The Demigod Games

Chapter Thirty-eight

Jupiter chuckled to himself, his well-built body shaking. He loved the fear in the tributes eyes as they came upon their impending demise.

He had long since gotten over the Thalia girl; she had been a weakling. If she could not survive in a simple challenge such as this, she was no daughter of his.

His only hope resided in the Jason boy - he showed promise. His only weakness was the girl. Daughter of Venus, she was distracting him from the task at hand - winning the Games and restoring honor and glory to the name of Jupiter.

Graecus scum, he thought to himself. They were the only thing holding back his Roman praetor boy from true victory.

He sat back in his huge throne, shooting glances at the other Olympians.

Neptune had a confident grin on his face. Jupiter hated it. Both of his children, still worthy competitors in the Arena. He would have to do something to wipe out the threat altogether, even if it was a minor one.

He looked into the girl praetor's eyes as the rumble filled the area. Fear. Pure fear. Jupiter's rumbling laugh echoed through the throne room once again. Her fearless facade had finally cracked.

"Bellona," Jupiter whispered to no one, "she dies next."

--

Annabeth woke to the low rumble the made the world shake.

Percy was already on his feet, swinging around Anaklusmos as if to fight thin air.

I coughed as dust began to fall from the ceiling of the cave, soon followed by small pebbles, bouncing on the floor.

I realized what was happening almost too late.

"Percy, run!"

I dodged a flying boulder the size of a basketball as the world caved in around us.

The narrow opening was barely visible, the light seeming to recede the closer we got. The dust was settling in my lungs, and I gasped for air.

Athena, she prayed, please help us.

And at once the opening was nearing rapidly, and Percy collapsed onto the floor, a rock next to his head.

A pool of blood covered the stone. The all-too-familiar smell of bloodshed made Annabeth want to vomit, but she kneeled next to him, laboring for breath, tears streaming down her face.

"PERCY!" she screamed.

"Unghnghhhh..." he responded.

She arched her body over his to protect him, and wrapped her arms around his chest and heaved.

He slid across the floor, unconscious. The exit was only twenty feet away.

The dust made it impossible to breath or see, but with one last straining effort, Annabeth pulled Percy out of the cavern as the entrance sealed, the rock ceiling caved in. She nearly felt safe until she looked up at the top of the mountain, where smoke was billowing out of the summit.

Breathlessly, gasping for air, and clutching Percy close against her, she whispered in pure horror.

"Vesuvius."

--

And here Leo was thinking his day couldn't get any worse.

Luckily, they were miles away from the mountain when it exploded into ash and magma.

The blackish red liquid flowed out of the summit of the mountain, glowing white-hot, incinerating everything in it's path. I could smell the burning trees, the sound of pure destruction. The lava came rushing down the slope, an avalanche of fire and destruction. Leo watched from a distance as the trees were uprooted, rocks tumbled from ledges and animals scurried away from the wrecked wasteland that was once their homes.

One cannon.

Another.

Dusk was rapidly approaching, judging by the way the sun was about to sink behind the Mount-o-Destruction.

Aelia screamed and ran away from the lava, which surprisingly was approaching with incredible speed.

"Holy Hephaestus," Leo murmured.

It was only when his body was engulfed in liquid fire that he was truly thankful for his gift of immunity to heat.

--

Lara hadn't seen the mountain erupt. Mount Vesuvius. So clever. Two cannons had already gone off. Only the gods know who.

The sun was plummeting behind Mount Death quickly, and the moon was already visible in the fading daylight.

Lara only saw the aftermath. The entirety of the forest, reduced to ash, with demigods sprinting everywhere, looking behind them to ensure their friends were still with them.

One girl passed right beneath Lara and Edward's concealed overhang, tears streaming down her grimy face, covered from head to toe in ash.

Lara pointed at her, and looked at Edward with a maniacal grin.

"That one," She says, and he nods.

Slowly, they rise from their hiding spot and jog after the girl, the light finally receding, leaving them in the darkness once more.

--

Reyna wanted to vomit.

Her stomach churned after the rumblings, making her sick to her stomach. A thick layer of ash had settled around her camp, the trees that had once surrounded her reduced to ruins.

Coughing, Reyna shivered despite the unbearable heat that had settled over the Arena.

Two dead.

Two cannons.

I look at the sky, where the Mount Olympus emblem glows bright as the faces of the condemned are displayed.

But Reyna was exhausted from a day of running from white-hot lava and psychotic murderers. She could only see the emblem of the gods fading away into a murky haze before she drifted off to sleep.