Chapter 10: The Underground
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, that honour goes with Rick Riordan. Neither do I own any of the characters mentioned.
Last Chapter: "Yupp, that means that my dad gave me powers of the water. He gave me Riptide; my dad is Poseidon."
Brooklyn: Percy's POV
"So you said your friend was somewhere around here?" I asked Annabeth. We got to the park about an hour after I told Annabeth that my dad was Poseidon and ever since she hadn't stopped asking me questions about it. 'So what happened?', 'You can control water?', 'How long have you known this?'. I finally had to break it to her that I didn't have any answers other than how long have I known. That answer was a few hours. I was hoping that maybe having her focus on her friend would stop her from asking me any questions because honestly, I was getting tired of her saying 'We finally have a child of the big 3 with us'. It was getting tiring and the expectancy in her voice like she was waiting for me to do something was a little irritating. I just found out who my dad is and all she can ask is about what I can do.
"Yeah, he's a satyr so he'll be where most of the trees are, there's a big pond on the other side so maybe we can try there.". We followed her advice and walked to the other side of the park where like she said was a fairly big pool of water with trees surrounding it, it was a nice spot to just sit down and read a book. That was if we weren't being hunted with thousands of monsters and all powerful titans calling for our deaths. "We need to split up so we can try and cover as much ground to find him. The sooner we can go the better, we might be harder to find here but they can find us if we stay anywhere too long."
"And if we find him, how do know where everyone else is? It's a fairly big park." Frank said and it actually shocked me. Only now did I realize that no one else had spoken the entire trip from the train station to here. They must have been listening to us the entire time, waiting just like her to see if I'd do something special most likely. The only one in the group that didn't act like they were in awe was Jason, I suppose with having Zeus as your father he knew what I as going through.
"Since we haven't seen any monsters around it'll be safe to yell. We'll break off into pairs and split up. Jess and Frank, you take the south side of the pond, Clarisse, Will and I will take the East side. Jason, you and Percy take the west, we came from the north and if he heard us he would have come so we can say he wasn't in that direction. Remember, his name is Grover and if you find him tell him that Annabeth is looking for him, don't scare him away. Let's get going". With that inspirational speech we split up and Jason and I headed off to the west side of the lake. As we were walking everything was pretty quiet and I was starting to doubt how we would find this guy.
"Do you have any idea what a satyr looks like?" I asked Jason.
"We have something like a satyr at camp but we call them fauns and they would never leave camp unless they had to. They are way too lazy so I'm not sure if they even look the same. I'm assuming the Greek ones aren't nearly as big considering they move around so I'm just as lost as you."
"Perfect, so neither of us have any idea what we're looking for other than a guy with goat legs and horns. Perfect.". We kept moving along without saying a word but I noticed that every few second or so Jason kept looking at me, appraising me almost. "Do I have something on my face or…?".
"What? Oh, it's nothing." He answered, seemingly surprised that I caught him. "It's just, did you know who your dad was before all this started or were you in the dark up until today?".
"Before all this started? You mean before the titans attacked?". He nodded his head. "Before all this I was living in Manhattan, going to school and had no idea the Olympian gods ever existed. I didn't know who my dad was, my mom never told me and now I know why, it was to avoid all of this."
"So you survived all this time without training, and being the son of Neptune, Poseidon sorry, you would attract a lot of attention."
"Yeah, I was told that. Apparently my mom married her husband to cover my smell. You'd understand better if you visited our place, the smell could cover anything." A smile crept a little at the corners of his mouth and I realized that this is a guy I could hang out with. Jason wasn't so bad. "So what about you? Praetor of Rome, son of Zeus, what's your story?".
"Well, it started out a little rough, my mom abandoned me at this park and that's where Lupa found me. She takes in all Roman demigods and decides whether or not they are worth bringing to New Rome. Apparently she decided I was and once I got to New Rome everything was different. I was still young but I knew who my dad was, my mom would brag about it all the time to anyone who would listen that "her son was a god of Jupiter". Of course everyone ignored her and called her crazy but she was being honest. When the leaders at the camp found that out I was instantly put into legion training and once I reached the age of maturity to fight I joined them. Ever since then I rose through the ranks with my friend Reyna and on the way I grew a new family, Frank and Jess are part of it. Within two years I was co praetor with Reyna and then all this happened. That's why I don't want to go underground. We need to save the campers at New Rome. It is a fortress right now but I think that we can get there and free at least some of the people. We are the strongest demigod force, if we can't do it then who can?".
"If you want to go to your camp, why didn't you speak up when we were making plans on the train?"
"I wanted to make sure all of you were trustworthy. I know you are but I don't know the others."
"You can trust them. If you want to go and free your friends just run it by them and I'll see if I can persuade them."
"Thanks Percy, you don't know how much that-"before he could finish that thought I heard a branch snap behind me and I spun around taking out riptide and turning it into a sword at the same time. When I saw who had gotten behind us I was a little surprised. "Might want to yell, I think we found him." At the other end of my sword was a guy who would pass as completely mortal if he hadn't had fur on his legs and horns. "Grover?" I asked him. He nodded his head yes. I lowered my sword and smiled to try and calm him down a little since he had a look of pure fear on his face. "Don't worry, we're here with Annabeth, we need your help."
"So, let me get this right, Cronus and the titans escaped from their prison, raised an army and defeated the Olympians who are now being held hostage?". This was the forth time we had run over what had happened with Grover over the last few weeks. He had been at something called a clover meeting or something like, big nature meeting supposedly and missed all of this.
"To summarize it, yes Grover." Annabeth explained, "but not all the Olympians, some were able to get away and they sent us him to help save everyone.". Grover eyed me doubtfully and I couldn't blame him, I was a scrawny little teenager who's greatest accomplishment a month ago was beating my pinball high score on my computer.
"And he's Poseidon's son?"
"Yes Grover, he is."
"Well, not gonna lie, did not expect this when I was on my way back here. So what's the plan? I assume you have one?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out right now, I think our best bet is to go and hide out somewhere, let things die down and then make our move." Annabeth explained what we were talking about before we got to the park.
"Actually, Jason and I were talking and I think that hiding might not be the best option.". Note to self, never, ever, disagree with a kid from Athena, apparently they don't like to be questioned on planning.
"Alright then big shot, what's your plan?"
"So Jason, Jess and Frank come from a place called New Rome right? Jason told me that they are holding all of the roman demi-gods there in a fortress and I have a feeling that all the demigods from Camp Half-Blood are there also. Why have to defend two camps with prisoners when you can defend a fortress with all them in one place? I think we need to try to free the demigods, the numbers we could get might be enough to bring the Olympians out of hiding and bring battle to the titans.". Now I know it sounds like a far fetched plan, a small group of demigods infiltrate a monster fortress, bypass all the guards, free hundreds of demigods and then manage to get out without being killed while being attacked by monsters and several titans no doubt. But hey, we weren't supposed to survive this long anyway so why not test our luck?
"And how exactly do you suggest we get the numbers to take the fortress, beat the titans, even get to New Rome for gods sake?" she countered.
"It was just a thought okay, it would be better than hiding and trying wait it out.".
I could tell that she was considering it because she didn't answer right away, I could also tell that everyone else was on my side because no one looked at me like I was crazy, they were all staring at Annabeth waiting for a response. Everyone except Grover that is, still not sure if he completely understands what's happening.
"Okay it might work, we need to plan it out first, does anyone know where I can see bus or train routes to San Fransisco?".
Tip: If planning to travel, always bring a satyr. They can sniff out the best food joints around a kilometer away, and they have an uncanny sense of direction so if you'll never take the wrong bus.
After we left the park, we scheduled a route to San Francisco which is where New Rome is apparently. Coincidently, it's also where Mount Orthys is so we decided to take a…very indirect route. This was to make sure that it wasn't obvious a group of demigods was going from New York to New Rome, it might seem suspicious, especially if the titans can sense our presence wherever we go. Speaking of that, now that we're not in Brooklyn anymore, that bit about the Egyptian gods no longer applies so we are number one on the monsters hit list. This trip will be fun.
We got the bus tickets and decided to take a nice route that brought us North of San Francisco to try and throw off anyone who was trying to follow us. Of course, since we are the poster children of bad luck, the plan went south immediately. We boarded the bus and lasted until we hit the first bus stop outside of Brooklyn, there we were met with a wonderful welcoming committee, one that would tear our heads of anyway. The bus station most likely looked like it was a typical busy day with commuters wanting to go home but no, the mist is covering a horde of monsters, at least 25 of them. There were a few hell hounds, empousa, harpies in the sky, dracaenae and just for good measure, a hyperborean giant. We looked at each other not knowing what to do, we couldn't risk a fight here where there were civilians every where.
"So, what do we do now?" I asked, really hoping anyone would answer.
"We have to try to lure them away, if we get them in an alley in the back then they should be far enough away to cause anyone any harm." Annabeth said. "If we can get them down that alley over there" pointing to a alley behind the bus station, "we can protect these people and funnel them into a small area where there numbers don't count. Is everyone ready, once the doors open we run."
There was a communal nod and we all moved slowly to the front of the bus hoping to pass off as a bunch of teenagers trying to get off early rather than run away and lure some Greek monsters to their deaths. Once the bus came to a stop and the doors opened, we were off. Annabeth led the way with us running behind and instantly the monsters followed us, the harpies and hell hounds instantly gaining on us. When we were 15 feet from the entrance to the alley way I could hear the panting of something that sounded and smelled horrible, I took out my pen, uncapped it and swung in a blind circle hoping to scare away the hell hound but I got lucky for once. The blade cut through the beast's forehead and turned to dust, the others who were right behind it faltered for a second so I turned and kept on running. I caught up to the others just as they turned to make their stand. Frank, Jason, Clarisse, Annabeth and I would make up the front line and take on the empousa and dracaenae while Frank and Jessica would shoot down the harpies and try to deal with the hyperborean. Grover, I'm not sure what satyrs do exactly so I don't know what his plan is.
The harpies came first but before the first few could fly down to attack us, two were turned to dust by arrows. There was no time to admire their handy work because the hell hounds were mere feet away ready to pounce and that's when something came over me. I don't know why but I charged out to meet the hounds in the alleyway and it clearly stumped them as much as it stumped me. I sliced riptide downwards onto the head of the first beast before they came to their senses and that was enough time for my friends to catch up and throw themselves at the few hell hounds remaining. Annabeth gutted one with her spear and Frank threw his spear so hard half of it was sticking through the other side of the third hell hound. The dracaenae advanced in a shield wall that expanded the alley with empousa behind giving orders. The hellhounds had been turned to dust and the harpies are no longer with us due to Frank and Jess but there was still about 15 dracaenae and a few empousa, not to mention the giant in the back who was seeming to be waiting for his friends to take us out.
There was no charge this time from me, we just watched as they came towards us and it was clear that it was going to be numbers against training. "These aren't the worst odds we've faced today you know" I though to myself. That was all I could think though before they reached us, luckily, they didn't have spears or they could have easily killed us from a distance since we don't all have shields, they have to come in nice and close where we can reach them also. Feet from us, Annabeth let out a scream and everyone flinched, both demigod and monster and she leapt at their shield wall pushing back to of the snake demons opening a hole and at that, we all charged. Jason used his Roman training with his short sword and thrusted at any snake skin that shown to him, taking off limbs and thrusting back the women. Clarisse was a force to reckon with and before any had attacked her, she cleaved two in half with her sword. Frank had three of them at bay with his shield, none of them wanting to attack first and seeing all this, I was oblivious to the danger I was in. Before I knew it, Annabeth had slammed into me just as I saw the sword swing right where my head was just a moment ago. She recovered herself in an instant and Annabeth stabbed the dracaenae in the gut, she doubled over and Annabeth hit her in the head with the pommel of her sword, turning her to dust. I nodded my thanks and got up, deciding that I could say that after this was done. A quick glance showed that the majority of the enemy were gone, just a handful of dracaenae and two empousa who were slowly being forced back by the charge. The hyperborean had moved forward now but he was crying out in pain, either Jessica or Will had shot an arrow which took off half his ear. As I watched it feeling where his earlobe once was, two arrows thudded into his forehead and he was stunned, then a third, and a forth and the giant fell forwards in a giant heap. The remaining monsters looked back once they heard the giant hit the ground and that was their undoing. Once their attention was not on us, they had no chance. They were turned to dust instantly.
"Is everyone okay?" Will ran up to us asking?
"I think we're fine, that was nice shooting you two, wasn't sure how we were going to deal with the giant there" I began to say to them but Grover cut me off, "Okay okay, nice shooting, thank you for saving us but we need to go, NOW!"
"Woah woah woah there Grover, what's wrong?" Jason asked.
"They're coming, a huge hoard is coming by the smell of it, enough to take on you guys easily enough. If we don't leave right now, then we won't make it!"
"Do you know what "they" are Grover?" Annabeth responded.
"Hell hounds, dracaenae, harpies, giants, empousa, and I think a gorgon, not sure which one. It smells like there is easily 100 of them. There's only one way to outrun them Annabeth, we have to go down."
"What, no, we can't go down there, it drove Chris crazy last time! He almost didn't make it out, it's a deathtrap!" Clarisse yelled out scared. I'm very confused at this point, where is "down there", who's Chris and why on Earth aren't we moving yet?!
"I don't like the sounds of where ever 'down there' is, but if it saves our lives I say we give it a chance, where is it?" I tell them, hopefully they follow me because I'm not too inclined to fight that army today. Or any other day really.
"It's the labyrinth Percy, it's a magical place under ground. Grover's right, we need to take it Clarisse, it's our only chance to get away from them. We can't fight them and you know it." She turned around without getting an answer from Clarisse and the pain on her face showed that she probably wouldn't get one any. Annabeth walked forward and started speaking, "I've been looking at entrances to the labyrinth since the Titans attacked, knowing that it would be a quick way to escape them and I know there's entrances all over the place, we just need to find…" and she ran to the corner of a building that was at an intersection in the alley. "This, here, it's the sign of Daedalus, see the triangle?". She was right, there was a faint triangle in the cement, but it could be anything, I mean graffiti is everywhere in this city. "If I just push it then it should.." and sure enough, when she pushed it the alley floor rumbled and a hatch opened up leading to blackness, no stairs or a ladder just a hole. I was about to protest but I heard a scream behind me and turned just in time to see harpies flying around the corner, finally seeing us and they moved in for the kill.
"Okay, everyone in the dark scary hole, GO NOW!" I yelled. Each of us jumped in, not waiting to hear if it was safe because nothing could be more dangerous than what was coming our way. Just as I jumped down, the hatch closed and the last thing I saw was the scarred face of a harpy then everything went black.
The drop wasn't long, maybe 10 feet but it was black, there was no light at all until someone took out a lighter illuminating the room. We were in what seemed to be a room that you would see in an old Roman home in a movie. There was a mosaic on the one wall, the floor was tiled, and there was a fountain in the middle of the room that had been long since dried up. The room was in despair however, the tiles were cracked, some were missing entirely and the mosaic was only half remaining. The most eerie part though wasn't the room, it was the exits. There was one on either side and both looked uninviting, almost deadly.
"Guys…what is this place?" I asked in general.
"I've heard of a place like this but we always thought that it was a myth." Jason said. He, Frank, and Jess all gave each other glances and they actually looked scared. These Roman demigods were scared of a maze? What is this place…?
"This is the labyrinth Percy." Annabeth explained. "It was created by Daedalus millennia ago for the king of Crete at the time, Minos. You remember the minotaur? Yeah, this was his prison. He was the son of Minos' wife and a bull, don't get me started on how that came to be. The minotaur was so strong that no regular prison could hold him so Daedalus created this, there's only one way back to the entrance at Crete and the maze changes it all the time making it impossible to remember. Only Daedalus and Theseus have been able to come in here and leave unharmed. We sent a group of demigods down here once to check it out and only one came back, Chris. He wasn't right after that, kept saying this place was full of monsters and that everyone was killed. He was Clarisse's boyfriend at the time, that's why she didn't want to come down here, this place almost killed him."
"So wait, this place was the minotaur's prison? The beast that my dad just killed? Won't that thing have a vendetta against me so isn't hanging out in his old home like a bad thing?"
"It shouldn't be able to come back for a few days yet, it's a fairly big monster so it will take some time to reincarnate, hopefully it won't be back by the time we reach San Francisco."
"That's another thing, we are hundreds of miles away from the city, how do you expect us to get there? Is there a labyrinth taxi service or?"
"You really have no idea how the labyrinth works, do you?" Will asked. "The labyrinth stretches all across the United States and what may seem like a five-day car ride can actually be in the corridor beside us. Distance is different down here, it's almost non-existent. This place is so messed up that no one has ever made a map of it, it changes so often that not even the gods could navigate through it."
Frank spoke up this time. "We have rumours about this place back in New Rome. It's supposedly filled with traps that were meant to keep the minotaur in here, there are booby traps, some of the worst monsters imaginable, there's even an arena where if you end up there, it's impossible to come out. Like they said, only two people have navigated this place successfully so unless you have Ariadne's string, we're doomed."
"Hang on there Frank, no group of demigods like us have ever entered here. If there is anyone who can get us out, it's Annabeth so we have to trust her." Jason reasoned. "Do you know where to go Annabeth?"
"The labyrinth is impossible to map since it changes all the time so we have no idea. I can try to reason the correct way but it's not a definite guarantee. Now that wall is facing North, or it was when we jumped in here" she said, pointing to the wall with a partly destroyed mosaic of what looked like a Olympian feast. "We need to go west, so let's go through that door, from now on we can't use directions though or the maze will make us lose our way. Let's go." And with that we followed her into the dark room, luckily, when travelling with a group of demigods who have been trained to fight for their life, one of us was bound to have a flashlight and Frank pulled one out of his backpack showing us the corridor we entered.
This was a little more modern, it had cement floors and a curved cement ceiling, almost resembling a sewer in downtown New York. It was a straight path and the next corridor brought us into a new time period. We were in a temple, kind of like the ones you saw on the history channel but this one was in rough condition. Half the columns had fallen over and the roof was close to collapsing in on us. The floor that was once a beautiful marble piece of work had been here cracking for millennia now, forgotten. The statue is unrecognizable, it seemed that something had pounded it into rubble long ago. Frank lit up each corner in the room and in the far-left corner there was something that I couldn't make out.
"Frank, can you shine your light over here?" I asked walking over to it. As he did I stopped halfway finally realizing what it was. It was a skeleton in Greek battle armor, a Greek warrior who found his way down here and died without anyone knowing. I scrambled back to everyone else before they saw it and directed them to the opposite corner. "What was it Percy?" Clarisse asked.
"It was nothing, just a piece of the ceiling." I told them and most seemed to accept that answer, everyone but Annabeth that is. "Anyway, where now? This room has two exits not mentioning the one we just came from.". There was an entrance in the wall directly across the way we came in and one on the side wall where the skeleton was.
"Well, there's no way telling for sure, there are no markings saying which way to go so anyone's guess is as good as—"before she could finish she was cut off by a scream. A battle cry is a better word for it. All of a sudden, we could here dozens of feet running towards us through the entrance near the skeleton and that made our decision really easy, we all bolted for the other door and as soon as we all made it through we were thrown off our feet. The room seemed to be spinning and when it finally stopped he were all dazed and confused as to what just happened.
"What on Earth…where are we guys?" I asked. We seemed to be in a circular room but there was no exit, just solid walls which doesn't explain how we got here. I was about to ask what we do now but that's when we heard the voice. It boomed down from the domed ceiling.
"IT'S SO NICE OF YOU TO JOIN US HERE. NOW, GUESTS, MAY I INTRODUCE OUR NEXT COMPETITORS, THE GREEK AND ROMAN DEMIGOD'S! I WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME YOU TO THE ARENA OF THE LABYRNTH! TO ESCAPE YOU HAVE TO SURVIVE FOR 10 ROUNDS, THE FIRST 5 ARE TEAM FIGHTS BUT THEN THE CROWD WILL CHOOSE THE DEMIGOD WHO WILL FIGHT THE LAST FIVE ALONE!"
Instantly there was an uproar of cheering from somewhere and then suddenly the ceiling retracted like some stadiums do and it revealed a massive number of stands, filled with monsters and what seemed to be ghosts. At this point I don't question the ghosts, anything can be real now. The fans weren't the scary thing though, it was the fact that the announcer said that we were competitors, who were we competing with and what was the competition. "Frank, you said that the Romans had myths about an arena, right? What was it like?" I had to yell to Frank to be heard over the crowd.
"Yeah but this can't be it, they said that the ground was covered in sand like an old gladiator arena. Also there's supposed to be some type of pavilion where the orator sits…". He stopped there and looked up behind me and when I turned around, sure enough there was a space set aside where some important looking, human like guy was sitting, smiling down at us. Then I looked down and sure enough the ground had magically been covered in sand.
"Guys, I think we're in for a fight."
"HOW NICE OF YOU TO FINALLY JOIN US!" the orator said. "WE HAVE BEEN WAITING BUT NOW THE FUN CAN BEGIN, HOPEFULLY YOU CAN LAST LONGER THAN THAT OTHER GROUP OF DEMIGODS YOU SENT DOWN HERE, THEY WERE NO FUN!"
Hearing this, Annabeth ran towards them yelling "YOU WERE THE ONES WHO KILLED MY FRIENDS, I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL KILL YOU!" but once she reached the wall she realized that there was no way up to him. She came back furious and looked like she could decapitate someone which was very much possible.
"YOU'LL GET YOUR CHANCE ANNABETH CHASE BUT ONLY IF YOU CAN BEAT THE FIRST 10 ROUNDS. NOW CROWD, THANK YOU TO OUR NEW SPONSOR CRONOS, WE HAVE SOME NEW FIGHTERS JOINING US TODAY! CAN WE PLEASE PUT A ROUND OF APPLAUSE TOGETHER FOR OUR FIRST FIGHT, DEMIGODS VERSUS DRACAENAE!". The crowd cheered as soon as the announcer said dracaenae showing who they were supporting. I looked around and took stock of what we were armed with before the dracaenae came out. Annabeth and Clarisse had only swords left, they lost their shields when we ran from that last room. Frank still had his spear and legionary shield, not sure how he kept the shield for so long. Will and Jess still had their bows and their quivers were enchanted to never run out of arrows. Jason had his sword out and I had my trusty pen. Not the best of odds since only one of us had a shield.
"Annabeth" I called over to her, "what do we do!?"
"Form a line, Frank in the middle with me and Clarisse on his side and you and Jason take the flanks! We hold them in the middle and you two do whatever you can to take them from the sides. Jess and Will, stay back and find an angle." Before she could give more orders a section of the wall moved to the side and out slithered our opponents. There was 20 or so of them and they moved in formation. They presented a wall of shields with the second rank with spears overhead to stab down at us. Those armed only with swords fanned out the sides and immediately I knew we were in trouble, if they reached us then those with spears could easily take us down since we had no way of protecting ourselves. All of a sudden two of the dracaenae on the flank I was on dropped and turned to dust. I looked behind me and saw that Will and Jess were on my side also taking out the enemy giving me better odds.
"Go and help Jason now" I called out to them after they had taken down two more that were walking towards me. "I can handle the rest here!". They moved to the side and I noticed that we only had a few seconds left before they reached our line. I looked across at my friends and saw that a few of them seemed to accept their fate, Frank was still standing defiantly, looking at the enemy as if he was going to kill them all. I met eyes with Jason and he glanced at the enemy in front of him, Jess and Frank had taken out a number of his threat also and the look he gave me told me his plan. I nodded and I saw his fingers raise on the pommel of his sword. 3 fingers were up, then 2, 1, and we charged. The line of dracaenae stopped moving forward and each of them looked at us, unfortunately our friends were also surprised at our rush so they didn't rush out with us so it was 2 demigods attacking the flanks of 14 dracaenae. What we lacked in numbers we made up for in skill. Jason ducked under the first sword swing and went down on one knee, thrusting his sword into the snake demons gut then got up and looked around seeing who was willing to approach him. I ran up on the other side and ploughed between two dracaenae who were stalled by our charge. I turned around and stabbed one high in the back and it went down with a scream. I pulled my sword free and swung at the other that I pushed but she had regained her wit and parried it. I feinted a cut towards her stomach and as she went to parry it again I angled my sword upwards cutting off her clawed hand. I hit her in the head with my pommel then stabbed her in the chest, watching her turn to dust.
I looked over and saw that the entire formation of monsters had stopped and a few were leaving it to come meet Jason and I. On the bright side, that meant our friends had better odds but ours just got much worse. Three dracaenae advanced towards me, one with a sword and two with spears that were behind the shield wall originally. I was about to fall back a few steps when the enemy with a sword dropped then the dracaenae with a spear to her left dropped also. I saw the arrows in their chests and knew that Will and Jess were behind me. I charged forward and the dracaenae flinched backwards, tripping on her own tail and was dust before she hit the ground. I turned around again and saw that the others had charged into the wall. Frank had run through the center and using his weight, pushed aside any enemy that was in front of him and the two girls took out any snake demons that he moved out of position. The shield Frank had proved to be impenetrable to the spears and Frank ploughed on only hesitating to run his own spear through the nearest dracaenae. He was soon on the other side of the enemy formation and a quick count showed that they were down to nine. We now surrounded them, Clarisse and Annabeth infront of them, Jason and I on their flanks and Frank behind. Jess and Will moved to either side, slightly behind the two girls and looked for any opening to shoot their arrows at. The dracaenae were only armed with shields now, the rest of their formation having already turned to dust so with no weapons, they were hopeless. We all charged in at once and the force of our charge pushed them into each other and they were cut down within a minute. The last being run through the side of her waist with Franks spear.
All was quiet but then the crown burst into applause, "CONGRAGULATIONS DEMIGODS. YOU HAVE BEAT THE FIRST TASK BUT THERE IS NO TIME FOR REST. THE SECOND-ROUND WILL PROVE TO BE EVEN HARDER, MAY I INTRODUCE, THE SECOND COMPETITOR OF THE NIGHT, _"
I'm gonna leave it on a nice cliff hanger here and I would like to apologize for the very late addition. I am only now started to wrap up my school year, I hope you all understand! I hope you enjoy and if you have any comments feel free to review, thanks!
-AnonymousWriter
