Chapter 1.27

Ax

The boulder that blew out of the city gate caused an entire section of the wall to groan and sway erratically. Stones and timbers fell even as debris blew out onto the road from the sheer force and speed that the rock had flown. We approached cautiously, and I peered into the rapidly darkening town. Bodies and wreckage was everywhere. In the distance I could see and hear the battle between the giant man and some tiny woman. Their voices carried and rattled me down to my soul.

“We must press on,” said Antiope anxiously. “Zahra needs me.”

Even as she said it, a small group of gigantes came from a building along the wall. They were every bit as terrifying in appearance as when I’d first fought them. They were solid muscle, with fur-like hair and caveman-like wide facial features. Their jaws protruded with large teeth, and their brow was heavyset with sunken eyes. All of them wore heavy breastplates of bone and iron, and carried the thick iron clubs.

They were strong and deadly, but I was far more prepared now than I had been weeks ago in the village. I wasted no time in firing a barrage of fireballs at the charging enemy. Our group actually outnumbered them, and a few gigantes fell to my barrage. But the ones that made it through the fire were angry and really strong. I stomped my foot to quake the ground, disrupting the charge and tripping up several gigantes. I fired another fireball at the downed gigantes.

Then they were attacking. Their iron clubs bashed into shields, spears stabbed into gigantes, and chaos reigned. We hadn’t properly formed into a shield wall, but it hardly mattered in the cramped ruins of the gate. Antiope dismounted and dove into combat, and I had to switch to the sword when a gigante got in my face.

The gigante facing me was much slower than the chieftain that Karson and I had fought in the village, and I was far better geared. He slipped a blow past my guard, but it bounced off my cuirass. The blow sent me back a few paces, but I was unharmed. I blasted the gigante with a gout of flame from my flamethrower spell.

In what felt like seconds, the fight was over. I knew logically that the fight had taken longer, especially considering the shadows on the ground. We needed to get to Karson and Zahra, but we also needed to secure our exit. I turned to the myrmidons.

“Secure the gate, stop any gigantes that try to block our exit,” I ordered. “I’m going ahead with Antiope and Xia Fang. We’ll return soon.”

We left the horses with the myrmidons. With the amount of debris everywhere, they could easily get tripped up and lamed, and we’d actually go faster on foot. As we left, we ran into a group of people with slave collars followed by a family with one little girl.

“Go ahead, my troops guard the entrance,” I said, waving them by. “I have troops at the entrance. If you stay near them, they can protect you.”

“Do you know Lord Karsos?” asked one of the slaves.

“He is my brother, I’m looking for him.”

“”Thank the gods,” he said. “He is being attacked by a Hunter. He needs help.”

We broke into a run. It was actually more of a jog, because of the wreckage all around us. A shockwave pulsed into us, followed shortly by another. The Titan and the tiny woman were battling and drawing closer. Then the Titan caught the woman as she ran across a rooftop toward him, hitting her full on with the massive tree trunk. She went flying through the air in our direction. I winced. That had to hurt, and the landing wouldn’t be pretty.

We kept moving, heading toward the bend in the road that would lead us to Karson and Zahra. We rounded the bend just in time to see a ghostly, glowing dude split into five. I didn’t even know that was possible. Magic was seriously overpowered here. On the other side I saw Karson and his Vanguard. Zahra had one bodyguard with her. I didn’t see the other. This must have been the guy the slave warned us about.

“That is a Master Hunter,” warned Antiope. “Your brother is in grave danger. His magic is useless against such a foe.”

Even as we ran, her words proved true. The Hunter-clones were easily keeping the Vanguard busy, while the Hunter-original was dueling with Karsos, Zahra and the bodyguard all at the same time. Not only was he keeping them at bay, it looked like he was winning.

Antiope charged straight at the Hunter-original, while Xia Fang went after two of the clones. Seeing as they’d already picked their targets, I went ahead and charged at the other two.

The element of the surprise was a big leveler. I stabbed one of the clones in the back. Instead of falling dead, however, the clone dissolved. This let the two Vanguards go after one clone, and I went at it from behind. The clone had remarkable skill with a blade, far better than the Vanguard or myself, who had only been practicing for a short few days. But the Vanguard had strength and speed on him, and I was behind him. This clone dissolved to nothing in short order. I looked over in time to see Xia Fang cut down the last clone.

“ENOUGH! We are tired of you and your petty minions,” screamed the man. Was that Nyphron? What happened to the friendly little guy who hung around with Dadaces?

A shockwave blasted out from him, sending everyone flying except Antiope. Somehow, she’d used her sword to cut through the energy wave. Three of the Vanguard fell and did not get back up. Zahra sat looking stunned on the ground, and her bodyguard was climbing back to his feet next to her looking quite unsteady. I had no idea where Xia Fang went.

As quickly as I could, I fired off a fireball at Nyphron. Instead of exploding, however, he caught it and sent it flying back at me. The fireball struck me in the chest and exploded. My armor easily absorbed the heat, but the concussive force sent me flying up in the air. I landed hard on my side, and felt a crack in my right arm just above the elbow. Agony lanced through me.

“Yeah, don’t do that,” Karson called to me. “He can throw that shit back at us.”

“Now you tell me,” I groaned.

The fight between Nyphron and Antiope was insane. Both moved at impossible speeds, their weapons smashing into each other in a constant ringing of metal on metal that never seemed to end.

“We are surprised to see you here, traitor,” said Nyphron as they fought. “You know you cannot stand against us. You rejected our gifts.”

“I rejected the call for endless slaughter as a means to an end. You are the ones who are traitors, selling out our cause in a bid for power. I’m surprised you dare show your face!” answered Antiope.

Another loud rumble from down the street alerted me to the approaching battle between the tiny woman and the Titan. More buildings were falling as they duked it out. Each step of the Titan was capable of knocking down a building, and seeing how the woman was at least holding her own against him, she’d probably knocked down a few also.

Shrieks of protest came from the sky above us, and a harpy fell with a wet thud to the street next to me as I climbed back to my feet. I looked up to see dozens of winged women flying in the sky, blasting the harpies from the air with spells of fire that chased after their targets and gusts of wind that bound the wings of their enemies. A few of the women had whips that snapped with impossible speed. The harpies were getting crushed, unable to use the sky to their advantage any longer.

“Even your pets fall before me, Menoetius. Your army is in ruins, its survivors will be scourged from this town. Do you not feel it? I am your doom!” That woman had a seriously freaky voice.

Antiope landed a blow on Nyphron’s shield arm, drawing blood. In response, he managed to land a kick that sent her flying. She landed on her feet, ready to charge back in again.

“Armies are fickle things, Hades. I shall stomp yours into the ground once I’m finished with you!”

We had to end this fight. The Titan and Hades were nearly atop us. The last building that went down was maybe a hundred yards away, behind the street. I looked over to Karson and shouted in English. “I’m going low!”

Karson’s sword lit with a greenish flame. That’s a new trick he hadn’t shown me yet. “Then I’ll go high!”

I summoned my magic and drew heavily on the link to the geothermal mana pumps. There were no machines draining away mana now, only Karson and I to use those incredible fountains of power. I conjured chains of stone anchored deep in the earth, with manacles to bind around Nyphron’s ankles.

Karson charged even as I was casting. Nyphron twisted to avoid a blow from Antiope even as the chains grabbed him. He stumbled, distracting him just long enough for Karson to stab him with his green flaming sword. Nyphron screamed a wierd, double-toned scream. The ghostly echo of him appeared to be trying to escape, like a ghost slipping through a wall. But the blade appeared to have pinned the ghostly thing inside Nyphron. Antiope stepped forward and with a swift stroke, sliced through Nyphron’s neck. Nyphron collapsed in a heap. The ghostly thing kept trying to wrestle away, until the green fire consumed it completely.

“That worked far better than I’d hoped,” said Karson nonchalantly.

“You look like shit,” I said.

“I’ve been getting my ass handed to me all afternoon. Did everyone get away?”

I nodded. “I left Danae with the rest of your Vanguard and some myrmidons guarding the gate. Let’s get out of here.”

The Vanguards that had been blasted by Nyphron were okay, already starting to wake up from their headfirst blast into neighboring buildings. Karson sure made them sturdy. Zahra was leaning heavily on her bodyguard, but was alive. Xia Fang was found by Exadius, who carried her bloodied form out of a wrecked building. It looked like we’d be in the clear.

Then the Titan landed bodily across the road, right in our way. His massive form knocked down a half-dozen buildings and completely blocked our exit. Hades landed on his stomach and he gave an ‘oof’ as she slashed away at him with a long sword that glowed blue.

We backed away slowly, unwilling to run too far from the exit we needed, but also unable to move around them. The Titan swatted her off his stomach and into a precarious ruin of a building, which collapsed on top of her. He got to his feet as she climbed out of the wreckage, a trickle of blood coming from her mouth.

“You grow weak, Cousin. Your foolish brother has brought about your death.” The guy’s voice sounded like he gargled with gravel every morning.

“Tired, but never weak. You are slowing, Menoetius. Have you not noticed your strength sapping away?”

The Titan got back to his feet. We kept backing away. The Titan’s muscles bulged and grew even larger. Hades looked a bit worse for the wear. It was odd to see someone so small fight something so large. The size difference was like a toddler fighting a tall adult. She had some amazing power in that small package.

“Where’d that little lady get so much strength?” I asked aloud.

“Little? She’s at least seven feet tall!” said Karson.

Shit. That put things in perspective for me. The Titan was even bigger than I’d guessed. Hades cast a spell. The magic coming off of it was so complex and bright that I willed my mage sight to turn off to stop the blinding light. An energy bolt of some sort blasted into the Titan, and he staggered back.

The stomping of boots behind me made me look over my shoulder. A company of men in bronze armor and shields was coming down the street, carrying swords and shields instead of spears. Above them, several winged women circled to guard against harpies. A band of gigantes came out of a building they’d been looting and were swiftly cut down. I guess that second army wasn’t the enemy, after all. I sheathed my sword.

“Put away your weapons. We don’t want to be mistaken for the enemy,” I said. We made our way over to a broken wall on the side of the road to get out of the way. I turned my attention back to the battle.

Hades was fighting the Titan once again, practically flying through the air with her leaps to slash at his torso and face. Menoetius couldn’t swing the club fast enough to hit her, so was swatting at her with his other hand. Hades was dodging and darting, drawing blood with every blow. But then the Titan managed to grab her out of the air, and he slammed her into the ground. He put his immense weight into pinning her in place.

“It is as I said, Cousin. I am too mighty to be defeated by you.”

That guy winning was probably a bad thing. I had a bad idea. A really bad idea. If it didn’t work, we were probably screwed.

“Karson? How far away can you cast that green flaming thing?”

“I can do it from here, but it has to be on an object, not on a person,” he said. “You’re not thinking about getting involved, are you?”

“Yeah, get ready.”

“That’s a really bad idea.”

“I know.” I began conjuring again, like I had against Nyphron. I couldn’t hope to chain the Titan in place. I doubted I could even channel enough power to make something that strong. But I could loop a stone ring around his bare leg above his giant greaves. It took only two long seconds to conjure the ring as the Titan smashed Hades in the face with a powerful blow.

“Now!” I shouted.

Karson cast his spell, and the stone ring glowed and burned with intense green flames. The Titan howled and scrambled to rip the ring from his leg. In his haste to rip off the stone, he released Hades. She wasted no time, and took full advantage of Menoetius’ distraction. Her sword glowed a brilliant blue as she leapt straight up. The blade sank deep into the Titan’s throat. She ripped the blade side to side, slicing open his arteries and windpipe as she did. Slash after slash dug into his neck as the Titan staggered under her assault. My broken stone ring was forgotten in his hand.

Menoetius collapsed, taking down yet another building as he fell. Hades landed lightly in the street and walked over to her fallen foe.

“You brought your doom upon yourself, Cousin,” she said sadly. The sorrow in her voice nearly brought me to tears. Hades touched one hand to the body. She glowed with power visible even without mage sight. Then the body vanished. “Give Erebrus my best wishes. I will be coming for his Domain soon.”

A man in fancy armor stepped out from the group of soldiers on the street. Hades’ eyes snapped to him. “Clear the town of any remaining enemy, then make camp to the north. We leave at dawn.”

“Yes, Exalted One,” said the man. He turned and began to bark orders, and the soldiers began to move away.

Then Hades’ attention returned to us. “Now what do I do with you?”