The Sacred Thievery

Chapter XVI: Bulls.

You know how people say that, when they're about to die, their lives flash before their eyes? Well, that didn't happen to me, and I was sure I was a goner. Instead, I began to notice things I didn't notice beforehand. For example, Argus was no longer in the driver's seat. Also, the door was rammed into and warped and smoked, as if they were smashed by a heated sledgehammer. And third of all, I noticed the golden glint of my magic watch on my wrist.

The bull closed even further in; I leapt from the destroyed black van, an unnervingly optimistic plan forming in my mind. Just as the bull was about to make contact, I hit the ground and willed for my watch to work its magic. It expanded into my indestructible Medusa shield in the slightest nick of time, blocking the Colchis' bull's attack and saving my mortal life.

At least, that would have happened if my life wasn't so terrible. Instead, the watch sent an irritable pulse of energy up my right arm, as if disagreeing with the concept of me staying alive, leaving the bull to painfully destroy me.

Alas, reader, even that wasn't true. Of course, the part where my annoying wrist accessory left me to die had to be true, because those are the laws of the universe where I'm concerned, but life couldn't give me a simple death to an ancient Greek monster made out of metal. Because, you know, it had to spice things up a bit. So, instead, the bull stopped right in front of me, powerful waves of heat flowing over me. I squinted my eyes open, surprised to find I was still alive.

The bull had frozen almost completely. It stopped creaking and groaning. Its breaths became shallow and unusually patterned. A shocking thought came to mind. It was scared. Why, I didn't know. But for some reason, something stopped it from ending my life. What was it?

The answer came exactly two seconds after the question. How, you ask? With an angry huff that sounded from behind me-the one bullies made when you say you left your lunch money at home.

I became rigid myself. I slowly turned my neck to see what had saved, and was about to end, my life. And you wouldn't believe what it was.

It was... a second Colchis bull. You know, because I used the Buy One Beast, Get A Second Free! Coupon when I ordered these monstrosities off of Maulmart.

But this one was different. Bigger. Heavier. With horns almost as long as I was if they were un-curved, also silver. Every breath it took relinquished white-hot flames that rose the air temperature, and it's shell looked as durable as my shield.

It marched closer, its heat causing the van's backside to smoke despite the 3 inch gap, craters melted into the concrete at each step. It looked me and Bull One up and down, and then proceeded to do the obvious.

It charged.

I noticed something, maybe due to my brain acknowledging the sure chance of not ever working again. First of all, I noticed that Bull Two wasn't actually heading for me. It's direction would collide with Bull One's, who had turned its body upon seeing Bull Two. But I also saw that it would crush my foot on the way. So I yanked my foot back, leaving Bull Two to smash right into its real target...

And almost send Bull One into the road. Bull Two's longer horns rammed into Bull One's head, knocking the bull back and spraying me with hot sparks. But Bull One fought back, and they wrestled with their horns, both looking for the upper hand.

At least, Bull One was. Bull Two seemed to start the fight with the upper hand primed and ready. It was slowly pushing Bull One back, the latter's hooves scraping marks in the ground. The flames coming from Bull Two were heating Bull One up, and the direct spots the flames were hitting were already melting, while Bull One's flames didn't make a dent in Bull Two.

I was subconsciously rooting for Bull Two until I realized why I shouldn't be. For one, once Bull Two won, it would probably come for me. And, second, Bull Two winning included Bull One being pushed in the road. And I wasn't worried for the bull. I was worried about the people driving. In such an active street, despite what the people saw, that would cause a lot of chaos and would not be good for anyone.

So now I was trying to find a way to stop the fight. I didn't think about what would happen next, because doing that would probably make me choke and leave multiple drivers at the mercy of complete chaos.

I turned around and saw a few rocks littered behind me. I took a jagged one, pulled my arm back as hard as I could, may have even wound it up a little as if I was throwing a baseball pitch after the second strike and not trying to save the lives-or mornings-of multiple mortals, and chucked that rock with all my might.

The rock sailed through the air and clanged into Bull Two's right horn right before it and the left one would lock with Bull One's and proceed to push it into the road.

Bull Two roared and reeled the way horses did when they were poked from behind, kicking Bull One in the bronze snout, and pushing its leg out of the alley, shooting flames that you'd expect from high-maintenance flamethrowers, making me wonder why there weren't any mortals wondering what was going on. Either they were going too fast to fully comprehend a boy trying to survive against two bulls(metal or not), and/or thought they were hallucinating or imagining things, and/or the Mist was working overtime and practically making us invisible, or unnoticeable at least.

However, Bull One took full advantage of my postponing of its loss, instantly regaining its footing and charging into Bull Two, now managing to push it back, its harder head having found the advantage in the horn-fight and blocking the flames from its weaker body. It's silver horns were blocking any counterattack from Bull Two's, and it's head had hit before Bull Two had fully come down, meaning that it was pushing from under, the perfect position it needed.

What happened now I wasn't sure of. At least, I didn't have an idea of what would happen next until someone leapt high over the van, swinging downwards towards me with a glowing sword. And that idea was that I was going to die.