“My story? I don't have much of one.” Talpharos admitted. “I have been a hunter for years, but I am still young and don't have any achievements just yet. Successfully hunting a white hart for an Athenian noblewoman is probably the closest thing to a notable achievement I have. After I heard about this hunt I decided to join – while no doubt dangerous it is overall a better fit for my skills than any other job I could have taken. The trip here was not nearly as uneventful as I had hoped, but I made it and... here I am. That's about it.” He shrugged. “What's yours? The actual story, not what people say about you.”
"A white hart? They're rare, and have good instincts. Not bad. Maybe if you live through this, your story will become a little longer and more exciting." Atalanta smirks, bearing the full weight of a deer on her lithe back without much issue. "Me?" She asks, a little surprised. "Well, what people say is generally true, except for the lewd stuff you'd hear from people like those thugs." She sighs. "I live to serve my lady in all things. I came here to kill the boar in her honor. I...sorry, I'm not really that good at talking about myself to people. I...don't have a lot of friends. Especially not since Callisto... Sorry, you don't need to hear such things." She says sadly.
Talpharos walked next to the huntress, trying to keep up with her as he listened to her talk. “I see... don't force yourself to talk if it makes you uncomfortable, and I am sorry if I made you recall bad memories.” He meant it, he had merely wanted to learn more about her and make her comfortable talking to him. “Don't mind the lewd stuff those guys say about you, they likely make up lewd stories for any pretty woman they meet... and probably get to do little more than talk.” He couldn't help but smirk at that last part.
"You don't need to apologise." She favours him with a smile to let him know she's not angry, before smirking. "I don't have any clue what you mean." They walk on for a few minutes, before they freeze as they hear a loud thunderclap - despite the fact that the sky above is clear and blue. "Shit, it's the boar!" Atalanta drops the deer and reaches for her bow.
At first Talpharos was confused because there wasn't a single cloud to be seen in the sky above – but Atalanta's words quickly replaced the confusion with a mix of worry and determination. Crap! Well, time to see for myself what this boar is like... The young hunter though as he reached for his own bow He would follow his companion's lead for now, since the huntress had more experience with the mighty beast.
Atalanta moves into a run, even faster than before, and Talpharos completely fails to keep up this time. He finds her a few minutes later, following the smell of burning, to a clearing where she stands among a number of corpses charred by electrical burns, nearby trees aflame. "We're too late." She sighs. "We could follow the beast's tracks, or go back to the city to prepare more. What do you think?"
Talpharos took a long look at the clearing and the charred corpses there. Part of him wanted to go back to the city and prepare more, but he had the feeling no amount of preparation would truly be enough. “Preparing goes both ways – the beast will have time to rest and recover. I say we at least try to follow it.” He finally spoke as he looked at his partner.
"Alright then. Let's move." Atalanta agrees, not without trepidation. The beast's tracks, huge and on fire, aren't hard to follow, and eventually they reach a hill of burnt and blackened trees. At the bottom of it is a hoplite standing near an unconscious woman in a dress. In front of him is the boar. "Away from her, you fucking..." The man shouts bravely, raising his shield as the beast opens its mouth. There's a crack of lightning, and a bolt of brilliant blue electricity sparks off the boar's tongue, hitting the shield. The hoplite shakes and spasms as the electricity courses through his body, dropping his weapons. As he tries to recover, the boar moves forward, and one of its tusks easily breaks through his bronze cuirass, impaling him. The monster bats its head against the ground to get the body off its tusk, snorting loudly, before it picks up the unconscious woman in its mouth and begins carrying her up the hill.
Talpharos watched the short and uneven battle – if it could be called that at all – between man and beast, and grimaced in sympathy when the man was impaled. Ouch! Sorry, friend, I hope you live through this. Then he blinked in confusion when the beast picked up the unknown woman and started carrying her away. What the- what is that beast doing? Not wanting to sit by and watch as the beast took the woman away, Talpharos notched an arrow and took aim at one of the boar's hind legs, hoping to limit its mobility by wounding it.
"Wait, what are you-" Atalanta starts in surprise, as Talpharos raises his bow. Spoiler: Combat Roll Difficulty 7-1 (Surprise Attack): 68+20, 79+20, 80+20, 38+20 - 3 Successes Damage: 3d6x3: 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 4, 1, 5, 5= 26-10 (Tough Hide) Talpharos hears the twang of his bowstring, and the blur of his arrow moving through the air, embedding itself in the flesh of the monster's leg. It gives a horrific squeal of anger that makes Talpharos want to drop his bow and cover his ears, as it turns to face him, snarling with anger. Looking around, Talpharos can't see Atalanta anywhere.
Talpharos grit his teeth, enduring the horrific squeal as he raised his bow and took aim at the boar's eyes. If the beast attacked him immediately he would dodge to the side (Atalanta being nowhere in sight meant he did not need to worry about bumping into her while dodging); if the beast did not attack right away he would shoot at one of its eyes – the boar's hide was tough, but its eyes were likely a lot more vulnerable. At least Talpharos hoped so.
Talpharos finds himself looking into the monster's eyes, shivering at the pure hatred he sees in the red glare, before loosing his arrow. One of the glowing eyes goes dark as the arrow flies true, and the boar squeals again in anger, before charging. Talpharos dodges instinctively, but he's caught by the edge of a tusk, and suddenly he feels himself flying through the air. He lands hard on a charred branch, shattering it, and moans in pain - something inside him just broke. The boar moves in front of him, stomping the ground as it prepares to charge, but before it can, Atalanta leaps onto its back, loosing arrows at point blank range directly into its back and head, before it shakes her off and moves away until it's facing both hunters. It opens its mouth, and Talpharos feels the air around him thinning as sparks begin to fly from the boar's gullet.
For a few moments Talpharos could only lay on the ground and groan in pain. This was not my best idea... Fortunately for him Atalanta came to his aid before the boar could finish the job, giving him a chance to catch his breath and focus. Noticing the sparks the hunter realized that the beast was about to fire another bolt of lightning. Shit! “Dodge!” He tried to shout, though it came out as more of a croak. He then forced himself to roll to the side, not caring about the pain as he did so – getting hit by the boar's attack would hurt a lot more.
Talpharos feels a rush of heat at his back, and a loud cracking sound just behind him, as the lightning strikes and incinerates a log just inches away from where he's just rolled. The heat doesn't go away, and the young man realises his tunic has caught fire. "Hey! Here!" Atalanta calls out, running up the blackened hill, loosing arrow after arrow as her toned legs sprint across the broken and burnt wood, slamming into the boar's hide. It snarls, and chases after her, and soon they've both crested the hill and are out of sight. As Talpharos tries to put out the flames burning his ass and back, Atalanta returns, breathing a little more deeply than usual. "I'd say we have a minute or so until he catches my scent and comes at us again." She announces, looking at the still unconscious woman the hoplite died to protect. "Think you're okay to move her? She could get hit by lightning or trampled if we keep this fight up."
“I'll manage,” Talpharos groaned out as he finally managed to put out the flames. “I won't be able to move as quickly as I would like, and I will need to see a healer when we get back, but I should have no trouble carrying her.” He assured his partner. “Help me pick her up and let's go, before our beastly friend finds us again.”
Cleon quickened his movements, feeling his release. He moaned as he reached his peak, his seed spraying over the bound woman's love chamber. At the same time he felt the woman reach her own peak. After a few moments, sighting wit relief, the prince walked up to woman's head. "Clean me, whil I think of your verdict." He said as he pushed his dick into eager woman's mouth. As she sucked his cock, he thought about how to proceed... and after a moment, he decided that despite her being a relatively minor criminal, she deserved punishment. "Wench." the Prince started. "For your crimes, I condemn you to afterlife in Tartarus. For your crimes,you will be punished for 100 years, severely, and after that, for eternity, you will be ued by anyone in Tartarus who desires to use you.
"Alright, let's go." Together, the two of them manage to carry the woman away, a fight starting on the other side of the hill and occupying the monster. Talpharos' burnt ass aches with every step, and eventually they have to lay the woman down. Luckily, she starts to stir. "W-What... Who are you?"
Mouth still eagerly sucking him off, the woman's eyes go wide as she looks up at the prince. The chains binding her go taut, and the wardrobe opens, flooding the room with volcanic heat, as she's dragged off of his cock, and towards Tartarus. "N-No! My prince, please! I-I'll do anything you want, no p-mmph!" Her cries are muffled as a chain wraps around her mouth, the chains pulling her closer and closer to damnation.
Cleon licked his lips. This... was hot. The surprise, the bondage, the pleading and realisation. Oh, this has turned him on o much! Cleon sighted and put on his clothes back. What did he have still to do today? Meeting with ambasador - no, he did meet her. His mother? He paused as the image of his mother, bound by hellish chains with his dick in her ass for a moment dominated his mind. He stumbled, his lips trembling. He licked his lips and shook his head. He tried to look into tartarus, to see what punishment the wench was given as he did not designated one, only said it was to be heavy... he flexed his hand... did something change in him after the first use of power?
Moving to the edge of the abyss, and holding on just in case he falls in, the heat making him sweat. Looking down, he can just make out the sight of the woman, her body being gripped and dragged into the dirt by thousands of hands, until she's out of sight. Before he can think much more about it, there's a banging on his door. "Prince Cleon!" A guard shouts. "Ships in the harbor! We're being attacked!"
