The Arena Once More: Sequel to The Demigod Games

The Ninth Hour

We're trapped again. Acid oozing down the force field, there's no way out. This ring is certain to kill us. The Fifth Ring only barely froze Percy and I to death. We survived because we took turns warming the other up. Now, no amount of warmth can keep us alive. We can't climb the shelves, we can't go to another section. Even if we die here, though, at least one of the Seven gets to win. "Y'know, Leo deserves to win," I say. "He hasn't done much today. Not many fighting opportunities, or chances to claim the glory."

"You're right. He should get the gold," Percy adds, the acid starting to pool on the ground. "At least we're going to die knowing we did a good thing."

"Yeah," I say. We're now completely backed up against the wall. As the acid gets closer, we embrace each other. "It just bothers me that even after surviving the second Titan War, pirates, big mutant spiders, especially Tartarus, we're going to die by something as stupid as acid."

We close our eyes, and the acid reaches us. It touches our shoes, and we wait for the damage. Strangely enough, no damage occurs. The liquid's right under us, but nothing is happening. I bend down to touch the stuff. I stand up and examine the 'acid'. The only thing I notice is that I'm getting a slight rash on the tip of my finger where I touched the supposed danger. "Percy...this isn't acid at all! It only gives you a skin rash!" I tell him excitedly. "You'd have to be completely naked for this stuff to have any real affect on you!

"Really?"

"Yeah! C'mon, let's try to find a way out of here!" I say. I grab his hand, and we start running. Tributes attack us from time to time, but we quickly subdue them. Soon, there are only 42 Tributes left in the arena, as we killed 5 of them.

"I think a recognized all those Tributes. They belonged to the pack I saw earlier when I was checking out the Sixth Ring. The 1, 2, 7, 11 pack. I didn't know which kids belonged to which district, but I'm sure those Tributes who attacked us where them," Percy says.

"You told Leo, Pi--Leo and I that those Tributes weren't in the mood for killing?"

"At the time! They had just gotten five of their friends killed!" Percy tells me, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"Oh," I say, feeling stupid. The acid is at waist level, and since our hands have been touching it, we both have serious hand rashes.

We haven't found any way out, but it's felt good to not feel in danger anymore, like we're risking something. We know we're going to die, and we're fine. We're going to die together. That's all that matters. That's all that's ever mattered, really.

We continue to walk in silence, but eventually, Percy stops. "What is it?" I ask.

"If those five Tributes from that alliance were here...then what about the others?" Percy asks, turning to me with wide eyes.

"Right here." We spin around, and the girl Dixie is standing behind us, but her crew of 19 behind her. "You shouldn't have killed our five friends. You decreased our pack to 20. You're gonna pay," Dixie promises. She brandishes a knife, and leaps at Percy before I can react.

She pins him to the ground, and puts the knife to his Adam's Apple. I kick her off of my boyfriend, jump on her. Then, I steal her knife, and plunge it into her back. I roll off of her just as her cannon booms. Four of her friends turn on Percy and I, and each pull out a machete. They split up, and lunge at us.

Friend 1 holds Percy's hands behind his back, and Friend 2 holds a machete to his neck horizontally. The other two friends wrestle me to the ground, and hold their machetes to my heart and forehead. Friend 3 says,"Make one move, and you both die. Understand? No one is aloud to kill any member of our alliance, except us."

That's when one of the kids asks," Excuse you? No one kills any member of our pack, period."

"Oh, please," spits Friend 3, "we're gonna have to kill each other anyway. We can't all win."

"You saying you wanna break the alliance," says the boy, raising an eyebrow.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Hear that, guys?" the boy inquires, looking at his friends. "Since we're not an alliance anymore, I guess we can kill each other now! And I know who to kill first." Friends 1-4 stand up immediately, ready to fight. I stand up, too. I pull Percy up out of the acid, and find his face is completely red and blotchy.

"Oh, Percy! The rash!" I exclaim.

"Nevermind that! Just run!" he demands. We make it out of the ring just as the cannon fest starts.