Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Rick Riordan

Chapter 6 Part 1

Percy's POV

I had fought many battles. He's even fought in a couple arenas, but nothing like this. In the huge Colosseum, with thousands of cheering ghosts, the god Bacchus staring down at him, and the two twelve-foot giants looming over him, I felt as small and insignificant as a bug. He also felt very angry.

Fighting giants was one thing. Bacchus making it into a game was something else.

I remembered what Luke Castellan had told me years ago, when I had come back from his very first quest: Didn't you realize how useless it all is? All the heroics-being pawns of the Olympians?

I was almost the same age now as Luke ad been then. I could understand how Luke became so spiteful. In the past five years, I had been a pawn too many times. The Olympians seemed to take turns using him for their schemes.

Maybe the gods were better than the Titans, or the giants, or Gaea, but that didn't make them good or wise. It didn't make me like this stupid arena battle.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much choice. If I was going to save his friends, I had to beat these giants. I had to survive and find Annabeth.

Ephialtes and Otis made his decision easier by attacking. Together, the giants picked up a fake mountain as big as my New York apartment and hurled it at the demigods.

Jason and I bolted. We dove together into the nearest trench and the mountain shattered above us, spraying us with plaster shrapnel. It wasn't deadly, but it stung like crazy.

The crowd jeered and shouted for blood. "Fight! Fight!"

"I'll take Otis again?" Jason called over the noise. "Or do you want him this time?"

I tried to think. Dividing was the natural course-fighting the giants one-on-one, but that hadn't worked so well last time. It dawned on me that we needed a different strategy.

This whole trip, I had felt responsible for leading and protecting my friends. I was sure Jason felt the same way. They'd worked in small groups, hoping that would be safer. They'd fought as individuals, each demigod doing what he or she did best. But Hera had made them a team of seven for a reason. The few times Jason and I worked together-summoning the storm at Fort Sumpter, helping the Argo II escape the Pillars of Hercules, even filling the nymphaeum-I had felt more confident, better able to figure out problems, as if he's been a Cyclops his whole life and suddenly woke up with two eyes.

"We attack together," I said. "Otis first, because he's weaker. Take him out quickly and move to Ephialtes. Bronze and gold together-maybe that'll keep them from reforming a little longer."

Jason smiled dryly, like he'd just found out he would die in an embarrassing way.

"Why not?" he agreed. "But Ephialtes isn't going to stand there and wait while we kill his brother. Unless-"

"Good wind today," I offered. "And there're some water pipes running under the arena."

Jason understood immediately. He laughed, and I felt a spark of friendship. This guy thought the same he did about a lot of things.

"On three?" Jason said.

"Why wait?"

We charged out of the trench. As I suspected, the twins had lifted another plaster mountain and were waiting for a clear shot. The giants raised it above their heads, preparing to throw, and I caused a water pipe to burst at their feet, shaking the floor. Jason sent a blast of wind against Ephialtes' chest. The purple-haired giant toppled backward and Otis lost his grip on the mountain, which promptly collapsed on top of his brother. Only Ephialtes' snake feet stuck out, darting their heads around, as if wondering where the rest of their body had gone.

The crowd roared with approval, but I suspected Ephialtes was only stunned. We had a few seconds at best.

"Hey, Otis!" I shouted. "The Nutcracker bites!"

"Ahhhhh!" Otis snatched up his spear and threw, but he was too angry to aim straight. Jason deflected it over my head and into the lake.

We backed toward the water, shouting insults about ballet-which was kind of a challenge, as I didn't know much about it.

Otis barreled toward us empty-handed, before apparently realizing a) he was empty-handed, and b) charging toward a large body of water to fight a son of Poseidon was maybe not a good idea.

Too late, he tried to stop. The demigods rolled to either side, and Jason summoned the wind, using the giant's own momentum to shove him into the water. As Otis struggled to rise, Jason and I attacked as one. We launched ourselves at the giant and brought our blades down on Otis's head.

The poor guy didn't even have a chance to pirouette. He exploded into powder on the lake's surface like a huge packet of drink mix.

I churned the lake into a whirlpool. Otis's essence tried to re-form, but as his head appeared from the water, Jason called lightning and blasted him to dust again.

So far so good, but we couldn't keep Otis down forever. I was already tired from my fight underground. My gut still ached from getting smacked with a spear shaft. I could feel my strength waning, and we still had another giant to deal with.

As if on cue, the plaster mountain exploded behind us. Ephialtes rose, bellowing with anger.

Jason and I waited as he lumbered toward us, his spear in hand. Apparently, getting flattened under a plaster mountain had only energized him. His eyes danced with murderous light. The afternoon sun glinted in his coin-braided hair. Even his snake feet looked angry, baring their fangs and hissing.

Jason called down another lightning strike, but Ephialtes caught it on his spear and deflected the blast, melting a life-size plastic cow. He slammed a stone column out of his way like a stack of building blocks.

I tried to keep the lake churning. I didn't want Otis rising to join this fight, but as Ephialtes closed the last few feet, I had to switch focus.

Jason and I met the giant's charge. We lunged around Ephialtes, stabbing and slashing in a blur of gold and bronze, but the giant parried with every strike.

"I will not yield!" Ephialtes roared. "You may have ruined my spectacle, but Gaea will still destroy your world!"

I lashed out, slicing the giant's spear in half. Ephialtes wasn't even fazed. The giant swept low with the blunt end and knocked me off my feet. I landed hard on my sword arm, and Riptide clattered out of my grip.

Jason tried to take advantage. He stepped inside the giant's guard and stabbed at his chest, but somehow Ephialtes parried the strike. He sliced the tip of his spear down Jason's chest, ripping his purple shirt into a vest. Jason stumbled, looking at the thin line of blood down his sternum. Ephialtes kicked him backward.

Up in the emperor's box, Piper cried out, but her voice was drowned in the roar of the crowd. Bacchus looked on with an amused smile, munching from a bag of doritos.

Ephialtes towered over Jason and me, both halves of his broken spear poised over their heads. My sword arm was numb. Jason's gladius had skittered across the arena floor. Their plan had failed.

I glanced up at Bacchus, deciding what final curse I would hurl at the useless wine god, when I saw a shape in the sky above the Colosseum-a large dark oval descending rapidly.

From the lake, Otis yelled, trying to warn his brother, but his half-dissolved face could only manage: "Uh-umh-moooo!"

"Don't worry, brother!" Ephialtes said, his eyes still fixed on the demigods. "I will make them suffer!"

The Argo II turned in the sky, presenting its port side, and green fire blazed from the ballista.

"Actually," I said. "Look behind you."

Jason and I rolled away as Ephialtes turned and bellowed in disbelief.

I dropped into a trench just as the explosion rocked the Colosseum.

When I climbed out again, the Argo II was coming in for a landing. Jason poked his head out from behind his improvised bomb shelter of a plastic horse. Ephialtes lay charred and groaning on the arena floor, the sand around seared into a halo of glass by the heat of the Greek fire. Otis was floundering in the lake, trying to re-form, but from the arms down he looked like a puddle of burnt oatmeal.

I staggered over to Jason and clapped him on the shoulder. The ghostly crowd gave them a standing ovation as the Argo II extended its landing gear and settled on the arena floor. Leo stood at the helm, Hazel and Frank grinning, pumping his fist in the air and yelling, "That's what I'm talking about!"

I turned to the emperor's box. "Well?" I yelled at Bacchus. "Was that entertaining enough for you, you wine-breathed little-"

"No need for that." Suddenly the god was standing right next to me in the arena. He brushed Dorito dust off his purple robes. "I have decided you are worthy partners for this combat."

"Partners?" Jason growled. "You did nothing!"

Bacchus walked to the edge of the lake. The water instantly drained, leaving an Otis-headed pile of mush. Bacchus picked his way to the bottom and looked up at the crowd. He raised his thyrsus.

The crowd jeered and hollered and pointed their thumbs down. I had never been sure whether that meant live or die. I've heard it both ways.

Bacchus chose the more entertaining option. He smacked Otis's head with his pinecone staff, and the giant pile of Otismeal disintegrated completely.

The crowd went wild. Bacchus climbed out of the lake and strutted over to Ephialtes, who was still lying spread-eagled, overcooked and smoking.

Again, Bacchus raised his thyrsus.

"DO IT!" the crowd roared.

"DON'T DO IT!" Ephialtes wailed.

Bacchus tapped the giant on the nose, and Ephialtes crumbled to ashes.

The ghosts cheered and threw spectral confetti as Bacchus strode around the stadium with his arms raised triumphantly, exulting in the worship. He grinned at the demigods. "That, my friends, is a show! And of course I did something. I killed two giants!"

As my friends disembarked from the ship, the crowd of ghosts shimmered and disappeared. Piper and Nico struggled down the emperor's box as the Colosseum's magical renovations began to turn into mist. The arena floor remained solid, but otherwise the stadium looked as if it hadn't hosted a good giant killing eons.