Knight of Wonder

Act I

Scene 2: Conquest

The din of battle was oddly comforting to Diana. There were times when she found this to be a disturbing fact. After all, perhaps it was a bit too comforting. Perhaps her old sword master had been right. Surviving too many battles left more scars on the mind than it did on the body.

Diana couldn't dwell on such matters, however, as the chaos of war swirled all around her. The snarling, skeletal, warrior of Hades a few feet away hefted his spiked mace into the air and gave a shout of triumph at the red of the evening sky after slaying his foe. Then he turned and fixed his eyeless gaze on Diana. She had already anticipated this and was assuming her battle stance, with her broadsword held high above her head with both hands while she set her feet far apart to ground herself against any sudden impact. It was a stance the ancient humans called "the guard of the hawk."

The foe charged at her a swung his mace right at her abdomen. Her shining silver armor would have absorbed most of the blow, she knew, which would throw the warrior off balance as he took time to recover. Diana couldn't afford to take those kinds of unnecessary hits, however, and she instead brought her sword swooping down to parry the swing. The warrior tried again from a different angle and met the same result. During the second move, Diana worked her foot forward and, after the strike was successfully parried, she kicked her foot out, throwing her enemy off balance and bringing him to one knee. It was all the opportunity she needed to deliver a swift kick to the head which sent the warrior sprawling on the ground.

Wasting no time Diana quickly pivoted on one foot and slashed the arm of another attacker who went stumbling away howling in pain. Then Diana brought her sword around in a wide arc and cut the head off a nearby skeleton that had momentarily been thrown off balance by a fellow Amazon.

Not long after, Diana found her dance interrupted when the body of another Amazon came sailing through the air and crashing into her, knocking her to the ground. After taking a moment to regain her focus, Diana pushed the body of the fallen Amazon off of herself before standing up with a ragged growl.

"You don't appear to be having a very good day, my dear," a voice came from out of the thick atmosphere of combat.

Diana felt her eyes go wide and she spun around to see the soldiers of Themyscira and Olympus parting before her. In between them stepped the imposing figure of Hades. He was the sort of figure one would expect from a lord of hell: fully a head taller than Diana, with a tentacled jaw, long black hair, and an enormous musculature that was barely concealed by his silver plated power armor. He had the same grin on his face that he always had during marshal contests, although Diana grimly wondered if a part of it was not also about how weak she looked compared to him in this moment, with her battle armor stained with blood and Earth, and her face streaked with sweat.

"Perhaps if your were willing to come with me peacefully, I might see a way to improve your day before it ends, although I'm afraid you must hurry for there's not much day left," Hades continued in his telepathic speech. Even in telepathy his tone was the same smooth, honey dripping over tiles, baritone. Diana had grown to hate it after all these years.

"If that's the way you see it then you are sadly mistaken," Diana spat back before literally spitting reddened saliva at the ground beside her. "After all your years of battle against Themyscira, you should know by now that we never give up a fight."

"Ah and what a model enemy you are," Hades said wistfully as he held out a hand. Somewhere behind him, a magister's spell went off, sending up a great plume of smoke and bodies. "Can we not return to those days? There is no need to continue this pointless conflict."

Diana could have remarked at the irony of Hades asking her to make peace with him, but instead all she said was, "We cannot return to those days. Not after you betrayed my mother and tried to take away our homeland. Now you will suffer the fate of all traitors." Diana held her sword aloft to assume her battle stance.

Hades let out a long sigh and said, "If you would insist on beating me at my own game then… so be it," and the edges of Hades' power armor lit up red. He took a few gigantic strides to pick up speed before he leapt into the air and came down with an enormous crash that sent Diana and everyone else around her toppling to the ground.

Diana scrambled backwards as Hades approached in quick step. Groping the ground, searching for the sword she lost in her fall, Diana instead found the discarded shield of an Amazonian warrior. She quickly grabbed it and held it in front of her just before Hades punched a massive dent in it with a gauntleted fist.

Hades was winding up for another strike that would surely punch through the shield and physically devastate Diana when a lone Amazonian warrior came leaping out of the battle. She crashed into Hades' upper body and the lord of hell let out a deep roar of frustration.

Diana seized the opportunity and cast the ruined shield aside as she lunged for her sword. When she rose back up, Hades had already grabbed the Amazonian warrior and flung her away. Hades was about to finish her off when Diana dashed in front of him and struck away a killing strike with her sword.

Hades snarled in anger and reached after Diana who held out her sword defensively. Hades grabbed the sword by the blade with his armored hand and broke it off at the hilt before casting the pieces aside. Then he strode towards Diana threateningly. Just then the fallen warrior from earlier reached out a hand and grabbed Hades by the ankle. The dark god gave a low, awkward grunt as he was thrown off balance. He lashed out at Diana with one arm but the swing went wild, giving Diana time to duck low and avoid the attack.

As she rolled away on the dusty ground to avoid a second swing, Diana's fingers closed around a familiar golden coil. She brought it up to her eye level with an expression of delight. "Don't scare me like that," she chastised her weapon of choice. After that troll had ripped it from her grasp early in the battle, Diana was unsure if she would ever find it again.

Rising with a new sense of resolve, the brave yet weary Diana lashed out with her lasso which caused Hades to flinch away as he finally managed to shake himself free of the grasp of the Amazonian warrior. He then ran at Diana with a snarl but she side stepped him, causing him to stumble before coming to a halt in front of a mob of battling warriors. Hades spun around with another angry roar that was suddenly choked off.

Diana had wrapped her lasso around the thick neck of Hades and she pulled with all her might as the mad god jammed his hands at his throat. Her strength was too much for him, however, and Hades was soon brought literally to his knees, gasping for breath and holding a hand aloft in a gesture of yielding.

As she loosened her pull on Hades, Diana heard him choke, "Stop! I forfeit!" Just a moment later, the skeletal forces of Hades dropped back from their opponents and started dropping their weapons. The warriors of Themyscira raised their fists into the air and began cheering in victory. All the while, Diana held her grip on the lasso around Hades' neck firm while she stared deep into his eyes with an expression of genuine derision. "There'll be no second chances for you this time, lord of hell," Diana warned. "This time you will face justice."

Author's Note: This story is all mine on my own Earth. The characters however, are not mine. I just like to play with them.

The next scene will be up later this week... please leave me a review! I would love to know what you guys think!