LOST AT SEA | jason grace

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞.

As if on cue, the plaster mountain exploded behind them. Ephialtes rose, bellowing with anger. Percy, Jason and Lorna waited as he lumbered toward 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. 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.

The boys met the giant's charge. They lunged 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 still destroy your world!"

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

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

Up in the emperor's box, Bacchus looked on with an amused smile, munching from a bag of Doritos.

Ephialtes towered over Percy and Jason, both halves of his broken spear poised over their heads. Jason's gladius had skittered across the arena floor. 

Keeping Otis from reforming was taking up Lorna's strength. But she couldn't let her two favourite boys die. 

As Ephialtes lowered his spears, Lorna intervened. Water gathered on the head of the spears, tugging it out of his hands. Lorna threw the spears to the other end of the Colosseum. Using the Otis infused water, Lorna encased Ephialtes in water. 

Desperately and cruelly, Lorna forced water into Ephialtes' mouth, drowning him. With a flick of her hands, Ephialtes froze in the Otis water, his face stuck in a scream. 

Using what was left of his energy, Jason raised his sword, summoning lighting in the middle of the day. He aimed his sword at the block of Otis and Ephialtes ice, electrocuting them. 

The ghostly crowd gave them a standing ovation. 

Lorna, Percy, and Jason lumbered together, all three of them tattered and tired. 

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 them in the arena. He brushed Dorito dust off his purple robes. "I have decided you are worthy partners for this combat."

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

Bacchus walked to the melting block of ice. The water instantly evaporated, leaving a half-fored Otis pile of mush and a smoking Ephialtes. Bacchus looked up at the crowd. He raised his thyrsus and smacked Otis's head with his pinecone staff, and the giant pile of Otismeal disintegrated completely. The crowd went wild. Bacchus then strutted over to Ephialtes, who was still lying spread-eagled, overcooked and smoking. Again, Bacchus raised his thyrsus.

"DO IT!" the crowd roared.

"DON'T DO IT!" Ephialtes wailed.

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