Athenian Arrow

Chapter XVI

It was becoming hard to breathe for Anastasia as Vasilis held the spear tight against her pale skin. Alexi could see the red mark starting to form. He was angry that he let his emotions for Andreas and Anastasia force them into this predicament. It seemed to Alexi that he always fails to keep his loved ones safe whenever a situation occurs. Alexi starts to devalue himself as he watches Andreas' lifeless body lying on the warm sand unconsciously.

At the speed of Zeus' lightning bolt, a small spear flew onto the sand in front of Alexi's face. His eyes go wide from the fast motion of the spear as grains of sand fly from the impact. "Throw!" The command catches Alexi's attention. He quickly looks up to the terrain above him to see Zoi running with a long black whip around her shoulder as she attempts to distract Vasilis. Alexi quickly grabs the small spear and lifts it out of the sand. He aims level with Vasilis' knee and thanks the gods that blessed him with archery skills as the sharp tip of the wood shatters his kneecap. Vasilis screams in agonizing pain as he falls on his bad knee.

From the corner of Alexi's eye, he sees Habib holding a Gastraphetes which is known to be a Greek crossbow. He watches as Habib rests his stomach in the concavity at the rear of the stock and presses down the slider mechanism with all his strength. Once the arrow is in place, Habib aims the crossbow at Vasilis' broad shoulder. He keeps one eye closed for more accuracy in order to avoid hitting the lovely Anastasia instead. One final check to make sure Anastasia is not in harm's way and Habib releases the arrow. The arrow becomes stuck inside Vasilis' shoulder as another scream follows. He finally releases the girl and Anastasia runs to her brother's aid. She helps Alexi to stand on his feet though Alexi is too busy watching the so-called bear rip the arrow out of his shoulder with a grunt.

Alexi takes that as his cue to direct his older sister to a safe distance. He points to a high terrain for her to hide from Vasilis' sight. She obliges without question and hurries over to her hiding spot.

Another arrow hits Vasilis' chest, close to his heart. Alexi had not noticed that Habib had drawn another arrow back with his Gastraphetes. Habib curses under his breath when he fails to aim for the man's heart. Zoi took this opportunity to jump up from behind the Spartan who was on both knees now and wrapped the whip she had been carrying around his neck. She placed her right foot on the middle of his back to force his wide throat on the whip as she held both ends with two hands. The sounds of him struggling to breathe in oxygen were strangely delightful to her ears as she remembered that she technically had no reason to obey one person when so many other opportunities awaited her.

Alexi sure was surprised to see the couple back in proximity. He surely thought they were the type of civilians to take their drachma and go about their way as they were neutrals after all. What had they come back for? Why did they decide to watch, and then get involved when they saw that the gods were not in their favour? Those were questions he needed to know at some point. Whatever the reason may be, Alexi rolled his eyes at the thought of how many drachmaes this was going to cost him.

Zoi held onto that whip as if she were some high-class Spartan soldier with infinite amounts of strength training. Vasilis attempts to bring his hands up to the whip to pull it off his neck though he immediately regrets that decision as a miniature spear, thrown by Habib, hits the middle of his palm to stop him from doing so. All Vasilis could feel next was his conscious mind fading out as he suffocated to death.

Zoi pulled the whip as hard as she could against his neck one last time before she noticed his body not responding to strangulation as his head tilted forward. Her calloused hands from the whip abruptly let go which causes Vasilis to quickly hit the sand floor due to his large frame. Zoi checks his neck for any sort of pulse as she's unsure if he's just unconscious or deceased.

Habib quickly rushes over to Anastasia who had witnessed the whole scene. He drops down to her level and cups both of her reddened cheeks with a concerned look on his face. "Are you alright my goddess? Did he hurt you?"