The Pact

Chapter 17: The Desert With an Obsession With Bulls

Kyon POV:

I've been walking for what seems like hours, but I'm guessing that it hasn't been that long since Ares has only sung New Kings seven times.

We will stand, we will fight.

Oh my gods, will you shut up! Or at least change the song!

We'll take everything we need

I'll take that as a no.

So far, I've killed at least seven hellhounds that have appeared out of nowhere. Oh, look another! I slash it when it gets too close. I blame Ares' music; every time he repeats the song, a hellhound shows up.

I groaned out loud and sat down in the hot sand. I'm the only demigod here. If the monsters want me, they can find me.

Grumbling to myself, I attempted to tune out Ares' singing. My left arm was still in pretty bad shape from fighting the Hippalektryon, but besides that, I think I've sustained minor injuries. Good thing about being in the desert, the blood dries a lot faster. Meaning my head wound is all scabbed up, well, more like clogged, but it doesn't really matter.

Suddenly the sand underneath me began to shift. Standing up, I held my sword up at the ready. Something rose from the sand, and I shuffled away from it, and as the sand fell away, I realized how big this thing was.

It was a giant crab, around six feet wide, seven feet tall. Meaning I had to look up to see the top of it. Wait wasn't there a giant crab that Hercules kicked that died? I have to kick this thing? Well, technically, the thing that killed it was the cracked shell, so actually, it died like how a regular crab dies.

I run straight at the crab; it sees me and moves its claws threateningly in front of it. I parry a few blows from its massive claws and slide to its underbelly. Sticking my sword up, I slash into the crab. It turns to golden dust, and I smile to myself; that was relatively simple.

I walked out of the dust and went to sit down when I heard puffs of air and sneezing. Confused, I look behind me and see two blood-red bulls emerging from the dust. What the fuck.

The blood-red bulls were pretty big, larger than any bull I had seen. How they both fit in that crab, I don't want to know. They turned towards me, and I noticed their bright blue eyes, weird. Then they both bellowed, and their horns swiveled from horizontal to straight up; ok, that was odd.

They both lowered their heads and charged. At a much faster pace, I would've thought. Quickly sidestepping the bulls, I managed to get by without a scratch.

They turned around on their back hooves and charged again, but this time I was ready. As the first bull came closer, I sidestepped it and slashed downwards, cutting its head off. The bull disintegrated, and I looked at the incoming bull, ready to finish it off.

I did the same maneuver, but this time I just barely saw the horn of the bull swivel with me and attempt to impale me. I grabbed the horn from the side to keep from stabbing my fingers and pulled the bull to a stop.

Nice going kid, didn't know you had it in you.

The bull tries pulling itself from my grip, but I keep a tight hold on it. Realizing what I was doing, I let the bull go. Shit, I didn't mean to tap into that ever again; I guess the horn just took me by surprise. Growling at my lack of control, I ran up to the bull who tried a futile attempt at impaling me and sent it to Tartarus.

The spoils of war were one horn, each bull, the crab left a claw piece, but it was practically useless. I grabbed the two horns and stuck them into my belt; they were the size of a slightly long dagger—a good weapon.