The moldy stench of animal hide choked Michael. In the dim lighting and near silence, this felt like his only unobscured sense: the potent musk of a hide riddled with the debris of death and rot.
Michael gritted his teeth. A noxious sense of helplessness made him feel like his muscles were liquidating.
The Leonis Caput danced out of the window with the rapidity of a flicker of light. The creature was tall and lean; its skin sagged in folds that whirled out like a skirt as it dropped to the floor. It alternated its advance, rolling to the side, stalking on all fours then rising onto its hind legs to take a jerky step forward.
Michael had trouble focusing on its limbs. Everything was... fuzzy. If he squinted, the angled feline paws shimmered into humanoid, skeleton hands with clawed gauntlets. Although it hunched when it rose to two paws, the monster looked anthropomorphic.
The patience and gracefulness of a cat, the stories rumored. Not a cat. It was more like the wisps of a golden flame had curled into a Danse Macabre skeleton. He'd been expecting the Leonis Caput to charge the way the minotaur would have, not prowl around in this mesmerizing display.
Michael wasn't ready. His spear was still tucked under one arm and the net was tangled in his other hand.
"To me!" Ara's command broke Michael's paralysis. The erratic movement of the Leonis Caput put her into a retreat. She was trying to back them further down the floor expanse, away from the ledge.
Michael fumbled to prepare the net, stepping to cover Ara's right side. The monster paused, just outside spear reach. It's toying with us, Michael realized. It wants me to throw the net.
Something clattered from the Leonis Caput's skin onto the ground. Michael couldn't risk a glance, but heard the hiss of released air. Mist, the same golden shade as the monster's fur, billowed up from their feet, coiling thickly around the Leonis Caput.
With the intelligence and innovation of a half-blood, Michael recited numbly.
The monster sank low to the ground and crawled into the smoke. Another clatter. Tendrils of gas curled up, thickening to make the torchlight a warm glare against a golden expanse of fog. Michael couldn't see the window in front of them anymore, or the ledge behind them.
"Get against the wall!" Ara shouted.
"Oh gods," Michael breathed. He tried to see the camera, to get an idea of where the Leonis Caput was.
The familiar buzz hummed to their left.
"Circle to the left!" he whispered. "The camera-the camera is trying to get shots of the Leonis Caput. If the camera is on our left, that means the monster is on our right. March left!"
They started to move. Michael's heartbeat thundered louder than their footsteps. He wanted to call a halt so they could listen for the Leonis Caput's movements, but it had remained silent. Michael wondered if it was in the same location it had crouched down.
Ara had her sword in her left hand and the torch in the hand closest to him. He could still see her silhouette, slightly crouched, eyes scanning and alert.
Each step, Michael waited for the floor to give. What if-as soon as they couldn't see the floor-it shifted? He tried not to think about the possibility, darting his gaze for any hint of movement in the fog.
They didn't make it to the wall.
The creature flickered in the smoke behind Ara. It pounced, slamming its hind legs into the back of Ara's knees. It clasped her hair with its front limbs. Ara shouted as she collapsed backwards, trying to twist her sword as she fell.
Michael turned to stab with his spear, but stopped, afraid of skewering the centurion.
As she fell backwards onto of the creature, the Leonis Caput jammed its knees into her back. When they both hit the floor, it kicked upward and flipped Ara. She disappeared into the fog and—judging from the delay of her landing-over the ledge.
Ara cursed when she crashed back into the hallway below. At least Michael knew she was alive. He was afraid the throw would have snapped her neck.
Michael lunged with his spear when the Leonis Caput was recovering. The monster rolled into the strike. A jolt stunned Michael's arm, like he'd slammed the spear into concrete. His blade glanced off the Leonis Caput's fur incurring little more than a grunt.
The invulnerability of a god...
The Leonis Caput sprung onto its feet, well inside Michael's guard.
The stench of death was overwhelming. Michael's mouth felt swollen and he knew he would have thrown up if there was anything left in his stomach. From this distance-maybe a foot away-he could see the creature's face. Like with its limbs, the focus blurred. He could make out a crunched, feline snout, spread wide to expose rivets of teeth. As the Leonis Caput advanced, Michael couldn't break his gaze from the creature's eyes.
They were inside the monster's mouth, staring out from its throat. They glistened reflectively, slit like a cats, but narrowed like a strategizing human.
I'm about to die, Michael realized belated.
But the Leonis Caput didn't slash its claws into his stomach as he expected. The monster half stepped past Michael, entangling Michael's closest leg with its own. Then it chest slammed him.
Michael felt his caught leg give. He tumbled backwards. When he tried to catch himself, his opposite leg caught on a barrier-the window edge.
He fell through.
Everything went dark except the rectangular glow of the window.
Michael tried to right himself, so he'd land feet first, but the ground came too fast.
As his right arm made contact, he felt his forearm bend a few inches above the wrist, like it was made out of putty. The two bones inside snapped.
The world went grey. Michael couldn't hear himself screaming. He didn't feel the rest of the fall, just the spot where it felt like someone had hit his arm with a sweltering sledgehammer.
You have a compound fracture. Your radius bone is likely sticking outside your skin-
Shut up, shut up, he screamed internally. That was not what he needed to focus on, that-
It is under threat of contamination from exterior-
Nausea swept over him when he tried to sit up. Instead, he lay there, gasping for air. The reek of animal hide was fainter.
He didn't have any nectar, ambrosia, or unicorn draft. All he had was his brain. He'd need to stop the bleeding. He'd need to make a split. He'd have to touch the bone. At least it's my arm, I can still walk.
"MICHAEL? MICHAEL!" he heard Ara shouting.
"I'm fine," he croaked or tried. "My arm is broken."
Something small flew through the window opening. Although he couldn't see it as the camera shifted away from the window's light, Michael could hear it buzz above him. He bit back a whimper. Either the Leonis Caput was in here, or it was coming.
"Come out... come out..." a new voice sang, deep and gravely. It was coming from the darkness beside the window.
Rattling erupted from the same location, further up, then rapidly descending downward. There must have been metal bars along these walls, like there had been on the exterior one.
"What gave you away? The beat of your heart."
Or my scream, Michael thought. He forced himself to sit up. The pain made his head spin, but he mindlessly listed off the best strategists in Roman history, trying to keep himself conscious. Flavius Aetius-Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa-Lucius Aemiliu-
"I'm coming to get you!" Ara shouted before screaming in rage, "Kratos!"
Michael wanted to shout at her to stop. Her father's blessing would probably give her the strength to scale up to this window, and the resiliency to land safely, but he knew this was a trap for her. If the Leonis Caput was as intelligent as Michael suspected, then it would wait for her godly strength to run out and attack her when it knew she no longer had that as a fall back.
"Don't pout... don't pout..." the song and rattles were almost level with the floor.
Michael blindly reached beside him with his good arm. Each movement sent shockwaves through the broken limb, but he found what he was looking for: his spear shaft.
"I have known where you were right from the start."
The faint patter of feet landed in front of him. Michael needed more time. He had a theory, but he needed Ara to make a distraction, so he could take aim properly. Children of Minerva were known for outsmarting monsters. He could do this.
"Are you... are you a cursed half-blood of something?" Michael asked, swallowing. "You are, aren't you? You're too smart to be a monster."
In the Labors of Hercules, The Nemean lion had indestructible fur. Maybe, if he could get the Leonis Caput close enough to stab between its flaps of fur, he could hurt it.
"I am no half-blood."
The whisper startled Michael. The voice wasn't the low, growl of song he heard earlier, nor the vicious mock of Jak-Jak but that of a solemn boy. "I applaud you though, child of Minerva. I hope it pleases you to know you were the first Roman to speculate I was more than a monster."
"No one else gave you proper attention," Michael tried. There was no myth for him to guess what would keep the Leonis Caput talking, but at least this was something. A few mores seconds and Ara would be here.
A grunt of amusement came from the darkness. Then the soft patter of feet resumed forward. "I wish there was another way out for the two of you, little probatio."
A thump hit the window. Michael glanced up from the darkness to see Ara block the glow from outside, torch in right hand, sword in the other. Fortunately, from the light that Ara's torch cast down into the room, Michael could see the Leonis Caput looked up as well.
Michael stabbed.
Although he knew the blow wouldn't be a killing one-he didn't have the strength with his non-dominate arm-he managed to slide the blade between two flaps, slashing right at its ribs.
His heart skipped a beat.
It was like he stabbed at a pool of water. There was no definite contact. Michael choked at his mistake. Was... was it a skeleton? Wouldn't he at least hit bones?
The Leonis Caput startled. It snatched the spear from his hands, sending another wave of pain through his broken arm.
Then the Leonis Caput slammed the spear point into Michael's temple.
Ara watched Michael sag to the floor. A howl of fury blasted from her lips.
Applause chimed from above. The camera whirled nearby. JakJak's awful voice exclaimed, "A valiant effort from Michelangelo Russo, but one contestant down, and One. To. Go!"
Ara didn't give the Leonis Caput time to move.
She lunged into the room, dropping the torch to the floor ahead of her. The flame trembled, but maintained its brilliance as it thunked onto the stones below. Unlike Michael, she landed feet first, crouching into a roll to absorb the blow, knowing the blessing of Kratos would help insulate the shock to her body. When she sprang to her feet, she found the Leonis Caput prancing up the lowest metal rungs on the wall.
Ara set her sword down, picked up the torch with her left hand, wound it up baseball style and released.
The flame flashed as it soared, nailing the Leonis Caput in the back.
A horrific, roar—one that sounded more like a pneumonic cough than a vicious yowl—escaped the Leonis Caput.
As it tumbled off the rungs, Ara charged forward. Each step sent a tugging sensation through her stomach; Kratos' blessing surged a divine adrenaline into her muscles. She made it to the wall just before the Leonis Caput rose to its hind legs.
Ara punched at its throat.
The Leonis Caput jerked to the side.
Her fist slammed into the wall, exploding dust everywhere. The shockwave rattled the metal rungs loose, raining pieces of shrapnel from above.
They stumbled back from the debris. Before she had her full footing, Ara could see the creature make a jump for another set of rungs—
She shot a hand out to snatch one of its hind paws. The Leonis Caput stumbled, only able to right itself a few feet away.
"You will fight me as a warrior, not as a coward!" Ara screamed. "EITHER THIS WILL BE A BATTLE OR I'LL BE THE ONE HUNTING YOU!"
With her father's blessing, she was faster than it and would not let it scamper away.
The torch blazed on the floor, reflecting the standoff between their shadows. Dust particles settled around as tiny audience members. The Leonis Caput's reflective eyes studied her from inside its gaping jaws. Slowly, it nodded its head, bloody mane quivering against its humanoid chest.
"No more tricks," it agreed in the voice of a somber young man. "Your strength and speed vs. mine, Centurion Laskaris."
That annoying buzz hovered closer. "Oh my Titan! Look at this turn of events!" Jak-Jak mocked through the camera's speaker. "What kind of monster demonstrates this kind of integrity? Is this kind of battle what we want to see?"
The Labyrinth thundered with approval; the walls vibrated with applause.
This time when the Leonis Caput growled, the anger was directed at the camera. It flicked a paw to the side, extending three obsidian claws, each the length of a butcher knife.
Instead of charging at her, the Leonis Caput turned the blades on itself and reached inside his own jaws.
Ara scuffed in disgust and lifted her sword from the ground. She wouldn't be disturbed or distracted by… whatever it was doing.
It started garbled chanting in a language Ara had never heard, with harsh sounds and airy "yuhh" noises. The air pressure in the room dropped, popping her ears. Waves of soggy heat rippled through the chill of the Labyrinth.
When it withdrew the blades from its mouth, blood dripped off the top one.
Which means it can bleed, Ara realized.
She snatched the torch in her opposite hand and bounded forward. Watching felt wrong. Whatever it was doing violated some innate, core principle she hadn't known she had. The sight made her sicker than falling onto the Roman bodies.
The Leonis Caput ripped the spear from Michael's temple and hefted the weapon in its empty grip. Hand? Ara could see the ligament haze between the image of that and a paw.
It darted to meet her.
To her disgust, it flicked the obsidian claws at her before they intercepted, spraying the blood. Upon contact with the torch's fire, the blood popped and sparked blue.
No time to comprehend.
The Leonis Caput jammed the spear at her shoulder.
Ara parried with her sword, pushing forward to close the distance, so the monster no longer had the spear's advantage of reach.
Instead of retreating, the Leonis Caput tucked into a roll past her right side.
She slammed the torch down onto its back, temporarily forgetting the monster's claws.
Pain tore through her right shin and she knew the monster's obsidian blades had cut her to the bone.
When the Leonis Caput gave its coughed roar, Ara's thoughts froze up. She pivoted on her good leg to face it. Blood soaked her right pant leg, sticking the material to the wound.
A tail—black and spotted grey-now oscillated behind the monster, one she didn't remember from before. Inside the yawning line of teeth, underneath the glowing eyes, there was a second set of fangs. Had it moved faster? Smoke sizzled from the Leonis Caput's burnt back.
The new tail—the second set of fangs—the speed-none of it matter. What mattered was that seared mark.
Fire could hurt it.
"Come with it!" Ara snarled.
The Leonis Caput lunged.
This time, she caught the spear shaft between her sword and torch. With a twist of the wrist, she snapped the wood just below the spearhead.
Ara thought the monster would attempt another low slash, to disable her other leg, or tumble out of the way. She was prepared for that. Instead, the Leonis Caput slammed her torch into the ground with the remains of the spear shaft.
Then it leapt.
And Ara realized, even with the blessing of Kratos, the Leonis Caput was still faster. When she recognized its intent for attack, she smashed the pommel of her sword upward, but it was too late.
The monster's two sets of fangs were already shattering her skull.