Gray VS. The Cave Guardian

Chapter 21: Gray VS. The Cave Guardian

The battle raged on. 

Hold on! The Claws are back? Why? How? I didn't do anything to activate them. I didn't call for them, Gray thought as he stared at the moth claws as he was in the middle of this confrontation with the monster. His claws were blocking the right hand of the creature. The cave guardian was absolutely bloodthirsty for Gray. The fact that it missed him the first time around fuelled it to be more ruthless than ever. The winged golem savagely pushed on Gray's claws and nearly made him tumble over the outer rim of the crater. 

"Why are you always trying to kill me?" Gray asked.

"..." Naturally, the golem didn't answer him. It simply continued marching toward him. Chasing after the young man. When the golem realized that he wouldn't stop running away from him any time soon, it began batting its wings and flying. It was hovering over Gray. 

He couldn't escape that. He was surrounded by the creature as its arms were on each side of him and its wings nearly surrounding him. Gray couldn't run anymore. It was becoming far too dangerous to turn his back to the golem. He had to stay and fight. And he had to win. Otherwise, it was all over. Otherwise, there was no chance of him ever getting out alive in this area in the wilderness of the small town of Point Pleasure. The golem batted its wings even more. 

He blew dust all over Gray, and the wind that its wings were making as it moved them was more than enough to send Gray backward. He wasn't stable. He could hardly stay on his feet for two seconds. Because of the strong wind, he was knocked back, and he was forced to kneel in the middle of the field. The dust that was being sent right in his face blinded him. He scratched his own eyes, so he could see again. He, of course, didn't use his moth claws to scratch his eyes. 

He used his other, normal hands. When the dust and the sand was removed from his eyes, he was then, and only then, able to re-opened his eyes and see what was right in front of him. The flying guardian was gone. The golem was nowhere to be seen. 

"What? Where is it?" Gray asked himself. He looked around, still didn't see anything, until he felt the wind blowing again. He swiftly turned around, and the golem was right there behind him, about to make a move on him and fatally attack him in the back. However, right before the flying golem could deliver the final blow, Gray was able to notice something pretty interesting.

What is that? He thought, as he saw some kind of strings, which appeared to be controlling the different pieces of the golem. 

It is being controlled by something. What if I? Gray thought as he barely avoided the sneak attack of the creature. Then, if he wished to make his move, it was now or never. Gray rushed at the strings and had just enough time to slice them up. To cut them up. All of them. 

Got them! Then, after the strings were cut, the flying golem came down, crashing on the ground right beside Gray, nearly falling on top of him. The golem came down, no longer animated, lifeless. When the five parts of the guardian crashed down, they all shattered in millions of different pieces. This time, it wasn't going to come back. 

"Try to go ahead and come back from that, this time!" Gray rejoiced after finding the creature's weak spot. But then, his joy was cut relatively short as he noticed something in the dark trees not too far from the field where he was. Something was moving in the woods.

Could it be the one that was playing the puppet master? He thought, suspecting. But then, the movements in the woods stopped. Whatever was in there, it left. It left as soon as the strings were cut and the golem destroyed. Someone or something had been watching Gray for a long time. Gray wasn't safe on his own, out here in the wild. 

***

Later, Gray rushed to the other side of town, where Miss. Ravana's place was. He came back there, even though he wasn't exactly sure how welcomed he was there. Welcome or not, one thing was certain, he wasn't expected there. Or was he? 

Miss. Ravana sure did know a lot about him and appeared to be able to foresee a lot of things in advance. Gray charged head first into Ravana's yoga classroom and came in like a wrecking ball. Needless to say, he interrupted the class. Miss. Ravana was in the middle of giving some lessons, so as soon as he made it there, everyone quickly turned around and stared at him. That meant that the students, as well as the teacher, were now staring at the young man. 

Gray was out of breath. 

"He's back!" Gray shouted as he stormed inside the place.

"What are you talking about?" One student asked him.

"Um… Whatever that is, I'm sure it can wait later, right, Gray?" Miss. Ravana desperately attempted to calm things down. She didn't want her students to become nervous for no good reason.

"No. It can't, Miss. Ravana. I need to speak with you now." 

***

Understanding he wasn't going to listen to her, Ravana brought the young man upstairs. She brought him pretty close to her bedroom, right outside of it in the corridor. 

"Tell me. What happened?" However, once there, she was clearly listening to him. She was focused on him. Eyes wide open. Her arms were folded together. Gray noticed that she was dripping with sweat in her yoga clothes.

"I investigated‒"

"‒On your own?" she suddenly interrupted him. 

"And I was attacked by the same monster as last night. This time, it was controlled with strings. I destroyed it, but I believe that what was animating it was no other than‒"

"‒The creature that took me away, right?" she interrupted him again. 

Gray nodded.