008: Storm
The trees shook violently from the strong winds caused by the storm, hoplites moved from side to side, carrying arrows, spears, and swords, several of them afraid of meeting the mycenaeans, until on the other side of the wall the lookouts gave the signal.
-COMMANDER!
The commander left the room, climbed the palisade; now reinforced with stone in some sectors and in the distance he saw the minotaurs, Asterion heard the lookout's call and together with Niko went out to witness the arrival of the enemy.
-Asterion, how much faith do you have in your plan?
-Just a little.
The proud commander, armed with an imposing trident almost double his size was the first to speak.
-Withdraw your forces from here Theseus, your pathetic forces will be annihilated without even damaging a single house in our city!
Theseus could not yet speak the language of the heleny well, so a translator at his side informed him of the commander words. Without any fear, the mycenaean advanced slowly and the first arrow was shot, piercing the minotaur shoulder.
-The next arrow will not be a warning, you wretched boar!
The palisade was full of archers and fifty hoplites came out of it, forming a wall of bronze and flesh against the mycenaeans, Theseus watched calmly and his double-edged axe launched a timid fireball towards the commander that vanished with the rain, Niko almost laughed at how weak the flame was.
-They taught us that the mycenaeans are not good at shooting their blessings, but I didn't imagine that much.
Asterion on the other hand was completely serious.
-No, they are not, so take care of yourself and always keep your distance from them, do not confront them in a hand to hand... Anyway, that was not an attack, it was the signal.
The minotaurs ran against the palisade and were received by the maelstrom of wind, rain and arrows, Theseus gave the first order.
-[SHIELDS!]
The rings that adorned the noses of the first ten minotaurs in front shone and from their arms huge stone shields protected their companions from the arrows, a few projectiles of the heleny were blessed by Aura the goddess of breezes so, like missiles, they changed their course and hit some mycenaeans in their shoulders and backs, but no casualties were sustained.
-Commander, they are approaching the ditch.
The commander raised his hand with his five fingers open, he slowly lowered them until they formed a fist.
-NOW!
The row of stone shields fell into a small ditch that barely covered them up to their waists, but that small obstacle delayed the forces for a few moments, the heleny revealed their first card, the rings of dozens of hoplites shone in synchrony and from these a flashing lightning pulverized the shields and hit several of the minotaurs, killing a few, now without defense the archers resumed the attack, but Theseus was not affected, he walked slowly behind the group.
-[ARMORS!]
Once again the rings transformed the skin of several mycenaeans into bronze and together with the leather shields they carried on their backs the blessed minotaurs protected the rearguard. When all the bulls crossed the ditch the hoplites ran to fight, Theseus for his part stopped walking and the commander could not help but insult him.
-Is that all? Go back to the corral where you belong Theseus.
The battle at the wall was moments away from taking place and without the bronze minotaurs, the rear would fall to nothing by the archers, the victory was won but Theseus' first card was about to be revealed, the bracers that covered the minotaur's horns were divine artifacts just like Jason's fleece, so they shone brightly when requesting a favor from their god, who would kindly answer the plea of his most fervent servant.
- Ελευθερία -
The warrior jumped into the sky and in a cloud of fire and steam he fell on the other side of the palisade, generating a terrible explosion of extremely red and pink fire, the impact eliminated some poor warriors who had the bad luck of being in the landing zone, on the other side of the wall the fight began and the archers in confusion were divided into some waiting for orders, others shooting at the army and others at Theseus.
-Commander, what do we do?
-Shoot at the army, the rest take care of that animal.
Asterion was surprised by the ten hoplites under his “command”.
-Captain, the ship is armed and in position, it should survive the storm.
-… Good, now focus on delaying Theseus, do not confront him directly, if he attacks you, retreat, just distract him and stay alive, he has already spent one favor, when he has spent the five, run to the ship.
-At your service.
The hoplites marched into battle and Asterion was left alone with Niko.
-Laconia is the next card, he will now go out to fight the polemarch, but what is Theseus planning? He can't delay almost a hundred men.
-No Niko, you misunderstood, he is not looking to delay our forces, the fifty minotaurs on the other side of the palisade have that task, it is Theseus who is going to annihilate this side.
-Is he that strong? I understand why you sent them to delay him, but then Laconia will have no chance.
-Come on, that is our objective now, to create an opportunity for our companion to escape.
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-Will we escape on that ship? you know it is impossible to cross the fog, right?
-Relax, let's follow the plan.
-Yes, let's follow the plan that I have no idea what it is about.
The battle outside the palisade was going on normally, the mycenaeans held out with dozens of arrows in their bodies while overcoming the hoplites shields with pure brute force, the minotaurs fought with blessings of bronze and stone protecting their bodies and companions, they held their position against the rain, wind and lightning invoked by the heleny through favors, despite that, the battle seemed to be in favor of the heleny, until the storm intensified and the wind interrupted the path of the arrows, even for those blessed by the goddess Aura. On the other side of the wall Theseus was unstoppable, blessings of water, wind and thunder fell on the minotaur, one after another but were absorbed by the flames that covered his body, Niko witnessing the destruction wondered how this was possible.
-Their flames look different from those of Laconia, much more reddish, I thought Hephaestus did not bless the mycenaeans.
-He does not.
Asterion answered while climbing very clumsily until he reached the roof of the house where Niko was.
-Next time… Help me up… Theseus is blessed by Prometheus, he does not bless heleny, his fire is very different from Hephaestus', it can burn favors.
-What does that mean?
-Fire cannot burn lightning, wind or water, but Prometheus' can, it is an almost perfect shield against favors.
-It seems that they do not know. Why did you not inform the commander of this?
-Theseus overconfidence can be a slow and insidious killer.
Once the shower of favors was over, the minotaur was unharmed and with an imposing stomp, he propelled himself towards the wall, annihilating every hoplite that dared to cross his path. A single blow of his axe was enough to destroy shields, bronze and flesh. His bestial strength added to the momentum of his run prevented any retreat until the commander had no other option but to jump into combat.
- Αξία -
The commander's ring absorbed large amounts of water from the earth and rain, forming what looked like the head of a hydra that would then shoot towards the minotaur, like a colossal water snake.
-[You don't even know what a real hydra looks like, pigskin.]
- Αλυσίδα -
The minotaur back exploded in fire propelling him in a straight line, facing the hydra, burning it and as he charged with his axe ready to split the commander in two, Laconia jumped in front, covering the blow with her greatsword, the impact made the warrior fly to the palisade, destroying much of it, but saving the life of the commander, who without wasting time impaled Theseus in the chest with his trident.
-They did it Asterion, they stabbed Theseus heart.
-Their attack is not over yet.
At that moment the minotaur chest expelled fire in all directions, completely burning the palisade and throwing back the commander and all the hoplites around him, destroying what was left of the palisade. The fire was not extinguished by the wind or the rain and burned everything in its path, except the heleny who strangely did not have a single burn.
-What was that?
-Prometheus flames are a shield, not a spear, they cannot burn another blessed person, for this very reason Theseus releases them with force so that the shockwave causes some damage and his flames seem more dangerous than they really are.
-And how is he still alive with that trident in his heart?
-I don't know.
-Don't you know?!
-I've only seen him fight twice counting now, something similar happened before, I don't know how without using any favors he can survive that, but he already used up two favors, come on, we have to take away the third.
With the wall fallen and the commander disarmed, the exalted minotaurs reinforced their attack and the disoriented heleny forces defended themselves poorly, without the arrows the mycenaeans advanced at a steady pace and only about fifteen minotaurs had fallen, while half of the Hellenes remained defending the city. Theseus pulled the trident from his chest and a line of blood ran down his torso for a few moments, but it stopped as if nothing had happened after a while.
-There is no blessing capable of regenerating a wound like that, it is immune to our blessings and heals impossible wounds. What do we do?
Laconia rose from the rubble and jumped upwards and, using her wings, prepared a downward slash against Theseus.
- Σφυρί -
Upon hitting the minotaur, the ground and the ring of Laconia lit up and a pillar of fire was born from it, Theseus protected himself from the blow with his axe and did not seem to have any burns, the favor did not work and the bestiary quickly retreated surprised by the resistance of the mycenaean.
- Πατέρας -
A ball of lightning hit the unsuspecting minotaur in an area unprotected by his fire, causing a terrible burn on his ribs and finally extinguishing the flames that covered his body.
-I told you, it's the fire that protects him. Laconia, keep him busy! Niko, hide and attack him from blind spots when he tries to attack our bestiary.
-Understood, polemarch.
- Σφυρηλάτηση -
The armor of flames covered Laconia, steaming as the raindrops fell on it, Theseus kept his eyes on the bestiary and his ears on the thracian, he raised his arm to the sky and the bracers of his horns shone once more.
- Κληρονομία -
A huge, round shield of fire formed on his arm, with the design of an old man devoured by an eagle, Asterion had a serious face but inside he was nervous, Theseus glanced at the polemarch for just a blink and the minotaur mind instantly understood the situation.
-[Eliminate the head].
Theseus; ignoring Niko and Laconia, ran straight towards Asterion. The beastiary trying to cut off the bull head was stopped by the shield, but from its flaming armor small arrows were born that surrounded the fiery defense and hit the minotaur, but the fire from its body arose again and with an explosion of flames born from the shield, Laconia flew away once again, but now she stopped the retreat with her wings. As more lightning bolts flew towards Theseus, he intercepted them with his shield, which seemed to shine more with each lightning bolt that hit.
-Why are is he running towards Asterion?
Niko shouted towards Laconia.
-He knows that by doing that he won't give us time to attack him with is guard down, forcing us to stop him.
Asterion ran towards the beach, the minotaur destroyed everything in his path, boxes, carriages and even the walls of some houses, Niko and Laconia could barely keep up with him, much less stop his advance, the unstoppable mycenaean fought against both of them without losing a single step.
- Σιδηρουργείο -
- Υιός -
Incarnations of fire and lightning would hit Theseus who stopped his path while blocking the thracian in a flash with his shield, repelling him with force and crashing the young man against a house, but from this Laconia hid and taking advantage of the difference in height, with a low posture he cut from the torso to the shoulder of the minotaur and the armor of fire forged a spear of fire that hit directly in the face of the mycenaean, but the movement of his arm did not stop and as if it were a hammer, a downward blow hit against the sword of Laconia, she avoided the cut but the strength of the bull was unmatched, he crushed the beastiary against the ground breaking several of her bones and despite the terrible wound in his body, the minotaur quickly continued on his way, the situation seemed lost but the armed commander once again emerged from a blind spot, with his ring illuminated to the maximum.
- Ίπποκάμπη -
Immediately dozens of spheres of water formed around Theseus and at the same time that the commander attacked the minotaur the spheres shot out with the power to destroy even stone, the minotaur fire was not fast enough to absorb the attack and he was impaled on his left shoulder by the trident and received the impact of all the water bullets.
-Damn cow, I knew you were not indestructible.
Covered in blood and bruises, Theseus dropped the axe and grabbed the commander's head, lifting him up and slamming him into the ground, between screams of pain the head of the heleny was crushed by the minotaur's hand.
-[Damned pig].
Laconia and Niko were barely standing and both went to the side of their polemarch who was on the deck of the ship and raised their weapons against Theseus, they were covered in blood, the bestiary could not lift its left arm and the thracian could barely stand against the wind, but they still did not give up, the minotaur on his side focused his gaze on Asterion.
-[I still have two cards left Asterion, this does not look good for your side, again].
-[Well, all my life I have fought without cards Theseus].
At that moment Asterion took out a short sword and his companions crouched, a ballista with a large harpoon was hidden by a torn cloth on the ship and the polemarch cut the rope holding the projectile, it hit the minotaur arm, a metal chain was tied to the harpoon and the phalanx held it, pulling the warrior towards the sea while he fought against it.
-[Do you think you have more strength than me?]
-[No, that's why I have a plan].
With his sword Asterion cut a second rope, freeing the black sails of the ship that with the force of the storm overcame the strength of the minotaur who slowly dragged himself towards the sea, the combined force of the phalanx plus the storm overcame the strength of the bull and falling into the sea would be a sure death sentence, but the latter sketched a slight smile.
-[It was a good try Asterion, but you're still underestimating me].
- Τιτάν -
Theseus pink-red fire shone throughout his body and the strength of the minotaur equaled the power of the storm, fear flooded Laconia and Niko when Theseus managed to slowly pull the ship towards him, the thracian with his last strength fell to his knees.
-It's... it's a monster.
The wind and rain kept going and going, Asterion thought and thought, looking for a solution, a drop of hope that would not appear and seeing that Theseus got another tug, the polemarch made his last decision.
-I'm very sorry.
The polemarch released the harpoon chain, freeing the ship which ventured directly towards the merciless storm and the forbidden fog.