𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 [Jason Grace]

48

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲. The giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke. They reappeared halfway across the room, each in a different spot. Percy sprinted toward Ephialtes, but slots in the floor opened under his feet, and metal walls shot up on either side, separating him from his friends. Percy jumped up and grabbed the bottom of the hydra's cage.

To Jason's left, Piper was leaping across a hopscotch pattern of fiery pits, making her way toward Nico, who was dazed and weaponless and being stalked by a pair of leopards.

Meanwhile Jason charged at Otis, who pulled his spear and heaved a great sigh, as if he would much rather dance Swan Lake than kill another demigod.

He wasn't bad at combat, just... unorthodox. It was sword against spear and Jason had never fought someone so completely disinterested in fighting. Logically, even the giant knew that nothing Jason could do would kill him, at least not until they had a god on their side.

Somewhere during the fight Otis had lost his diamond tiara and looked angry about it. He probably could have impaled Jason several times, but the giant insisted on doing a pirouette with every attack, which slowed him down.

Meanwhile, to his right Percy was trying to survive against a hydra while dodging any attacks Ephialtes made with his control board.

At the dais, Piper stood guard over Nico as the leopards advanced. She aimed her cornucopia and shot a pot roast over the cats' heads. It must have smelled pretty good, because the leopards raced after it.

Jason's arm were growing tired from all the fighting. They had barely had any time to recover after the nymphs. And Otis just refused to die. It was getting frustrating pretty fast.

He saw Percy leap over the easel of something that looked vaguely dangerous enough that Jason did not want to know the use of.

"Duck and cover!" He yelled.

Jason dropped to the ground, shielding his head with his arms. The sound was like a fiesta in the middle of an exploding gunpowder factory. The Hydra Percy had been aiming for vaporized instantly. Unfortunately, the recoil knocked the easel sideways and sent more projectiles shooting all over the room. A chunk of ceiling collapsed and crushed a waterwheel. More cages snapped off their chains, unleashing two zebras and a pack of hyenas. A grenade exploded over Ephialtes's head, but it only blasted him off his feet. The control board didn't even look damaged.

Across the room, sandbags rained down around Piper and Nico. Piper tried to pull Nico to safety, but one of the bags caught her shoulder and knocked her down.

"Piper!" Jason cried. He ran toward her, but Percy's voice rang out behind him.

"Look out!"

Jason thanked all his training for his fast reflexes. As Otis threw a spear at his back, he rolled.

The point sailed over him and Jason flicked his hand, summoning a gust of wind that changed the spear's direction. It flew across the room and skewered Ephialtes through his side just as he was getting to his feet.

"Otis!" Ephialtes stumbled away from his control board, clutching the spear as he began to crumble into monster dust. "Will you please stop killing me!"

"Not my fault!"

Otis had barely finished speaking when Percy's missile-launching contraption spit out one last sphere of Roman candle fire. The fiery pink ball of death (naturally it had to be pink) hit the ceiling above Otis and exploded in a beautiful shower of light. Colorful sparks pirouetted gracefully around the giant. Then a ten-foot section of roof collapsed and crushed him flat.