The Heroes of Olympus: The Black Swordsman

Kirito

I walked into the warehouse with Hazel close behind. In all my life I never thought I'd see anything creepier than this warehouse. Honestly, at first glance it wasn't that bad. It just looked like a old abandoned version of Leo's workshop. The only difference was the lack of lighting, extensive rust, and the roof instead of holding multiple vehicles on display held a bunch of chains. The thing that made this place creepy was the tension in the air. As if something was lying in wait to kill us. I drew my sword. I had felt this feeling many times on my way to Camp Jupiter, and I wasn't taking any chances. Hazel followed my example, her imperial gold weapon gleamed in the dark.

"Stick with me," I murmured. "Look for anything that looks like it might dig out the snow."

Hazel nodded. We continued to walk around a few meters until Hazel pointed out a door. I tried to read it, but for some reason, I couldn't seem to decipher the words. I looked down under the large text to find two translations in spanish and Japanese. Oddly enough I could read the Japanese. I pointed that out to Hazel.

"Well, you do look kind of Asian, maybe you lived in Japan before you lost your memory." It made sense,but it didn't explain my ability to spoke in fluent English.

The main point at present however, was that door was the entrance to the supply room. " I'm going in," I told Hazel. "Stand guard by the door and don't come in until I see it's all clear, there's still something bothering me about this building."

As Hazel waited by the door, I explored the supply room. It was the oddest supply room I had ever seen. There were swords, machine guns, Molotov cocktails, and even what looked like a tattoo parlor. The strangest things were the rows of shiny bronze spheres that were twice the size of bowling balls lined up in racks next to a tub full of c4. Finally I found a giant rack of snow shovels, which for some reason, had spear points on the other end.

"Hey, Hazel it's alright I've found some shovels here too!" No response. "Hazel!?" Still no response.

I suddenly became aware of a cellphone vibrating in my pocket. It was the monster detector Lupa gave me. "No," I breathed. "Hazel!!?" I ran outside the supply room to find all the lights in the ware house were on.

Standing in the center of the ware house facing me were some of the ugliest hairiest giants I had ever seen in my current memory. Laistrygonians. I had never met one, but I had heard descriptions of them from Lupa. They were cannibal giants who tended to live in Canada. Cannibal Canadians. One of the largest of them stepped forward. He was notable by the large tattoo on his arm that said JB loves Babycakes.

"Ha ha hahahahaha. What a treat, two demigods and a mortal in one night. The grill is gonna be burning tonight boys."

The other giants sniggered stupidly at his remark. "Yeah, you go JB"- " you show em whose boss Joe Bob" - " yeah that mortal ain't gonna know what hit em."

A cannibal giant named Joe Bob, seriously? My insides went cold, I had just noticed Hazel and Darren's unconscious bodies wrapped in chains a few meters behind the giants.

I raised Elucidator. "Let them go".

Joe Bob smiled evilly. " I don't think so swordsman. You see, it's about that time, and me my boys would just love to....have you for dinner." Joe Bob waved his hands, and instantly the giants were armed with the bronze spheres I'd seen before.

I readied myself. The giants instantly began throwing their spheres. The spheres ignited as they came at me, turning into instant meteors of destruction. I was barely able to dodge them. The speed at which they traveled were much faster than manticore spikes. The area where the spheres landed turned into smoking craters. At this rate, their long range wasn't going to let me get close. Joe Bob aimed a sphere straight for my face. I couldn't dodge. I yelled, and in a burst of adrenaline, I swung Elucidator and cleaved the sphere in half. The two halves of the sphere flew behind me in blasts of cinder.

Joe Bob raised an eyebrow. "Well well well. The mortal is tougher than he looks, this might actually get fun."

"You have no idea." I muttered under my breath. I had just remembered the open supply room door behind me. A supply room full of gunpowder, gasoline, and c4. The perfect distraction.

"Hey Joe Bob !" I yelled. "If you and Babycakes had a kid, would he look like Medusa or a homeless Cookie Monster?"

That got Joe Bob and the other giants riled up. 12 fiery spheres of death flew at me. Somehow, I managed to throw myself out of the way in just the nick of time. The balls in a miraculous coincidence, somehow managed to all sail into the supply room. A burst of orange light and large roar erupted. Doing my best to ignore the chaos I unleashed all my strength and dashed at the giants. My strategy had worked. In the instant the explosion occurred, the giants were too distracted to throw more spheres, allowing me to get real close real quick. I stabbed my sword through the first giants gut. The giant disintegrated on the spot. I began slashing my way through the other giants. Without their long range advantage, the giants were completely helpless against me. Elucidator seemed to gleam with delight as it cruelly bought its enemies a one way ticket to Tartarus. Finally, Only Joe Bob was left.

Joe Bob looked furious. "My brothers! I will bathe in your blood mortal."

I pretended to nod enthusiastically. "Yeah, sure that's great, but before you do could you tell me how to spell distraction? You see my spelling isn't that good and I would like that question answered before I die."

The giant looked shocked at being asked that kind of question in his situation." D-distraction?" W-well let's see, umm... D, I, S-."

"SLAASHH!!" Joe Bob stopped spelling.