Heliophile - Apollo

1.2| Bullfighting 101

Ana was standing on the hill near the trees where she liked to read a lot of the time when suddenly she heard the sound of a car moving down the road like it was being chased.

She stood up and saw the car coming towards the camp when the sky went pitch black and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom! and the car exploded.

Ana turned away at the brightness of the explosion before realizing that it was lightning. I cursed Zeus again "fuck off drama queen."

The blonde daughter of Phanes watched as three people got out of the car and an outline appeared behind them. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

Ana had a sinking feeling in her gut. Lightning flashed again and Ana had her suspicions confirmed. In the light was a man with a fuzzy top and horns on his head. The Minotaur. Ana immediately placed her hand on her bracelet.

The Minotaur appeared and Ana couldn't help but gulp. He was seven feet tall, easy, and he wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

Ana watched as two of the figures separated. One sprinted to the left turned, and saw the creature bearing down on him. Ana watched as the boy held his ground, and at the last moment, he jumped to the side.

Ana couldn't help but be impressed as the bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward the boy this time, toward his mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

Ana was close enough to watch as the bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing the boy's mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover. "Run, Percy!" she yelled at the boy. "I can't go any farther. Run!" But he just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her.

She tried to sidestep, but the Minotaur had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air. "Mom!" The boy screamed and Ana had to fight back tears from the bad memories it brought up.

Then Ana watched as with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around the mother's neck, and she dissolved before our eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply... gone.

"No!" Ana heard the boy scream and recognized the anger and grief in his voice. Ana twisted her bracelet and her sword Venom came forward. The bull-man bore down on Grover who now that Ana was closer she recognized and who lay helpless in the grass.

"Hey!" Ana heard the boy scream as he waved a jacket, and ran to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward the boy, shaking his meaty fists.

The daughter of Phanes watched as the Minotaur charged too fast, his arms out to grab the boy whichever way he tried to dodge. Ana's eyes widened as she saw and felt time slow down.

Ana watched in disbelief as the boy leaped straight up, kicking off from the Minotaur's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and Ana could bet that the impact nearly knocked the boy's teeth out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake this a hundred-pound boy. Ana fought the urge to laugh as the teen locked his arms around the horns to keep from being thrown.

Thunder and lightning were still going strong indicating that at least one god was watching. The rain was beating down. The smell of rotten meat burned through the air. The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed the teen flat, but all of us were starting to realize that the Minotaur had only one gear: forward.

Ana watched even more stunned when the teen boy got both hands around one horn and pulled backward with all his might. The monster tensed and gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!

The bull-man screamed and flung the teen through the air. Ana winced as he landed flat on his back in the grass. Hearing his head smack against a rock was enough to make her flinch.

The monster charged. However, before he could get to the boy Ana got involved and kicked the Minotaur in the stomach and knocked him back as the blonde landed in a kneeling position. Ana had a sword that gleamed light blue like ice.

*********

Percy sat stunned and watched taking a much-needed break as the girl fought the bull with ease. She was almost dancing. The bull blocked her sword so she used her free hand to shoot what looked like a beam of light at him which caused the bull to roar in pain. She flipped back and landed on her feet before lifting her hand and pausing the rain in midair collecting water around her and sending a blast of it which knocked the bull-man off his feet. She then turned the water droplets into ice daggers and threw them at the bull who roared as they all hit their mark dead on and embedded themselves in various parts of his body.

The girl backed up towards Percy as her hand glowed gold with raw energy and she ran it over the blade of her sword energizing it.

She looked at Percy "it came after you, you deserve to help with this kill." Percy nodded and just in time as the bull charged and both of them rolled to opposite sides and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, Percy drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage just as Ana used her energized sword and stabbed it into the other side of his rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like Percy's mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart. The monster was gone.

The rain stopped and the last thing Percy remembered was collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above him, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man, the blonde girl who helped him, and another pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They all looked down at Percy, and the new girl said, "He's the one. He must be."

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."