The Undead Heroes (The first part of The Reiteration of Olympus)

CHAPTER 21, Pent up aggression is apparently not good for Minotaurs

DYLAN

I understood why Silena lunged at the Minotaur, but did she have to do it while we were surrounded by hungry monsters? As soon as she had lunged at the Minotaur all the other monsters had sprung into action.

Des screamed when a dracaenae jumped at us. I tried to impale it with my sword but it was missing from my hand. I panicked and tried to reach for it at my hip but it wasn't there either. If Leo hadn't hit it with a hammer we would have been screwed. I nodded thanks and he nodded back.

I looked around, trying to see who had taken my sword and my eyes landed on someone. Jake. He was holding my sword in his hands, standing completely still. I rushed over to him, anger building in my stomach. The ground shook with each step I took, and it proved quite useful for knocking down the monsters, even if it was unintentional. I walked up to him and snatched the sword from his hands. I was just about to curse him out when I noticed that he hadn't even moved. His hands were still positioned as if he was holding the sword and he just stared straight ahead, seemingly at nothing. His eyes were glazed over and shone slightly golden.

Golden...

Just like that damn Minotaur! I looked over at the Minotaur and saw him standing a few feet away from the raging battle. He had a satisfied smile on his face when he was looking over the crowd of monsters, but then he caught my eye. He looked surprised for a second before smiling cruelly.

I put the pieces together. The Minotaur must have been controlling Jake. But that didn't make any sense. As far as I knew the Minotaur was just a dumb, muscly monster. He shouldn't be clever enough to come up with the idea of controlling someone.

A Stymphalian bird almost crashing into me reminded me that it wasn't the right time to wonder how that bull had taken over Jake's mind; the only thing that mattered was to take that overgrown cow out. I grabbed Jake and carried him bride style over to Leo. I put him down and told Leo to take care of him before I dashed off to the bull. Dozens of monsters jumped at me on my way, but they didn't stand a chance. They might have stood a chance if I was my usual self, but now I was pissed off. More than that, I was furious. And if you've ever learned anything from mythology it's that you shouldn't mess with an angry demigod. I stormed towards the Minotaur, literally. Small hurricanes started up all around me, tearing through monsters and turning them to dust. Even though everything around me was chaos I kept my eyes locked on the Minotaur. I could see the fear appearing in his eyes, and I felt a sense of satisfaction. Serves him right for thinking he could mess with me.

The closer I got to him the more he backed away. In the end, I stood face to face with him. The winds kept raging, but I stood still; waiting for his move. It was quite a stupid move, a cocky move. I felt superior to him as if it was unimaginable that he even stood a chance.

But of course, I was proved wrong.

He charged at me and I stepped away a second too soon. He caught my leg and I fell, Beyoncé tumbling out of my backpack. She shrieked and rolled around until she hit a rock. She shakily stood up and oinked. I could see from where I was lying on the ground that she had a small scratch on her snout. Somehow that unleashed all the anger that was still locked inside me. All the anger that I hadn't quite gotten out from fighting monsters all these years got unleashed because someone hurt my pig. Figures.

"THAT'S IT!" I roared. Water shot out of the ground. All over the mountaintop, angry geysers erupted. I could feel the power surging through my body, flowing through my veins. My senses sharpened, and I was caught in a haze. I didn't fully use my powers all that often. Sure, I had manipulated some water here and there, but that wasn't anything special. That wasn't anything like this. This was intoxicating. It felt as if I had the entire ocean available to me at my fingertips.

I stood up and stared at the Minotaur. He was quivering before me and I couldn't help but smirk. He had been acting so tough before but it seemed as if he finally realized what I was. He should have known better than to mess with a daughter of Neptune.

I felt a tug at the bottom of my stomach and made a cutting motion with my hand. Water slashed across his front and the axe he was holding fell down the mountain. He roared and grabbed his arm. That was my cue.

I know that my anger makes me seem like a stupid stereotype. But the thing is, I'm not. I have to be angry to survive as a demigod, and I have to fight. I have to fight for my life, both in the godly world and in the mortal world. I have to be angry to survive. And if that makes me a stereotype, fine. I don't care. I will continue to fight.

Every slash I made at him was backed up with a thought.

Slash. My stepmom lying to me for years. Slash. Having to become some chosen one when I just wanted to be left alone. Slash. Having gods tamper with my life. Slash. Slash. Slash.

I slashed my sword against his hairy chest and he roared even louder than before. He tried to grab me by my hair but I dodged. I was probably going to be completely exhausted after the fight, but it didn't matter in the moment.

I stabbed my sword straight into his chest and he let out a deafening scream. I looked into his eyes and saw how he changed. His golden eye turned to brown and he stared into mine. He looked terrified, and it wasn't at all the same look he had before. This wasn't the same monster I had been fighting a second ago. He dissolved into dust in front of me and I felt something ache inside of me. Sure, he was a monster who had killed thousands in the old days but... He hadn't had a choice. He was being controlled by something, I was sure of it.

As the golden dust dissolved in the wind I saw something. It didn't look like the usual monster dust, it was definitely something different. If I had known back then what I know now, I would have caught that weird dust. I would have never let it get away.

When I had snapped out of my 'slayer' mindset I looked at the others. There were some monsters wrapped up in vines, so I guessed that Des had gotten some control over her powers. Jake was sitting against a rock with his knees pressed to his chest. Silena was sitting beside him, seemingly comforting him. Beckendorf and Valdez stood a bit farther away from them, talking with their heads hanging low. Something bumped my leg and I looked down. Beyoncé was nuzzling against me and I patted her on the head.

"What the..?"

I looked up at whoever was talking and was met by a shell-shocked Valdez.

"What?" I asked. Everyone else came over to see what was going on, and they looked pretty shocked. Des grinned and sat down beside Beyoncé and started petting her, and Jake followed suit. He refused to meet my eye, and I couldn't blame him. He had stolen my weapon and had almost caused Des and I a lot of harm. But even though he should be ashamed I didn't feel like letting him be so solemn. I elbowed him softly and he looked at me. Fear was clear in his eyes and it looked as if he expected me to hit him. I smiled slightly and relief flooded over him. Something had apparently changed after I battled that Minotaur because I didn't feel as annoyed. I guess letting out some pent up anger helps with one's feelings.

"Should we get going?" I asked and stood up. Instead of stashing Beyoncé in my bag I held her under my arm and started walking down the mountain.

"Uh, what?" Leo asked. I stared at him as if he was stupid.

"We found out why there were so many monsters here, right? Because of that minotaur, correct?"

"Uh... yeah," Beckendorf answered.

"So, let's get going then! Didn't that horse tell us to check things out and then get back to camp?" They all stared at me. There was a long moment of silence before Des burst out laughing. She doubled over with laughter, and I stared at her. She started walking beside me, a smile on her face. I couldn't believe that she could be so cheerful when she just had witnessed something horrible. It was a nice change , having her being so cheerful. We started to walk down the mountain and the others followed us. They probably thought we were crazy, and I couldn't blame them. We probably were.