24 [Bastard]

Fate/Defiance

Chapter 23 [Bastard]

By theMadLad

Beta: Old man of the mountain

It was too quiet.

Icarus paused, freezing in his place in response to the forest's sudden silence. The chirps of birds or animals disappeared as only the faint rustle of leaves in the wind remained.

It was unnatural.

"Paimon, Atalanta, get ready for an attack." Icarus commanded while he brought his bow into his hand as Atalanta crouched low with Paimon at her side.

Then the faint sounds of branches and leaves being destroyed reached his ears. Icarus turned as a faint metallic reflection caught his eyes which caused him to turn and witness a metal discus shred through the trees, sawing down everything in its path towards him without losing momentum.

At the same time a girl erupted from the shrubs nearby. Icarus gave her a glance as she ambushed, she had short blonde hair that gained in length towards her sides—but Icarus wasn't paying much attention to her appearance, as he was instead more focused on the weapon held in hands.

A sword.

Icarus smirked.

The discus reached him with deadly precision and supernatural strength but Icarus merely smiled with confidence. As the discus arrived he brought his forearm up to meet it, while directing his other forearm towards the girl attacking him.

The discus reached his forearm, slammed into his mirrored armguard— and disappeared. Before it erupted from the adjacent mirrored forearm, headed straight at the girl attacking him!

Icarus hadn't been completely preoccupied while he was teaching Atalanta, he would also take the time to stay up late into the night while in his little workshop to work on things… such as upgrades.

Now, his mirrored armguards could teleport small objects between them, bringing a far greater offense measure to his mostly defensive gimmick.

The girl yelped as she was suddenly confronted with an attack that she never believed would be directed at her. The discus arrived in front of her instantaneously, with only a cry of alarm shaking her out of her brief shock, "Pollux!"

Pollux hastily brought her sword to deflect the attack, using her semi-divine strength to knock the blow aside… but not without losing all her momentum and defense gained from the sudden ambush in turn.

"Y-You!" Icarus heard the same voice shout from where the discus was thrown from, but he ignored it. Instead choosing to pull back his bow and notch in a blunted arrow before firing it directly into the girl's chest without hesitation.

"S-Stop!!" The voice screamed in a hoarse panic.

Icarus didn't stop.

They had ambushed him, attacked him while he was with his new little sister! While he may not want to kill them after realizing their identities, that didn't mean he would let them off unscathed!

Because it was 'just' to defend one's self from an unprovoked attack, Icarus bow was further enhanced in its offense, allowing him to let loose an arrow that bombarded Pollux with enough strength to punch through her divinity enhanced durability.

Castor finally broke through the treeline just in time to see the arrow burrow into his twin sister's torso with enough force to launch her out of the clearing. All the air was forced from her lungs as she sputtered from the pain while her body continued to fly from the strength of Promachos' attack, until eventually, she slammed into a tree with enough force to collapse it on impact.

…and was left completely unconscious.

"Y-y-YOU! I'm going to kil—!" Castor screamed in rage towards Icarus. Perhaps if this was Icarus before he had encountered the centaurs he would have been able to finish that sentence… but now Icarus had learned the hard way, that talking truly was not a free action.

With a flick of his arm, Icarus freely launched a barrage of feathers from his wings towards Castor, who had no choice but to swallow his words and hastily retreat… unable to do anything in response.

"Heh." Icarus taunted with a snide laugh as Castor felt his blood boil like never before.

Then rushing from out of the treeline, came someone else—someone much larger, and stronger. Icarus made eye contact with the person that he estimated to be likely around his own age even though they were perhaps a foot taller in height.

Icarus recognized him on sight. There was no mistaking him after all, even in his youth—it was clear to see that the person standing ahead of him was Heracles. The person that Icarus wanted to surpass more than anyone, the greatest hero of Greece.

…Not knowing that due to Jason's words, Heracles felt the same way. He also wanted to surpass the boy in front of him, the boy who carved out his own legend as an 8 year old child.

They both stared into each other's eyes and grinned.

Heracles charged forward without a weapon, unable to find one to wield one which could withstand his impossible strength. Icarus simply pulled back his bow once more in response, using his full strength to further compound its power as his fingers began to bleed from the pressure of the bowstring's draw weight.

As Heracles arrived with an outstretched fist, Icarus fired.

The blunted arrow slammed into Heracles with enough force to easily kill a centaur and destroy a fortified building—It contained more than triple the amount of power that was used to incapacitate Pollux, a demi-god in her own right.

Heracles gasped as the arrow hit him, feeling his muscles tense before he was lifted from his feet and slammed into a tree similar to Pollux before him.

However, unlike Pollux… Heracles got back up.

Icarus' grin widened.

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Jason underestimated the new guy by quite a bit.

He was honestly pretty s-scared when he saw Heracles go down. But everything was fine, as Heracles got back up, he was the strongest for a reason—of course he would get back up!

With Heracles keeping Icarus busy, Jason decided to head for the girl he had seen leave earlier. He turned to the boy beside him who was covered from head to toe in a white robe, as if desperate not to allow any sunlight to rest upon his skin, "Hey Asclepius, go heal Pollux while I try to capture that girl."

Asclepius rolled his eyes in response but did not refuse, silently leaving to perform his duties as the group's healer.

"Maybe I can take her hostage or something." Jason continued, until he realized… he was alone. Leaving him to grunt in annoyance as he prowled through the foliage and approached the girl in an attempt to attack.

Only to come face to face with a deadly bronze bird, Jason shivered as his eyes gazed upon its horrifying visage.

The bird had a beak long and sharp enough to easily tear and devour flesh, its wings bore feathers sharp enough to shred the trunks of trees with ease, and its talons were deadly enough to eviscerate countless heroes.

Jason only had one thought as the bird locked eyes with him, "…Fuck that."

He ran away.

—Atalanta and Paimon chased after him.

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Icarus was getting surrounded.

Pollux had somehow gotten back up and quickly met up with Castor before they both attacked. Together they turned into a whole different beast, with perfect synchronization as they fought like they could read each other's minds.

Heracles was also someone that could not be ignored, as due to his impossible strength, he only needed one strike to take Icarus out of the fight.

Icarus had taken to blinding him by reflecting light off his wings or armguards as a distraction, before hastily shooting him away with his bow—but even then, it only gave him some small space to breathe in between their relentless attacks. And if that still didn't work, he would be forced to use his feathers to lay suppressing fire on the twins so that he would have enough time to focus solely on repelling Heracles!

But regardless of his efforts, Heracles just would not stay down! So Icarus switched tactics, instead trying to take out Castor and Pollux so he could confront Heracles one on one without distraction.

But someone kept healing them!

"Stop moving!" Pollux yelled with a snarl as she swung her sword with a downwards slash towards Icarus, who shielded the blow with his wings before quickly retreating while aiming a shot at her from his bow hidden beneath his wing.

"Ya gotta be quicker than that!" Icarus taunted with a cheeky grin as he unloaded his arrow onto her torso.

He didn't want to kill them, so his more lethal means were off the table. If not, he would have just chopped their bodies up with his wings or used Paimon's shit—or even Paimon itself!

"Pollux!" Castor screamed as he decisively ran to cover for his sister and buy her time to heal. He leaped into the air as he arrived in front of Icarus, before he let loose a discus from his hand and kicked it towards Icarus while simultaneously twisting his body in midair to slash at him with another discus in his remaining hand.

Icarus caught the kicked discus with one of his mirrors, but unlike what Castor expected him to do, that being reflecting it to the other mirror, Icarus instead used them for their original purpose and simply shot it right back at him!

"Fuck!" Forced to divert his attack to block his discus instead, Castor couldn't help but scream out in frustration as Icarus used the opportunity to slam him away using his wings before turning back to Heracles!

Icarus also couldn't let them get too close, as they utterly eclipsed him in skill and he was steadily running out of hidden cards. But, he was fine with it—as he was only delaying until he learned what he needed.

Their tactics.

Heracles seemed to be the least skilled of the three, but then again, he also lacked a weapon of his own which made any measurement of skill biased against him. But Icarus could understand why, as he probably broke any weapon that he came across with his strength. It also didn't help that his level of strength made any measure of skill in unarmed combat currently unnecessary, as he could simply overpower any opponent that came his way.

Pollux seemed the most skilled, but that was mainly due to Castor's support, allowing her to be a perfect offense as he covered any need for defense, but the same was also true the other way around. They complemented each other as a perfect offense and defense, as Castor could defend against any long range attacks while Pollux could defend against any close range attacks, and Castor could attack at long range with his discus and Pollux could attack at close range with her sword.

But finding out their tactics was only partially his reasoning, as more importantly, he figured out where their healer was.

With Castor's discus being countered by his mirrors, he often got a few potshots to hit him or Pollux. Icarus used this opportunity to change the position he would slam them to with his arrows until he eventually found the spot where they would be healed the quickest.

The closest position to the healer.

With that thought in mind, Icarus layed down one last suppressing fire, this time fired at both the twins and Heracles using both of his wings. Icarus also made sure to land a few glancing hits this time as well, buying him further time for his next action.

Instantly his wings spread, reflecting the sunlight from the sky into a miniature flashbang. Icarus could hear them groan in pain from the light as he took flight, before he took to the skies, rushing towards the healer with a sudden blitz.

Icarus tucked in his wings like a shield, losing any sustained flight as he turned himself into a torpedo-ing battering ram—one headed straight for the white roped healer.

Asclepius only had time to have his eyes widen in surprise as Icarus arrived, bulldozing into him without mercy!

Icarus was determined to take Asclepius out, as he viewed the healer as the most troublesome of the bunch, and by judging from the strength of the other demigods—Asclepius would definitely survive the blow.

His current consciousness though… would not.

"Asclepius!" He heard one of them shout as Icarus took to the skies one more, finally ready to show them the full overwhelming might of aerial superiority.

They couldn't even reach their healer before Icarus bombarded them from above with arrow after arrow. They could only run away, ducking between hiding spaces within the forest as Icarus forced them to separate as he fired at them from above.

…And this time, without a healer.

Now being shot was no longer a timeout, but an instant defeat for Castor and Pollux. Heracles meanwhile could still tank the shots, but that didn't mean they were ineffective. He could still feel the immense pain the force of the blows brought him, Heracles simply chose to ignore it and continue on regardless.

Then finally… it happened.

Pollux, who had deflected many of Icarus' arrows with her sword, was finally hit… and Castor was forced to watch the person he cared for the most go down once more… all while he could do nothing.

It caused something ugly to well up on his heart, so much so, that he could no longer hold it in. He stepped up to scream at Icarus regardless of the situation. Blocking an arrow with a thrown discus while screaming out insults in frustration, "You bastard!"

Icarus couldn't resist his response even if he tried—it was simply too perfect of a taunt, "Heh, takes one to know one, eh?"

Then he plummeted from the sky.

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Jason had figured out a system of survival. He was at his opponents' complete mercy, but he continued to escape every time they cornered him.

How? They were fucking stupid that's why!

The first time they had cornered him, he thought he was done for—when suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration!

He looked over the girl's shoulders in complete surprise, carefully avoiding the face of that terrifying bird before he shouted out, "Icarus!"

Of course—there wasn't anyone actually there. But both the girl and the bird fell for it! Hah, he was never so glad to have learned the boy's name after sneaking out to eavesdrop on Chiron.

At first he was enraged at Icarus, after all, the boy had caused him and the others to delay their training! They were supposed to have traveled to Mt. Pelion months ago! But no, they had to wait for this kid!

Not only had the kid become famous before all of them, but he also did so at their detriment. It pissed him off.

—But, now. Now, he didn't care that much.

Or at all, for that matter.

He just wanted to get through this scary day already, and he wasn't sure how much longer this dumb girl and bird would continue to fall for his trick!

O-oh shit, they were back!

"Behind you!" He pointed.

Atalanta and Paimon turned around in confusion, only to look back and see him gone!

"Grrrr! …Mahjick!"

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Author's Notes

Jason continues to survive at the skin of his teeth! And, uh… Icarus seems to plummet from the sky? Strange. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next chapter has more Heracles and Castor action!

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