The creaking floorboards were accompanied by footsteps. These were peculiar, shuffling, slapping steps, both dragging and abrupt, the kind that might be made by thick feet sliding lazily across the floor.

Then he heard heavy, labored breathing. It was as if a very large person was struggling to move around. The Boar was close enough now that Sam instinctively held his own breath.

Gods, these sounds are creeping me out, his brain complained.

Sweat dribbled down his brow as the knotted tension inside him itched to burst out of his chest. He knew it was only a matter of time before he was discovered, and the only alternative was to jump out and attack the Boar first.

I can do this, he thought.

Finally, he heard the unceasing rasping that he guessed was caused by the Boar’s thick hide brushing against the walls as it lumbered onward.

Sam took one final breath, readying himself for the attack. But before he was forced out of hiding, Sam was saved by the creaking door that lay between him and the horror.

I forgot to shut the door, he realized.

Sam peeked around the edge of the couch and saw the backend of the boar as it forced itself into the guestroom.

The horror was so big it broke through the walls surrounding the door just to fit through. Luckily, this thrashing around was enough noise to cover Sam’s hurried escape toward Maeve’s bedroom.

Hurry, his brain urged.

Sam pulled open her door and then slipped inside while feeling slightly surprised that luck had actually gone his way for a change.

He leaned against the door and let out a relieved sigh before his gaze took in the sight of Maeve’s bedroom.

The large square space was dominated by the four-poster bed opposite the door. The entire right side wall was covered in precious gems ranging from lapis lazuli and moonstone to malachite and sapphire.

“Either she’s too rich to know what to do with her money or these are all wards against the evil eye,” Sam guessed.

Next to the bed was a nightstand. On it was an incense burner that let out the scent of frankincense wafting around the room which he assumed was more protection against bad juju.

“Or maybe nightmares… I hear seers get a lot of those,” Sam added.

Thankful for the large Persian rug that muffled his footsteps, Sam made his way to the door on the left side of the room and into the walk-in closet beyond it. Here he discovered a mirror that covered the closet’s back wall.

“That’s got to be it,” he reasoned.

Sam inspected the mirror’s silver frame but found no latch of any kind on its surface. The mirror itself seemed ordinary with no discernible distortions of any kind to hint at a hidden contraption.

“Should I just break this?” He tapped his knuckles against the mirror’s surface. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me how to open you.”

Sam had meant that as a joke. He didn’t think the mirror would actually respond, but it did. The middle part of the mirror fogged up. Then words formed on its surface almost like invisible fingers were brushing against it.

“Well, that’s not creepy at all,” Sam remarked just before he read what had been written out loud. “Maeve Murdock’s bust size... seriously?”

He glanced left, right, up and down, wondering if Maeve was pulling a prank on him.

“Nope, that horror was definitely real,” he reminded himself. “I am not getting punked… I hope.”

Sam wrote the number thirty-four on the only patch of foggy surface he could write on.

“Huh, so this is what those numbers meant,” he said, recalling in his mind Maeve’s curvy body. Sam cleared his throat. “I’m guessing you’re going to ask me for her waistline next.”

That was indeed the next question to appear on the wall after he’d given the correct answer to the first one. Maeve’s waist size.

Sam wrote the number twenty-five on the mirror’s surface while watching his cheeks turn red from embarrassment.

“I’m not some kind of perv,” he said, almost sounding defensive against his reflection in the mirror. “Gods, it’s a good thing Thunder’s not around to make fun of me right now…”

After Sam answered Maeve’s hip size with thirty-six, the mirror’s surface dissolved into a shower of water that soaked the floor beneath him. But he barely paid any attention to this magical phenomenon as the room beyond it seemed far more fascinating.

Sam had heard of the caves the old oracles of Delphi used to shack in back in the ancient days, but he’d never guessed he’d get to see one up close.

“This is beyond eccentric,” he said as he stepped onto the cave’s craggy stone floor.

The walls were covered in cave drawings, and they were of a quality that usually adorned the clay vases of the ancient world.

“These are fantastic,” he said as his hand brushed against the dried paint. “Prophecies or…”

Sam’s gaze focused on a drawing of a muscular man wielding a golden bow who’d been surrounded by—

“Giants,” Sam breathed. “This is the story of Gigantomachia… but why put it up here?”

It was a tale Sam knew very well because it had been a yearly homework assignment back when he was in school. The professors of all his Ancient History classes seemed to think this was an important piece of lore, which it was, as many viewed it in the same vein as the Norse Ragnarok.

“This isn’t a prophecy,” Sam’s brow furrowed, “Isn’t it?”

Maeve’s broken prophecy flitted across the surface of Sam’s mind, causing anxiety to seep into his chest.

“A shadow’s curse rises from the earth, immortal in the land of its birth,” he whispered and almost immediately regretted it as the hairs on the back of his arms rose. “Don’t freak yourself out, lame-brain… You’ve got a job to do.”

He moved over to the back of the cave where he found the seer’s altar, and the iconographies he found on it reminded him of the stuff he’d seen in the temple of Apollo all those years ago.

The words of the god of prophecies floated in his mind’s eye. You’re in for some extra hard times, kiddo…

“Styx,” he breathed. “Be cool, man…”

A wooden board lay on the altar’s surface. It was covered in softly glowing symbols and swirls that made up the arcane array powering Maeve’s barrier. A quick inspection of the array told Sam that it was, “Egyptian hieroglyphs... ideal for protection spells. Pretty powerful stuff too...”

It was uncommon for a follower of one pantheon to make use of rituals found in other pantheons because such practices bore the risk of offending one’s own gods. They were a fickle lot. And so this sort of fusion was only done by someone who was desperate enough not to care about divine wrath.

“Thunder’s right — Maeve is paranoid,” Sam deduced. “What did she see that’s got her all spooked...?”

A memory flashed in Sam’s mind. It was the sight of a woman’s burned body and the drachma Sam had placed over her eyes.

Sam’s hands tightened into fists. “I’m not going to let that happen to Maeve...”

As the array had been drawn in chalk, destroying it was as easy as swiping his palm across the board. But, before Sam could get to that, he heard the thrashing of something heavy close by. The Boar was coming.

“Alright, time to go,” he whispered.

Sam wiped away the array on the board. Then he stood there a second longer to make sure there would be no blowback to breaking the spell — and nothing. No magical fireballs or lightning bolts to smite the unsuspecting intruder. It was quite a lackluster ending to such a powerful piece of Egyptian sorcery.

“Okay then, I’ll just—”

A loud ringing sound emanated from the altar’s surface, the kind one would normally hear during a robbery.

“Godsdammit,” he sighed.

Sam knew he had seconds. He ran back into the bedroom and was considering escaping through the window on the wall behind the bed when the door to Maeve’s bedroom shattered into pieces behind him.

He barely had time to raise his arms up to defend himself when the horror came crashing into the bedroom and fell on top of him.

The horror was bigger than he imagined. More than seven feet tall with a gait that was about three sizes wider than Sam’s. Its limbs were so thick he didn’t doubt there was muscle hidden underneath all that fat.

Out of reflex, Sam caught the two sharp tusks protruding out of the monstrous mouth of the boar-like head as it dipped down to skewer him in the shoulders, but the strength of the beast was so great that his feet were in danger of buckling underneath him.

“Herculean!” Sam screamed.

[Herculean (ζ)] is now active. Based on probability and threat assessment calculations, your current Strength is temporarily doubled. [STRENGTH: 98]

Sam had hoped for more, but he guessed a delta-level Boar didn’t warrant a triple boost to his strength. Of course, Triple-A might not have added the thick-skinned horror’s momentum into its calculations because it still felt to Sam like he’d just been rammed by a minivan despite his reinforced strength.

WARNING! Your body isn’t strong enough yet to wield this power. You will accumulate damage while it is active.

He really didn’t need that warning as he could feel his life-force being drained with each second. Although this loss in health might also be because of the Boar’s thick gray arms slamming down onto Sam’s skinny ones, causing him to lose his grip on the horror’s tusks.

ALERT! [Regeneration (ζ)] is working to counteract the damage. Refrain from taking action while this is in progress.

Sam would have loved to stand still and just take a second to catch his breath but the hero’s strength had just lost out to the Boar’s assault, and so he was tossed straight into the wall of gems on the right side of Maeve’s bedroom.

He barely had time to gasp before the Boar’s momentum sent it hurling into Sam once again, pushing both hero and horror through the wall and into the dark-lit room on the other side of it.

So much for those wards against evil, Sam thought while the impact caused him to stumble and roll across the floor.

Sam scrambled to the side and away from the horror, but the Boar was relentless in its pursuit. It smacked into Sam just as he’d picked himself off the floor.

“Time out, you damn fatty!” he screamed.

But his words were lost to the wind as the Boar’s charge lifted Sam off his feet and carried him thrashing and screaming to the other end of the room. Seconds before his back crashed into the wall behind him, one of the master’s lessons popped into his head.

Lesson number thirty-nine, kid, the counter-throw, the master had revealed.

It was half-memory and half-instinct that made Sam struggle to get his feet back on solid ground. Luckily, the Boar’s own center of gravity had shifted lower in its renewed attempt to skewer Sam with one of its tusks, allowing the hero’s left foot to slide onto the floor behind him and giving him a moment to brace against the horror’s charge.

Don’t try to out-power a stronger opponent if you can help it. Instead, use their momentum to your benefit, the master had explained.

In that half-second of pushing back against the Boar, Sam quickly hooked his right arm underneath the Boar’s left arm while his left hand latched onto one of the Boar’s tusks.

If it’s already got its weight behind its attack, then it’s all a matter of directing the flow of their momentum to arrest their movements and get them in the position, the master had explained.

With supreme effort, Sam used his half-formed clinch to twist his body to the right while his left hand yanked the Boar’s head forward.

And when you’ve got him where you want him, the master had chuckled then, and Sam could envision him rubbing his hands together satisfactorily, then you go for the kill and toss that satyr-shit on its ass.

Then Sam deftly maneuvered his right foot into the space between the Boar’s legs. This act caused the horror to trip over him — a feat that would still have been disastrous for Sam if his body hadn’t been properly honed by Explosive Training Menu #1 — forcing its body slide across Sam’s hip and allowing him to throw the horror straight into the wall behind them.

The one thing Sam hadn’t counted on was that the Boar’s grip tightened on his shoulders, which meant Sam was pulled in along with the horror.

“Styx!” he yelled.

Together, the pair of them smashed into the wall, broke through it, and fell nearly twenty feet down onto the mansion’s first floor with a resounding crash.