Chapter 17: Dragons
Hotel Valhalla
Percy POV
I thought I was dead for sure - this time for real. But as I was getting up, there was a sudden apparition. It was a tall barrel-chested man with massive arms. I didn't recognize him, but everyone else suddenly bowed, and I followed their example nervously. Then I heard whispers going through the crowd. "Odin," they said. I realized this was the Norse All-Father, and wondered if he was going to weed me out as a Greek.
But Odin loudly proclaimed, "Percy Jackson is my chosen one. I have personally selected him to be my champion, and I will not tolerate any doubts over whether or not he should be in Valhalla!"
Helgi quickly said, "Of course, my lord. But may I ask… where have you been all this while?"
I turned to Sam. "What does he mean, 'all this while?'"
She whispered back, "Odin has been missing for months. We've been waiting anxiously for him to return every single day, but the gods assure us he's fine. And he is finally back."
Meanwhile Odin responded, "There is a new threat to Asgard that I have been investigating. This is why I have called Percy here. I have only come to announce that Percy is my champion, so I will now leave."
He disappeared with a flash of light, and suddenly I heard Chaos's voice in my head. "How was my performance?"
Shocked, I responded, "That was you?"
"Don't worry. I alerted Odin about this, and he was a bit angry that I brought you here to save you, but eventually he agreed to it and gave me permission to pretend to be him. I'll get you out of here soon, but I'll have to wait a little so it doesn't raise too much suspicion. Once you leave and return to the Greek world, your einherjar powers will be gone. In case you haven't realized, the curse of Achilles is already gone. This is because you will leave the boundaries of the Norse world, and vice-versa. Bye!"
Just two days later, I was standing in front of a 10-foot dragon. Luckily, it didn't have wings, but it had a spiked tail that it could use to hit someone attacking from behind.
In yesterday's siege warfare, I had done excellent and brought my team victory, as well as avoiding dying according to Chaos's instructions. His plan was to have me be supposedly killed by a dragon today, so that he could pretend my einherjar powers hadn't worked and I had actually died. This would mean I could return to the Greek world with minimal suspicion. Knowing my luck, I should have figured the plan wouldn't work out.
One of my friends, Mallory, stood next to me. The rules were to pair up and try to defeat a dragon together. Last one standing won, because it was virtually impossible to actually defeat the dragon.
The dragon blew fire, and we dived in opposite directions. It then turned to Mallory. She was amazingly swift. She dodged two consecutive blasts of fire, and audaciously took a swipe at the dragon's left leg. Unswerved, the dragon dodged and kicked her in the chest, causing her to go flying. It then turned to me. I knew that I had to avoid its fire. If I died too quickly, people would wonder why I was Odin's champion. I had to come close to defeating it and die bravely. So I backed away, waiting for it to follow.
I had discussed this with Mallory. She would pretend to be dazed, and I would draw the dragon toward her. When it got close enough, she would quickly attack, giving me ample distraction to get behind it and decapitate it. At least, that's what I had told her. My own plan relied on the dragon being similar to the drakon I had faced in New York. I was hoping that it would quickly kill Mallory, and burn me to death when I attacked it. I felt bad taking advantage of Mallory this way, but at least she would be back. This would be a believable way to die.
It seemed to be working at first. It followed me, and I dived aside when it was close enough. But it was ready for this. As I dived, it turned and smacked me in the chest. I flew at least 20 feet, my chest burning. I was sure my ribs were broken. I seriously regretted losing the curse of Achilles at this point, because it could have saved me a lot of pain.
Mallory jumped up, taking a wild swing at the dragon's tail, but it turned and breathed fire. She fell to the ground, already dead.
The dragon took its time advancing toward me, knowing I was defeated. Without a distraction, I had no chance. But I got up, thinking I would try to die courageously and get pulled back to Midgard. I charged trying to ignore the pain in my chest, but the dragon decided not to breathe fire this time. It kicked me in the face, and I fell backward. It stood over me, and I realized it would breathe fire. I dived aside, and the fire missed.
I retreated, quickly forming a strategy. I again charged, but stopped outside the dragon's fire range. I circled it, hoping it would advance. It did, and I wasted no time to implement my plan. Before it could breathe fire, I advanced and feinted toward its right leg. I feinted again, toward its left leg, and quickly took advantage of the momentary surprise to dive forward and cut off the dragon's tail. That was one fear eliminated.
I retreated yet again, looking around the battlefield. Only five others remained, all except two standing alone. So there were four individuals left in total, and one pair. I would have to outlast the others so as to prove that I was worthy of being Odin's champion, but die immediately after.
For the next couple of minutes, I fought strategically, making sure it looked like I was trying, but constantly retreated. Meanwhile, both members of the remaining pair were eliminated, as well as two of the three other remaining individuals. That meant it was just two of us left facing our respective dragons. I figured it wouldn't take the other guy too long to die. He was small next to me, and it was a wonder he had survived this long. I guessed he probably was swift due to his small size.
So I charged forward, ready to make the dragon angry. It was time to die (for me, not the dragon). I broke my earlier strategy of feinting before attacking, directly taking a wild slice at its leg. It was much more shocked than I had expected. My swing struck home, cutting through the foot like a hot knife through butter. The dragon howled in pain, falling onto its back surprised. Knowing it would still be able to breathe fire, I went for its neck, hoping it would burn me to death. But right before I stabbed, there was an announcement, "STOP!"
I turned, surprised. My dragon had been magically healed, and had stopped attacking due to the command. Helgi stood before my competitor. Then I realized what had happened. A dragon was lying on the floor, dead! My competitor had managed to kill his dragon! Helgi opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly the competitor walked forward and punched him in the face. Helgi went flying, which made no sense because a boy of that size shouldn't have that much strength. Suddenly, the boy's face and size changed. It was Godslayer.
A/N: Cliffhanger! We're getting into the action now, see you tomorrow! Please review about what you think about the story so far.