SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

31 - pew pew

BRIAR WASN'T WATCHING the entire thing happen, but she'd certainly heard the words that came out of Enceladus's mouth.

"The mighty Jason Grace," he taunted. "Yes, we know about you, son of Jupiter. The one who led the assault on Mount Othrys, along with the girls. The one who single-handedly slew the Titan Krios and toppled the black throne."

Briar's mind reeled at those words. She didn't know these names, yet they made her skin tingle, as if her body remembered the pain her mind didn't. Her mind flashed back to the words she'd said at the campfire. She'd slain the Titan Koios . . . but what did those words mean to her?

"What are you talking about?" Jason asked. Then, naturally, Enceladus breathed fire.

Jason moved too slowly. The blast missed him, but Briar could tell that he was affected. He slammed into the ground, his clothes smoldering. Ash and smoke surrounded him, and he was choking as he tried to breathe.

He scrambled back as the giant's spear cleaved the ground between his feet.

Jason managed to stand. Then, naturally, he charged.

Enceladus let him approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Jason faked a strike and rolled between the giant's legs. He came up quickly, thrusting with all his might, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, as if the earth were helping him move.

He swept his spear sideways, met Jason's javelin — and with a snap like a shotgun blast, the golden weapon shattered.

The explosion was hotter than the giant's breath, blinding Briar with golden light, even from afar.

When she could see again, she saw Jason sitting at the rim of a crater. Enceladus stood at the other side, staggering and confused. The javelin's destruction had released so much energy, it had blasted a perfect cone-shaped pit thirty feet deep, fusing the dirt and rock into a slick glassy substance. Jason's clothes were steaming. He had no weapon. And Enceladus was still very much alive.

Enceladus blinked at the destruction, then laughed. "Impressive! Unfortunately, that was your last trick, demigod."

He leaped the crater in a single bound, planting his feet on either side of Jason. The giant raised his spear, its tip hovering six feet over Jason's chest.

"And now," Enceladus said, "my first sacrifice to Gaea!"

* * *

"Leo!" Briar yelled. He got the message, ( how could he not? ) sprinting to the closest machine and tinkering with it.

Leo's voice yelled, "Heads up!"

A large black metal wedge slammed into Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant toppled over and slid into the pit.

"Jason, get up!" Briar called. He sat up groggily, while Briar grabbed him under his arms and hauled him to his feet.

"Don't die on me," she charmspoke. "You are not dying on me."

"Yes, ma'am." Jason saluted her.

About a hundred feet behind her, Leo was standing over a piece of construction equipment — a long cannonlike thing with a single massive piston, the edge broken clean off.

Then Briar looked down in the crater and saw where the other end of the blade had gone. Enceladus was struggling to rise, an ax blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate.

Amazingly, the giant managed to pull the ax blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armor, but Enceladus stood.