The Altered Seven

Underground Fight Scene!

The giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke. They reappeared halfway across the room, each in a different spot. Killian sprinted toward Ephialtes, but slots in the floor opened under his feet, and metal walls shot up on either side, separating him from his friends.

The walls started closing in on him like the sides of a vise grip. Killian jumped up and grabbed the bottom of the hydra's cage. He caught a brief glimpse of Piper leaping across a hopscotch pattern of fiery pits, making her way toward Alex, who was dazed and weaponless and being stalked by a pair of wolves.

Meanwhile, Jason charged at Otis, who pulled his spear and heaved a great sigh, as if he would much rather dance Swan Lake than kill another demigod.

Killian registered all this in a split second, but there wasn't much he could do about it. The hydra snapped at his hands. He swung and dropped, landing in a grove of painted plywood trees that sprang up from nowhere. The trees changed positions as he tried to run through them, so he slashed down the whole forest with Vorkna.

"Wonderful!" Ephialtes cried. He stood at his control panel about sixty feet to Killian's left. "We'll consider this a dress rehearsal. Shall I unleash the hydra onto the Spanish Steps now?"

He pulled a lever, and Killian glanced behind him. The cage he had just been hanging from was now rising toward a hatch in the ceiling. In three seconds it would be gone. If Killian attacked the giant, the hydra would ravage the city.

Cursing, he threw Vorkna like a boomerang. The sword wasn't designed for that, but the marble blade sliced through the chains suspending the hydra. The cage tumbled sideways. The door broke open, and the monster spilled out-right in front of Killian.

"Oh, you are a spoilsport, Vixon!" Ephialtes called. "Very well. Battle it here, if you must, but your death won't be nearly as good without the cheering crowds."

Killian stepped forward to confront the monster, Lilly at his side, wielding her sword.

"Together?" she suggested, glancing at him.

He nodded. "Together."

They charged the monster. Killian rolled to one side as all eight hydra heads spit acid, turning the floor where he'd been standing into a steaming crater of melted stone. Killian really hated hydras. It was almost a good thing that he'd lost his sword, since his gut instinct would've been to slash at the heads, and a hydra simply grew two new ones for each one it lost.

The hydra lashed out. Killian ducked behind a giant hamster wheel. He peeked around and saw Lilly slicing through one of its heads. Thinking fast, he ran, thrusting his hands out. Fire blasted the hydra back, making it roar and hiss. Killian jumped on the decapitated head and focused his fire there, cauterizing the stump so that another head couldn't grow back.

He jumped off as another head tried to take a bit out of him. He drew his ax, swinging it experimentally. It had been a while since he'd used one of them in actual combat. He hoped he wasn't rusty.

He ducked under another hand and swung the ax, cutting off another head and making it roar in pain. He threw a fireball at the stump, which cauterized it instantly.

On the other side of the hydra, Lilly rolled out of the way as one head struck at it. She stabbed it in the eye with her sword, making it rear back in pain. She used its pain as a distraction and dived underneath it. She jumped up and sliced through its neck, decapitating another head.

"Got another!" She yelled to Killian.

"Switch!" he yelled back. He kicked the head he was dealing with, stunning it briefly.

They ran past each other as they switched heads. Killian lit his hand on fire and slammed it onto the stump, which was beginning to sprout a new head. Another head tried to bite him, but he slammed his ax into its face. The attack didn't kill it, but it certainly stunned it long enough for Killian to finish searing the neck.