“This seems like an odd team up.” Cerberus didn’t deny Cyclops’ words as it was… an admittedly odd team up between Cyclops and Cerberus.

The two were admittedly friendly, after the two months of preparation they each knew a bit more about how the other fought, especially considering they knew they’d be working with the other from the beginning of the two months.

The oddness came from the fact that Cerberus and Cyclops were such different types of ‘fighters’ yet they were told to work together.

It didn’t really make sense to have a close combat fighter work together with someone who was basically a very unsubtle weapon of destruction.

“It is, but if Odysseus is to be believed, the idea is for me to just get the enemy into position for you to take out.” Cerberus had no delusions of being able to hit harder than Cyclops.

Well, physically, Cerberus was probably stronger than Cyclops in every field bar punching, where the two were roughly equal. But with Cyclops’ weapon…

Just about anything hit by that thing would die bar giant Chained… and they’d definitely feel it. Even Typhon required preparation to block that, and Typhon swore that he’d never put himself in a position where he’d need to block such a weapon again.

For this day, Cerberus was the main fighter for their defensive line, and Cyclops was the last resort.

“Sir, sir!” a man ran over, breathing heavily and the lack of a choker letting Cerberus know he was a member of the Eyes of the Hunter, so Cerberus raised an eyebrow in question.

“What is it? Is the enemy approaching?” It was still admittedly damn early, barely one in the morning early, but Cerberus had no doubt they were in for a long day.

“Yes sir, exact numbers are unknown yet but… there are a lot.” The man said and Cerberus didn’t exactly like the vague nature of that… but he could understand it and let his annoyance with the fact go.

Sure, many of the Eyes of the Hunter were military or the descendants of military men and women, so it was understandable that they were serious… they just didn’t have quite the equipment and experience to be able to be efficient.

In comparison, using a pair of binoculars taken off of the still panting man, Cerberus looked into the distance and frowned, not seeing the enemy… until he saw a shadow duck slide from one point of cover to another.

“Shit, they’re better than they should be.” Cerberus had heard from Odysseus how Odysseus had arrived at Tartarus, how the guards were actually pitiful and easy to give the run around…

Odysseus had many theories on why, from laziness, lack of experience due to how few incidents would ever occur, maybe he just had newer guards moving him around, but from Odysseus’ testimony, there were much less than there should be.

Again, there were many possible reasons, but again, the guards were normal people and few.

These people did not seem like the guards, so where were they from?

It had been a bit more than three years since Odysseus had been in prison, around three and a half actually, so yes, there was enough time to recruit more, much more, but this kind of training…

“Cyclops, I don’t know if you’re seeing this from your position, but the enemy isn’t dumb or few, send this info up the chain and report back.” With how he would soon be in the fray, Cerberus couldn’t actually command the forces of the Key in the way he wanted to, but he could use Cyclops to make it easier.

It also helped that Cyclops and Cerberus were using those ‘air-pods’ and that Dryad had long since arranged for them to be able to make unlimited calls with a bit of her tech wizardry. They essentially had earpieces allowing them to communicate.

It did make Cerberus feel a bit odd, wearing a beanie that went over his ears so that the air pod wouldn’t fall out, but eh, it worked. Plus he had another one just in case the first broke.

“Will do.” Cyclops responded, and Cerberus could vaguely hear the sound of keys being pressed on a keyboard.

“You, sorry I don’t really know your name, but relay to everyone else that the enemy is already here. Ninety seconds, and then commence with tactic sunshine.” The man nodded, a bit worried yet still doing his job as he ran off while speaking into a radio…

The man had also forgotten his binoculars, but Cerberus wasn’t going to let the guy know, he was appreciating them at the moment since his eyesight wasn’t absurd like Typhon and those like him.

“Alright, call is in, boss says that the enemy will likely be bolstered by agents from the Chinese, the North American Coalition, and possibly the Three States of Australia... there will probably be a few mercenary groups in there as well.” Cyclops explained, leaving Cerberus to curse under his breath.

That… was admittedly a worst case scenario…

Obviously the entire militaries of those countries weren’t here, because that would be a huge problem for said countries defensively.

“Does the boss have any idea of numbers?” there was half a minute left until the fight started, and Cerberus really wanted to know.

“Best estimate? Five thousand soldiers in each Area. Worst case scenario, about twelve thousand in each Area…” That was shit because as far as Cerberus knew, they had maybe a thousand in each Area, maybe…

At least with the Chained it was much more equal, there were about fifteen of them to each Area, and that was not counting the Generator guards such as Cerberus and Cyclops.

A single Chained could kill a hundred people with a bit of effort, even some of the lower ranked Chained could…

Sure, the enemy had weaponry that could hurt them, but no Chained was really a weakling and with the help of Lu Bu they all had an idea on how a fight against modern weaponry would go, especially since Lu Bu had worked with people outside of Tartarus on a mission or two for Gilgamesh before.

“Fuck… well, too late to back out now. Five seconds till sunshine.” Cerberus warned Cyclops, not that the other was even in a position where he’d be blinded by the following moment.

Cerberus on the other hand, was in such a position and closed his eyes, taking the chance to take a deep breath as a whistling sound was heard…

And so the fireworks went off. They were bright and illuminating, almost hanging from the air by invisible strings and revealing many, many people who were definitely not prisoners or members of the Key.

For the record, the firework also managed to spell the words ‘We see you!’ in bright green, orange, and hot pink letters.

That was a clear sign of Odysseus’ hand in their procurement.

“Attack!” Cerberus roared, and while none answered in return, Cerberus knew they all heard him as he watched many of their opponents get attacked, clearly surprised by the means of the prisoners…

Right, if they really were career soldiers, military, they were probably extraordinarily well trained for some, and standard training for most…

But Cerberus had to wonder if most soldiers were used to being surrounded and beaten to death? Maybe a couple of decades back when wars were much crazier and the USA expanded to become the NAC, but with almost half a century of peace…

From what Cerberus could see, many of the enemy were reacting differently to the attack, struggling with the decision to fire into a crowd which consisted of both prisoners and their soldiers…

Prisoners that then proved that they were crazy by grabbing the guns out of some soldiers hands and proceeding to use these high tech weaponry to attack the soldiers.

Right, an advantage to having lower weaponry standards would be that their enemies didn’t expect a lot of the prisoners to be packing flint-lock pistols, and it wasn’t like they’d rob the prisoners of their weapons when the soldiers had better ones…

So the prisoners had that option.

“Quite the melee you started with those words kid.” Cerberus reacted to the deep, bellowing voice by snapping his head to stare at where the voice came from, automatically sliding his feet and bringing his hands up so that he could be in his combat stance.

No normal human sounded like that, and Cerberus was proven correct when the light of the fireworks revealed a large ‘man’ of two and a half metres tall, the head of a wolf, standing shirtless, wearing a scarf which hung loosely from his shoulders and a pair of those pants that had a lot of pockets…

Ah, Cerberus recalled that they were cargo pants. Made sense considering those were a lot of pockets.

“Yeah, that was the idea… you’re one of Gilgamesh’s right, Uridimmu?” Cerberus had actually been sat down and made to memorize exactly how his opponent’s name was pronounced by Odysseus.

Odysseus claimed it was because nothing was more rude to an opponent you were fighting to the death than forgetting their name or getting their name wrong.

“That you know my name… that’s a bit suspicious. But yes, I am Uridimmu, the Mad Hound.” The man that was essentially a werewolf growled, teeth barred as a green gas leaked slightly from his mouth.

The ‘madness’ gas that Odysseus had warned Cerberus about… Cerberus was selected to go against the Mad Hound because the gas causing aggression wouldn’t really change how well Cerberus fought, and Cyclops couldn’t be affected by that gas in his current situation.

“And who am I going to be killing today?” Uridimmu asked, moving his clawed and furred hand to his lower back, removing a cylinder of sorts from a pouch there before it extended, becoming a staff…

“Yeah, I doubt you’re going to kill anyone today, but I’m Cerberus.” Cerberus gave his enemy the courtesy of knowing his name.

And if the monstrous Chained in front of Cerberus didn’t know Cyclops was around, well, that was good.

“I’m sure you believe that.” Uridimmu said with that same growl, a slight uptick at the edge of his lips let Cerberus know that the Mad Hound was finding him ‘funny’.

No further words were said as the fight began, the Mad Hound bursting into motion and leaving Cerberus staring as Uridimmu closed the distance between the two of them extremely easily, moving much too quickly for someone two and a half metres tall.

Cerberus had fallen into the metric system very easily after being complained to by Odysseus multiple times actually, though he still recalled that the NAC standard would refer to Uridimmu as eight feet two inches roughly.

Really, the beast was way too fast, swinging the staff in his hands at Cerberus’ skull with barely any sign of that action before it began, Cerberus sliding his back foot so that he was now perpendicular to Uridimmu, pulling his front foot back so that he just barely dodged the staff.

Uridimmu was clearly more than just brute force though, as the staff suddenly stopped before it could hit the floor, the Mad Hound’s hands twisting before slapping the staff so that it left his hands and spun towards Cerberus.

Cerberus was surprised at the odd action, but thankfully chose to slap the staff down with his palm, his other arm raising so that his forearm threw off the punch Uridimmu aimed at his skull, Cerberus quickly disengaging and dodging another staff strike…

Cerberus noted the last hit with wide eyes, wondering when Uridimmu had grabbed the staff again, Uridimmu had let go of it so that he could attack, and now the Mad Hound seemed to suddenly have the staff in his hands again.

“Fast reactions, excellent training, and you are stronger than your size suggests… the last is to be expected of an Ascended, but the other two… you put in effort. I’ll still kill you though.” the Mad Hound cackled, the laugh sounding much like a hyena, the green cloud of gas that heightened aggression spreading around the two fighters.

“You’re scarier than I thought you’d be with that staff… I didn’t even see you catch it after I deflected it.” Cerberus said, though his words weren’t just for his opponent, but for Cyclops who was listening in.

Cerberus really doubted he could defeat or kill Uridimmu by himself. The Babylonian Chained was damn strong, and even that exchange was enough for Cerberus to note it.

It felt kind of like fighting a stronger and faster Sphinx that used a staff. And Cerberus could not recall ever defeating Sphinx.

The only advantages Cerberus had were that he was fighting a defensive battle, a specialty of his, and that he was a smaller target than the much larger Uridimmu.

That was about it really.

The fight continued immediately, Uridimmu close enough that he just took one step, his staff being held by an end with one hand and lunging out in a manner similar to a rapier user, an action only possible due to his immense strength.

Cerberus ducked, forced to dodge let he have a hole in his skull, then twisting his waist and twisting his neck so that the follow-up attack only scratched his cheek instead of gouging into his eye.

The next ‘exchange’ was at high speeds, with Uridimmu lashing out with his staff as one would use a sword or rapier, the Mad Hound now left his mouth open slightly, the green fog exiting his mouth hung around the air, slowly weighing in on Cerberus’ sanity as the ‘guard dog of hell’ parried the staff with his forearms, wincing from the pain of doing so and dodging where he could.

Cerberus was beginning to be affected by the ‘madness gas’ even if he didn’t quite recognize it, as he suddenly switched from being on the defensive to attacking, holding his hand in preparation for a palm strike and actually attacking the staff end when Uridimmu next tried to ‘stab’ at him.

The result was a wide eyed Uridimmu being forced to let go of his staff lest his hand get a few friction burns, Cerberus using the lull in the fight to step close, twisting and doing a Taekwondo style back kick which managed to hit Uridimmu square in the chest, forcing the much larger chained back with a grunt of pain.

Cerberus tried to capitalize on this and continue attacking, only to find that Uridimmu had stumbled back, his hand on the floor resting on his staff and the Mad Hound used that same hand as leverage to do a handstand, a foot flying towards Cerberus’ skull and leaving Cerberus to block by crossing his arms, skidding back due to the force of the kick.

When Cerberus looked again, he scowled upon realizing that he was once more at the optimal distance for Uridimmu to attack him like before, the Mad Hound now awkwardly holding the staff by its end with both hands, likely to prevent Cerberus from suddenly hitting it out of his hands once more…

Like before, Uridimmu attacked quickly and viciously, and now unable to suddenly knock the staff from his hands, Cerberus was now forced to dodge once more, growling as he did so on account of the green gas floating around the area.

Again, the heightened aggression was not affecting Cerberus’ ability to dodge, ducking and weaving between the blows as he attempted to inch towards Uridimmu, from time to time he was even forced to swat the staff away lest it hit Cerberus, but it was affecting him.

“Cerberus, what are you doing, don’t go forward!” Cerberus heard Cyclops’ words, and managed to blink, realizing what he was doing as he dashed forward, Uridimmu grinning his wide, toothy grin as he pulled his staff back, spinning it and having one of the ends hit Cerberus in the jaw, knocking the head of the younger Chained into the air.

“People make dumb mistakes when they’re mad.” Uridimmu said with a smile, holding his staff and aiming it at Cerberus’ throat before dropping his staff and placing his foot against the opposite end before kicking, the staff end slamming into Cerberus throat with a sickening crack, the leader of the junior Pantheon physically lifted into the air and sent flying.

“Cerberus!” Cyclops screamed from his position, worried about Cerberus, knowing that such a blow would break the neck of almost anyone hit with such a technique.

Cerberus landed with a heavy thud on his back, a few metres away due to the force of the blow, releasing choked breaths and squirming in pain, wanting to scream but unable to.

“I must admit… you were definitely dangerous. If you had attacked me with a grab or even punches instead of kicking me, you’d probably have done much more damage.” The Mad Hound said, walking over to where Cerberus squirmed on the floor, leaning to lift his staff which had flown with the young Chained.

Cerberus had both hands around his throat, his face turning almost purple with effort as his eyes twitched from pain, starring up at Uridimmu who was now kneeling in front of Cerberus.

“It’s a shame I won’t get to fight you again actually. It was kind of fun… but I’m sure I’ll find more fun enemies around here somewhere, after I take control of that Generator.” Uridimmu said, and if it weren’t for the growl in his voice, it might have sounded conversational.

“I’d like to hear your last words actually, but, well, broken wind-pipe, I’m sure you can’t even speak.” Uridimmu placed a hand on his knee, getting ready to stand only to find a hand wrapped around his wrist, tightening to the point that Uridimmu felt extreme pain as he winced, eyes widening.

“Having a metallic throat has never been such a great advantage.” Cerberus said, smirking from where he leaned up, one hand on Uridimmu’s wrist and the other on the floor to help him balance, thus allowing the Mad Hound to see the dent in Cerberus’ throat, and the broken skin letting the Mad Hound see the sheen of metal in the light of the still going fire-works.

Still wide-eyed, Uridimmu was about to try and use his staff to separate himself from Cerberus, only for Cerberus to roll back, Uridimmu forced to lean forward due to Cerberus’ grip on his wrist, and Cerberus spoke with a smirk, Uridimmu stretched out so that the Mad Hound’s chest rested upon Cerberus’ feet…

And with their momentum, Uridimmu was pushed, thrown backwards and into the air, and the Mad Hound heard Cerberus speak.

“Oh, and as for last words… do you think you can survive a solid shot tank shell?” Uridmmu’s eyes widened and his pupils narrowed as from his position, upside down in the air, he could see a long barrel in the distance attached to… a tank of all things.

“Fuck.” That would be the last word Uridimmu ever spoke.

The last thought the Mad Hound would ever have would be ‘How the hell did they get a tank in here?’

There was a burst of sound with a boom and crack followed almost immediately by a sound similar to a watermelon being hit open with a sledgehammer, and from his position lying prone on the floor, Cerberus suddenly felt his entire back become warm and sticky.

Looking up slowly, Cerberus saw a staff lying there, a hand attached to it without an arm or body, and there was a lot of blood around them… and standing up, Cerberus noticed that, except for the imprint of his body, a large area around him was covered in red.

“Holy shit I disintegrated him!” Cerberus heard Cyclops exclaim before he turned to face the only slightly hidden tank, shouting in return.

“Holy shit you disintegrated him! Also, this is disgusting! I have blood all over my… oh, oh god I think that’s an intestine on my leg…” Cerberus gagged, eventually unable to take it before he leaned to the side and puked, adding his own vomit to the pile of gore all around him.

From what Cerberus could hear, Cyclops was puking along with him.

Well, a victory was a victory, even if the victors were left puking and crying from disgust.

“Report from Cyclops, they managed to kill Uridimmu, Cerberus will join the rest of the battle while Cyclops remains in hiding and guarding the Zeta Generator.” Echidna spoke, looking up from her tablet and seeing Aaron fiddling a bit with the console in front of him.

Even if they couldn’t see beyond the shell, Echidna and Typhon both recognized the device before their eyes as one of those legendary Zeta Generators… not only that, but both were also informed by Aaron that this particular Zeta Generator was more important than the other twelve.

The Zeta Generator within Area thirteen, otherwise known as Uluru or Ayer’s Rock, was the one mainly used for the Atmospheric Control Unit, and thus said ‘ACU’ could only be adjusted from either this Zeta Generator or the servers in Tasmania.

“Here, with this, the Atmospheric Control Unit will no longer prevent us from flying above the walls… now we need to get to Harpy.” Aaron said with a sigh, hating how he had to rush around like this, but he knew it was necessary.

“Hey, you hear that, Cerberus and Cyclops killed Uridimmu.” Aaron blinked, focusing on Typhon’s words and finally registering it, showing how addled his mind was at the moment, rushing about and slightly unable to focus as it was.

“Wait, really? Well, that was quick… then again, they have a tank, and Uridimmu should die if he got hit with that thing… right Trojan?” Aaron asked, looking into the shadows of the room and seeing one of the greatest assets to this plan.

“That’s right. Uridimmu isn’t huge like Behemoth and the others, he’d get killed easily if shot by a tank.” Typhon and Echidna shared a glance between the two of them, still unsure how to react to Trojan.

When Trojan had walked into the room, the siblings had immediately been on guard, ready for a fight, only for Aaron to walk past the two and shake Trojan’s hand, a surprise considering that Trojan should have had ample reason to dislike Aaron.

“Well there you go. So, you know the deal right? We go out and do our side of the deal, you stay here and guard the Generator, fair?” Trojan nodded, standing and cracking his fingers as he walked out of the shadows, his cowboy hat resting on his head and his guns resting in their holsters on his side.

“Yeah, that’s the deal Hassan. Back out and I kill all three of you though, remember that.” Jaeger, the Hunter and traitor of Tartarus Management spoke with a cold, predatory glare towards Aaron and the ‘royal siblings’.

Aaron didn’t blame the man at all, instead dropping the smile from his face and nodding in all seriousness.

“We understand. It’s better to have you as a friend than as an enemy.” Aaron reached out with a hand, Jaeger glaring at it for a moment before shaking Aaron’s hand, Aaron’s group leaving Jaeger behind as the man moved the chair Aaron had been seated at, now sitting down and watching them leave as he waited.

“How the hell did you persuade that guy to work on our side?” Typhon asked since he had an especially difficult time accepting that Jaeger was suddenly on their side, having fought each other enough times that Typhon immediately assumed that they’d be fighting once more.

“Well you were there when I did. Remember our last meeting before he joined Management?” Typhon narrowed his eyes, recalling the meeting that occurred after his second loss against the Hunter of Tartarus…

Aaron and Jaeger had spoken in that bar in a cryptic guesses and estimations for a while, both sitting in a similar manner, one hand resting on a glass and the other resting on the table and tapping as they spoke, right up until the moment Aaron let Jaeger know his son was Beowulf, leaving the Hunter to slam a fist on the table and leave.

“Yeah, I remember… but nothing about the meeting seemed out of place?” Typhon pointed out, recalling that, beyond the cryptic speaking and Aaron annoying Jaeger by telling Jaeger that Aaron was likely going to be fighting his son, nothing seemed strange.

“Right, I forgot, you don’t really know Morse Code yet huh? I’ll teach you sometime after this.” Aaron said with a sigh, and immediately the siblings understood what Aaron had done.

“There were two conversations that day, the one you heard, and the one you missed because you couldn’t understand it. First, I checked if Jaeger understood Morse code, and he tapped out a response letting me know that he understood.” Aaron began, getting in the car Jaeger had arrived with, appreciating the hovering as it meant that the thing would be faster than expected…

Heck, if it had enough thrust, Aaron might not even need to get Harpy to help them get out of Tartarus.

“Then, after confirming that it worked, I began talking about Beowulf and what had been done to him by Gilgamesh. Using Morse code, I added onto the information by giving Jaeger ‘orders’ of a kind. I told him that if he listened to what I said, he’d be able to save Beowulf.” Aaron added while Typhon and Echidna got into the hover-car, both rather sitting at the back then chose the seat next to Aaron.

Aaron shrugged, not minding their choices.

“So what did you tell him?” Echidna asked, recalling that Typhon was kind of, out of sorts, during that conversation seeing as Jaeger had just defeated him before it happened.

“Basically, I told him that the only way he could help Beowulf would be by helping me, and that on the off chance Gilgamesh approached him to join Management, he was to accept, reluctantly. He would then contact me using a specific coded phrase, and then he would feed me information.” Aaron explained as they left for Area nine, which was where Harpy was.

During the hour or two long ‘flight’ Aaron would take the chance to check the maximum height the hover-car could go, and if it could reach above Tartarus’ walls, which was unlikely, he would then just change course for Area ten, which was closer to Tasmania.

“If he was a traitor to the Management the entire time… okay, I get why he still fought us, he had to sell the lie, but what about Cyclops. Old man Cyclops.” Echidna specified, knowing that she would never have met the current Cyclops were the previous one still alive…

But Echidna was quite close to both of them, the older one being like a friendly father, grandfather type figure to her, and the newest, younger one being a… well, a romantic partner.

And if Jaeger was really a spy-

“You’re wondering why he didn’t tell us about Gilgamesh’s assault on Area twelve back then.” Echidna nodded, Typhon nodding in agreement… rather than that, Aaron was even more affected than Echidna by that event.

Aaron had been through some horrible things during his Ascension to become a Lord, and his talks with Cyclops had helped him get through it, Cyclops especially helping Aaron deal with his sudden dependence on alcohol, the older Chained having used alcohol to deal with the Cybernetic Chained migraines and knowing from experience that even if it helped a bit, it wasn’t the right thing to do.

Aaron had broken down after Cyclops’ death after all…

“Well for one, Jaeger was under heavy scrutiny back then. After that fight, and sacrificing some undesirable Chained to him to further prove his loyalty to Gilgamesh, Jaeger’s actions aren’t watched as closely anymore…” Aaron’s explanation would have been enough as it was, Echidna and Typhon both nodding in understanding… and then he kept speaking.

“The other thing is that he did warn me about the attack. I knew it was coming, I just didn’t do anything about it…” the two sitting at the back of the hover-car both felt their fists clench, and looking into the rear-view mirror, Aaron could see Typhon’s Nano-bots wafting about his arms, Echidna making ominous noises, sounding just like a blade being removed from a scabbard.

Instinctual reactions to something they disliked very much, though Echidna’s reaction was a sign of wanting to attack Aaron, Typhon’s was to protect Aaron.

The only reason neither moved was because firstly, they were siblings, they refused to fight each other, and secondly, because they needed the hover-car that they were currently inside.

“If the very first mission Jaeger went on was sabotaged, Gilgamesh would recognize near immediately what happened. Either I acted on the information and ruined Jaeger’s infiltration, or I do nothing and accept the consequences for greater benefit later. You can each tell what I did.” Echidna huffed out a sigh, biting her lip and staring out of the car window while Typhon reached forward, placing a hand on Aaron’s shoulder.

No doubt, if some knew what he had done they would never work for or with Aaron again, especially Sphinx who lost the previous Cerberus in the fight… knowing they could have been saved, Sphinx would probably try to kill Aaron himself.

Typhon and Medusa both knew that despite what he did, Aaron was not actually heartless. Aaron would never want any of his people to die, and he had truly done all he could do to prevent Cyclops’ death in front of his eyes, he had fought Gilgamesh to protect the old car enthusiast.

And being forced to make such decisions, let two die so that Breakout Day had a better chance of succeeding, or keep them alive and make Breakout Day that much more difficult to execute…

It was a difficult decision, morally speaking… but logically, Aaron had chosen correctly.

And knowing that Aaron’s decision went against his own morals, Typhon felt sorry for his friend. As for Echidna, she’d realize it later on.

For now, Breakout Day was still going on, the sounds of fighting echoing throughout Tartarus.

Time passed, one hour, fifteen minutes. Time left, twenty two hours, forty five minutes… The day would be long.