After a period of gauging if unfriendly eyes noticed their arrival, they decided to advance. But the burden of carrying the provisions fell upon Tyler. Eleos moved ahead to scout their surroundings. As the man sneaked deeper into the trees and bushes, his silent and lithe movements reminded Tyler of a snake. Considering Eleos the Knife was hunting Empusas, the irony was not lost on him. But he took some effort to be as quiet as possible, though he knew that to a forest animal or a predator, he was as noisy as a frisky drunk on a Friday night.
About an hour later, Tyler was looking at two dead Empusas. He had to admit Eleos was damned good at his job. The creatures never saw the assassin coming. Their throats were cleanly cut, and each also had a bloody hole in its chest. For monsters, Tyler was startled to see that their blood was also red. The grassy area around the bodies was now wet and slick with it.
Some minutes before, he was walking at the foot of a tree-covered hill when Eleos noiselessly appeared before him, gesturing to stop and keep quiet. He was caught by surprise but recovered in time not to make any involuntary outcry. He crouched and the man kneeled beside him.
“Empusas, my Lord. Right over this hill. In the trees, watching over a clearing. Hunting.”
There’s the honorific again, he thought. I may have to correct Eleos about it before my head bloats.
“Good job, Eleos. How many?”
“Only two. A youngling and an adult. I haven’t spied any others in the immediate area. But they’re around. These monsters usually work in packs with an Elder Empusa or two as leaders.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Just stay here, my Lord. I'll call you when I’m done.” The man left, as quiet as he came. His low, quick, and smooth movements reinforced the snake-like impression he made upon Tyler. But an infinitely deadlier version of the prey the assassin was hunting.
Eleos came back a few minutes later. Tyler noticed a small and wet gray bag tied to the belt of the man.
Oh, shit. Don’t tell me Dionysus was serious about counting ears. I guess those are ears. Snake tail tips wouldn’t be that messy.
Now Tyler crouched beside the dead Empusas, examining them up close. Their ears had been removed. With surgical skill, as the neatness of the cuts revealed. But the result was still a repulsively bloody and gory mess. He noted that the Empusas looked like what he knew as the Medusas of myth. With some variations. Must be a related race, a subspecies. There's no way the two are unrelated.
The Empusas had the usual half-snake body, with the upper torso being humanoid. Their upper bodies were covered with small reptilian scales, right up to the cheeks. Though the adult’s scales were more pronounced and covered more of the body. The color of the scales of the two also differed. The adult having various shades of green while the youngling had green and yellow combinations.
They had breasts, of a sort, though also covered with the scales which seemed to form most of their skin. Their lower bodies were that of a snake, ending in a tail. The adult Empusa's lower torso was bigger and longer. More like a boa's tail. The younger Empusa had a slimmer and narrower version. Tyler wondered if the variations also represent a mimicking of the body types of different snakes.
They didn’t have weapons. At least the two had none. But their abnormally extended and scaled arms ended with hands equipped with long narrow sharp nails. The hands looked like a combination of claws and hands. He didn’t doubt that they were deadly.
“Looking at their natural weapons, my Lord? Those claws are tough and very sharp. Enough to cut through ordinary armor. Their fangs are merely for close-up work. But some Empusas do use weapons. Not expertly but they know enough to do some damage."
“How many Empusas have you disposed of, Eleos?”
“More than ten, my Lord. I stopped counting after that. But most were solitary ones. Either driven from their pack or lost. The most I had hunted at any time was a trio. This area is a lot better. More of them. Not just one pack of snakes, I think.”
“You are planning to hunt them all?” commented the incredulous Tyler. He didn’t expect that the assassin was thinking of doing a thorough job.
“The most I could get in three days, my Lord. These are deadly vermin. Left to themselves, they will multiply and hunt more of us. Eat more of us.”
“What did Master Dio ask you to bring back? Tail tips or ears?”
“Ears. But if I knew there would be this many, I would have brought a bigger sack.”
Tyler looked at the snake-women again. Their long and unkempt hair looked human, but Tyler could see it had been roughly trimmed by unskilled hands and crudely sharpened implements. The youngling had a beautiful human face, made more poignant by appearing to be just asleep. Though some blood had marked her perfect alabaster face.
The adult, on the other hand, really looked like a creature out of a nightmare. Combine the crone-like features of a witch with that of a snake, put several fangs in it, add reptilian eye sockets with bulging eyeballs, and decorate the frightful mess with a liberal application of greenish scales, and then one can have an idea of her appearance. In contrast to the youngling, her eyes were open at the moment of death and her fanged mouth open in a final expression of rage. Or hunger. Tyler couldn’t tell.
“Eleos, why does that one still look human?” he asked, pointing to the younger Empusa.
“Probably failed to transform before death, my Lord. She was the first one I killed. From experience, they really don’t have those beautiful faces. It will be gone in a while. This one here is typical of the breed,” Eleos said as he kicked the body of the adult. “It’s a good thing that’s the only magic they have. Otherwise, it would need thrice the effort to kill them. And that's based on my abilities. Most humans won't stand a chance if that happens. Right now, they're already fast, elusive, and savage. But I don’t know about their All-Mother, the one Father Dio met. That one may have magic to spare.”
“How will you hide the bodies? And the blood?” he asked Eleos who looking at the small clearing in front of them.
“Oh, I don’t plan to hide the bodies, my Lord,” came the reply. “They make perfect bait.”
“Bait? For what?
“You will soon see, my Lord. But I do have to cover our scent. These creatures have incredible abilities when it comes to sight and smell.”
With that, the assassin went to Tyler and dusted him with some powder he brought out of a pouch.
“Begging your permission, my Lord, but may I suggest you pick a tree from which you can watch the clearing? A high perch about two trees deeper into the grove. I will follow in a while.”
The man turned and went to the bodies. Tyler looked around and selected a tree. It took him some effort, but finally, he was up among its branches. He also chose a position well covered by thick clumps of leaves. Checking his line of sight, he found he could see into the clearing.
Eleos had been busy. In the middle of the clearing stood two simple wooden frames, each of three roughly made posts bound together to form a low tepee. A frame already mounted one of the dead Empusas, skewered by two branches tied to the bracing posts. The man was preparing to display the other body.
Tyler couldn’t help but be impressed by how fast the man worked. A consummate professional, he noted as he observed that no movement of the assassin was wasted. In no time at all, the second Empusa decorated the second wooden mounting. Eleos drew a knife and slashed the bodies, allowing more blood to spill on the already wet ground. He then circled the gruesome and brutal display, placing something on the ground from time to time.
Finishing his work with the circle, he looked towards the tree where Tyler was hiding, positioned himself and started walking backward. As he backtracked, he kept spreading more powder along the ground. Climbing up the tree, he crawled to where Tyler was.
“My Lord, once they show up, please don’t attack them yet. Let me handle it for now. I will tell you when we can attack them directly."
“Of course, Eleos. It's your
show,” assured Tyler who had no idea of what trap the assassin was planning. Eleos went to a nearby branch, hid, and also waited.
An hour passed. Tyler could see already see buzzards circling above the clearing. The sun was already high in the sky though it was not quite midday. Tyler thought about the decomposition of the assassin's bait. If the trap takes too long to attract its intended prey, they'll have to move out because of the smell.
Suddenly, out of the cover of his eyes, he discerned movement on the left side of the clearing. Focusing on the spot, he saw two Empusas waiting and watching. They were difficult to spot as the color of their scales blended with the surroundings. One had black and brown scales, speckled with flecks of orange and yellow while the other had gray and black ones with blotches of a darker shade of gray. How long they had they been there, Tyler had no idea. If not for a sudden movement of the gray and black Empusa, he would have missed them.
As he looked around the edges of the clearing, now aware as he was of the presence of the creatures, distortions in the color and cohesiveness of the scenery's image could be discerned. He realized that the pack had arrived. Or should it be called a quiver, the term for a group of cobras? A rhumba, like for rattlesnakes? A sun of adders? A nest, a den or a trogle? But from what he had seen, the Empusas reflect a gaggle of characteristics from different snake species. The hell with it, he thought. I'll just call them a party or a pack of Empusas. They work together like a human party, a hunting pack, though with far more reliance on trickery and deceit.
He looked at where Eleos was hiding. The man was looking at him, palm outstretched, telling him to wait. Finally, one of the gathered predators couldn’t bear it anymore. That one looked like an adder, Tyler observed. She broke cover and rushed to the middle of the clearing. When she got there and saw Eleos' handiwork, a loud and screeching wail escaped her lips. The mournful yet unearthly sound echoed through the clearing. She looked up to the sky and mouthed a series of wails, hisses, and screeches, shaking her uplifted arms all the while. At that, the rest broke cover and rushed to the two wooden frames.
Holy shit! There's a lot of them!
Tyler could see the undulating shapes as they moved with uncanny silence and swiftness. In a few moments, the area around the frames was filled with wailing snake-women. The unnatural din gave him goosebumps. The terrifying cacophony of loud screeches, sibilant hisses, and weird mournful wails was unbelievable. He had to fight the urge to climb down and run away. He looked at the assassin. The man was looking at the clearing with a murderous wide grin on his face. Noticing Tyler looking at him, he turned to the mage and winked, the smile never leaving his face. But he gave Tyler the stay put hand sign again.
Definitely his son. Also bloodthirsty. Even had the wink down pat, Tyler dryly observed.
Eleos turned his attention to the clearing. Tyler also looked upon the noisy gaggle. From his vantage point, he could see no other Empusa was coming to join the pack. He glanced at Eleos. The assassin was holding something in his left hand and in a quick motion, crushed whatever he was grasping.
A deafening explosion came from the direction of the clearing. Tyler saw the entire area around the gory display erupt in a series of large fireballs. He could see that the detonations came from the circle Eleos had earlier traced around his baited display. The fiery series of mixed red, yellow, and orange explosions engulfed the Empusas, drowning out their cries.
As the fires coalesced into one massive flaming ball of death, Tyler couldn’t see anything. Though he was familiar with magical fireballs, the spell forming part of his limited repertoire, the mage could see that the assassin added something to the spell. The enormous fireball lasted for a full minute, consuming and burning everything within its area of effect.
When it finally died out, it merely blinked out of existence, leaving in its wake a shocking scene of destruction that left Tyler thankful that he was looking at the barbequed carnage from a distance. But even then, the strong smell of roasted meat wafted into his nostrils.
The image that greeted his eyes was a textbook example of dealing death in a concentrated and complete manner. The frames were gone, burned into charcoal. Around it lay smoking numbers of dead and fire-blackened Empusas in various poses. A number died on their knees, roasted to death. The severely charred and badly burned bodies can still be distinguished from one another but he doubted if they could be cleanly separated. Many appeared to have been fused together by the fire. Tyler was nauseated and felt like vomiting but he'll be damned if he would let the assassin see him puke.
Eleos waited for a few minutes more, all the while observing the edges of the clearing. Tyler could see the head of the man moving from one edge of the glade and then back again. Satisfied, the man signaled for Tyler to stay put and climbed down the tree. In a short while, Eleos was among the victims of his deadly trap. He had his knife out, cutting pieces from burned carcasses.
Probably ears again. Cooked ones, thought Tyler. Though I guess he's settling for tail tips if the ears were gone. I doubt if Dionysus would object.
It was a macabre and unreal scene. Scores of dead and burned Empusas with a human poking into the remains, all the while cutting pieces from each of the victims. The heat didn’t seem to bother the assassin.
As Tyler watched Eleos, he saw some distortion in the foliage at the back of the man. He quickly gathered energy and exploded a fireball where he saw the abnormality. As the spell blasted into existence, it revealed the presence of three more Empusas who were now covered with the deadly flames. He knew the fire was going to stick to the bodies of the snake-women for a while. That was a characteristic of his spell.
He quickly looked at Eleos. The assassin was already down and a spear jutted out of the man's back.
Shit. They managed to get Eleos first.
He prayed the man was not dead. Dionysus won’t be happy if he finds out his son was killed. Before he climbed down from his perch, he unleashed a blizzard of magical blades against the spot targeted by his fireball. Tyler wanted to be sure the attackers were all dead or at least incapacitated. He ran to where Eleos was. As another guarantee, the mage again exploded another fireball where he spotted the creatures. While running, he noted that the recent arrivals were bigger versions of the Empusas who gathered in the clearing. About half a size bigger, ten to eleven feet in height.
Don’t tell me those were the pack leaders!
When he got to Eleos, the man was still alive. But barely. The assassin's body position would have been funny if not for the extreme seriousness of the situation. The spear struck the man in the right shoulder and the spearhead and part of the shaft passed through the body. But the force of the throw pinned him to the ground. The spear carried the assassin with it as it buried itself into the ground. Tyler believed the man was able to make an evasive movement at the last minute. Otherwise, the creature's spear shouldn’t have missed at that distance.
The spearhead had sunk deeply into the soil and one hand of Eleos was holding on to the part just below the spearhead, holding it steady. His other hand was on the ground, keeping his body from sinking further. The rest of the spear jutted out of the entry hole on his back. This time, it was Eleos’ blood which soaked the ground. His hand was coated with it.
Tyler dropped to a crouch beside the assassin to check his condition. The man's eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. Eleos was in shock from the impact of the spear and the loss of blood. The mage cast a quick healing spell, the only one in his repertoire, a light heal he learned from Eira. He knew it was not enough. It was intended for small cuts and abrasions.
Then a loud screeching caught his attention. He immediately rolled to one side and got up in a crouch, his staff at the ready, and faced the direction of the noise. From the smoking area struck by his fiery blasts, a solitary figure stood. Two bodies lay beside it.
Freak me! One survived all that?
Tyler stole a quick glance at Eleos. The spear shaft was slowly bending down at an angle
. He knew that in a few moments, it was going to rip the man's shoulder muscles apart. With a blade spell, he cut off most of the spear shaft, leaving a foot of it still sticking out. He hoped it would be enough to ease the burden of the spear on the man’s body.
The surviving Elder Empusa was still loudly screeching in place. Tyler couldn’t tell if it was of anger, pain, or frustration. Knowing his luck, he assumed it was a combination of all three. Though he was surprised that the creature had not rushed him yet. It looked capable of moving even though severely wounded.
It appeared severely burned, patches of scale have already fallen off, exposing open and torn portions of its body. Blood ran from the wounds. The color of its scales appeared to be greenish-yellow, now largely obscured and blackened by Tyler’s handiwork. Using his Elder-enhanced sight, he discovered the reason for its failure to attack him. It was blind. The fireballs had burned out its eyes.
Sighing, Tyler let fly three energy blades at the creature. Two tore through the upper torso and one squarely hit it in the head. Amid the resulting spray of blood and snake flesh, the screeching stopped. The creature fell and joined its sisters in death. Tyler cast another blade spell, delivering spear-shaped blades to the two other bodies. The knives tore into the two, adding to the grisly gore bathing the blackened area. He didn’t want to make a mistake by merely assuming that the two others were dead.
He carefully looked around the clearing, making sure no other surprises were in store. At the same time, he employed the skill he learned back in the cave of Hephaestus. The area was clear of magical energy signatures. Satisfied, he went back to Eleos. His light healing spell had revived the man, though the assassin looked deathly pale from the blood loss.
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