The Friesians surrounded Hephastos, but they did not attack. They threw pieces of weapons at him. Sword, mace, and warhammer. Inviting him to have a duel with Harald. But he was terrified and shaking.

“I came all the way from the north. Seeking revenge on Barabbas of Argos, who took away my arm. When we found him, he was already dead, decapitated, and his arm was dismembered.”

“I asked the witness, who did this to him?”

“They told me, a hoplite, a servant under Arete of Syracuse.”

“I want to know how! So pick up your weapon now! Show me how you did it!”

Harald removed his fur cape and dashed towards Hephastos. With his hammer, he swung and was about to hit Hephastos on his head. Arete tried to run towards him, but Harald was fast. Hephastos held his head with both of his hands in fear. The hammer stopped right on his head, touching his black hair.

Harald sensed his immense fear, he saw his shaking hands, and his stance was not stable. This man was not trained and was unable to fight. Arete was stunned to see Harald’s moves.

He did not hit Hephastos!

Seeing the opportunity, Arete blew a whistle and dashed towards Harald. She grabbed his sack which tied on his waist, and then pushed Hephastos away from his hammer.

“You filthy thief!” Harald shouted.

Aethon came to them and Hephastos’s flight instinct had returned. He jumped onto Aethon while Arete grabbed on the saddle. Hephastos holding the reins and push Aethon to run faster, he thought that they would be able to escape. But Arete threw the sack to him and then released the grip and dropped herself off.

“The man is not a fighter, and the blondie is a thief!” a man shouted.

They surrounded Arete and did not chase after Hephastos. Everything went according to her plan, she smirked. When they tried to grab her, she swiftly waved her spear and pointed the tip to the man’s neck. Seeing her movement, Harald knew she was trained.

“The witness forgot to tell you some important details about Barabbas.” She said.

“The one who killed him, is not the servant, but is me, Arete of Syracuse.” she retracted her spear with a smug on her face, staring at Harald.

“How pitiful, a lady of a fallen city, now ended up becoming a thief.” he leered at her.

“A thief? I’m just helping a poor old man to collect his bill.” she pointed her fingers at Harald. Reminding him about what he had done in the Lefkandi town.

Harald was irritated when he heard her argument. His men were all in rage.

“You! Don’t you dare insult the hero of the North!” a man shouted angrily!

“Do you know what that old codger had served us?” Harald raised his hand and his men immediately quieted.

“We travelled all the way from the North, hungry and tired.”

“Yet this old man called us barbarians and served us molded breads and sour wines!”

“One of my men even suffered from food poisoning!”

“I paid him what he deserved! Two gold staters! It is more than enough!”

“Arete of Syracuse, worshiper of Goddess Athena. What is justice when you haven’t investigated the whole situation, and concluded that we had bullied that dirty old man?” said Harald.

Arete felt humiliated by his words. She was indeed assuming that they had done wrong to the old man. She did not have any evidence to prove that the Friesians were to be blamed. In fact, they were reasonable, he did not harm Hephastos after knowing he was not able to fight. And they did not attack her when she was all alone surrounded by them.

“If you indeed are the one who killed Barabbas. Then, you owe me a good fight!” Harald suddenly waved his hammer towards Arete. And she instinctively dodged his attack. A smile beamed on his face when he saw Arete’s perfect dodge. Finally, he met someone who was well trained and capable of a good battle.

Arete realized that she mistakenly deduced Harald to be a group of thugs, but they were more of a group of independent fighters who purely seek a good battle. There were people who tried to make a name for the ranks of heroes. The only way to end this mess that she started, was to defeat him.

Using the spear as a pole, she leaped over Harald to his back, and then aiming at his head, she thrust the spear at him. Her movement was fast but Harald blocked the thrusting with his hammer hand. The impact reversed back to Arete’s arms and sent her whole body backward. But she regained her balance and aimed to stab him in the abdomen. She successfully struck him, but soon realized that the spearhead was blunt. Harald smashed her spear to the ground and she immediately released the handle to avoid the bouncing force.

Without the spear, she grabbed a sword which was previously let on the ground. She ran circling around Harald. He turned towards her and attacked blow after blow, but she dodged all of them. After a few circles, she jumped towards him. He realized that the weight of his hammer arm was keeping the turning momentum and he was unable to gain balance. When she reached on top of him, she pushed him to the ground with her whole body and stabbed the sword right next to his neck.

Harald knew he was defeated. But he felt angry, sad and disgraced. A large man could be defeated by a skinny young lady, he bawled in agony. Arete sensed the change in his emotion, and immediately jumped off to avoid his counter attack.

He then smashed the ground, the vibration causing the stones to fly and hit Arete. He tried to get close to her, but agility was her greatest strength, she kept her distance. Knowing that Harald had lost his mind and might kill her, she ran. But she saw Aethon. Hephastos had returned. He tried to ride towards them to help Arete. While Aethon ran towards Harald, pranched and kicked him. Harald was furious, when he was about to strike Aethon, Arete yanked the reins, forcing it to dodge his hammer. Hephastos fell from Aethon and Arete's hands slipped when Aethon pranched in panic.

Harald regained his balance and raised his hammer arm, aiming at Arete, he was about to smashed on her. Hephastos picked up the standard hammer on ground with both of his hands and he swung and hit on Harald’s metal arm near his elbow, attempt to detract Harald's hammer away from Arete.

Harald screamed in great pain, as the vibration of the hitting was sending the wave of electric shock through his whole body. Hephastos hit the metal arm again on another spot. His upper arm torn into pieces, and the metal hammer separated from his body. Arete was surprised to see what had happened. Harald fell to the ground and he used his other hand to hold his wound. He attempted to stop the bleeding. He was in immense pain, but the physical pain was no match for the defeat of his spirit.

Harald’s men came to him and using a cloth, they tied a knot around his shoulder to stop the bleeding. Hephastos was panting and shaking with his hands still holding on the hammer. When he saw Arete, he dropped the hammer. He then dropped the sack and a bottle to Harald.

“I… I'm sorry! I returned your gold and here's some medicine that might help you.”

“You… How do you know? Where to hit?” Harald asked with a weak voice.

“I… I don’t know, probably, I was a blacksmith. That thing on your arm, it looks like an anvil…”

“It is! It is an anvil! ” Harald replied, grabbing Hephastos hand with his other bloody hand.

“It was implanted in my arm, by the works of the Three Elders.”

Although Hephastos and Arete were both clueless about what he was trying to say, they both felt that Harald sought a listening ear.

“After Barabbas dismembered my forearm, they discovered me and promised to give me immense power in parallel with a demigod.”

“Having this metal arm gives me... constant pain and suffering. This heavy metal kept pulling me down to the ground. I thought it would be all worth the pain. But Barabbas was defeated when I found his body.”

“Thus, we are on our way to Eretria, to find Heracle and challenge him. To test the power of this… this thing.”

“Yet, I was defeated by a mere blacksmith.”

Arete walked towards Harald, kneeled and picked up the bottle of medicine from hephastos.

“I apologize for starting all this.” She opened the bottle and was about to give it to Harald, while his men stopped her.

“What are those!”

“Don’t worry! It is our special medicine. It will help wounds heal. Do consider following us to our camps and take a rest for the day.” said Hephastos.

They allowed her to gave him the medicine. After laying Harald on the back of his horse, they crossed the river and followed Hephastos back to their settlement.

To be continued…