Argo III -The Next Generation

9 Mel no like the Harpies. Golden apples. Welp, another demigod.

Annabel would have been jealous of a couple of newbie demigods who got to face harpies within 10 minutes of entering the Labyrinth. Me? Not so much.

Nat unsheathed her dagger and started swiping through the air. She clearly had practice back home. Otherwise, she would have been ripped to pieces within 3 seconds. God bless Natasha's mysterious old grandparents.

While she did all the killing, I thought. I was pretty sure I had read about harpies somewhere. They were half-women, half-bird monsters. They squawked and screeched relentlessly. My ears told me that much. They also stunk. My nose told me that much. They had an insatiable appetite. My eyes told me that much. They wanted to kill me really bad. My gut told me that much.

I unsheathed my blades. The harpies stared at them mystified for just a second. That gave me just enough time to tie my shoe lace quickly. Why must they come off at all the wrong times?

Natasha had already disintegrated one harpy. That left four more. Yay.

I calculated the odds of two dork demigods versus 4 lethal killing-machines. The answer was 1000000 to 1. Not great odds.

Then my thoughts were again rudely interrupted as a pair of talons ripped through the shoulder of my t-shirt and gave me a light cut.

"Ow."

Nat was swiping at the harpies at god-speed but they kept flying out of reach. They were blocking the only doorway in the whole chamber. We had nothing but three knives and a whole lot of useless money. Could we throw the gold at them? That sounds ridiculous even to me.

Another harpy came down and ripped apart a lock of Nat's pageboy hair. "Ouch! That hurt, you bully!" She said madly slashing at them.

I started thinking hard. How do we get out of here? We couldn't defeat them all by just slashing knives. That's when a totally obvious idea clicked me. I was about to express it when another mean harpy glazed through my knee. Blood started pouring out.

"Okay that's it – hold this Natasha," I have her the golden apple I had found lying on the ground. She pocketed it. I turned to the harpies. I knocked one out by the hilt of my sword and slashed it when it hit the ground. I watched it disintegrate. The first monster I ever slayed – a harpy. Yay.

The other harpies backed off. This gave me time to explain to Natasha my slightly far-fetched plan.

"Back in the earlier times!" I shouted through the screeching. "Palaces used to have underground treasuries! And we are underground right now!"

"Yeah, I can see that!" Natasha yelled. "What is your plan?"

"I think we could be underwater right now!" I said. "See those puddles? I think now I know why they are here! Because of the water surrounding us! Do you think you could -?"

But I did not need to say more. Natasha closed her eyes in deep concentration. Then suddenly the circular wall on the left side of the room opened a subsection of it so that water could flood into the room. Then another. And then another. Within a minute we were surrounded by humongous taps that poured water into the room. The harpies squawked, terrified. One of them was apparently dumber than she looked because she dived right at us. I managed to cut it off by my sword. The other two were apparently wise enough not to attack us as the water advanced. They turned and flew off into the corridor. And for some stupid, stupid reason, the humongous metal door of the treasury decided it needed to close itself right then. Joy.

"Quick, look for the apple!" I said, now shouting over the rushing of the water. We were waist-deep inside the water now.

Me and Nat worked furiously on the piles of gold. We looked for 2 minutes. The water was shoulder-length now. Nat was neck-deep but it didn't really matter for her because I assumed, she could just breathe underwater easily. Me? Not so much.