He should have anticipated that Tartarus's lair would have been guarded, particularly since the captured demigods were still there. Nonetheless Ryker had not considered the idea. He stood on a patch of jagged rock overlooking the small horde of monsters milling about in front of a large palace that seemed to be made out of flesh. Water pulsed through the walls like blood and the floor looked to be unsteady at best. "Well, looks like this is where I leave you." Erebus told Ryker, a note of regret in his voice.

Ryker glanced over to the god, frowning. "You aren't going to help me out at all here?" He asked, slightly disbelievingly. That much he had expected. The primordial god had a habit of being helpful and yet unhelpful at the same time.

"Afraid not." Erebus chuckled. "I look forward to seeing how you handle this. This is goodbye, Ryker. When you make it to Elysium, if you make it, I will send transportation for you to return to the surface with your army. Good luck, Ryker." And without another word the primordial god vanished on the spot, leaving the son of Cybele alone in Tartarus.

Any other demigod would have, most likely, been swept up in a momentary surge of panic upon realizing that they were alone in perhaps the most dangerous place in the world. But Ryker took solace in the solitude. He took a deep breath and surveyed the assembled monsters once more, summoning his bow as he did so. They'll be inside that palace. He thought quietly, drawing back the bowstring and focusing on an ogre. First things first, I need to get inside.

Before the first arrow had even embedded into the ogre Ryker had sent a dozen more shadowy shafts arcing after it, raining down on the unsuspecting monsters. Each arrow that he fired hit its target and the monster crumbled away, presumably to reappear somewhere else in Tartarus. Ryker slowly began his descent down the jagged stone mountain, hopping lightly from foothold to foothold, while keeping up a constant stream of arrows hailing down on the monsters. It did not take long for the monsters to locate their aggressor and they moved to attack him as one. But it was not a short distance between the demigod and the monsters. And Ryker's volley of arrows was endless. Monster after monster fell as they charged him, desperate to stop the arrows. By the time the first monster, a karpos, reached him, half of the monsters had been reduced to dust. But if the monsters had expected some sort of reprieve after reaching Ryker, they were sorely mistaken. The second that the bow disappeared, Ryker's claws appeared. They went to work with such precision and savagery that the monsters quickly regretted their decision to approach the demigod. The bow would have been quicker. Ryker's claws were far more painful, and his constant laughter were unsettling to even the oldest of the creatures.

After only thirty minutes the monsters that had been guarding the palace were all dust. Ryker, chuckling all the while, strolled into the palace. He was covered in gore and ichor and that combined with his reckless grin would have even given the gods pause. But it was not a god that was waiting for him right inside the palace, lounging in a throne-like chair. It wasn't even a monster. In fact, the figure in the chair was all too familiar, even if he had not seen her in a very long time.

"Silver." Ryker breathed.

"Oh, you know me then?" She laughed, swinging her feet off of the chair and slowly rising. At her side hung two long knives that seemed to have a sinister red glow all of their own. "Sorry, your face doesn't ring a bell. And you are?"

The confession of not knowing Ryker brought him out of the reverie he had temporarily found himself in and he quickly shook it off. "Don't worry about it." He said, his grin slowly returning. "It won't matter in a few seconds."

"Oh, a fighter!" Silver beamed at him in genuine pleasure, an expression that he had never seen on the actual Silver's face. It was a look of equal part savagery and happiness, one that made even his own reckless grin pale in comparison. "Good, it has been so boring just sitting around here and watching these prisoners. Even torturing that one who looks like me is getting a bit old."

She slowly drew her knives, looking expectantly at Ryker for some sort of response. When none was forthcoming she sighed and shrugged. "Right to it then?" She asked brightly. "Fine by me. Try to make this interesting, will you?"

"The demigods." Ryker growled, his voice shaking with barely concealed rage. The thought of someone torturing others for the explicit purpose of causing pain was sickening to him. It reminded him of those hunters who killed only for sport. He had been struggling internally with the idea of killing Silver, for reasons that he couldn't comprehend, but now that weight had been lifted. "Where are they?"

He hadn't been expecting her to answer, but she did. She pointed behind her with one knife, to a stygian iron door. "Right behind those doors." She informed him. "Follow the hallway down and you will reach two sets of staircases. Take the one on the left and you will find them."

He opened his mouth to respond, but evidently Silver was done speaking. She leapt forward with frightening speed and her long knives cut an 'X' across Ryker's chest before he could even move. She drew back her knives for another attack but Ryker quickly gathered himself and went on the offensive. Silver was fast, faster than he was. She danced through his attacks with the ease and fluidity of water, giggling and smiling. Her knives cut into his flesh with deadly precision, never missing their target. In the space of six seconds Ryker was bleeding from more than a dozen wounds. His breathing was already becoming heavy and he looked at the Corrupted demigod in disbelief, a feral snarl on his face. Silver smiled back at him innocently and twirled one knife in her hand easily, the other hand on her hip. "You know, you aren't very good." She told him honestly, winking mischievously. "And you are quite slow. I do hope you aren't planning on dying too quickly."

Ryker ground his teeth in frustration, the scales from his scales slowly traveling up his arms. They had reached his bicep when Silver attacked again. Even being aware of her ridiculous speed Ryker was still cut two more times before he could twist away. She giggled again as she gave a particularly savage cut at Ryker's throat, clearly intending to sever the veins in his neck. Unable to dodge her attack, time seemed to slow for Ryker. He watched the knife move closer and closer to his neck, and saw the savage glee grow on Silver's face with every millimeter closer the knife came. Not like this, Ryker thought desperately, I'm not done yet.

The scales had been slowly moving up his arm throughout the short lived fight, but now they grew with incredible speed. They traveled up Ryker's right arm and wrapped around his throat just before Silver's knife touched his flesh. Sparks skittered off as the knife contacted them and Silver was momentarily caught off guard. Her balance was compromised and Ryker managed to score his first blow of the fight, raking his claws across her shoulder. Silver dashed away, just outside of his reach, before he could continue his offensive and Ryker touched one hand to his throat. He could hardly believe that the scales had responded so quickly to his commands. He wasn't the only one who was shocked. Silver's smug grin had faded somewhat as she regarded the scales shrewdly. "That's cheating." She grumbled. She rolled her shoulder experimentally and Ryker knew from experience that her wounds had already healed themselves. "Next time I'm just going to cut your head off."

Ryker took a deep breath, and met her eyes. The scales had saved him. Were it not for them responding almost instantaneously to his wishes he would be bleeding out onto the floor. The severity of the situation he now faced hit him all at once and Ryker slowly straightened. He thought back once again to the ability that Erebus had revealed to him and a slow smile spread across his face. "Alright, Silver," He called softly. He took another deep breath and let loose a slow laugh. He fell forward into a crouch and grinned at her. "Let's see who the predator is and who the prey is."

"Now that sounds like fun!" Silver agreed enthusiastically, launching herself at Ryker.

It was clear that she expected her first attack to have the same effect that the past ones had, but this time Ryker moved out of the way. Silver blinked in surprised and gave a shout of surprise as she brought her knives up to fend off the sudden attack by Ryker. Sparks arced off her blades as Ryker's claws scratched their way down their length. "You might be fast." Ryker growled savagely, "But a snake's strike is faster."

It was only then that Silver saw the faint aura encircling Ryker, giving form to the smoky outine of a coiled snake. She blinked as the aura changed and shifted into the form of a snarling wolf. "Now, let's end this."

"Oh no!" Silver laughed excitedly. "Now this is getting fun, why should we end this now? Let's play!"

It took longer than Ryker would have liked, much longer in fact, but in the end the ravaged and shredded body of the Corrupted demigod was left lying on the floor. "I win." Ryker gasped, leaning heavily against the wall as blood poured down his leg from a deep cut on his hip. Several other cuts stung and bled freely, but they were healing quickly enough. The shadowy armor that Erebus had given him seemed to target the wounds and somehow expedited the healing process. In no time at all of the cuts, with the exception of his hip, had been reduced to angry red scars. The hip wound continued to bleed but it had been drastically slowed. Ryker tested his weight on the leg and winced as it protested, but held. He glanced back to the body of Silver and then to the door she had pointed at.