I 034. I
𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒔
❝ chains ❞
SHE HAD TO RESIST THE URGE TO MURDER RACHEL AT THE MOMENT. The girl had led them into a trap, and that was enough to get Ariadne going.
It also wasn't that great when one of the dracaenae took her medicine from her pocket. She needed to take those in a few minutes, and if she didn't, it wouldn't be pretty.
They were being marched down the tunnel, flanked by dracaenae, with Kelli and the giant in the back, just in case they tried to run for it. Nobody seemed to worry about them running forward. That was the direction they wanted them to go.
Up ahead she could see bronze doors. They were about ten feet tall, emblazoned with a pair of crossed swords. From behind them came a muffled roar, like from a crowd.
"Oh, yessssss," said the snake woman on her left. "You'll be very popular with our hossssst."
Ariadne had only gotten a look at a dracaena up close once before, and it was when Beckett had died. She would've had a beautiful face, except her tongue was forked and her eyes were yellow with black slugs for pupils. She wore bronze armor that stoped at her waist. Below that, where her legs should've been, were two massive snake trunks, molted bronze and green.
She moved by a combination of slithering and walking, as if she were on living skis.
"Who's your host?" Percy asked.
She hissed, which might have been a laugh. "Oh, you'll sssssee. You'll get along furiousssly. He'ssss your brother, after all."
"My what?"
Immediately Ariadne thought of Tyson, but it was impossible. The giant rushed past them and opened the doors. He picked up Annabeth by her shirt and said, "You stay here."
"Hey!" she protested, but the guy was twice her size and he'd already confiscated her knife and Percy and Ariadne's swords.
Kelli laughed. She still had her claws at Rachel's neck. "Go on, Percy, Ariadne. Entertain us. We'll wait here with your friends to make sure you behave."
Percy looked at Rachel. "I'm sorry. I'll get you out of this."
She nodded as much as she could with a demon at her throat. "That would be nice."
The dracaena prodded them toward the doorway at javelin-point, and they walked out onto the floor of an arena.
***
ARIADNE WONDERED WHY SHE WAS THERE. If this was Percy's brother, why was she in there with him? It made no sense.
She guessed it wasn't the largest arena she'd ever been in, but it seemed pretty spacious considering the whole place was underground. The dirt floor was circular, just big enough that someone could drive a car around the rim if they pulled it really tight.
In the center of the arena, a fight was going on between a giant and a centaur. The centaur looked panicked. He was galloping around his enemy, using a sword and shield, while the giant swung a javelin the size of a telephone pole and the crowed cheered.
The first tier was twelve feet above the arena floor. Plain stone benches wrapped around, and every seat was full. There were giants, dracaenae, demigod's, telekhines, and stranger things: bag-winged demons and creatures that seemed half human and half you name it—bird, reptile, insect, mammal.
But the creepiest things were the skulls. The arena was full of them. They ringed the edge of the railing. Three foot high piles of the decorated the steps between the benches.
They grinned from the piles at the back of the stands and hung on chains from the ceiling like horrible chandeliers. Some of them looked very old—nothing but bleached-white bone. Others looked a lot fresher.
In the middle of all this, proudly displayed on the side of the spectator's wall, was something that made no sense to her—a green banner with the trident of Poseidon in the center. What was that doing in there?
Above the banner, sitting in a seat of honor, was an old enemy.
"Luke," Ariadne said.
She wasn't sure he could hear her over the roar of the crowd, but he smiled coldly. He was wearing camouflage pants, a white t-shirt, and a bronze breastplate, just like she'd seen in her last dream.
But he still wasn't wearing his sword, which she thought was strange. Next to him was the largest giant Ariadne's ever seen, much larger than the one on the floor fighting the centaur. The giant next to Luke must've been fifteen feet tall, easy, and so wide he took up three seats.
He wore only a loincloth, like a sumo wrestler. His skin was dark red and tattooed with blue wave designs.
There was a cry from the arena floor, and Percy jumped back as the centaur crashed to the dirt beside him.
He met their eyes pleadingly. "Help!"
Percy reaches for his sword and Ariadne tried finding a place to grow vines, but Riptide had been taken from him and hadn't reappeared in his pocket yet, and there was no soil to grow anything from.
The centaur struggled to get up as the giant approached, his javelin ready.
A talones hand grilled her shoulder. "If you value your friendsss' livesss," they dracaena guard said, "you won't interfere. This isssn't your fight. Wait your turn."
The centaur couldn't get up. One of his legs was broken. The giant put his huge foot on the horseman's chest and raised the javelin. He looked up at Luke. The crowd cheered, "DEATH! DEATH!"
Luke didn't do anything, but the tattooed sumo dude sitting next to him arose. He smiled down at the centaur, who was whimpering, "Please! No!"
Then the sumo dude held out his hand and gave the thumbs down sign.
Percy closed his eyes as the gladiator thirst his javelin. Ariadne looked at the ground. When she looked again, the centaur was gone, disintegrated to ashes. All that was left was a single hoof, which the giant took up as a trophy and showed the crowd. They roared their approval.
A gate opened at the opposite end of the stadium and the giant marched out in triumph.
In the stands, the sumo dude raised his hands for silence.
"Good entertainment!" he bellowed. "But nothing I haven't seen before. What else do you have, Luke, Son of Hermes?"
Luke's has tightened. Ariadne could tell he didn't like being called son of Hermes. He hated his father. But he rose calmly to his feet. His eyes glittered. In fact, he seemed to be in a pretty good mood."
"Lord Antaeus," Luke said, loud enough for the crowd to hear. "You have been an excellent host! We would be happy to amuse you, to repay the favor of passing through your territory."
"A favor I have not yet granted," Antaeus growled. "I want entertainment!"
Luke bowed. "I believe I have something egged than centaurs you fight in your arena now. I have a brother of yours." He pointed at Percy. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."
The crowd began jeering at him and throwing stones, most of which they dodged, but one caught Percy on the cheek and made a good sized cut.
Ariadne felt like tearing that stadium to pieces.
Antaeus's eyes lit up. "A son of Poseidon? Then he should fight well! Or die well!"
"If his death pleases you," Luke said, "will you let out armies cross your territory?"
"Perhaps!" Antaeus said.
Luke didn't looked too pleased about the 'perhaps.' He glared deon at Percy.
"But," Antaeus bellowed, "who is the other one?"
Luke looked to Ariadne, who was already glaring at him with her fists balled tightly. The blond felt a breath catch in his throat before passing it off as if nothing.
"I present to you a mighty warrior." He pointed at Ariadne. "Ariadne Phoenix, daughter of Dionysus. Daughter of the Vines!"
Antaeus looked down upon the girl. He let out a sharp laugh, and the crowd followed. Luke gave the man a cold smile, as if knowing he was underestimating the girl.
"She?" Antaeus cackled. "She is no more than a girl."
Ariadne glared up at the giant. Her medicine was wearing off, and when it did, she was wanting to fight everyone. "Why don't you just let me cut your head off and we'll see how much of a girl I really am," she spat."
Percy was yelling at her in his head to shut up. The boy gave her a nudge in the rib cage and she growled.
"Luke!" Annabeth yelled. "Stop this. Let us go!"
Luke seemed to notice her for the first time. He looked stunned for a moment. "Annabeth?"
Ariadne felt a bit hurt that he only cared about Annabeth.
"Enough time for the girl to fight afterward," Antaeus interrupted. "First, Percy Jackson, what weapons will you chose?"
The dracaenae pushed him into the middle of the arena and held Ariadne by the tip of her javelin.
Percy stared up at Antaeus. "How can you be a son of Poseidon?"
"I am his favorite son!" Antaeus boomed. "Behold, my temple to the Earth shaker, built from the skulls of those I've killed in his name! Your skull shall join them!"
Ariadne was gazing at the skulls in horror. She had met Poseidon, and she wasn't sure he liked the idea of Percy being killed.
"Ari!" Annabeth yelled at her. "His mother is Gaea! Gae—"
Her Laistrygonian captor clamped his hand over her mouth. His mother is Gaea. The earth goddess. Annabeth was trying to tell her something important, but her mind was frazzled, and she was trying to recall anything she knew about the giant.
"You're crazy, Antaeus," Percy said. "If you think this is a good tribute, you know nothing about Poseidon."
The crowd screamed insults at them, but Antaeus raised his hand for silence.
"Weapons," he insisted. "And then we will see how you die. Will you hav waxed? Shields? Nets? Flamethrowers?"
Ariadne almost yelled at the mention of a flamethrower, seeing as it had burned down her home and killed her dog.
"Just my sword," Percy said.
Laughter erupted from the monsters, but immediately Riptide appeared in his hands, and some of the voices in the crowd turned nervous. The bronze blade glowed with a faint light.
"Round one!" Antaeus announced. The gates opened, and a dracaena slithered out. She had a trident in one hand and a weighted net in the other—classic gladiator style. Ariadne had trained against those ever since she could hold a sword.
The brunette went to say something to Percy, but her dracaena bodyguard placed a hand at her throat, and the javelin point pressed into her back as a threat to not speak.
The dracaena jabbed at Percy experimentally. He stepped away. She threw her net, hoping to tangle his sword hand, but he sidestepped easily, sliced her spear in half, and stabbed Riptide through a chunk in her armor.
With a painful wail, she vaporized into nothing, and the cheering of the crowd died.
"No!" Antaeus bellowed. "Too fast! You must wait for the kill. Only I give that order!"
Percy glanced at Ariadne who was looking at Annabeth and Rachel. Both of them needed to find a way to get them free, maybe distract their guards.
"Nice job, Percy." Luke smiled. "You've gotten better with the sword. I'll grant you that. I guess Ariadne is not that bad of a teacher, after all."
The blond enemy leaned over to Antaeus and said something. The giant cast her a suspicious look before nodding. He waved at the dracaena behind her and the snake woman released her from her hold.
Percy was taken and had the javelin pointed at his heart, Riptide taken from his hands and tossed aside.
Ariadne was shoved forward and towards the middle of the arena. The girl stumbled and looked at the giant and Luke with smilie. Her former friend smiling coldly.
"Weapons?" Antaeus asked.
Ariadne shook her head. "Sword."
The crowd of monsters cackled and howled, as if they didn't expect her to be able to hold one, more or less use one. She spun her gold ring and Lunacy formed into the air. She caught it and all the monsters went silent, baited breaths as the vines on the gold sword crawled menacingly across the blade.
"Round two!" Antaeus yelled. "And slower this time! More entertainment! Wait for my call before killing anybody. OR ELSE!"
The gates opened again, and this time a young warrior came out. He was a little older than her, about sixteen. He has glossy black hair, and his left eye was covered with an eye patch. He was thin and with so his Greek armor hung on him loosely. He stabbed his sword into the dirt, adjusted his shield straps, and pulled on his horsehair helmet.
Ariadne could take him down in a few seconds, but she couldn't risk her friends and Rachel getting hurt by her need to fight quickly.
"Who are you?" Ariadne asked.
"Ethan Nakamura," he said. "I have to kill you."
"No you don't. Why are you doing this?"
"Hey!" a monster jeered from the stands. "Stop talking and fight already!" The others took up the call.
"I have to prove myself," Ethan told her. "Only way to join up."
The brunette shifted Lunacy in her hand. "It's a death sentence putting you against me," she warned him, trying to make himself we what he was doing was insane.
"For you."
And with that he charged. Their swords met in midair and the crowd roared. It didn't seem right. She didn't want to be entertaining a bunch of monsters, but Ethan Nakamura wasn't giving her much choice.
He pressed forward. He was good. But not as good as her.
She knew he'd never been at Camp Half-Blood, as far as I knew, but he'd been trained.
He parried her strike and made a move to slam her with his shield, but she jumped back and slid around him, missing his blade. Ethan slashed. The girl rolled to one side and spring back up.
Ethan was good at guarding his left side, his blind side. But Ariadne was much more experienced and she knew what she was doing.
Percy held his breath anytime Ethan swung at Ariadne. He knew she could handle herself, but that didn't mean he didn't worry, even after she was hating him for being gone for two weeks.
Annabeth was watching her sister and hoped she could find a way to get them out, because Ariadne may have been good at fighting, but plans weren't her thing. But at that moment they needed a plan, and she was the only one who could do it.
"Blood!" the monsters cried.
Her opponent glanced up at the stands. That was his weakness, she realized. He needed to impress them. She just needed a way out.
He yelled an angry battle cry and charged her, but she partied his blade and backed away, letting him come to her. It was a move she had done to Clarisse hundreds of times before, and it always worked.
"Boo!" Antaeus said. "Stand and fight! You are a warrior!"
Ethan pressed her, but she had no trouble defending, even without a shield. He was dressed for defense—heavy armor and shield—which made it very tiring to play offense. She was the softer target, but she was also lighter and faster.
The crowd went nuts, yelling complaints and throwing rocks. They'd been fighting for almost five minutes and there was no blood.
Ariadne wished to knock him out quickly, but she needed more time to figure out a plan, and to make sure she didn't get stabbed in the back by a hidden monster.
Finally Ethan made a mistake. He tried to have her in the stomach, and she locked his sword hilt with hers and twisted. The very move she had been teaching Luke before he betrayed them.
His sword dropped into the dirt. Before he could recover, Ariadne slammed the butt of her sword into his helmet and pushed down. His heavy armor helped her more than him. He fell in his back, dazed and tired. She put the tip of her sword on his chest.
"Get it over with," Ethan groaned.
Ariadne looked up at Antaeus. His red face was stony with displeasure, but he held up his hand and put it thumbs down.
"Forget it." Ariadne twisted her sword back into its gold ring.
"Don't be a fool," Ethan groaned. "They'll just kill us both."
She offered him her hand. "I'm no fool." Reluctantly, he took it. She helped him up.
"No one dishonors the games!" Antaeus bellowed. "Your heads shall both be tributes to Poseidon! And I shall have my brother's body hang as punishment!"
That made her heart sink a bit.
Ariadne looked at Ethan. "When you see your chance, run." The she turned back to Antaeus. "Why don't you fight me yourself? If you've got Poseidon's favor, come down here and prove it!"
She could almost hear Annabeth's yells of how stupid she was, and Percy's groans and his desperate attempts to shut her up.
The monsters grumbled in the stands.
"You?" Antaeus asked. "You are no match for me, girl."
There were a few cheers from the crowd and a rock hit her in the arm. She whipped around in the direction it came from, and without even thinking, a vine sprung from the ground and slashed them to dust.
Antaeus looked around, and apparently realized he had no choice. He couldn't say no after what she had done. The monsters would believe him to be a coward and afraid of the girl.
But Ariadne had no clue how she could grow vines from straight dirt. There had to be soil there, or else they never survived. The vine retreated back into the ground and left empty spaces where a few monsters had once been.
Luke gave the girl a mighty glare. Their scars mocking the other.
"I am the greatest wrestler in the world, girl, Antaeus warned. "I have been wrestling since the first pankration!"
Her brows knit together.
"He means digging to the death," Ethan said. "No rules. No holds barred. It used to be an Olympic sport."
She hadn't noticed how close he was standing next to her. His arm grazed her of he moved it just the right way, and that made Percy's fists ball together until he had to resist the urge to sucker punch the boy.
Ariadne glanced behind her. Percy was worried sick, and she was convinced he would take her place if he could. Rachel's eyes were wide as she watched her. Annabeth shook her head emphatically, the Laistrygonian's hand still clamped over her mouth.
Ariadne pointed her sword at Antaeus. "Winner takes all! I win, we all go free. You win, we die. Swear upon the River Styx."
Antaeus laughed. "This shouldn't be long. I swear to your terms!"
He leaped off the railing, into the arena.
"Good luck," Ethan told her. "You'll need it." His hand brushed hers and she had to hide the uncomfortable look on her face. Then he backed up quickly.
Antaeus cracked his knuckles. He grinned, and she saw that his teeth were etched in wave patterns, which must've made brushing his teeth a real pain—if he did that.
"Weapons?" he asked.
"I've got my sword. Powers?"
The giant nodded.
"Alright," the girl said. "What about you?"
He held up his huge hands and wiggled his fingers. "I don't need anything else! Master Luke, you will referee this one."
Luke smiled down at her. As if he wanted her to get crushed, it wasn't him. "With pleasure."
Antaeus lunged. Ariadne rolled under his legs and stabbed him in the back of the thigh.
"Argggh!" he yelled. But where blood shouldn't come out, there was a spout of sand, like she'd busted the side of an hourglass. It spilled into the dirt floor, and the dirt collected around his leg, almost like a cast. When the dirt fell away, the wound was gone.
He charged again. Fortunately Ariadne was well trained. She dodged sideways this time and stabbed him under the arm. Lunacy was buried to the hilt in his ribs. But she didn't celebrate her victory for too long.
Lunacy was wrenched from her hand when the giant turned, and she was thrown across the arena, weaponless.
Antaeus bellowed in pain. She waited for him to disintegrate. No monster had ever withstood a direct hit from her sword like that. The imperial gold had to be doing something to him.
But Antaeus groped for the hilt, pulled out the sword, and tossed it behind him. More sand poured from his wound, but again the earth rose up to cover him. Dirt coated his body all the way to his shoulders. As soon as the dirt spilled away, Antaeus was fine.
"Now you see why I never lose, demigod!" Antaeus gloated. "Come here and let me crush you. I'll make it quick!"
Antaeus stood between her and her sword. She glanced at Annabeth.
The brunette remembered what she had been saying earlier. A child of Gaea. He needed the earth, because she was keeping him alive. She couldn't hurt him ad long as he was touching the ground.
She made a plan and tried to skirt around him, but Antaeus anticipated her move. He blocked her oath, chuckling. He was toying with her. He had her cornered.
Her heart was beating quickly. And he oriole eyes searched the arena as the crowd jeered and screamed at Antaeus to finish her off, but he was having too much fun.
"Puny girl," he said. "What could a measly girl do to me, a son of the sea god?"
Lunacy was back on her finger. And then, she felt a tug in her gut, as if she already knew what to do.
The girl gave a swift glance to Percy and a smirk before looking back up at the giant. And there was a short moment where he had thought she was ready to die, but he had it all wrong.
Ariadne wasn't going to die unless she was ready.
She charged straight ahead, crouching low so he would think she we going to roll between his legs again. While he was stopping, ready to catch her, she jumped as far as she could—kicking off his forearm, scrambling up his shoulder like it was a ladder, placing her shoe on his head.
He did the natural thing. He straighter up indignantly and yelled "HEY!" She pushed off, using his force to catapult her toward the ceiling.
She caught the top of a chain, and the skulls and hooks jangled beneath him. Her legs hooked around the chains be she hug upside down, using her core to make sure she didn't fall down all the way.
Lunacy was in her hand and she sawed off the chain next to her.
"Come down here, coward!" Antaeus bellowed. He tried to grab her, but she was out of reach. "You are nothing compared to me, girl!"
Ariadne smirked down at him. "You say girl as if it's a bad thing."
There was a rumble beneath the arena floor.
Monsters looked around in confusion. Her friends and Rachel prepared themselves for something terrible to happen to themselves, and Luke was watching her with dead eyes.
Antaeus had a vine wrapped around his foot in the next second. Then, more and more appeared, following his body as they poked and prodded.
He had no choice but to escape the vines that were sitting to smother him, he growled and made another grab for her. He caught a chain and tried to pull himself up, kicking and ripping vines away from him, but more filled heir places.
While he was struggling, Ariadne lowered her sawed-off chain, hook first. It took her two tries, but finally she snagged Antaeus's loincloth.
"WAAA!" he yelled. Quickly she slipped the free chain through the fastening link of her own chain, pulled it fault, and secured it the best she could. Antaeus tried to slip back to the ground, but he stayed suspended by his loincloth, and more vines were reaching his way.
He had to hold on to the other chains with both hands to avoid getting flipped upside down. Ariadne swung from chain to chain, swinging and cutting like she was a crazed monkey.
Percy thought she looked like an acrobat doing the most insane stunts: flipping upside down, pulling herself through other chains, and tying the cursed and flailing Antaeus in the air.
She made loops with hooks and metal links. The vines were moving on their own. Usually, she would have to have her full attention on them to keep them up, but there they were, providing her a distraction as she swung around. Her vines were being commanded just by her thought to do so, and it made her feel powerful.
Within a couple minutes, she held onto a chain like one of those gym ropes at school, panting and sweaty. Her hands were raw from climbing.
"Get me down!" Antaeus demanded.
"Free him!" Luke ordered. "He is our host!"
Ariadne grinned crazily. "I'll show you what a girl can do to a son of the sea god," she told the giant.
She twisted Lunacy the best she could. The girl let go of her chain and plunged her blade to It's hilt into the giant's chest, dragging it down as she fell. He bellowed, and sand poured out, but he was too far up to touch the earth, and the dirt did not try to help him.
Antaeus just dissolved, pouring out but by bit, until there was nothing left but empty swinging chains, and a really big loincloth on the hill, and a bunch of grinning skulls dancing above her like they finally had something to smile about.
Ariadne landed on the ground in a panting mess. Vines swirled at her feet, like snakes in a pit.
"Phoenix!" Luke yelled. "I should have killed you when I had the chance!"
"When was that?" Ariadne asked him.
Percy made it to her side, Riptide in his hand. "Let us go, Luke. We had a sworn agreement with Antaeus. Ariadne's the winner."
He didn't hold up to it like she had expected. He said, "Antaeus is dead. His oath dies with him. But since I'm feeling merciful today, I'll have you killed quickly."
He pointed at Annabeth. "Spare the girl." His voice quavered just a little. "I would speak to her before—before out great triumph."
Every monster in the audience drew a weapon or extended its claws. They were trapped. Her vines swirled tighter.
Not yet, she told them.
Percy pulled something from his pocket. It was an ice whistle, and he blew. It made no audible sound as it shattered into shards of ice, melting in his hand.
Luke laughed. "What was that supposed to do?"
From behind them came a surprised yelp. The Laistrygonian giant who'd been guarding Annabeth flew past Ariadne and smashed into the wall.
"AROOOOF!
Kelli the empousa screamed as a five hundred pound black mastiff picked her up like a chew tow and tossed her through the air, straight into Luke's lap.
Mrs. O'Leary snarled and the two dracaena guards backed away. For a moment the monsters in the audience were caught completely by surprise.
"Let's go!" Percy yelled at his friends. "Heel, Mrs. O'Leary!"
Ariadne sent a few vines at monsters who clawed them back.
"The far exit," Rachel cried. "That's the right way!"
Ethan Nakamura took his cue. Together they raced across the arena and out the far exit, Mrs. O'Leary right behind them. As they ran, Ariadne could hear the disorganized sounds of an entire army trying to jump the stands and follow them.
Ariadne smirked to herself. She showed Antaeus why girls were to be feared.
authors note:
My baby is powerful and I'm not saying anything otherwise.
Also:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCoaQaJJbdn/?igshid=aiy2hoz4r9k3
THIS IS PERCY JACKSON! THAT VUDEO IS PERCY JACKSON! THATS HOW IM IMAGINING HIM AFTER HE GOES MISSING AND THEY FIND IN MOA!
Ethan better back the fuck up also. Percy ain't happy.
Love you guys!