The Arena Once More: Sequel to The Demigod Games

The Sixth Hour

"How do five people die at the exact same time?" Percy asks, eye wide.

"I don't know, but we're gonna find out!" I say.

"Hey! Annabeth! Remember? Last time you checked out what was on the other side, you were attacked, and fell into the Ring," Piper recounts, referring to only ten minutes.

"I don't care! Anything that bad has to be found out!" I start climbing to the top shelf, and everyone starts following me. When we get to the top, we jump to the inner circle of the 8th Ring aka the outer circle of 7. What we see is horrible.

Two huge metal slabs as tall as the shelf and as wide as the width from the outer circle to the inner are smashing themselves together. Those five Tributes must've been smashed by the slabs.

The slabs return to their original state on the other side of the ring, and smash together again a minute later. "I guess that settles it," Leo states. "Let's go before something bad happens."

"Too late," says an unknown voice. We spin around, to find 4 Tributes facing us from the outer circle of the Eighth Ring.

A boy on the far left is holding a sword, a girl on the far left holding a bow with a quiver of arrows around her shoulder. The two boys in the middle are holding knives, one knife in each hand.

Good thing I grabbed two javelins before I climbed. "Hey, guys? Duck!" My friends do as told and in a swift motion, I bring out the javelins and throw them at the middle two. BOOM! BOOM! They both find homes at the hearts.

The boy with the sword jumps at Percy so my focus will be elsewhere, but Percy stands up and grabs the tip.

He pulls the boy forward, turns around, snatches the sword, and shoves the boy into the 7th Ring. BOOM!

Now it's only the girl. She stares at us in rage. "You dare kill my allies?" she screams. She loads an arrow, and before we have time to react, she shoots Hazel. The arrow lands in her thigh, and Hazel falls. She hasn't even hit the ground yet when she's smashed to smithereens. BOOM!

"No!" I cry. The girl loads another arrow, and aims it at me, but I duck right on time. The arrow flies past me. "Piper! Weapon! Now!"

Piper hands me a throwing knife, and I sharply throw it. The knife finds it's rightful place in her head. BOOM!

"Run!" I yell. We sprint back to the 9th Ring, and jump of the ledge. We all land gracefully on our feet, and collapse to the ground in exhaustion.

We catch our breath for a few minutes. "Annabeth, how many are dead?"

"I think...22."

"That many? How?"

"The first five in the bloodbath, the one in the second hour, the four in the third, Jason in the fourth, that girl in the fifth, then the ten this hour. Five plus one is six, and six plus four is ten; Ten plus one is eleven, eleven plus one is twleve, and finally, twleve plus ten in twenty-two. And if there were 72 Tributes, and if 22 are dead, then only 50 Tributes are left," I explain.

"If there are that many left, why haven't they found us?" Percy asks.

"I'm guessing they're all in the First, Second, or Third Rings. Obviously since it's a countdown, it takes longer to get those sections. They're the safest," Piper answers, most likely knowing I was going to say those exact things.

"Yeah," I confirm.

"So why don't we move to Four?" Leo wonders.

"Because since Nine isn't active anymore, it won't ever be active again. So we'll stay here," Percy answers, catching on.

"Basically," I finish. "Now, we should all rest for real. We've earned it."

We all find a nice place to settle down, and we drift off, the weight of Hazel's death having not have hit us yet.