( video ) un: achilles

[heelies]

[As when storm-bruised clouds cast their dark pall over the sky, a harbinger of the torrent and tempest to come, so appears the countenance of Peleus' son. He is harnessed in the glorious armor that lame-foot Hephaestus did forge for him, and upon his head fiercely glints the golden helmet which once served as a beacon to the Myrmidons and all of the vast host of war-loving Argives. Like the thunder that is hurled by almighty Zeus who bears the aegis, his voice roars out over the network.]

Koltira, you whose heart is blackened with vile hatred! Hear now the son of Peleus, Achilles, best of all the Achaeans - I whose pride was rent by your blade when you did raise arms without first issuing a proper challenge as is honorable between warriors. I demand that you meet me in single combat, that I may avenge myself and slake my spear upon your blood. Meet me then to the east of the town ere the sun touches the far horizon, where it settles for the night into the couch of the desert - unless the worm of cowardice burrows deep within your breast to weaken your fighting spirit!

It is for this reason that I give my challenge in this public forum, that others may bear witness and hold you accountable to this duel. What say you, Koltira? Recoil not from the bloodshed you so take pleasure in! Long has my anger rankled in my breast, and long has my pride festered without salve potent enough to soothe it, for the cure lies only in victory by dint of my spear. Thus, today I wait no more!

[In the colloquialisms of the locals: This town ain't big enough for the both of us.]

Comments

[heelies]

Who among this company can claim that I've not helped the wild-eyed Qorral? Have I not raised arms on their behalf, lacking though they may be in the customs of hospitality which the Danaans uphold? Have I not toiled that they may have peace at last, rid of the relentless assaults of bandits and the god-hating Deemers? This matter of my pride I have left off for far too long already - no words shall sway me from that which I must do.

[strikingtwice]

So because you've helped them a few times you now have the right to ignore the situation here and indulge your own wounded pride instead? Because you helped to begin with, it doesn't matter if the situation's gotten worse and the planet is still in danger, this is what you think can't wait?

I thought you claimed to be a hero.

[heelies]

I am a hero to the Achaeans, whose cause I have borne upon my back for nine years, and to those who will respect me - but I see plainly now that few among this crew value me as all among the Danaans do. Even when the well-greaved Achaeans did so rudely dishonor me, that day when wide-ruling Agamemnon robbed from me the prize I won by dint of my spear - even then they showed me far more respect than this company gives me now. Thus I have been a fool to ever fight under the shared banner you now wave in my face as if it is this that binds me above all else.

[strikingtwice]

It strikes me as strange that you're always claiming to be a hero, yet I've not seen anything remotely heroic from you in all the times we've spoken. All I've seen is a rude shemlen that boasts about his supposed feats, insists that his way is the right and only way, and then takes offence when people don't give him whatever respect he claims to deserve without earning it.

I honestly don't care if you mean to throw yourself against Koltira and be cut down, and I don't doubt for a moment that you would be cut down incredibly easily, but at least keep your idiotic arrogance in check until we're back in Oska. At least try to pretend that you can see past your own ego for a little longer.

sorry for the wait!

[heelies]

Answer me this: do all my deeds become undone simply because you have heard not the tales of my glory, which I hear have reached the ears of men in distant countries and far-flung ages? What of your own father, whom you must love and revere? Shall I claim that he is unworthy, a scoundrel who is hateful to all manners, a scourge upon man, all because I know nothing of him? No, I would not presume to be so rude as to issue such a grave offense against your kin. For these accusations you blindly throw, you seem to me rather bumptious!

Moreover, what reason is there to wait? Has not the siege of the cursed Deemers dwindled in all these days we have cut down and captured their numbers? Where is this peril that hangs over our heads as so many among this crew claim?