Chapter 9

Maximus could do nothing more than watch and see what unfolded next. The man had drawn his sword again and was still standing firmly in the middle of the trail. The convoy had already seen him but it was evident that they had no plans of stopping. But this didn't seem to bother the man. Then he did something even more unexpected. He charged at the convoy. "That proves it, he is bat-shit crazy," Hedger said. Maximus agreed with Hedger, charging straight at an armoured car would just leave the man as road kill. But at the last moment, just inches before he made contact with the car's front, he shifted to the left and with his sword ripped straight through its side. The blade actually went through the metal and it had completely destroyed the two tires as well. The car skidded out of control and stopped right in the middle of the road, which also made it impossible for the other two vehicles to pass. Maximus wondered if that was the plan all along.

The other two vehicles stopped as well and soldiers started pouring out from all of them. Maximus counted ten in total, six humans, three satyrs and one Minotaur. One of the soldiers came forward. It was a woman and she seemed to be the one in charge. She was lean and her blonde hair was just visible under her helmet. She would have looked pretty if she didn't have an expression that said she would break the bones of anyone who crossed her. Maximus saw that she had a captain's badge on her chest. "That was quite the neat trick swordsmen," she said, "but it's going to take more than just the four of you to steal this transport."

Wait, what? Maximus thought to himself, did she just say 'the four of you' like they were working with this man? Maximus exchanged looks with Rex and Hedger, if they didn't clear this up they could end up in a lot of trouble. "Excuse me," Hedger started to say, "but we are not with hi..." before Hedger could complete his sentence he had three guns pointed at him. "QUIET," the woman barked, "I don't converse with criminals." Then she signaled her men, and the soldiers had their guns pointed at the four of them. She said, "I am Captain Debra Sharp of the armies of Ares, and unless you want that to be the name of your executioner, I suggest you come quietly."

Maximus had heard of Captain Sharp before, she was pretty famous within the army. If he remembered correctly she was an experienced melee fighter, but he didn't remember what her weapon of choice was, and he couldn't spot anything on her. But the hooded man didn't seem to be interested in talking, instead he just readied his sword. Among the soldiers five of them had rifles and three had their swords drawn, only Captain Sharp and the Minotaur seemed to be unarmed. And now all of their weapons were pointed at the hooded man.

"Now's our chance, let's try to get out of here before things get messy," Rex muttered. Maximus didn't know if they could avoid the bullets if they started running, but it seemed to be the only chance they had. And so they ran. "Shoot them you fools," Captain Sharp yelled. That was it, Maximus thought he was going to die here. He turned back to see his end, he figured if he was going to die he would rather face it like a man than running away from it like a coward. But what he saw instead, was the hooded man coming to their rescue.

When Maximus turned he saw all five guns pointed at them. But they never got a chance to fire because a single slash had ripped through three of the barrels cutting the rifles in half. With this, the other two gunmen thought it might be a smart idea to take care of the hooded guy first, but they had no luck. With another slash, one of the gunmen began bleeding heavily. And with another the final gunner was disarmed. "What are you waiting for, switch to your swords," Captain Sharp yelled. With that all the five soldiers drew their swords and the other three swordsmen joined in as well. "Lod," Captain Sharp said to the Minotaur, "you go after the others." Lod, the Minotaur, seemed happy at this proposal. He had a stupid grin on his face like a child who had just gotten a new toy. Then he started chasing after them.

When Lod got closer to them Rex tried to talk to him. "Listen Lod, was it? We are not with him, we are just some scavengers who were nearby." Lod laughed at this. "Oh, just a bunch of scavengers, huh?" he said.

"Please, you got to believe us. I mean we're ex-military," Maximus said.

Lod just laughed even harder at this, "You think I care if you're military or scavengers or dog trainers. I just want someone to break."

"What?" Rex asked a bit confused.

"Oh you get it right," Lod continued "You know how rare it is I get to break some bones. I mean human bones break easy but a fellow Minotaur is a real treat even if there's only half of you left." Maximus could see the rage building up in Rex's eyes, he had his fist clenched around his hammer now. Then he said "I got a problem with guys like you."

Then both Rex and Lod pointed their heads up, made a growl-like sounds and snorted. Maximus knew what this meant, this was how Minotaurs issued a challenge to others. This had turned into a clash of pride and Maximus knew that Rex wouldn't want him to interfere in this fight. Maximus tried to figure out what to do next as the two Minotaurs began to clash horns and throw their fists. Behind them the hooded man was fighting eight armed soldiers on his own. And the thing was he was making it look easy. Most of the soldiers were already wounded or bleeding, but the man still didn't seem to have a scratch on him. Captain Sharp was still watching all this in anger.

"What now do we run?" Hedger asked. Maximus didn't know what to do, he couldn't interfere with Rex's fight and he definitely didn't want to run away. What he really wanted was to try and help the hooded man, after all he had just saved their lives from the gunmen, and Maximus didn't want to be indebted to him. But he knew that would just worsen things with the army. Besides, it didn't seem like the man needed any help as half of the soldiers were already on the ground.

"I don't know," Maximus said, "but we can't just leave Rex here." Rex and Lod were at each other at full force. Even without an arm and an eye Rex was still holding his own, which Lod really wasn't expecting. But Rex still couldn't find an opening to finish the job.