Son of Kaos (PJO Chaos Gacha)

[Yohnos]

Interesting, I'm quite curious about the past now, was there war between pantheons? I assume the Roman Gods fought The Celts among others things.

Great stuff

 

[Bakkughan]

CHAPTER 17

​

---

For the first few miles, neither of us said much.

Zoë had unfolded the map again, though I doubted she'd read much of it. I kept catching myself glancing over at her, only to find her doing the same. After that, I wisely decided to keep my eyes on the road. There were plenty of other things to occupy my attention after all.

"Do you think he was telling the truth?" I eventually asked, "that guy back at the diner, I mean."

Zoë looked up from the map. "About what?"

"My brother. Being safe."

She considered that for a moment, her fingers resting against a fold in the paper.

"I believe that, whatever the fate of the Ophiotaurus may be, he wished us to go to Bear's Lodge."

"Yeah, I got that much. I'm just… wondering whether we shouldn't have asked a few more questions before doing what he wanted."

"Would he have answered them?" she pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"Probably not," I admitted.

I still didn't even know the guy's name. Asking probably would've just earned me a question about whether I'd ever considered what a name truly meant or some cagey crap like that, and I wasn't sure I could've sat through that without doing something... ill-advised to his coffee.

She nodded, then looked back down. There was something tired about the movement that made me regret bringing him up again; there had been rather more to that conversation for her than there was for me after all.

Before I could think of something else to say, she reached across and tapped a point on the map.

"This road will take us out of the reservation. From there, we continue west." She explained as I nodded, eager to get back on the road again.

We'd already wasted enough time driving in circles and the thought of my brother alone on a mountain with Orion somewhere behind him certainly didn't help. The scenery changed around us as we drove, open country giving way to stretches of wooded hills.

At one point, I noticed Zoë flexing her fingers against her knee.

"Any better?"

She glanced towards me.

"Your blessings," I clarified. "We're off the reservation now."

"A little," she said, though she didn't sound particularly pleased about it. "Less than I had hoped."

"Guess the local gods care less about the state lines than we do." I shrugged.

"Perhaps." Zoë admitted after a long pause, flexing her hand a few times before firmly taking hold of the bow lying across her lap and we drove on in silence.

The light had already begun to fade by the time Bear's Lodge came into view. The so-called Devil's Tower rose above the surrounding hills like an enormous pillar, its broad, flat top catching the evening light while the lower slopes lay in shadow. Long grooves ran down its sides, too straight and deep to look entirely natural, and I found myself remembering the stranger's fingers curling against his mug as he described the bears trying to claw their way up.

Looking at it, I could understand why people had believed such a story.

'I can see a route to the top, should be a doable climb.'

That realisation distracted me enough that I almost missed Zoë speaking. [Mountain Ascending Enhanced] kept finding little ledges amongst the grooves, whispering in my ear with absolute certainty where to brace a foot or wedge a hand before reaching for the next one, despite never having seen this mountain before in my life.

I'd been rather underwhelmed when killing Sirius earned me something that sounded like it belonged on a summer camp brochure. Apparently I should've learnt by now that my father had a better idea of what I might need than I did.

"Ethan."

"Sorry, what?"

"Below the trees. To the right."

I followed Zoë's gaze, letting my [Hawk Eyes] pick out the movement amongst the pines. A massive hound crossed between two boulders, its heavy chest and broad head briefly clear of the trees. Another followed, shoulders high enough to reach the truck's windows. Further along the slope, more prowled around the Tower's base or stood staring up at the rock above them.

"Sirius's pack." I muttered, hands tight on the steering wheel.

"What remains of it," Zoë said, reaching for her bow.

I looked towards the summit and for a few seconds I saw nothing but stone. Then a head appeared above the rim, small enough at that distance that I might have missed it without the blessing.

A pair of horns, large dark eyes, and beside them a loop of tail briefly curling over the edge.

"There! He's up there." I said as I leaned forwards despite knowing it wouldn't help me see any better.

Zoë followed my gaze, just barely catching sight of him before he disappeared again.

"How did he..." I began, then trailed off as I remembered the story the lanky native man had told us.

I glanced at Zoë. "You think our friend from the diner had something to do with that?"

"It would explain his choice of story."

"Would've been nice if he'd mentioned it." I looked back at the hounds. Several had started moving towards us. "Well, unless those bastards have learnt to climb, we should be able to get ahead of them."

Zoë was already bracing a hand against the dashboard when I pressed down on the accelerator and Arion surged forwards.

The first hound reached the road before we did, turning to face us with its teeth bared. I had a brief, unpleasant view of its open mouth before Arion's bumper struck it, and then there was a heavy jolt and golden dust sweeping over the bonnet. Something hit the passenger side a moment later, hard enough to rock us in our seats. Zoë swore under her breath and caught the door while I steered us off the road towards the base of the Tower.

Branches scraped across the windows. I kept my foot down, clipping another hound with the truck's front corner before a third hooked its forepaws over the flatbed. Its sheer weight dragged us sideways. I caught its enormous head in the mirror and wrenched the wheel, throwing it off before it could climb aboard.

By the time we stopped beside the fallen rock at the base, there were hounds approaching from both sides.

I put the truck in park and flipped open the guard over the anti-monster package's switch.

"Let's hope this is as good as they said," I muttered, pressing it.

A row of lights came on across the panel. Beneath them, a bronze steering-wheel symbol lit up, and the wheel turned a few degrees without my touching it. I took my foot off the pedal and watched the engine rev on its own, then unlocked the doors.

"Out. Quickly."

Zoë put an arrow through the first hound to come around her side. I got out into the path of another, catching it with an [Adamantine Fist] before its jaws could close around my arm. The blow sent it sprawling, but two more were already coming up behind it, when something heavy shifted inside Arion's flatbed.

The hounds hesitated at the noise.

Bronze shutters snapped across the windows. Plates slid down to cover the exposed parts of the wheels, followed by long metal shafts extending from beneath the chassis. Their tips unfolded into spearheads, locking into place with a series of hard clicks until approaching the truck meant finding a way through several feet of sharpened celestial bronze.

I stared as the panels in the flatbed drew apart.

Two heavy weapons swivelled on a turning column, cogs drawing their strings back while bolts dropped into place from a pair of magazines. The whole thing swivelled past me, following a hound that had been trying to approach from behind.

The bolt took it in the chest and pinned it to the ground. It was still dissolving when the second crossbow fired.

"Oh, the second those kids come of age, I'm gonna buy them so much booze it'll give Dionysus an aneurysm." I said wholeheartedly.

Orange light shone through Arion's grille, illuminating the ground ahead of him while meters-long spouts of sharp-smelling flame burst from his tailpipes. A hound lunged for the turret, only for the truck to swing beneath it and catch it on the spears along his side. The crossbows were already winding back, tracking the rest of the pack as it scattered amongst the boulders.

Zoë caught my sleeve.

"Come. Before they remember us."

I gave Arion's roof a grateful slap and followed her towards the wall.

The noise of the crossbows continued behind us as we scrambled over the fallen stone. By the time we reached the first vertical stretch, the hounds were keeping their distance from the truck, darting between cover while he turned to deny them a clear approach. I doubted the Hephaestus cabin had given him an unlimited supply of ammunition (though probably not for lack of trying), but he was certainly making good use of what he had.

Zoë slung her bow across her back and started climbing. I followed beside her, hands and feet finding their places with an ease that was almost unsettling. I'd never climbed anything like this in my life, yet I seemed to know what to do before I'd even looked for the next hold.

After the first few yards, I had already moved ahead of the huntress.

Zoë glanced up as I passed her. "Since when canst thou do this?"

"Since Sirius tried to eat me."

She considered that, then shook her head and reached for the next crack.

"Thy blessing, the one for mountain climbing. I suppose I should have expected such an answer."

"To be fair, I wasn't expecting to need it either."

I braced myself above a smoother section and offered her my hand. She looked at it for a moment before accepting, pulling herself up beside me one-handed with an effortlessness that made me look twice at her. I'd seen what she could do with Artemis's blessings intact, but apparently I'd misunderstood just how much of her strength remained even when deep in Native land.

She was skilled, too. Watching her, I could see the care she took with each movement, shifting her weight without wasting effort and testing anything that might give beneath it.

I simply didn't need to think about most of that.

It felt almost unfair, though I wasn't about to complain while my brother was waiting at the top.

We climbed quickly, stopping only where the rock forced us to find a different route. Sometimes I went ahead to give her a hand. Neither of us spoke much beyond what we needed to tell the other. The higher we went, the more exposed we became, and I was very conscious of how little either of us could do if something started dropping rocks from above.

The crossbows had fallen silent below us. I glanced down during a brief pause and could just make out Arion turning amongst the boulders, his headlights sweeping over drifting patches of golden dust, proudly belching flames like a dragon of steel and rubber. Nothing was pursuing him anymore.

A shower of sparks burst beside my face. I flinched and tightened my grip on the rock as the scroll unfurled above the ledge, presenting its writing with enthusiasm.

[Combat Achievement Recognized]

[Total Destruction of Sirius's hunting pack!]

[Reward: Silver Ability Drachma.]

[Rewards Dispensing]

The parchment straightened proudly, its lettering growing a little larger when I failed to respond immediately. A silver drachma dropped out of the empty air above it. I caught it, feeling its weight settle heavily against my palm.

"Very impressive," I muttered. "Could've waited until I wasn't hanging off a mountain though."

A gust caught the scroll before it could respond (not that I thought it would even if it could, I knew it well enough at this point). It hastily curled its edges and ducked into the sheltered space between Zoë and the rock.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Dad approving of my sweet ride." I shifted onto the ledge beside her.

Whatever waited at the summit, another Ability might be rather more useful than a coin in my pocket. Bracing one shoulder against the stone, I balanced the drachma on my thumb and flicked it upwards.

A swirling vortex of void sprang into existence around it.

For an instant, there was a miniature black hole hanging beside the mountain, and something impossibly vast noticed me. I felt that brief recognition from my father, as immediate as somebody resting a hand on my shoulder, before the coin vanished and the vortex closed.

Light formed above my head. A simple outline of a clenched fist appeared, repeated ahead of itself in smaller shapes, with straight lines marking their path. It hung there like a claiming symbol while the feeling of the blessing settled into place.

The scroll peered out from behind Zoë, then unrolled to show me what I'd received.

[OFFERING SILVER ABILITY DRACHMA.]

[Fist Projection]

|Rare Ability|

Allows you to launch projections of your fist by punching. The more energy you use, the stronger and larger the launched projection. You can use this at close range to amplify the power of your physical attacks, or launch projections to take enemies down from afar while still using your physical strength. The base power of the projections is equal to your physical strength.

"Oh, I can work with that." I muttered as a grin began to form on my face.

"What does it do?" Zoë asked curiously beside me.

"Lets me punch things without having to stand next to them." The symbol faded above me as I spoke, leaving the familiar certainty of a new blessing behind. "Or punch them harder when I am standing next to them. Both sound useful."

Zoë glanced towards the summit. "Let us hope thou hast no need of it just yet."

Which was of course when a frightened sound carried down from the summit.

I looked up sharply.

"Careful," Zoë said, close beneath me.

"I know." I said through gritted teeth as I forced myself to check the next hold before putting my weight on it.

Knowing that falling would help nobody didn't make it any easier to listen when the sound came again. My brother was crying up there. We were only a short distance from the top when I heard a man's voice answer him.

"Hold still, would you? You're only tightening it."

I stopped beneath the rim, heart hammering for reasons that had very little to do with the climb. Zoë saw my expression and drew closer. I waited until she was almost level with me before raising my head above the edge.

The Ophiotaurus lay on his side near the opposite end of the summit. Rope pinned his forelegs against his body and bound his coiled tail beneath him, leaving him unable to do much beyond twist helplessly against the knots. A man crouched beside him, finishing another loop.

"Well, that was a nuisance," he remarked, giving the rope a tug. "Never had to hogtie something with a snake for an ass before."

My brother lowed again. The man ignored him and rose to his full height.

Even with the stories I'd been told of him, said height was still more than I'd expected.

He must have been ten feet tall, broad and muscular enough that the Ophiotaurus looked small beside him, clad in a black leather hunting outfit that wouldn't have been out of place on the set of a Blade movie. He could've passed for a very handsome human if there'd been nobody standing nearby to provide a sense of scale.

The huge black bow across his back had more strings than I knew what to do with, all running through little pulleys, while the polished bronze grip was studded with dials and buttons. His dark hair was shaved close at the sides and swept up into spikes and combined with a handsome face and easy smile, the giant just oozed "bad boy" energy.

Then he turned towards us and I noticed his eyes.

Bronze mechanisms filled both sockets, focusing rings turning around dark lenses with little clicks. For a second they reminded me of military night-vision goggles, until I realised there were no straps and the metal was set directly into his face. Red light swept over the rock towards me. As the lenses settled, it turned green.

Orion smiled.

It was a remarkably pleasant expression on a man I already was determined to kill.

"Up you come. I was beginning to wonder whether you'd make it."

I pulled myself onto the summit. Zoë came up beside me, reaching for her bow, but I barely noticed. My brother had lifted his head at the movement, and the sight of him trying to drag himself towards us with his legs bound made something unpleasant tighten in my chest.

"Let him go."

Orion glanced down at him, then back at me.

"I've spent rather too long trying to catch him to do that."

His eyes clicked towards Zoë, then returned to me. He was still smiling, though the hand resting on my brother's bindings had tightened enough to make the rope creak.

"I had hoped we might have a moment to speak, Ethan Creed. You killed my dog, you see..." the giant seethed through smiling teeth, his knuckles white and I stopped.

Beside me, Zoë brought an arrow to her string.

"He tried to kill us." I shot back.

"Yes, I imagine he did. I asked him to, after all." Orion said it pleasantly enough, almost as though we were discussing some minor inconvenience. "Sirius was a hunting hound after all. A very good one, as a matter of fact, something I recognized and nurtured in him from the day I found him as a pup. He stood beside me in the night sky for thousands of years, you know. Every night. Not many friendships can boast the same."

His jaw shifted beneath the smile. A little red light flickered across my chest before the rings in his eyes clicked and steadied it to green again.

"I'm sure you understand why I've been looking forward to meeting you."

There was nothing friendly about the way he was watching me. The effort he was putting into sounding otherwise made it worse. I glanced at his hand as the rope creaked again, and my brother gave a pained little cry.

"Then put him down," I said. "Your problem's with me."

"Indeed it is." He loosened his grip with visible care, smoothing a thumb over the rope. "Please believe that I intend to give it my full attention."

He reached down to lift the Ophiotaurus, and I ran at him.

I caught movement beyond his shoulder, something dark rising over the far edge of the Tower. Then [Martial Foresight] had me throwing myself sideways before I'd properly understood what I was even looking at.

A claw struck the ground between us, shattering the ground. Stone burst against my legs and I stumbled, one hand going down to catch myself while the other came up to protect my face. Behind me, Zoë's bowstring snapped. Her arrow passed above the pincer towards Orion, only for a long, hooked shape to whip through its path.

Pieces of the shaft fell onto the grass.

The tail curled back, revealing a stinger longer than my forearm. Beneath it, jointed legs gripped the edge of the summit and hauled an enormous armoured body into view. The claw in front of me shifted, its teeth scraping against the rock as the creature brought the other up beside it.

The Scorpion.

Of course the big bastard had brought the Scorpion.

Its body was longer than Arion, broad enough that Orion disappeared behind it as it climbed clear of the edge. Black plates overlapped along its back, ridges catching the last of the light, while the tail curved high above it. Bright green venom clung to the tip of the stinger. A drop fell from it onto the rock and began to hiss.

I got to my feet, my hand dipping into my coat pocket and pulling out a Speed Cola, downing it in hurried gulps as chemical electricity snapped across my veins.

Beyond the creature, Orion lifted my brother onto his shoulders. He did it easily, one hand holding the bound tail while the other steadied the Ophiotaurus's head. The movement drew another frightened cry, and I started forwards before I'd thought much about how to get around the thing between us.

The nearest claw swept towards me.

I ducked under it, drove my fist against the joint and tried to keep going. [Martial Foresight] warned me of the next movement, and with the Speed Cola working through me I was quick enough to act on it. A leg jabbed across my path, forcing me to turn. By the time I'd recovered, the other pincer was coming down, and I had to retreat to avoid being pinned beneath it.

Zoë's next arrow buried itself in the softer flesh behind that claw. The creature jerked the limb back, and I saw Orion looping a rope around an outcrop near the far edge.

"Zoë, he's getting away!"

"I can see him!"

She moved to get a clear shot, but the Scorpion turned with her, and the stinger came down so quickly that I only just caught the back of her parka in time. I dragged her sideways as the hooked tip struck where she'd been standing, pulling us both off balance. Venom splashed across the stone beside us.

A sharp, hot smell reached me. I looked down to find a small hole spreading through the hem of my coat and slapped the fabric away from my leg. Zoë caught my arm and pulled me further back before the tail could sweep through us.

When I looked towards Orion again, he was already stepping over the far edge.

My brother's head hung over his shoulder. For a moment, those large eyes found mine, and I could see how frightened he was.

"Wait!" I shouted after him, starting forwards again. "I'm coming!"

"Are you?" Orion glanced back at me, his smile widening as the Scorpion moved between us, interrupting my path.

"Best not make promises you can't keep, Ethan Creed."

Then he disappeared below the rim.

---

For a little while, I kept trying to rush past the Scorpion.

I knew Orion couldn't be far below us yet. If I could reach the rope, perhaps I could haul him back up, or climb down after him while Zoë covered me. I hadn't worked out the details. Every time I thought I'd found a way around the Scorpion, it turned and put another of its many limbs in the way, far too quick for its size.

Another claw swept across my path. I stepped inside it, punched the underside and immediately had to duck as the other came back towards its body. The pincers met behind my head with a hard crack.

I backed away from the next sweep and tried to punch before remembering that I was well out of reach.

[Fist Projection] answered anyway.

A fist formed ahead of mine, the projection taking on the same metallic sheen as my [Adamantine Fist] and crossed the gap, striking the claw with a heavy crack. I felt the effort of launching it, surprisingly little for a blow that made the whole limb shudder sideways, and hit it again as I moved.

Despite the heavy impacts, there wasn't a mark on the claw.

I stared at it. That had been all of my strength behind the blow (increased by 20% from [Combo] thankfully still counting the long-distance punches), including my [Hanma] blood and the enhancement from my Goku One-Star Uniform, with [Adamantine Fist] added on top. Most things I'd hit with that combination had turned into golden monster dust at this point.

"Ethan, come back!"

"There's room on this side!"

"For thee to fall off! Come back!"

I glanced down and found my boot very close to the edge. The Scorpion had maneuvered me around the mountaintop without my noticing, leaving me with its legs on one side and a drop of several hundred feet on the other.

An arrow struck above me. One of those legs buckled, giving me just enough space to get clear before the claw slammed into the rim. Rock broke away beneath it. I felt the impact through my feet as I scrambled back towards Zoë.

She caught my sleeve, her eyes searching my face.

"Thou wilt not help thy brother by letting that thing kill thee."

"I know."

"Then stop pretending you're just another dumb male by trying to run past it. Believe me when I, perhaps as no other save my Lady, can understand the haste thou now feelst, but we cannot save the Ophiotaurus until we prevail here. We must kill the Scorpion first."

I looked towards the far edge again, even though there was nothing to see now beyond the taut rope disappearing over it. She was right. I knew she was right, and it still took an effort to make myself turn back towards the creature.

"Alright," I said. "Alright. So… how do we actually kill it?"

Zoë glanced at the arrow protruding from the joint of its claw as the Scorpion slowly stalked from side to side across from us. Its legs moved in quick, jerking steps, never quite in time with one another, while the plates covering its body shifted and scraped together. Eight black eyes watched us from above a pair of claws large enough to cut either of us in half, its tail curled overhead with the stinger following our every movement.

It could have attacked at any point.

Instead, the creepy thing had been happy to stand there while we argued, as though waiting to see what we'd try next.

'It's enjoying itself.' I realized with horror.

Not only was the damn thing intelligent, it was being a cocky little shit too and as I looked at the single arrow we'd managed to stick into it, then at the shallow marks covering its armour from everything else we'd thrown its way, I could sort of see why.

"We must focus our attacks on the gaps where the armour meets. My arrows will not pierce the plates."

"Neither will my fists, apparently."

"Keep striking it, from afar if need be. Thy blessings will grant thee the power to strike true… eventually." Zoë said, though her hand tightened on her bow and the question of how many hits I'd actually need to finally get through the massive exoskeleton was left unsaid.

The tail shifted above us, cutting short anything else she might have said. [Martial Foresight] gave me the warning, and [Effective Activity] helped me turn out of the sting's path at the last second. I planted my foot and punched as it struck between us, sending another projection into the creature's front.

The impact was heavier than the last, [Combo] still building and I could already feel the next blow waiting as I backed clear of the green venom spreading across the rock, and when I punched again, the projection carried that extra force with it.

For the first time since Orion disappeared, I thought we might actually have a way to do this.

Zoë put another arrow into the creature while it was recovering. This one caught the edge of a plate and glanced away, but the Scorpion turned towards her, giving me a brief view of the lower part of its body. There was a narrow section beneath its head, partly hidden by the bases of the claws. The armour looked thinner there.

"Keep it looking at you!" I called out, feeling the Speed Cola hum in my veins as I lowered into a crouch.

She gave me a brief, distinctly unimpressed glance, then drew again.

I waited until the tail moved towards her before exploding into motion, getting in close to the massive beast.

The first punch landed cleanly, a picture perfect blow thanks to my [Hanma] blood maximizing my skill with [Kung Fu Mastery]. I kept the projection close, releasing it against the shell at the moment my fist connected, and felt the doubled impact travel up my arm. Despite the solid hit, one that wouldn't have looked out of place in a Wuxia movie that would shatter the ground and pierce the clouds, the plate still fucking held.

So I just struck it again. [Effective Activity] kept the movement tight, turning the recovery from one punch into the beginning of the next, while [Martial Foresight] warned me when the claw behind me started to fold in. I stepped closer before it could reach me and put more energy into the next projection.

It formed around my hand, larger this time, the metallic knuckles striking across the same section of armour. I could feel how much harder I was striking now with [Combo] building, and still the fucking shell held.

I hit it again before the claw could come back and this time something finally cracked.

My [Hawk Eyes] caught it immediately: a thin, pale line running across the plate beneath my knuckles. It wasn't much, but it was the first real damage either of us had managed to do, and I stayed for another punch when I probably should've been getting out.

The pincer folded back against its own side.

I caught it before it closed, one hand against each half, and for a moment managed to hold it open. Then the creature lifted the claw, taking my feet off the ground.

That was when I discovered it hadn't been putting much effort into closing it.

My arms began to bend. One of the teeth caught my coat beneath the armpit, pressing against my ribs as I tried to twist free. There wasn't enough room. The pressure kept increasing, and despite [Adamantine Fist] protecting my hands, my shoulders were beginning to make it very clear they hadn't received the same blessing.

"Zoë!" I tried to call out, but all the air had been physically pushed from my lungs, so it came out more as a desperate wheeze.

Her arrow struck the joint. The claw shuddered, its grip easing just enough for me to turn sideways and force myself through. Something sharp dragged along my flank. I felt the pain before my feet reached the ground, but I kept moving, throwing a short punch back towards its body as I stumbled. The projection struck between the claws, lighter this time, barely even doing anything to the monster's thick plates, but it was enough to keep [Combo] going while Zoë caught my arm and pulled me out of the tail's path.

I pressed a hand against my side.

It came away bloody.

"Let me see," she said.

"Not now." I looked past her as the Scorpion started towards us and I swore that if it had a mouth, it'd be grinning at us. "There's a crack. Under its head, a little to the left."

"Ethan—"

"I know. I stayed too long." I could hear how breathless I sounded and tried to slow down. "But I hurt it. If we can get back in there..."

Zoë looked at the creature, then at the blood running over my fingers. I took that hand away from the cut to send another projection into its shell before the nearest claw could rise. Whatever she wanted to say had to wait.

We separated before its pincer came down.

The Scorpion kept turning with us, forcing us away from the fracture with its claws. I'd expected something that large to tire, or at least become slower as we put more arrows into its joints, but it seemed perfectly happy to keep trying to corner us on the flattened mountain top, claws forcing us back whenever we tried to approach.

I settled into a rapid series of punches, sending fist after fist across the gap while I moved. Finally, being driven out of reach no longer meant starting over. As long as I had the energy to keep punching and something to hit, I could keep [Combo] going indefinitely.

The first few had barely disturbed it. Now each impact knocked the body sideways, making its feet scrape for purchase, and little pockmarks began to appear where the projections caught its shell. Even then, the marks were shallow enough that I could barely see them when it turned.

The claws were another matter entirely. It kept them close to its front, angling their broad outer surfaces across the smaller plates whenever I tried to aim for those. A projected fist would strike one with enough force to swing it backwards, and the creature would simply bring it across again. The surface remained untouched.

All that force, every blessing I could bring to bear, and the only real breach in its armour was the narrow fracture I'd made with my fists pressed against it.

"Move left!" I called to Zoë.

She did, drawing as she went, and the nearest claw shifted to cover her angle. That gave me a clear view of the eyes clustered above its mouthparts.

I aimed for them.

The first projection struck squarely. Three of the glossy black eyes burst under the accumulated power of [Combo], collapsing into a disgusting mess of dark fluid and pale, stringy pulp. Goo splashed across the armour beneath them. The Scorpion lurched sideways, it's screech loud and piercing enough that it sent birds flying through the forest for miles around as it almost drove Zoë and I to our knees. I ignored the pain as I grit my teeth and kept punching. Its many limbs got tangled as the next two blasts slammed into the side of its head and drove it hard against the ground.

For a few seconds I was actually knocking the enormous bastard around, one blow lifting the front of its body before another rolled it onto a pair of folded legs. It was a considerable improvement over watching my attacks do nothing.

Then a claw came up between us.

The next projection struck that instead. So did the one after it. The Scorpion hauled itself upright behind its shield, ruined eyes leaking down its face, and swept the other pincer across the space in front of it, sending up a shower of gravel to keep me back. The tail could reach almost anywhere on the summit. Twice I thought Zoë was clear, only to see the sting lash sideways towards her instead of striking down as it had before.

She avoided the first. The second caught her shoulder as she turned, tearing through the silver parka and the clothing beneath it.

My stomach dropped.

"Did it get you?!"

"The side of the tail," she answered, already moving. "I am not poisoned."

I wanted to take a closer look, but a claw came between us before I could, forcing me back towards the edge. I stepped away from it and struck the pincer as it passed, hoping to turn it far enough to get inside. Instead, the Scorpion drove the limb sideways into my chest.

I hit the ground hard and slid.

There was barely enough time to notice where I was going before the ground disappeared beneath my legs. I grabbed for the rim, fingers catching a crack as the rest of me went over. Pain tore along my injured side. For a second all I could do was hang there, struggling to keep my hand closed while my boots scraped uselessly against the wall.

Then [Mountain Ascending Enhanced] gave me somewhere to put them.

I wedged one foot into a groove and shifted my weight onto it, freeing my other hand. As the creature leaned over the rim, I punched upwards. The projection struck its underside, briefly forcing it away from the edge and giving me a moment to catch another hold. Above me, Zoë shouted my name.

"I'm alright!"

A claw appeared over the edge.

The warning from [Martial Foresight] came just early enough for me to drop to a lower shelf before the rock beside my head shattered. Pieces struck my shoulders and back, and I pressed closer to the wall while the larger chunks fell past me. The claw withdrew, then came down again, tearing at the place I'd just left.

'Alright might have been optimistic.'

I worked sideways, using the cracks between the columns to keep out of reach. Whenever the pincer came down after me, I braced myself on the rock and hit it with a projection before moving again, desperate to keep within that three second window. My side was bleeding more heavily now. I could feel it every time I stretched for another hold, but stopping wasn't much of an option while the Scorpion was trying to throw me off the mountaintop.

Another arrow struck somewhere above me. The claw withdrew, followed by a scrape of feet, and I heard Zoë call out to draw it further away.

I started climbing before it could change its mind, sending a larger projection after the withdrawing claw. The fist burst against the rim and the limb above it, showering me with grit as I hauled myself up.

By the time I reached the rim, I was breathing hard enough that I had to pause for a moment before pulling myself over. Then I saw Zoë and forgot about catching my breath.

She had her bow wedged across an open pincer, both hands gripping it as she forced the claw to stay apart. The creature was pushing her backwards, her heels dragging through the dirt while her arms shook with the effort. She'd braced one foot against a stone, but it was sliding with her.

The strength required to hold it back at all would've impressed me under almost any other circumstances.

Unfortunately, the tail was already curling towards her.

I sent a projection into the base of the raised tail. It jolted the limb, buying a moment, but I couldn't get a clean angle for another with Zoë beneath it. There was a leg within reach, though, and a seam between two plates just above it. With incredibly lightness, as if I was being suspended by wires, I stepped onto the first and caught the second, dragging myself up the creature's side while its movements threatened to shake me loose.

"Ethan!"

"I see it!"

I scrambled across its back and drove my fist into the base of the tail, releasing a projection against the joint as I connected.

The sting went wide. It struck beside Zoë, close enough that she flinched, but the Scorpion's reaction loosened its grip and she wrenched her bow free before retreating. I barely had time to be relieved before the body beneath me twisted violently.

I caught a ridge of armour and held on.

Being on top of it had seemed a reasonable way to avoid the claws. I'd given rather less thought to how far back the tail might be able to bend, and the answer turned out to be more than I would've liked.

The stinger came towards my face.

I felt the warning from [Martial Foresight] and twisted, but there wasn't enough room. Knowing where the sting would land didn't give me anywhere safe to move. The tip caught the outside of my upper arm and punched through before I could drag myself clear. I felt it tear free as the tail recoiled, leaving a hot, wet pain that ran from my shoulder towards my elbow.

Bright green fluid stained the torn sleeve.

For a moment I simply stared at it. Then the burning started to spread, and my knees almost buckled underneath me as it truly began to dawn on me just how fucked I was.

"Damn it!" I cried out as I pressed the arm against my body.

Hurriedly, I drove a short projected punch into the shell beneath me and shifted before the sting could come down again. Even with [Effective Activity], the movement cost me my footing. I slid over the edge of its back, catching a seam with my good hand while one leg dangled amongst its feet.

"Stay there!" Zoë called.

"Not planning on going anywhere!" I called back, my mind oddly lucid despite (or perhaps because) of the burning pain radiating outward from my wounded arm.

She was moving towards its front. In trying to dislodge me, the Scorpion had raised one side of its body, exposing the damaged plate beneath it. I saw her draw, watched the arrow strike, and for a moment thought she'd found the opening.

Her arrow struck the fracture dead-on, punching through just far enough for the head to disappear beneath its armour. Then the Scorpion shifted and the shaft snapped, leaving the arrowhead buried barely beneath the surface and Zoë swore.

The Scorpion slammed itself sideways, and this time my hand slipped.

I hit the ground on my back. Something struck the stone beside my head before I could recover, and I rolled away without stopping to see which part of it had nearly killed me. A hurried punch sent a projection into its belly as I turned, scoring another hit before the strength behind my blows could fade. By the time I got to my knees, Zoë was there, pulling me up with one hand while keeping her eyes on the creature.

"I could not put enough power into the shot," she said, sounding furious with herself. Then she saw my sleeve. "Did it sting thee?"

"Caught my arm." I barely managed to gasp.

She reached for it, her expression changing as she saw the green amongst the blood.

"No… oh no, Ethan! We must—"

A claw struck between us before she could finish. We retreated together, and I flexed my hand to make sure the arm still worked. It hurt, but I could move it. For the moment, that would have to be enough.

"It's just like you said. We need to kill it first," I panted and already sweat was pouring down my face. "Then we can deal with this."

I meant it. I simply wasn't sure how many more attempts we had left.

---

AN: I didn't intend for this chapter to be such a cliffhanger, but looking at what I've all got planned, it just got way too long for a single upload. Also, I've been sick all week, this gives me the opportunity to expand and polish the rest of the fight scene and set up the final leg of this Arc. Which actually has me curious: we've been in this Quest for quite some chapters now and I was wondering how you guys felt about that? Does it feel like the story has begun to drag? Should I 'rush' the last leg of the Quest, or is this pace appropriate? Please do let me know (maybe over on my Discord?)

 

[Bakkughan]

Interesting, I'm quite curious about the past now, was there war between pantheons? I assume the Roman Gods fought The Celts among others things.

Great stuff

Click to shrink...

Yeah similar to the Trojan War, wars between humanity's peoples also translate to war between their respective pantheons

 

[aokway]

Fist Projection

Click to shrink...

Did someone say "weakness removal"?
His last issue in combat was the range limit
He no longer has that anymore(ok there are still weaknesses but not any obvious ones
He literally has multiplicative combat growth
He only needs a few more traits and abilities to turn it exponential
Then things are gonna get really crazy

The base power of the projections is equal to your physical strength.

Click to shrink...

Huh
Considering it's punches that probably refers to the fists specifically
The boosted nigh indestructible fists
This is reaching Baki levels of bullshit synergy
Literally everything builds on top of eachother
Hey considering it's "energy" could this let him punch ghosts?

Does it feel like the story has begun to drag?

Click to shrink...

Ehh not really
It's taking a long time but every chapter has meaningful progress
If you split the chapter up into smaller bits but took the same time I would say it's starting to drag
But because every chapter puts a meaningful step forward in plot progression it just feels like we need to be patient


Also
Can someone make a character sheet?
Considering we're gonna reach a "boss battle" soon it'd be nice to see just how much everything compounds off eachother

 

[UglyMonster17]

Hmm,i dont know…Good chapter no doubt about that the only thing i got to say is that it felt(to me) a bit like you made him weaker than he should…I dont know if I am making sense like the the new abilty as an example(other that he doesnt try to hit orion with it as he is running away because he "forgot") doesnt say that it travels in a straight line so it "should" be possible to curve around barriers(it can easly explained as user error or a different interpetration) but the efficient movement seem too weak(to me) if I am not remebering wrong it says that if should be more effective that it seem like I understand orion but somtimes he as problems even with "weaker" enemies…now i found it here:

Effective Activity]
|Epic Trait|

Your movements, attacks and actions are always effective, landing where they need to land and dealing what they need to deal. Every swing connects, every dodge works, every manoeuvre pays off. Some beings can still resist and it may not work on targets well above your level

Click to shrink...

I would belive orion but a target well above your level shoulnt be one that you can defeat like sirius he had some many problems with a pack of monster that with the right dodging and hitting he would have exterminated and I understand that too much too fast power doesnt seem like your plan but i would advise/caution…?(i dont feel this are the right words) to not "nerf"(another wrong words but the most direct because it doesnt feel really like a "nerf") the given abilities too much(than again you are free to do as you wish and interpret them as you like dont let me stop you) because in this epic trait it says :"always effective,…some beings can still resist and may not work on targets well above your level"and reading it unless they have some strange power that makes it it always hit,doging should need even more power above his level to "disable" this trait.
Sorry if it seem like I am not liking this story but it is not true in fact i am loving it keep up the good work.
Sorry again for my probably many mistakes english isnt my main language.

 

[ENDDRAGON]

Allows you to launch projections of your fist by punching. The more energy you use, the stronger and larger the launched projection.

Click to shrink...

MC can probably pull a Saint Seiya.

 

[Bakkughan]

CHAPTER 18​

​

---

The venom had reached my shoulder by the time I noticed how dark it had become.

I could still see the Scorpion well enough, (un)fortunately. Its claws scraped across the rock as it approached, the remaining eyes hatefully fixed on us while its tail swayed overhead. Finding that little fracture beneath its head was becoming considerably harder, even with [Hawk Eyes], and I needed to find it. Somewhere in there was the arrowhead Zoë had managed to bury in its armour. If we could get another clean shot at it, perhaps we could finally put the miserable bastard down.

Assuming my arm kept working long enough to help.

Every few breaths the burning sensation from the venom tightened across my chest, forcing me to stop and work air back into my lungs before I could move again. It had been manageable (if unbelievably painful) when the stinger first caught me, thanks to the poison resistance in my [Hanma] blood. Now I was struggling to keep that arm raised at all, and the pauses between those cramps were getting shorter.

'We're… I'm running out of time…'

For a few seconds I couldn't get a proper breath, let alone lift my fist, and I hurriedly punched with my right before [Combo]'s three seconds ran out. The projection struck its claw hard enough to knock it aside, buying us room to retreat.

Zoë reached into her quiver and came back with one of the few arrows she had left. Her fingers were bloody, and the sleeve beneath her torn parka was dark from the wound in her shoulder. She caught me looking and adjusted her grip on the bow, clearly suppressing a wince as she set her jaw.

"I can still draw it. Do not worry thyself about me, Ethan. Just… stay with me now." She panted slightly and she couldn't keep her eyes from flitting towards the burning wound in my upper arm with badly disguised worry.

"Mostly I was wondering how long we've been up here," I said, trying to keep my teeth from chattering. I felt cold everywhere except the arm.

She glanced at my arm, then towards Orion's rope.

"Too long," she said quietly.

We hadn't been able to get near it since he'd left. By now he could be halfway down the mountain with my brother, and I couldn't even spare a moment to look for him without risking the strength I'd spent the entire fight building.

The Scorpion shifted to block our view of the rope.

'Oh, you smug fucking prick.'

I drove another projection into its front, desperately fighting down the growing desperation that began clawing at my mind, sapping my resolve (or that could just be the venom burning through my veins). The Fates were the only things I'd faced that had frightened me more than this monstrous arachnid, and even that was becoming closer than I would've liked.

At least with the Fates, no matter how outclassed I felt at the time, the backlash from their attack on my very Existence had visibly hurt and shook them. But with the Scorpion, nothing in mine and Zoë's combined arsenal even seemed to slow the big bastard down. Several arrows still protruded from its joints, three eyes were a pulped mess and shallow dents covered its shell.

But all of it, save the eyes, was just surface level damage. Even the lack of three eyes hadn't seemingly done much beyond pissing it off, considering it had five left. It kept stalking us around the summit as though it had all the time in the world. With that shit spreading through my body, it probably did.

I'd tried pulping the rest of its little hateful eyes too, but sadistic bastard it may be, the giant arachnid wasn't an idiot and had wizened up to hiding it's face behind those massive pincers, using the invulnerable thick slabs of dark chitin as shields. The plate beneath its head was still the only part of its armour we'd properly cracked, the only way we could hurt the softer flesh underneath that annoying armour.

"We need to get its front off the ground," I panted. "Give you another shot at that crack."

"And how dost thou plan on achieving that?" Zoë warned, her tone tinged with worry. "Thou canst barely stand, Ethan!"

"I open to a better idea. Or any idea at this point." I bit back as another spam shot out from my arm, wrecking my torso and almost dropping me to my knees.

She looked past me, judging the space beneath the claws. I kept punching while she did, forcing the creature to shield its damaged face. Every impact jarred its pincer backwards, but it kept bringing the damn thing up again before I could hit anything softer. Zoë moved to my left, drawing its other claw away, and for a moment I could see the broken shaft beneath its head.

That would have to do.

I lunged forwards, keeping the next projection wrapped around my fist as I drove it at the fracture. The Scorpion folded its pincer across its body just before I connected. The impact slammed the claw back against its head and lifted the creature off its front legs, sending it crashing down several yards away. Dirt and loose stone sprayed from beneath its belly.

Seeing it get smacked in the face with its own claws was immensely gratifying until I stared at the part of the pincer I had managed to hit. All that power, with [Combo] built up through God knew how many punches, and I still hadn't even chipped the fucking thing.

The joints, then. It had to be the joints or that cracked plate. I forced myself after it before it could recover, only for another spasm to wrench my left arm against my chest. My stride faltered and its other pincer swept into me as it lurched upright, catching me before I could regain my footing.

I would've been launched straight off the edge of the Devil's Tower if it weren't for Zoë catching me as I smacked into her and we hit the ground together.

She hurriedly rolled out from underneath me and got a knee beneath her, lifting her bow as the creature already bore down on us. I tried to stand as well, but my heel slipped on loose gravel, sending stones skittering over the edge behind me, and I realised we'd run out of summit again.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

The claw rose, blotting out a patch of newly visible stars, and I punched at it from the ground. The projection checked its descent for barely a second. I was already trying to throw another when a woman dropped between us and caught the pincer in both hands.

For a moment I genuinely wondered whether the venom had reached my brain.

Her feet slid backwards through the dirt, silver light spilling over the black shell beneath her fingers. The claw was forcing her down despite her efforts, and I kept firing into its body as a second woman landed beside her. Together they heaved it away from us, their pale dresses whipping about their legs as the Scorpion tried to wrench free.

More light fell across the summit. Two women seized its other claw while another pair caught its rear legs, dragging them apart before it could turn. The last landed on its back and grabbed the tail below the stinger. It nearly threw her off. She clung to it with both arms, bracing a foot against its shell as the hooked point swung past her face.

Seven women, all shining brightly enough that I could see every gouge we'd torn into the ground.

Beside me, Zoë had lowered her bow.

"Sisters?" she whispered.

"Sisters?" I echoed, baffled.

I looked from her to the woman struggling with the nearest claw, and seeing the seven light-covered figures struggle against the monstrous star sign, things finally clicked. The Pleiades. They'd come down from the actual fucking sky to help us.

"Get up, Zoë!" one of the stars called, looking back at her. "Quickly!"

Zoë rose, still staring. The Scorpion dragged both women sideways with a vicious jerk of its pincer, a hateful chittering that sent a shiver down my spine bursting from its clicking mouthparts.

Clearly, as much as it had enjoyed in taking us apart during the fight, this was personal to the giant monster, rage clear in the glittering depths of its remaining eyes. It's many limbs jerked and spasmed again and the woman who'd spoken first cried out before finding her footing again.

"Thy bow! We cannot hold it much longer!"

That got through to the stunned Huntress. Zoë brought the arrow back to her string while I pushed myself upright, firing a small projection into the exposed shell as I did. I couldn't afford to lose [Combo] now, however much I wanted to stand there gawping at our rescuers.

"Under its head!" I called. "The plate with the arrow in it. Can you lift it?"

The sisters at the front tightened their grips, forcing the pincers upwards and apart. Behind them, the other pair hauled back on its legs until its belly began to rise. The Scorpion shrieked, scrabbling for purchase with its free limbs, and the woman on its back nearly lost her hold as the tail thrashed. Green venom dripped across her dress. The fabric broke into sparks wherever it touched, and I could see the strain on her face as she twisted the stinger away from her shoulder.

I kept punching while Zoë drew beside me. Her injured arm shook with the effort, the point wavering until she took a deep breath and pulled the string the final inch to her cheek. Several of her sisters murmured something I couldn't catch, and silver light spread along the shaft. Zoë's eyes widened. Then she adjusted her aim, teeth bared as she held the draw.

I sent another fist into the Scorpion's belly and started towards it. We'd already tried this often enough to know what the other needed to do without needing to say a word.

The arrow whipped inches past my shoulder and struck the fracture with a crack that carried across the summit. A sliver of armour broke away. This time the shaft sank several inches into the plate, right beside the remains of her earlier shot, before the creature convulsed and bent it sideways.

It still hadn't gone deep enough, but I could see the opening around it.

"Hold it!" I shouted, ducking between the claws.

My first punch snapped the shaft and drove the head further in. The broken edges grated and splintered against my unbreakable knuckles as I caught the plate with my left hand, ignoring the pain long enough to brace myself beneath its body. I struck again, releasing a tight projection as my fist connected. The fracture spread, one edge lifting far enough for me to get my fingers beneath it.

The Scorpion tried to lower itself onto me and it would've flattened me if not for my [One Star Uniform] boosting my [Hanma] blessing. A leg scraped down my thigh and I shoved my foot against the ground, keeping my shoulder clear of its snapping mouthparts while the sisters fought to lift it again. Up close I could hear the wet clicking coming from inside its mouth, and the fluid leaking from its ruined eyes dripped onto my sleeve.

'Gross…'

I desperately wanted to get the fuck away from its slavering mouth, but I needed to stay close enough to put everything I had into each punch.

I hit the arrowhead again. My left arm shook so badly I could barely keep hold, but the right still worked and the plate was finally giving. A chunk broke beneath my grip, exposing the embedded heads of both arrows. I barely even had time to notice that one of them was still glowing faintly with silver starlight as I pulled back for another blow.

Just then, above me, one of the claws tore free.

"Ethan!" Zoë's desperate cry cut across the mountaintop.

[Martial Foresight] showed me exactly how the pincer would come down on my skull. Not even to squeeze it off my shoulders, it'd just smash it (and the better part of my torso) into pulp, like taking a sledgehammer to a watermelon. I could get out, probably, but the Scorpion was already twisting away from the sisters holding it. If I let it cover that opening again, I wasn't sure I'd have enough left in me to try a second time.

'Come on. Just one more.'

I planted my foot and drove forwards, [Kung Fu Mastery] carrying the movement through my hips and shoulder as I poured everything I had into [Fist Projection]. Metallic knuckles swelled around my hand, huge enough to cover the broken plate, and I slammed them into the arrowheads before the pincer could reach me.

The megaton punch blew through its armour.

My arm followed it almost to the elbow, burying both arrowheads somewhere deep inside the creature. Its shriek cut off. For an instant I could feel it clenching around my fist, then the entire body reared and dragged me off the ground.

"Oh, shit—!"

I tried to wrench myself free, boots kicking above its legs while broken shell caught my sleeve. Starlight poured out around my arm. The plate beneath my other hand crumbled, and I fell onto my knees as the Scorpion began to topple forwards.

I threw an arm over my head. Several seconds passed before I dared to lower it again.

Silver motes drifted through the space where its belly had been. Above me, the enormous shell was dissolving a plate at a time, each piece breaking apart before it could hit the ground. The freed claw scattered across my upraised hand. Its tail remained curled against the sky a little longer, then unravelled from the stinger downwards, leaving the sisters standing amongst the rising lights.

Starlight. Even dying, the bastard had to be special.

I tried to laugh and choked instead.

The cramp seized my chest so hard I folded over, my forehead nearly striking the ground. I'd stopped punching, stopped moving, and suddenly there was nothing to distract me from how far the venom had spread. I tried to draw breath. My back arched without my permission and a horrible sound came out of my throat.

'Ethan, you fucking idiot. You still have to survive this.'

The scroll appeared beside me in a shower of sparks.

[Combat Achievement Recognized]

[Star Sign defeated: SCORPIO!]

[Reward: Platinum Item Drachma.]

[Rewards Dispensing]

It held itself proudly upright until another spasm nearly drove my face into its writing. The parchment flinched back as a platinum drachma dropped into the dirt, and I slapped my good hand over it before it could roll away. Even picking it up hurt. The thing felt absurdly heavy between my fingers, far more so than the silver coin I'd spent during the climb.

'An Item... Please, Dad. Give me something I can use… Please…'

I fumbled it onto my thumb and flicked it into the air. A vortex opened almost against my face, swallowing the coin, and for a brief moment I felt that familiar attention settle on me from somewhere impossibly far away. I tried to hold onto it through the pain.

I couldn't tell if it had done anything as that enormous, unfathomable presence receded again and the void closed. Above my head, the outline of a ring appeared with a small shield worked into its band. Something metallic landed between my knees and the scroll hurried closer, almost shoving its golden lettering in my face.

[OFFERING PLATINUM ITEM DRACHMA.]

[Ring of the Paladin]

|Elite Item|

An enchanted ring worn by a legendary paladin, now infused with his prayers. This ring can hold a total of 3 charges and recovers a charge every hour. You can spend a charge to cast a Rare tier Heal on yourself or a target, grant a target any one Uncommon tier blessing like strength or agility, or bless an object with holy energy to create holy water or a temporarily blessed weapon effective against the unholy.

[Charges: 3/3]

I got as far as Heal before my elbow gave out.

The ground struck my shoulder and I rolled onto my side, knocking the ring away as I tried to breathe. My left arm was shaking uncontrollably. I grabbed it with my right, which accomplished precisely fuck all, but I couldn't seem to stop myself, my knuckles turning white as another spasm wrecked my body.

"Ethan!" Zoë dropped beside me, catching my shoulder. "Look at me! What must I do?"

"Ring," I gasped, trying to point. "There. Healing."

One of her sisters knelt on my other side, saying something I couldn't follow, but clearly hadn't been encouraging if Zoë's reaction was anything to go by.

"No! No, I will not accept that! This will work, it must work!" the Huntress almost snarled as she hurriedly snatched up the band.

She rapidly read the scroll, then caught my good hand and tried to uncurl my fingers, but my grip was like iron, fueled as much by stacking blessings of strength as the pain radiating outwards in waves from the ruins of my arm.

"Let go of thy arm. Ethan, let go!"

I managed it on the second attempt. She worked the ring over my finger, a heavy band of pale metal with a little shield engraved into its face. Watching her do it, I had the stupidest thought of my life, which was quite an achievement considering how said life had got me to this point in the first place.

"Bit soon for marriage," I wheezed, "haven't asked your dad for permission yet…"

Zoë looked up sharply. "If thou hast breath for jests, thou hast breath to tell me how this works!"

"Have to… spend a charge."

"Then do it!" Her fingers tightened around mine. "Please."

I tried. Normally my blessings answered as soon as I wanted them, but it was difficult to want anything coherently while my own muscles were trying to tear themselves loose.

"Look at me, Ethan." Zoë's voice broke through the haze clouding my thoughts.

I did, briefly. Her face was very close, her eyes wide and frightened in a way I wasn't used to seeing. I tried to apologise, only for my back to seize again.

"Stay with me. Focus on the power within ring. Think of what you wish it to do."

I wanted it to stop hurting. I wanted my arm to stop shaking and my lungs to work, and I was trying to put all of that into whatever part of me normally answered when I called on a blessing.

"Use the charge. Heal thyself." Zoë kept talking in that soft, scared voice, holding my hand between hers, and I focused on the ring as best I could.

Heal. That was all I needed it to do. Put everything back where it belonged and let me breathe again.

Finally, warmth spread from the band. I gasped as the muscles across my chest loosened. The cut along my side pulled closed beneath my ruined shirt, followed by the puncture in my arm. I could feel the bruising fade from my ribs. For a few wonderful seconds I lay there breathing, and I thought it was over.

My hand convulsed around Zoë's. Apparently patching the holes hadn't dealt with what the Scorpion had pumped through them, and it was already undoing the ring's good work. I felt another cramp begin to draw my back off the ground.

"Still there," I choked out. "The poison."

She looked down at my arm. The wound was gone, but the muscles beneath it had started twitching again, contracting visibly underneath the skin. Desperately, Zoë looked at the scroll. It had amended the charge count to two, then retreated behind her shoulder when I cried out again. She caught its lower edge before it could roll itself away.

'For a thing without eyes or a face, it looks almost… worried.' I thought lucidly, my mind fogging up again as the heat from the venom began to spread through my veins once more.

"The healing, can he use it again?" I heard Zoë press the magical scroll.

The line about spending a charge enlarged until it occupied most of the parchment.

"Again, Ethan." She turned back to me, holding my hand firmly between both of hers. "It has closed thy wounds. Use another charge for just the venom."

I could already feel the next cramp starting. The first Heal had stopped my body coming apart; I could feel the difference even while the poison started undoing its work. This time I held onto the burning itself, the ugly heat spreading from the place where the stinger had caught me, and spent a second charge.

The ring grew warm against my finger and that familiar soothing sensation returned.

Gradually, the pressure eased in my chest. My arm stopped shaking. I held my breath, waiting for the next spasm, until Zoë squeezed my hand and told me to breathe.

I did. Then again, cautiously. My arm stopped trembling against my chest and the burning began to ease, retreating until I could move my shoulder without feeling it at all.

"Ethan?"

"I think…" I swallowed. My throat felt raw. "Yeah. I think that did it."

She kept watching me, her grip firm enough that I could feel my fingers pressing together. I couldn't blame her. I wasn't quite ready to trust it either, and we stayed like that for several breaths before I finally let my head rest on the ground.

Strangely, I wasn't just rapidly beginning to feel better, but I was actually starting to feel… well, better. Even better than before. Something (my [Hanma] blood if I had to guess) in my body had shifted, grown stronger thanks to surviving the trauma and I had the feeling that the next time something were to try and poison me, they were in for a nasty surprise.

Hopefully though, there wouldn't even be a next time.

The scroll peered cautiously around her shoulder.

[Charges: 1/3]

"Thank fuck," I whispered.

It rolled up, apparently satisfied, then returned almost immediately with a cheery burst of sparks.

[Survival Achievement Recognized]

[You have survived the Scorpion's venom!]

[Reward: Silver Trait Drachma.]

[Rewards Dispensing]

The coin landed on my chest. It carried considerably more weight than its size would suggest, though less than the platinum one had carried. I caught it before it could slide off and looked towards the parchment, which had recovered its enthusiasm considerably faster than I had.

It tilted its writing towards me until I acknowledged the reward, then curled up beside my knee. Zoë sat back on her heels, still holding my hand, and let out a long, unsteady breath.

"I thought I-… thou stood on Hades' doorstep, Ethan. I feared it to be thy end," she said haltingly.

"Yeah." I looked down at the ring. "Felt like it, too."

I wanted to thank her properly. Something a little better than the marriage joke, preferably, but when I looked back at her I noticed the blood soaking through her sleeve. She'd been kneeling here trying to keep me alive with her own shoulder still torn open.

"Let me get that."

She followed my gaze. "It can wait. Thou should—"

"Zoë, I've got one charge left. Come here."

I sat up and put my ringed hand against her injured arm. It was much easier to concentrate without the venom burning through my veins and I could feel the last charge when I concentrated, a small warmth gathered within the band. I spent it before she could argue any further. She inhaled sharply as the wound closed beneath the torn fabric. The cuts across her fingers, where she had torn the skin from firing so many arrows, had healed too. She turned a hand over, flexing her fingers as the last of the light faded.

[Charges: 0/3] the parchment unrolled and helpfully provided.

"That's all three. An hour before we get another, so let's try to avoid anything else with venom until then."

Zoë flexed her hand again, then looked at me. "Thou art hardly in a position to lecture me about that."

"Oh don't worry, I was including myself in that."

A quiet laugh came from beside us. Zoë turned towards the sister still kneeling there, and her hand slipped out of mine as whatever she'd been about to say to me disappeared.

The woman was still kneeling beside us, her expression gentle as she watched Zoë take in her face. The others stood close by, silver light falling across the grass around their feet. Without the Scorpion trying to kill us, I could see the resemblance properly. The same dark eyes, a similar shape to the mouth, though her expression was much warmer than anything Zoë had greeted me with when we'd first met.

"Merope…" the Huntress barely dared to breathe and the woman reached for Zoë's face with a dazzling smile, gently pushing back the hair stuck to her cheek.

"I did not know if thou wouldst remember me," Zoë admitted.

"Oh, Zoë," her sister's smile faltered, "How could we ever forget thee?"

Zoë threw her arms around her. The first sob was muffled against the woman's shoulder, but the next was loud enough that the others hurried over. They helped her to her feet and gathered around her, each trying to hold her while Zoë turned from one to another, crying too hard to get more than a few words out.

I looked down and tucked the silver drachma into my pocket. They'd waited long enough for this without some blood-covered idiot sitting there staring at them. The scroll rolled itself away once more, apparently satisfied that I was going to stay alive long enough to use it.

My hands were steady now. It was difficult to reconcile that with how they'd been shaking a minute earlier, and I found myself checking my arm again, rubbing at the place the stinger had gone through. I could remember exactly how it had felt tearing out of me. Now there wasn't even a mark.

If it hadn't been for the poison resistance and sheer fucking grit I got from being a [Hanma], there was no doubt in my mind I would've died before the magic healing ring could've saved my life and even getting that had been a gamble.

I'd been lucky. Absurdly, undeservedly lucky, and I wasn't sure I liked how much of my continued existence depended on Dad giving me the right thing at the right time.

Still, I turned the ring around my finger and quietly thanked him.

There were only traces of the Scorpion left above us, scattered points of light drifting back towards the stars by the time Zoë had recovered enough to speak.

"I saw thee in the sky," she said. "So many nights, I looked for thee, but I did not think… I did not know thou couldst come down."

"We saw thee too," her sister answered. "We watched thee climb."

"Then why—" Zoë stopped herself, glancing towards the place where the Scorpion had fallen. "I am sorry. I did not mean…"

"We could not reach thee before nightfall." One of the sisters took her hand. "And… neither did we know if we would dare."

The admission made me look up.

The woman glanced towards the place where the Scorpion had fallen. Even with it gone, I could see the unease in her face.

"For millennia, we have watched for him. Every night, Orion behind us, his awful hound at his feet and that creature lurking in his shadow. We learnt where to look, when to flee, how close we might allow either to come."

Her sister took her hand.

"We were afraid," she said to Zoë. "We were afraid when we saw thee fighting it, and still we waited for one another to move."

"But then we thought of watching thee die while we remained amongst the stars," the first sister said quietly. "After so long wishing we had stood beside thee once again and we knew that, after millennia, the Pleiades could stay idle no more."

Another sister came closer, resting her cheek briefly against Zoë's hair.

"I was afraid we would be too late."

"So was I," Zoë whispered.

I glanced up. The stars were bright now, the last light gone from the horizon. A few silver motes still drifted above the summit, rising slowly towards the sky. We'd needed to last until dark, and we'd very nearly failed without even knowing help was coming.

One of the sisters looked at me over Zoë's shoulder.

"Thank thee for staying with her."

I shifted, uncomfortable. "She stayed with me. I'd have gone over the side about six times without her."

Zoë made a small, watery sound that might have been a laugh. Her sister smiled and tightened the arm around her, and I left them to it while I got to my feet. My body felt fine. My clothes, on the other hand, were going to need considerably more attention than the Cleaning Stone could provide.

I pulled the torn coat away from my side and looked towards Orion's rope. The Ophiotaurus's frightened face came back to me, hanging over the giant's shoulder as he'd carried him away. I'd promised I was coming. For all we'd managed up here, he was still alone with that bastard.

"The hunter has gone west," one of the sisters said.

I turned. She'd been watching me, her own gaze settling on the rope before she came closer.

"Can you see him?" I asked. "Do you know where he's taking my brother?"

"We have watched him for a very long time and seen where he means to go. We know the place he seeks."

Zoë pulled back from the others, wiping her face. "Tell us. Please."

Her sister looked west, across the dark hills.

"Beyond these hills, beyond the country that lies between, there is a mountain in Oregon which burnt and fell into itself. Water filled the hollow. Deep water, held within a ring of cliffs and home to a wizard. That is where he means to offer thy brother."

I stared at her. A burnt mountain, water and a wizard. After the conversation at the diner, I'd rather been hoping we were finished with riddles.

"You know all this but… can't say a name or something? A heading? A fucking GPS location?" I asked, frustration leaking into my voice.

I felt a bit bad about sneering at the women who had saved our asses, but to be so close to getting the help I needed to save my brother and get stonewalled with riddles of all things was trying my already frayed patience.

The Pleiades seemed to understand at least, many of them looking away or bowing their head as one of stepped forwards.

"Apologies, Ethan Creed. Help thee as we wish, the Ancient Laws prevent us from completing thy Quest for thee. The Hunt for Orion and thy Brother belongs to thee and our Sister. We can hint at the solution, but not give thee the answer."

I gritted my teeth at the mention of these so-called Ancient Law and I could feel a flash of annoyance from my divine self, somewhat similar to the primal reaction I had to the presence of the Fates, but Zoë was already nodding.

"The final lines," she said, turning to me. "Of the prophecy. We have now completed most of it, only the last two remain."

I went back over it in my head, trying to fit the words to what her sister had described.

'Let's see. Forests and inland sea, check. Work alongside Zoë to track her quarry… almost-check. A child of the gods must live… they must mean Daniël. Which, I mean good for the kid I guess, but I was rather hoping that applied to me… And of course this is the mountain 'where sisters fled'… though I would've liked it if the Prophecy mentioned we'd be up against the literal Socrpio, I'd have brought bugspray. Which just leaves…'

"Shattered rim where stars once fell… A mountain with its top missing, a lake inside it. That sounds like a collapsed volcano or something." I muttered

"A lake within it… Crater Lake, in Oregon. It fills the remains of a volcano." Zoë quickly filled in the blanks.

"And the whole... wizard part?"

"Wizard Island, it lies within the lake," she said confidently as her sister nodded.

I looked between them. Oregon meant very little to me beyond being somewhere out west, but Zoë clearly knew the place. With any luck, she also knew how to get us there.

"Wizard Island, huh. Is that it?" I looked back at her sister. "That is where he means to make the sacrifice?"

She inclined her head.

Relief hit me hard enough that I almost laughed. An actual destination. Somewhere we could point Arion towards without spending another day following tracks and asking strangers whether they'd seen a giant walk past carrying a snake-bull.

"He won't hurt him before he gets there? He won't just stop somewhere along the way and..." I asked, unable to finished the sentence before taking a deep breath. I had to be sure. "He has to take him to the island?"

Several of the sisters nodded.

"That is the ground he has chosen. One does not simply slay a being containing such power as the Ophiotaurus possess as if one were a common butcher. He must offer it properly and for that, he has chosen this particular site and no other. Find the ritual site and you shall find thy brother. Make haste."

I nodded, already trying to remember how far away Oregon was. Too far, probably, but at least we knew. I opened my mouth to ask whether they could tell us anything else, then realised I could see the grass through the hem of her dress.

Zoë noticed too.

"No," she said, catching her sister's hand. "Already?"

"We used what strength we had to hold the Scorpion." The woman's fingers closed around hers. "We cannot remain."

"But I have so much to tell thee." Zoë's voice broke. She swallowed and tried again. "There is so much thou dost not know."

"Then look up to the night sky and tell the stars." Her sister touched her cheek. "We shall be listening."

Zoë hugged her so tightly I could see her hands through the woman's back. The others gathered close again, each taking her turn to hold her. Even as their hands grew faint and the edges of their clothing began to unravel into light, they brushed her hair or kissed her forehead. She cried openly now, and none of them seemed inclined to ask her to stop. Another brushed the tears away with fingers that were already breaking into light, and Zoë tried to catch her hand before it disappeared.

I stayed by the discarded bow, giving them what little time they had.

The last sister held the crying Huntress until there was nothing left for Zoë's fingers to close around. For a moment the light clung to Zoë's hair and shoulders, then rose after the others, leaving her standing beneath the stars with her arms slowly lowering to her sides.

"G-give me a moment, p-please…" she said, wiping at her face again.

"Of course." I said as I picked up her bow and moved away from her, giving her space.

I sat on a nearby rock while she kept looking up at the stars. The silver drachma pressed against my thigh through my pocket, and I took it out, weighing it against my palm. After what had just happened, leaving another potentially useful blessing untouched seemed like tempting fate.

Considering my last run-in with those old crones had ended with them trying to erase me from existence and getting smacked down for their troubles, I wasn't exactly eager to tempt them again.

The coin vanished into a little vortex above my hand. I felt my father's attention again, briefly, then a symbol appeared over my head. This time it showed a simple human figure with arrows rising around it, each successive outline broader than the last. I felt the blessing settle through me while the scroll appeared in a fresh shower of sparks to provide the explanation.

It seemed quite pleased to do so now that there wasn't anybody screaming anymore.

[OFFERING SILVER TRAIT DRACHMA.]

[Success Empowerment]

|Elite Trait|

You grow stronger, faster and more durable from success, whether your own or that of those around you. Every victory feeds back into you, unlocking new heights and sharpening existing abilities. Failure, however, weakens you just as readily.

I read the description twice, then looked down at the dried blood covering my clothes.

"Guess getting poisoned and almost killed by a giant scorpion counts as a win." I said somewhat bitterly.

The scroll pointed one curled edge towards the place where the Scorpion had died. Fair enough. I was alive and it wasn't, though I'd have preferred a slightly wider margin.

There was already a little more strength in my hands when I gripped the edge of the rock, a steadiness in my body as I rose from the crouch that hadn't been there before. Between [Hanma], the One-Star Uniform and this, I was getting a long way from the body I'd woken up in on that park bench. The next time something picked me up in a claw, perhaps I'd have a better chance of pulling the damn thing clean off.

Provided I kept winning, anyway. That last sentence wasn't something I could afford to ignore. Failing could leave me weaker for the next attempt, which seemed an excellent way for a bad day to become a considerably worse one.

It was the part about other people's successes that interested me most, though.

I thought of Luke and Thalia training at camp, of Annabeth determined to prove she was every bit as capable as the older kids. I thought of the Hephaestus kids, so eager to help and so proud of their creation, all for the promise of driving lessons. I thought of all the other demigods, all of them just kids trying to learn how to survive long enough to grow up, and the hours I could spend helping them do it.

Their successes would feed back into me, making me stronger while I helped them do the same, meaning helping them would be worth even more than it already was. I could spend time teaching them what I knew, get some practice myself and have something to show for it without needing to be almost eaten first.

Obviously I'd have to find out when the blessing actually counted. I doubted I could stand beside somebody opening a particularly stubborn pickle jar and become Superman overnight, but there was an awful lot of wiggle room between that and fighting another giant monster straight out of myth and horoscopes.

Returning to Camp was starting to sound very appealing. I already had had some vague notions of improving the life of those poor campers, but this blessing just reinforced my desire to actually do something about it.

"You could've just said you wanted me to go back," I muttered to the empty air before I shook my head.

First I had to get my brother back though.

The scroll had already disappeared by the time Zoë came over. Her eyes were red, though she'd stopped crying, and she accepted her bow with a quiet word of thanks.

"Another blessing?" she asked, clearly trying to distract herself.

"Yeah. Makes me stronger when things go well." I said, not going to bother her with the downside of the blessing, not now with… everything on her mind.

'Speaking of said "everything" though…'

"So… you didn't tell me you come from a big family. Struck me more as an only child to be honest." I said, trying to keep my tone light as I too looked up at the night sky.

It could've just been the lack of light pollution so high up on the Bear's Lodge, but the stars seemed to sparkle extra bright tonight.

Beside me, Zoë stilled and I thought back to the conversation between her and the stranger back at the diner.

"I'm guessing you didn't part with your family on the best terms?"

That actually got quite an unladylike snort from the Huntress.

"That is… an understatement."

She spent some long moments idly fiddling with one edge of her bow before letting out a deep sigh. She sounded exhausted and not just physically speaking.

"You don't have to tell me-" I began, but to my surprise she interrupted me in a small voice.

"No. Thou hast stood by me in battle… a battle that saw me reunited with my family, for however briefly. It is only right that I tell thee this much…"

"So… you're a star? Like your sisters?" I couldn't help but ask with a raised eyebrow, but the Huntress shook her head with a half-smile.

"Nay, I am no constellation. Thou hast lain thy eyes upon the Pleiades, the seven sisters placed in the night sky to save them from the predations of Orion. Or hungry bears, as the locals tell it. They are my half-sisters; I belong to another set of daughters."

She worried her lip for a long moment before taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, before looking me straight in the eye, chin tilted in defiance.

"Mine own sisters are the Hesperides, though I was… expelled from their company close to three thousand years ago. The Hesperides and the Pleiades share blood through our shared father, he who holds the Sky."

She took another steadying breath, visibly pushing forward.

"Ethan Creed. Allow me to re-introduce myself to thee properly. My name is Zoë Nightshade… and I am a daughter of Atlas, the Titan of Strength and Endurance."

---

AN: You can read up to 5 chapters ahead over on my Patreon. The Quest just finished it's last chapter there!

 

[aokway]

Success Empowerment

Click to shrink...

What was that I said about "only needing 1 more roll to have exponential growth"
I think It might have been listening
Every successful punch
Every intuitive dodge
Also
Remember that old roll
I don't remember the wording exactly
But didn't it make his every action successful?
Usually the tiny bonuses from things like walking right would balance with the tiny failings
He doesn't fail period at that kinda thing

Also
Not to be rude but at this point I have to ask
Are you fudging the rolls???

 

[Zeldomnyo]

Oh that is going to snowball hard!

 

[Bakkughan]

What was that I said about "only needing 1 more roll to have exponential growth"
I think It might have been listening
Every successful punch
Every intuitive dodge
Also
Remember that old roll
I don't remember the wording exactly
But didn't it make his every action successful?
Usually the tiny bonuses from things like walking right would balance with the tiny failings
He doesn't fail period at that kinda thing

Also
Not to be rude but at this point I have to ask
Are you fudging the rolls???

Click to shrink...

I also use the expanded Chaos Gacha made by @Benw8888 though I use the regular site to keep track of all the blessings. Also the regular site has recently (?) added a tag system, which as discussed in-universe allows me/Chaos to put a thumb on the scales so to speak (both retroactively and looking into the future). So for instance in this chapter, I knew I wanted Ethan to get poisoned ever since I rerolled his [Strong] Trait into the [Hanma] Trait. So I selected the heal/buff/etc tags and then rolled in the item category. The first roll gave me a zankpakto with healing abilities, but that felt too out of place, so I rerolled and lucked out with the [Paladin's Ring].

 

[hacks]

I just found this story and I'm really loving it compared to your other stories no offense they're good but to much power grabbing. There's some elements of it here but it's more grounded and I feel like we see the characters more then do this and that for power. The characters/gods are well written and compelling and im definitely excited to see more of other patheons

 

[Bakkughan]

I just found this story and I'm really loving it compared to your other stories no offense they're good but to much power grabbing. There's some elements of it here but it's more grounded and I feel like we see the characters more then do this and that for power. The characters/gods are well written and compelling and im definitely excited to see more of other patheons

Click to shrink...

Thanks, I appreciate it!

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[Bakkughan]

CHAPTER 19​

​

---

Zoë held my gaze after proclaiming her re-introduction and there was an oddly tense energy in the air. Her shoulders were squared, her chin still raised, and I had the uncomfortable feeling that she felt as though I might draw a weapon on her at any moment now.

"Atlas," I repeated. "The guy holding up the sky?"

"Aye. The very same. He is bound to forever keep thy siblings apart. Should Earth and Sky meet again, the world would end."

I looked upwards before I could help myself. Beyond it, the night sky stretched over everything. Somewhere below those stars was her own father, punished with holding half of existence away from the other half, while I was still getting used to calling the Ophiotaurus my brother.

'Man, Greek mythological family trees are all sorts of fucked up I guess…'

When I looked back, Zoë hadn't moved, though her knuckles had turned white around the grip of her bow, as if dreading my judgement.

"That explains why the Pleiades called you their sister," I simply said instead. "Guess you do come from a big family after all, huh?"

"… what? That is… That is all thou hast to say?" Zoë blinked at me, her voice small and I shrugged.

"I'm the son of Kaos, Zoë. I'm about the last person in the world who should go around judging people for their family history. I'm just wondering why you didn't tell me sooner?"

Her expression changed, though I couldn't have said whether I'd offended her or confused her. "Art thou aware of who my father is? Hast thou not heard of his part in the Titanomachy? He was no common foe, but a General of the legions set against the gods."

"Yeah. He fought them. And lost, by the way," I frowned. "but why would that make me suspicious of you?"

"Because it has made the gods suspicious of me for nearly three thousand years. I am a daughter of their enemy, Ethan. That has followed me since the Titanomachy. Even amongst those who know how long I have served Lady Artemis, there are those who wonder whether I might one day choose my father's side, who believe blood must tell in the end."

I thought of the throne room and the way Artemis had almost started a fight with Dionysus when he'd spoken about Zoë. I'd known there was history there, but not how much of it Zoë had spent having to prove herself.

"Is that why you're so loyal to Artemis?" I blurted out.

Instead of rebuffing me like I expected her to, Zoë's expression turned somber as she glanced towards the place where her sisters had disappeared. "My Lady deserves nothing less. She took me into the Hunt when I had nowhere else to go. She has defended me many times since, often when doing so won her no friends amongst the gods. I have given her cause enough to regret it, with my temper, but she has never made me feel that she does."

"I saw some of that at Olympus," I said consideringly. "When Dionysus doubted your loyalty. She actually pulled a bow on him."

That got a rueful chuckle out of the Huntress. "That sounds my Lady, aye. Getting into fights on my behalf when she should know better."

"Well, you don't have to defend yourself to me," I said. "Evil Titan dad or no. You should be judged by your own actions, not his from millennia ago."

She studied me for a moment. "How are thou still not troubled by such a revelation?"

"Zoë, I've travelled with you. You stayed on this mountain to help me fight that Scorpion when you could barely draw your bow." I remembered how she had looked at my arm while the venom spread, and how she'd kept telling me to stay with her as I was fading. "I know which side you're on. I promise I'm not going to see you differently because of your father."

She let out a breath and looked away. I hadn't meant to make light of her relevation; I could see now how much she'd risked by telling me. I just couldn't imagine weighing the deeds of Atlas against everything she'd done since we met.

"Besides," I added, "it does answer one question. Artemis's blessings were fading up here, and you were still strong enough to hold your own. I was wondering where that came from."

"Distance myself from his as I might, the blood of Titans is not so easily shunned. I am not my father's equal when it comes to strength, but then, very few beings are." She said with a faint smile. It lasted until I glanced towards the stars again.

"Are you the only Hesperide who left your father?"

Zoë visibly hesitated for a moment before she nodded. "My sisters still guard Hera's golden apples. Their grove lies near the mountain where Atlas bears the sky." Her voice grew quieter.

"Why did you leave when your sisters stayed?" I asked as I turned back towards the Huntress.

Zoë's hand tightened around her bow. For a moment I thought she wasn't going to answer, and regretted asking so soon after she'd watched her other half-sisters disappear.

"Sorry," I said. "That was personal. Forget I even asked, you don't have to—""

"Nay." Zoë interrupted as she drew a breath. "Thou hast earned the right to know."

She paused, looking out over the edge of the Devil's Tower as she gripped the bow in her hands and after a long, hesitant moment, she haltingly told me about Herakles: how she'd helped him take Hera's apples and given him the sword he'd used against Ladon. He had taken the credit for the labour without ever thanking her for her aid, instead leaving her to the fury of the Hesperides to answer for her betrayal. Her sisters had cast her out for helping Herakles in the first place, while he went on to become the greatest hero in Greece.

In the end, Herakles got the glory and Zoë had lost her family.

By the time she finished, I understood why she had bristled every time his name came up. I also understood some of the things she'd said about men during our travels, though I couldn't help but keep turning those over in my mind.

We stood there for a while, Zoë clearly understanding I was working through all she'd told me before I finally spoke. "What Herakles did to you was cruel and I understand why you wouldn't want anything to do with him, or even people like him. I'm sorry your sisters took his side of it, too." I tried to put the next part carefully, though I doubted there was a comfortable way to say it. "But I still think you've been unfair to people who never hurt you. Most men aren't Herakles. Most couldn't be if they tried, for better or worse."

Zoë turned towards me. I expected her to pick a fight with me over that, and perhaps she would have done a week ago. Instead, she spent a long moment looking at me.

"When first we met," she said quietly, "I compared thee to him. More than once. Thou art similar in more ways than one, him and thee. Strong, stubborn, and convinced there was no danger thou could not fight thy way through."

"That's unfair. Sometimes I drive through it instead."

She smiled for a moment before she gave a small shake of her head. "Then I saw thee refuse to leave Daniel behind, though taking him with us made thy task harder. And today, after the Scorpion's venom nearly killed thee, thou gave one of thy healing charges to me. There was no way for thee to know whether the poison might trouble thee again."

"You were hurt," I said simply. "What was I meant to do?"

"Many heroes would have kept it for themselves."

I wanted to argue with that, since hoarding medicine didn't sound very heroic to me, but then again she'd known a great many more heroes than I had.

"More than once I measured thee against the standard that Herakles has set for all men and heroes, for good or ill. And I've come to see that… thou art the better man, Ethan."

For some reason, that was harder to grasp than being told she was Atlas's daughter. I looked down at the rope Orion had left tied around the outcrop, while Zoë busied herself checking the strap on her quiver.

"Thank you," I said eventually. "For trusting me with… all of that."

She nodded, still looking out across the hills as silence fell between us. Her sisters were gone, and somewhere beyond them Orion was taking my brother farther away with every minute we spent talking. I hated to hurry her after what she'd just told me, but she was the one who'd said we had to make haste. I followed her gaze west for a little longer, then looked back at the rope hanging from the outcrop.

"I suppose we'd better get down there," I said finally.

"Aye." Zoë visibly shook herself from her reminiscing, turning from the stars as she followed me to the edge of the Devil's Tower summit.

I rolled my shoulders and made my way over to where Orion had gone over the side carrying the Ophiotaurus. "Ready?"

She took one last look upwards, then nodded.

Orion's knot was still firmly secured around the outcrop. I pulled against it, checked the rock beneath the loop and leaned over the rim. The rope disappeared down the grooved side of the Bear's Lodge, its lower end lost amongst the boulders. Somewhere below, Arion's headlights still moved between the trees.

Zoë slung her bow over her shoulder and reached for the rope.

"Hang on," I said. "We can get down quicker than that."

She looked at me warily. "What art thou planning?"

I held up my hands. "These can't get rope burn. If you hold onto me, I can lower us both. We'll be down in seconds."

Her eyes moved from my palms to the drop. "Thy hands may be invulnerable. The rest of thee has only just been put back together."

"I'm feeling pretty good, actually." I flexed my fingers. "And this held Orion and my brother. It can take the two of us."

She checked the knot herself before looking over the edge again. I waited, resisting the urge to point out that the longer she took to get over her distrust of either heights or me (or both), the more Orion would grow his headstart. Eventually she stepped back and tightened the strap holding her bow.

"Go slowly near the bottom," she insisted.

"I promise."

I took hold of the rope and bent my knees so she could get her arms around my shoulders. Her legs locked around my waist, pulling her firmly against my back, and for a moment I forgot about the drop entirely. Apparently surviving deadly poison hadn't exactly curbed my enthusiasm for being wrapped in the embrace of a beautiful woman.

'Probably best to keep that observation to myself.' I thought as I shook my head.

"Secure?" I asked instead, feeling Zoë nod behind me.

"Very. Go."

I eased backwards over the rim until the rope took our weight, then pushed away from the wall. Zoë's arms tightened as we dropped, the line sliding quickly through my hands. I closed my grip enough to slow us, feeling the strain through my shoulders as our weight pulled against it.

The invulnerable palms worked beautifully. Unfortunately, the rope was considerably less invulnerable, and the smell of hot fibres made me ease off before I burnt up our transportation. I let the line run in short but rapid stretches, braking between them and using my boots against the rock whenever we swung close enough. [Climbing Mastery] kept finding places to put them, sparing both of us a few unpleasant knocks against the columns.

Zoë's cheek pressed beside mine. She was watching the ground over my shoulder, and the grip around my chest grew steadily tighter as we descended.

"I am slowing down," I assured her, feeling her nod rapidly against my shoulder as the wind whipped past our faces.

I checked our speed well above the lower rocks, letting my feet take more of our weight as the slope eased. The last few yards were almost ordinary climbing. By the time I stepped onto solid ground, my shoulders were aching, my palms were black with rope dirt and Zoë seemed thoroughly ready to let go of me.

She did, then caught one of my hands before I'd even turned around. Her thumb rubbed a dark smear from the skin beneath my fingers as if to make sure.

"See?" I said. "All intact."

She looked up the sheer face we'd just descended, then back at me. "Next time, I would appreciate a bit less haste."

I decided to accept that as permission for there to be a next time.

Headlights swung towards us and Arion rolled out from amongst the boulders. His crossbows were still raised, the spears along his sides coated in golden dust. A small burst of flame coughed from a tailpipe as he stopped, and I grinned despite everything that had happened.

"Good to see you too, buddy."

I carefully walked around the bristling weapons and gave the bonnet a grateful pat. Those kids were absolutely getting their booze once they were old enough. Without Arion clearing the pack, I wouldn't have earned [Fist Projection], and without that we'd have been thoroughly fucked up there.

I reached into the cab and switched off the anti-monster package. The spears withdrew, the shutters lifted and the crossbows folded back into the flatbed. I climbed behind the wheel while Zoë settled beside me and unfolded the map beneath the interior light.

We found Crater Lake in southern Oregon. Wizard Island was marked inside it.

"There," Zoë said, resting a finger against the name.

I looked at the distance between it and Bear's Lodge, then started the engine.

"Right. Let's go get my brother."

---

We drove west through the night, with Zoë working out our route under the little light above the dashboard while I concentrated on keeping Arion on the road. Once we reached the highway there was little traffic to worry about, and I made up as much time as I could without putting us into a ditch.

The map had made Oregon look reasonably close. Several hours later, when we still hadn't managed to leave Wyoming, I was beginning to resent whoever had decided America needed to be quite this big.

At least we knew where we were going. After all the time we'd spent trying to pick up Orion's trail, being able to point Arion towards an actual destination was a relief. I kept coming back to what the Pleiades had told us. Orion needed to reach the island before he could perform the sacrifice. Somewhere ahead of us, the Ophiotaurus was still alive, and I had to keep believing we could reach him in time.

Zoë stayed awake for most of those first hours, giving directions and brainstorming the various ways in Orion was likely to try and stall us and protect his ritual site and the even more varied ways in which we could circumvent his defenses and kick his ass.

Considering she had been hunting him for the better part of 2,000 years, she was rather keen on that last part.

Eventually she fell asleep with her head against the window. I turned the radio down and kept driving, grateful that at least one of us was getting some rest.

Considering the state I'd been in a few hours ago, I was doing surpisingly well myself. The healing had done a remarkably thorough job (it ought to, considering I spent two-thirds of the [Ring of the Paladin] charges on surviving Scorpio's poison after all) and despite the late hour after a long day, I felt refreshed.

Other than an ache in my shoulders from the climb down, I could have believed the fight had happened weeks ago. Every so often I moved my left arm, checking that it still worked, then felt a bit foolish when it did. I'd spent long enough expecting the next cramp to stop my breathing that having nothing wrong with me was taking some adjustment.

Unfortunately, being healed didn't mean I could go indefinitely without sleep. By the time we stopped for something to eat, almost a full day after cutting straight through Idaho and finally crossing into Oregon, I was yawning often enough for Zoë to notice.

"I could drive for a while," she offered as we returned to the truck. "Some sleep would do thee good, Ethan. We still have a long way to go."

My hand closed around the keys before I could stop it. I trusted Zoë with my life, had done as much in both the fights against Sirius and Scorpio. I had considerably less faith in her ability to distinguish the clutch from the accelerator, and remembering her idea of indicating to a minivan was enough to make my foot search for a brake pedal even though I was standing in a car park.

"I'll sleep in the flatbed for a couple of hours," I decided. "We can get going again as soon as I wake up."

She looked down at the keys clenched in my hand, then back at me. Her lips pressed together, but she let the matter go and settled into the passenger seat to keep watch.

Since the last time she'd driven, I'd fought several monsters, including an invulnerable scorpion the size of a small bus, and I was still more afraid of getting back in the passenger seat.

Several hours later, I paid for that (entirely rational) fear when I woke with a stiff neck. Apparently at some point, Zoë had covered me with a blanket, which I appreciated. I pushed it aside, worked the stiffness out of my neck and climbed from the truck. Zoë was leaning against the flatbed, staring out over the wilderness with such intensity as though she'd somehow acquired [Hawk Eyes] while I was asleep, trying to spot Orion through sheer determination.

She glanced over when she heard me approach and, without a word, handed me a stack of sugary donuts and a fresh cup of coffee, which I practically inhaled, feeling the sugar and caffeine kick in like a mule on cocaine. Once I was properly awake, she unfolded the map again.

We were back on the road before I'd finished eating.

The following hours passed in long stretches of open country, with towns appearing beside the highway and disappearing behind us before I'd learned their names. Dry hills gave way to farmland, then rose again into mountains where we steadily climbed up and down. We barely stopped on occasion to stretch our legs and buy food, ate most of it in the cab and kept heading west.

The miles passed easier than they had before. Zoë kept the map open across her knees, but we talked between checking the roads and figuring out which short cuts to take. She told me about places she'd visited with the Hunt over the centuries, usually because something we'd passed reminded her of one.

Three thousand years apparently left you with a lot of travel stories.

Most involved monsters. Some involved gods, several involved people whose names I vaguely recognised from history, and a surprising number involved Artemis dragging a band of immortal teenage girls halfway across the world because somebody had reported something unusual in a forest.

There were gaps, of course. Anything involving her family tended to end quickly, though not always unhappily. Zoë spoke about her sisters more easily now, especially the Pleiades, and once spent the better part of twenty minutes telling me about an argument between Sterope and Merope that had apparently survived several centuries after everyone involved had forgotten what started it.

Stories about the Hunt were easier.

Mostly.

There was the village in Greece they'd saved from a drakon, where Artemis had personally escorted the women and children to safety while leaving the boys and men to defend the walls. Zoë mentioned that part so casually that it took me a moment to realise what she'd said.

Thankfully, the men had apparently done alright.

Zoë apparently caught my stare as she briefly cleared her throat and looked away, embarassed. I decided to leave that one alone.

Still, even the occasional reminder that Zoë and her goddess had some fairly alarming opinions about half the human race didn't make me regret asking. By the time we'd crossed another hundred miles, I'd learned more about her than I had during the entire first half of our trip.

Occasionally she pointed out something I needed to turn towards, or passed me a bottle of water when I couldn't take a hand off the wheel to reach it. Once, when the road was straight enough, I caught her stretching her bow arm across her chest.

"Shoulder still bothering you?"

"Nay. Thy ring healed it just fine." She lowered her arm, flexing her fingers. "My Lady's blessings have returned as well. I could feel them growing stronger as we left the mountain behind us."

That was good news, though it reminded me how little I knew about our destination.

"And at the lake? Are we going to have the same problem there?"

"Perhaps, though I do not think so. It belongs to a wild, ancient part of this land however, so I cannot promise either way." She looked down at the map. "We shall have to see when we arrive."

I nodded reluctantly. There wasn't much we could do about it, but I would have liked to go into one of these fights knowing roughly what to expect for once. The Scorpion had nearly killed us despite everything we could throw at it, and I'd hate to see what kind of surprises Orion had left up his sleeve after pulling out a trump card like that.

Hopefully, by now he was just about ready to fold.

The [Ring of the Paladin] had recovered all three charges long before we reached Oregon. I turned it on my finger whenever we stopped, relieved to have them available again and increasingly aware of how quickly we could use it up. Two charges to save me and one to heal Zoë. That had been the entire ring emptied in a matter of minutes, and there were plenty of injuries that wouldn't give me even that long to put myself back together.

"If we get separated when we find him, go after my brother," I said eventually. "I'll keep Orion busy."

Zoë turned towards me. "We have yet to see where he is keeping the Ophiotaurus. I would prefer to scout the ritual site properly before deciding which of us should do what."

"I know. I'm just saying, if there's a chance to get him out—"

"I shall take it," she assured me. "But thou must give me time to find it. Charging at Orion the moment we see him may accomplish very little beyond getting thee shot."

I kept my eyes on the road. She had a point, and I could hardly claim my recent experiences had proved otherwise. I wanted the Ophiotaurus away from him badly enough that thinking about anything beyond reaching the giant took some effort.

"Alright. We'll have a look first."

She nodded and went back to the map. I left her to it, trying to work out how we were going to get a frightened snake-bull across a lake whilst a giant tried to kill us. Orion could simply carry my brother across the water. He'd already demonstrated at Lake Superior how easily he could cut off the Ophiotaurus' escape by walking straight across the surface, so getting my brother into the lake wouldn't be enough. We'd have to keep Orion occupied while he swam clear, preferably without getting stranded on the island ourselves.

By the time the signs began pointing us towards Crater Lake, the shadows from the trees stretched a long way across the road. We left the highway and climbed up through thick forest roads, passing the occasional car heading back in the opposite direction. Zoë put the map away as I slowed down.

We'd been trying to catch up with Orion for days, but now that we finally had, I found I suddenly wasn't in nearly as much of a hurry. Every bend in the road began to look like a good place for an ambush

The lake appeared between the trees as we reached the rim. I caught a glimpse of blue water, then came round a bend that opened up the view enough for me to ease off the accelerator entirely.

"There," Zoë said, leaning forwards. "The island."

I could see it below us, a wooded lump rising from the water near this side of the lake. Beyond it, open water stretched all the way to the far wall of the caldera. The lake looked a hell of a lot bigger from down here than it had on the map.

'We're definitely gonna need a bigger boat…'

I drove a little further, looking for somewhere we could get a clear view without stopping in the middle of the road. A patch of gravel beside a break in the trees would have to do. I pulled onto it, leaving enough room to turn Arion around if we needed to get out quickly, and put on the handbrake.

Beyond the verge, the ground fell away in steep slopes of sand and loose rock. Trees clung to the less exposed stretches, but there was no way I was taking Arion down there. Short of me physically throwing him back up to the road again, he'd be stuck at the bottom, and I wasn't particularly eager to find out if I could actually manage that.

"Looks like we're walking from here," I said as I switched off the engine.

Zoë was already looking towards the lake. "Then let us observe the island properly before we choose a way down."

I got out and moved past the open door, stretching my legs after spending far too much of the day bent beneath the dashboard. The air was cool enough to feel through the remaining tears in my clothes. The little blue [Cleaning Stone] had done all it could to mend them, but even the magical little artefact had its limits.

The [One Star Uniform] had recovered better than [Father Garcia's Trenchcoat]. The strength from its Life-Fibers was only slightly diminished, thankfully compensated for by the increase to my own strength since I'd first gotten the uniform. The trenchcoat was a different story, sadly. I just hoped its magical protections against misfortune still held; I could use some of that right about now.

Zoë came round the bonnet to join me, her bow in hand, while I looked out across the lake.

Wizard Island was small compared to the water surrounding it, though the central peak rose well above its wooded shores. It reminded me a little of Bear's Lodge, though a smaller version without the great grooves running down the sides. This one sloped enough that we should be able to walk up it, at least. I wasn't particularly keen on making another climb with history's greatest archer waiting to kill us at the top.

I focused my [Hawk Eyes] on the summit. The distant trees grew clearer until I could distinguish branches, exposed roots and pale strips of bark. At the very top, the ground dipped into a broad hollow lined with dead white birches. Their bare branches stood out amongst the living trees further down, and I found myself wondering what had killed so many of them in one place.

"There's a crater at the top," I told Zoë. "White dead trees all around it."

"The Witch's Cauldron, according to my maps," she said. "Does anything lie within thy sight?"

I shifted a little, trying to see past the near edge. "Some of the far slope. The bottom's hidden."

My brother could have been lying down there and I wouldn't have known it. I followed the rim around, searching between the white trunks for something that might tell us where to look next. A boat pulled onto the shore, trampled plants, even a piece of Orion's clothing would have been welcome. All I could make out were trees and uneven ground, far too much of it concealed from this angle.

A brief movement amongst the birches caught my attention.

I was still trying to focus on it when [Martial Foresight] showed me something striking Zoë, hard enough to throw her back against the truck.

My hand shot out before I could even call her name. All of my martial arts skills and blessings made my body turn before I was even consciously aware of it. [Effective Activity] carried the movement across the space between us without a fraction of wasted effort, my feet churning the loose gravel beneath me as I reached in front of her chest.

The impact nearly wrenched my arm out of its socket. My fingers closed around wood and my boots scraped across the gravel as I staggered, shoulder twisting with the force. For a moment I could only stare at the enormous arrow clenched in my hand, its shaft thicker than two of my fingers together and its broadhead stopped barely inches from Zoë heart.

The arrowhead had struck my palm before I'd got a proper hold on the shaft. Without [Adamantine Fists], it would have punched clean through my hand and buried itself in Zoë's chest. Even with my hand intact, the rest of my arm was shaking from the effort of stopping it.

Zoë had gone still beside me, eyes wide as her breath hitched. I looked from the arrowhead to the truck at her back, then out towards the island, a little over a mile away.

Orion had just tried to pin her to the door.

---

AN: You can read up to 5 chapters ahead over on my Patreon

 

[Bakkughan]

CHAPTER 20​

​

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I stood bent across Zoë with something the size of a small javelin clutched in my fist. She stared at its sharpened point halted mere inches away from her heart. Her bow was still in her hand, half-raised towards a threat neither of us had seen coming. I looked across the lake.

[Hawk Eyes] brought Wizard Island rushing towards me, past the wooded slopes and up to the ring of dead trees around its summit. A tall figure stood between two pale trunks, his enormous bow lowered slightly. The bronze mechanisms of his eyes shifted as he looked back at us, and I had the brief satisfaction of seeing surprise on his face.

He'd aimed straight through her heart. From over a mile away, while we were still talking about how to get down to the water. I turned the arrow in my grip, drew it back and threw it with a roar that hurt my throat. My shoulder protested, but after the fight against the Scorpion, I was stronger than I had ever been, and my various strength-focused blessings carried the movement through. The shaft left my hand so quickly I lost sight of it until [Hawk Eyes] caught up.

Orion stepped aside. He needn't have bothered; the arrow struck several yards below him, burying itself in the rim of the crater and throwing up a shower of loose rock. One of the dead trunks shook as debris struck its branches. I honestly hadn't thought I'd even be able to throw something that far now. Under other circumstances, I would've been very pleased about that.

"Ethan!"

Zoë caught my collar and hauled me backwards. The next arrow tore through the space I'd been occupying, struck the slope behind us and vanished into it up to the fletching. We scrambled away from the exposed edge, ducking between the trees while another shot sent a branch crashing down beside us. I pressed my back against a broad trunk and pulled Zoë close enough that she was covered too. A heavy impact shook the tree. Something cracked just above my ear, and the arrowhead pushed through the bark between us, shedding splinters before finally stopping. We both looked at it.

"How thick is this tree?" I asked.

"Not thick enough." Zoë glanced towards Arion, parked beyond a gap in the trees. "We must move."

Before we could, I could feel something brush against my legs and looking down, I was surprised to find the parchment pressed with it's 'back' against the tree, same as us. Feeling my gaze on it, it twisted around, showing me the lettering on its front, though it was a bit difficult to make out considering how it was shaking like a leaf.

[Combat Achievement recognized!]

[Caught an arrow from the Bane of the Twin Archers bare-handed!]

[Silver Skill Drachma Awarded]

[Rewards Dispensing]

Eager for a reward, any sort of edge really, I snatched the materializing coin before it even had a chance to tumble through the air, offering it up again pretty much immediately. It sprung through the air and was swallowed up by the void as the writing on the hiding parchment shifted.

[Silver Skill Drachma offered!]

[Stylist]

|Common Skill|

You have the skill of a skilled hair stylist, enough to get employed by celebrities and nobles, you know how to style hair and make it look good like it's second nature to you.

For a long moment, both Zoe and I didn't say a word as we glanced from the Skill description to each other, until a second arrowhead exploded several inches out the bark on our side of the tree and it groaned ominously. The third arrow was likely to split the entire thing straight down the middle if Orion kept up this barrage.

I flexed my right arm. It hurt, but everything still worked, which was about as much as I could ask after trying to stop a siege weapon with it. Beyond the trunk, the island was little more than a green shape across all that open water. Even if we reached the shore, we'd have to cross it while Orion practised putting holes through us. He was already drawing again when I risked a look.

His face leapt into focus, the little bronze rings within his eyes adjusting around their dark centres. I could see him as clearly as if he stood on the other side of a room, which ought to be enough. I reached for [Watcher's Curse], and the great green eye unfolded directly in front of his face. Orion recoiled. His arrow went off into the lake, far to our left, as he swatted at the construct with his free hand. His fingers passed straight through it. He ducked, stepped sideways and jerked his head back, but the eye kept its place, hovering a short distance in front of him wherever he moved.

The connection opened inside my head. For a nauseating moment I was standing behind a tree and floating in front of an increasingly angry giant at the same time. I shut off [Hawk Eyes].

"Come on."

I caught Zoë's wrist and ran for the truck. Through the curse I watched Orion try to circle the eye, then lash out at it with the upper limb of his bow. His next shot tore through the trees several yards behind us. I dragged open Arion's door and pushed Zoë around it, reaching beneath the dashboard for the anti-monster switch. Bronze lights came on. The engine started by itself, and the truck shifted beneath my hand as metal began unfolding along its sides.

I looked towards the flatbed as the weapon platform began to rise. An idea occurred to me, and I spent a moment trying to come up with a better one before turning to Zoë.

"Do you trust me?"

"Ethan, what—?"

"Zoë! Do you trust me?"

She looked from my face to the mechanisms emerging behind the cab, then back again.

"…Yes."

"Good. Grab onto my leg."

"… Why thy leg?"

"Because I'm going to need my free hand to shield us from his arrows."

Her expression changed as she understood. I didn't give her time to reconsider, climbing onto the flatbed as the twin crossbows rose between the sliding panels. The platform began turning towards Wizard Island on its own. I caught the nearest weapon and pulled it higher, forcing the mounting around until its loaded bolt pointed out across the lake. Zoë slung her bow over her shoulder and climbed up after me. Through the magical eye, Orion stopped moving.

His hands lowered. The little mechanisms within his eyes shifted again, plates sliding across one another as the pupils narrowed to slits. For an instant, a dull red light showed through the bronze. He looked straight through the green construct, raised his bow and drew with a smoothness that made my stomach tighten.

"Down!"

I dropped against the crossbow as something struck the truck hard enough to rock it on its suspension. The arrow went straight through the passenger door, tore across the empty cab and burst out the other side in a spray of glass and blue-painted metal. Zoë flattened herself beside me. Heat vision. Or some other expensive addition to those eyes that let him ignore the enormous obstruction directly in front of them. Whatever it was, our distraction had stopped working.

"Ethan…"

"I know. Hold on."

I pulled the crossbow's tension lever to its furthest setting. The winding mechanism complained, drawing the string back until the thick arms bent and the entire weapon hummed beneath my hand. Zoë locked both arms around my left thigh, pressing close to my hip. I planted my feet as well as I could, brought my left hand around the shaft and released the firing lever. The bolt moved. I tightened my grip while it was still travelling along the rail.

Then Arion was gone beneath us.

The jerk from the launched arrow hauled my arm straight and pulled a startled sound out of me as the truck, the trees and the edge of the caldera dropped away. Wind slammed into my face. Zoë's grip tightened so hard that I felt it through the uniform, her weight swinging beneath me while the bolt carried us over the water. My left shoulder held, though it kept complaining the whole time.

'Thor made this look a lot easier in the movies…'

I couldn't hear whatever Zoë shouted. Judging by the pressure around my leg, she was having second thoughts about her previous answer. Through the magical eye, I saw Orion lower his bow for half a heartbeat. Then he drew.

[Martial Foresight] caught the change in his aim before he released, and I turned my head towards the island. His arrow was already coming. I dragged my right arm across my body and struck the side of the shaft with my open hand.

The impact spun us around the bolt. Pain flared through my strained shoulder as Orion's arrow tumbled past, close enough for its fletching to brush my coat. Zoë swung out beneath me, and I clamped my legs together around her arms before she could lose her hold.

"I've got you!" I shouted, without any great confidence that she could hear me.

Orion was drawing again. This time his bow dipped and I immediately caught on to what his next target would be. I tried to reach down, but Zoë was below my knees now, her face pressed against my thigh as she fought to pull herself closer. I couldn't get my hand far enough without letting go of the bolt. The arrow came straight at her back. I punched downwards.

[Fist Projection] formed beyond my knuckles and shot past my knee, striking the arrow just behind its head. The shaft kicked sideways. Zoë jerked against me as it passed, its point tearing a narrow strip from the side of her parka before disappearing into the lake below.

I barely had time to feel relieved before the view through the curse showed Orion reaching for another arrow. His face was close enough in the borrowed view that I could see the small movements of his jaw as he set his teeth.

The Curse can also be used as an anchor to cast abilities and spells from.

I remembered the line from the description, looked at his face through the eye and punched. The cost hit before the fist did. My stomach cramped, my vision darkened at the edges, and a silver-green projection erupted from the floating eye directly into Orion's face. His head snapped backwards. The bowstring released as he staggered, sending the arrow high above us while he stumbled into one of the dead trees. I would've enjoyed that more if the shore hadn't suddenly filled my vision.

"Let go!"

Zoë released me as I opened my left hand. We hit the water hard, scarcely a dozen feet from the rocks. Cold swallowed me. My feet struck the bottom before I'd worked out which way was up, and I blindly shoved myself towards the surface, coughing as I emerged beside Zoë. The crossbow bolt had buried itself in the bank beyond her, most of its shaft hidden in the earth. She caught my sleeve and pulled me towards the rocks. I scrambled after her, dragging myself out of the shallows while water poured from my coat. An arrow cracked against the stone behind my heel before we dropped into cover.

For several seconds, all I could do was breathe. Zoë shoved wet hair out of her face and stared at me.

"Thou couldst have explained."

"I wasn't sure it was going to work."

She stared at me for another second, then ducked as an arrow struck above us.

"Next time, explain anyway."

I nodded. That seemed fair. I wiped water from my eyes and reached through the curse again. Orion stood on the rim above us, one hand briefly pressed against his face. When he lowered it, I could see a narrow crack across the bronze surrounding his left eye. The mechanism within kept turning past the position it was trying to find.

I drew back my fist, focused on the curse and struck. Orion caught the projection against his raised forearm, but it made him step back from the rim. My stomach tightened again, the sudden drain leaving me light-headed.

[Combo] stirred.

"Why stop?" Zoë asked, glancing from the upper rim of the island to me as she noticed me catching my breath. "Keep him occupied. With thy blessing, each blow will strike harder than the last."

"Because I can't afford it." I swallowed and forced myself to punch again as the timer counted down. "Remember trying to look through the birds?"

I forced out the explanation between punches, letting the intervals stretch as close to three seconds as I dared. Each projection struck his guard, and each left me feeling a little worse, even if the hit was 10% stronger than the last.

"Combining blessings takes a lot more out of me." I panted.

"Is it too much?" Zoë asked in a worried voice.

"For what you want me to do, yes, it's way too much." The answer came out sharper than I intended, and I forced myself to slow down. "Sorry. I'd love to stand here hitting him until he falls over, but as things stand, I'll probably be the one to fall over first."

Zoë looked at my face, then nodded.

"Then we close the distance. Canst thou keep him from shooting while we move?"

I glanced up the slope. There were trees between us and the summit, scattered amongst broken volcanic rock, their roots reaching across stretches of loose cinder. [Nature's Embrace] was already helping; beneath the exhaustion, I could feel strength returning as I crouched against the rough stone. I wouldn't be doing this at all without it.

"For a while," I said, and punched again.

Orion's bow tilted as the projection hit his shoulder. Zoë rose immediately, firing towards the rim before beckoning me after her.

"Then come."

I followed her into the trees, keeping one hand free while I climbed. [Mountain Ascending Enhanced] made itself useful almost immediately, directing my feet towards patches that would hold my weight and away from the loose stones sliding under everything else. Roots provided handholds. Once, a branch bent just far enough for me to catch it and pull myself over a shelf of rock. Up on the rim, Orion took another punch against his forearm. I saw his fingers tighten around the bow, then dropped back into my own eyes in time to avoid walking into a tree.

"Left," Zoë said.

I went left. She caught the back of my coat when my foot slipped, hauling me towards firmer ground while I struck again through the curse. Switching between the two views was making my head hurt. Orion's face, the slope beneath my feet, Orion's face again. The giant was circling the crater as we climbed, changing his position whenever the trees interrupted his view. I could keep track of him easily enough. Working out which tree he was about to shoot through took more attention than I could comfortably spare. His bow rose.

I punched before he could release. The projection struck his cheek, catching him beside the damaged eye. His head turned with it, and the arrow went through a branch above Zoë instead of her neck.

"Keep going!" I called.

She ducked beneath the falling branch and ran towards a cluster of boulders. I hurried after her, arriving on hands and knees as Orion's next shot tore a furrow through the slope behind me. Gravel pattered against my back. Twenty per cent. Thirty. Each hit added another ten, and even the blows he blocked were beginning to move him. For several precious seconds, he had to choose between defending himself and drawing his bow. Zoë used every one of them, climbing higher while I kept one shoulder against the rock and tried to breathe through the nausea. Two seconds. I waited a little longer, gathering what strength [Nature's Embrace] had given back, then punched.

Orion moved. He'd been standing with his head lowered, watching the eye. As my fist formed, he bent sideways at the waist. The projection passed his ear and struck a dead tree behind him, snapping the trunk with a crack I heard a moment later across the slope. I tried to hit him again. Too late. The accumulated strength vanished, leaving the next projection much smaller than I'd intended. Orion caught it against his wrist. He looked straight into the eye, the working mechanisms of his right pupil narrowing, and smiled.

"Oh, you…"

"Ethan!"

I dropped as his arrow struck the boulder beside my head. Stone burst against my cheek, drawing thin trails of blood. I scrambled around it, blinking grit out of my eyes while Zoë fired twice from farther up the slope. The second arrow caught Orion high in the shoulder. I saw the silver point appear beside his collar before he ducked behind the rim.

"He's worked it out," I said when I reached her.

"The eye?"

"The timing. I left it too close to the end, and he dodged. Lost the whole thing." I breathed heavily through gritted teeth.

Zoë glanced at the shallow cut on my cheek, then up towards the summit.

"Then do not wait until the end, at least not every time. Strike before he expects it."

"I can try."

I sent the next punch early. Orion had been reaching towards the arrow lodged in his shoulder; the projection caught his hand and drove the shaft farther in. His mouth opened in a snarl. I hit him again almost immediately, before he could recover his guard, and had to catch myself against Zoë as the double expenditure made my knees buckle.

"That isn't going to work for very long," I admitted.

"Only use it when it matters." She drew another arrow. "I shall watch thy footing."

The rest of the climb became an unpleasant exercise in counting while somebody tried to kill us. Sometimes I hit Orion after a second, sometimes closer to two. Whenever I stretched it towards three, he became harder to catch. He could see the projections beginning to form, and the eye's fixed position meant he knew exactly where each one would come from. Blocking still counted. Dodging didn't, and I learnt to hate the sight of him leaning away.

Once, he avoided two in succession. I spent more energy on the third, making it broad enough to catch his shoulder as he turned. It preserved the stack at least, but also nearly sent me sliding down the hill. Zoë caught my elbow, held me upright until I could find my feet and pointed out the next stretch of cover without comment, practically dragging me along.

Orion wasn't content to wait while we steadily closed in on his position. His arrows started hitting the ground above us, the thick javelins sending loose rock pouring down the slope. One struck a tree at the base and split enough of the trunk that it began to lean precariously towards us. Zoë spotted it first, shoving me into a hollow between two boulders before the whole thing came down across our route in a series of immense rolling crashes. We crouched beneath the branches as dirt and needles fell around us. I punched through the eye again, catching Orion across the mouth while he reached for another arrow.

"I'm getting very tired of him," I panted.

Zoë wiped dirt from her lips.

"Thou hast known him less than a week. Come back to me after thou has chased him across continents for the better part of two millennia." She said darkly.

I looked at her, then helped her over the fallen tree. Beyond it, the ground grew steeper and the trees smaller, leaving long stretches where the only cover was a fold in the slope. I could make out individual stones along the rim without [Hawk Eyes] now. We were getting close enough that Orion had to keep moving to see us beneath the edge. Zoë caught my arm before I scrambled onto the next shelf.

"Wait. Where is he?"

I switched views and nearly swayed into her. Orion was pulling an arrow from his quiver, his left eye twitching uselessly while the right stayed fixed on the slope below him.

"Above us. Slightly to your right."

"Keep his attention."

She went left, moving along a narrow ridge with her body low and her bow held clear of the ground. I watched her for a moment before punching through the curse. Orion blocked and I immediately hit him again, forcing his forearm against his face as [Combo] added to the blow. He stepped back with a snarl and prepared to dodge the next one. Out of nowhere, Zoë's arrow struck deeply into his thigh.

His knee bent underneath his tall frame. I caught him across the jaw before he could straighten, then dragged myself onto the shelf and ran the last few yards towards the rim. He aimed down at me, but Zoë was already drawing again. Her next shot passed close enough to his working eye that he had to turn his head or risk losing it, and I scrambled behind one of the pale dead trunks as his arrow tore through the ground at my heels. By the time I looked out again, he was retreating down the inside of the crater. Zoë reached me a moment later. Neither of us had enough breath to speak.

The Witches Cauldron lay below, a wide bowl of loose stone and ash-grey earth. Dead trees stood around its rim, their exposed roots clutching at the slope. From here, I could finally see the bottom. It was empty. No altar. No prisoners. No sign of my brother. Orion reached the far side of the hollow and turned. I caught Zoë's shoulder and dragged her down behind the trunk of a dead tree as an arrow struck it hard enough to shear away half its upper branches.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"Far side. There's…" I closed my eyes briefly, following the curse as the giant backed towards a dark crease in the rock. "There's an opening. Down at the bottom."

"A cave?"

"Looks like it."

I punched again. Orion ducked into the entrance, and the projection clipped his shoulder as he turned. Beyond him, the narrow strip of daylight in the eye's view gave way to darkness. Then something lowed beneath us. It was faint, muffled by the rock, but I knew what it was before the sound had finished travelling up through the crater. I was already moving when Zoë caught my sleeve.

"Carefully."

"The Ophiotaurus! He's down there!"

"I heard." She kept hold until I looked at her. "We shall reach him. Stay with me."

I nodded, swallowed and followed her down. The descent was faster than the climb, with very little control over where we stopped. Loose cinders slid beneath our feet, carrying us several yards at a time until we could brace against firmer rock. Orion fired twice from the cave mouth. The first arrow passed above us as Zoë deliberately dropped into a slide; I spoiled the second shot by hitting him through the eye, then nearly lost my footing while returning to my own view.

We reached the crater floor coughing dust. Up close, the opening was much larger than it had looked from above, concealed behind an overlapping shelf of dark rock. Enough space for Orion to enter without bending very far, and enough shadow that I would've walked past it if I hadn't watched him disappear inside. Cool air moved across my wet clothes as we stepped beneath the overhang. The passage dropped steeply almost at once.

I sent another punch after Orion while Zoë led us around the first bend. It struck his raised hand. His face filled the borrowed view for an instant, blood running from one corner of his mouth, before he turned away and hurried deeper into the island. I kept following.

The tunnel opened into a chamber with three exits, then another passage slanted down between walls worn smooth in places and jagged in others. Zoë touched the stone as she passed, keeping track of each turn. I could feel Orion ahead of us and below, but knowing where he was didn't tell me how to get there. Sometimes the route took us away from him for long enough that I began to doubt we'd chosen correctly, only for it to double back beneath itself.

The light faded behind us. Zoë took a small torch from her coat and switched it on, directing the beam towards the ground a few steps ahead. I stayed close to her, dropping my attention into the curse whenever I could spare it. An arrow struck the opposite wall as we approached a crossing. Zoë stopped so abruptly I nearly ran into her. The shaft quivered at chest height, thick enough that I could barely have closed my fingers around it. Orion stood somewhere down the passage to our right. I'd known that. I hadn't known it opened onto ours.

"He can see us," I whispered.

"His eyes."

I looked through the curse. The green construct lit his face, the damaged left eye making small, erratic movements while the other adjusted. He was waiting with another arrow drawn. I struck through the eye, caught him against his brow and followed Zoë across the opening as his shot went high. Stone broke from the ceiling above us. We ducked into the next passage while fragments rattled down behind us.

The downward turns kept coming. More chambers, side passages, a deep split in the floor with water moving somewhere beneath it. I'd expected a tunnel through a little island. By the time we crossed a narrow ledge above another cavern, I was beginning to wonder how far below the lake we'd gone. Orion's position shifted off to our left. I started towards it, only for a frightened cry to carry up the passage ahead. My brother. The sound cut off abruptly, and I ran.

"Ethan, stop!"

Something clicked beneath my boot. Zoë hit me from the side hard enough to lift both feet off the floor. We crashed against the wall as an enormous pair of toothed jaws snapped together behind us. The noise filled the passage. My coat jerked tight across my back, dragging me towards the mechanism before Zoë hauled again and the cloth tore free. For a moment I lay across her, too startled to move. Then I looked back.

The trap filled most of the passage. Its jaws had risen almost to my chest, interlocking teeth closing around the remains of my coat. Heavy springs ran into recesses on either side, hidden beneath the same dust that covered the floor. Had I taken another step, they would've met through my middle. Zoë pushed me upright.

"Look where thou art going!"

"I heard my brother—"

"So did I!" She gripped my collar and pulled me towards her. "And he will hear you die if you keep running blindly into his captor's snares!"

I stared at her. Her own face was pale, her breathing quick and angry, but unmistakably laced with worry. Somewhere during the fall, [Combo] had run out.

"Right," I said, looking at the trap again. "Right. Sorry."

She released me slowly, then crouched to inspect the floor around the mechanism.

"Follow where I step."

This time, I did, after remembering to quickly down my [Speed Cola], hoping the added dexterity would keep me from being gored, speared, shot, poisoned or perhaps all of the above by the next trap. There were more of them farther down: wires stretched across passages, concealed pits, another set of jaws large enough to catch a horse. Zoë found most of them before we got close. The others cost us scraps of clothing, a cut across her forearm and several hurried changes of direction while stone or sharpened metal struck where we'd been standing. I followed her instructions, kept sending the occasional punch through the curse to stop Orion getting comfortable and tried to ignore how long my brother went quiet between calls. The passage widened at last. Warm air reached us, carrying the smell of smoke. Orange light moved across the walls ahead.

Zoë slowed, switched off the torch and put it away. I came up beside her, keeping close to the wall as we approached the opening. The chamber beyond was enormous. Fire burned in a broad bronze brazier, throwing enough light across the floor to reveal a raised platform near the centre. A dark block rested upon it, its pitted surface flecked with metal that caught the light. Chains ran across the top, drawn tight around a struggling body. My brother lifted his head. I stopped breathing for a moment.

He was alive. His sides moved too quickly, and the chains had pressed deep into the fur around his chest, but he was alive. His forelegs were drawn together beneath him, his long serpentine body coiled awkwardly along the altar and secured by more heavy links. When he tried to shift, the whole arrangement tightened.

"Star-stone," Zoë murmured beside me.

I barely heard her. In front of the altar stood a low table covered in tools: hooks, knives, a heavy cleaver and an axe whose broad, pale head reflected the fire. Everything had been laid out within easy reach. I looked away from it before I could picture the reason for each one. Then I looked past the altar. The chamber continued far, far beyond the reach of the fire, larger and deeper still than the lake above our heads. I could make out pillars rising into the dark and the lower points of stone formations hanging overhead, but farther back, the light simply stopped showing me anything. [Hawk Eyes] sharpened the cracks in the nearest pillar. Behind it, there was still nothing. Something noticed me looking.

I stepped back before I realised I'd moved.

"Ethan?"

I knew what it felt like when my father paid attention. Vast, difficult to understand, usually distracted by things I couldn't begin to imagine. There was a familiarity to it now, a distant acknowledgement when I offered a drachma or called for help. The feeling coming from that darkness made me want to take my brother and leave immediately. I couldn't have explained what was there. I wasn't even sure there was the right word for it. The cave stretched away beneath the island, beneath the lake, and I had the horrible impression that I was looking into a place which continued much farther than any of those things should allow.

Whatever occupied it was aware of us. I dropped [Hawk Eyes] and looked back towards the altar. My brother was watching me, his nostrils flaring as he tried to stretch his head towards us, trying to move away from the cold darkness licking at the edge of the circle of light thrown out by the campfire. We needed to get him out. Now.

"Well. I suppose a 'welcome' is in order, is it not?"

Orion stepped into the firelight from beside one of the pillars. His black leather jerkin was torn at the shoulder and darkened with blood. The shaft of Zoë's arrow had been broken off, leaving the point buried inside him. More blood ran down his thigh. His left eye kept clicking, the bronze aperture opening and closing in short, irregular movements while the right remained fixed on me. The green eye floated in front of his face, absurdly bright against the cavern's gloom.

"You've caused me a great deal more grief than I expected, Ethan Creed. What, taking away my closest friend wasn't enough? You had to go after his entire pack as well?"

I looked at the chains around my brother, then at the tool-covered table.

"Give me my brother back, and you can go grieve your dogs. Otherwise, you're joining them."

Something ugly crossed his face. He moved towards the table. I punched through the curse, catching him high on the cheek as he reached it. His head turned with the blow. He roared, dropped his bow and seized the axe.

"Enough!"

The blade passed through the green eye. For a moment I saw the edge coming straight at me from the other side of the connection. Then the borrowed view tore apart, and pain struck behind both my eyes so violently that I dropped to one knee. The floor tilted. I caught myself on my hands, fighting the sudden certainty that a blade had been driven through my skull. The curse was gone. Blood, sticky and disturbingly warm, was pouring from my tear ducts in thick droplets.

"Ethan, move!"

A bowstring sounded above me. I lifted my head in time to see Orion sweep the axe across his body, knocking Zoë's arrow aside before coming straight at us. She stepped boldly in between us and fired again. The arrow struck his chest, but he barely slowed. His first swing cut through the air where her head had been as she ducked beneath it and retreated towards the brazier. I tried to stand. My knees bent without my permission.

Zoë fired from almost beneath his arm, putting another arrow into his side. He drove the butt of the axe towards her face. She twisted away, abandoned the next shot and drew her hunting knife as he pressed her back between two pillars.

"Adamantine!" she called. "Ethan, the axe—"

He struck again. She got clear of the edge, but it passed straight through the stone beside her, bringing down a section of the pillar with a grinding crash. Zoë stumbled over the falling rubble as Orion raised the weapon in both hands.

I threw myself between them and brought my fist up. Adamantine met adamantine.

The axe struck my knuckles with a crash that drove me into a crouch. I planted both feet, braced my arm and pushed back, teeth clenched as the blade ground against my unbreakable hand.

Orion leaned into the weapon. My elbow began to bend beneath the pressure, the glinting blade inching closer and closer to my sweating face. I shoved upwards with everything I had, forcing it straight again. For a few seconds we held there, his enormous hands tightening around the haft while my boots scraped against the floor. My knuckles were fine. My shoulder was beginning to ache badly.

I kept my fist pressed against the blade and reached for [Fist Projection].

The silver-green fist erupted from mine without my arm moving, striking the axe head and knocking it sideways. Orion was still bearing down with his full weight. The sudden release sent him stumbling forwards as the weapon tore past me and buried itself deep in the cavern floor, parting the stone as easily as a magical lightsaber through butter.

Behind me, Zoë rolled clear, put away her knife and brought her bow up again as I followed with a punch to his ribs. He grunted and tore the axe free, bringing it around so quickly that I barely got beneath the haft. The shaft clipped my shoulder and sent me stumbling. I caught my balance, turned with the next swing and struck the inside of his elbow before he could bring the blade back.

'Fucking hell this guy is strong!'

The Cyclops had been strong enough that there were times where my barely-blessed ass thought we were all about to become monster dinner. Cercyon had been strong enough to make me feel every mistake I'd made fighting him twice over. They had been some of the hardest fights against human(oid) opponents I've ever had, yet both absolutely paled in comparison to the giant. Orion shoved me away with one arm, and for an instant I remembered being thrown around the arena by Dionysus. There was something of that same awful reserve behind the movement, the sense that bracing myself was only going to change how much of the floor I took with me.

The axe passed my face. I stepped with it, caught his wrist to haul myself upwards and drove a short punch into his solar plexus. [Fist Projection] added to the impact without the sickening drain of sending it through the curse first. He folded just enough for me to catch his jaw with the next blow. His knee came up, and I was already moving out of its path, pushing away with a graceful spinning double back kick into a reverse summersault, landing lightly on the tips of my toes. I hadn't even needed to think about it. The realisation surprised me almost as much as the dodge seemed to surprise him.

I'd spent the past weeks fighting things with too many legs, too many teeth or too much armour that finding somewhere to even hit them in the first place had been half the problem. Orion was three metres tall and carrying an axe that could cut through my skull without slowing down, but he was still human-looking. Same bodyplan, just larger. His shoulders still turned before his torso. His weight still shifted before he stepped. His elbows and knees bent in directions I understood. And I could see what he was going to do before he managed to do it.

[Effective Activity] had made my dodges from [Martial Foresight] possible by the nearest of margins, granting me opportunities for counter-attacks, but until I actually got a blessing that let me understand various disciplines of kung fu, I had been sorely lacking in options to actually capitalize on said opportunities. Then I had gotten a Trait that made me supernaturally adept at using those moves to their fullest. Now against Orion, being the first opponent since Dionysus whose moves I could correctly read and anticipate, I wasn't just merely dodging by a hair.

I was actually managing to counterattack, properly this time, using the various moves that my body instinctively knew would deliver the most damage.

I was putting pressure on the giant Bane of the Twin Archers.

Orion changed his grip and shortened the next swing. I turned inside it, felt the haft brush the back of my coat and put my elbow into his stomach. The blow wasn't as powerful as a punch, but it counted towards [Combo]. I completed the graceful twirl and hit him again before he could push me away. Zoë's arrow struck the back of his leg. He wheeled towards her. I followed, hammering two quick blows into his side while she moved between the pillars, keeping the altar behind her and out of his line of attack.

"Still hiding behind a man, daughter of Atlas?" Orion snarled.

"Thou shouldst watch the one in front of thee."

He did. The axe came back towards me so quickly I had to throw myself sideways, and its edge cut through the front of my coat before biting into another pillar. I landed on my bad shoulder and had to suppress a quick shout of pain, rolled and sent a projection into his knee while getting back up. The pillar broke above the deep cut. Stone crashed between us, scattering across the floor and forcing Zoë to move again. Orion stepped around the rubble, his left eye rattling in its socket.

"Do you know who made these?" he demanded, touching the damaged bronze with two fingers. "Hephaestus himself. A gift."

He charged before I could answer. I slipped past the axe head and struck him in the chest, but he kept coming, driving me backwards with the sheer length of his stride, the unrelenting strength in his massive body. A second blow caught his wrist. The third hit the axe as he turned it to shield himself, and the impact jarred both my arms.

"A gift for what?" Zoë demanded from behind him. "For pursuing my sisters until they had nowhere left to flee?"

"For repenting."

He struck towards her voice. She jumped back, firing as she went, and the arrow scored a line across his cheek before breaking against the side of his neck.

"He found me, a blind and disgraced hunter," Orion said. "He listened to what I had done. I told him all of it."

I punched his shoulder as he reached towards Zoë, keeping him from following. He caught me with the back of his wrist, a glancing blow that still made my teeth click together, sending me flying back into a nearby stalagmite.

"And he believed I could do better. That I could atone. That I had a chance!"

Zoë's mouth tightened.

"My Lady believed the same. She welcomed thee into the Hunt."

"… I know."

For the first time, his voice lost some of its anger. It didn't make him any slower. He feinted towards my head, reversed the axe halfway through the swing and nearly took my leg off instead. [Martial Foresight] caught the change just soon barely in time for me to pull off my finest Kill Bill impression. I jumped up at the last second, landing light as a feather on the shaft, moving with it as his momentum carried the weapon past. At the apex of the swing, I pushed off, launching myself towards him and struck his thigh, his ribs and the underside of his forearm before he could recover.

[Combo] rose.

"I swore myself to her!" he roared in anger as he renewed his attacks. "Accepted her command. Her laws. Everything she asked!"

"Until thy pride proved greater than thy oath." Zoë bit back, cutting through his tirade.

He snapped his head towards the Huntress.

"You know nothing of what that oath cost."

Her next arrow buried itself beneath his collarbone. He tore it free with a shout, and I caught the opening with a projected punch to the face. The damaged eye gave a harsh metallic squeal. Something small and bright broke loose and skipped across the floor. He hurled Zoë's arrow back at her, the small projectile cutting through the cavern like a silver bullet and tearing through her jacket as she dodged in the nick of time. He covered the socket with one hand.

"Then explain it," I said, keeping my fists raised.

I couldn't afford to stop. The three seconds were already passing, and I sent a smaller projection into his arm as he lowered it again.

"Do you not know? My mother made me to kill her."

The axe swept towards my chest. I dropped beneath it, struck his knee and got clear before he could bring it down on my back. A thick stalactite fell where the blade caught the ceiling above the passage beside us, shattering across the floor.

"Her and her brother," he continued. "The Twin Archers. Do you think that is merely a title? Something poets gave me because it pleased their ears?"

"I've had enough trouble with titles to avoid guessing," I said, wiping blood from my lip with the back of my hand.

He laughed harshly and advanced.

"It is what I am."

His next swing was low enough that I had to triple backflip out of the way. Zoë's arrow caught his shoulder before he could follow through, and I landed close enough to drive a fist into the same wound, pulling off the same trick we used against the Scorpion. Orion roared as he rushed forwards, seized the front of my uniform and lifted me off the floor. Desperate, I hit his elbow and his grip loosened. Another punch forced it open, and I dropped two meters to the floor, rolling my ankle with a pained snarl even as I had to duck away before the axe could descend.

"Mortals can decide what to make of themselves," the gargantuan hunter said, breathing harder now. "Waste their years, spend them well, become something their parents would never recognise. Then die, and be done with it."

He shoved a broken section of pillar towards me with his foot. Despite its massive size, it shot towards me like an oncoming freight train and I scrambled around it while Zoë moved to his other side.

"We are made for a purpose. Gods, Titans, Giants. What we are follows us into every thought and every wish. Mortals tell stories about us, and those follow too."

I thought of the unknown man in the diner, explaining how the same stars could have several histories, some of his cryptic messages slowly beginning to make a bit more sense now

"And yet thou swore fealty to my Lady, thy sworn enemy," Zoë said.

"Yes!"

He swung at her with enough force that the blade whistled. She ducked behind a stalagmite, and the axe cut cleanly through it. I jumped onto his leg and caught his wrist before he could draw it back, punched him twice beneath the arm and let go as he grabbed towards me with his free hand, trying to crush my head in its massive grip.

"Every day. Every day I went against the reason I was born. The very purpose for which I was created."

His voice caught, then hardened again.

"And I would have kept doing it. I would have accepted an eternity of such ache, if it bought me one more day at her side…"

Zoë stepped out from behind the severed stone, bow drawn.

"And yet, thou sought to surpass her. What of thy boast of killing every beast that walked the earth? We found their bodies, Orion. Whole valleys, gone! My Lady went to meet thee and found—"

"I was struck mad! Cursed! It wasn't my fault!"

The words struck harder than the next blow. I barely got out of the axe's path, its head cutting a deep groove across the floor as he pursued me.

"Do not speak to me of Artemis' grief. I know what she found. I remember waking to it."

"Then who drove thee to it?" Zoë demanded. "Who laid this curse upon thee?"

"Who else? Who else would care so much for the Goddess of the Hunt, who else would be appalled she had allowed a male into her maiden convent?" Orion roared with a large swing of his adamantine axe that bisected two stalagmites in a single swipe.

Then he slowed and his face became a rictus of rage.

"Apollo." He spat like a curse.

---

AN: Two things that I really hope I managed to pull off and I'd love feedback on: the creepiness factor of the darkness in the cavern (it's foreshadowing for a future villain) and the combat. Please let me know how I did, I want to learn and improve them how I can. You can read up to five chapters ahead over on my Patreon

 

[Devone Douglas]

Tftc! Yea that darkness was a definite forshadow. Wonder which titan it is? Also well done fleshing out orion's character. Mostly stories just go with his legend and leave it at that. Mc should definitely take that are and make some gauntlets or a shield out of it, make a real captain america fighting style with martial arts and mabey add some throwing knives if he gets the trait for it. Combat feels very souls like and I love it

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the double update, I think you did a good job with the combat and I certainly got creepy vibes from the cavern. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[GamerKing07]

I thought it was good foreshadowing and i am dying to know what will happen next chapter

 

[Idle_Domain]

Gods Damn it Apollo