Chapter 9 - Old friend

I reached another bridge and a small army was standing directly on the other side of it. I walked up to one of them and asked what’s going on.
- “We’re here to hold a perimeter. A vicious Cyclops dwells in these lands.” He said.
- “I can help you defeat him.” I said boldly.
- “I don’t think a dozen men can bring that beast down. How are you thinking of killing him?” he got surprised.
- “I won’t stop at anything.” I said, “I will fight till death. Plus I’ve beaten many similar beasts before.”
- “If you say so.” The man agreed.
He then gave a gesture to the rest of his people and all of us marched forwards. So far nothing, but literally a few steps forward and I could feel the ground shake.
- “He’s close.” The guy said.
- “Well, let’s see what he can do.” I said with tonnes of courage and adrenaline running through me.
We stopped. The ground shook more and more with every step the beast made and at one scary moment we saw him emerge from the rocks. He was massive indeed and carried a club the size of a tree.
- “Attack!” The guy whom I’ve spoken to suddenly screamed and all of his army charged towards the Cyclops.
Bad move, I thought to myself. And I was right. The Cyclops screamed at first really loudly, deafening the army and breaking the ranks. This then was followed up by a massive smash with his club against the ground causing a deadly wave to hit the army. That wave killed at least 3 men. The rest of them got closer to the Cyclops and began hitting his feet. A few were at the back shooting at his torso with their arrows.
The Cyclops didn’t seem to feel their attacks at all. He swung a few times, taking out a person per swing and ended it with a powerful foot stomp that finished off the last two of them.
His techniques were not new to me as I fought beasts of this size before. I then boldly ran in his direction. He smashed the ground with his club producing that killer wave again. I rolled to the side and avoided it successfully. Here I reached him and with the deathweaver legtip I scratched his ankle. The poison began to soak into his flesh. Still though I don’t think he even felt that. I didn’t give up and so flanked him quickly and produced more slices on his feet and shins. As he kept on turning around to find me I kept on making my way behind him. It was easy as he was pretty slow and clumsy. At one moment I stabbed the legtip into his Achilles tendon as deep as I could and that caused him to scream from pain and fall on his knees. That was enough for me to jump onto him and to stab the legtip into his only eye. The poison seemed to take effect really quickly and he finally went down for good, producing a huge quake as his body thudded against the ground.
That was quite a battle and I was impressed. However I was also unhappy about a loss of good soldiers. I then descended down a cliff and was in a Halcyon coast. As usual Ichthians and giant turtles dwelt here, but after taking out such a powerful beast as a Cyclops these guys were no trouble at all. I even stumbled onto a big cave and decided to check it out. There were so many of these turtles there that I thought it must’ve been their nest or something. After killing so many of them I managed to peel off the shells from some of them and to combine those shell pieces with my shield which made it much tougher.
While looking through my bag I decided to give that Patroclus’ short sword a try. I thought I was ready enough to use it. Once I entered the next battle I noticed how light the sword was and how easy it was to strike enemy weakspots with it. Once I reached the other end of the coast I was back in the grasslands. I fought off massive packs of satyrs and centaurs with ease.
I was wondering how long I needed to go till I reached Delphi. As I began complaining to myself I met someone whom I haven’t seen in a long time. It was Chiron – a very kind centaur, the one who taught me how to fight.
- “Ares, how am I glad to see you.” Chiron said.
- “Same here.” I said, “How are you old friend? Do you know what’s happening to all these creatures and why are they so aggressive?”
- “I am not sure what it is.” Chiron said, “But some kind of force is controlling them. I felt it too but I managed not to submit to it.”
- “I see, I need to find out what that force is. By the way, where is your bow? I thought you always carried it with you.”
- “Ah, it was stolen from me.” Chiron said sadly.
- “Who stole it?”
- “It was a group of maenads led by a rather cunning maenad priestess. They grabbed my bow and ran into the nearby cave.”
- “That’s it, I am going there to get it back. You helped me once and now it is my turn to return the favour.” I said.
- “Ares, you’re a great friend. I don’t know how else to thank you.”
- “You don’t have to.” I said.
Here I went up to that cave that Chiron was talking about and entered it with no fear. I have to admit maenad defences were poor. They didn’t stand a chance at all and I made my way through that cave very quickly and reached the priestess surrounded by skillful archers. I ran up to each archer and Patroclus’ short blade hacked through each of them incredibly fast. I picked up the bow and felt a surge of power. It was truly a magical bow, but no-one knew how to use it except for Chiron. These filthy maenads seemed to have stolen quite a lot of gold and kept it all in this cave. I robbed them of their resources and exited the cave.
Chiron was very pleased and as a token of his appreciation he blessed me with some strength in combat. It truly worked and I felt stronger and braver now.
After fighting a few more beasts such as other centaurs and boars I reached a village called Ambrossos.