Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔
┏━━━━ ★ ━━━━┓ 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓬𝔂 𝓙 ┗━━━━ ★ ━━━━┛
It wasn't the largest arena he'd ever been in, but it seemed pretty spacious considering the whole place was underground. The dirt floor was circular, just big enough that you could drive a car around the rim if you pulled it really tight. In the center of the arena, a fight was going on between a giant and a centaur. The centaur looked panicked. He was galloping around his enemy, using sword and shield, while the giant swing a javelin the size of a telephone pole and the crowd cheered.
The first tier of seats was twelve feet above the arena floor. Plain stone benches wrapped all the way around, and every seat was full. There were giants, dracaenae, demigods, telekhines, and stranger things: bat-winged demons and creatures that seemed half human and half—bird, reptile, insect, mammal.
But the creepiest things were the skulls. The arena was full of them. They ringed the edge of the railing. Three-foot-high piles of them decorated the steps between the benches. They grinned from pikes at the back of the stands and hung on chains from the ceiling like horrible chandeliers. Some of them looked very old—nothing but bleached-white bone. Others looked a lot fresher.
In the middle of all this, proudly displayed on the side of the spectator's wall, was something that made no sense—a green banner with the trident of Poseidon in the center.
What was that doing in a horrible place like this?
Above the banner, sitting in a seat of honor, was an old enemy.
"Luke."
Percy wasn't sure if he could hear him over the roar of the crowd, but he smiled coldly. He was wearing camouflage pants, a white T-shirt, and bronze breastplate, just like he'd seen in his dream. But he still wasn't wearing his sword, which was...strange.
Next to him sat the largest giant Percy had ever seen, much larger than the one on the floor fighting the centaur. The giant next to Luke must've been fifteen feet tall, easy, and so wide he took up three seats. He wore only a loincloth, like a sumo wrestler. His skin was dark red and tattooed with blue wave designs.
Luke's bodyguard?
There was a cry from the arena floor, and Percy jumped back as the centaur crashed to the dirt beside him.
