Beyond Hades: The Prometheus Wars (42 page)

It bit deeply into the heel of the giant - too deeply.

He was holding the blade too tightly.

The next moment, Talbot was on the dusty ground, winded. He glanced around, first noticing his unicorn still running forward, and then becoming aware of the fact his sword was quivering, embedded in the heel of the giant standing directly above him.

The enormous creature roared in outrage and pain as Talbot leaped to his feet, rushing over to the heel and climbing the rough skin of the giant's foot in an attempt to retrieve his sword. The blade lay embedded around twelve feet up, thanks to the height of the unicorn he'd been riding.

Just as Talbot's hand closed around the hilt of the sword, he felt himself rising. The entire foot was lifting impossibly high into the sky while Talbot gripped the hilt of the sword helplessly, praying it didn't come loose. He saw the giant's hand coming closer at the same time as the foot reached the height of the giant's waist, and Talbot realized what was about to happen.

The giant was going to swat him like a mosquito!

Talbot looked around for some method of escape, but nothing was forthcoming. The ground would kill him just as surely as the giant's hand if he decided to drop, and there was nothing he could reach by jumping.

He was going to get squashed like a bug.

Just as Talbot contemplated trying his luck and letting go, the giant's hand paused and it roared once more before Talbot felt himself falling. The giant's other leg seemed to have collapsed beneath it, and the ground rushed toward Talbot with sickening swiftness. He scrambled to the other side of the ankle - the side facing away from the ground - and pushed his body flat against the rough skin of the giant, hoping it would be enough to cushion the blow.

It was... barely.

Talbot hit the ground astride the giant's ankle at about the same speed as a car crash, the impact tearing loose the sword still embedded in the flesh of the giant's Achilles' and hurling Talbot a good twenty feet through the air, crashing into the ground, once again winding him, and causing his newly repaired shoulder to scream in agony.

Sucking in huge gulps of air, he struggled unsteadily to his feet. Checking himself over for injury, Talbot picked up his sword and sheathed it, gazing at the giant figure lying prone upon the ground, blood gushing from both its ankles. It struggled in vain to stand once more, holding its heels with its massive hands. Instead, it merely flopped around like an enormous fish out of water.

Wes appeared, holding aloft the bloodied sword of Chiron and rode his unicorn directly for the giant's huge head. Its hand moved too slowly to defend itself, and Wes slashed his blade viciously into the creature's throat.

Blood gushed from the horrific wound, covering Wes and his mount, almost knocking the Australian from the saddle. He held on to the pommel with difficulty and bolted out of the way as the massive hands reached up to staunch the wound in the giant's neck. It was too late, though, and within moments the huge creature bled out and crumpled while the bloody river slowly lessened.

Hearing hoof beats behind him, Talbot spun, scrabbling for the hilt of his Olympian sword as he did. His unicorn mount approached hesitantly, a look not unlike concern upon its equine features, and Talbot wondered if the horned animal was much more intelligent than its smaller and hornless counterpart.

When Talbot refrained from drawing his sword, the unicorn seemed to decide it was safe to approach and drew alongside him. It then kneeled down on the blue grass to allow him to mount more easily, and Talbot felt certain there was a higher level of astuteness in the large hazel eyes which regarded him.

Nodding slightly to the unicorn, Talbot leaped smoothly into the saddle, grabbing the reins as the huge mare rose to her feet once more. Wes swiftly rode over to him, wiping blood from his eyes and face as he did so.

"Did you enjoy your ride?" the commando asked, a wide grin splitting his crimson-splattered features.

"Hardly," replied Talbot. "Well done on your kill; only two more to go now."

"Yeah, I sent those other boys on to begin the attack, but wanted to make sure you were still pretty."

Talbot grinned. "I'll be okay. How did you avoid getting your sword stuck in the heel like I did?" he asked.

"Simple," replied Wes, turning his horse toward the nearest giant. "I pulled the fucker out instead of letting it pull
me
out...or off... whatever."

He let out a whoop and charged toward the next giant, which was already being attacked by the Olympian riders. Talbot moved to follow, but then saw something which caught his eye, making him gasp.

It was Cerberus!

When Talbot had gazed out at the initial attacking force, he hadn't seen Cerberus simply because he'd been looking for the gigantic, three headed dog with the tail of a snake. He hadn't thought to look for the tiny puppy within the monstrous horde.

And there it was, running in front of the advancing line of Titans, its two remaining heads sweeping from side to side with jaws agape, tongues lolling, the stump of its tail wagging slightly.

Then it saw Talbot. Recognition seemed to pass across the puppy's features as it identified him and snarled. Cerberus's hackles rose, and a loud growl reverberated across the battleground while it suddenly doubled in size repeatedly, until it towered some twenty feet high in the sky and pounced toward him.

Talbot had no time to think, no time to decide the wisest course of action. Instinct kicked in, and he turned the head of his unicorn toward the demonic beast, urging his mount to charge.

The unicorn responded instantly and surged forward without hesitation toward the two-headed Cerberus. The unicorn picked up pace, and Talbot gripped the saddle's pommel and the reins in order to steady himself upon the galloping beast.

At the very last moment, his unicorn dropped her head, lowering the three-foot-long horn to aim directly at the chest of Cerberus. The giant dog realized at the last moment and tried to turn away, exposing itself in the process. The horn smashed into Cerberus's unprotected chest, smashing through the ribcage and skewering a lung.

Cerberus was thrown sideways with the force of the impact, sliding clear of the horn in the same motion. White blood gushed from the wound, filling the huge dog's lung from inside, and as it tried to howl, froth spewed from its mouths. Within seconds, the gigantic canine stopped twitching, shuddering heavily before seeming to sigh slightly.

Cerberus was dead.

Talbot patted the unicorn's neck with a trembling hand. "Well done, girl," he muttered.

Glancing around, he saw one of the giants suddenly drop to one knee before pitching facedown to the ground. The vibrations of the impact reverberated to where he sat atop his ride almost three hundred yards distant. One of the Olympian riders darted in and severed the giant's carotid artery. The colossus reached up and smashed him and his mount into the hard ground with its left hand, causing another vibration.

Something flashed by Talbot's head, and he turned to see Titan warriors rushing toward him, spears flying from their hands. In his focus upon Cerberus, and then the felling of the second giant, Talbot had momentarily forgotten about the Titans - a mistake which had almost cost him his life as a spear had only missed him by half a foot!

Kicking the unicorn into motion, Talbot raced toward Wes and the Olympians, where they moved to take out the third and final giant.

Or so they hoped.

***

Wes angled his new mount directly toward the bulging legs of the last giant, sucking in a huge gulp of air as he did so. He'd been extremely lucky to escape the last one; it had fallen almost completely on top of him when he'd sliced through its Achilles' tendon, and he'd only survived by hurling himself away from his unicorn, whose spine had been smashed as the giant's knee had crashed into it. The mount he now rode belonged to an Olympian who would need it no longer - he'd jumped the wrong way and ended up beneath the falling giant instead of getting clear.

The unicorn had initially run from him, and he'd had to chase it across the battlefield. He'd finally given up and yelled out for it to stop, and miraculously it had obeyed. Wes had mounted the trembling beast and now rode it directly for the last giant, which was rapidly approaching the outer wall of Mount Olympus.

He wasn't going to make it in time.

The ten surviving Olympian riders galloped ahead of Wes, when the giant suddenly turned and jumped, both feet leaving the ground and stomping down simultaneously directly on top of the tightly bunched Olympians and their unicorns, killing them all instantly.

"Shit!" shouted Wes.

His chances of stopping the last giant on his own were almost zero. Even Wes, with all of his cockiness, knew that. He glanced around and saw Talbot riding swiftly toward him, but this didn't lift his hopes too much. This third giant seemed the smartest of the bunch - his actions to destroy the threat of the Olympians attested to as much - and Wes couldn't see how the two of them stood a chance at stopping the behemoth. Wes slowed his steed, waiting for Talbot to catch up.

"What took you so long?" he asked.

"Cerberus," grunted Talbot.

"Is it dead?"

"I hope so," replied Talbot. "How the hell are we gonna take this guy down?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing. You're supposed to be the one with all the brains."

"And you're supposed to be the deadly warrior," retorted Talbot with a wry grin.

"This is true. I guess that means we're really fucked if your brains and my brawn can't figure out a way to take this big bastard down."

"What's that?" asked Talbot suddenly, pointing up at the crenellated battlements.

Wes followed where he was pointing and squinted. It looked like they were loading something huge onto one of the catapults. And what was that sprouting from all around the thing, were they... arms?

"Holy shit. That's one of those Heca-thingies like your mate Briareus," gasped Wes.

"Hecatonchires," corrected Talbot absently, shielding his eyes. "I think it's the one called Kottos, he was wearing the green loincloth."

"What the hell are they playing at?" Wes glanced along the wall, noticing one of the other fifty-foot-tall Hecatonchires was sitting atop the cup-like section of the catapult arm at the other end of the wall.

As he was watching this, Wes saw the gates open and Briareus stride out, his hundred arms flexing and fifty heads all fixed upon the giant, now almost within reach of the wall. A few more steps and it would be able to bring its huge club crashing down onto the only defensive feature of the entire city. It would smash the wall to rubble in moments.

Briareus began to run forward and the giant peered down at him, raising the huge club in order to smash the Hecatonchires into the ground. At the same time, however, both catapults released. The arms whipped forward, throwing the two brothers directly at the giant.

The two multi-limbed and multi-headed brothers soared through the air, crashing simultaneously into the giant's chest at precisely the same time as Briareus hit it around the waist. Each of the Hecatonchires was fifty feet tall, and the combined impact of all three hitting the giant at the same time smashed it off its feet and into the ground.

"Why the hell didn't I think of that?" muttered Wes.

"Shouldn't we help them?" asked Talbot beside him.

Wes snapped back into focus. He'd been so intrigued by the actions of the three Hecatonchires that he'd forgotten what they were supposed to be doing.

"Shit," he muttered. In a louder voice he said to Talbot, "Let's give those bastards a hand, what do you reckon?"

They charged their mounts forward, swiftly covering the distance to where the fallen giant lay, but before they could attack, the giant rose to a sitting position. Gyes, the Hecatonchires wearing a yellow loincloth, leaped up to its left shoulder while Kottos smashed blow after blow into the giant's muscular midsection.