Karta Stryker

Chapter 3: Arrows and Dragons

My curiosity would only climb at a constant rate as I made my way through the temple. There are murals everywhere, but I couldn't hope to read them, let alone understand them. This was Trent's specialty. This isn't answering my questions, but adding more to my list of queries. As I traversed through the hallway, the murals begin to make more sense. The walls tell a story of a winged figure who has 3 warriors travelling with them, making their way towards a castle, with a tyrant waiting inside. Other murals depict weaponry, awfully similar to the sharply edged design of Stryker.

'A reminder of your home.'

I could hear a distant voice, one not too dissimilar to my own, lightly reverberate inside my mind. I squinted my eyes in an attempt to shake it off.

I hear footsteps closing in, slowly but rhythmically thudding. Who the hell would be in such a place at the same time?  The torches hung on the sides of the temple walls light up with a golden flame, almost that of a solar glare. I still hear footsteps blossom the reverb of the hall walls, but I still can't see anyone. I'm either being played or someone is making an entrance.

Suddenly, a quick slice through the air makes way for an arrow to come over my shoulder from behind. My right hand instinctively jerks upward to grasp the shaft of the arrow. As I lower the arrow to inspect it, I notice the fine details on it. The tip of the arrow isn't any alloy, a fine stone mural paved upon the surface of it. The murals themselves depicted a man in a flying chariot with the sun on the tip of it. The carvings then shone a bright orange colour, similar to that of a solar glare. I look back over my right shoulder to see the source of the arrow, and the source of the footsteps.

Finally revealing himself, the man had blonde curly hair, with a white buttoned up shirt, white blazer and white trousers. This guy's getup was blinding, and for the cherry on top, he had ultramarine blue eyes. He held a bow in his hand, which was a delicate wood, carved into loops at the ends. The bowstring was glowing bright like the sun, and his quiver was a smoke grey.

"Strange place for a human to be." The man said, as he lowered his bow.

"I could tell you the same thing." I said, attempting to snap the arrow in my grip, only to awkwardly find it too strong.

"I wouldn't try to snap those arrows. Olympian made, those are." The man confidently grinned.

"Apollo, huh? Seem to be running into your kind a fair bit recently." I bantered.

"Then you'll know not to mess with me."

I smiled, unsheating Stryker and playfully twirling it in my right hand.

"And if I choose otherwise..?"

Apollo chuckles as he draws an arrow from his quiver and slowly readies his bow.

"You'd be stupid, and dead for no good reason."

I chuckled, pacing to my right with my head still facing Apollo.

"You know, I'm no stranger to your average werewolf or vampire, even a Valkyrie or two. I get paid a fair bit for my handy-work, but a Greek God? You're way above my paygrade."

"Then move."

"You know what? This one is on the house." I smiled widely.

I swung Stryker at his feet, keeping my torso low to the ground. Apollo hopped as lightly as a feather as the greatsword swept beneath him.

"I'm not messing around." Apollo shouted as he fired a single arrow towards my head.

Still low, I bring Stryker around from the previous swipe into an uppercut, splitting the arrow into two perfectly divided pieces. The upward swing carries me with the weight of the sword up to Apollo, but he spins around and kicks me from the side. He lands on the ground delicately on two feet, as I tumble and roll to the wall to a quick stop against it.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." I interrupted Apollo as I rammed him with my shoulder and impaled him against the wall with Stryker.

Apollo started chuckling, putting his hand on my chest to blast me through the opposite wall into another chamber at supersonic speeds.

He pulls Stryker out of his chest and comes flying through the air and kicks me in the gut before I've even landed on the ground. Recoiling from the kick, Apollo flips and lands delicately once again, with no signs of a huge two-handed sword going through his chest, or his clothes for that matter.

"Nice little toy you got here. People who made this are dead now, which makes me wonder how you own one."

"Your guess is as good as mine." I grunted through the pain.

As I attempt to crawl out of the debris, Apollo puts the tip of the blade to my neck and stops me in my tracks.

"Now, I hate repeating myself. Stay down."

Apollo and I remained in the center of a crater in the temple, dust and speckles still falling. Above us on the temple floor, a group of masked figures surround the crater, silent in their steps. Apollo notices these individuals and laughs.

"Apostate--!" Apollo's face instantly grew sour with disdain.

Another masked one appeared, but this one was surrounded by an ashy, almost smokey aura.

"Apollo. You're among the few of Zeus' underlings that are still alive." An entity spoke, although on behalf of the anonymous individuals.

"The Apostate have no jurisdiction here. Leave this place at once." Apollo prepared to defend himself.

"For Jupiter!" The entity shouted with glory.

Apollo dropped Stryker and quickly helped me up. He panickingly shoved me back towards the forest.

"Go! This is your chance to run!"

For some strange reason, I listened to Apollo, and darted towards the woods. A group of the so-called 'Apostate' lept over Apollo and started chasing me.

There was almost no time between the Apostate standing atop the precipice and being shoulder's distance from Apollo. They had the ability to move insanely fast and silently, and they made the same commitment to speed in chasing me. One of them threw a dagger at my hip, which instantly took me down to the ground as I tumbled through several bushes. Before I knew it, I was surrounded. Eight of them and one of me. The odds were stacked against me. Even though I was already down on the ground, they took the pleasure of kicking my teeth in. Each kick seemed like it had the strength of a pickup truck slamming into your ribcage. Crack after crack, my desperation grew and grew. Oddly, the kicking stopped, the Apostate standing above me in silence. One of them cast open a portal, murmuring amongst themselves.

"For Jupiter." They simply stated.

A wormhole had opened, and I was thrown through.