The Blood Of The Beast

14: Cyclops in the Colusseum

(08/09/16 - 11/09/16)

Eurussss... Your massster... You mussst obey... Eurusssss...

Light. Sky. Air. Everything. Nothing. No one. No me.

-_-_-

I slowly blinked my eyes open, only to close them again as they made contact with the surprisingly burning light of the moon.

I attempted to move my arms to push myself in a sitting position, eventually failing and collapsing back on the ground as pain racked my body.

A groan similar to the one I had let out rang to my left.

"Get up, you wimps," I heard Artemis growl. "We are running on a strict schedule. Axilux and his servants will not sit around and wait for you two to get up and complete the Prophecy of Balance."

I rolled over and crawled to a sitting position. "What the hell what that?" I groaned massaging my aching head with my fingers.

"That, Dragonslayer, was an Earthworm Hole. You were turned into one of the northwest winds to travel here, Rome and back into human. And considering you're here and still your annoying, whiny self, you didn't fall for Eurus' trap." I heard Cassandra sneer.

"Cassandra," a dark skinned girl dressed in a ancient Greek Chilton with a golden band across her forehead matching her sandals. She was petite and had a serene voice, similar to the one that had sung me to death in my dream-

"Yes, he is a boy, but it isn't his fault he doesn't know. And we must do our best to educate him and keep him as an ally. After all, no just him, but both of them, are the ultimate saviours of the universe, and literally it's balance."

She turned her head to Jason and shone her flashlight on his face, who was wiggling his arms and legs as a bug that was knocked over on its back would, trying to get up. "Mr. Cursebreaker, please do act with more refinement. We are here on an important mission, not to preform for a circus."

She glided over to him, grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet.

"Now that we have finished the theatrics, may we get on?" Chloë sighed.

"Yes! Onwards to war, my soldiers!" Mars bellowed.

Artemis groaned. "Thank the Fates it is late evening here. I would hate to be caught with someone as embarassing as you."

I looked around, taking in my surroundings. We were in the centre of the Colusseum.

"A'right," Jason drawled, the way he usually spoke when trying to impress a girl. "Where we goin' at?" He obviously liked the girl.

"We shall split up into two groups, one with you and one with the Dragonslayer. We will go underground and wait for the next part of the prophecy to find us, though it might come earlier." Artemis said in a bored tone, almost as if she went on quests every day. "The first group shall be-"

"Wait! Lady Artemis! You truly agree with Sumeria? That we should respect and educate them? I honestly don't even believe they are the real chosen ones. What proves it?" Cassandra yelled, making us stop and stare at her.

Before anyone could answer, ranging from Artemis daring her to question the almighty goddess, to Mars yelling "Beef!" and lastly, me answering with various choice words which mostly had four letters; loud, thumping noises rang through the air.

Footsteps.

As I turned, I saw one, truly horrific thing. A Cyclops.

His one eye flaring with fury, he let out a deep, guttural roar while throwing his hands in the air, not shy at all over his malevolent nudity. Around him, small, scattered fires appeared, reminding me of what Kiara had once described hell to be. But this has a lot more nakedness.

Shut up brain.

"Gah! My virgin eyes!" screamed Haley, to match her already exaggerated theatrics, she started pulling on her raven hair with one hand while making clawing motions over her blue eyes.

"Food! Yummy human food!" The monster let out a laugh while patting his large potbelly.

"Kill it with fire!" Jason squeaked, running towards the staircase that led to the catacombs. "Y'all are gods. So you can deal with it."

The hunters took one look at one another and started running up the stands, yelling out formations and summoning their bows; Hayley, surprisingly managed to get her act together and chose focus at the eye and not his 'masculinity' and started shooting at him. Yet he managed to smack all the arrows away, like pesky insects.

Artemis took off after Jason screaming something along the lines of, "If we die, I will feed him to the Cyclops." And her fellow godly counterpart started charging towards the monster with a battle cry. Only to repeatedly stab the monster's toe, with no avail.

That left me, all alone in the middle of the Colluseum, unarmed and defenseless.

Reach for your sword. There was no way, no way, my sword was there. But just as I was millimeters away from where my sword once rested, Call out It's name.

"Sanguis Draconis!" Dragon-Blood. And I felt my hand touch the familiar leather hilt of my sword.

My body felt the weight of my armor as it suddenly appeared on my body, yet It did not hold me down and clouding my vision like I expected; my eyesight became sharper, I could sense my newly acquired strength surge through my body.

Unlike the last time this happened, I knew what I was doing. I wasn't an awkward "soldier" in ancient Athens. I was the Dragonslayer, and if I could kill a dragon, then I could slaughter a Cyclops.

With a deep, primitive roar, I charged forwards, sword in hand, into the battle.

-_-_-

It was like my body was taken over, and the person who was commanding it knew exactly what they were doing. Unlike me.

And for the first time, I understood what it felt like to be whole. To feel adrenaline rush through your veins. And any questions in my head about the authenticity of what was happening were answered. This, was most definitely real.

I joined Ares at the left grimy, foot of the Cyclops. Yet I didn't repeatedly stabbing him for no reason like the grumbling god of war - "I can't believe dad let Athena be the smart war deity. If I was smart I would be invincible like her." Those words made the wings if the owl on the hilt of my sword flutter with pride.

No, I drove right in for the closes available weakness; slashing him in his calves making him stumble forwards. His sudden loss of balance made him stop fighting off the hunters and one of them, Cassandra, managed to pin him in the eye.

With a cry of pure agony, he fell fowards, leaving Mars to take the kill.

Although, instead of staying behind to celebrate the victory, I felt something pulling me to the stairway Jason had took to the catacombs.

Without another word, I left. Ignoring the gut feeling and warnings coming from Dragon-Blood that it would be my doom.