“So, Typhon, what have we learnt from this amazing experience?” Aaron tried, oh he tried, not to have a mocking tone in his voice… but judging by the growl from Typhon as he sat on the seat behind him, he hadn’t succeeded.
“That normal people can be dangerous too, and that the Hunter is abnormally skilled.” Typhon answered with an annoyed tone, even as he looked at the back of the bus…
It had been twelve hours since the fight against the Hunter, Jaeger, and it was a harrowing and disturbing fight for Typhon… because it was the first time he, without doubt, lost.
He had struggled against Empusa only because Aaron was a target, he struggled against Mino because of his ability and Typhon’s lack of knowledge in that regard…
He hadn’t struggled so much against the Hydra, but he had no doubt that he could have won, even alone, as the beast had low intelligence in comparison to its now human heads.
But this was the first time he had truly felt defeated against anything other than the Cradle itself.
And worse, it was not a Chained to defeat him, but a man... a well-trained and relatively well-equipped man, but a normal human being all the same.
And that didn’t mesh well with the pride Typhon felt… he had always felt that his title of King of Monsters was well deserved… and why wouldn’t it be, he was strong, even without an ‘Ability’ suited for combat, his Stabilization, he still managed to defeat Empusa and Mino alone, and the Hydra was more annoying than difficult.
But… but now he knew that he wasn’t invincible, without doubt. Even with the knowledge of what Jaeger could do, and what equipment he would have, Typhon still wasn’t capable of winning.
Maybe he’d be able to win now, if he tried, but that first defeat weighed heavily on Typhon’s mind… and with that came the sentence that shook Typhon to the core, told to him by Aaron…
In myth, it was usually Man that slayed Monsters.
It was a sobering thought, and one that was still disturbing Typhon, even in the early hours of the morning… and he also realized that he was becoming complacent.
In the Cradle, he had trained, every day, or at least every two days, he’d get shot by those turrets for almost three years straight, learning to dodge, move, read the guns…
And yet, barely three, four months since leaving that place, he had slipped into a slothful way of life, sleeping as often as possible, barely training beyond wondering what he could do with his new Nano-tech chains…
And yes, despite what Aaron thought, Typhon was in fact new to those weapons, as his prison had become his weapon. He only used them so well because he knew the limitations of chains after being chained to a wall for three years.
Nano-tech of this manner worked on imagination… and the easiest thing he could imagine was a length of chain.
“I’m glad… seriously, I am. You needed this lesson Typhon, you especially. Despite my role as leader of the entire group, we know that you’re the leader of the Chained themselves. They look up to you… and when you aren’t as good as you could be then it becomes a problem.” Aaron stated with seriousness in his voice, and Typhon couldn’t fault his words.
The other members of the group were in various bits of pain and while some had woken up for moments, they all agreed to keep sleeping to heal. Typhon’s arm was still tender after having his elbow broken from being shot near point-blank…
Those bullets hurt, and Typhon was jealous of Mino for being immune to them due to their shape, as they weren’t piercing rounds but the original ball shaped ones.
And Typhon just knew that if they were piercing bullets, he might have lost his arm… and even he couldn’t come back from that.
“Now Typhon, you know how we work… we’re in Area 8, the Assault Sector. I’m going to leave the driving to you for a bit, be careful, alright?” Aaron asked as Typhon gulped and nodded…
Why should he be placed in charge of steering this gigantic metal contraption?
That was exaggerating it quite a bit, but Typhon felt nervous about driving a car, or a bus like this… especially one that apparently didn’t touch the ground while in use.
Did Typhon mention he loved solid earth?
At least Typhon knew how to drive, otherwise there’d be a problem with the conversation that just passed… but Typhon didn’t complain.
Aaron had been driving since the night before to now, mid-day. He deserved the rest, and Typhon felt this was not enough punishment for his loss, but knew Aaron wouldn’t give him anything worse.
Typhon also had a bit of time to consider another problem… Jaeger knew his father.
His father, Typhon… and his grandfather, also Typhon.
He wasn’t the first Typhon, he had known that from the day he was placed in the Cradle, which Typhon knew not the reason for… but he knew his father was also named Typhon.
And he had the same powers as his father, the power to ‘Stabilize’ the Biological Chained and make them better than they’d normally be.
But he had only known his father until age five, when he and his sister were separated by his father and mother… he travelled with his father for weeks, and his mother went another way with his sister…
For the life of him, Typhon could not recall where his mother and sister went, but he knew he wasn’t the only successor… his sister would have inherited their mother’s name much like he had inherited their father’s name…
His sister would be Echidna, Queen of Monsters. The counter-part for Typhon, with the ability to Synchronize, by matching the information the brain perceives and the information given by the cybernetic enhancements the Cyber-Chained had, she’d actually make them sane…
It was the only logical explanation to it that Typhon (current) could think of, as his own ability was for Biological Chained, and Echidna’s was for Cybernetic Chained. That way, both of them could make every Chained stronger.
Actually… now that Typhon thought about it, why were their abilities made to help other Chained? No other Chained existed like that, not even ‘healer’ type Chained…
And why is it that there was a separation between Biological Chained and Cybernetic Chained? Wouldn’t it be more logical to combine both, as seen when Typhon used his nanotech chains, it was a powerful combination…
But there might be reasons… wait… how did they even make Chain-
PAINPAINPAIN
Typhon blinked as he swerved the bus gently back to its correct course… and he wondered why he now had a headache…
Said headache wasn’t enough to distract him from seeing a child leaping from a roof, aiming at their bus, making Typhon widen his eyes and reverse a bit, instead of stopping, before he shouted.
“Aaron, wake up!” Aaron was quick to get up in response to the sudden jerking movement of the breaking then reversing, plus combined with Typhon’s yell.
Typhon was quick to step out of the bus, knowing that it would be dangerous to do anything inside the bus while the possible enemy was outside… besides, what child looking to be seven years old would jump off a roof in front of a bus?
Not a normal one, in Typhon’s experience, so he looked at the child with mild annoyance in his eyes…
The child had a hood on, and Typhon had good eyesight, so he could see the glare in the child’s blue eyes… luckily, not the electric blue of a Chained, but an ocean blue, contrasting with his darker skin colour…
And judging by the collar he wore, he was a Chained… a young one, but a Chained none-the-less… though not of the ‘Greek’ variety like himself.
His one seemed to look like… a pillar… no… a Tower. Though Typhon didn’t know about the significance of the symbols, he did know that it separated different Chained groups.
“Who are you, and what do you want with us?” Typhon questioned, going against his want to stay quiet due to knowing that no one else would ask the question…
Luckily, Aaron was moving the bus back for now, while Typhon kept the kid busy.
“I am Geist. An operative of the Assassin’s Guild… now normally, I wouldn’t say something like that, or mention it, but you see, our leader has determined your skills to be interesting, as well as the skills of Empusa, and those Hydra triplets.” Typhon wasn’t surprised at the eloquent speech of the seemingly younger boy…
Typhon himself was proof that appearance didn’t always match age. He’d be twenty one in a few months, as Christmas was in a few days, and his birthday was in April.
Not that it mattered much, just some miscellaneous information… but as mentioned, he was turning twenty one next year, and he was well aware that he looked like a teen.
It was a sore-point that he was in fact the second youngest of the group, yet still looked to be the youngest.
“Get to the point.” Typhon, while open and willing to talk to friends… Aaron’s slaves more likely…. was curter with people he didn’t care for.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Right, I was sent to request your joining of our Guild, as well as providing suitable benefits… well, in all honesty, we were originally sent to assassinate your group.” Typhon blinked a bit… there was some incongruity in those words.
“Right… so why aren’t you trying?” Typhon asked, curious as to what was the reason Geist wasn’t continuing with his attack… after all, if they were essentially stealthier Mercenaries, annoying flies they were that occasionally were hired to stop people from passing, then they had to follow the orders of the client or have said clients lose faith in them.
“Well, our client died apparently, a few days after giving the request… he was known as Pegasus, I’m sure you’ve heard of him.” Typhon frowned… Pegasus was dead? And he had hired assassin’s to kill them… well, good riddance then…
He wasn’t as soft as Aaron after all… or Jaeger.
Looking back, Jaeger had clearly been holding back from killing them… they might not be so lucky next time though… back to the current.
“Yes, he was killed by the Hunter, who we hear had a run in with your group… having no deaths, I’m surprised.” Again, there was that sense of something wrong in his words.
“After hearing that our client was dead, we decided it unnecessary to attack, but once we reviewed your group, we decided to extend the offer… if you accept, you’ll be joining our group, and you’ll especially be given a high ranking in our group.” Typhon scowled at his words… he caught it…
‘We’… there wasn’t just Geist. He was only one of the assassin’s sent… so where were the others?
“Ah, see you caught that… sorry, wasn’t a test or anything, just my speech slips… I’m a high-ranking member but I’m not used to talking… I mean, my targets are normally dead before they can do anything.” Geist said with a smile as he rubbed his head, and Typhon could admit inwardly that Aaron was right…
A younger person smiling while talking about death was creepy.
“But don’t worry about them… they are around, but they won’t attack your group.” Geist tried to placate Typhon, but it wasn’t quite working.
“And what if I refuse your offer? Will you still try and kill me?” Typhon asked as Geist sighed at his question, before looking back at Typhon directly.
“Yeah, pretty much… I mean, client is dead, but still, job’s a job. If we hired you instead, we could use Pegasus’ death as an excuse, but if you refuse, well… we’ve never failed a mission.” Typhon sighed… then took his fighting stance.
“So… you refuse?” Geist asked with a raised eyebrow as Typhon nodded.
Normally he’d consider it… if it were the Typhon from the Cradle. But this Typhon had met Aaron and had travelled with him for roughly four months. He had learned new things and discovered new aspects about himself.
“Yeah… I feel like I would have joined your group if you had asked me a few months back… but as I am now? If I were to join your group, I’d be breaking a promise… and I think my honour is one of my worst faults.” Typhon said, even as Geist chuckled at his choice of words.
“Well… that’s kind of sad… but still, we are the Assassin’s Guild. We take care of our mark… and we know your group is injured. What’s stopping us from killing them?” Geist asked…
And Typhon smirked as his nanotech morphed into his claw mode, knowing now that his axe, while useful against weaker/stupid opponents, was not suitable… he needed to actually learn how to fight like that.
And he wasn’t used to that yet, so rather fight with what he knows.
Geist, on the other hand, removed a dagger at the sight of Typhon’s claws, and Typhon finally decided to answer the question.
“I’m sure they could try… but I could just kill you and then go over there? And besides… injured my team is, but they are never weak.” Typhon growled the last bit out as he stepped forward, with purpose.
If he could take out Geist, he could work against the other Assassin’s, however many there were… logically, they couldn’t travel in a huge group as that would attract attention, something Assassin’s normally don’t do, so they’d have a smaller unit, comprised of maybe… four, five Chained, or a few normal and two or three Chained, for a group as large as Typhon’s.
The only question Typhon had was how important was Geist in this group? He appeared to be the spokesperson despite his apparent age, so he should be either important or expendable and okay with that…
Typhon wasn’t sure which one was more annoying to deal with, but he knew which one he hoped it was… he hoped Geist was important…
So that when he attacked Geist, the other Assassin’s would have to help keep him alive.
Typhon launched an extended claw, a move he had vaguely forgotten to try despite its usefulness, and Geist ducked under the appendage, a smart move, rather than blocking with his likely light weight, he dodged…
Had he blocked, he likely would have been sent flying from the force, so Typhon mentally ‘ranked up’ Geist in terms of difficulty in dealing with.
For the record, Jaeger was a close second to Aaron’s first… what, Aaron can’t fight but Typhon had no doubt that, if given the resources and people who would follow his orders, he’d be capable of killing Chained with a group of normal people.
See, that was the difference between Jaeger and Aaron in Typhon’s mind… Jaeger was strong, and supported by his people… Aaron was weak, but supported his people so that they’d be strong for him.
If those two ever worked together… may the world remember the person who caused it fondly, for they most certainly won’t exist for much longer.
Back to the fight though, Typhon was worried about his wandering mind at this point… he blamed Aaron.
Everything is solved when it’s said ‘Aaron did it’. It was amazing… better yet, he occasionally went with it.
But again, off tangent here, Geist was good with that dagger, showing remarkable skill, but internally Typhon frowned… it wasn’t as good as Jaeger, so he wouldn’t lose… but he also wouldn’t allow that stupid sense of pride to stop him from fighting seriously anymore.
Geist ducked in close and Typhon was forced to do some creative acrobatics and movements to avoid being poked full of holes… bullets didn’t quite pierce, but a knife driven by a Chained would most certainly hurt.
And Typhon didn’t know Geist’s ability yet… nor what that name meant. Normally he could tell what a Chained could possibly do based on their name, due to Aaron teaching him a mythology, but he didn’t what Geist meant…
Though it sounded German… he hated German, he kept associating it to Jaeger’s name… though the country itself was apparently pretty awesome if what Aaron said about was to be believed.
But Typhon needed to know what his ability was… and to threaten him enough that the other assassin’s would join the fight.
When Typhon flipped and kicked out at Geist, wounding his knife arm, Geist grunted in pain as he hopped back a bit, a strange mist flowing from his skin making Aaron pause… poison?
No, even if it was poison, Typhon was near-immune to all poisons, as evidenced when even the Hydra breathing poison all over the place barely affected him, but slowed down Mino.
“As expected of someone who actually wounded the Hunter… I guess I wouldn’t win alone after all.” This seemed to be a signal as two figures landed next to Geist, taking flanking positions…
One of the figures most certainly didn’t look human, not when it had a lion head, some bat-like wings, and a scorpion tail… Typhon mentally compared it to a Chimera… similar to Empusa, but not quite.
The most common depictions of a Chimera had three heads, a snake as a tail, a goat head and a lion head, and it was for some reason occasionally capable of breathing fire.
But this one had one head… it was one being; much like the Hydra had three heads and was actually three people at once…
Chained pulled off all kinds of things that made no sense to people who didn’t understand them, but even Chained couldn’t evade certain laws of nature.
As for the second figure, she was female, though she was more slender than Empusa, and judging by the electric blue in her eyes, a Cybernetic-Chained…
Hooray… Typhon disliked dealing with them… they usually had something wrong with them apparently, and even Cyclops who seemed okay had some screws loose ,possibly literally seeing as he was a Cybernetic Chained… given his drinking habits and his ability to seemingly slip into just about any accent randomly… Irish was his most common due to his drinking though.
Stereotypes aren’t always accurate, but there’s a reason they are there.
“So, Geist, Chimera, and…” Typhon couldn’t see through the identity of the girl whose fingers seemed to seemingly split, allowing claws to appear, and considering they glowed in an abnormal colour, they were probably poisoned, as she spoke, a quiet hiss of a voice.
“Medusa…” she said no more, and Typhon frowned… Medusa, killed by the hero Perseus and used to slay a beast of the sea by attaching her head to a shield, Typhon knew of her… she could apparently turn people into stone by looking them in the eye…
Aaron was quick to add that, if a person like this existed, then that ability probably wouldn’t exist, seeing as it was impossible even with modern technology… but there were alternatives, but her ability was most likely tied to her eyes…
So no eye contact with her anymore, Typhon reminded himself, and then looking to his claws… there was more he could do with them, he knew, he just had to consider it… but for now, he’d do what he could.
“Right… well, three on one, a nice handicap. Come on then, before I kill all three of you.” Typhon sounded cocky, and he had no doubt that the smirk on his face showed that as well, but he was honestly a bit worried…
He had learnt not to underestimate his opponent, and he knew that while the Hydra was annoying, he could handle three heads with the same abilities…
Three completely separate Chained, fighting at once, and most likely capable of working together? He wasn’t sure if that was quite possible…
Then Typhon remembered that, barely twenty four hours ago, he had seen a normal man fight six Chained in a row, and then defeat him…
Compared to that, three seemed easy… and with that thought, his smile grew… he wouldn’t lose.
The three rushed Typhon at once, and he prepared himself, widening his eyes as a scorpion stinger flew where his head had been, and then having to fall to the side as a clawed hand came for his head, then flipping away from a knife…
They… they weren’t co-ordinated actually.
Typhon realized this during that small interval, noticing that they had to end up dodging each other’s attacks to continue their own… sure, it resulted in Typhon being incapable of attacking back now, but continuing it could be dangerous for their side.
Which meant that Typhon had to keep them thinking that their attacks were dangerous… they were, but Typhon could strike back… but rather than doing that, let them think they could get away with certain attacks.
More combination attacks followed, each one slightly annoying, and Typhon belatedly realized that the ‘mist’ coming off of Geist was spreading, making it difficult to see the three… not that it could stop Typhon… sight wasn’t his only sense after all.
They had changed their attacks now though, taking turns to try and surprise attack Typhon which was annoying, and damaging when he got slashed on the arm by Geist…
But he his patience had paid off, and he now memorized the pattern they attacked him in… and now it would begin again.
First, Chimera with a stab of the stinger, and if possible a swipe with the claws/wing, and in response, Typhon ducked and grabbed the stinger before it could retract, lifting and swinging the bigger Chained into where Medusa would normally strike from.
With a grunt of pain, Typhon knew he had gotten his attack correctly, and thus turned and caught Geist in mid-air, slamming him onto the floor.
“Right… want to try that again?” Typhon asked, knowing that he could kill Geist at this moment, and was about to when Chimera barrelled him over to the side, the mist fading away…
And revealing that Aaron was being carried by some people in black clothes, making Typhon growl in anger… he had hoped that they wouldn’t, but then again, Assassin’s… but why would they keep Aaron alive?
His worth, Typhon realized, was high... thinking about it logically, it really was. Aaron was a normal human but had lots of miscellaneous skills and was capable of convincing seven Chained to follow him… for a normal human, Aaron had worth…
Much like Typhon did… Typhon refused, but Aaron could be taken by force…
“No, we got something good from this, so I think we’ll be leaving.” Geist said easily, hopping onto Chimera’s back, Medusa following as Chimera jumped away, using his wings to get extra lift… he couldn’t fly due to his weight though.
“I will find you, you won’t escape!” Typhon called out, and Geist smirked and they were gone… and Typhon slammed the ground in anger…
He would have stopped them, gone after Aaron, but if he had, the three would have attacked him and those assassin’s would have still gotten away… not to mention that, even if Aaron was their leader, between one person, and the entire group, the group was to be kept alive.
The one to decide that was Aaron himself, so Typhon didn’t feel guilt in that fact… but Typhon was calm… angry, but calm. Despite how confident Geist was, Typhon knew he could track them down…
His senses were all enhanced to stupidly high degrees, including smell and hearing… and Typhon noticed that many people had unique smells, unique heartbeats, and voices, so much uniqueness…
All of this was so easy to tell apart… so easy to track.
So Typhon knew that this fight wasn’t over… the Assassin’s Guild attacked them and their leader, kidnapped him even… were it up to Typhon, they’d be destroyed…
Instead, he’d settle for maiming. It would be vicious maiming, but still, better for them than destroying them.