Mariella let out a fierce battle cry, as she sent an arrow flying directly at the figure's body. However, the arrow fell a few feet short in front of it, before erupting in a column of light. This brilliant light, while off target, allowed the group to actually see their attacker. It was a male, who appeared to be older than the group; between nineteen to twenty-one in appearance. His tan skin appeared several tones lighter than his light brown hair, which was kept short and cut close to his head. The only exception to this was the Mohawk that formed in the middle of his hair, which was raised upwards. He possessed thick side burns, that gradually thinned out as it grew closer to his chin. To complete the image, he had "soul patch" upon his chin.
The male was quite tall, so that you could barely see his golden eyes. Truth be told, Mariella and Iliana had to look up in order to see his face. His shirt was black although completely ripped down the middle and tattered and torn on the bottom, which matched his hoodie. The hoodie hung down to his thighs, barely zipped at the bottom. He was also wearing jeans, although they were worn and hat numerous holes in them. All in all, he looked like he had not changed his clothes in several days.
"I missed?" Mariella muttered to herself, while drawing another arrow and firing it. The arrow turned into a column of light which sailed at her target. Mariella's arrow once again missed it's target; due to the fact that the target disappeared completely. Instead, Mariella felt a tap upon her shoulder. As she frantically whipped her head, she found herself face to face with the man. However, it was the man's turn to be surprised. His stomach was met with a blast of pure solar energy from Mariella's hands that sent him flying into the air. He recovered rather quickly however, and appeared in front of gripping something in his hand; a photograph. In the photo, Fayt had his arms wrapped around Mariella. Both were grinning rather proudly at each other. The photograph was Fayt's, since the only other copy of that photograph resided in Mariella's bag.
"You could do better." The young man pointed out, while driving his palm into the defenseless Mariella's stomach. She dropped to her knees and slumped over onto the ground unconscious. Iliana was admittedly surprised considering the fact that Mariella, like the rest of their group, was a rather capable fighter. She wrote it off as Mariella being surprised, and instead focused on exacting revenge. Besides, there was something odd about this enemy. Mariella never missed a target; her first arrow was tampered with somehow. The only problem was, Iliana wasn't sure of what method he could have used.
"Better play it safe..." Iliana thought to herself, before beginning to walk towards their young enemy.
"Another cute but feisty one." The man stated in response. Iliana then immediately vanished from sight, and appeared beside the man.
"Shut up!" Her words were followed by a swipe of her right hand. The young man jumped away from this however, while teasing that she missed. But Iliana returned his teasing, by holding up the stolen photo he previously had in his hand. "Wasn't aiming for ya." While Iliana was in the middle of her gloating however, the young man picked up Fayt's body and tossed it directly into her small body.
"Four down, looks like you're the last one left. Aren't you angry?" The young man asked Orion, who simply stood staring in his usual, emotionless state.
"Of course. I'm enraged right now." Orion's monotone voice earned a stare from the young man.
"What are you, slow? Well anyway, you're the last one left so just hurry up and be a good little lamb. The lion is still hungry." The young man taunted in an attempt to make Orion angry. However, he could see that it was failing. Orion wasn't the type to get angry over anything.
Instead, the two began a furious exchange of blows. For now, they had been using simply their fist. However, Orion could feel like he was moving more...sluggish than usual. "Time." Orion was met with a fist to his face that knocked him back a few feet. "You're using time...manipulating it...wait...you can't be..."
"That's right. I'm a demigod. I'm the son of Kronos!" The young man proudly exclaimed, before being slammed in the stomach with a geyser of water.
"Well then, I'll have to be more serious." Just as Orion finished his statement, Zephyrus and Fayt regained consciousness and managed to walk over beside their friend.
"I feel like I was just hit by a train..thrown by superman...who was thrown by the hulk." Fayt muttered while holding his head.
"Never mind that; we need to take this guy out." Zephyrus mentioned. Orion grinned at that, and the three huddled together for a brief moment.
"Something about lions...they like to hunt in numbers. So tell me, whose the lion now and who is the lamb now?" Orion asked his opponent, before his cheeks swelled to a massive size. Zephyrus began to suck in a large amount of air, while Fayt held his mouth wide open. Simultaneously, the three shot out a stream of water, air, and lightning, respectively, from their mouths. The three elements mixed into one whirling cyclone which blasted the young man directly and sent him sailing through the air. He traveled out of sight, with still no sign of landing.
"Okay, everyone gather around. Quickly, quickly." Mariella smiled. It was night fall again, and the group was still relatively injured and writhing in pain. "But then I hear a whisper that this too shall pass..." Mariella began to sing her personal healing song, This too shall pass by and almost instantly the group felt as if they were injected with morphine. Their wounds healed up a great deal, and the group was finally able to rest in peace.
"I don't think I've ever felt so good after using the bathroom." Orion spoke out loud to himself. He had awoken in the middle of the night due to the tugging feeling at his bladder, and it was bad enough that they were sleeping outside. Sleeping covered in urine wasn't quite what Orion wanted to do.
"Remember me?" The young man from before suddenly appeared beside Orion, and before his surprise left him, his world went black.
"Where's Orion?" The group muttered in almost unison once they all awoke. Their bewilderment quickly faded once they looked at his sleeping bag, and saw a note appeared in it's place.
"I'm not a lion or a lamb. I'm more like a bear. Bears are a lot smarter than lions anyway. We don't need to hunt in packs; just one is enough. Catch me if you can, here is where you'll find us. Daemon." The group read the note that was left behind by their previous enemy, now revealed to be named Daemon.
"What do we do now?" Iliana asked Fayt. Since Fayt was the son of the leader of the gods, he was usually either first or second in command.
"What else? We go get this Daemon freak, and beat him until he returns Orion to us. Let's go." The group walked off, reading the paper's directions in order to get to Daemon, and more importantly, their friend.