Chương 70: 69. Hyena, Minion of Anubis

"Do you think there's a point?" I asked as I lay on the bed next to Sparta. One of the benefits of dealing with deities was that occasionally there were prone to grant small favors. In this case, the favor was a separate bedroom. Some might have bought the same using coins, but the sad truth was that money and I had an aversion to each other. Sometimes Sparta even joked that I might have a hidden curse.

"I don't like you when you're sentimental," she said, passing her fingers through my hair.

"Besides, you promised. No Arcana talk in bed."

"I know," I stared at the ceiling. Sentimentality was the fastest way to get oneself killed in the Grand Arcana. Yet, every few years, the same thoughts crossed my mind. How was my family doing? Was my sister all right? Why was I dragged into the Grand Arcana in the first place?

"Does it bother you that much?" Sparta asked. I could hear in her voice that she was smiling, and yet I didn't turn my head to look at her.

"No," I lied.

"It's nothing." She remained silent for a few more moments, then got out of bed. The moment was gone, though it wasn't like I was in the mood, either. In the evening, we had promised ourselves a full day of fun and relaxation. That plan had just gone up in smoke.

"Do you even wonder?" I persisted.

"Sometimes," she said, as she proceeded to get dressed.

"But it doesn't matter. We're here now. All we can do is make the best of it." The best of it… I had heard that phrase so many times I wanted to puke. At one point, it might even have been true, but that was a long time ago. Now, I had become strong enough to complete a trial without letting my adrenaline spike. Some could even say that I had joined the ranks of Harlequin's favorites.

"You're probably right," I sat up in the bed.

"This is reality now."

"What do you mean probably?" Sparta laughed. She had that special quality that seemed to make troubles go away. I couldn't tell whether it was a card, a gift, or just her character, but she was one of the few good things that had happened to me even since joining the Grand Arcana.

"Do you think this will ever end?" I looked at her. The woman's hair had been cut short again, stopping at her neck. That was her own small quirk that she did every eight months since I had come to know her. She had never told me the reason, but I assumed something traumatic must have happened during the trials. There were more than enough monsters that liked human hair. Also, it was possible for the monster to have been human.

"No," she said with absolute certainty.

"We'll never come to an end." The memory vanished, taken away by the sudden gust of wind. There had been a time in the future of my past where I was convinced that the two of us would remain an item forever. Clearly, that hadn't happened. The betrayal, mixed with the Crying Prophet, had erased all of our time together, leaving it only in my mind. There was so much I wanted to say, but the curse didn't let me. In the distance, the reddish peak had become visible, rising above the dunes.

One couldn't call it a mountain, but compared to the flatness of the land, it was outright humungous. Within its base, the old fortress was located. Using my Eagle Eye special, I concentrated on the top of the rock, looking for scouts. There were none I could see. I took my divine blades out of my inventory and clanged them together. Hearing the noise, Sparta looked over her shoulder.

"What?" she asked in a whisper. I pointed at the horizon, then drew an inverted V in the sand before me. She nodded.

"Any skeletons?" I shook my head, then shrugged. There was no way to know for certain. So far, Sparta had done a good job steering us free of skeletons. We had come across a blue scorpion or two, but those were quickly dealt with and not linked to the trial boss, or so one might hope.

"Think we'll reach it by morning?" That was a loaded question if I had ever heard one. She had already set her mind that we would. It was only a question of how fast we had to walk to get there. Given no real option, I nodded.

"You lead from here," Sparta said. That was a first. Some things definitely changed. In the past run, Sparta wouldn't have let anyone lead in a thousand years. Either she would take charge or leave to do her own thing. Thanks. I gave her a final look before going onward. Now and again, I would see a cluster of aether strands deep beneath a dune. It was natural for the ruler of the fortress to place additional watch skeletons along the way.

The more curious part was that they weren't linked to their puppeteer from the get-go. You arrogant piece of shit, I thought. It took someone very confident in their abilities to behave so arrogantly. Then again, given what we were about to face, they had every reason to be. After ten minutes, the walls of the fortress became visible among the sand. At one point, this must have been a magnificent structure complex, likely surrounded by a city. Not any longer, though.

The majority of towers and battlements had been reduced to rock piles and swallowed by the desert. Only the section carved into the red rocks remained relatively intact. Two vast statues by the entrance informed us that the fortress had belonged to Anubis. Crouching by the side of a dune, I looked around for Anubis hounds. There were none. I turned to Sparta and shook my head.

"It's too well-guarded?" She crawled next to me to take a better look. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. It took a single glance for her to realize my real fear.

"It's not guarded enough?" I nodded. In the past, the fortress had always been surrounded by monsters. On one occasion there had even been a few mercenary tents adding to the fray. Now, it appeared completely abandoned, and that was never a good thing.

"I'll go in to take a look. You stay here." Before I could raise any objections, Sparta was gone. Her afterimage lingered a few fractions of a second in the air, then vanished with my next blink. Shit! I dashed towards the entrance. Leave it to her to do something stupid! Being still new to the game, she probably thought that she would score points by killing the final monster. However, she was mistaken.

A kill was a kill, regardless of circumstances; also, she didn't have the ability to take on such a creature alone. Trial bosses were called such because they were the strongest creatures within the trial. Sparta may well have had the strength and tools to kill off a hound, but this was on a whole different level. Skeleton warriors emerged from the sand as I ran—the common level ten variety I had seen so many times before. Without pausing, I drew the divine blades and performed a dual slash attack.

Threads of destruction flew from either side, mowing the undead like grass. There was a good chance that many of them would reconstruct, but that was the least of my worries. The entrance loomed in front of me, growing larger and larger. This had better work. I put my weapons away and took out a tube of silver coins. Pouring several in the palm of my hand, I threw them straight at the more preserved statue of Anubis.

"Silver," a deep voice boomed.

"Feed me silver!" So, it did work! Quickly, I poured more coins, throwing them—one at a time—at the statue's mouth. The Archer ensured that each piece of silver hit its mark. After ten, the massive statue pulled away from the fortress wall and took a step forward. Guard the entrance! I gave a mental order, tossing a coin at the other statue. Unfortunately, it was in too poor a condition to be functional. The coin bounced off, falling into the desert sand. Don't let anything enter!

I put away the remaining coins as I ran into the fortress. From what I remembered before, the layout was rather basic: a large entry chamber leading to a number of side corridors and stairwells. Jackal warriors were usually stationed here, challenging anyone who managed to get past the skeletons and scorpions outside. Dozens of bodies lay bloodied on the ground. The vast majority had their heads cut off, although there were a few that had died from stab wounds. Sparta, I thought.

A smaller entrance straight ahead led to the gathering hall. The fortress owner had to be there, along with any guards at his side. Rushing in blind was beyond reckless. Sparta probably believed that the combination of her skills, divine favor, and unique weapon gave her an edge. In many cases, that was probably true. Hyena laughter echoed through the air. Once I crossed the threshold, I got to see where it was coming from.

HYENA, MINION OF ANUBIS Level: 20 Cards: Gravedigger, Dark Mage (variant), Champion, Ten of Swords Special: Bloodlust, Hope Eater, Venom Claws Patron: Anubis Weapon: Death Sword (1%) A named minion… Power emanated from him, light from a flame. It was similar to the aura surrounding Cathy, only his felt a lot darker, tainted with a reddish hue. The entity stood twenty feet tall, mixing a Hyena's head with a muscular male body.

In typical desert style, it was wearing a schent-style skirt with a black leather belt bearing symbols of Anubis. Leather rings covered his forearms. There was no footwear of any kind, though none was needed. A black metal ankh hung from his neck, covered in hundreds of finely detailed etchings as if it were bought in some tourist trap. The moment I saw it, I froze. The design was similar to something I had seen in the picture of the key I had been given.

Standing in the middle of the chamber, Sparta held tight to her thread-dagger. Dozens of corpses were scattered on the floor. All of them were bleeding, but judging by the splatters of blood, that hadn't stopped them from attacking more than once.

"The anomaly appears," the monster said in its unnaturally high voice. Each word sounded as if it had been laughed out of its jaws.

"I was hoping you'd join the fun." Aether threads sprouted from the hyena's foot, moving through the floor. In less than a second, they attacked each of the dead jackal warriors, causing them to rise again. Sparta had also taken the moment to make her move. Disappearing out of sight, she had re-emerged five feet from the boss' head, flying through the air. The glowing thread split the air, coming into contact with the monstrous' neck. Just then, a pair of spell circles formed around Hyena's left hand.

The threads, otherwise lethal, bounced off, as if they were striking an indestructible barrier. Letting out an animalistic laugh, the monster spun around, striking the woman with his fist. Unable to block, she was tossed through the chamber, slamming into the wall behind. Shit! I summoned Sept and performed a thread attack. All the newly raised jackal warriors were severed into two, yet the boss' legs remained unharmed. Serp, can you take him? I asked. Unlike the times before, there was no immediate answer. Serp?

I don't know, the sword responded. There was no anger, no snapback, just an honest answer to a very vital question. He's not a Grand Arcana holder. I send out several more destructive slashes, aiming for the spell circles on Hyena's arm. Yeah, but I've never faced a semi-deity till now. The statement caused my pulse to rise, activating one of my curses. Pain spread through my chest, and yet I barely acknowledged it. This wasn't just a deity worshiping monster, it wasn't even one that had been possessed by Anubis.

No, standing before me was a being that stood on the threshold of divinity. Harlequin! I wanted to shout. Not that I thought he was involved. Rather, he was the only one who could stop this. The fact that he hadn't was alarming. While deities were outright forbidden to participate in trials, demies were more of an edge case. They were free to roam the trial worlds as guides, but they couldn't face participants.

While Hyena was clearly at the very bottom of the divine hierarchy, even someone of his strength wouldn't have been allowed into a single-digit trial. He must have sacrificed most of his cards and locked away his powers in order to come here… yet why? Quickly I ran to the nearest splatter of blood on the floor and touched it with the tip of my saber. Instantly, the liquid was drawn into Serp, causing the blade to grow.

"Oh, I like that!" Hyena laughed.

"Will make things amusing. Not that they need blood to fight." More aether strands spread beneath the floor. Soldiers that had been sliced up were stitched together by magic I knew nothing about. That had to be Anubis' power. Raising my weapon, I glanced at Sparta. She had fallen to the floor, but thankfully was still breathing.

"You're still worrying about her?" The hyena broke out in laughter once more.

"That's funny! She's planning to kill you, and you're worried about her?" You're lying? There was no way that was true. Even if none of our history had taken place, she had plenty of opportunity to have a go and didn't. The fact that she had come to face him alone was all the proof I needed.

"You know, I like you," Hyena said after he paused from laughing.

"So, I'll make you an offer. Enter a pact with me and all this will be over. I'll sacrifice this vessel, you'll win the trial, maybe even get the girl, and have your entire life set up for you. What do you say?"