023: Enemies

Five hundred and fourteen years after Helena

To become a polemarch you must map a route from one entrance to the labyrinth to another, the labyrinth resets every month, changing its structure, its fauna and its order, nobody knows how and why, the only thing that is known about it is that it is possible to get trapped in the tunnels, since corpses of explorers who waited for the beginning of a new month inside the place have been found and their corpses were found months later with several of their belongings, they survived a while in there.

-Compass, paper and ink, I don't have enough for anything else.

Asterion would enter the labyrinth alone, a novice polemarch can survive in the place avoiding all dangers with his blessing and fight alone in the worst case, but the young man did not have that privilege, entering was sure suicide because he would need unimaginable amounts of luck and that was the least, he had in his life.

-For you, my friend.

The boy entered the labyrinth with a sack with provisions to last a day, a torch of Hephaestus that would not be extinguished by anything other than another blessing and his cartography materials, he walked close to the wall as he descended some worn stone steps, this entrance was far from Helena to the south and was the most used by rookies like him, but few survived, only twenty percent of the soldiers who try to pass this test succeed, most of them flee defeated and the rest die within the jaws of the earth.

-North, any route to the north.

The entrance to the labyrinth was to the south and the further away from Helena the more likely it was to encounter dangerous beasts so Asterion was taking a chance on finding a route that would hopefully take him close to the polis. An hour had passed inside the earth, his chances of survival were considerably reduced as time went by, but luckily there were no signs of any living being and before he realized it he had found a way out.

-Huh, so easy?

It took him a while to realize that he had walked in circles, the twisted routes of that deep place had deceived him, his poor drawings were so poorly done that not even when he was writing down each step he took he realized that he made a mistake.

-Again.

He entered the dungeon again, this time more confident as he had not encountered any other beasts and as he walked this time he thought of a way to avoid walking on paths he had already crossed, he couldn't waste ink or paper on signs and he didn't have many things on him either, except his own clothes, he had a long wool coat that some vagabonds from the temple had given to the boy so he wouldn't be so cold, Asterion slowly unraveled the coat and with the fine thread he left a trace of wool that covered all the sides where he walked, he continued with this method until after five hours he finally heard sounds of another living being.

-Minoan?

The language of the minotaurs that Asterion knew thanks to Bran was several steps ahead, from what they said the boy understood that they were fighting and as he stealthily approached the noises he saw with his own eyes the carnage, dozens of dead minotaurs facing a nest of ants, the warriors looked young and inexperienced like Asterion, it seemed that they were given a task greater than their capabilities and now they suffered the consequences of their superiors, the future polemarch silently observed the battle and when he was about to look away one of the minotaurs died at the hands of the myrmekes, the man could not help but follow his nature.

-[HERE!]

He shouted with all his might to the three warriors left from a group of fifteen while waving his torch from left to right like a beacon, the first thing the minotaurs thought was that more heleny were coming to kill both groups, but the man kept shouting for them to come towards him with a horrible accent, the minotaurs ran.

-[FOLLOW ME!]

The bulls threw their weapons at the ants and ran with all their might, Asterion ahead of them guided them with his torch along the wool path he had built, the minotaurs followed him without even having time to process why a heleny was speaking to them in their language and why was he helping them?

After running through several corridors, Asterion legs gave way. He was in fairly poor physical condition and threw himself to the ground to rest. One of the minotaurs immediately put his sword to his neck.

-[Why are you helping us?]

Another of the minotaurs grabbed his arm and made him withdraw his sword.

-[More importantly, do you know a way out?]

Asterion was thinking about whether to lie and use this group to find another way out or go back along the path already taken while he observed the thread inside the labyrinth... In his mind he asked his friend for forgiveness, but he no longer felt like continuing to take advantage of the minotaurs strength.

-[Find another way out, follow thread and you reach entrance.]

Two of the minotaurs immediately followed the route, but the one who asked the question stayed with him.

-[Why are you helping us?]

-[… Save friend.]

-[So you too. I know another way out, follow me.]

Asterion and the young minotaur walked for several hours, the other bulls did not even say goodbye to their companion, both explorers walked through the darkness, from time to time a solitary ant appeared, but the minotaur had enormous strength, he waved his enormous sword as if it were a club, destroying the exoskeletons like they were branches.

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-[We arrived.]

The exit led to the wide valleys to the east, the area was deforested by the passage of war and the land was a wasteland with very little vegetation, this route had recently been born by the labyrinth.

-[What happened?]

-[We minotaurs do not like stupid questions, heleny. War.]

-[Sorry… Thank you.]

-[Thank you for saving us in there, I would never have expected it from one of your race. Do you know how to get back?]

-[Yes… I am Asterion.]

-[Nice to meet you Asterion, unfortunately I was exiled from Mycenae so I no longer have a name to give you.]

Minotaurs who lose their battles are exiled, stripped of all belongings, castrated to prevent their offspring and stripped of their name so they are not remembered.

-[Friend, minotaur, he gave himself name.]

-[Is your friend a minotaur?]

-[Yes.]

-[Haha I can't believe it, I just met the only heleny to be friends with a minotaur. It must have been a big deal Asterion, an exiled minotaur only gives himself a name again when he wants to be remembered, that rarely happens.]

Asterion smiled.

-[What are doing?]

-[I'm looking for the Minoan, a legendary warrior who accepts warriors from all tribes, even exiles. His power is such that even the Mycenaeans have had no choice but to accept exiles again thanks to him. I want to return home.]

-[You need name.]

-[… Yes, I know. See you later Asterion, I wish you a safe journey home.]

-[Next time, tell me name.]

Asterion walked back to Helena, it took him two days to get back and at no time he noticed that he was being followed, but not for a malicious reason, the nameless minotaur watched the young man to make sure he returned safely, as a gesture of gratitude towards the new friend he had made, the now future polemarch was happy to have finally gained the power to save his friend.

Present

The colossal arrows of the sagittarius of both phalanxes deviated when they collided against each other, both archers had the same objective, the enemy polemarch.

-Lita, how many arrows did you give your people?

-Ten to each one.

-They will run out in more or less three cycles. Laconia presses her bestiary and caestus, Lita stops the arrows of the sagittarius and Niko follows me.

Laconia immediately launched herself against the polemarch to attract the attention of the rest, the arrows were intercepted one after another by the cynocephalus and the enemy knew that Laconia was the strongest of their phalanx so they could not face her one on one and the red-haired polemarch sent the thracian to take care of the cynocephalus archers without blessing, effectively only the bestiary and caestus received the impact of the semi-hydra sword.

-The legendary Laconia, it is an honor.

The caestus had barely resisted the blow and as she said those words the bestiary already had its hammer raised to crush her; it was a simple jump back that was necessary to avoid the blow. The caestus was a woman with a little less height than Laconia, her body was a diamond, extremely hard and full of muscles and while the tall man behind him was a mass of brute force she was of a toned body.

-It is a shame that we have to fight.

The ramming shield had a point as if it were a stinger at the upper and lower end, the caestus launched a lightning bolt from this weapon against Laconia, but this time she was able to react, protecting herself with her greatsword.

-Consider this a revenge for all those battles lost in the coliseum.

-… Whatever you say.

Asterion and Niko ran alongside the cynocephali archers, all of them shooting at the enemy thracian who deflected every arrow with the blessing of wind granted by Aura, cutting down a few soldiers until he came across Niko electrified sword.

-You're going to die here, boy.

Niko didn't answer, he was just a novice in fighting other heleny and he was totally focused on avoiding being cut by the thracian twin swords. The hooded warrior kicked the boy stomach who crashed into Asterion and while he was preparing the coup de grace, the cynocephali approached with wooden spears to impale him, but they were easily dodged.

-Niko, concentrate, you and I are the winning piece.

-Captain...

While they fought, the red-haired polemarch ran towards Lita, eliminating the enemy sagittarius and polemarch was the easiest way to collapse a phalanx and Asterion was not a priority for either of them. The blessings of Jason and Silaus seemed to never end and the archon of light seemed worried, out of the corner of his eye he watched as the polemarch slowly approached the Lita.

-Is this really your most powerful phalanx, Jason?

-No, but I don't need them to beat you.

Silaus jumped into hand-to-hand combat against the hero, but Jason only avoided him.

-Coward!

The battle was raging on all sides and the first piece of the puzzle to be solved was placed by the starless polemarch.

-You don't have to win Niko, just buy me time, as much as you can.

-Understood.

- Φόρεμα -

A wind arc formed on the back of the enemy thracian, Niko recognized the favor immediately and the slash he was originally going to block was dodged, from the cut a crescent of wind was born which destroyed the stones behind Niko, blocking attacks was no longer an option, the enemy thracian was too superior, the young man dodged each cut but a single mistake would be the last, behind him hidden behind a marble pillar Asterion watched the battle between the archons while counting.

-Ten, nine.

Wind cuted away parts of the Thracian flesh and the cynocephali collected thrown arrows to continue shooting futilely.

-Eight, seven.

Laconia threw blow after blow, but before causing any significant damage one of the opponents protected the other with a counterattack, they were tied in strength.

-Six, five.

The arrows of both sagittarians continued to collide one after another, as if both read each other's minds, they were the same level.

-Four, three.

Jason and Silaus fought fiercely in the ruins of the temple, blows infused with lightning sought to connect against the archon of light who defended himself with his rapier.

-Two, one.

Niko received a deep cut on his left arm and when he thought that this would be his end, cynocephali launched a suicidal charge, out of ten only one managed to cause a small cut on the Thracian cheek. While the polemarch reached Lita and when she was about to shoot her with her bow a tower of light emerged in the darkness of the labyrinth.

- Καθρέπτης -

The beam of light that reflected Silaus favor emerged once more, but this time the rays of light that placed the mark of the slaves only shot against Silaus phalanx, their bodies received the beam of light directly on their skin and the five were thrown several meters by the impact.

-What did you do?

Silao asked with a face he had never done before to the archon.

-The fifth favor is the only one capable of breaking the rules Silao, I thought you already knew that.

The fifth given to Jason by Apollo "Mirror" was capable of copying any favor at half its strength, but the archon never said how many times he could do it.

-Now it only has a quarter of its original strength, but I already told you that I don't need anything else.

The redhead polemarch upon seeing the symbol on her body immediately retreated.

- Σφυρί -

The pillar of fire of Hephaestus was used to protect themselves from Lita arrow which was going straight to the heart of the polemarch.

-REGROUP!

-NIKO, HIT HIM!

Asterion words echoed in Niko who launched a lightning bolt at his downed enemy, however his attack was easily blocked and the thracian full of blood and wind returned to his group.

-Laconia!

The bestiary retreated to return and once again both phalanxes were facing each other.

-What happened polemarch?

The question was asked by both sides.

-It is our defeat.

-It is our victory.

The redhead polemarch raised his weapon in a defensive position, even against an experienced team, the mark of slavery would make this an impossible battle, Jason had won using his enemy weapon, Asterion did not look as happy as his team imagined he would be.

-I'm sorry to have to cheat polemarch.

-Bastard.

It only remained for Jason to defeat Silaus.

-Your miserable revolution ends here Silaus. What made you think you would achieve anything with this stupid insurrection?

The labyrinth began to rumble as more and more electricity grew inside Silao.

-I know who you really are Jason and your little pet knows it too.

From the route to Helena hundreds of slave minotaurs arrived at the temple with the symbol of the two-headed horse burned on their bodies, they were puppets under Silaus control.

-Let's keep fighting Jason, this isn't over yet.

- Υιός -

The archon body turned into a lightning bolt that hit Jason with all its strength, making him hit the walls of the labyrinth, finally causing him damage. Meanwhile Asterion phalanx prepared to fight once more while watching Silao phalanx take up their weapons once more.

-Don't waste your life polemarch, please surrender.

-… We know what Jason is hiding, starless and if our archon is not going to surrender neither will we.

-So be it.

The phalanxes prepared to fight for the last time.

…

Among the group that was traveling to the temple from Skiathos, several of them lost control because of the mark, they had to be sacrificed to avoid a massacre, they had no time to mourn their deaths and they continued walking.

-[Master Theseus, what happened to them?]

-[I don't know, I've never seen anything like that before, but I expected this coward strategies from the heleny.]

They continued walking through the darkness, getting closer and closer to the end of their destination.