Ava made her way up the steep mountain path, past pines and scattered boulders. Ten other Athenian soldiers followed her in single file as they made their way through the rocky hills surrounding the city of Athens.

“Do you think it'll still be there?” asked Narsus, walking directly behind Ava.

“Unlikely,” replied Ava, “unless ogres really are as stupid as they say.”

“So, if we don’t find it at the village, what do we do then?” asked the soldier behind Narsus, a woman by the name of Meramis.

“It’s an ogre,” replied Ava flatly, “we should easily be able to track something that  big back to its den.”

“That might take hours,” grumbled Meramis, “not all of us have superhuman endurance, you know.”

“Just because I’m not a captain doesn’t mean I’ll overlook your bad attitude, Meramis,” retorted Ava good-naturedly. “You’re an Athenian solider; act like one!”

Ava came to a halt as she crested the slope and looked down into a small valley. Between the slopes of the mountains was nestled a small village... or what remained of it, at least. Every building was wrecked; walls shattered, doors broken down, roofs caved in. Ava saw no corpses let alone survivors. Signaling for the other soldiers to follow her, Ava cautiously made her way down the slope towards the village.

“Be on your guard,” she said quietly, readying her spear and shield.

Ava signaled the group to halt just beyond the settlement's perimeter.

“HEY!” she shouted and waited for a response, receiving nothing but silence.

“Meramis, Helena, search the village,” she ordered, “report any signs of survivors or the ogre.”

The two soldiers silently approached the village and began carefully searching the ruins.

“Be on your guard,” repeated Ava, her eyes scanning the valley.

“As it's an ogre, we're probably going to hear it coming from a mile away,” commented Narsus.

As he finished speaking a blood-curdling roar broke through the stillness. A large creature emerged from the forest covering the opposite slope and hurtled down the valley side towards the Athenians.

Though humanoid in appearance it was more than twice as tall as a man and nearly three times as wide, with arms and legs packed with bulging muscle and hands larger than a person’s head. Its own face was craggy and bestial, with a heavy jaw and a wide mouth filled with yellow teeth, all framed by a wild mane of black hair that stuck out in all directions. Two small eyes peered out from under a thunderous brow, its furious gaze fixed on the Athenians.

“Meramis, Helena, get back here!” barked Ava. “Form up! Lock shields! Raise spears!”

Her fellow soldiers obeyed with well-drilled perfection, standing their ground as the ogre bounded towards them through the ruined village.

“Brace for impact!” shouted Ava moments before the ogre, ignoring the Athenians’ spears, crashed through their formation, knocking them aside with its sheer bulk and momentum. The creature swung its huge fists, scattering the soldiers as they broke formation in a desperate attempt to get away from the beast.

As the ogre paused to consider its next move, Ava casually dropped her spear and drew out her sword, standing firm as her comrades fled before the monster.

“Hey! Ogre!” she shouted, “you want to finish this properly?”

The beast hesitated for another moment before snarling and turning to face Ava. She raised her shield and stepped forward to meet the ogre’s charge. The creature slammed its fist into Ava’s shield; in one smooth motion, she let it fall from her grasp as she leaped out of the ogre’s path. As the beast ran blindly past her, she stabbed at its neck. She missed, her blade slashing across the ogre’s craggy face. The creature screamed in pain and rage, coming clumsily to a halt.

As the beast turned to face her once more, Ava leaped behind it and readied her sword. The creature, with surprising speed, spun around as she struck; Ava’s blade slid off its sternum and tore a gash across its chest. Ava barely had time to duck as the ogre swung its fist in retaliation.

She hurriedly backed away, but the ogre came after her, reaching out to seize her in its huge hand. Ava dodged and stepped within the creature’s guard, making a wild stab at its torso. The strike fell low, digging into the creature's stomach.

Before Ava had a chance to step back the ogre seized her head in one of its hands, snarling as it prepared to crush her skull. Ava quelled her panic and focused, gripping her sword tightly with both hands. Summoning all her strength, she slashed in an arc towards the monster’s wrist. There was a sickening noise as steel met flesh and bone, Ava’s blade cleaving through the ogre’s arm. She skipped out of the monster’s reach as its hand loosened its grip and fell to the ground. The ogre stared in bewilderment at the stump of its arm as blood spurted from the wound.

“Now, attack!” shouted Ava to her comrades, “finish it!”

The soldiers of Athens surrounded the monster, stabbing viciously with their spears. The ogre screamed and flailed its arms wildly, knocking several of its assailants to the ground. The beast gave one final howl before it stumbled forwards and collapsed to the ground with a massive thud. Silence fell as Ava stood over the fallen ogre and severed its head with two strikes of her sword.

“We'll take this back to Athens,” she said flatly as she lifted the beast’s ugly head by its hair. “Well done, all of you.”

She slung the head over her shoulder and looked around at her bloodied soldiers. “Meramis, count our losses. Narsus, Alkaios, finish searching the village.”

The three soldiers nodded and brusquely went about their tasks.

“Two are dead, we have four badly injured,” reported Meramis grimly as she removed the helmet from Helena’s corpse.

Ava watched her sympathetically as Meramis let out a weary sigh.

Narsus and Alkaios returned from the village to report that they had found nothing of interest, save for a mound of human and animal bodies piled in one of the houses.

“Likely,” concluded Alkaios, “the ogre raided the village yesterday and carried what it could back to its den, planning to return for the rest of its plunder today.”

Ava nodded. “Let’s burn our fallen, along with the dead villagers. Once that’s done, we return to Athens.”

As her fellow soldiers went about building a pyre, Ava raised her arms to the sky.

“Athena, our patron Goddess, I thank you for giving us this victory,” she intoned reverently. “Ares, God of War, I thank you for giving us the strength to fell this beast. Hades, God of the Underworld, I ask that you watch over our fallen comrades as they enter your realm.”

As she finished her prayer, Narsus walked up beside her and removed his helmet. Ava removed her own helm and gave him a brief smile.

“That was an impressive kill, Captain,” Narsus said respectfully, returning her smile.

“For the last time, I’m not a captain,” Ava retorted with a good-natured sigh, “I was just chosen to lead this excursion because now I’m the resident monster slayer for some reason.”

She looked over at the pyre as the two dead soldiers were laid atop it. Her face darkened.

“We would have lost a lot more if you hadn’t been here,” Narsus said quietly, putting a hand on Ava’s shoulder. “Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

Ava was silent, watching the smoke from the funeral pyre drift up into the clear blue sky.