I have returned!
I was caught up in finals, my other stories, writer's block, the fact that fight scenes aren't very encouraging to write with, and suddenly I've been gone for months. But at least I haven't made plans to abandon the story completely. I will finish this story, dammit!
Reviews bring encouragement.
Enjoy! :)
First Person: Zytaveon
I couldn't tell if I was relieved or completely confused. Everything suddenly grew quiet upon the god's arrival; the machines ground to a halt, the wild animals stopped growling, and the two leopards that had gone after Piper's pot roast paced over - still licking their lips from said meal - and butted their heads affectionately against the god's legs, and Bacchus scratched their ears.
"Really, Ephialtes," He chided. "Killing demigods is one thing, but using leopards for your spectacle? That's over the line." The giant made a squeaking sound.
"This…this is impossible. D-D-"
"It's Bacchus, actually, my old friend," Said the god. "And of course it's possible. Someone told me that there was a party going on." He looked the same as he had in Kansas, meaner, leaner, with less of a potbelly than Dionysus. He had longer hair, more spring in his step, and a lot more anger in his eyes. He even managed to make a pinecone on a stick look intimidating.
"Took you long enough," Zy muttered. "There's such thing as fashionably late, but you, sir, are just plain late."
"Oh, I'm hurt, Ode. And here I thought you liked having center stage." Ephialtes's spear quivered.
"You…you gods are doomed! Be gone, in the name of Gaea!"
"Hmm," Bacchus hummed, unimpressed. He strolled through the ruined props, platforms, and special effects. "Tacky." He waved his hand at a painted wooden gladiator, then turned to a machine that looked like an oversized rolling pin studded with knives. "Cheap. Boring. And this…" He inspected the rocket-launching contraption, which was still smoking. "Tacky, cheap, and boring. Honestly, Ephialtes. You have no sense of style."
"STYLE?!" The giant's face flushed. "I have mountains of style! I define style! I…I…"
"My brother oozes style," Otis suggested.
"Thank you!" Ephialtes cried. Bacchus stepped forward, and the giants stumbled back.
"Have you two gotten shorter?" Asked the god.
"We did drop a rock on Otis," Audrey admitted.
"Oh, that's low!" Ephialtes growled. "I'm quite tall enough to destroy you, Bacchus! You gods, always hiding behind your mortal heroes, trusting the fate of Olympus to the likes of these." He sneered at Percy, while Jason hefted his sword.
"Lord Bacchus, are we going to kill these giants or what?"
"Well, I certainly hope so," Bacchus said. "Please, carry on." Percy stared at him.
"Didn't you come here to help?" Bacchus shrugged.
"Oh, I appreciated the sacrifice at sea. A whole ship full of Diet Coke. Very nice. Although I would've preferred Diet Pepsi."
"Of course you would," Zy deadpanned.
"And six million in gold and jewels," Percy muttered.
"Yes," Bacchus said. "Although with demigod parties of five or more the gratuity is included, so that wasn't necessary."
"What?"
"Nevermind. At any rate, you got my attention. I'm here. Now I need to see if you're worthy of my help. Go ahead. Battle. If I'm impressed, I'll jump in for the grand finale."
"I told you this was how they operated," Zy muttered.
"We speared one," Percy said.
"Dropped the roof on the other," Audrey added.
"But someone was late to the party and didn't see it," I added.
"What do you consider impressive?" Percy asked.
"Ah, a good question…" Bacchus tapped his thyrsus before giving a smile that made everyone think 'Uh-oh.' "Perhaps you need inspiration! The stage hasn't been properly set. You call this a spectacle, Ephialtes? Let me show you how it's done." The god dissolved into purple mist, and Piper, Zy and Nico disappeared.
"Pipes!" Jason yelled. "Bacchus, where did you-?" The entire floor rumbled and began to rise, the ceiling opened in a series of panels, sunlight pouring in, the air shimmering like a mirage, and the roar of a crowd could be heard above. The hypogeum ascended through a forest of weathered stone columns, into the middle of a ruined coliseum, but not just any coliseum, the Colosseum. The giants' special effects machines had gone into overtime, laying planks across ruined support beams so the arena had a proper floor again, the bleachers repairing themselves until they were gleaming white. A giant red-and-gold canopy extended overhead to provide shade from the afternoon sun, the emperor's box was draped with silk, flanked by banners and golden eagles, and the roar of applause came from thousands of shimmering purple ghosts, the Lares of Rome brought back for an encore performance and happy to have entertainment even after death.
Vents opened in the floor and sprayed sand across the arena. Huge props sprang up - garage-size mountains of plaster, stone columns, and (for some reason) life-sized plastic barnyard animals. A small lake appeared to one side, ditches crisscrossing the arena floor in case anyone was in the mood for trench warfare. The four of us stood together facing the twin giants and Kaze.
"This is a proper show!" Boomed the voice of Bacchus. He sat in the emperor's box wearing purple robes and golden laurels. At his left sat Nico, Piper, and Zy, Piper's shoulder being tended by a nymph in a nurse's uniform, and Zy drinking some nectar, healing herself with her own magic, and then drinking more. At Bacchus's right crouched a satyr, offering up Doritos and grapes. The god raised a can of Diet Pepsi and the crowd went respectfully quiet.
"You're just going to sit there?!" Percy shouted, glaring up at him.
"The demigod is right!" Ephialtes bellowed. "Fight us yourself, coward! Um, without the demigods." Bacchus smiled lazily.
"Juno says she's assembled a worthy crew of demigods. Show me. Entertain me, heroes of Olympus. Give e a reason to do more. Being a god has its privileges." He popped his soda can top, and the crowd cheered. Zy stood, stretching and pulling her hair back into a ponytail.
"This is why I hate the gods," She muttered.
"Your welcome," Bacchus said, drinking his Pepsi.
"Apollo's still my favorite, wine dude." She jumped down into the Colosseum and walked over to us. "Time to play our roles."
Even though I was already told the gods did things like this, I was still furious. Fighting the giants was one thing, but making it into a game was something else. Maybe this was one of the reasons Kaze could believe what Gaea told him about the gods. We fought so hard for them, we were risking our lives time and time again, and all the instances where we ask for just a little mercy, it's all just a game to them. The giants and Gaea were on the verge of rising and overthrowing the gods, and they posed a serious threat, yet the gods seemed to either choose to remain oblivious to the danger or didn't take it seriously enough.
We demigods were just pawns of the gods, and even when we proved ourselves over and over, their pride and hubris never ceased. Maybe the gods were better than the Titans, or the giants, or Gaea, but that didn't make them good or wise. It just meant they were what we had to settle for, they were the best thing we were gonna get, even if they weren't everything we'd prefer.
"Five against three?" Ephialtes asked. "Well, this just won't do." He pulled out what looked to be a grenade before smashing it down into the ground in front of him. "Mother left me a present in the event something like this occurred." A pool of darkness formed where he'd smashed the egg-shaped pebble, and I instantly sensed something vile coming from it. There were different types of darkness and death, and I liked the good kind of death, natural death like from my father's realm, but this was just disgusting, unnatural, and it made my gut twist in sickness.
Out of the vat rose two bodies, one female, and one male. They seemed to be made of tar, like Kako, but they took shape quickly and solidified people. The male seemed to be half-Asian, half Caucasian, with golden hair and deep blue eyes. He wore a military-style outfit, thick pants, and T-shirt, combat boots, along with a red trench coat that almost seemed to be shimmering like a lava lamp. The female seemed to lean more to the Asian side, with brown hair pulled into a fishtail braid at her right shoulder, and grass-green pupils. She looked like she came straight from the Hunters of Artemis, decked out in jeans, camo shoes with a wedge, a black T-shirt, fingerless gloves, a bag at either hip hanging from her belt, and an olive green trench coat like the man's. Both of them had pale, smooth skin, like porcelain, but it was visibly cracking, and their sclera were midnight black, accentuating their eye colors while also making them look like monsters.
The waves of undead energy they were giving off was almost enough to make me hurl. They weren't alive by any means, their souls had long since left their bodies, but they were still animated with some kind of unholy force - worse than anything I'd ever encountered. Not to mention how powerful it was. They were radiating waves of the unnatural energy so powerful that it seemed to be pushing through the air like a perpetual shockwave from an explosion, as though they had their own gravitational forces, but in reverse.
"Well, that can't be good," Audrey muttered. Zy was staring at them in shock, and Kaze didn't seem to be any better. He seemed to have been unaware of this scheme, and I couldn't tell if he was looking at them in shock or horror. Zy, who had just healed herself up, was now taking shallow breaths, as if on the verge of hyperventilating, and I was just sick from the aura of the two making the air like poison, especially for my Underworld-y sense of smell.
Ephialtes and Otis decided it was a good time to start the battle since half of us were taken off guard and no point in wasting an opportunity for a preemptive. Together, the giants picked up a fake mountain as big as an apartment building and hurled it at us. Jason and Percy dove into the nearest trench, while Audrey pulled me into another in the opposite direction, the sudden movement causing me to nearly lose my lunch. Zy, however, stayed exactly where she was right where the plaster boulder would've landed. I say 'would've' because the instant it came close, she exploded with electricity, a thunderous boom ringing out across the Colosseum that shook the ground and had to have been heard back in the States. The fake mountain didn't stand a chance and was instantly destroyed, raining down plaster shrapnel everywhere.
"How dare you?!" She shouted, drawing her bow. "HOW DARE YOU?!" She launched forward with a gust of wind as though she'd gained Kaze's speed, and charged right at the reanimated man. I thought he'd be instantly disintegrated with an angry Lucy - yes, Lucy, because there was no one I knew better that had a temper like this, not even Zyanya - charging at him at that speed with her choice weapon drawn, but a split second before she made contact, he raised his hand and in a flash of light, a glowing red longbow that matched his trench coat appeared and blocked her attack. The longbows were identical in shape and size, but he blocked the attack with only one outstretched arm and wasn't even straining. I suppose, being a reanimated being of some of the nastiest evil I've ever come into contact with, he would be built to be unfeeling, unburdened by the limitations that he might have once had in life. If this was a trick that Gaea had full access too, making warriors with unlimited strength, unburdened by emotions or feelings, and so powerful, we were in serious trouble.
"What the hell is that thing?" Audrey asked, watching the scene unfold. "That hit had to have ripped his arm clean off at the angle he's blocking it!"
"A reanimation," I said. "It's unholy. The smell itself just makes me sick, even from here. Those are the shells of once-living people, but they aren't animated by souls. They have a kind of dark magic within them that…I can't even begin to describe it."
"Did Gaea make them while Thanatos was captured?"
"No. Thanatos's capture resulted in souls being able to roam freely from the Underworld. Even the Doors of Death work by preventing souls - and bodies - of monsters from returning to the world of the living. But like I said, these things don't need souls."
"So Gaea has a way to bring back the dead even with Thanatos up and running and the Doors of Death closed?!"
"I won't say that. The amount of power that it took to make these things…there's no way she'd be able to repeat the process an infinite amount of times, and the whole point is that these are just imitations. No better than dolls. Even if she made one, say, of a giant we'd defeated, it wouldn't actually be the giant. It would just be a shell, since obviously, the real giant would be in Tartarus. But the thing would still have the giant's power, if made correctly, along with the added benefit of not being susceptible to the whole "keep them talking" trick since they don't have personalities, no hubris to exploit. Plus, they don't feel anything. We could tear off their limbs and rip out their brains and they wouldn't feel it. They'd be able to keep going without so much as flinching."
"Oh, is that all?" She asked sarcastically.
"They might have enough dark energy within them to re-grow and heal any damage we do. Just a theory, but a plausible one. I'd assume they're resistant to any elements we can throw at them, because that dark energy is dense, and it'd be like trying to disintegrate a rock with a blowtorch. And though they don't have souls, it's entirely possible that they're able to learn and adapt in battle. If Gaea provides them with memory, they might even be able to take other forms and use the whole empathy tactic."
"Okay, now I wish I had Emily here instead of you, because you are seriously not helping. Got anything useful?"
"I don't know enough about them-"
"Oh really?"
"-to know what their weaknesses are. All I can suggest is to throw all we have at them, try all the tricks we've got. My chains of darkness, for example, might be able to grab ahold and drain them of their dark energy, but then again, they don't have souls, so it could end up poisoning my chains with the energy instead. Maybe your water can purify them or something, or they're like zombies from Final Fantasy X, and healing efforts will actually hurt them. Then we have the giants to worry about as well."
"Compared to those things, I think Percy and Jason have it easy going one-on-one with the twins."
"Fair enough. But one-on-one wasn't working before, clearly. They're probably gonna have to work together somehow. We're were built as a team for a reason. Keep track of them just in case if you can, but right now, we need to focus our efforts on those two reanimations. They probably have even more tricks up their sleeves, so be on alert."
"Obviously."
"Remember that they're unfeeling, so a sonic scream probably won't do anything. Your ability to change to water might get you out of some tight spots, and you might be able to rip them apart from the inside. Try everything. Freezing them, boil them, knock them back with a hurricane. I'll try to eat them with my Kako, turn them to dust, and Zy, well…" We looked over to see her bashing away at the reanimated man with her bow, sparks flying with every strike as she screamed her lungs out in some kind of rage. "I think she gets the point."
"What's up with her?"
"Don't know, but it's certainly made her scary. Good for unleashing some serious chaos, but it also makes her reckless. She's thrown caution out the window, and while that might make her on equal grounds with the reanimations, they won't feel the consequences and she will."
To prove my point, she was thrown back by the reanimated man, who seemed to be adjusting and seeing how strong he was. He swung his bow to intercept hers, seemingly studying her moves up until now, and with the booming force of the clash and his more solid position sent her flying back through the air like she was a baseball and he'd swung without even knowing what was going to happen. She flipped mid-flight and landed on her feet, charging back in, but the women jumped in the way, tossing a grenade from her bag swiftly. It exploded in Zy's face, and she stumbled both from the force and the gas that was released from the small projectile. The woman then took the opportunity to kick Zy in the face in one fluid motion, clearly having more control over her body than the man.
"Zy!"
"Come on, we need to help her!" Audrey and I ran out, while Percy and Jason charged out of their trench to the twins. They had lifted another plaster mountain and were waiting for a clear shot. The giants raised it above their heads, preparing to throw, and Percy caused a water pipe to burst at their feet, shaking the floor. Jason sent a blast of wind against Ephialtes's 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's 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.
"Hey, Otis!" Percy called. "The Nutcracker bites!"
"Ahhhhh!" Otis snatched up his spear and threw, but he was too angry to aim straight. Jason deflected it over Percy's head and into the lake. The demigods backed towards the water, shouting insults about ballet - which must a challenge, since I know they didn't understand much about ballet at all. Otis barreled towards them empty-handed, before apparently realizing that A) he was empty-handed, and B) charging towards 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, Percy and Jason attacked as one. They launched themselves at the giant and brought their 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. Percy churned the lake into a whirlpool. Otis's essence tried to reform, but as his head appeared from the water, Jason called lightning and blasted him to dust again.
Meanwhile, Audrey and I charged in to take on the reanimations, which was probably an even worse idea than charging in empty-handed to fight a son of Poseidon beside a large body of water, but what the Hades could possibly go wrong? We each charged for the reanimation of our matching gender, and I moved to strike the man. He blocked with his longbow, and it was like hitting a solid brick wall with a stick. There was absolutely no leverage or strain from his block, and when he swung me away, there was nothing I could do but move my sword out of the way of his swing or get a Stygian iron blade to the face.
Audrey charged in with her dagger in right hand and a large mass of water floating around her left at the woman. She didn't have any physical weapons as far as I could see, but she dodged Audrey's attack by simply side-stepping at the absolute last second. Audrey, completely sure she was going to make contact with something, stumbled forward from the lack of a solid hit and found herself kicked to the ground with her momentum working against her. She rolled to her feet and held her hand with the water around it forward, sending snakes of water towards the reanimation that scattered and surrounded her. They all froze to sharpened points on the ends as she willed them to all converge on the female as fast as she could. They managed to pierce her body through multiple times, columns of ice pinning her to the floor, but she merely looked to the large spikes of ice running her through like a game of Ker-Plunk in disinterest, as though she was trying on an outfit and didn't like it. She brought her hand up and then smashed it through the ice with ease, freeing herself and pushing any of the ice still remaining within her out as the holes created in her body mended themselves. Even her clothes sealed themselves closed once more, no evidence of her ever being impaled left behind.
"Aw, crud," Audrey muttered.
I summoned my shadow chains to try and restrain the man, but when they tried to grab him, they soared right through as though the chains were nothing but holograms. He wasn't considered undead, which made sense, as the chains were built to recollect escaped souls, and there weren't any souls in there to collect. Summoning undead warriors clearly weren't going to work, so the Kako were up next. I summoned tar pits all around the man, some underneath him, and they began to converge on him, attempting to eat him up. Inside the Kako were souls, trapped within because of the Curse of the Kako that Annabeth had explained, and I could sense the souls, and therefore control them. Yet the moment they touched that man, he absorbed the souls, and instead of the Kako eating him, he ate the Kako! They began to disappear, though not out of fear. They willingly walked right up to the man, allowing him to touch them and then absorb them, their tar bodies moving like ink and molding into him before disappearing as though they had never been there. The souls within the Kako disappeared, they were being destroyed by his touch! I called off the Kako frantically, and to be honest, I wasn't really willing to try and turn this guy to dust.
"Kaze!" Zy shouted. "Will you allow this to continue? Will you allow their bodies to be defiled like this? Allow these unholy creatures to roam the earth, tearing everything apart in their paths? Gaea took their bodies, made them into these. Can you really say she does what she does for good? She is bitter, she is evil, and now she doesn't fight just for her rights! She fights to defile all you hold dear, and she will continue doing such things if she is allowed to wake! What she does, she doesn't do for a good cause! Please, Kaze, please! You have to stop fighting us! Be angry at the gods, wish for them to suffer in the depths of Tartarus if you must, but if you turn against them, you will also be turning against everyone else! People who shouldn't be brought into the gods' affairs! You don't want others to be drawn in, to have to suffer like you did, but by fighting them, that is exactly what you're doing! If the world is ruled by Gaea and her children, humans won't be allowed into the mix. You'll be taking away billions of lives, innocent lives, who have no idea that this war is going on, that the gods even exist. Your mother, Tsuchi, should've never had to suffer, but at least while she was dead, she was at peace. Now, while she's like that, she'll forever be in pain under the control the earth goddess. She will forever be defiled."
Kaze stared at the woman sadly. So was that Tsuchi? Kaze's mother? She looked only slightly older than me. Even if Kaze was just being born while she was that old, she had to have been in her teenage years when she gave birth to Kaze if she died when he was three. Heck, she might've even been my age when Kaze was born. She had to have been angry if Hermes just up and left her pregnant while she was a teenager. At least if Kaze was born a mind-child like Annabeth, she wouldn't have had to deal with all the caveats of giving birth. And then, even after Kaze was born, she ran away once more, attempting to raise Kaze on the run as an orphan instead of trying to fix her life for his sake. She was so angry, so bitter, promised the love of a god and then abandoned with nothing.
And now she was trapped with that anger being used as a top-notch weapon.
As if our problems weren't bad enough, but Percy and Jason couldn't keep Otis down forever. Percy was already tired from his fight underground, his gut still ached from getting smacked with a spear shaft, he could definitely feel his strength waning, and they still had another giant to deal with. As if on cue, the plaster mountain exploded behind them. Ephialtes rose, bellowing with anger. Percy and Jason waited as he lumbered towards them, 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, and 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. Percy tried to keep the lake churning, wanting to keep Otis from rising and joining the fight, but as Ephialtes closed the last few feet, Percy had to switch focus. Jason and he met the giant's charge, lunging around Ephialtes, stabbing and slashing in a blur of gold and bronze, but the giant parried every strike.
"I will not yield!" Ephialtes roared. "You may have ruined my spectacle, but Gaea will destroy your world!"
"I felt more threatened by a fallen angel!" Zy shouted. She charged in and took Ephialtes's spear attack head-on, the spear-shaft snapping in half, though the giant wasn't fazed. He swept low with the blunt end, and though she jumped over it, even landing on the broken spear while it was in motion and launching herself up, Percy was knocked off his feet - being slightly less agile and prepared. Percy landed hard on his sword arm, and Riptide clattered out of his grip. When Zy came back down, she kicked Ephialtes across the face as hard as she could, rolling to a stop when she hit the ground again.
"Hey! Papa! Come and get it!"
The undead man instantly looked over at her, having been merely standing and staring at the scene unfolding previously.
"Come on! Test yourself! Test me! Can you hit me?! What happens when you charge me, huh?! What happens when I taunt you?!"
"What is she doing?" Audrey asked.
"The guy is still fresh," I explained. "Look at the way he's surveying everything. He doesn't understand the basics of battle, and he's only got his logic to go on. For now, he can't be sure whether her taunts are real or not, whether she's just bluffing. Study enough in life and it might become a lot easier for him to deduce, but for now, it seems that's the only advantage over these two that we have."
"And taunting the super-fast, super-strong, undead warrior is helping how?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Too obvious."
"That's the point."
"Wait a minute."
"Hm?"
"Did she just call him 'Papa?'"
The man charged in at super-speed, leaving a shockwave behind him, and Zy held her arms out like she was asking to get shot. I had confidence she was going to move out of the way, but when she didn't, I suddenly felt a wave of panic. She couldn't take a hit at that speed, I didn't care how tough she was. Everything happened in the blink of an eye, but suddenly she was gone, and the giant got slammed into by the undead guy and shattered to dust. At first, I thought she had been crushed, but then I saw she and Kaze were lying a distance across the ring, lying winded and shocked. Kaze was quick to get to his feet and haul Zy up and over to us.
"Well, that hurt less than I expected," She muttered, regaining her balance.
"Are you crazy?!" Audrey demanded.
"Probably," She admitted. "I planned for him to hit me, but Kaze came in. Almost forgot he was there."
"You planned to get hit?" I repeated. She shrugged.
"There was no way that he was going to charge me unless he was sure I didn't have a trap planned for him, and even if I made one, he would be too fast for me. The amount of time needed to get out of the way based on my reaction time wouldn't have compared to his speed. But it would've gotten the giant off, and distracted him, so."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Let's put the 'You're a crazy fool' speech on hold for a sec and talk about who that guy is."
"He is…or looks like, my father."
"T…That's your father?"
"Blonde hair, half Asian? How many naturally blonde Asians have you met? I speculate it's an Apollo thing. I haven't seen my dad's face in person for a long time, but I know that's him."
"So, wait, Gaea brought back both of your parents?" Audrey realized. "Yours and Kaze?"
"Mind tricks, no doubt. Veon, I believe you understand the extent of these people. Put all of their invulnerabilities and skills combined with the emotional effects upon me…Gaea's pulling out a big weapon. Meaning, she's getting desperate to stop me." She chuckled, seemingly to herself. "Wow. Fancy that."
"So, got any idea how to take them down?" She took a deep breath.
"No clue," She admitted. "Best guess was to beat the crap out of them, but that didn't work. The only advantage we have is that they're still learning. But that doesn't mean they're going to become Pinocchio "If only I were a real boy" or angels "Being human is confusing but not bad." They aren't going to want emotions, and they sure as hell aren't going to be stopped by them."
"So what then?" I demanded. She looked down, her eyes darting around in thought.
"Uh…backup."
"Backup?"
"We just have to stall for a few more minutes, so yes, backup. That is the plan." Over with her father, Kaze's mother had calmly walked over and looked down to the remains of the giant in interest, as though she didn't know what was going on, but was vaguely interested. Jason charged in with his sword at the ready, but she moved swiftly, dodging his swing, kicking up the giant's spear with her foot to grab it as she spun around, and brought it around to slice the tip of his spear down Jason's chest, ripping his purple shirt into a vest. Jason stumbled, looking to the thin line of blood down his sternum. She then turned, swinging the weapon like a bat with the blunt end and knocking him full force across the ground, his gladius skittering across the arena floor and he himself sliding a good ten feet before coming to a stop, his side in so much pain that he couldn't move. 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.
"Jerk," I muttered.
"This is Bacchus we're talking about," Zy reminded him. "That was a given." The next thing that happened was slightly too fast to take in, but Kaze had apparently charged up from behind her, yet she had managed to duck under his thrown weapon as well as the physical punch that he had planned, grabbing his arm and tossing him over her shoulder and right into the rising Percy, who had stood and was moving to retrieve his weapon.
"How much time did we need for that backup again?" Audrey asked.
"Just a little longer."
Zy's father dusted the giant ashes off of him, seemingly more concerned with his jacket's appearance than the fight itself while the giant reformed behind him, slightly irritated, though that was to be expected after he just got bull-charged full force by a guy that strong. The two rising warriors walked forward towards us, and we all took up defensive stances.
"Think we stand a chance?" I asked.
"If you have to ask, then probably not," Audrey said.
"What's that old Peter Pan saying?" Zy muttered. "'To die would be a great adventure.'"
"Yeah, but he didn't have to go face his dad when he died," I pointed out.
"Look on the bright side. You'll get to be a prince full-time."
"Working errands for my dad and dealing with whiny souls for the rest of eternity. Sounds like a party."
"That's the spirit. I'll send you a postcard from Asphodel."
"I'd rather get a moogle from Valhalla, but sadly, here we are."
"Dude, Etro sounds like an awesome goddess of death compared to your dad. She's also the goddess of time and made humanity."
"Not to mention she had the power to contain the chaos of souls in Valhalla for as long as she did."
"But I want a moogle too."
"Yeah."
"You two done flirting?" Audrey asked.
"Let's go run to our deaths," Zy sighed.
"What else is new?" I pointed out. "Audrey, go and help with handling Otis and Ephialtes. At this point, I think you've got the easy job."
"I'm keeping Otis churning now," She said. "Best of luck guys."
"Ditto." Zy and I ran forward, me with my lance and her with her bow. I waved my lance and fed on its power, sending out a wave of black smoke at the two of them. As they were trying to learn about the battle, they didn't even try to avoid it, instead allowing it to start eating away at their bodies and turning every part of them that the smoke touched into dust. I had only done the technique twice before, and each time it was because I had been surrounded and was desperate - both times causing me to pass out and the second confirming that what I had done wasn't my imagination. Thanks to my lance upgrading me I was able to do it without wanting to pass out, even if I did feel the strain of the ability.
The two of them began to fall apart as the black smoke ate away at them, but their bodies were recovering just as fast as they were being dissolved. The two of us used the distraction to run up as the dust was dissolving, and each smacked the two of them with the hardest swings we could give at pieces of them that were still reforming from my smoke. It caused them each to be pushed back, but we had still felt the equivalent of hitting a brick wall with a bat, and their injuries were already closing, leaving no more weak points, and I couldn't do another cloud of smoke again without passing out.
Zy quickly drew an arrow and fired, the arrow glowing midflight with her green magic and striking her father in the chest, releasing a wave of green gas that started corroding the two of them as well, the same thing that she had used against the leopards before. The technique was different from mine, obviously, but it served the same purpose in distracting them and breaking through their rapidly recovering bodies and allowed us to strike. Zy shot another arrow, this time glowing with her purple energy, and it exploded with the normal force of one of her exploding arrows - enough to knock the two of them back once more.
"Veon!" She ordered. She spun her bow across the ground in a circle, sweeping it in front of me before she reached my feet. On the Argo II we had had little time to train, but the time that we did get we used to make up battle plans - most of which Zy came up with. Inspired by Final Fantasy - because what else were we supposed to nerd over? - we had figured out a way to allow me to do one of my favorite attacks.
I took a small jump to allow her to get her bow beneath my feet, and it one swift motion, she used her momentum that she'd built up in her swing to turn vertical and launch me up into the air (and don't get me started on how many failed attempts in training had led to her nearly breaking my legs, honestly). Her bow also glowed the moment she'd made contact with me, sending the aura up to surround me before gathering on my lance. I twisted in the air as I was launched forward towards the two warriors, and then I swung my lance downwards, the weapon dragging me down as though gravity had increased.
"Highwind!" I slammed down upon the two dazed and distracted undead, coming down upon them with a blast that shook the ground and sent each of them flying in either direction. The two of them actually grunted in surprise from the attacks, and their feet left the ground, causing them to land on their sides. They rolled across the ground for a short distance before they swiftly rose to their feet again, the damage actually having blown away most of the front of their bodies. The bad news was, the damage was being repaired as quickly as ever.
Meanwhile, Audrey was holding off Ephialtes using the pond water that was keeping Otis at bay, which must've been some kind of irony, considering she was killing two birds with one stone, holding off one of them while actually using the other. Ephialtes was swinging his two halves of his broken spear at the water that was surrounding him, Otis's gargled grunts and screams filling the air as he was smacked along with the water. Audrey was managing to keep the giant from charging at her, shoving him back with the water every time he tried to rush forward, but even with all the training we'd done before the trip to New Rome, she was losing her strength keeping up the water.
Eventually, the giant broke her water ring around him, the entire thing exploding and Audrey, unable to sustain it any longer, was being thrown back from the blast. She landed near Percy, Kaze, and Jason, who she was protecting behind her from the giant, and was ready to pass out from the energy she used and the blast knocking the wind out of her. She flicked her hand and her trident came from her cuff, and though it gave her strength to help her stay conscious, she had to lean on it in her attempt to get back to her feet, breathing heavily and with little hope that she was even going to be able to swing the thing once, let alone protect the boys.
Percy glanced up at Bacchus, deciding what final curse he would hurl at the useless wine god, when he saw a shape in the sky above the Colosseum - a large dark oval descending rapidly.
"Finally," Zy muttered.
From the ground where he was reforming, Otis yelled, trying to warn his brother, but his half-dissolved face could only manage, "Uh-umh-mooo!"
"Don't worry brother!" Ephialtes said, his eyes 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," Percy said. "Look behind you." Percy and Jason each rolled out of the way while Audrey hauled herself up to dive to the side with Percy and Kaze to the side with Jason as Ephialtes turned and bellowed in disbelief. Percy and Audrey dropped into a trench, and then Zy grabbed my arm to pull me into another just as the explosion rocked the Colosseum. When we climbed out - Jason and Kaze poking their heads out from behind their improvised bomb shelter of a plastic horse - they all saw the Argo II coming in for a landing.
"Argo ex Machina," I muttered. Zy chuckled.
"Oh yeah." Ephialtes lay charred and groaning on the arena floor, the sand around him seared into a halo of glass by the heat of the Greek fire. Otis was floundering in the ground in his puddle of water, trying to reform, but from the arms down he looked like a puddle of burnt oatmeal. Tsuchi and Zy's father were lying on the ground, their essences reforming much slower than before as well as being on fire. Percy staggered over to Jason and clapped him on the shoulder, while we walked over to Audrey, who seemed content just sitting in the trench trying to regain her breath.
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, Emily, and Frank grinning at his side. Coach Hedge danced around the firing platform, pumping his fist in the air.
"That's what I'm talking about!" He yelled.
"Of course it was the goat at the ballista," Zy sighed with a smile. Percy turned to the emperor's box.
"Well?" He 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 him 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!"
"I think we proved ourselves a long time ago," Zy hissed. "But someone was too lazy to take that into consideration, huh?" Bacchus walked to the puddle of Otis, and the water vaporized, leaving an Otis-headed pile of mush. Bacchus picked his way to the bottom and looked up at the crowd. The crowd jeered and hollered and pointed their thumbs down. I had never been sure whether that meant live or die. I'd heard it both ways, and my sophomore World Studies class had also said it was debatable.
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. I assumed it was because this fight, that could've been ended long ago, was finally over because Bacchus had finally done his part. 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.
"All of us nearly died, for him to poke the giant with a pinecone," Audrey grumbled. 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!"
"He kill-stealed like the bastard he is," Zy muttered. "There's a difference." As the others disembarked from the ship, the crowd of ghosts shimmered and disappeared. I helped Nico struggle down from the emperor's box as the Colosseum's magical renovations began to turn into mist, Piper in much better condition and able to hop down herself. The arena floor remained solid, but otherwise the stadium looked as if it hadn't hosted a good giant killing for eons.
"Well," Bacchus said. "That was fun. You have my permission to continue your voyage."
"Your permission?" Percy snarled.
"Yes." Bacchus raised an eyebrow. "Although your voyage may be a little harder than you expect, son of Neptune."
"Poseidon," Percy corrected him automatically. "What do you mean about my voyage?"
"And don't even get me started about you, daughter of Zenobia. In any case, you might try the parking lot behind the Emmanuel Building. Best place to break through. Now, good-bye, my friends. And, ah, good luck with that other little matter."
"Oh just leave already!" Zy snapped. The god vaporized in a cloud of mist that smelled faintly of grape juice. Jason ran to meet Piper, Nico, and I, while Coach Hedge trotted up to Percy, Audrey, Kaze, and Zy, with Hazel, Frank, Emily, and Leo close behind.
"Was that Dionysus?" Hedge asked. "I love that guy!"
"The feeling is not mutual," Audrey muttered.
"You're alive!" Percy said to the others. "The giants said you were captured. What happened?" Leo shrugged.
"Oh, just another brilliant plan by Leo Valdez."
"And Emily," Frank jumped in.
"You'd be amazed what you can do with an Archimedes sphere, a girl who can sense stuff underground, a girl who can understand all the complex stuff that no one else does and is able to explain it far better than I, and a weasel."
"I was the weasel," Frank said glumly.
"Basically, we activated a hydraulic screw with the Archimedes device - which is going to be awesome once I install it in the ship, by the way - Hazel sensed the easiest path to drill to the surface, we made a tunnel big enough for a weasel, and Frank climbed up with a simple transmitter that we slapped together. After that, it was just a matter of hacking into Coach Hedge's favorite satellite channels and charming him into ignoring said satellite channels to come and bring the ship around to rescue us. After he got us, finding you was easy, thanks to that godly light show at the Colosseum."
"Where's Annabeth?" Percy asked, seemingly trusting Leo's word even if he understood only about 10 percent of what he'd said. Leo winced.
"Yeah, about that…she's still in trouble, we think. Hurt, broken leg, maybe - at least according to this vision Gaea showed us. Rescuing her is our next stop." Two seconds before, Percy had been ready to collapse. Now another surge of adrenaline coursed through his body. He was probably debating whether he was grateful or angered that Leo hadn't gone to Annabeth's rescue first, but no time for that.
"Tell me about the vision," He said. "Tell me everything." The floor began to shake, and the two undead reanimations suddenly shot to their feet, now fully restored.
"Uh oh," Audrey muttered. But the two of them simply scanned the scene before each back-flipping out of the Colosseum and disappearing. Their exit didn't help with the floor, the wooden planks beginning to disappear, spilling sand into the pits of the hypogeum below.
"Let's talk onboard," Hazel suggested. "We'd better take off while we still can."
