The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 62

I immediately froze, not sure what to do, but Omega sprang into action.

He jumped out of his seat, body slamming into the closest Chaos soldier. The three other soldiers swung their swords towards him as they tumbled to the ground. Omega froze, and the soldier underneath him suddenly rolled so he was pinning Omega down.

The leader smiled grimly. "You ain't going anywhere."

Then it was my turn to act.

I turned to the customers of the inn, whose attention was fixated on our dilemma—most of them intrigued, but several with a hungry look in their eyes. "We're turning this into an all-you-can-eat buffet!" I announced, waving at our food. "For free! Come and get food before it runs out!"

It was like waving a bone in front of a dog. There was a stunned silence for a moment—then almost everybody scrambled out of their seats. Even ones with full plates in front of them already.

 The crowd was like a miniature tsunami, bowling over tables and chairs in their rush—while trampling over people who were too slow, like a bull rodeo. 

The soldiers spun toward me—but they were too late. It only took a few surprising seconds for the crowd to reach us—and then they proceeded to trample right over the soldiers. I quickly leaped onto an empty portion of the table as I was surrounded by dozens of people, busy stuffing their faces with as much food as they could. I saw one man grab four plates topped high with bread. He attempted to sneak out of the crowd, but then a man twice his size decked him and grabbed the plates as a prize. A family of four turned on him, two restraining him while the other two ran off with the plates.

I had to get out of here. Otherwise, somebody might just deck me.

Omega popped out of the crowd, seeming unharmed. He grabbed my hand and proceeded to pull me out of the center of the crowd.

But then somebody grabbed my foot. I looked down to see the leader of the soldiers glaring at me. He had a bloody nose, and a distinct footprint marking half of his face, making me think he got the brunt of the damage. He looked more annoyed than hurt. "I'm going to kill you for this," he snarled.

I grabbed a half-finished bowl of tomato soup from a nearby startled kid and splashed it onto the soldier's face. It was still steaming hot.

The soldier screeched in pain and let go of me, hastily trying to wipe as much of the burning liquid off his face as he could. I spun around, trying to locate Omega.

In a few seconds, he had already gotten to the far side of the inn. He swiftly leaped over the bar top. But then the kitchen doors smashed open, catching him in the chest and sending him flying into a shelf of wine bottles. They toppled and broke, covering the immortal in red liquid as he slumped onto the floor. 

Three Chaos soldiers stood in the doorway. Upon seeing that they'd just taken out their enemy, they spun and pointed their swords at him.

My hands tightened into fists as the soldiers slowly approached Omega. We can't get captured like this.

I launched myself into a sprint, away from the battling crowd. When I got near to the bar, the soldiers tensed as they heard me—which, in retrospect, seemed impossible, since my footsteps should've been covered by the yells of the inn customers. The soldiers turned around, ready for battle, but I didn't slow down. 

I launched myself into the air, cleanly flying over the bartop, feet first. The soldiers' eyes widened in surprise and tried to flee—but it was too late. My booted feet connected with the first soldier's chest so hard that the wind was knocked out of him. He windmilled, desperately trying to keep his balance, but toppled—hitting the two soldiers behind him.

If this were any normal person, the two soldiers would have easily been able to shrug off the impact. After all, they each would take half.

But the lead soldier wasn't normal.

He was a hulking brute who towered over all of us—perhaps that's why he was picked as the leader. In addition to this, he seemed to be more than four hundred pounds of pure muscle, while the soldiers behind him didn't even seem half of that.

So the bulky soldier toppled the other soldiers too as though they were dominoes. All of them fell to the ground in a heap, with the two underneath groaning in pain. 

I rushed towards Omega. As I knelt beside him, he woke up, blinking confusedly.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I checked him for any cuts from the alcoholic containers.

"I think so." Realizing he was wet, he sniffed his shoulder and recoiled. "Ew. Why am I covered in wine?"

"That's what you decided to collide with." I hauled him up to his feet. "Can't you snap your fingers and clean yourself up?"

" . . . don't feel so good," Omega mumbled, collapsing into my arms.

That's perfect, I thought sarcastically when I tried to wake him up, but to no avail. I started to take the wine-covered cloak off of him but paused, realizing something.

It would reveal his identity.

For a moment, I was excited, thinking that I would finally know who Chaos' right-hand man—and one of my best friends—was. But that was immediately replaced by guilt even having the thought of revealing his identity without his permission. He'd probably hidden it for a good reason, and it wasn't my business to try and find out.

But we had to get out of here. I could already hear the crowd's shouts grow quieter and quieter as the food was slowly beginning to run out. I quickly slung Omega over my shoulder. He was heavier than I expected him to be, but I soldiered on to the kitchen door.

The three soldiers that had emerged from the kitchen were still on the ground. The heavy soldier was trying to get up, but with the extra weight of his armor and his non-ideal position, he only managed to squirm and squish his companions' faces deeper into the floor. As for his companions, they were limp on the ground, slowly suffocating under the big soldier's weight.

As I pushed open the kitchen door, footsteps sounded behind me. I spun around to find the three Chaos soldiers that had accosted us at the table racing towards me, their swords glinting in the lamplight. They had been freed from the crowd—but not without harm. They were covered in bruises and crumbs and partially chewed food. I faced forward and stepped inside the kitchen. 

It wasn't what I expected.

For such a fine dining establishment, I assumed that their kitchen would be vast and ginormous and full of steaming aromas.

That wasn't the case.

Instead of being spotless, the entire kitchen—the tables to put food on, the stone ovens, the storage areas—were covered in grease. There was no ventilation for the fires, so the air was filled with the smell of burning wood and the walls and roof were covered in soot. Worst of all, bugs were crawling everywhere. A shiver went up my spine as I observed a cockroach scuttle up a pot and plop into the soup, feeling glad I hadn't eaten anything.

The cooks stopped what they were doing as I stepped inside and spun around. They too didn't look anything like I imagined. Their uniforms were caked in soot and dirt as though they hadn't taken a shower in a month and looked haggard and pale.

The cooks gaped at me as I shut the door and scurried through the kitchen, holding my breath. As I passed a stove, an idea came to me.

I grabbed a scalding-hot iron pan and chucked it at the door. A half a second later, I grasped two more pans and threw them behind the first. Then I darted out of the kitchen from another door.

Just as I slipped out of the back door still carrying Omega, I heard the main door creak open. There was a yelp as the first pan caught the leader, downing him. Half a second later, there were two distinct screeches of pain as the other soldiers bent down to check on the first, only to each get a face full of a hot pan.

I laughed to myself as the back door swung shut behind me. We had escaped again without injury. I swung around in the dark alley . . .

Only to find four other people in the shadows.