Forgotten prophecy

Chapter 57

Skeletons, as Ryker quickly discovered, were far more of a nuisance than he would have initially given them credit for. After Erebus vanished and Ryker went off in the direction that the compass pointed him the demigod quickly discovered that the Underworld had far more tricks up its sleeve. The skeletons had been pulling themselves from the ground with an annoying regularity and they had an even more irritating tendency to avoid staying down. In fact, as Ryker learned, destroying them wasn't always in his best interest. When they reformed they wouldn't always take their original form. This was even more difficult as the skeletons were not only human. Animal and monster skeletons were pulled from the ground just as frequently as human ones. As Ryker now saw, they would occasionally come together to form a monstrous bone behemoth. He had shredded close to thirty skeletons with contemptuous ease and they had now compiled into the monster he now faced. "You are really pissing me off." Ryker snapped, staring at the monster.

The monstrosity did not even remotely resemble a human skeleton, or indeed any beast that Ryker had ever faced. He leapt back just as one of the creature's massive arms swung forward in an attempt to grab him. That was one of the other annoying things about the skeletons. They weren't trying to kill him, they were attempting to capture him. He had been grabbed once when a skeleton had emerged from the dirt beneath him and grabbed his ankle. He had been pulled down to mid-calf before managing to free himself. Ryker leapt forward and landed lightly on the skeleton monster's exposed arm. The demigod ran up the bone and up the creature's back until he was at the back of what he presumed was the creature's head. The kick he planted at the twisted skull's base was enough to shatter the bones that made it up and send them flying away. Ryker managed to retain his balance as the monster began to fall apart. That was the only weakness the seemingly endless creatures had. Remove the head and the body would fall. But it didn't last long. Ryker had only just landed on the ground before the bones began to rattle again and began to reform themselves into yet another atrocity.

"Go to hell." Ryker growled at them, turning heel and sprinting away from them. He glanced down at his hand corrected his course as the arrow indicated a change in direction. He had been following Erebus's little guide for hours and thus far the landscape had not changed even in the slightest. He had not even come across one of the other rivers that were supposed to flow through the Underworld. In fact the only other signs of life he had come across, and this irony was enough to make even Ryker slightly amused, had been the skeletons. While a waste of time in search of his goals, Ryker had learned something from his battles against the skeletons. The claws that Erebus had given him were far more than the god had let on. The further that Ryker fell into his wild instincts, the farther the shadows crept up his arms. But they were not like the blessing that Ares had given him in that it was a mere aura, no, the shadows took form as they traveled. His arms had been covered in dark, extremely strong scales that the skeletons simply could not pierce. In between battles, and before the shadows retreated back down his arms, Ryker had tested the scales. He ran his claws along his bicep and was pleased to see that scales fully protected his flesh, even against his own claws. This development made Ryker want to see what would happen if the shadows were to envelop his entire body, but they acted completely independent of his own will. He could only summon his claws, the shadows ignored his other orders.

The skeletons continued to pull themselves from the earth as Ryker ran, but they were slow creatures, even the skeletons of the animals. They couldn't hope to catch Ryker, and he no longer had any desire to waste more time fighting an endless battle with them. He wasn't sure what they did after he was far past them, but he assumed they simply returned to the earth. "Or they are forming one massive beast." Ryker muttered, the thought actually giving him momentary pause. A beast formed of the hundreds of skeletons he had passed would be nigh on impossible for him to overcome. He checked the arrow again and cursed as it suddenly jerked to the right and forced Ryker to alter his course yet again. He ran for perhaps fifteen more minutes before finally coming across a change of scenery. A single sliver of silver in the earth. Ryker slid to a stop right before the oddity and bent down to examine it. He reached out and placed a hand on the metal and blinked in surprise. All of a sudden, for no reason at all, he felt himself become... cheerful. He removed his hand immediately and glared suspiciously at the silver metal. He touched it again and the feeling of joy returned instantly. It was nice, but the feeling was odd for the demigod who had spent so many days being wary of happiness as such feelings led to carelessness. He slowly got to his feet again and checked the compass. He set off once more, at a walking pace this time. He had gone perhaps one hundred meters when he realized that the skeletons were no longer coming from the ground in their attempt to capture him.