A few hours into the early morning of Typhon’s trial, I was ready to die.
Typhon held nothing back as he flexed his rage through environmental catastrophe. With every passing minute, the waves grew larger, big enough to wipe out a modern military ship. If we would have flown too close to Medusa’s Island, then the waves would have crashed into the cave where Cleopatra was held down. There was no future where she survived those.
We ventured as close as we could to Typhon without getting crushed by his magmic boulders. We would have to stay within his reach if Cleopatra was going to survive. That meant his attacks would be more accurate than before.
If we went above the storm clouds for a brief respite, he would pursue and catch us within seconds, ending our lives in a bloody crunch of his teeth. If we went below the waters, his serpent feet would snatch us and squeeze us to a pulp. The only viable option was to dance for two days in front of him.
As you are fond of saying, Maximus, this sucks! Umbra shouted, rolling out of the way as several lightning strikes peppered the air around us. At least you can rest on my back.
Sporus answered by retching over Umbra’s back.
“Trust me, I would trade places with you in a heartbeat,” Sporus said weakly, the storm rinsing him clean in seconds.
If you puked on my scales, I will hand deliver you to Typhon, Umbra warned.
As soon as the first wave had ended, I scaled Umbra’s face to feed him some Café Aeternum. We had plenty left on the island to spare, and we would need all of it. Though Umbra had some before the trial began, I needed him to be sharp for the full day of evasive flying that we would have to endure. I even took a tiny sip myself, giving me an extra wind and a clearer mind.
The storm was so incessant and dark that I hardly noticed when the sun rose. We had been at it for seven hours at least, weaving and rolling out of the way at the last moment. A few times Typhon chucked molten debris at us, which we were only able to avoid thanks to my Historical Insight. Seeing the increased light and visibility from the morning meant that we were a third of the way through, which was a relieving sight to say the least. We endured well that day, dodging every attack until midnight.
By the next early morning, the lack of sleep started to impact all of us dramatically. Sporus would have fallen off if I hadn’t seen that he would and prevented it before. I made sure to bind him with one of the metal chains we had from the Aquila quest. An hour later, Sporus looked at me with confusion.
“When did you bind me?” he said, tugging at the chains weakly.
“An hour ago,” I said, horrified by the lost look on his face.
“Oh,” he said, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. “How much longer do we have?”
“More than halfway through. Keep it up!”
“By the gods,” he muttered, sounding so hopelessly depressed that it rubbed off on me. It made me wish we were fighting something, anything. That would take our minds off of the endless rain and struggle to stay awake.
Several times Umbra requested for the directions again as I helped him avoid the waves, lightning strikes, and volcanic rocks.
“Umbra!” I shouted, having to jump off of his back to snatch the lightning bolt that would have killed Sporus. I hovered for a moment, waiting for Umbra to circle back so I could land on him.
Apologies, Umbra said once I remounted. The mind is getting foggy.
Not only was the Café Aeternum starting to lose its potency, but Sporus and I were freezing from the constant rain. Only our thighs were kept warm from Umbra’s body heat. We were both going to have to use one of our health potions if we survived the trial to fight the inevitable cold that came from our lowered immune systems and lack of sleep. It was simply unavoidable.
The rest of the second day became a blur of adrenaline, stress, near misses, freezing rain, and violent thunderstorms. Any time I would have a blackout, which was for a few moments every couple of hours, I warned Umbra in advance on the proper maneuvers to avoid taking damage. Thankfully, he did not have blackouts at the same time as I did.
Throughout the storm, I lightning-traveled to the island to give the Caesar-possesed Cleopatra more food and water. Only, Caesar informed me it wasn’t necessary.
“The Orb of Morpheus will sustain her,” he spoke through her. “You have no need to worry. She is in good hands with me here in the dream world.”
Everything within me wanted to end him. However, the violent rage he sparked within me gave me a more alert mind. So in a way, I was thankful.
I must have been extra blessed by the gods as we reached the end of day two of the trial, for I only experienced one Chrono Loop. I did perhaps the dumbest thing imaginable to break it. Summoning lightning, I teleported directly in front of Typhon’s face in the black clouds. Because he was so high up, I could only see his smoldering eyes of fire that glared with glee when seeing me so close. Before he could chomp me with his teeth, I foolishly struck him in the right eye with my pilum. I lightning teleported back as his giant teeth snapped the air I was flying in a moment before.
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Almost getting myself killed shattered the Chrono Loop.
Finally, as I reached my fifth day without rest and entered my sixth, the violent storm retreated in strength. For a moment, I couldn’t tell if I was observing the futures or what was real.
“That’s the worst of it,” I said once I regained my composure.
I took another sip of the Café Aeternum and handed it to Sporus, who looked more like an empty, pale shell. He and Umbra were on six days without sleep, entering their seventh. They would not last much longer. We needed to power through these trials to face Caesar before they became my enemies.
Upon the dawn, the storm became just a simple thunderstorm, spraying no lightning but keeping a consistent heavy downpour on the island, and us. As we waited for the final wave, I spent my latest three skill points to level up my shield skill.
Shield (+3): lvl 8.
* Protection: Reduces incoming damage by 34%
* Block Chance: 89%
* Stamina Cost: 12.75 per block (15% reduction)
* Additional Effect: Further reduces knockback from blocked attacks and increases stagger chance to 15%
The shield upgrade was going to be necessary for what was to come.
“What’s he waiting for?” Sporus said, his voice weak as he sipped on the Café Aeternum. The latest vial he drank from was halfway filled with rainwater.
“He’s sending the last of his minions,” I said, relieved to reach the end of the trial, though this would be equally challenging. “They are Telchines, blacksmiths of the sea.”
Umbra shivered in disgust. I have heard of those four fish freaks. How best can we destroy them?
“They will all shapeshift to mimic us,” I said, my mind burning with the endless futures. “We will need to split up. If we don’t, they will take on two dragon forms, one Sporus, and one version of me. It will be too many. With us divided, I will take on two versions of myself on land, while you two fight replicas of yourselves in the sky.”
“Great,” Sporus said. “Any tips?”
Sporus would be severely injured due to a time lapse. However, if I told him to expect the severe wound, his chances of making a fatal mistake to avoid it were increased substantially.
“Just aim true,” I said, looking away from him. “I’ll be on the beach.”
Won’t Typhon destroy you for being on land? Umbra asked.
“Thankfully, no. He saw how much we decimated the first two waves. He’s hoping that if he allows us to duel on land, it’ll increase the odds of our doom.”
How pleasant.
Before the Telchines could turn into dragons and devour us, I took a Jupiter-blessed leap off of Umbra’s back, landing seconds later on the now spotless sands. As predicted, the Telchines split up. A perfect replica of Umbra and Sporus exploded from the waters, shooting up to spray Umbra with sickly green flames. Umbra immediately began evasive maneuvers while further being peppered by the replicated Sporus, whose arrows also released little explosions of green poison as they bounced off of his red scales. Sporus returned the favor with his shadow arrows.
As for me, two identical versions of myself ascended from the choppy waves. Though I couldn’t see their faces because of the black helmets, everything about their armor, height, shield, and weapon mirrored mine. They walked in unison to confront me, raising their obsidian Barnacle Shields and preparing to throw their own golden Pila of Mars.
Despite their gear and armor functioning the same as mine regarding enchantments, they would not share the same skills or powers as me, which was to their detriment.
As one, they threw their pila at me. I raised my shield in a perfect block, catching both of them. My armor, Jupiter and shield skill reflected over one hundred damage back to each Telchine, causing them to stiffen in pain, though they did not complain as they summoned their pila back to open hands. I received no damage, having effectively drained a sixth of their health from the first strike. Now, with them shaken, I took the advantage.
The first thought would be to zap them both with lightning from above. It would have destroyed any normal opponent. However, there was something about their enchanted armor that absorbed the lightning, making it a huge waste of stamina if I tried. Even the rest of my Jupiter blessings that dealt shock damage would be void.
If I got too close or was nipped by their pila, their poison would seep into my flesh, draining fifteen health and stamina per second. They were lethal to be near. I would have to keep my distance as we dueled.
I activated my Piercing Rain ability, along with my Minotaur’s Horn, to overwhelm them both with pila to drop their shields. To avoid the surge of sea water and obsidian shards that blasted my way, I Jupiter-leaped over the projectiles with prophetic precision and, once airborne, activated my Boots of Mercury to charge them. Both of them were now shieldless and I didn’t want to risk them using their shields, as a pounding headache raged in my skull from the Minerva’s Wrath enchantment. To capitalize off of this, I unsheathed my Gladius of Julius and swiped across their necks. Their poisonous aura drained me of a good chunk of health, but it was worth the price.
Stamina: 132.25/190
Health: 115/130
What should have decapitated any normal person did not do the same for these two as I landed in the sea behind them. But the critical hit did drain their health, so there was a small win.
They both took to the air with their own Boots of Mercury unleashing hell with pila after pila. I barely evaded their constant throws, only able to escape with my speed boost and jumping abilities from Jupiter. I leaped and rolled until my Piercing Rain ability was restored. Now that they were airborne and shieldless, I activated my Saturn's Hourglass Ring to pause time.
Glory (-100): 7,570
“I don’t think so,” I said, activating my Piercing Rain ability and throwing all three pila through the time bubble. With my insight, my pila would strike directly into the gaps of their helmet, making for a crippling shot.
It was time for this trial to finish.
Time resumed and each of them received a faceful of pila. While not dead, they were very close. With all of my might, I leaped into the sky to join them, throwing two more pila as I did so into their faces. Snatching onto one, I summoned the pilum through his heart, only to jump off of him as the other me stabbed his Telchine friend. He was too slow to prevent me from the perfect backflip that let me summon the last pilum through his spine.
As I landed back on the ground, the two Telchines phased back into their part man, part fish bodies, both of their heads resembling canines, and landed dead on the sands next to me.