16 [Stymphalian Birds II]

Fate/Defiance

Chapter 15 [Stymphalian Birds II]

By theMadLad

The arrow hit the trunk of a tree.

A few of the birds craned up their necks in alert at the sudden sound…

—But it was too late.

A pouch exploded over them, drenching them in a pungent and irritating smelling liquid. The various deadly birds screeched in indignation as pain burned into their eyes from the sudden fluid leaking into them.

As the birds briefly wallowed in pain, another arrow struck, exploding the tree trunk as shrapnel of wood showered the birds below. They cried louder in both pain and outrage at the sudden events, but were mostly left unharmed as their bronze plated skin easily defended their bodies.

Two of the birds in particular responded the quickest, shaking off the disorientation and peeking their necks out in search of the attacker, only for one of them to have an arrow burrow into its neck with the force of a charging bull.

An audible crack rang out as the force of the blow not only dented the bronze plating of the bird, but also snapped its neck entirely.

In a rage, the other bird glared towards the surroundings, only to have a light gleam into its eyes. The bird screamed in further pain, as its already stinging eyes became blinded from the bright ray of light… before its body suddenly burst into flames.

——————————

Icarus put down his forearm with narrowed eyes, he was a bit elated that his spell had worked but quickly suppressed it under a visage of absolute focus.

His spell that ignited one of the birds was just one of his basic spells that he would often use to start a fire. But, in this case, he used the reflection of the sunlight through his mirrored armguards to act as an intermediary for the spell, directly connecting it to the bird itself.

Also, riding on concepts from the sun, such as heat or light, helped to further empower the spell—directly burning the bird to death, regardless of its bronze skin.

Another notch of his arrow was loaded onto the bow before being pulled back, using all the strength of his immature body to draw it back as far as possible… he fired.

Another bird down.

(Cool Image Here!)

…He underestimated his bow.

It seemed that part of its strength had returned since leaving Athens, he had a few ideas but none as concrete as it being used 'correctly' on a conceptual level.

The bow was named Promachos, after an aspect of Athena known for her wisdom in war and frontline offensive in battle, as well as empowering those who fought for a just cause.

Wasn't this a just cause, to strike out at monsters which brought suffering to the people residing here? Icarus believed it to be. He was also fighting on the 'frontline' wasn't he?

Shit, he was the only one fighting in the first place.

This must've caused his bow's strength to rise back to levels closer to its debut. Fitting for a hero, he supposed.

Icarus took advantage of the bird's disorientation to attack as many as possible, disabling and even killing a decent amount. But, unfortunately… this didn't last forever. The birds were soon able to realize where they were being attacked from.

And they were angry.

The first one came charging in like a bullet, burrowing through the air and weaving through the trees with immense speed. The razor sharpness of its beak split the wind without resistance, rapidly closing the distance as its aerodynamic and metallic body sped towards Icarus.

The moment before it arrived, Icarus pulled out a strange device from the side of his waist with his right hand. The device was crude in material yet sleek in design, with a somewhat bulky form that managed to fit smoothly in one hand. He pointed the device's strangely hooked tip towards the tree tops before pushing a trigger at the bottom of the device by his fingertip.

The moment the trigger was pulled, the hook connected to the device by a rope exploded from the barrel, burying itself into a nearby trunk before pulling the device towards it—carrying Icarus along, and out of the way of the bird's desperate attack.

It was a grappling hook.

This was one of the ideas he had been working on in preparation for this day, one which allowed him to greatly increase his maneuverability as well as his ability to escape.

…It was also pretty cool.

He had made it from an idea that Zeus had actually given him. When the balloon he had made 'popped' it released a small explosion from the force of the air escaping the seal of water. So, Icarus simply replicated that while compressing the bounded field's size to fit inside a small barrel; it was a sort of improvised replacement for actual gunpowder.

Meanwhile, the rope was placed further within the device, inside an area with expanded storage and attached to the hook placed at the tip of the barrel. This allowed him to keep the device at a reasonable size while also having the amount of length needed for the rope to function.

It was able to pull Icarus through the use of a small spool powered by magic energy that rested alongside the rope like as a pulley. Unfortunately… this kind of system had lots of issues that he didn't have the time to flesh out, which made the grappling hook unable to be reused and in turn, disposable.

Icarus decisively tossed aside the device as he escaped, reaching onto the tree-tops and slipping his small form between branches. He then turned to watch as the bird, unable to change direction during its acceleration—slammed its beak straight into a waiting board of cork Icarus had placed behind him as a trap.

Icarus had used himself as bait to turn the bird's careless blitz attack using its razor-sharp bronze beak and wings, into its undoing. The serrated edges of its body became stuck into the dense and thick dried cork, leaving it stuck and unable to pull itself free without trapping itself further.

That was one bird captured.

But there were dozens more right behind him.

Icarus jumped from the dead tree, rolling onto the ground and into a quick sprint as he frantically escaped.

The birds behind him dove in from the skies and into the swamp after him, paying no mind to the surroundings as their rampage towards Icarus tore apart anything in their way. He bobbed and weaved through the trees and shrubs as the birds used their bladed wings to separate the decomposing trunks into two without resistance.

Their ability to pillage the lands and desecrate anything in their path was shown on full display as they chased.

Icarus would use any moment of respite to evade and take potshots at them with his bow, but due to their thick plated skin and his poor accuracy towards moving objects… it was little more than an annoyance to them.

Eventually, he resorted to using the dense and numerous terrains of the forest along with his slower speed to trick them into charges before quickly dodging out of the way as they came barreling through past him.

…But, these weren't any birds, they were the familiars of Ares—the God of War. They eventually realized his repeated tactics, and using that revelation, they adjusted themselves through the use of their beastly and rabid instincts.

When Icarus would attempt to evade them, they would simply dig their powerful talons into the trees or ground nearby, forcing deep gashes and ravines into them from the force of their rapid deceleration as they stopped themselves, before attacking once more like an enraged berserker on bronze wings.

Icarus was sweating from exhaustion as he continued to run, but the birds were undeterred and relentless in their pursuit. He could hear their chirps and cackles from behind ringing out like nails on a chalkboard from their metallic throats as they mocked him from behind.

He whipped out his second and last grappling hook before firing it towards a far-off tree so he could gain more distance between him and the birds, but as he began to be pulled towards it—a bronze feather suddenly appeared and sliced the rope in half.

"Fuck!" Icarus spat out in frustration as he once more rolled to the side to dodge another bird trying to gut him with its talons. He used every possible shrub, bush, or trunk to try and gain any amount of time… regardless how small.

But it was all for naught, as four bronze feathers embedded themselves into his back with substantial force, causing him to slip on the wet swampy mud and fall onto the floor below in pain.

The bird that struck him cawed in laughter as he hit the floor, believing him to be dead from the blow. Fortunately, Icarus had armored himself beforehand with dried cork hidden beneath his clothes—saving himself from the lethal attack… but not entirely.

One of the feathers had still managed to slice into his side, drawing a hiss of immense pain from Icarus as blood started to pool from his side.

—But he got back up anyways.

And unfortunately for the bird… it didn't seem to know that talking, or in this case mocking, wasn't a free action.

A blunted arrow crashed into the side of its head, causing it to quickly slam into the ground as nothing but a corpse. Normal arrows were unable to pierce the birds' armored skin, so Icarus compensated by using the brute force generated by a blunted arrow released from his compound bow to lethally incapacitate them through internal damage.

…It was rather successful.

He then scrambled to his feet and continued moving while holding one hand tightly to his side as more birds arrived to instantly take the previous one's place. He attempted to reflect spells onto them as he ran and ran until… he could run no more, and to make things worse, he ended up in a clearing of the swamp.

Without any cover.

A single bird took advantage of this as it swooped down intent on ending Icarus' life, diving at him from above with its talons outstretched and aimed at his face. Icarus quickly responded by lifting up his bow and using it as a shield to block the lethal blow.

The bird jutted out its neck with a screech, using its deadly beak to repeatedly jab at Icarus' head in an attempt to kill him. Icarus dodged with gritted teeth, using all of his strength to momentarily overpower the bird into the knee-high swamp water below.

The bird started flailing in all directions as it hit the water, with its talons and wings whipping back and forth within the swamp's bog. Icarus cursed in pain as he jumped on top of the bird, leveraging his weight over it in an attempt to hold it down.

The bird became increasingly panicked as its head was submerged underwater, with its anxious flails causing its talons and wings to pierce Icarus' body and cut into his legs. He snarled from the pain as anger clouded his already light-headed mind.

Icarus gripped his bow from both ends before placing it on the bird's neck and forcing it deeper into the water. He knew that he didn't have enough time to drown it, the other birds would soon arrive and if he was still preoccupied… well, he was as good as dead; and that's not even including his injuries which made any attempt at a counterattack impossible.

But instead of despairing, Icarus pushed on courageously, with not even a hint of doubt clouding the hope of victory in his mind.

With a decisive move, he screamed in both rage and pain as he brought one of his hands up to his back and tightly gripped a bronze feather before using every inch of his strength to force it from the cork. The serrated bronze edge of the feather cut into palm, slicing through his hands and into his bone as he pulled it free.

His eyes bulged from his skull as he gave off a defiant roar, bringing a foot up to stomp his bow further into the bird's neck while he bent down to bring the feather to its eyes, repeatedly stabbing into them in fury as the bird wailed in pain before eventually falling limp.

It was dead.

Icarus took heavy breaths in exhaustion as he stood over its corpse and with blood leaking down his body through the numerous injuries he gained, he then dropped the green tinted feather that was soaked in the blood from his hand before bending down to pick up his bow.

He flinched in pain as he grasped it before looking up towards the sky, where the remaining birds began to surround him by the dozens on all sides from above.

He laughed as he looked at them, assured of his victory regardless of his haggard and wounded state.

A moment later they charged with murderous intent, diving down with their wings and talons in anticipation at the thought of tearing Icarus into a shredded carcass…

—before suddenly plummeting to the ground.

They squawked in surprise as they hit the bog, with the ones in the back deciding to retreat out of caution… only to also collapse shortly after.

The birds were barely able to lift their heads as they were left incapable of moving their wings or legs, with some of them left no choice but to drown there. A glimpse at their metal coated skin revealed the cause—gone was the formerly glossy reflective shine of bronze, as a dull, corrosive, and fuzzy green coating took its place.

The very makeup of their bodies, bronze, their single greatest strength and defense… had become their undoing.

Bronze Disease.

It was the bronze equivalent of iron's rust, and the reason he had asked the older man to borrow one of the bird's feathers—to test his hypothesis and make sure it worked.

This was what Icarus had been waiting for the entire time. He never intended to kill them all in a straight up fight, everything he had done the moment after his opening move was for one purpose and one purpose only… to stall.

The liquid that Icarus had drenched onto them at the start was chlorine.

While elements from the periodic table might not necessarily 'exist' through the current 'laws' of reality, there was enough knowledge about chlorine in particular to, for a lack of a better term, bullshit it.

Bronze, like iron which rusts when exposed to moist air, undergoes a similar process called Bronze Disease—which is an irreversible and nearly inexorable corrosion that occurs when chlorides come into contact with it. While this era may be lacking in scientific study or 'laws' pertaining to the age of men… it was still common knowledge that bronze erodes in sea water.

This was due to the chlorides that often appeared within the salts of sea water, and although people of this era didn't know this… they knew that salt water in particular would cause Bronze Disease.

This gray area of knowledge that was available only to Icarus is what he exploited to defeat the birds. He used his chemical knowledge from the far future to empower his concoction with mystery known only to him. It was something so paradoxical, that only he could pull it off.

Icarus' batch of the liquid was also especially pure, with him using his purification spell to further the saturation of chlorine within the crystallized rock salt before he had mixed it into the water. This was only further compounded by the reinforcement he gave to the liquid through the spell he casted prior to shooting it at the birds.

And with this simple preparation he made beforehand… he guaranteed his victory. He wasn't boasting when he told Eugenios that he could guarantee the village a generation without the birds, and this is why.

Icarus stood on shaking wounded legs, before slowly limping over to each bird one by one. The former familiars of the God of War that had plagued the forest of Arcadia for years could only cry out in both fear and outrage as they were executed.

And just like that, the legendary sixth impossible task performed by the greatest hero to ever walk the lands of Greece…

…was completed by an eight-year-old boy using nothing but a little cunning and wit.

——————————

The next morning within the village of Stymphalus, the older man that Icarus had spoken to prior forced himself out of bed and into another day of his dreary meaningless existence.

But this time, things were different.

He opened the door to his home only to flinch at what was laying on the steps below… the mutilated forms of strange birds with corroded green bodies.

He grimaced at the unexpected sight, only for his eyes to shoot open in surprise as he got a closer look. The beak and talons, while an entirely different color, still resembled the haunting visage he would see every night when he went to sleep.

The Stymphalian Birds.

He gasped as he realized the implications.

T-they were dead!

He couldn't believe his eyes; he even shut and opened the door once more just to make sure he wasn't dreaming! And even then, he still made sure to pinch himself once or twice!

But that's when he noticed a note of parchment nailed to the side of his door by a bloody bronze feather. He quickly tore the paper from the feather before reading it with fevered eyes and rapid breaths:

[I believe these belong to you as proof. The birds will no longer plague your lands from this day forth… rest assured, your daughter has been avenged. — Icarus of Athens]

Tears welled in his eyes as he read the paper, his hands were shaking as ghastly images of his daughter smiling down at him jumped from the corners of his mind.

"…T-thank you kid. N-no…Icarus. Thank you Icarus." The man spoke to the air with a choked sob.

He collapsed onto his knees at his front door as he cried his heart out, finally allowing his mind to process that his daughter had been avenged, that his continued survival had not been in vain.

"Thank you s-so much."

It was a few minutes later that the man finally got up, before rushing into the village, intent to share the life changing news that the nightmare holding a sword over their necks the last few years was finally gone.

That a hero had come and stolen all their worries away.

Before even an hour had the chance to pass, the whole village knew of the event, with the corpses of the birds laid out as proof for all to see, and it wasn't until the celebration party which went deep into the night was over, that the man realized… all his mead had gone missing.

==============

If you like my stories, please support me on P_atreon, at P_atreon(.)com/theMadLad, where you can find one advanced chapter early right now!

Author's Notes

This chapter goes hard as fuck, doesn't it? Well, I think it did. One of my best ones yet, hope you enjoyed it!

Leave powerstones and reviews for more, expect an extra chapter if we remain in the top ten!

Join the discord at, https://discord.gg/AMyqBN2