"What? You, a mere inferior half-breed, think you can defy this king?"
Typhon's dragon heads drew back, their mocking, sinister gazes locking onto Chiron as he stepped from the thicket, hooves striking the ground.
"No..."
The centaur sage's tone was as calm and gentle as ever. He shook his head slightly as he replied.
"Then why not hide a little longer? Or slip through the fissure I left in the outer Barrier? You could have saved your own life."
"If I leave now, none of them will survive. I can't just stand by and watch my students be devoured."
Facing the taunts and scorn of the King of Monsters, Chiron pressed his lips into a faint smile, his voice steady.
"The arrogance of a teacher, I suppose... Forgive me."
Athena and Medusa, exhausted and bloodied, bit their lips in shame as they gazed at the figure with a longbow, standing firmly before them.
"Teacher... we—"
"Enough. You've done well to endure this long. Leave the rest to me."
Chiron gently rested a hand on each of his two prized students' shoulders, signaling them to lead Typhon's wounded offspring back to safety and take a moment to recover.
"Knowing you were no match, yet daring to throw your life away? What a waste of the escape path I prepared for you."
"Good! Very good! This king respects your courage to face death!"
"Which is why I'll grant you—the most miserable death of all, you worthless half-breed mongrel!"
Seeing the centaur calmly orchestrating Athena and the others' retreat under his very eyes, Typhon erupted in fury.
Crimson-black Ether surged violently around the King of Monsters. Dozens of ferocious dragon heads snapped forward, their storm-breath hot enough to melt stone and gold as they closed in from all sides.
"In the name of the great god Kronos—time and space shall grant forbidden might, and his blood shall never perish!"
Chiron did not flinch. He whispered the words with calm resolve.
The divine blood of time's creation and destruction stirred within him, silver-gray light etching protective patterns across his body. They flared against the crimson-black storm winds tearing at him.
Dragon heads swooped down, some lunging to bite, others unleashing beams of destructive light.
Chiron's pupils narrowed, sharp as a falcon's. His hooves shifted swiftly, sidestepping by mere inches, retreating a few steps, or lunging forward beneath snapping jaws.
Though the storm's fury roared, its relentless bombardments reducing the land to scorched earth and tearing apart great slabs of ground, Chiron weaved through it all. Guided by uncanny perception and startling agility, he moved like a fish swimming upstream, again and again turning peril into safety.
But the gap in power was far too great. The silver-gray divine light shielding his body quaked violently each time dragon breath grazed it, whole chunks stripped away in bursts.
The tempest's breath, laced with streams of poisonous fire, carved deep gashes into the mentor's flesh, scorching half his body into charred black.
Chiron danced upon the edge of a blade—one misstep, and he would be annihilated.
Yet as he moved, loosing arrow after arrow, the immortal essence within him stirred.
His torn wounds slowly closed. Burned skin sloughed away in flakes, revealing tender, fresh flesh beneath.
Athena and Medusa, watching from behind, truly understood then what composure meant.
This mild-tempered mentor, even while wracked by searing pain, only furrowed his brow slightly, gritted his teeth in silence, and never once lost the dignity befitting a teacher.
Even in such a desperate situation, Chiron loosed arrows with calm precision, each shot aimed at the dragon's eyes, its heart, its reverse scales, or its throat—probing for weaknesses.
But his composure could not change the reality.
Most of his arrows were swept away by the storm winds swirling around Typhon. The few that slipped through shattered uselessly against his hardened scales.
A god of calamity, forged from the combined powers of Earth and Abyss by two primordial deities, was never something Chiron could truly contend with.
Especially now, as Typhon's patience wore thin and frustration set in.
"Roar!"
The King of Monsters let out a low, rumbling growl as ether surged wildly, gathering at the tips of his hundred heads. One after another, crystalline spikes took shape, each radiating the aura of void and death.
With destructive power of this magnitude, a single strike could obliterate everything within several kilometers of the Barrier, reducing all life inside to dust.
Chiron's pupils narrowed. He stopped his evasive movements, drew a deep breath, and raised his longbow, pulling the string back into a great arc.
Ether surged through the centaur sage's body, flooding into the arrow. His torso arched backward, his spine creaking as coiled muscles and tendons bulged like dragons beneath his skin.
Want to fight to the death? With you?!
Sensing the force gathered in that arrow, Typhon sneered, amused and disdainful. He poured even more ether into the clusters of crimson-black crystals, preparing to erase everything within the storm Barrier in one decisive blow.
Whoosh!
As divine might reached its peak, the arrow infused with Chiron's authority shot forth. It tore through the layered storm breath before Typhon, unstoppable, until it pierced one of the monstrous dragon heads hanging overhead.
Chiron's muscles tore under the strain, his face went pale, and he staggered, nearly losing his footing.
"Finished struggling? I doubt you have much strength left now."
"Fool! I have a hundred heads like this. That arrow of yours—you can only shoot it once!"
Typhon's hundred heads roared with mocking laughter, their storm breath pressing down with merciless weight.
"No. The timing is perfect. The angle is perfect."
Chiron stood his ground, his gaze lifting skyward. A faint smile curved his lips as he raised a finger and whispered softly.
Hum.
Crack.
In the next instant, with a strange vibration, stars lit up one by one. Their condensed brilliance fell from above, piercing through the void, and rained down upon Typhon's hundred heads.
Beyond the power to create and destroy time and space, Father Kronos had also once been the Sky God. The radiance of the stars, too, was under his command.
Take it—the light of the stars!
That arrow wasn't meant only to destroy a single head. It was fired to pierce the storm Barrier and call down starlight.
Thousands of starlight arrows fell, slamming into Typhon's countless heads. The King of Monsters reeled under the bombardment, his vision spinning, his fury at being deceived surging to its peak.
"You half-breed mongrel—die! All of you die!"
Roaring in rage, Typhon forced his way through the storm of starlight arrows. Before the dozens of crystalline clusters could reach their peak and unleash world-shattering destruction, he launched the condensed ether in a blazing torrent.
"Teacher!"
From the battlefield's edge, Athena and Medusa, who had led Typhon's wounded offspring to safety, cried out. Biting their lips, they stomped forward, charging ahead despite the raging storm of thunder and flame that threatened to tear them apart.
What lovable children they are.
Chiron glanced back at Medusa and Athena as they hurled themselves toward him without hesitation. His lips curved upward, his expression filled with quiet satisfaction. Yet in his calm, profound eyes, not the slightest ripple stirred at death's approach.
Because the timing was perfect, the angle was perfect, and the stars were shining here...