Amelia’s shriek tore through the cataomb tunnels with such ferocity that I was sure if a Golem could crap its pants, they all most certainly would have.

I looked down at Ethan’s body, a crumpled heap in the dirt, oozing life force all over the floor. There wasn’t even a chance that he had survived. No amount of ambrosia could reconstruct or heal that wound in his chest. The Spear of Longinus had pierced right through Achilles' invulnerable armor and poor Ethan hadn't even seen it coming.

That shadowy bastard with the Spear of Longinus just took off and left us here with the aftermath. We had refused him, and he had simply deleted Ethan for standing up for what he believed to be right.

It didn’t take long for Amelia to charge in, fully armored. I'm only pointing this out because Amelia never wears her helmet. She’s a tad claustrophobic and it messed with her hair, is what she told us. The earthen green helmet covered her face like a cage, with only a V-shaped slit in the front. The scale like plates ran down the back of her neck, attaching to the rest of her armor, boxing her in. She was, in that moment, the incarnation of fury.

I watched her in awe, for a moment, before everything began to register. When I snapped back, I drew my bow and offered immediate cover fire.

Golem crumbled left and right. I watched as Tadashi flashed in with renewed vigor; moving faster, hitting harder. Erik’s lightning bolts blew holes in the Golem and the foundation of the tunnels cracked, sparks flying off everything with reckless abandon.

The tunnel was full of screams and tears. The pain was too real, too familiar. This wasn't the first time we had lost someone, but Ethan was family. Ethan was innocence.

And like every child must one day learn, innocence hurts when it’s finally torn from you.

I set my eyes on Quinton, as he fired blindly in Amelia’s general direction. His bullets curved and ricocheted at bizarre angles, but the Armor of the Green Knight kept Amelia safe. For now.

Quinton hid behind his Golem, taking pot shots, while Amelia just kept charging through. Above all the sounds in the room, the single loudest noise is her pain. I couldn't afford to tear up, or I would miss my shots. It was hard to listen to.

I called out to her, but she didn't hear me. With Tadashi and Erik pushing off the Golem on either side, I maneuvered forward, trying to get a shot to pin down our gun-slinging opponent. He hopped around wildly, laughing, like it was all some sort of game. The slurs coming from his vile mouth would made a sailor blush. I took out the Golem in front of him with a brilliant strike. The sun arrow erupted the stone head into pieces and exposed Quinton for Amelia and her rage.

Quinton spotted me, and fired off in my direction. I closed my eyes and unable to get out of the way, bracing myself for the impact. I winced as the bullet lodged into my bicep and dropped my bow. I tried to back up out of the fray, and get behind Erik or Tadashi. I wasn't going to be much use to them now, so I crawled over to Ethan. Amelia stalked closer and Quinton backed against a wall, reaching the end of the long stretch of catacomb.

“Why?” She kept screaming. Like there was some reason that her brother should be dead. Quinton laughed.

“Too bad about him, you two woulda made good additions to the team. I woulda loved workin’ with ya.” He said with that creepy metallic smile of his. He held his Artifact revolver up in front of himself, like it was going to protect him.

Amelia hurled Gae Bolg as hard as she could. At the same time, Quinton took an actual aimed shot. The spear sailed through the air, only for the blade to be clipped by the bullet, arching its descent. The spear still hit, but not where I thought she intended. Had the bullet not stopped the straight shot, it would have gone straight through Quinton's head.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Gae Bolg, instead, tore into the meat of Quinton’s thigh, lodging deep. His laughter became panicked and erratic. He sounded like a crazy person, unable to accept the reality before him. Amelia dismissed her armor with a great downward thrust of her arms and clasped her hands in front of her, beginning to chant. I was fairly certain it was some kind of ancient Celtic dialect. Immediately, I understood what was happening.

Since Amelia had bonded with Gae Bolg, we had done an extensive amount of research on the ancient Celtic spear. It had been the weapon of Irish/Celtic myth, belonging to Cú Chulainn. It was said that the spear would enter a man, leaving a single wound, but with a magic ritual, would ignite into thirty black barbs, that would leave the spear unable to be removed unless the flesh was cut away.

“You’ll have to do better than that babe.” Quinton chuckled nervously. He levelled his gun again, with Amelia standing point blank in front of him, unarmored. I screamed out for her as I crawled toward Ethan.

Quinton’s face distorted into some horrified, gruesome visage as the spearhead of Gae Bolg became thirty black barbs, shooting off in every direction imaginable. The barbs travelled up his leg and along his pelvis, poking out at weird angles and causing eruptions of gore through his lower organs. The flesh around his thigh was almost entirely eviscerated.

It was the first time Amelia had been able to perform the ritual accurately, and she did it with such speed, that I was astounded. With everything that had happened to her lately, her primal screaming made sense. It must have been cathartic.

Where once Quinton stood, now only a gory mess remained as Amelia grabbed the shaft of the spear and yanked as hard as she could. The spear clattered to the floor, after, as it returned to its normal form, and disappeared.

Like her spear, Amelia too, fell to the floor in a sobbing heap, staring vacantly down into the darkness of the hallway. I called to her again, but she doesn’t hear me.

I cradle Ethan's body in my lap, dragging him onto my knees with my good arm. His vacant eyes stared up at me, still in shock and I had to close them.

“Are you alright?” Erik asked, rushing up beside me. He was covered in so much dust, he looked like he rolled around in a pile of chalk. I shrugged.

“Think I got a little something stuck in my arm.” I whispered hoarsely. Erik nodded solemnly and knelt beside me, place his hand on Ethan's arm.

“We have no ambrosia. We wasted it on me.” He lamented. He and I both knew ambrosia would not fix this. The whole reason we came here, poking around, was because I insisted on a side adventure. Instead we found only pain and death.

“This is my fault.” I said, hugging Ethan's head. I stroked his hair and tried to wipe blood and dust from his face.

“You couldn’t have known any of thid was going to happen. Erik’s words weren't reassuring, his tone suggested he didn't mean it. I knew they would blame me.

“We should have gone back like you said. I’m sorry Erik. You’re the leader now. You’ve always made the better calls. I should have listened. I’m so sorry.” I cried. I could feel the tears burning my face and tumbling down onto Ethan's. Seeing as how I wouldn't be fighting again anytime soon, I just let them fall. It was not cathartic. It was full of grief.

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to.” Erik said, looking down the hallway, to where Amelia was sitting on her knees, sobbing softly. He made a face like he was suddenly uncomfortable.

“I’m going to go back and check on Dyson.” He said, taking off down the tunnels, moving faster was he went.

Through my tears, I looked up to see Tadashi. He came to sit on the ground on the other side of Ethan. He stroked his hair and held his hand. There was no sound in his sorrow; his tears were silent.

“I’m so sorry.” My voice cracked. Tadashi looked at me, startled, like he didn’t realize I was there. He took off his bandana from around his head, and let his mess of black hair fall around his face and then reached across Ethan, to me.

Gently, he wiped the tears away from my eyes, the sweat from my brow and the blood from my arm. He tied the bandana around my wound and grabbed my hand, guiding it up to apply pressure.

"I can't lose both of you." He said softly.

“Thank you.” I sniffled.

“Your welcome.” His voice was a feeble, quiet sound. Uncertain and unfamiliar, it seemed.

Tadashi said very little, but what he did say mattered. I remembered something then, that the Modern Day Demi-God guy had said. He had told Tadashi that his father was probably disappointed in him if he was here, with us. I decided it would be inapproproate to pry in this moment.

I placed my head on Tadashi's shoulder and stared down the hallway towards Amelia…

Who wasn’t there.