(As promised, here's another chapter. Enjoy!)
The First and Second Cohorts emerged into the centre of a large courtyard surrounded by three-storey balconies and parapets. The afternoon sun shone on black walls and black-shingled roofs. Large iron portcullis barred the exits from the courtyard. It looked nothing like the ruins they had been expecting.
"What in Pluto?" Hazel gaped at the towering fortifications all around her.
"First and Second Cohorts, find a way into those corridors!" Reyna shouted orders across the black cobbles like a drill sergeant. Fifth Cohort, get those gates open."
"ROMANS!" A booming voice stopped them in their tracks.
Reyna looked up to see a tall boy in bronze armour standing at the top of the largest balcony, flanked by two dracanae with spears and shields. He had a confident smile on his face as he stared down at the demigods in the courtyard.
"I am Alaric, son of Kronos, lord of Mount Othrys." Reyna's heart almost stopped at the mention of the word Kronos. She stared up at the boy, shock written all over her features. There are two of them! A voice screamed inside her head. It confirmed her earlier hunch about Jean's innocence. The girl hadn't broken into Mount Olympus at all. It had been Alaric who'd killed the Ophiotaurus and stolen the Sword of Kronos. He had been the one all along.
"I see you've come in arms to destroy my fortress," Alaric smirked. "Unfortunately for you, that won't be happening today."
Monsters appeared on the balconies and parapets surrounding the courtyard: dracanae with spears and shields, telkhines with assault rifles and machine guns. Laistrygonian giants hefted large tree trunks spiked with rusty blades. Harpies circled above their heads, armed with bows and arrows.
"But I am merciful." Alaric continued, evidently enjoying himself. "Lay down your weapons and you will be allowed to live. I will lock you up in my dungeons and make you watch Teletubbies reruns and eat cheese every day. You will even get blankets, if I'm in a good mood."
"Teletubbies?" Alabaster, standing at Alaric's side, said incredulously.
"I hate that show," Alaric explained. "And cheese gives me indigestion."
"Romans love cheese." Alabaster told him. "They add it to everything."
"I'll make them hate it," Alaric growled, then turned back to the courtyard. "Well?" he boomed. "What is your decision?"
Reyna answered on the Legion's behalf: "TESTUDO!"
The Romans gave a roar of defiance and scrambled toward the centre of the courtyard.
"Oh well," Alaric shrugged. "I warned them." He raised his sword and pointed it at the courtyard.
Time slowed down. The Legionnaires' movement slowed to a snail's pace. Reyna's heart stuttered.
All along the ramparts, the monsters opened fire. Bullets and RPGs came searing into the courtyard. Giants heaved spiked trunks over the balconies, crushing Romans to death under its deadly weight. Harpies rained arrows from the sky.
"Like rats in a trap." Alaric declared, watching the Romans getting mowed down by the barrage.
Reyna collapsed in slow motion, struck in the leg by two bullets. The enemy fire was slashing through the courtyard, but everything else was moving with painful sluggishness. An RPG exploded on her right, throwing three Romans into the air. Shrapnel whipped into her side as the force of the explosion snapped her head to one side. Blood slowly fell to the ground from a long shrapnel cut across her forehead.
All around her the Legion was dying, shot by bullets or crushed by spiked trunks or blown to bits by flying RPGs. The amount of fear coming from them was overwhelming her, flooding her mind and destroying her resistance. I'm sorry, she tried to tell them. I've failed you. Searing pain erupted in her mind as she felt her Legionnaires' die, one after another.
Then a voice screamed from behind her, "NO!"
Time returned to normal. Half the Romans in the courtyard collapsed to the ground. The other half sprinted towards her position, shields raised.
Reyna turned to see that the voice had been Jean, sword in hand, her oversized helmet slanted to the left like the Leaning Helmet of Pisa.
"Run," Reyna croaked. Her chest felt like searing ribbons of pain. Something rose in her throat and she coughed weakly. "Run away." She fell.
"Praetor!" Hands grabbed onto her, lowering her to the ground. The Fifth Cohort, the unit closest to the tunnel, clustered around her, raising their shields against the blistering hail of arrows and bullets.
"Retreat!" someone shouted. "Back into the tunnel!"
Reyna's vision turned blurry. Against her will her eyes started to close.
"No," she murmured.
There was a commotion to her left. The line of Romans was thrown backwards. She caught a glimpse of Alaric pushing through the crowd of Legionnaires, sword in hand, his eyes glowing molten gold.
Sound faded away. Her lungs seemed not to breathe.
Then everything went dark.
"What in Tartarus?" Alaric stared, stunned, as his time spell was abruptly broken. "That's impossible!"
"There!" Alabaster pointed to the centre of the courtyard where a single legionnaire was moving at normal speed amidst the sea of slow-motion demigods.
"No way…" Alaric gaped at the legionnaire with wide eyes.
"Back to the tunnel!" The shout came from the courtyard.
"I don't think so," Alaric snapped back into focus. He jerked his head around. "Antaeus!"
A large, tattooed giant stepped forward from the shadows, a five-metre-tall humanoid with dark red skin, built like a sumo wrestler. He held out his hand toward the courtyard and closed it into a fist.
Screams came from the tunnel as the walls started to close in. Alaric smiled coldly. The entire legion would be crushed to death within moments, the legacy of Rome destroyed in a single stroke. He started to laugh. "This is going perfectly! I'm going to become a legend!"
Then something exploded behind him. Chunks of black stone were blown past him into the courtyard.
Alaric turned in time to receive an almighty kick to the chest that threw him over the balcony railing. The son of Kronos fell into the courtyard in a tangle of limbs, landing unceremoniously with a thump.
Something large and dark red fell from the balcony towards him. Alaric twisted out of the way in time to avoid getting hit by the falling object. It was Antaeus's head, he saw as it plopped onto the ground beside him, followed by a shower of sand from the disintegrating giant.
Nico di Angelo roared in fury as he kicked Alaric over the balcony ledge, simultaneously beheading Antaeus with a single sweep of his sword.
"Grow that back," he shouted. "You fat dick!"
Alaric's dracanae bodyguards surged forward to engage him. Two throwing daggers left his hand in reply, and the dracanae's armour and weapons clattered to the floor as their bodies crumbled into powder.
Skeletons poured out of the smoking hole in the wall behind him, shooting monsters down as they turned to meet the sudden threat. Nico ignored them, going to the edge of the balcony to stare into the courtyard below.
"Bloody hell." Dozens of legionnaires lay dead on the black cobbles. Arrows, spiked logs and shrapnel littered the ground. It looked like a scene from Armageddon.
Legionnaires from the Fifth Cohort had regrouped into a defensive tortoise formation in the centre of the courtyard. The survivors of the First and Second Cohorts were retreating towards the formation, many of them dragging injured comrades with them.
Alaric was also headed towards the tortoise formation. Nico spotted the son of Kronos fighting his way into the tortoise's shields, reaching in to pull a wounded legionnaire out of the formation while simultaneously kicking another dying Roman off his outstretched sword. Nico growled and jumped off the balcony, landing hard into the courtyard.
Alaric reemerged from the crowd of Romans, dragging a single legionnaire by her armour straps with him. He slammed the pommel of his sword into the legionnaire's helmet, knocking her unconscious, then spotted Nico heading straight for him.
"So you've come here to die with your comrades," Alaric shouted at him.
"I've come to send you to Hades," Nico snarled, bringing his sword up.
A shock went through the air as their two swords met. Sparks flew as both blades scraped down each other to be stopped by the two hilts. Nico stepped in fast and punched Alaric in the face. His armoured fist connected with a sickening crack. Pain flared in Nico's knuckles and his eyes widened as he felt the small bones break in his hand. Alaric didn't even flinch.
Alaric took the opportunity to heave Nico back and riposted fast. Nico batted the attack aside and stepped in again, bringing the Sword of Hades around in a hard, chopping sweep. Alaric ducked under the blow and Nico kicked him in the face, knocked his sword aside and lunged. Alaric threw himself to one side and the Sword of Hades grazed his jawline, drawing blood. Alaric landed onto the cobbles and rolled to his feet. He put a hand to his face, looking shocked.
"What's the matter? Never fought a real swordsman before?" Nico taunted. He advanced on the demititan, the Sword of Hades flickering with pale fire.
Their blades met again with blinding speed. The two combatants seemed evenly matched, but Nico was the more experienced of the two and was starting to show a slight advantage. Alaric looked rattled from his close shave with Nico's sword, blood running down his neck from the cut on his jaw.
They locked hilts again, straining against each other with every ounce of their strength.
"You can't beat me," Alaric growled.
"We'll see about that." Nico snarled back, watching the blood flow from Alaric's jaw.
A bronze blade came between them suddenly, a powerful, two-handed blow that struck Alaric's right arm and should have severed it, but to Nico's astonishment the blade bounced off Alaric like it was made of metal. The sword's owner took a stiff step backwards, arms trembling from the shock of the blow. It was Percy, Nico saw, staring at the son of Kronos with wide-eyed shock.
The heavy blow had at least succeeded in weakening Alaric's arm enough for Nico to heave him back and counterattack. The Sword of Hades flickered out and Alaric parried. Riptide flashed toward him at the same time. Alaric batted the bronze sword away with his forearm and kicked Percy in the stomach. The son of Poseidon fell back with a pained oof. Annabeth flew into Alaric out of nowhere, trying to tackle him to the ground, but the Son of Kronos felt heavy as a statue and she barely moved him. Alaric crashed his elbow into her stomach and backhanded her across the face, sending her sprawling while simultaneously parrying Nico's sword strike, but in his distraction he didn't notice Nico pull out a dagger until the Son of Hades came lunging in. Alaric jerked aside and the blade aimed for his neck buried itself in his shoulder instead. He slammed his hilt into Nico's helm, sending him reeling.
Nico pulled a small stone bottle from his belt and threw it at Alaric. The small object shattered against Alaric's forehead. Greek fire erupted from the bottle, engulfing the son of Kronos in a swirl of green flames.
"ENOUGH!" Alaric slammed his fist into the ground. A wave of force blasted out from him, knocking everybody off their feet. Percy and Annabeth went down as they tried to charge him. A short distance away, the Fifth Cohort's tortoise formation collapsed as the legionnaires were thrown to the ground by Alaric's blast. Nico brought his sword down in front of him, cleaving the energy blast in two just as it reached him.
"Try again," he sneered.
The effort of the blast seemed to have drained Alaric's energy. He took a few steps backwards, solid gold eyes flickering like faulty lightbulbs as he surveyed the scene.
The fighting along the parapets and balconies was beginning to die down as Nico's skeletons hunted the last of the monsters down. The courtyard had fallen silent apart from the crackling of flames and cries of the wounded.
"You've lost," Nico told him.
"That's what you think," Alaric spat.
All around the courtyard doors slammed open and a wave of dracanae poured out. The Twelfth Legion bristled instinctively at enemy's sudden appeareance, levelling their spears along their shield wall.
"Pila!" Hazel shouted.
Fifty spears were hefted over fifty shoulders.
"Fire!" A wave of Imperial gold spearheads slammed into the dracanae ranks, but for every snake woman killed two more took their place, locking shields to form their own shield wall.
"Fall back!" Hazel saw how outnumbered they were and took the logical option.
"You think you can hide behind your troops?" Nico advanced on Alaric, paying no heed to the growing army of monsters. He raised the Sword of Hades, channelling its energy to summon more skeletons.
A cold prickling started in his gut, the sensation he got whenever he felt someone die. Nico froze, eyes widening. He knew where it was coming from. His mind flickered at once to Camp Jupiter, remembering the lone Third Cohort guarding the city.
"Oh, no." his heart sank as he realised what had happened.
Alaric's smile widened as he saw Nico's expression. He gave a mocking salute with his sword.
"Camp Jupiter will be reduced to ashes by the time you get back," he called over the line of dracanae.
"Not if I can help it," Nico growled. He grabbed Percy Jackson, the nearest single person he could find that might make a difference on the battlefield. "You're coming with me." They collapsed into his shadow.
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