Before we start I wanna quickly apologize for how long this took, I've just been very busy and haven't had a lot of time to work on this chapter and even still it isn't completely done. This is the first two part chapter. It was originally gonna be like 6k words but then I felt like it wasn't long enough so I kept writing during times I wasn't busy and then I realized how long it's been since I updated so I made the call to split the heist into two parts. The second part shouldn't take as long and probably won't be as long as this chapter but that's subject to change. Thank you all for waiting and please enjoy.
Las Vegas
"Alright kiddos, we're here."
Atreus and Annabeth, sitting in the backseat, looked out the window to their target. The Bright Hollow Club was a lavishly decorated building with a flower as its symbol, many midgardians clamored outside at the front doors hoping to get in, supposedly it was a destination for many of the rich and famous types that often came to Las Vegas - so Annabeth said. Alongside the Midgardians were Elves who acted as security; Garte was right the Elves looked very much the same as anyone else up front, but if you got closer or knew what to look for there were signs of their differences. The Elves were paler than most, the tips of their ears were slightly sharpened with equally sharp faces.
"It looks busy out there." Atreus noted.
"Yeah, last I heard the elves got some minor god to come and do some stupid poetry, Daphne or something?" Garte shrugged.
"They won't be an issue." Annabeth said.
She pointed to the side of the building where a small alley was, an elf guard stood on watch as employees entered through a side door. "That's our way in."
Gart nodded as he unlocked the doors, "Get in there, stick to the plan, and get out. No funny business." He warned.
Annabeth and Atreus looked at each other, they were ready. "Let's do this." Atreus firmly nodded.
The two of them left the car they were in and made their way to the alley. The sunset gave the streets of Las Vegas a nice gold glow, but that wouldn't last when the two of them entered the club. Going to the employee entrance Annabeth and Atreus were stopped when the guard stood in front of them.
"I don't remember you two." He said.
"We're new." Annabeth said, unclipping her name pin to show the guard.. "I'm Windweaver, this is my friend Windcatcher." Atreus did the same.
"One moment, I need to call this in." The guard turned around and put a finger to his ear, calling to one of his co-workers.
"Don't panic," Annabeth whispered, Atreus subtly nodded. Gart assured them that Windweaver and Windcatcher would be legitimate names on the employee list, but the small tinges of doubt always made him nervous.
The elf guard made a few grunts in response to whoever was on the other end, a few 'Okays' and the guard took his finger off his ear to look at the two of them. "Management just cleared you, next time make sure you come in early so we get this sorted out faster." He stepped aside and let Atreus and Annabeth walk through.
"Of course, this won't happen again." Annabeth walked through at a brisk pace just in case the guard got any ideas.
Atreus apologized as well as he followed Annabeth into the employee entrance. The hallways were pretty much the exact same as the dwarves' casino, but the layout was different. Rooms didn't match the same shape, with different appliances in each room, but overall it felt the same. It was like coming home and seeing everything rearranged, it still felt similar but off in a way.
"Okay, we're in," Annabeth let out a breath she didn't know she was keeping in, "We have a decent layout of the building and sub-floors but we're still going to need a key to get down below."
"Garte said the floor manager should have it, Airbreeze right?" Atreus scratched his head.
Annabeth nodded, "That's her name, Garte said she's usually walking about the public area during open hours to make sure everything is going well. We just need to find her and-"
"Hey, you two." Both Annabeth and Atreus whipped their heads to the origin of the voice to see another employee, "We have a ton of messes to clean up and need all hands on deck, so quit being lazy and get out there."
Being called 'lazy' must have gotten to Annabeth, her face looked like it was thinking how best to strangle the man in front of her but she didn't say anything. "Of course, we'll be right on it." She bit out before walking toward the public area.
"We just have to blend in for now," Atreus said, "Let's go out and see what we can find." Annabeth agreed, and the two of them finally entered the public area.
The floor was frankly pleasant, the entire area was cast in a solemn blue light that made the entire floor feel muted and calm. It was certainly quieter than the dwarves own casino, the ringing of the machines even made more softer sounds with charms instead of buzzers to indicate a win.
"The machines," He pointed to one nearby, "They're infused with some magic. Makes using them more pleasant to use." He looked down the aisle to the customers, they pressed buttons, pulled levers, and swiped cards all with a smile on their face. "They're addicted." He said.
"That's Vegas for you. For now let's focus on finding Airbreeze, she could be anywhere." Atreus agreed with Annabeth and the two set off.
"Excuse me." The two of them stopped as an elderly man waved them down, "Can I get a refill?"
Annabeth was going to ignore him before seeing another employee, the same one that ushered them out earlier, giving the two of them the stink eye. Annabeth gave a small sigh before reaching out, "What would you like sir?"
"Ah, right, we have to act like workers too." Atreus lamented as another elderly woman shoved a cup in front of him asking for a refill too.
For the next half hour Atreus and Annabeth acted like employees, taking drinks, mopping floors, and having to deal with the mortals as if they were hired to. All the while every time Atreus would try to slink away from his work the same man would be there to give him a stern look. Eventually Atreus and Annabeth met near the bar where they acted like they were working on drink orders.
"He's relentless." Annabeth bemoaned.
"We have to get him off us, I think it's time you used it." Atreus nodded towards Annabeth's pocket.
"Yeah, I was starting to think the same."
The both of them looked out across the floor to see the employee, who they learned was called Lifemover, was walking between the rows of gambling machines occasionally asking the mortals if they needed anything.
"What do you think? Something big?" Atreus asked.
"If it's too big we risk shutting this place down, we need something on the smaller side. Do you have anything that works?" Annabeth asked.
Atreus thought for a moment, he might just have something. "Cover me for a second." Atreus moved away from the bar and crouched behind it. "Okay squirrel, come on out." Atreus said before chanting the summon for Ratatoskr.
Like before, the small rodent appeared in a corporeal form, "Oi, what was that for!?" The squirrel complained.
Atreus almost forgot how much of a pain this summon was, always slinging out insults and being hard to work with. It was only by how great it was finding materials for Father to use that Atreus ever kept it around. "I need you to get something for me, just like before. Can you do that?"
"What's in it for me? I was having a right nap." Atreus sighed.
"What is it you want?"
The squirrel was silent, thinking, but unfortunately Atreus wasn't being patient. "Can you just-"
"Release me after and I will do this for you." The bitter form of Ratatoskr replied.
Atreus stopped, while it was an easy request he would essentially be giving up a piece of equipment that might come in handy later. He mulled over it for a few moments before he nodded, "Fine, but you can leave only after we're done here." Atreus stipulated.
The squirrel groaned, "Fine, you'll release after you're done doing…whatever it is you're doing. So what am I looking for?"
Atreus looked up to Annabeth, "Any ideas?" He asked.
Annabeth looked around for a moment before landing on something beside him, "That cable, beside your foot." Atreus turned, sure enough a thick black rope hung loosely from an outlet in the wall.
"This thing?" He asked.
Annabeth nodded, "Those are what power the machines the mortals are using, disconnect a few of them and that would certainly cause a big enough stink. Might even catch the attention of our target."
Atreus saw the logic, it was a good enough plan. "While that gets everyone's attention, you put on the cap and nab the key card without anyone noticing." He turned back to the bitter Ratatoskr. "You got that?"
"I understood more than you, kid, you'd be useless without me." With that, the squirrel scampered out of their small area leaving Atreus and Annabeth alone.
Atreus stood up and watched the squirrel run across the floor unnoticed, either too small to gain anyone's notice or bright enough to be mistaken for a beam of light from above. Turning to Annabeth, he noticed she had taken her cap out and was watching the squirrel cross the floor into the inbetweens of the gambling machines. It didn't take long for a commotion to arise, so many mortals pressing the buttons on the machines or pulling the lever only for nothing to happen. The complaining got loud enough it started to catch the attention of some of the other employees. Of course none of them knew why the machines weren't working so they could only fumble about.
"Still don't see the target." Atreus commented, looking out across the floor.
"Same, maybe we should go-"
Annabeth's response was cut off as a loud scream could be heard across the floor, "AAAAAAAH, A RAT!" An old woman's voice screamed, jumping onto her chair to get away from the source of her terror.
"Oi! Who you calling a rat!?" Ratatoskr shouted a retort, causing the woman to scream even louder.
If there wasn't already a commotion, it just got even bigger, not just employees but some of the guards rushed over to see what was going on. It wasn't long before their target stood among them, taking command of the situation and moving the employees away.
"Now is the time to do it." Atreus said; Annabeth agreed and walked out from the bar. She quickly dipped behind a nearby pillar and put her cap on, she was gone in an instant.
Unseen by all, Annabeth moved her way into the crowd of guards and mortals. A wall of people separated her from her target, dangling from her hip was the keycard she and Atreus needed to get access to the lower floors. She was going to have to be careful, although she was invisible she had to avoid bumping into anyone. She slinked through the crowd until her target was right in front of her, just an arms length away. She reached out, slowly inching towards the keycard until her fingers grasped it. Annabeth pulled the card away but it did not come off.
The keycard was attached to a small button which held onto the card with a retractable line. The woman must have felt the card move, she looked towards her card in confusion. Thankfully at that moment another guard came by to get her attention, giving Annabeth the time to let go of the keycard.
"I think we found the issue ma'am." The guard said, holding up a chewed off portion of cable that likely belonged to the gambling machines.
Airbreeze grabbed the cable and inspected it, closely looking at the exposed end with wires sprouting out. "An animal?" She asked, squinting at the bite marks. "Somethings wrong, here." She commented before giving the cable back.
"What do you want us to do ma'am?" The guard asked.
Airbreeze thought for a moment, looking back down to her keycard (and unknowingly Annabeth). Annabeth was good at reading people, and she could see Airbreeze's mind start to turn. It was a face she often made when she was also trying to connect events to one another, and just like Annabeth she was able to connect the two.
"We have intruders." She surmised, "Don't let anyone leave, turn away every guest at the door until I say so."
The guard gave a curt nod and walked away to spread the message. "The rest of you," She said, getting the attention of every other guard, "Search around for anyone being suspicious, be on high alert but don't let the guests know there is a problem. If anyone tries to leave, give them some complimentary tokens, anything to keep them in." A series of 'Yes ma'ams' was her response as the crowd of guards left Airbreeze alone.
Airbreeze watched as the guards left, she casually put her hand over her keycard and walked off. Annabeth walked around a corner and took off her hat, and proceeded to smack her own forehead. "Of course our plan is foiled by a single retractable keycard." She groaned and walked back to Atreus.
Atreus seemed to be having just as bad a time, with everyone barred from leaving, more people were going to the bar for drinks, which Atreus had no clue how to serve. "Let me help." Annabeth said as the two of them worked the bar.
"So," Atreus started as he handed out drinks, "How did it go?"
Annabeth sighed as she poured another drink, "Not well, they're onto us. They aren't letting anyone leave and are more vigilant now. We're going to have to be a bit more direct about this." She handed the drink to Atreus who then gave it to a guest. "What about the squirrel, heard back from him yet?"
Atreus shook his head, "Nothing yet, probably laying low for now."
As the two of them served drinks, Annabeth went into a sort of auto-pilot mode as she analyzed her situation. Leaving was not an option, the guards were on high alert, they knew intruders were in the club, and that they were after the keycard. Their attempt at a quiet approach failed, and any repeated attempts would be a waste of time. What they needed was a more direct approach, try to single out their target and remove her from the rest of the guards. But how?
Before she could think, another waiter approached them with a slip of paper, "We got an order for…Ambrosia? It's for tonight's guest, be sure not to spill it."
Ambrosia? She looked in the backroom where all the fountain drinks were stored, sure enough, in big bolded letters were "AMBROSIA - ONLY FOR SPECIAL GUESTS". She got a cup and filled it in. She'd just have to think of an idea while she worked.
"You good?" Atreus asked, dealing with another set of orders.
Annabeth nodded, "I'll be back soon, hopefully with a plan."
So Annabeth followed the ticket's destination, sure enough leading to one of the more private areas for special guests. Sitting on a couch surrounded by Nymphs was a god, at least Annabeth thought so.
"Order of ambrosia?" She asked.
The god raised his hands, "Over here, my lips are parched and I need something to drink. Like a herd of sheep, my lips are left wanting for comfort." A series of giggles followed from the nymphs.
"Oh Daphnis, your poetry rivals even that of Apollo." One of them preached.
Annabeth could only roll her eyes, it wasn't even that good. Wait a minute did she say, "Daphnis, as in the Greek god Daphnis?"
That must have gotten his attention as he looked away from the nymphs to Annabeth, "Oh, you know of me? I don't get recognized very often, I'm somewhat of an underground artist." He chuckled, causing more nymphs to giggle.
The time after beating Kronos was a busy time but not one that Annabeth didn't enjoy. Architecting for Olympus was a dream of hers, and she spared no expenses when she was given the job. It went severely over-budget but it was certainly not for lack of passion. One of her goals when remaking or fixing some of the gods temples was to make a small carve out for as many of their children as possible. A reminder so that another kid will never be forgotten again, even though Percy made them swear to claim their children, having something physical would be a great reminder.
"When I was redecorating Lord Hermes temple on Olympus I made small shrines to some of his godly children. You're the god of Pastoral Poetry?" He seemed to appreciate the acknowledgement, pushing aside some of the nymphs to focus on Annabeth.
"You were the one who did that? Say, what's your name girl?" He leaned in.
"My name is Annabeth Chase, I'm a daughter of Athena. Y'know, Hero of Olympus."
She watched as the god looked at her, she could see the gears turning in his head as he tried to match the face to the name. It took an uncomfortable amount of time before he clapped his hands. "Yes, Annabeth Chase! Now I remember. What are you doing here in Vegas? Part time job?" He asked.
"More like slave work." She groaned, "I don't have a lot of time to explain but we're being forced to do a heist on the elves."
Daphnis could only shake his head, "That doesn't sound like a particularly great position to be."
"Can I ask a favor of you, can you make a scene? Cause a bunch of the guards to come to you?"
Daphnis thought about it, "Well, you did make a shrine to me. I suppose I can hear you out. What do you have in mind?"
That was the question, wasn't it? How would she be able to manufacture a situation that caused a lot of guards to focus on Daphnis and leave Airbreeze alone? Suddenly it came to her.
"How well do you handle hecklers?"
Annabeth returned to the bar where Atreus stood, in fact he looked a bit nervous. None of the guards were around, and she didn't see any employees either. It was when she got close did she understand why.
"You make a piss poor drink, kid." The sound of the rude squirrel, Ratatoskr, said from behind the counter.
"Can you stop talking, please?" Atreus asked as he poured another drink.
Annabeth chuckled, "I see the squirrel came back."
Atreus sighed, putting the drink on the counter for a customer to grab, "He's been non-stop with his…criticisms."
The squirrel chirped, "I wouldn't criticize you if you did your job right!"
"You're a hard one to please, aren't you?" Atreus groaned, filling up another cup.
Annabeth looked at the squirrel once more, "Why are you here? I thought you were going to leave?"
Despite how it's beady little eyes, Annabeth could tell it rolled them, "You think I wouldn't have if I could? Whole place is locked down tighter than a…well you two are too young to hear that. Let's just say it ain't easy getting out."
"Good," Annabeth said, "We could use your help again, this time to actually get us a way out."
Atreus looked to Annabeth, "Got a plan?"
Annabeth could only smirk, "When don't I?"
Ratatoskr coughed, "And what do you need me for again?"
Annabeth had a small smirk, "How well do you do heckling?"
Annabeth wasn't an animal person, but even she knew that a wicked smile grew on the squirrel's face, "How bad do you want it?" Ratatoskr asked devilishly.
Not long after their talk, guests at the casino gathered around a large stage awaiting for tonight's special guest. The sign at the door read "Pastoral Poetry with Daphnis, come and listen to the smoothest poetries from the Greek Pantheon." With a picture of Daphnis giving a sultry look at the camera.
The gambling hall emptied out, as most of the guests filled in the seats in the large theater some still stayed behind, either from lack of interest or still engrossed in the slot machines they operated. With so many people gone, Annabeth and Atreus were free to do as they saw fit.
"Go and get ready." She told Ratatoskr, who quickly scampered out of their small station and to the theater unnoticed.
"Daphnis won't get mad getting heckled, will he? I don't want to get another god angry with us." Atreus cautiously asked.
Annabeth shook her head, "We're good, he knows what's up. Right now, let's look out for Airbreeze and make our way down stairs." She was met with no complaints as the two walked around.
Surprisingly, Airbreeze was not out in the hall. No matter where they looked she was not there. It took asking one of the other guards to learn where she went. "The Captain is enjoying Lord Daphnis' poetry, she's a big fan of his. Why do you ask?"
Annabeth was about to respond when Atreus beat her to it, "We just got word that she was needed below, something about Alfheim. Can't really explain it, for her ears only."
The guard nodded, seemingly understanding the significance. "That does seem important, alright, go on now. We don't want the Captain getting delayed." As the two of them walked away, Annabeth gave a small nod in respect to his fast thinking.
And so the duo entered the theater, Daphnis was already on stage being applauded. He hadn't started his routine yet, so that gave them ample time to leave with Airbreeze before Ratatoskr and Daphnis started causing a scene. A quick glance over the crowd and Atreus spotted their target sitting near the back of the room overlooking everyone, giving them a great line of access to Airbreeze.
The two gave a quick nod to each other, they were ready. Annabeth quickly left, leaving the job to Atreus.
Atreus approached first, kneeling beside the guard captain and whispering under Daphis' rather poor poetry, "Excuse me ma'am, you're needed in the women's restrooms."
Airbreeze turned towards him in confusion, "What's the issue?"
"One of our guests is…well it's best if you see for yourself. It's not exactly," He briefly struggled to find a word to describe the fake situation he was coming up with before settling, "Let's say proper, to talk about."
In all his teachings, Mimir's studies on people and communication was the one that he found the most interesting. When Mimir was younger and started being a bard, he often lied a lot. Either to increase his popularity or for better stories, Mimir often made up spectacular stories. Until the day he was found out, too many lies stacked on top of one another crumbled very fast when pressured, eventually leading to a very rough crowd. He later found out that simple lies were the easiest, lies he could control. Letting out big elaborate stories would just lead to speculation by anyone smart enough to question it.
That knowledge led him here, as he guided the guard captain out of the theater. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of blue run underneath the seats. Right on time. As the two of them left, Atreus could faintly hear the sound of Ratatoskr shouting an insult at Daphnis. Airbreeze seemed to have heard it too as she glanced back at the theater doors.
"Please, ma'am, you really are needed." Atreus said, she turned away from the theater as they continued. As the two of them walked away Atreus sneakily glanced back to see guards rushing to the theater, good, that would give them more leeway in case things got rough.
Atreus stopped in front of the door to the women's restroom and let Airbreeze go first, boxing her in. Inside, she looked around, to her nothing seemed amiss. "Nothings wrong, why did-" She stopped as Annabeth burst from the stall and grabbed hold of her and put her into a choke hold.
Airbreeze struggled under Annabeths grip, but her feet were kicked out from under her, depriving her of any leverage. Annabeth squeezed harder both to knock her out faster and to brace against the wild thrashing. It didn't take too long before Airbreeze started slowing down, her arms not having the same energy lazily slapping against Annabeth until they went completely slack. Annabeth let go of her choke hold, "That should do it, " Annabeth laid Airbreeze on her side as she put her down, "Just in case, don't want her swallowing her own tongue."
Atreus looked at her concerned, "You can do that?" He asked as he carefully rubbed his neck.
Annabeth chuckled as she snapped the keycard off of the guard captain, "C'mon, we don't want to be here when she wakes up."
After exiting the restrooms the duo watched as the theater was still in a commotion, very few guards were still out on the main floor which gave them ample opportunity to reach the more secure areas. They weren't stopped as they walked across the floor to the employee backrooms, eventually making it to an elevator. To Atreus, it definitely screamed like something no one was allowed to use. The frame was made of solid metal so clean he could see his reflection, definitely intimidating.
"Here we go." Annabeth said as she slid the keycard through. The door made a deep noise, not opening for them. "Oops wrong way." She apologized as she flipped the keycard and swiped it again. This time the door chimed and opened for them.
"Ah good, it worked. Let's go." Annabeth stepped in and Atreus followed, Annabeth quickly hit a button and the elevator started going down.
It was a few minutes of waiting but eventually the elevator stopped and the door opened. When they were going over old blueprints of the bottom floors, there wasn't much to discern about the state it was in now. Only a general layout of hallways, rooms, and facilities. In a way, he was glad he didn't have any expectations because they would fall short of reality.
The walls were heavily covered in roots and vines, solid wood covered most if not all the walls, floors, and ceiling. Underneath it all he could vaguely see bits of metal like the elevator, but it was all dirtied and covered from decades of exposure.
"Wow," Annabeth said as the two of them exited the elevator, reaching down she rubbed her hand across a nearby root tracing a path on the wall. It felt smooth, as she looked closer she could see small marks across the wood indicating they were cut. Probably trimming if she had to guess.
"Kinda reminds me of Alfheim, except less gooey." Atreus noted.
"Oh, what's it like?" Annabeth asked, still inspecting the wood.
"Very pretty, aside from all the fighting." And some not great moments, but those were personal.
"Fighting?" Annabeth asked as she turned from the root.
"Yeah, light elves and dark elves fighting over the light. It gets ugly sometimes, even though they're the same." Atreus also turned away from his own inspection.
Before they came in, Gart told them that because the facility was so old there were no cameras in the hallways (Atreus had to be told what a camera was), so they could theoretically walk the halls without any problems. That said, the dwarves didn't know if there were roaming guards patrolling the halls. They would have to be careful as they walked the halls.
Fortunately they didn't need to hide that much as they continued on their path, a few Elves walked the halls occasionally but not any guards. The elves down here seemed to be staff specifically for the generator. As a couple of elves turned down their hall, Annabeth and Atreus dove into a storeroom and listened as the staff walked by.
"-..nd unconscious, management says to keep an eye out for anything suspicious." One of them said, they must have found Airbreeze in the restroom already.
"Are they sending down guards?" The other asked.
"A contingent is already coming, after that they're blocking the entrance. It's gonna be a long night." Their conversation continued but they were too far away to understand.
"We were probably going to have to deal with the guards sooner or later," Annabeth said, "We should find someplace to get some weapons, I know a bit of self-defense but you seem to rely on your bow."
Atreus nodded, "One or two sets of guards we can take, but after that it's gonna get difficult."
The two steadily exited the store room and continued walking the halls, careful to check the corners for any roaming band of guards. Ahead of them was a glass pane window, looking through it Annabeth and Atreus could finally see the generator powering all of Las Vegas. Many tiny little portals were opened on the ceiling with lines coming out from them. As Atreus looked closer he realized that some of them looked like the pinky gooey material he saw back in Alfheim, but that wasn't all. Other portals had tree bark coming through, some wires, or various other materials that Atreus couldn't discern. All of it was funneled into a magical ward, a transmutation spell from the looks of it. Although he knew his fair share, even Atreus was still a novice in magic so he couldn't quite understand how the spell worked.
The magical ward was connected to a siphon that was itself connected to a large machine, humming with energy and power lines emerging out the otherside. On the ground were dozens of elves, some were maintaining the spell, others the big machine, and some even held swords and wore elegant metal armor to guard the workers.
"This must be it." Atreus said, observing the people below.
The room itself was large, easily 3-4 stories tall. Besides the bottom most floor being where the machine and ward was maintained, the space above them was littered with catwalks going in every direction. All of which were also occupied by workers walking around going to their destination. Needless to say that sneaking into that room was going to be near impossible without getting spotted.
"That guard…" Annabeth said as she looked down, "He doesn't look like the ones we saw above, those wore suits and ties. So unless they bring them in, we might be able to find an armory."
"What do you have in mind?" Atreus asked.
Annabeth had a wry smirk on her face as she turned to him, "Have you ever seen Star Wars?" Atreus did not answer, only giving a confused look, "Just follow me." Annabeth said as the two of them moved down the hallways.
As they got deeper into the facility they noticed more and more elves, likely due to the newly arrived security personnel. Most of them still wore the suit and ties from the group above, but a few had the distinction of wearing the elegant armor they saw before. Getting a closer look, Atreus was able to notice some more details about the armor. It vaguely reminded him of the armor the light elves wore back in Alfheim, less cloth this time around. But more importantly, they had helmets that covered their faces.
"If we can get into their armory, we can maybe find a pair of armor for both of us with helmets, that will allow us to move freely without any issue." Annabeth said as the group of guards dispersed. "Worst case scenario we get you a set of armor and I use my invisible cap."
"Why is that the worst case scenario? Wouldn't it be both of us not getting a set of armor?" He asked.
"Because that's when we know we have no other choice than to go loud." Annabeth said; Atreus could see her point if they were left with no options they just had to go the direct route. It wouldn't be easy, but it would make things go by quicker.
Sneaking in the halls go a lot more difficult since they were in the more populated areas, guards started roaming in packs of threes which meant they weren't easy to take down. Finding the armory wasn't easy, as Annabeth had to go by memory alone and that didn't always line up with the actual layout of the facility, fortunately their search didn't last too long as they finally found the room. Unfortunately for them, someone was using it.
"Big guy, on the lanky side, but you can probably bet he has some good training." Annabeth said as the two of them peaked inside the room.
One elf stood alone, putting on a suit of armor which also unfortunately seemed to be the last one. "Think you can knock out this one like the guard captain?" Atreus asked.
Annabeth shook her head, "Already have half the cuirass on, a chokehold won't work nearly as well. A good blow to the head though…" Atreus followed Annabeth's vision to a nearby wall where a dozen bows were hung waiting to be used. He understood what he needed to do.
Atreus slinked into the room and made his way to the rack of bows, having one in his hand again felt good. As he stood up and readied a swing the elf turned around, "Hey wha-!" He didn't get his words out as Atreus swung hard, unfortunately the blow was blocked by the elfs arms.
The bow nearly cracked but that didn't stop Atreus from continuing his assault. The bow wasn't nearly as sturdy as his normal Talon bow but it was all he had for the moment. He swung for the back of the knee, hoping to bring his foe down, but was shoved back before he could ready another swing.
The elf looked for his sword, only to find it missing, which must mean Annabeth had come in invisible. He didn't focus too much on that fact as he got back up, with the elf distract he could push his advantage in the fight.
Atreus swung again, this time hitting the elf in his chest, the bow rattled against the metal plate. Atreus could feel the bow breaking with every swing, definitely not meant for this kind of use. Atreus swung around the elf and put the elf's head through the middle of the weapon to try and wrangle him.
"C'mon!" He shouted to Annabeth, but before she could do anything, the bow broke.
The wood grip snapped into two, letting the elf loose. Before Atreus could stop him an armored elbow caught his face. Atreus was seeing stars when another blow to his stomach hit causing him to fall to the ground. His head was swimming so badly he could barely tell that the door to the armory opened and a swarm of guards entered.
He'd been caught.
"Damn it." He groaned as he was surrounded.
Before he could say anything a fist hit him square in the face and the world went black.