Gods and Demigods Read 'The Returning Legend'

Reading 'New Beginnings' | part 4

Last time...

Cadok led Machai to a pub on the outskirts of town and asked Machai if he was sure he wanted to do this. It wasn't too late to back out. Machai got in a determined and quite grave looking stance that probably had a brave face under the mask and said, "I'm ready." and he walked inside closely followed by Cadok.

Now...

"We must hold a ceremony of idiots. We welcome the participant," Zeus summoned a life-sized Percy figure, and continued on with the 'ceremony'. "Per-erm, Machi, I officially name you an Idiot. Congrats! Now let's chain you up in the throne room so you can't throw yourself into some crazy unknown place." The Percy figure ended up being chained to a column in the throne room.

The smell was the first thing to hit Machai's senses and he inwardly gaged. Cadok seemed to already know it was going to smell so he steeled himself. Other than a few glances their direction, the men inside just went about their business.

"Insert comical scene. Everyone's eyes roll up and everyone passes out from the stench." Leo narrated, becoming cross-eyed with his arms crossed over his chest like a mummy, and promptly fainted. Logical.

Machai had no clue where he was going so he said, "Where to?" Cadok said to follow him and they walked to a door on the left side of the bar. Machai could hear the sounds of cheering and swords clashing right when he opened the door. He didn't even have a moment's hesitation going down the dark and gloom staircase much to the surprise of Cadok.

"Hmm, looks like we have a winner for having the worst strategy of facing an unknown territory. Walking right into it. Well, I'm retiring." Athena stood up, and left the building. But...an owl swooped in and coughed up an owl pellet onto that paragraph of the book. How delightful.

Even some of the biggest men gave a slight pause at the dark tunnel going down while also hearing the fights going on below them. However, Machai looked different in this type of environment than on the bus. He now held an air of confidence and a 'don't mess with me unless you want to die' look that even gave Cadok a slight chill. This was a side of Machai he didn't want to see the results from and, even more importantly, didn't want to be on the receiving end.

"This, children, is exactly how you intimidate someone. Not his way, mine!" Hades then summoned a bunch of skeletons, hands reaching up from cracks in the floor. Fog came rolling in, obscuring everyone's vision.

Everybody dance now! Everybody jumped at the sudden, loud noise. You could then see lights of all different colors lighting up the room and piercing through the fog. Hades stood at the point of a 'V' shape, formed of himself and his summoned skeletons. Then Hades and co. started randomly dancing, and then...

"Aww yeah, baby! The Leo is in the house!" Leo got up and joined the show. And the world exploded.

Cadok followed closely behind and told Machai it would be best to take off the cloak now because he would get even more looks if he looked like he was hiding too much. However, Machai just said he liked the mysterious look and kept it on. At the bottom of the stairs, they walked beside each other to a man sitting at the table counting nuns, tuts, kaks, and lols.

Machai learned on his bus ride to this planet that 1 drachma = 5 lols, 1 lol = 4 kaks, 1 kak = 5 tuts, and 1 tut = 5 nuns. It seemed like a pretty good currency system and reminded him of the olden days where people used copper, silver, and gold.

"Welp, I'm not going there anytime soon. Much too confusing currency system there." Leo just jumped off Olympus in a swan dive. Poseidon caught him in a fist made of water, and summoned Leo to sit in front of him, looking very tiny compared to Poseidon in his godly form, and started messing up Leo's hair into different styles by manipulating the water. Yay.

Cadok came up to the man and said, "This young man would like to enter the Pits." The man behind the desk was defiantly alien looking. He had dark green skin like swamp moss with teeth like a shark. His eyes were pretty much empty sockets but if one looked closely, they could the actual eyes were so black that they looked just like sockets. He had a bulky body that looked strong but not overly muscular.

The owl turned into Athena, surprise surprise, and she took more notes, and drew what this alien man looked like based on his description.

The man looked at Machai and was already itching to watch him get splattered up against the wall. He was extremely small compared to the other men and they would probably enjoy beating him to a pulp.

"I'd like to see that happening." Frank said, crossing his arms and relaxing into his beanbag. Wait, did Leo burn all the beanbags when he got up to dance...? Nah, he didn't. Continue on.

The man said a little too friendly for Machai's liking, "Hello little one. So you want to fight in the Pit? I'm supposed to warn you that you have a very low chance to come out unscathed and a very high chance to be beaten into the ground and even die. Is that okay with you?" He wished he could see the boy's fearful face but he wore a stupid mask and cloak.

"Every single year. Nothing new." Annabeth said, shrugging her shoulders. Um, excuse me, but how dare you say it so casually! Why I ought to.... Let's rewrite that, shall we?

"Every single year. And he still flirts with death! Oh, erm, I, um, didn't mean it like that..." Annabeth said, and she shuffled away from her uncle and cousin.

Better. Deal with it.

The man smiled evilly at the little boy but was slightly surprised when he nodded his head without a single ounce of fear in his posture. He would have to keep and eye on him.

Machai said, "It's nice to meet you. My name is Machai and I heard this was a good place to ..." he looked at Cadok rhetorically questioning him and said, "get a good fight while also getting paid." Machai looked at the man and saw he was amused by his confidence but he would soon see it's not just confidence Machai thought.

"Hello Machai, my name is Zade. If you would sign your name right here I could get you into a fight right away. I bet many would love to fight you." Zade again smiled evilly when he signed Machai (almost Percy but stopped himself right before he started) on the parchment and Zade said, "Follow me and I'll see who wants to fight you."

"Him volunteering to fight, for once. Oh, what a luxury it must be." Jason said, casually drinking soda. Wait, where did he get soda from...?

Before Zade could get up, Machai said, "How exactly is payment gone around. I would like to know if it is worth my time to even come here." Machai said that with all the seriousness in the world which finally made Zade burst out laughing while Cadok looked questionable at Machai but not really surprised after riding 3 hours straight with him. Cadok was suspecting Machai would say this kind of stuff
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Hey guys! Long time no see, eh? Oh dear...*ducks swords and axes and devices and...was that a frying pan?!* Wow guys, thanks so much. I really feel the love right now-

WOAH

Did I just get hit by a dumpling...?
*grabs and eats*
Pork, yum...

Any ways, see you guys in the next chapter! Also, I'm really sorry about the really really really really long wait. I'll see what I can mix up for future chapters. Night!