Josh and Sen stood and blinked their eyes at what was materializing in front of them. The walled structure they had been walking around seemed to waver from existence like heat waves on the horizon over sunbaked sand. In its place stood a classic Greek temple in the Corinthian style. Gigantic, shining white-marble columns reached gracefully to a rectangular roof with a low triangular peak at either end.

To Josh, who had only ever seen pictures, the temple looked like a restored version of the Parthenon in Athens. Polished white marble underfoot with bronze braziers at even intervals along the supporting colonnades. Each blazing with what was likely olive oil set aflame. A series of broad, low-rising marble stairs surrounded the building and led to its singular open level.

In the center of the temple was a woman wearing a white toga, which at present was stripped down around her waist. Iron manacles chained her forearms to stone posts rising about seven feet above the floor. She sagged between the chains as she was being scourged about the back and shoulders by a dark figure in classic Grecian armor. Already bearing multiple marks on her back, upper shoulders, and neck, she no longer reacted to the strokes and lolled unconsciously in her restraints.

Once the strange, rippling mirage-like effect settled into focus and the scene in front of them solidified, the dark enforcer swinging the scourge snapped his helm directly toward them. Red eyes swirled within the space where a living human would have a face. Black smoke poured from the dark armor in the shape of arms and legs, which gave the creature a roughly humanoid form. The same smoke somehow held up its helmet, black-iron cuirass, and what appeared to be greaves and bracers–

Josh’s inspection was cut short by an enraged basal growl, “How dare you interrupt the Judgement of Zeus! Prepare to die!”

With nothing more than that, the figure started marching with an even tread at them. Its scourge, with three thick leather straps and glinting embedded sharp metal bits, whirled around its head in a strike as a long spear with a leaf-shaped head appeared in his other hand.

Ya... so... this is happening! Incredulity surged through Josh’s mind as he instinctively moved to his left, and Sen shifted to the right in a wide-based, defensive stance.

Coming from both sides is what smart guys would do in a situation like this, right? Divide and conquer or something like that? Josh asked himself, looking between him and Senyak. ~Wait. Should we be dividing right now?~ Josh’s mental voice seemed to echo strangely in a muffled fashion.

Sen nodded in the affirmative as if he had heard him, and Josh became aware of Senyak’s thoughts. ~Splitting up attacking forces requires most opponents to divide their attack focus and defensive attention. Lessening overall combat effectiveness.~

Josh nodded back, and again, a quiet internal echo accompanied his thoughts as they were apparently sent to Sen again.

~Good then. Let’s divide this bastard up! ~

Sadly, their master strategy had less impact on their opponent than Sen’s hypothetical one. In response to their separation, the armored foe kept each of them in his peripheral vision and simultaneously tracked their divided positions with a trained weapon on each of them. The lash for Josh and the spear for Sen.

Bracing himself, Josh remembered what the Clone had advised them about only cycling the necessary amount of Essence. But he still figured that fighting ancient Greek spiritual enforcers probably qualified as a full-body-cycling event.

No half-measures on the boss battles, Josh.

Sen seemed to agree and also cycled Essence to his whole body.

Josh’s strength and speed increased as he settled in to see who the specter would go after first, Sen or him.

The answer turned out to be a baffling and emphatic yes, as he was right both times.

The whip lashed out at Josh’s feet, and the spearhead shot out at where Sen’s face had been an instant before he dropped to his knees and pivoted away by spinning on his haunches to the armored enforcer’s back right. As ridiculous as the thought was, Josh had to admit Sen’s move was a very cool way to avoid getting a spear through the head.

With much less flair, Josh jumped over the three lashes of the scourge. Their counterstrikes landed almost simultaneously. Sen’s diagonal slash snapped to the back of their attacker’s head. An obvious jab to determine their enemy’s capabilities. A quick tilt of the torturer’s head avoided Josh’s two-handed overhead strike. It landed soundly on his right shoulder and rang out with the sound of a well-struck fifty-five-gallon drum. Golden light erupted from both impacts, forming what looked to Josh like large round shields in both places. The attacking spirit continued, unfazed by either strike.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“The shield is an innate ability of this creature! We can overcome it by striking a strong enough blow to break through. Keep hitting it!” Sen shouted to Josh as he rolled out of the way of a follow-up spear strike to his chest.

“Not like I was going to do anything else, Captain Obvious!” Josh yelled back. Though, Josh had to admit it was good to know this wasn’t some sort of impervious-to-physical-harm ghost thing or something.

Josh dodged an overhead strike of the scourge, only to have it wrap around his hip and dig into his upper and mid-thigh through what remained of his pants. The specter’s strength was incredible as it pulled the whip back, flipping Josh off the ground in a 1080-degree spin, simultaneously flaying the skin from his leg. Slightly dizzy, Josh was still holding his club when he landed on his face with his slacks shredded and large chunks of his thigh missing.

“Ahhhhkk!” Josh bellowed, diverting all his free Essence to his wounds for three full cycles.

With alacrity, the wounds healed to a point where the bleeding had stopped, and raw red skin rapidly overlaid regrown and intact muscles. Checking his interface, Josh had 65 percent of his free Essence and about 75 percent of his health. He considered healing one more rotation, but looking up through the sheet of stinging sweat in his eyes, and it was clear that Sen needed help... and he needed it fast!

Josh could see two golden afterimages of light rapidly fading from where two quick blows of Sen had cleanly landed and produced resounding bongs against the specter’s shield ability each time... but the golden barrier continued in full strength. He had also managed to dodge and duck under the enforcer’s counterattacks. Unfortunately for Sen, with Josh out of the fight, the dark spirit was free to focus its full attention on him. It didn’t take the attacker long to entangle Sen’s feet with the scourge and yank him down, slowly dragging Sen along the ground as he backed up. Struggling frantically, Sen tried to sit up and reach the lashes entangling him. But being dragged had kept him from using his arms and even prevented the option of kicking with his other leg to any effect. Josh also knew firsthand that even if Sen had gotten a good hit in, given the creature’s greater strength, it would only be delaying the inevitable–

A sudden jerk from the dark spirit’s whip stopped Sen’s struggles as his head slammed hard off the marble. The specter then held Sen down with a thick leather sandaled foot while lining up its massive thirteen-foot spear for a thrust to Sen’s chest.

Josh was out of time... but he had an idea. Instead of fully enhancing his whole body, he would target the specific parts of his body with the full Essence amount that he had been spreading evenly across himself. He started with his legs for the increased speed to close the gap, and Josh was behind the creature in a fraction of a second. He had moved so fast that his wide-opened eyes had dried from the mere wind resistance of his passage. Josh diverted his cycling to his upper body and swung his club horizontally through the specter’s back by visualizing that the actual target of his strike was beyond the creature itself as he had been taught as a boy to punch through people’s faces in the ring. The enforcer’s shield ability flashed brightly but immediately shattered at the force of Josh’s momentum and fully enhanced swing. Once through its shield, the club continued through the dark spirit’s body, crushing the iron cuirass to send it flying into the plaza.

As if dispelled through this disruption, the specter dissolved in wisps of rising-black smoke, weapons and all.

Unfortunately, Josh hadn’t accounted for the momentum of his increased speed into his quickly formed plan. So, following the hit, he was still being carried forward with serious inertia. Josh’s body flipped end over end before smashing into the ground and rolling several times in an unplanned and excruciating manner. He did learn that the rough, white marble floor was an extremely effective tool for grating off his shirt, pants, and underlying skin. The full-body skid he executed over it left a widening red streak five yards long before he finally came to rest where he lay, face down and panting.

After a few seconds, his frazzled brain started to triage where he needed to heal first. Based on the signals various pieces of his anatomy were sending him encoded in unique dialects of agony–he was spoiled for choice. His right shoulder was either broken or dislocated. A whole lot of skin was missing from his face, chest, abdomen, upper and lower legs. Not to mention, he had a seriously bruised and or fractured skull, ribs, and knees. He cycled Essence to his shoulder and the areas with missing skin first. Remembering the benefit of focused cycling, he checked the probability interface. His health was at 57 percent and rising. Free Essence was down to 35 percent and dropping. Hopefully, enough to heal him to a point where he could start cycling the Essence he had absorbed from the cannibals earlier.

Sen rose and walked over to Josh, holding a hand out to help him up.

“Thank you for saving me, Joshua.” Sen abashedly mumbled while looking down at his feet.

A pained and slightly sarcastic smile stretched the still-healing skin on Josh’s face. “Don’t mention it... seems like a habit I’m having a hard time breaking!”

Sen turned a darker pink as Josh took Sen’s offered hand and rose to his feet.

Then Josh grasped his partner’s forearm and looked him straight in the eyes while coming clean.

“Seriously, Sen… You were in that position because of me. I’m sorry I got taken out of the equation so fast. It would have been different if I had been helping the whole time.”

Josh then informed Sen of the benefits of focusing his full-body enhancement on targeted regions and muscles in the last fight. Sen agreed that the results had spoken for themselves, and it was clearly an area of opportunity that they ought to practice with and explore. In this case, it had undoubtedly been the right course. He also admitted that he should have thought of it himself.

After a minute, based on the reduced screaming in his head, Josh thought his healing was more than halfway finished. Pushing himself up on his elbows, he looked toward the temple. “Sen, I’m most of the way recovered… Why don’t you take a look and see if you can help the lady Zeus’ enforcer was whipping? I’ll catch up–”

Looking over toward the temple himself, Sen interrupted Josh with a small motion of denial and shook his head as he spoke through their Bond. ~I understand your desire to render aid, but whatever may be waiting for us in the temple, we will face together.~

Josh’s eyes opened wide in realization. Reading between the lines, Sen was right. Josh was trying to pull over to change a stranger’s flat tire in the wrong part of town… The threat is real here.

Josh nodded. ~... You’re right, separating isn’t smart. I’m going to have to learn a new set of reflexes for this world.~

Sen nodded back with raised brows. But said nothing else.

His way of saying Captain Obvious, I guess…

Even to this thought, which Josh was pretty sure Sen could hear, the short monk said nothing.

Sen does seem to have an underlying layer of politeness to him, Josh reflected... But, checking again, the forty-four-year-old lawyer was pretty sure he saw a small smile rise on his lips.

Smirk ~No one likes a smartass~ Josh sent through the Bond.

Sen’s smile only grew bigger.