The Blood of Three

Chapter 40

We walked down a dim hallway with dull lights as the sound of our footsteps echoed through the empty air. I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong. I laid a hand on Kyle's arm and stopped him. "Kyle, I—."

Suddenly, the double doors in front of us flew off the hinges and slammed into the wall. A titan pushed through, followed by two overgrown cyclops. Dylan, who was in the front of the group, immediately stopped in his tracks.

The titan roared and the two cyclops showed glee at our fear. Dylan drew his sword, joining the other armed demigods. The titan charged, running into the group of trained teenagers.

Kyle took a step back and put his arm in front of me. The demigods standing around us fought back, but it was almost useless. In mere seconds, demigod lives were obliterated at the hands of the monsters.

Realizing the monsters were winning and we were defenseless, Kyle and I backed up as far as possible. We soon became targets. The two demigods with no weapons seemed to become a goal for our enemy. A cyclops barreled toward us, masked with determination. Kyle threw fire at the monster, trying to make it change its target, but the cyclops continued to run toward us, not affected by Kyle's defense. Fear coursed through me. Giving up, Kyle wrapped his arms around me and crouched down, shielding my body with his.

Suddenly, the monster was knocked off balance by a gust of wind. Having caught sight of what was happening, Dylan took action. Once the cyclops was lying on the ground, three demigods voluntarily took the task of killing him. With one monster dead, everyone focused their attention on the other two.

Kyle and I stood, looking around at the fallen heroes. My heart sank, seeing seven bodies resting motionless on the ground. "Kyle, we have to help." Seven lives had been taken from our small group in a matter of mere minutes. I jogged to the closest two bodies and grabbed their two bloody swords. "Thank you," I whispered to the once living. They had lost their lives trying to get Kyle and me out of this place.

I tossed one of the swords to Kyle and he gave me an order. "Stay by my side." His tone was hard and serious. I nodded and we ran into action. We made our way to the titan that Dylan was fighting. We snuck behind the monster and stabbed our blades into its legs. A smile stretched across Kyle's face as the monster roared in pain. Two demigods near the titan threw their weapons into its stomach, making the titan fall to its knees. Dylan flew to the distracted monster's head and killed it with one jab to the neck. The weak titan collapsed, then faded to a mist.

The last cyclops screeched and slammed a demigod into the wall with just a swing of its arm. I watched the demigod fall to the ground. He didn't get up. He didn't move at all.

Dylan ran to the monster and the cyclops thrust its fist, hitting him under the jaw. Dylan fell to the ground. I ran behind him and slashed my sword at the cyclops' back, diverting its attention away from Dylan. The cyclops spun around and backhanded me on the chest. Before I could react, my body was slammed into the wall and I fell to the ground with a thud.

The air was knocked out of my lungs and a sharp pain crashed into my already aching head. Taking deep breaths, I struggled to remain focused on what was going on around me. I slowly reached up to the part of my head that hit the wall, then removed my fingers to find blood covering the tips. I slowly sat up.

Filled with rage, Kyle took off running toward the monster. Once he was close enough, he threw his arms out and a string of fire hit the monster. It keeled over bellowing in pain and two familiar demigods took it in their will to plunge their swords into the monster. The cyclops disappeared.

Dylan climbed to his feet, and Kyle rushed to me. "Are you okay?" he asked.

I tried to ignore the sharp pain in the back of my head and nodded. "Yeah."