Chapter 14 - Scent of death

As soon as I entered the vault I sensed evil. I could hear many voices in my head. All were screaming or moaning. I slowly began making my way through the dimly lit corridor. It was freaky, especially some really dark corners. I grabbed one of the torches from the wall and let it illuminate the way for me as I moved deeper and deeper into the darkness.
I now went down the stairs. It was darker there, without a torch you wouldn’t see anything. Strange sounds began sounding in my ears. I could hear chains clinging against the floor, I could hear hard footsteps, I could hear metal scrape against the stone walls. Those sounds made me feel inside out.
At one swift illumination of the room I’ve seen dozens of skeletons. Every single one of them spotted me and ran in my direction.
- “Crap!” I shouted and threw the torch towards a group of 5 or so.
The torch set them on fire and then landed on the floor. I quickly drew my Minoan axe out and as the undead were approaching me I was bashing them to pieces. Thanks to the torch and burning skeletons most of the room was illuminated. I made sure no bones were intact, because even with half a body some of them kept on crawling on the floor and grabbing my legs.
Once the job here was done I picked up the torch and moved onto the next room. It was bigger and so I couldn’t see all of it. Suddenly I smelled something weird. It was a very stinging smell, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I waited a little longer and soon saw some ghosts emerge from the darkness. They kept on dissolving into the medium of the air and darkness and a couple of seconds after that I saw a figure. It was a wight.
- “Captain?” I asked.
- “Not anymore!” came a death-defying low voice and here the figure pulled its staff out and cast a snowball at me.
I dodged it successfully and threw the torch at him. He dodged it and torch just landed on the stone floor. There was still enough illumination and so I proceeded with the fight.
I seemed to have remembered another one of amazing tricks a warrior can pull off. It’s a way of showing your triumph to your enemies, but most warriors prefer to call it Battle Standard. It consists of you setting up a battle flag as a mental image and that battle flag is a relic of your victory in battle. By imagining it you stay focused, receive much less damage from enemies and deal much more to them.
Not being new to the concept of battle standard I set up a mental triumph flag in my mind instantly and so the battle went more smoothly than expected. I could dodge creature’s projectiles as if they were moving very slowly and at the same time kept on coming close to him and smacking him with my axe.
I saw defeat in his eyes and he knew it, so at this moment he cast something weird and a bit of smoke appeared all around me. Before I could realise what was happening the smoke had cleared and three ethereal skeletons appeared out of nowhere. They kept on pounding me really hard, but with a single war wind all three returned where they came from.
Captain starting pulling back into the darkness, but I followed him there, grabbed my torch from the floor and charged towards him with all speed. He cast another snowball projectile at me, but I ducked out of it and rammed the torch into his torso. The fire took over him quicker than anything and he began screaming in agony.
- “I’m very sorry.” I said and watched him melt away.
After this incident I decided to go back to the ship. I didn’t have a torch this time and so had to make my way through almost complete darkness. After a little while I made it to the light and came out of the vault. I then came up to the sailors and said:
- “I’m sorry to say but the captain is dead. It looks like I’ll have to take control of the ship.”
I’ve had some experience with controlling a ship before, therefore it was OK. We boarded the ship and took off without any delay.
It took us the rest of the day to get to Crete by ship and once we got there safely we stopped in a small village where I got some sleep for the night. After about 6 hours of sleep I woke up very early in the morning, thanked the people for hospitality and took off to the palace of Knossos. I walked through some hills, fighting off a few nasty harpy hags who tried to bewitch me.
After about an hour’s worth of walking I got to the entrance of the Knossos palace. Knowing the dangers lurking in there I still was more pleased to see it than a paradise.

Bonus chapter 1

My name is Cadmus and I am one of head automatoi. We automatoi live happily here in the Knossos palace. Though our king died long time ago we are still happy to stay here and to keep intruders out.
Today we had a strange visitor. He had some kind of Godly scent and had a few beastmen trail after him so many of us decided not to disturb him, not even Talos – our leader. He seemed to be in a rush and headed straight for the Minoan labirynth. I wonder what’s that was all about and whether we’ll be getting any more mysterious visitors. Talos hopes that there will be no humans coming here because he absolutely despises them. Afterall, humans are responsible for most of the wars that happen nowadays. Talos also hates being disturbed while he is sleeping and so he asked Hesperos and myself to take care of any strange activity around the palace. To be honest I didn’t like that mysterious sorcerer and his army of pets. If he dares to come out of the labirynth alive then I am going to raise a whole automatoi army against him, but for now we must guard the entrance to the labirynth.

Chapter 13 - Back home

I bravely entered the battle that was happening before the front gates of Athens. There were many satyrs and centaurs there fighting Athenian guards and also a few Spartans were there too. Leonidas seemed to be fighting here too. I was surprised that Spartans came all the way here to fight off monsters for a city they rivalled with.
I was attacked by a big group of satyrs within seconds. I relaxed and let my hammer do the job. It danced through the air following my arm and making stops on every satyr face it came into contact with. I battled a few centaurs too. They seemed to be crack shots and did hit me with a couple of arrows, but nothing that a potion can’t cure.
At the end of the battle Leonidas was glad to see me. There was a smile on his face.
- “You’d make an excellent Spartan.” He said to me, “Too bad you missed most of the battle.”
- “Who attacked Athens?” I asked.
- “The beast army was led by a very mysterious sorcerer. He wasn’t human. None of us really managed to get a good look of him, but he left the battlefield just before you arrived.” Leonidas explained.
We then went inside the city walls. It was nice to see my home city again in one piece. I was glad that the monsters didn’t manage to get inside. At least the most beautiful of the Greek cities should survive the monster attack.
Leonidas led me somewhere. I didn’t ask any questions, I just followed him. We came to a house of a wealthy leader. His name was Kyros.
- “Ares? Is that really you?” Kyros asked.
- “Who are you?” I got puzzled as I didn’t know him.
- “You don’t know me, but I’ve heard a lot about your heroic deeds and the only one who we can count on.” Kyros explained.
- “What happened?” I wondered.
- “We think the sorcerer who led the monsters left to Knossos. We don’t know why, but Knossos palace is full of Minotaurs and I am afraid he is going to try and lead them over here.”
- “Who IS this sorcerer?” I asked out of frustration.
- “We have no idea, but I have a theory that it might be one of the Telchines.” Kyros said.
- “Right. So how do I get to Knossos? It’s all the way on Crete.” I asked.
- “Take my ship. You’ll find it by the docks. I think the captain of the ship is there with it, he never really goes anywhere.”
- “OK. I’ll do that.” I agreed, “Is there enough defence here in Athens in case of another attack?”
- “Yes, so far we have the troopers.” Kyros said, “plus we have Leonidas here with his mighty Spartans.”
With this on mind I left his house and headed towards the Athenian docks. On my way there I heard a mysterious citizen calling me. I turned around and headed towards him.
- “Warrior, are you the one they’re sending to Knossos?”
- “Yes that’s me.” I said, “Why do you ask?”
- “I’ve got something you might find useful. I’ve been in a Minoan labirynth many years ago and have this axe and this cuirass since I’ve been there. The axe belonged to the Minotaur Lord.” He said.
- “Interesting. How much?”
- “1500 for the axe and 1800 for the cuirass.” The mysterious stranger said.
- “Deal.” I gave him the gold pieces and armed myself with new gear.
- “Thank you and may Athena give you strength.” The guy said.
I continued my way to the docks. There was only one ship docked there at that time and three sailors nearby.
- “Hey, I’m Ares. I was sent by Kyros to go to Knossos. Which of you is the captain?” I introduced myself.
- “The captain is not here.” One of the sailors said.
- “Where is he then?” I wondered.
- “He went to check something in that vault.” Another sailor said while pointing at an underground passage not too far away.
I had a feeling that something went wrong and therefore decided to go into the vault and find the captain.

Chapter 12 - The Trio

The cave also contained tonnes of statues of people. I got suspicious. Could this be the dwelling of the Gorgon sisters? They are known to be able to turn people into stone with one gaze directly from their eyes. This meant that I couldn’t look at what I was fighting and therefore would be very troublesome.
Finally coming out into a big chamber I spotted three figures far away. Those were definitely the Gorgons. Gladly they couldn’t see me, which meant I had an advantage.
I crept through the dark corners of the chamber, hiding behind the rocks and making absolutely no noise. The sisters were speaking some language I couldn’t understand. All what was left for me now is to find a perfect time to strike. If only I could kill 1 of them before the other two are alerted then that would make the fighting much easier for me, as I knew that one Gorgon by itself is strong enough already, but with 3 I had very little chances.
Slowly but surely making my way behind one of them, I think it was Euryale, I waited till the other two turned away. Taking slow, deep and silent breaths I waited like a panther, masquerading with the darkness and gazing at my prey. Chasing each movement with my eyeballs I suddenly sprung out of my hideout and stabbed a dagger into Euryale’s neck. That proved to be a lethal stab and she went down in an instant.
Medusa and Stheno heard the screams of their sister and turned around just to see a charging warrior approaching with an immense speed. I slashed at Stheno first as she was closer to me. She blocked my strikes with her spear and then attempted to stab me with it. I ducked from the stab and then sliced at her arm which caused her to bleed vile blood all over the floor.
Here Medusa got out her bow and arrows and opened fire. She could shoot really fast. All I could do there is block the shots with my shield, but it was a small shield and so some arrows were getting away. One got even stuck in my helmet. Here I threw the dagger at Medusa and it stabbed directly in her torso. Stheno tried to stick me with her spear again. I quickly got out my sparkling hammer and knocked it out of her hand, to then finally deliver a killing blow to her face.
Medusa wasn’t pleased with both her sisters dead and so attempted to petrify gaze me. I turned my eyes away in time and quickly ran behind one of the stone statues. All that action made me out of breath, so I needed to catch it quickly. After a few seconds I gripped my hammer really tightly and came out of cover. Medusa aimed with her bow at me. I quickly produced a war wind, allowing me to glide through the air with an extreme speed and at the end spin my hammer around, which smacked Medusa in the face. She didn’t even get stunned by that and so continued shooting. I received a couple of arrows in my torso, but that didn’t stop me. I heaved myself into the air, producing an overhead smash with my hammer. The final strike smashed Medusa’s head into pieces.
She was still bleeding from the dagger in her body and all the vile blood was flowing on the ground of the cave, instantly killing any life forms that came into contact with it.
I continued through the cave and soon came to an exit. The road after that was infested with numerous beasts, especially centaurs and also those disgusting ratmen. I battled my way through hordes of them, several times even being absolutely enraged and while ignoring all the pain annihilating masses of them within seconds.
But after so much spillage of blood I was actually approaching my home city of Athens. Unfortunately though I could see a huge war going on in front of its gates. I added a bit of speed to my pace so I could get there quicker and save lives of my fellow citizens.

Chapter 11 - The Lion's den

I was welcomed into the Temple of the Great Oracle. She knew I would come and said:
- “Noble warrior, you have finally come.”
- “Yes, I was sent by general Leonidas to find out about the beasts. Why are they so aggressive and want to kill everyone?”
- “To Athens you shall go. Discover your true enemy you shall.” Oracle said out loud.
- “Thanks.” I said.
- “Go, and beware – the road is dangerous, but you will make it for I see a great hero in you.” Oracle added.
Here I left the Temple of Apollo. I bought a few potions from a merchant in Delphi and was ready to set off to Athens. I knew the road would be long, but I also knew that nothing would stop me.
There was a cave not far away from Delphi. I decided to use it as a shortcut rather than going a long way around the mountain. The cave was rather spooky, but I had no fear. It seemed like some strange species of arachnos lived there. They were of green colour. Also there were packs of vicious ratmen living in this cave too. None were particularly challenging of course. One of the arachnos dropped a really fancy hammer which was emitting sparks. I decided to use it as I knew I’d do a lot of damage with it. The cave was long. It was way too long.
At one moment I came across a strange rock. It had lots of magic symbols written all over it and its top was glowing with a golden light. I gently touched it and within a second felt some mysterious energy flow into me. It made my muscles stronger and I could now hold that hammer more easily and wield it much faster too. Knowing this I quickly charged into next few packs of ratmen and killed every single one of them with a single blow. It was truly a magnificent feeling. However after a little while the magic effect of that shrine faded away. I was hoping very much to run into more of those.
Once the cave came to an end I was happy to see the sunlight again. I must’ve been in that cave for at least an hour. However except for sunlight there was nothing else good outside. In fact I wished I could go back into the cave as from top of the hill I could see an absolutely massive satyr war camp. I was trying to figure out a way to go around it, but there wasn’t one so there was no other option than to go down into the lion’s den.
I was trying not to aggravate too many satyrs at once as there was pretty much a whole army of them there. There were even a few massive, fat ones. It took longer to bring them down, but I still received nothing more than just a scratch on my arm. The camp seemed to be really close to a big graveyard and when I reached it I could actually see some satyrs and some undead fighting it out with each other. That made me wonder because if some force is driving them against us, humans, then why would they fight each other. That made me think perhaps two forces were involved in this war. It seemed like the dark age was coming and I feared that Greece or in fact the whole humanity won’t survive it.

After carefully making my way through the battle between satyrs and undead I now reached another cave with some ruins near the entrance. For some reason I found the ruins to be quite beautiful. There were numerous beautiful and almost life-like statues of people. After having one last glimpse at the massive satyr war camp, I continued my journey towards the next cave.

Chapter 10 - Queen mother

The people in Ambrossos seemed to be completely frightened. I couldn’t understand why, but they would even run away if I tried to come closer and ask them a few questions. Only a merchant seemed friendly enough and offered some potions and armor for sale. I bought some potions, then took a little rest and once my muscles were less exhausted I exited Ambrossos and continued my gruelling journey to Delphi.
The grounds around Ambrossos were the same as everywhere else I’ve been. Every creature seemed to try and kill me. Soon I could see those horrible looking arachnos again. Gladly there were no deathweavers among them, but still they seemed very aggressive and were fighting back till their last breath.
Soon I understood why that was. I came face to face with their Queen. The Queen arachnos was massive and of bright green colour. She sent a couple of her bodyguards to take me out. They were tougher than ordinary arachnos, but still no challenge for me. I felt like I was remembering my former strength quicker and quicker now.
When arachnos Queen’s bodyguards were defeated she had no choice but to attack me herself. She breathed a horrible cloud of poison right at me. Knowing how deadly it can be I quickly ran out from the vile cloud and attempted to flank her. It was hard as she was pretty agile for such a massive beast.
In addition to that she also managed to momentarily give birth to little spiders that would attack me as soon as they would be born. Knowing they were just amateurs I tried to ignore them most of the time and was trying to stab the Queen as many times as I could. Her exoskeleton was quite tough, but Patroclus’ short blade could penetrate it if I applied enough strength in the stab.
Soon she breathed another cloud of poison at me. I rolled out of the way and then performed a war wind, which killed many of the little spiders and even scarred her face. She got angrier after that. I knew that to control anger is very hard and only very skilled warriors can use it for the good, while others would lose their concentration once they become angry.
I could tell her lack of concentration now as she would miss me a lot often with her strikes and in fact it seemed like I didn’t even need a shield there anymore. I flanked her in no time and managed to perform a few killer stabs that brought her down to the ground for good. Her blood spilled through the land and everywhere it flowed the life there instantly ceased to exist.
Feeling itchy after those poison clouds I drank a potion and it made me feel better. I then grabbed a block of wood, set it on fire and began burning the arachnos nest for if I hadn’t the new pests would hatch very soon. The fire spread through it quickly and once the whole nest was on fire I could proceed to Delphi.
To get there I went through numerous hills and a big swamp full of those grotesque turtles. None of them stopped me of course and after a couple of hours I reached Delphi. It seemed to be under attack by a gang of maenads. I entered the city walls and could see the guards fighting off those maenads. Some maenads felt great threat from me and so attempted to attack me. They however underestimated me and soon many of them were lying on the stone floor face down.
After defeating the whole gang the guards thanked me for the help. Now I needed to go and see the Great Oracle of Delphi.