. He was also waiting for someone to make a tactical error. With his ability to project shields, he hoped to save them from any unintended injuries. Nana felt out of place. She had nothing to do besides hold a sword given to her by Emiya and attack anything that might sneak up from behind them. But what else could she do? She thought to herself, she didn't have OFA anymore; she was basically just a normal person with the ability to float—not even fly, just float.
As Mordred got closer to the crib, she noticed that the shadows underneath had continued to expand outward, even with Leonidas's shields suppressing their spread. It wasn't stopping them; just slowing them down. She slowed her pace, came to a stop, and carefully touched the shadow with the blade end of her sword. She heard a sizzle and a pop as her sword passed through the shadows, noticing that the blade had been melted. This creature, this spider-butterfly thing, had turned the shadows into a pool of acid—a pool of acid it was swimming in.
"Emiya! Blade!" Mordred yelled to her companion, and in no time at all, a new sword appeared in the sky and dropped into her hand. "Leonidas, make me a path!" Without another word, Leonidas created a path of shields, allowing Mordred to follow the three purple-haired sisters.
Medusa continued to fly toward the crib where Asterios was sleeping, but every time she got too close, more spider legs would emerge from the depths of the liquid shadows and shoot toward her and her sisters like spears. It wasn't getting any easier to approach; in fact, it was becoming increasingly difficult as the shadows continued to expand, barely held back by the radiance of Leonidas's shield projections. This spider-like creature must be terrifying to look at because it had far more than eight legs. Maybe it could even create more legs from the shadows. Who knew at this point? All Medusa knew was that she had maybe one more chance to reach Asterios.
How did she know this? Well, that's because Mordred had started chanting something before shouting, "Clarent Blood discharge!" Before the eyes of everyone in the room, Mordred released a blast of red lightning that paralyzed all the arms surrounding her. Luckily for Medusa and her sisters, they weren't anywhere close to her. This gave them a moment to quickly swoop down toward where little Asterios was sleeping to grab him.
But just before Medusa and her sisters reached Asterios, the dark pool of shadows below began to ripple as a huge purplish-black head emerged from beneath the crib, opening a massive spider mouth prepared to devour them. Leonidas, ready for any attack from below, quickly created a shield in front of the girls, blocking them from being consumed. However, this horrifying occurrence and the desperate situation caused him to lose concentration, making the platform Mordred was standing on disappear.
Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem; Mordred could have used her quirk to quickly get off the platform and land on solid ground before it vanished. The only issue was that she had just used a very taxing ability she had recently developed. That discharge ability had drained her energy to nearly zero, leaving her tired and unfocused.
Nana, desperate, began to run toward Mordred, reaching out as if to catch her. But something extraordinary happened—rather than falling into the pool of shadowy acid below her, Mordred began to float in midair. Nana blinked in bewilderment. Had she done that? Did her quirk evolve? How could she make someone else float without even touching them? Those questions didn't matter right now; all that mattered was that she had saved Mordred. Activating her quirk, Nana quickly floated over to the exhausted Mordred and pulled her back to safety.
The group clearly needed a new plan. With one of their main fighters down and Medusa growing increasingly tired from all the dodging, they realized they had to eliminate the enemy first and save Asterios afterward.
"All right, guys! I've got an idea, but if this doesn't work, we're all screwed!" Emiya shouted as a strange spiral-shaped sword appeared in his hand. The moment the sword materialized, the spider-like monster immediately took notice, all eight of its eerie red eyes locking onto Emiya.
He placed the handle of the sword on the bowstring. As he drew back, the sword twisted into the shape of an arrow. Suddenly, the monster's arms ceased their pursuit of Medusa and furiously rushed to shield the creature's head instead. Emiya began to chant under his breath, "I am the bone of my sword."
In a swift motion, Medusa and her sisters swooped down and grabbed the small bundle from the crib. "Steel is my body, fire is my blood." With urgency, Medusa took off, flying away from the beast as fast as she could.
"Caladbolg 2!" Emiya shouted as he released the arrow straight toward the spider-like monster before them. At first, it seemed that the hastily created wall of limbs would block the arrow, but after some resistance, it pierced through and shot directly into the creature's maw. The beast then exploded in a brilliant shower of light and debris.
== Authors note
Sorry I've been gone for so long. Had a busy end of the week. anyway, I hope you enjoyed my most recent attempt at a battle chapter. I hope it wasn't horrible. anyway, love you all, bye-bye.