chapter 29: fighting

"Whoever Nico is, get up," said a bored-looking guard.

At this point, they figured out what was going on as they waited to be pulled to the arena. It was just a matter of who was selected first.

Apparently, that person was Nico.

"Fuck," Hoa muttered under her breath. "Good luck. Don't die."

"Great advice, Hoa. Before you said that, I was gonna stab myself."

"Well, that's mean. Don't use your powers though, got it? Don't expose yourself too early."

Nico gave her a wink as he was pulled up by the dracaenae guards.

Hoa's heart fluttered as she smiled. That boy is going to be the death of me. He better survive this one.

~•~•~

Up ahead, Percy could see bronze doors. The muffled roar from behind the door made him feel unsettled, his muscles tensing as he braced himself for a fight.

"Oh, yessssss," said the snake woman on his left. "You'll be very popular with our hossssst."

"Who's your host?" Percy asked.

She hissed, which might've been a laugh. "Oh, you'll sssssee. You'll get along famousssly. He'ssss your brother, after all."

"My what?" Immediately he thought of Tyson, but that was impossible. He went with Grover to look for Pan. What is she talking about?

The giant pushed past us 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 my sword.

Kelli laughed. She still had her claws at Rachel's neck. "Go on, Percy. Entertain us. We'll wait here with your friends to make sure you behave."

He looked at Rachel, the clear-sighted mortal who had led them through the maze. "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."

In the center of the arena, a fight was going on between a demigod in all black and a giant. He was skillfully dodging all the enemy's attacks with a black sword while the giant swung a javelin the size of a telephone pole.

The crowd cheered, but Percy felt sick. "Nico," he muttered.

Then he looked above the banner with the trident on it, and he felt his features contort into distaste. "Luke."

He wasn't sure if Luke could hear him over the roar of the crowd, but the traitor smiled coldly. He wasn't wearing his sword, which Percy found strange.

There was a cry from the arena floor, and Percy jumped back as Nico crashed to the dirt beside him.

He caught Percy's eyes pleadingly. "Hey, a little help would be nice."

Percy reached for his sword, but it had been taken from him and hadn't reappeared in his pocket yet.

The son of Hades panted as he reached for his sword in time to counter the javelin and roll to the side. Percy had the perfect opening to attack; the giant's back was turned, if only he could—

"If you value your friendsss' lives," my dracaena guard said, gripping his shoulder with a taloned hand, "you won't interfere. This isssn't your fight. Wait your turn."

Percy watched painfully as Nico was hit in the gut. He stumbled, but managed to recover to counter the javelin again.

Nico made a maneuver, jumping up and slashing the tip off the javelin. The giant wailed at the loss of the most impactful part of the weapon and brandished his stick.

The demigod rushed forward, dodging the staff and stabbing the giant at the back of the knee, forcing him to fall. The giant crumbled, the magical force of the Stygian iron blade making him weaker.

The giant couldn't stop Nico from tackling his chest and making him lie flat on the ground. The son of the dead put a foot on the giant's chest and raised the blade, looking up at Luke.

The crowd cheered. "DEATH! DEATH!"

Luke didn't do anything, but the giant beside him rose. He smiled down at the fighter, who closed his eyes, accepting his fate.

The tattooed sumo dude gave the thumbs-down sign.

Percy closed his eyes as the demigod thrust his blade. When he looked again, the giant was gone, disintegrated to ashes.

Nico panted, scanning the arena and locking eyes with Percy. Quickly, he ran over, shoving the dracaena off him and speaking quickly. "Hoa's in the back. They're gonna send me back to her now that you guys are here, but if you can cause enough chaos, we can probably escape."

Percy nodded. "Okay. Sounds easy enough. Is she okay?"

"She's fine. They don't have a reason to hurt her. Fighting."

Percy smiled, remembering the little phrase that Hoa said around him as encouragement. He pumped his fist as he said, "Fighting."

Nico gave him a curt nod as he let himself be dragged away by the guards.

~•~•~

"Percy's out there."

That's the first thing that Hoa heard as Nico walked back into the chamber, tied up again.

"Wait, what? Why is he here?"

"No clue. I gave him some pointers about helping us get out of here, but I highly doubt that it'll be enough to reach us."

"Well, that's fucking amazing."

"For now, just trust the process. I just told him to cause chaos."

Hoa snorted out a laugh, making Nico look at her. "What?"

"That's the only thing he's good at. Causing chaos."

Nico was confused, but he stayed silent.

After a while, a howl broke out, catching their attention. "What was that?" Nico asked.

Hoa shrugged. "Probably Percy."

"What?"

Just then, a massive hellhound broke into their chamber, knocking down giants and slamming dracaenae into the wall. The hellhound looked straight at them, somehow giving a nod before continuing to fight.

Hoa took out her dagger, cutting her bonds, then Nico's. She dragged him to his feet, racing toward the hellhound blocking the way to the arena. "Let's go."

Nico immediately forced her to stop. "Hoa there's a hellhound—"

"I know."

"Don't you think it's a little dangerous for us to be in the same room as a hellhound—"

"Trust me, Nico, I know."

Hoa grabbed Nico's hand, muttering, "We have to go back to the arena. There was an exit there."

The hellhouse caused no distractions as they burst through the doors, finding monsters scrambling around as Luke tried to get things back under control. He was too distracted to notice that two demigods had escaped from under his nose.

"Almost there," Hoa said.

They reached the exit, going through and sighing in relief. "Damn, that was close," Nico said.

Suddenly, a hand wrapped around each of their necks as the empousa from before appeared.

"You're not going anywhere."

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hi im madi, your loyal author ♥️

i fucking hate kelli

anyways

check out muse! its a jax x reader (from tadc--the amazing digital circus) and doesn't have many chapters yet, but still! plsplspls take a look.

and that one murder drones book is (still) popping off.

anyways

how was the chapter?

also, what are some questions of your own?

anyways, tysm for reading this crappy book! 😃