Achilles landed on his shoulder, grunting in pain as he shakily rose to his feet. He gripped his golden spear which had still remained in his hands regardless of whatever he had been subjected to, and that fact gave him comfort.
When he took stock of his situation, he noticed that he was rapidly surrounded by many robots of different kinds, about 30% of them Guard Androids, 40% of them Mecha Warriors which were hulk-sized bots, 20% treaders like tank and APCs as well as 10% being mounted heavy artillery.
Achilles' face became dark as he looked around and his heart palpitated with unease as he felt his chances of survival had dipped significantly.
However, he was the great war hero who had been undefeated on the battlefield, and had fought his way into Demi-Godhood through his own merits!
To falter here was inconceivable to him, a thought that would neither be considered nor entertained!
Rather, Achilles raised his spear and pointed it at the numerous machines that threatened his life.
There seemed to be a moment of pause as both sides stared each other down, Achilles' burning golden eyes meeting the intimidating red glare of the machines opposite him.
The Demi-God's hand twitched, and the nearest Guard Androids around him fired out their lasers that were powered by Source Energy.
The spearman shouted out and blasted forth, leaving a blur where he previously stood as he appeared all over the battlefield, striking out many times at once.
One second later and the entire battlefield around him got cleared as the various machines either blew up or fell apart due to the numerous holes that had been poked into them.
Achilles confidently swung his spear to the side as he smirked, taking in the view of his martial prowess.
The Demi-God was a monster on the battlefield and he knew it. He still didn't completely understand why these machines gave off a sense of danger, but it seemed that taking them down was not a problem for him.
His grin was wiped away the next moment as he got knocked onto his knee as something struck him from the back. He looked behind him to see smoke rising from a spot near his left shoulder blade, as well as a half-destroyed machine that was shortcircuiting pointing its laser rifle towards him that was charging up for another shot.
Achilles growled with anger and rushed over to the Guard Android and stabbed the robots through the head, fully disabling it, but not before he noticed that many other robots that had not been destroyed totally were coming back to life and trying to do him in.
Achilles was left speechless and in horror, a feeling that had long been buried in his heart coming to surface… fear!
It was not the fear of death or of pain. As a warrior, Achilles had long made peace with both fears and carried them with him for so long that their edge had become a bit dull.
Rather, it was the fear of the unknown and of indefatigability. Achilles had only felt this kind of fear twice, once when fighting against the undead armies of Thanatos during that war on Fallon and the second time during the Insect Invasion.
It was a fear of the unkillable, that primal fear when one had to deal with a foe that just wouldn't die and stay dead, but would rise up over and over again to try and take your life, wishing to drag you down to hell with it.
It was a terrible thing!
A warrior like Achilles believed in his skill and his technique, and the fundamental of that knowledge was that as long as he stabbed someone in their vitals, they should die.
If he stabbed a man through the heart, he would have but mere moments left to live. If he stabbed a man through the head, he would have even less. And if he cut a man in half, he would be dead even before his body parts would hit the ground.
However, one of these things guaranteed that these types of foes he was facing now would stay dead, yet as seen with the Guard Android earlier, they might feign death only to blindside you to use any method available to them.
This created distrust in his own skills, and especially in his ability to kill. He had mowed through battlefields knowing that a downed man was a downed man, but now he would have to keep extra alert in case any of those he downed would rise again.
Achilles took a deep breath and shouted out as he rushed to end all the Guard Androids he put down, but frowned deeply when a new set of machines arrived from afar, converging upon his location.
Not only that, more and more kept coming even in as he fought back and destroyed them one by one, as fast as he could.
Alas, it seemed like no matter how many he took down, more would take their place, and even then, the ones he took down did not necessarily stay down all the time.
Achilles had been a warrior all his life, and it was not by force, but by choice. He was the son of the King of Myrmidon, Peleus and the Nereid Thetis. Initially, Zeus and Poseidon had fought for the hand of his mother, who was said to be one of the world's greatest beauties.
However, they both withdrew when Prometheus warned of a prophecy that any son born of Thetis would be greater than the father. Not wanting to give birth to one that could possibly harm them, the two gods allowed Peleus to win her hand.
When he was born, Thetis decided to abuse her status of a supreme river spirit, a Nereid, which gave her immunity to the effects of all waters in the world. This included the River Styx, which would turn anyone who fell within into a ghost that could never escape its depths.
This protection was naturally inherited by her son Achilles, so Thetis swam down to the river which separated the land of the living from the dead, and dipped her son into it for a short second lest the undead ghosts beneath the water take him away.
She had held him by the ankle to do so, which became the only part of his body not dipped. His mother initially wanted to submerge his whole body, but she didn't dare to try again as the ghosts of the river had already been riled up.
Because of this, no one else would be able to achieve this same feat, even if they had properties that allowed the negative effects of the Styx water. This was also why Thetis could not let Achilles return and just dip his ankle into the water.
Not to mention that Achilles was unaware of this as the Gods had forbidden Thetis from telling her son. She had already suffered inhumane punishment - unbeknownst to Achilles - for her actions back then.
Achilles had been handed to the legendary Immortal Centaur Chiron, the trainer of Great Heroes. He had trained Hercules, Achilles, Jason, Perseus, and more before they went out on their fabled journeys that led to the great renown.
It was now a well-known fact that a Hero was only half-baked if they did not go through Chiron's training. The centaur too was a proud fellow who would not just train anyone, but purely the best, otherwise the value of his training would plummet.
Studying under him, Achilles had become a warrior who could make use of his semi-mortal body and partly divine features to tear up a battlefield, quickly being presented with two choices at age 11.
Either live fast and die young but be renowned a Hero, or live long and remain obscure.
He chose the former route, and joined various wars on Elysium's behalf, quickly winning favor with the Gods until they unanimously decided to give him a Divine Spark.
He had been young when deified, only 21 years of age. While he had lived thousands of years since then, in Demi-God terms, he was still young, being the equivalent of a 14-year old.
So the prophecy on his fate was still valid, even though Achilles had long forgotten that after years of being invulnerable on the battlefield, unharmed by fire, poison, metal, or the like.
His immortality was something even Gods could not easily break, so how could any foe he faced since then deal with him?
It was the same case in this fight.
He easily dominated the machines and tanked their attacks without a care. They would blast his body with their laser, leaving smoking patches that would heal back to perfection, while Achilles would ignore the pain that he had gotten used to and continue to fight.
Incidentally, this was what lead to his downfall. A particular large railgun-mounted artillery charged up a huge beam that blasted through Achilles and everything where he stood.
Instead of dodging, the Demi-God arrogantly took it head-on, but was shocked when he noticed that he had lost his balance.
From the full-body blow, he noticed that his left leg from the mid-calf down had disappeared, leaving a stump that was pouring out golden blood in volumes.
