CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED

The Unbroken, Part 1

Sam felt pain flare up in his right cheek.

“Yow,” he groaned.

He felt a second serving of pain strike him on his left cheek. This one was harder than the first.

“S-stop that…” Sam’s eyes blinked open just in time to see the ageless centaur’s face looming over him. “Ch-Chiron…?”

Chiron had his hand in the air and was readying for a third slap.

“Whoa-whoa,” Sam raised his arms to defend his face, “I’m awake! I’m awake!”

“Had a nice nap, sleeping beauty?” Chiron teased.

As he sat up, another groan escaped Sam’s lips. “Feels like I got hit by a truck…”

“Hmph,” Chiron whinnied. “My Talos-lite’s got more power than that.”

He helped Sam to his feet as the hero still seemed a little shaky on his legs.

“You’re lucky you heal fast or you’d be out for a week...at least,” Chiron added.

Sam’s brow creased. “How long was I out?”

“Don’t panic, kid… You’ve only been down a few minutes,” Chiron replied in a calming tone. “You up for round two?”

“Round… two?” Sam glanced around and realized quickly that he was back at the Tribulator’s starting gate. “Hold on… you’re saying I can try again?”

“I never expected you to finish it on the first try, lame-brain… Even Hercules had to redo it half a dozen times,” Chiron explained with a shake of his head. “Hades, Superion took three tries and he was bloody and bruised by the time he made it to the finish line.”

Chiron’s face suddenly turned contemplative. A grin crept up his face almost like he was remembering a fond memory.

“His cousin, though,” the ancient centaur mused.

“What about Thunder?” Sam asked curiously.

Chiron’s smile widened as he raised a single finger in the air.

“Seriously?” Sam asked, his eyebrow arching.

“That woman has loads of talent,” Chiron admitted. Then he frowned as his gaze dropped back to Sam. “Too bad you’re all I’ve got now.”

Chiron’s jab might have stung if he hadn’t winked at Sam immediately afterward. No, it was pretty obvious now to Sam that the centaur had high hopes for the gamma-level hero who’d survived a fight against an ancient alpha-level solar dragon. He could see this hint of pride in the centaur’s eyes, and it caused Sam to crack a smile of his own.

Then they both heard the sound from far off. It was akin to a gunshot echoing across the dense foliage, causing the birds in the trees to take flight above the tree line.

“You’re on the clock, kid.” Chiron glanced at the half-transparent floating screen that popped up in front of his face. “Something nasty’s entered my forest, and it doesn’t look friendly.”

“How much time do I have?” Sam asked.

Chiron’s face turned contemplative once more. “We’re deep in the forest…so two hours, maybe more if the bastard gets caught in any of my traps…and it will.”

The centaur chuckled in that horse-like braying sound of his.

“Two hours,” Sam repeated.

His gaze drifted back toward the Tribulator’s entry gate, and his mind replayed the earlier disaster he experienced while inside its obstacle course.

“That might not be enough time,” Sam sighed.

HEALTH POINTS (HP): 540/1,000 STAMINA POINTS (SP): 260/500 FATIGUE: 37%

A quick inspection of his stats told Sam his nap had benefited him, healing him by a little while taking away more of his fatigue.

“Wait… maybe I can make this work,” he realized.

Sam sat cross-legged on the ground.

“Relax,” he reminded himself. “Relax…”

“What are you—”

Chiron realized Sam was attempting to perform the meditation exercises he’d taught him around the same time he’d given Sam his 3rd daily explosive training menu.

“Not a bad idea,” the centaur admitted.

“Shush,” Sam whispered. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

It wasn’t that difficult to place his body in a state of relaxation. After all, Sam was familiar enough with that feeling of oblivion that clearing his mind of distractions seemed almost easy. The one nagging thought that kept him from total tranquility was the image of Thunder and how she might be in great danger while he idled in Chiron’s cabin in the woods.

“Hurry,” Sam whispered.

A minute passed by.

HEALTH POINTS (HP): 563/1,000 STAMINA POINTS (SP): 283/500 FATIGUE: 35%

“Your health and stamina increased by point-seventy-five,” Chiron supplied. “Looks like your regen rate’s gotten faster now, kid.”

The centaur was monitoring Sam’s status too it seemed. There were several floating screens surrounding him now. “Keep at it for another twenty minutes and you should get back to full health.”

He was right. Twenty minutes later, Sam opened his eyes to a full bar of health and stamina. His fatigue had only gone down by fifteen percent though. He guessed his time in the void would take longer to wash off him.

“I’m ready,” Sam said.

“Good,” Chiron nodded. “Get to it then.”

***

Sam breezed through the Tribulator’s arrow field using the same combination of abilities as his first attempt. Although this time he was aware of how quickly his [SP] dropped. He’d lost fifty points in the short time it took him to reach the first course’s finish line.

“Combo moves take a toll on me,” Sam realized while he dodged to the right to avoid the wide crack that appeared on the ground in front of him. “I was wondering if you’d show up!”

Talos-lite tore through the ground and loomed over Sam.

“Yeah, yeah”—Sam reached for his hammer’s handle—“I’ve got a present for you, you Decepticon knock off.”

Sam leaped high into the air, his form lit brightly by the flashes of electrical energy streaking across the aura enveloping him.

Talos-lite reached out for him, and its right palm blotted out the sky.

“Bulwark!” Sam roared.

It was an inspired idea, one born from his earlier discovery of combining abilities. Bulwark’s aura wrapped around Onus’ metallic head, hardening it even more.

Talos-lite’s fingers began to clamp down on Sam’s rising form. But Sam was quick to swing Onus forward with both his hands before these metal fingers closed over him.

Boom!

The impact of metal slamming against metal was so loud that even the surrounding trees shook from the force of it. Then came the sound of something breaking and an invisible audience roaring in applause as Sam’s attack shattered the giant automaton’s hand.

Sam flew past the breaking parts of bronze cogs and screws to land on Talos-lite’s shoulder. He took a second to balance himself before jumping up—avoiding the automaton’s other hand and its attempt to swipe him off its shoulder—and soared high enough that he went over the Spartan helmet covering Talos-lite’s bronze head.

In those few seconds, while Sam was floating above the automaton, Chiron managed to yell, “Hephaestus’ flaming balls…that little bastard’s planning to wreck my robot!”

“Hercu~~u”—Sam dropped like an arrow in flight, his hammer held firmly in both hands, his body still coated in bulwark’s glowing aura—“lean~~n!”

“Don’t you do it, lame—”

But the sound of Sam’s hammer landing squarely in the middle of the automaton’s noggin drowned out the centaur’s complaint. Sam flattened Talos-lite’s head with that one blow, and the shockwave that exploded out of the point of impact caused the earth below to quake.

“Herculean~~n!” the invisible crowd chanted, and their cheers were deafening.

As Sam landed back onto solid ground amidst chunks of bronze parts falling around him, and with the bulk of Talos-lite crashing onto the ground behind him, the invisible crowd’s applause only got louder.

“Yeah, yeah, he’s strong,” Chiron grumbled. “Stupid hammer’s a cheat item, I tell you.”

“This insta-kill was brought to you by Hephaestus Armory, the forge fit for the gods,” the sultry-voiced announcer chimed in.

Sam opted to power down Bulwark’s and Thunder Charge’s combination for the lava bed, choosing instead to rely on Herculean’s triple strength boost to carry him through the platform-styled course.

“One…”

Sam lifted off into the air, bypassing several platforms to land on a stone slab at least twenty yards away from his starting point.

“Two…”

The force of his second jump caused the slab beneath him to crumble back into the lava, although he’d fly another twenty yards before landing onto another stone slab.

“This is a lot easier the second time through.”

Sam took a few more leaps into the air—high enough to avoid the plumes of fireballs occasionally rising from the lava bed’s surface—and reached the other end of the 2nd course in record time. He’d done it so quickly that even Chiron sounded impressed.

“Kid’s a natural jumper. I taught him that you know…trained him to jump across rooftops too,” the centaur boasted.

“This record-breaking speed-run of the lava course is brought to you by Olympus+, streaming mortal trials to cloud streams across the cosmos,” the sultry-voiced announcer added.

Sam stood there at the edge of the lava, his body tense. The seconds ticked by, but Talos-lite didn’t jump out at him as it had before.

“I don’t have the funds to build more than one giant automaton, lame-brain,” Chiron announced. “Get going already.”

However, Sam hadn’t moved. He was looking ahead, and his face turned paler and paler with each second. “Holy Zeus…how am I getting through that…?”

Sam stood before the entrance of what he thought at first might have been a car wash’s conveyor corridor. Only, instead of scrubbers, there were blades—axes and scythes so sharp he imagined they could decapitate heads with a single swipe. If these implements of death didn’t seem challenging enough, iron caltrops were peppering the floor.

“That’s right, kid… your strength’s no good here.” Chiron sounded a little too gleeful to Sam’s ears. “I give you the Blade Dance of Death, the perfect training course to cure you of your clumsy fool syndrome.”

Sam frowned. Chiron was right. This 3rd course was going to be a challenge.