In Pursuit of Kronos' Scythe (Completed)

IV - The Temple Like No Other - Part I

Princess Tharalea

When Tharalea saw the Manticore two times bigger than her lynx pouncing on her, she did nothing smart. Instead, she hiccupped and turned around to run. The Manticore stretched out its claws, and one of them hooked onto Tharalea's cloak.

Spinning her around, the Manticore glared at her with its blood-shot eyes and... burped. Its breath reeked of burned rubber and rotten eggs, and it seemed that it seriously needed to sign up for Kronos' full-course dentist treatment. Tharalea wondered whether the Titan would forgive them for failing to retrieve his totem if they recommended the client, but that wasn't her utmost concern now. What paralyzed her with terror were the things coming out of the Manticore's mouth. It burped again and its belly flattened, giving birth to hundreds of scorpions. They crawled up Tharalea, Calyssa, and Piotr's body with an eerie scrunching sound.

Tharalea felt a hot sting on her left ankle, and she knew one of the scorpions had crawled into her boot and bitten her. Instantly, she felt dizzy and her vision blackened. She almost fell to the ground, when a pair of strong hands grabbed her.

"We can't fight them on the ground," Piotr shouted over the sound of cracking pincers.

Calyssa leaped up onto Hercules too. Tharalea sat behind Piotr, her chest plastered to his back, but she had no time to feel abashed. As Hercules flapped his wings and soared to the sky, a new fear enveloped Tharalea. She looked down and almost regretted her sudden wave of curiosity. The ground, like a spread of black ink, was infested with the scorpions. Tharalea began to imagine her falling on them and her body consumed by them.

Piotr read her fear. He took out a rope and bound it around their bodies. Feeling safer, Tharalea removed her boot and pelted out the scorpion. She tried to move her toes but she could feel nothing. The Manticore below them roared and flapped its bat wings in pursuit. Within moments, it was at Hercules' tail. The scorpions circled around it, like little planets surrounding the sun. As Hercules rose over a tree shaft, a black figure hopped onto his back. 

"Weapon... Give... Weapon..." The Kobalos stretched out his bony hand. "Koby wants to fight."

Piotr gave him the spanner that used to scare him. 

Koby stared at it with tearful eyes but grabbed hold of it. Burbling some swear words under his breath, he dashed to Hercules' tail and stabbed at the nearing scorpions. Piotr, Tharalea, and Calyssa started to attack too. Their attacks came in quick strikes, and their blades and claws twirled in the air like the spinning of a fan, but their enemies overwhelmed them. Hercules' body rocked hard as he flapped his scorpion-sieged wings, almost throwing them off. 

Thanks to the rope that they still remained in their seats.

Calyssa dashed to Hercules' tail, fighting alongside Koby. The Manticore tried to bite Hercules' wings but all it got was harsh tooth pain. A cracking sound came to Tharalea's left, and she saw one of the Manticore's teeth was chipped. Roaring, the monster swung its tail, its poisonous end glistened. No matter how hard Tharalea and Piotr swiped their blades, they failed to block the tail from administering its poison into their bodies. 

"Do some magic, your-- your highness," Piotr shouted to Tharalea. "I-- I can't bear..."

Tharalea harrumphed and reprimanded Piotr mentally. She wished to do magic too, but the inside of her was burning with fire — the fire of weakness. Her hands became wobbly, her eyelids falling down. Is this our fate? Are we meant to die even before we could complete our quest? Still, she would die fighting. Praying to Hekate, she rubbed the red stone on her amulet. Fire... All I need is a jet of fire to burn them so that we could escape.