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

Chapter 72

As I cautiously studied the arch Jessica went through wondering if she would come back to fight me, I realized something green was on the ground.

My eyes widened. It was Void's orb. Jessica must have dropped it when she was fleeing. It rolled with force, not stopping until it hit the wall and jumped over it. The orb teetered on the edge, about to drop.

I quickly sprinted toward it, scooping it up just as it started plummeting towards the soldiers on the ground. I sighed in relief. The orb pulsated in my hand, as though showing its approval. 

The pounding of dozens of footsteps that I had managed to tune out suddenly stopped. The city was shockingly quiet; save for the rustle of the wind, there was nothing. I could hear my own breaths.

And then I realized why: the soldiers had stopped moving through the towers. At first, I thought they had reached the top. But they hadn't emerged yet, and when I peered over the edge of the city wall and through the tower window, I saw the lead soldier a good ten seconds from the top. 

And yet, he had stopped. The soldiers behind him didn't seem confused or angry, so I wondered why they had halted . . .

When an arrow plugged into the merlon beside me. 

Two more whistled above my head, and before I could react, one more struck the ground near my feet.

I spun around, clutching Void's orb, thinking the archers were still firing at me. However, none of them had their bows out, as they were in the process of descending down the roofs they had been on.

So that left the only direction I hadn't checked yet: north, towards the northwest tower.

Chaos was standing there, a neutral expression on his face. He'd moved from the last time I saw him.  If my successful attempt at dodging all of his soldiers and climbing up here affected him, he didn't show it.

Psi was next to him. Unlike Chaos, he was taken by anger and glaring at me. He was so furious that his body was red, and I was worried he was having an aneurysm.

A bow was in his hand. And given the half-empty quiver of arrows slung over his back, he'd been the one shooting at me.

And given that he grabbed another arrow, he was still going to try to kill me.

"You're worse at archery than me!" I called out tauntingly at him. "There's no hope for you!"

We were quite far from each other, so I thought he wouldn't be able to hear me. But somehow, it seemed as though he understood every single word. His face contorted into a snarl, and his complexion turned into something that resembled a tomato. He quickly strung the arrow, aimed it, and fired.

It whistled harmlessly over my head. 

I hadn't just taunted Psi to pointlessly make him mad; there was some truth to what I said. Even an experienced archer would have trouble hitting me from such a great distance.

Another arrow flew by. I had nothing better to do, so I made sure I still had Void's orb, uncapped Riptide (which had conveniently reappeared back into my pocket), and advanced, being careful not to get hit by any arrows.

As I walked forward, I had to admit to myself that Psi sure had a hell of a fire rate—though that might've just been because he was angry. The second I dodged an arrow, another one would be in front of me. 

Eventually, I resorted to cutting them out of the air with Riptide.

It might seem like I was boasting, but I really wasn't. Ever since I had realized I was downright horrid at archery, I decided to become a downright master of countering archery with my best weapon: Riptide. So after months upon months of practice, I could instinctively deflect most projectiles flying toward me.

It was kind of like tennis. 

But if I missed, it would kill me.

Still, with my practice, I had some close calls. I accidentally deflected an arrow into the stone parapet, resulting in it almost cutting off my big toe. Another shaved off a few long strands of my hair when I thought it was going to miss, and yet another sliced through the sleeve of my left arm, drawing blood.

By the time I concluded that it was a light wound and not a serious one like my body was telling me through pain, I'd reached Psi and Chaos.

I stood a few steps in front of them as Psi pulled out his last arrow and took aim.

But before he could fire, Chaos put a hand on Psi's arm. "Don't fire at him. Not like you'll hit him anyways," he muttered.

Psi flushed in embarrassment but reluctantly unstrung his bow. Once Chaos noticed he was listening, the creator of the universe turned to me. "Long time no see, Perseus," he said calmly.

I didn't know why he was so calm; it was because of his mission I was covered in dirt, my clothes were ripped, and I hadn't taken a shower in many days. It was his fault I looked like a train wreck, and he didn't show any remorse.

My anger grew, but I took a few deep breaths and shot him an innocent smile. "I wish it had been even longer before I saw your face again," I replied.

Upon hearing my insult, Chaos finally switched back to his normal personality.

The personality that I had trusted. My hands tightened into fists.

"Hey!" he cried out. "I'm not that ugly!"

Before I could retort, Psi interrupted. "Why don't you just give us the orb?" he asked, glaring at me.

"I would," I truthfully said. "if it hadn't been the lifeline of a certain primordial I knew."

"You're not going to escape with it," Chaos told me seriously.

"Then why did you give it to me in the first place?" I smirked at him. "You gave it to me, so take it back."

Psi surged forward, furious, but Chaos grabbed his arm and stared right into my eyes. "We'll do just that."

A creepy feeling crawled down my spine. I spun around—but it was too late.

A cool blade was immediately on my neck. "I would keep on looking at Lord Chaos if I were you," Jessica said.

I cursed under my breath. Chaos had been distracting me!

With that, the sound of footsteps filled the air once more. The soldiers reached the top of the tower and swarmed the exits.

I was surrounded.