A TASK
The sky at the East burned blood red. The sun was to rise any moment. Kratos tightened the last leather strap of his greave. He was ready. Another task the gods had given him awaited.
It wasn't - as always - anything spectacular. He was to set out on yet another long dangerous journey, exterminate swarms of importunate harpies, everpresent undeads, sexy gorgons and other minor foes along the way, have a traditional break for a quick threesome with two easy, passionate women at some point and find a few powerful artefacts to finally face some major insane monster, perhaps additionally backed up by a few other similar and equally nasty creatures.
In other words, a task like many others he had already completed. A task like many others the gods were surely to ask of him yet.
Despite his well-grounded reputation of a natural born adventurer, killing addict and perverted sadist, the perspective of spending the forthcoming years on completing tasks of this kind was not something Kratos found pleasing.
He felt horribly tired with all that and would gladly give up service with the gods long time ago yet he was aware that every task completed brought him closer to the aim he wouldn't ever be able to attain without the help of his superiors.
Unfortunately, the more time had passed the more apparent it was becoming that the gods led him on with empty promises having no intention of helping him in any way.
To cast away defeatist thoughts Kratos decided to doublecheck his modest accoutrements and set off wasting no more time for idle ponderings yet suddenly, he picked out barely audible highly alarming dry swish in almost perfect silence...
And then there was nothing but darkness.
Hidden in a hawthorn thickset fifty meters away, a slim inconspicious figure slowly lowered a bow. The shot was exceptionally clean - despite irregular breezes of spring wind. Sturdy tattooed man didn't even realise what happened. Striken right in the eye he died instantly.
The archer walked towards the corpse. Everything was going smoothly so far. Now it was enough to collect the weapons of the killed warrior and decapitate the body routinely in case the principal felt like trying some dirty tricks and for instance demanded an additional proof in order to „make sure" the task was indeed completed.
Afterall king Bohan, apart from eccentric collector habits, had always been famous for cunningness.