026: Minotaur

  Theseus had his gaze fixed on his enemy; the creator of the terrible mark of the two-headed horse. Silaus fought unarmed because the force of his blessing ran through every nerve of his body and it was said that he had the same strength as a minotaur concentrated in the size of a heleny, it was a nightmare to fight against him because he was “unreachable by a blade”.

  -You don't get tired of dying, do you?

  The body of the dioskuroi was covered in blood and his hands still had some of the fur of his victims, however Theseus did not take a step back and ran straight to face the archon.

  -[RUN.]

  Bran and Asterion witnessed firsthand the clash between the two, an explosion of fire spread in all directions pushing away the rubble and impacting against the duo, Asterion quickly ran to check the helmet of his companion who for some reason still retained the katadesmo, even more strange was that neither of them had a single burn.

  Each cut of Theseus expelled that fearsome flame that extinguished the lightning that came out of Silaus body, however he was unable to hit him, the archon agility was superior and the minotaur did not seem to find a single opening.

  - Πατ?ρα?-

  From Silaus ring fifty electric spheres were born and each and every one of them hit the minotaur flesh, the confident archon turned his back on the enemy he thought defeated but the moment he felt an extreme thirst for blood he turned around again to avoid being split in half by his enemy's axe, he was completely unharmed.

  -How?

  -[Thank you for your fire, Prometheus.]

  Only Bran and Asterion understood that timid sentence, however it was hard to believe what they were seeing, the minoan warrior was intact, the strange pink fire burned the entire landscape including the archon blessing.

  -My archon!

  A dozen hoplites and phalanxes arrived at the scene, from a distance they witnessed the remains of the massacre caused by the red-tattooed minotaurs and an indescribable fury invaded their hearts, none of the archons seemed to even notice what was under their feet.

  -CHARGE!

  Jason and the other masked minotaur had disappeared, only their men remained who were eating the flesh of their victims, most of the phalanxes and hoplites charged against Theseus while Asterion noticed a strange grimace of disgust on his face, clearly he was not going against his enemies as his gaze was lost for a moment on the stage. Was the disgust coming from the carnage of his allies? There was no time to ponder any option.

  - Κληρονομ?α -

  Theseus favor manifested itself in a circular shield of fire that seemed to have the symbol of a headless man being devoured by an eagle, each of the soldiers who stayed with Silaus launched a blessing against the minotaur but all these projectiles were absorbed by the shield which became increasingly brighter.

  -GET AWAY!

  The shield loaded with blessings exploded with such force that the very foundations of the houses were thrown outwards, the fire did not burn but the power of its explosion was such that those who tried to stay in their position ended up with their arms and legs broken, in the end the only ones left in the small crater created by Theseus were only him and Silaus who buried his arms in the ground to avoid being thrown outwards.

  -[Smart pig.]

  The explosion was so powerful that it pulverized the bones of most of his closer opponents and practically none of the phalanxes or hoplites could get up. Asterion and Bran, despite being quite far from the minotaur, were completely knocked down. Luckily, the explosion only sent them against the pile of rubble where they were before and this same pile protected them from receiving more damage. There was barely anything left of the house where they were and Bran was trying to get up little by little.

  -[Bran rest, we can't do anything.]

  Theseus ear turned when he heard that, that voice had a unique accent and was clearly not native, he saw with his eyes a heleny helping to lift a minotaur with a helmet and a broken arm.

  -Asterion, we have to get out of here.

  Theseus watched as both spoke to each other in each other's languages ??and were desperately trying to get out of the place but before he could form an idea he was greeted by his enemy.

  - Υι?? -

  Silaus hit the minotaur stomach with his entire body, he was so fast that Prometheus fire was not able to react in time and the blow plus the electricity hit him with all their force, Theseus was dragged several feet before his stomach was completely pierced by the archon. Silaus stopped his favor and fell to his knees, the shield explosion had seriously hurt him and he needed a second wind to continue fighting.

  -Ah… You were quite strong for a minotaur.

  -[Stupid pig.]

  Silaus watched in horror as the mortal wound he had caused on his enemy was reduced in size more and more by the fire, it was as if it was rebuilding him.

  -What is that fire, is it perhaps the king of these beasts?

  The fire continued to "burn" him until his wound was completely healed and Theseus walked slowly towards Silaus who was trying to get up to continue fighting.

  -[The minotaur seems like he is going to win. What do you think, Bran?]

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Asterion and Bran were sitting against the rubble waiting for the battle to end.

  -I doubt it, maybe it doesn't seem like it to you but the minotaur is quite tired.

  -[He looks like an important Mycenaean. Don't you know who he is?]

  -No...

  Theseus axe was unable to withstand the force of his attacks and received many blows against the ground thanks to Silaus agility it finally broke against the stones, not that the minotaur was worried much either, a rain of kicks and punches began between both sides and the archon was taken to the limits of his reflexes until finally Theseus gave a precise hit which knocked his opponent to the ground, even so Silaus was able to escape the next attack and decided not to continue risking his neck more when he doesn't know how it's possible that the minotaur healed from such an attack, with his outstretched hand he launched a lightning bolt that hit Theseus, however he didn't even activate his flames because the lightning was so weak that he didn't feel any pain, but that wasn't the archon's objective.

  - Φευγαλ?ο? -

  Silaus ring shone brightly and hundreds of electric bullets were fired from it, flying towards the entire city. One of these projectiles hit Bran in the forehead and Theseus in the chest. However, the helmet that the first one wore protected him from the favor, although it was now unusable, and the second one was not affected at all, his blessing protected him whether he wanted it or not.

  -BRAN!

  Asterion limped over to his friend who was checking that his head was still in place, everything was fine.

  -What was that?

  -[I don't know but your helmet lost the katadesmo, only the paper remains.]

  Theseus slowly approached the archon whose body was this time covered in his own blood, but his cruel smile did not leave his face.

  -Good luck, cow.

  The footsteps that could be heard throughout the city finally reached the base of the acropolis and dozens of slave minotaurs with their fingers cut off rushed in a stampede against Theseus, unarmed and tired he pushed his former companions exploding his own fire against the ground, but the minotaurs seemed to advance without caring about the damage they suffered and those who fell were crushed while the rest continued forward.

  -What is this Silaus?

  Jason had come down from the temple, his clothes and sword were covered in completely black brambles as if they were shadows instead of objects.

  -What happened to the other one with the mask?

  -Answer me.

  -... It is the true force of my fifth favor, I control every muscle in the bodies of the marked, they will die but they will take one of the sons of Minos to the grave. I told you that one day they would be useful.

  Theseus body was beaten over and over again, trampled by the slaves hooves and even impaled by their horns, he was completely overwhelmed and although with his strength he tore off the head of every puppet that came near him, there was always another to replace it.

  -How many are you controlling?

  -Everyone.

  Jason, Bran and Asterion eyes watched with fear and amazement the power of a suicidal army over their enemy and the gears of the archon of light mind began to work for the future, this power was more dangerous than he had imagined, slavery has been part of the heleny since the beginning of the war against the minotaurs mostly using force and terror, but this favor was something even more terrible, Silaus had only been applying this mark to his enemies for fifteen years and its effectiveness seemed useful but not that circumstantial, until now.

  The archon plans were hidden in his light and would not come out until several years later, because that is how the vassal of Apollo works.

  -Will you tell me now what happened to the other one?

  -He escaped through the labyrinth once he got what he wanted.

  -... The hand, right?

  -Yes…

  At that moment more footsteps arrived, this time from the labyrinth which at this point was a pool of blood, guts and bones. More minotaurs tattooed in red came from the entrance, their eyes were all red and they seemed crazed.

  -I'll take care of it Silao, you concentrate on what you're doing.

  They both turned around and while Silao was distracted Jason accidentally noticed Bran and Asterion looking closely at the minotaur, his cut pinkies indicated that he was a slave but he wasn't being controlled.

  -Silao, you're controlling everyone right?

  -I already told you yes and since we marked every slave for fifteen years it should be more than enough to finish him off.

  -I see.

  The archon sword shone with a dim white light moving against his enemies with cuts so fast, clean and precise that it seemed like his sword didn’t even stained with blood, the minotaurs charged against Jason but were torn apart before they knew it, Asterion even remembers that some cuts made the sword seem to "whistle", the beautiful light of the archon blinded and burned his enemies with each blink and a strange sensation ran through the starless, as if he were watching them. Bran looked away and sadly watched as his companions were torn apart one after another by Theseus who seemed to be immortal, no matter how much damage they did to him he did not seem to die with anything, but observing him in detail the young minotaur realized that both seemed to share the same pain, as both minotaurs cried silently seeing so many of their own die in this way, normally the minotaurs of Mycenae; The mycenaeans had no compassion for slaves because they were not considered citizens, but seeing how this man seemed to feel compassion for his “enemy” filled him with soft warm hope.

  Jason finished off the minotaurs in a clepsydra cycle and walked quickly towards Bran and Asterion while Silaus focused his gaze on Theseus, the starless did his best to stand up and greet the archon, but the archon raised his sword against the duo.

  -A-Archon?

  -Show your mark slave.

  When Bran began to remove the handkerchief that covered his forehead which had a kind of paper sewn inside Asterion stopped him with his hand while staring at the archon, he was sweating profusely and shaking like a newborn calf.

  -He is my slave. My archon don't you remember? You gave him to me.

  The light on the archon sword was shining again. Asterion already knew what the problem was.

  -The-the archon lightning failed, that's why he's not going into battle.

  -You say he made a mistake?

  Asterion stretched out his arms to protect his friend.

  -Please don't hurt him.

  -How did he avoid the favor?

  Asterion still didn't move but when bran saw Jason's sword getting closer to his friend's neck he decided to take off his handkerchief.

  -Bronze or paper.

  The archon, seeing the symbol on the minotaur forehead, lowered his sword.

  -DON'T TELL HIM BROTHER!

  Jason sword immediately cut off part of Asterion feet, making him fall immediately while he placed his sword on his neck.

  -Continue.

  -The katadesmo that heleny use on their shields is weaker if it is written by them. Minotaurs and especially if they are blessed by Athena they can apply it to any material made of bronze or paper.

  -Only on bronze and paper?

  -That's right.

  Jason looked closely at the paper sewn into the handkerchief with the words “Α?γ??”.

  -Who else knows about this?

  -Only me and Asterion… My companion whom you are threatening my lord.

  -I see, thank you.

  The young minotaur fell to his knees as he looked at the archon's face, Asterion bowed in desperation to protect his friend.

  -No one else knows my archon, forgive us for keeping it from him, he is my companion and friend so please let him live.

  Jason looked closely at the paper sewn into the handkerchief with the words “Α?γ??”.

  -Who else knows about this?

  Asterion clung to the archon's leg on the ground.

  -Please don't kill my brother… We will be useful to you.

  Bran had already made his decision through tears.

  -Just me and Asterion… My companion whom you are threatening my lord.

  -I see, thank you.

  The young minotaur fell to his knees as he looked at the archon face, Asterion bowed in desperation to protect his friend.

  -?No one else knows my archon, forgive us for hiding it from you, he is my companion and friend so please let him live!

  Jason removed the sword from the starless neck and helped him up.

  -If the minotaurs discover this secret it could be the end of us, you did well to hide it boy, I forgive you.

  Tears of relief fell from Asterion's face.

  -Thank you my archon. Let's get out of here Bran.

  Asterion turned around and saw his friend fallen face, his kneeling body next to his bowed head was not moving in the slightest and the symbol on his forehead had disappeared.

  -Bran?

  The minotaur open, tear-filled eyes were empty and his body looked like a statue in the middle of the ruins. Asterion let go of the archon support, fell against the stones once more and crawled towards his friend while saying his name over and over again.

  -We have plans to make Bran… Let's get out of here.

  The minotaur light was already gone with the archon.