Aftermath [malexmale]

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The battle between the Atlanteans and the Greeks had been long, hard, and bloody.

Both sides had lost countless soldiers. The ground was caked with blood. There was so much of it that wherever I stepped, the ground made a sickening squishing sound. Screams of agony and fathers sobbing over their dead sons. Women screaming from the villages we'd raided and stormed through, young girls shrieking and wailing as they were viciously raped.

"Xenon." A voice said sternly. I frowned and turned to face my second eldest brother, Zelus. Incredibly tall with shoulder-length dark brown wavy hair and piercing white eyes that were ringed heavily with kohl to the point where he almost looked like his sacred animal, the lemur. His blood splattered gold armor clinked as he made his way over to me, pausing to rake the battle field with a stern glower, before he held his gloved hand out to me. I took it and he heaved me to my feet.

"Brother, what is the toll?" I asked him, afraid of the answer. Zelus pinned me with a grim stare.

"I've collected nearly two hundred souls," He informed darkly, "From just our side alone. The enemy is being taken by their god of death, Thanatos. He's informed me their death toll doubles ours." As a god of death, it was only fitting that Zelus be here to take away the souls of our fallen men. And it twisted my gut that so many lives had perished, even on the Greek's half of the battle.

"And Vinion? Where is she?" I asked. Vinion was our younger sister, the Khalian of battle. She had eagerly joined the ranks and slashed at every Greek who came lunging for her throat. Her battle skills had surely been inherited from our uncle, Zetnos, god of war. Zetnos had already taken off after slaughtering nearly a hundred Greeks. It made my stomach churn, even worse now that the air was pungent with the thick scent of blood, sweat, and misery.

"She's gone to get more recruits," Zelus responded, then paused to look around again before his eyes met mine, "We can't stay here. There are more reinforcements from the east coming quickly and the Titan Iapetus is leading them." My eyes flared at that. Iapetus had been the Greek god who destroyed one of our greatest army and infuriated my father. They had wiped out three hundred men and even killed one of my cousins, Lemosia, the goddess of misery. While we hadn't been close, she was still family and her death at the hands of a mad god infuriated me.

"Let them come," I boosted angrily, "We'll slit his throat and send his body to his wife." Zelus cracked a smirk at that, then shook his head.

"We still need more men. Let us make camp once we clear out the village. Are you ready?"

"I'll pretend to be."

We went in with the men we had left and charged each Greek that dared to flee their hiding place. I caught one man around the waist and slung him at the nearest word, watching it cut his chest open as he wailed in agony. I moved onto the next one, caught him by the waist and threw him over my shoulder to land into two more soldiers. I cut a wide arc with my sword and it cut clean through a man's midsection, slicing him in half.

I paused, breathing hard as I wiped at the blood on my face when I heard Zelus shout. I scowled, then turned as I caught movement from the side. A shadow darted out of nowhere and tackled me to the ground. I gasped in shock that someone had actually gotten the jump on me. Even odder was that I could sense the Atlantean in the attacking soldier, however, I didn't recognize him.

His long black hair was whipping in the wind as he breathed hard. His right eye was an iridescent blue while the left one was milky white, a long pinkish scar slicing through it and forking out near the left corner of his mouth. He wore the gold and burgandy armor of a royal Greek soldier. He was rather young, no older than seventeen, maybe even sixteen... No, he was much older than that. He had to be. There was something about his fighting skills that stunned me for a moment before I caught him by the wrist and went to snap it, but he tore his arm down and slammed his elbow into my nose, blood spurting down my lips.