"You should have accepted peace while you could. Now you will face the wrath of a god."
Once I said that and saw that nobody was moving I turned around and started walking towards the wall of the city. However I hadn’t taken twenty steps back toward Kaeron when I heard a sound.
And that sound was not the usual murmur of a nervous army or the tallic coughing of soldiers readjusting their armor. It was sothing much louder and more distinct. Like a rhythmic roar or a wave. I could also feel the ground shaking.
I looked over my shoulder and saw what I feared: the cavalry had charged.
At the front, I saw Leontes, his blue cape fluttering behind him, leading the charge. At his sides and behind him, dozens of horsen followed, their spears at the ready and war cries breaking the air. Behind them, the ranks of infantry began to move as well. Slow at first, like a newly ford avalanche, but gaining speed with every second.
There was no doubt about it. He had crossed the line and seed to be coming for .
"Well... it looks like they didn’t hear ," I sighed as I stretched my neck to one side, making my bones crack. "Ti to get started."
A few seconds later, the first rider caught up with with a spear aid directly at my chest.
I grabbed the shaft with one hand, stopped his montum, and struck him, knocking him off his horse and sending him flying through the air like a bird. The horse, bewildered, continued running in a straight line while its rider flew past, crashing into two of his companions.
Twenty more were coming behind. So I simply concentrated so energy in my body and hurtled toward the collision.
I slid between the horses like a shadow, accelerating suddenly, leaving a faint golden glow in my wake. I appeared at the side of a second rider and struck him with the back of my hand across the chest. The sound of his armor bending was like a war drum bursting. The guy flew backwards, hitting three other soldiers and dragging them with him.
One tried to stab from above with his spear raised. I raised my hand and conjured a small, barely visible energy shield—nothing flashy, just enough to redirect the blow. The spear broke on contact. With my other hand, I threw an uppercut straight at the rider’s abdon, who arched forward and fell from his horse as if his strings had been cut.
That’s when the charge turned into complete chaos.
The horses were neighing, out of control from the screams, the dust, and the soldiers flying through the air. So of those at the rear of the charge refused to advance, while others tried to dodge fallen bodies. The riders attempted to reorganize, but I would not allow them.
With a quick gesture, I drew a straight line in the air and released a concentrated beam of golden energy, similar to a king of Olympus, which pierced four soldiers as if they were made of paper, causing them to fall from their mounts almost instantly in pain. The wound seed to have been cauterized instantly by the heat, but it still left a gaping hole in the soldiers’ chests that looked like a smoking hole, which must have hurt as they kept screaming. A fifth was hit by the shock wave and fell from his mount, also screaming.
That was when the infantry arrived.
However, I could tell that their battle cries seed more desperate than heroic. I could almost see in their eyes that they no longer wanted to fight when they saw what had happened to their comrades. But their legs kept running; they obviously couldn’t turn back now.
"Damn blind obedience," I muttered as I spun on my heels and unleashed a flurry of blows, restrained blows, of course. If I used my real strength, I could have torn their heads off, and I didn’t want to spill any more blood in this battle.
So I stomped my foot to scare away the rest of the soldiers and watched as the ground cracked. The nearest soldiers flew through the air like rag dolls. So collided with each other, others rolled across the ground, dropping their weapons and shields.
Then I lunged at the densest group, plowing through them with sheer brute force. No need for magic this ti; after all, it seed my fists were enough. One, two, three... with each blow, a man fell. I smashed their helts, shattered their shields, sent them to the ground or lifted them into the air.
I grabbed one who tried to surround by his armor, lifted him with one hand, and threw him against a group of five. They all fell like bowling pins. Needless to say, no one got up.
The ground was stained with dust and sweat. There was no blood—not yet. After all, most of the wounds weren’t cuts, and those that were had already been cauterized, which didn’t an I wouldn’t kill if necessary. But if they kept coming, my patience would run out, and who knows what else could happen.
"Is this the best you’ve got?" I shouted, walking among the bodies, as more soldiers retreated, hesitating to advance. ’There are thousands of them! And they can’t defeat a false god!’ I shouted mockingly, referring to the general’s statents, speaking of him...
I saw Leontes appear again, still on horseback. His horse looked different from most of the ones I had seen so far that had been scared away by the battle or by my actions. This colt seed trained to fear nothing. Leontes held him steady as he drew his sword.
"Damn you, you phony! You’re not a god! Just a monster with a little power!"
I just smiled. If only the fool knew that I hadn’t used even a fraction of my power to turn his army into a joke.
"Then co and take it from , Athenian."
In response, he spurred his horse and charged straight at .
I waited until the last mont. Just as the blade descended, I stepped aside and grabbed his arm with surgical precision.
I twisted his wrist, and that’s when I felt it. The bones where his hand joined with his arm snapped like a dry branch. The general quickly responded with a scream.
Leontes fell from his horse, rolling on the ground. His sword lay halfway between him and .
I leaned over him as he held his broken hand.
"This is what happens when you co to kill in the na of a greedy king. If you had truly been blessed by Athena, this would not have happened." I said, my mind montarily thinking of the goddess and what I had done to her, but I quickly dismissed the thought. Now was not the ti to think about such things.
I turned to look at the Athenian general, and his gaze was a mixture of hatred and fear.
Without paying any attention to him, I turned to the rest of the army—most of whom still seed to be wavering between fear and duty—and raised both hands.
"Unless you want to join this idiot on the ground, I recomnd you leave right now!"
For a mont, silence reigned.
The wind stirred the dust among the unconscious bodies, the dismounted horsen, and the discarded weapons. So soldiers in the rear looked at each other. There were even those who seed to take a step back, hesitating, thinking. I hoped that logic would prevail. I hoped that the sanity of living another day would overco the false glory of dying for a cause that was already lost.
But to my surprise, that did not happen.
I heard one man shout. Another followed suit.
And in an instant, a new wave ignited like a spark in dry grass.
"FOR ATHENS!"
"FOR LEONTES!"
"CHARGE!"
I saw shields raised, spears trembling in reckless hands, and the ground begin to vibrate with the footsteps of more than a thousand boots. They ca with rage. They ca with fear. They ca by inertia.
While I just stood still and sighed with annoyance. And I took a step forward.
"Idiots."
(5 minutes later...)
The battlefield was in ruins.
There were no lines left. There were no formations left. Only bodies. So lying on the ground, others cowering, breathing with difficulty. A few were still screaming for dical help. Others were crying. Many just stared at the sky as if they didn’t know what day it was.
And I, in the middle of it all, without a single scratch.
Breathing deeply, I crouched down next to one of the conscious soldiers. A boy. He couldn’t have been more than seventeen. I had knocked him unconscious with a single push, but he seed to have woken up during the aftermath.
He looked at in terror, as if expecting to finish him off.
"Don’t be afraid, the battle is over." I said calmly and stood up.
Around , the Athenian army lay in silence. Not all of them were dead—that wasn’t my intention, in fact, most were still alive—but they were defeated and humiliated.
Of the more than a thousand soldiers who had crossed those hills that morning, only a few were left standing, and I could count them on my fingers.
And those were the ones I had left behind on purpose.
The strong ones. The ones who could walk back.
I approached the group. They were about ten, maybe a few more. So were staggering. Others still carried their weapons, but they hung from their hands as if they were too heavy.
And I walked toward them.
"I want you to go back to Athens."
They looked up, confused.
"I want you to tell your king what happened here. Tell him how Kaeron resisted, not because it had an army or riches, but because a god walks among its streets."
I paused for a second.
"I don’t want to see blue banners crossing those hills again. Because if I have to co down once more... I won’t be so kind."
No one said anything, but everyone understood.
One by one, they began to walk, slowly. So helped the wounded. Others simply stared into the empty space with a lost look.
And I let them go.
And when the last one crossed the edge of the field, I turned to look at my city, its walls still intact.
The shortest battle and with luck, also the shortest war in the history of Athens was over. And they had lost.
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