Chapter 18

After that they decided to leave as quickly as possible. Rex knew a few ways out of Mars. But the problem was that they led into the country of Vulcan. Vulcan was one of the neighbouring countries to Mars. It was ruled by the god of machines, Hephaestus. He was said to be one of the best blacksmiths in the world, and his mechanical skills were legendary. Because of this he was also known as the god of the forge or the smith god. The Vulcan kingdom was much smaller than Mars and it had only one major city in it, which acted as its capital. Since it was the only city in the country it was just called Vulcan city. Other than that, only a few minor settlements and villages were present. Vulcan city was situated right beside one of the world's largest volcanoes called Mount Etna. Achilles said that they would head there first as he had a friend who could help them. The problem was that the path to the city was across a huge desert, and they would need transportation to pass it.

"Our best option would be to try and salvage the truck or the armoured car the army left behind in the fight against the manticore. Also, we are going to need some food and resources for our journey since we won't find anything in the desert," Achilles said. It was decided that two of them would go and scout if the vehicles were still there and gather some resources while the other two would stand guard over Daedalus. Maximus offered to go with Achilles outside, but Rex said he was feeling much better and that he needed to stretch his legs. So Maximus and Hedger stayed back with Daedalus while the other two went out to find whatever they needed.

Maximus began practicing with his new blade. He was hoping to bring back the red glow from before, but it had no use. Hedger had just stepped out to see if there was anything edible nearby, when he came back Maximus asked, "How was the hunt?"

"Nothing great, just a few cherries and they are not that sweet either." Hedger said it was easy to see he was in a bad mood and Maximus couldn't really blame him. "Hey I know this is not the way we planned it, but we always said that we would leave the trenches one day. It just came a bit earlier than expected."

That hadn't exactly cheered him up. "Yeah, but did we ever have the army chasing us out as part of the plan?"

Maximus had no answer to that. He realized that nothing he said would cheer Hedger up so he left him alone. About half an hour or so later, Rex and Achilles returned. Rex had a couple of dead rabbits in his hand.

"A good hunt. We got us enough supplies to last us a couple of days at least," Rex said. He dropped the rabbits into Hedger's lap. Hedger looked at the dead animals sadly and said, "How could you kill something so cute."

"By listening to my grumbling stomach instead of you," Rex replied.

Rex and Achilles opened their bags to show some wild fruits and vegetables, a few eggs, some mushrooms and even a few fish. Maximus had no idea how they managed to catch fish without a rod or a net, but he figured Achilles had something to do with it. Guess he would have made a fine scavenger if he hadn't turned into one of the greatest heroes in the Trojan War.

"We scouted the vehicles. The good news is the army already came there and left, and they seemed to have taken the manticore's body with them, but they left their trucks behind," Achilles said.

Maximus and Hedger nodded for him to continue. "The bad news, on the other hand, is that the armoured car is too damaged to use and we can only know if the truck still works if we can get it upright again."

"Well, I guess we start moving then, they might still have someone move the trucks if we wait around for too long," Maximus said. The group gathered everything they had and started moving towards yesterday's battlefield.

They started walking back carefully, just in case any soldiers were still patrolling the area. They were mostly silent, only Daedalus kept mumbling nonsense as he walked. And he often had to be nudged in the right direction to stay with the group. After a while Achilles asked, "You said that other than the captain we fought before, Ares also sent his champion after us, correct?" Maximus nodded in agreement. Achilles then asked "Who is it?" Rex let out a slight grunt of disgust. This was not uncommon among the soldiers of Mars. The champion was not very popular among them. "You might have heard of him, "Rex said. "He is known as the Barbarian king, Diomedes."

"I have actually, but I must say, not ever anything good," Achilles said. Rex grunted in agreement "Not surprising. That man is no soldier. He is nothing more than a vile murder with too much power. He is brutal without reason and not just to the enemies either. He has the blood of many of his own soldiers on his hands."

They were close to the trail now. Maximus could see the cliff from where they had fallen. "He seems like the perfect champion for a tyrant like Ares," Achilles said. Maximus was quite sure by now Achilles really despised Lord Ares and that was not surprising, most people outside of Mars did, many inside as well. But he was starting to feel that the hatred was more personal. "Have you met Ares before" Maximus asked.

Achilles nodded "Yes, a long time ago, during the Trojan War. And I would have named him the god of cowards rather than that of war. The only thing he knows to protect is his own putrid hide."

Maximus knew that Ares had been on the side of the Trojans during the war, even though he first came to support the Greeks. During the war he betrayed them and decided to join with the Trojans. Maximus could easily understand why anyone in the Greek side would hate Ares.

They had finally reached the clearing where the battle had taken place, and just like they said the manticore's body was nowhere to be seen. The truck they were hoping to salvage was still there though. The only problem was that it was resting on its side. "So how do we make it right side up again?" Hedger asked.

"The hard way" Rex replied. Soon the four of them began trying to push the truck upright again while Daedalus remained mumbling at the side. But it was no use. After half an hour of wasting their breath Hedger finally came up with a bright idea. They used a few large logs from nearby and formed a sort of lever system. But it was still hard. The truck weighed a ton and it took nearly two whole hours for it to be brought back on its wheels. Achilles checked inside and luckily the keys were still there. The driver had just left it there while running away from the manticore. Or maybe the driver was killed by it, Maximus did not know.

Achilles sat in the driver's seat and placed the key in its keyhole and said "Pray to the gods that it starts." Maximus thought these were a very poor choice of words as their patron god was the one who was trying to hunt them down. It took a few turns but the truck did start.

"Excellent," Achilles said, then he turned to Maximus and asked "Can you drive".

He nodded yes. "Good, then we can take shifts driving this thing," Achilles said. They all stepped out to get some more water from the stream and freshen up a bit before the journey. They also managed to scavenge a few things like two extra containers of petrol, a first aid kit with healing potions and emergency provisions from the wrecked armoured car. They loaded everything into the back and before going in Rex held Maximus and Hedger back, and said, "This is it guys, if we get in now there's no turning back. We could be walking into a world of trouble." Maximus got into the truck and said "I guess there's only one way to find out."