The Harvest Trials

Chapter V

Everette

I watched from the observation deck as thick clear shields rose up from the ground, forming a barrier between the open space of the gymnasium and the demigods. I instructed my guards to go for the leader type boy first. I'll admit I wanted some entertainment.

The agents separated Perseus from the rest and brought him to the center training area. I grabbed my pen and prepared to take notes on his performance.

Without giving him time to think, they injected him with a serum I invented. It would give the demigods a powerful hallucination tailored to their fears and effectively get them to use their powers to their fullest extent.

I pulled up the screen that would show me what was in his head. I twisted a pencil between my fingers, my hand poised over my note sheet.

In the bottom right corner of the screen, a name popped up. Poseidon it read. So my serum was working! It would detect a godly parent so I wouldn't have to get it out of the little pests myself.

I looked up the name Poseidon in my Encyclopedia of Greek Entities. Poseidon was apparently the Greek god of the seas, nicknamed the "Lord of Horses" and the "Earthshaker". He was a brother of Zeus. Second most powerful among the Olympians.

I pressed a button to contract the roof on the gymnasium and told my agents to bring in some water. I was starting to expect great things from this Perseus. I was eager to see what he could do for me.

The image in his head that I viewed from my screen showed a dark and gloomy place. The color scheme was red and black and brown.

"Send in the dummies," I ordered through the coms. Remote controlled dummies rolled into view, good for impersonating the monsterish beings seen on the screen.

Perseus took a pen out of his pocket and it transformed into a full sized sword and he slashed right through a dummy and in his dream scape, the monster burst into golden dust. I scrawled a quick note in the corner of my paper to update the power dampening in the cell blocks to extend to magical weapons.

A dummy knocked the sword out of his hand and lunged at him. I rubbed my hands together as a maniacal grin split my face. Here's where the action happens.

I was surprised by the utter strength of the boy. He was tall and thin, muscular but not overly so, so his strength over the bot was interesting. I jotted a few things down.

Perseus felt for water around him and pulled it to himself. He soon had formed a full fledged hurricane and used it to decimate my dummies.

"More!" I yelled and more bots poured into the arena. Perseus didn't feel the need to do anything more then his hurricane, but I could feel him holding back. This wasn't all he could do.

I cranked up the hallucinations and people started to appear on the screen. I recognized them as the ones who had followed Perseus around mere minutes earlier. I deducted that they must be near and dear to his heart. In the dream scape, they were being threatened by the monsters and I felt the boy's rage simmering to a boil.

I felt the tremors in my observation deck. The ground split open and water raged every which way. It was terrifying and amazing at the same time. I continued to crank the knobs, pushing Perseus to his limits. If the other demigods weren't separated from his area, they'd all be dead.

I turned the knob further when I felt he had reached the limit of his powers, but it seemed to have unlocked a whole knew level. He screamed, such a raw and horrible sound, full of pain and rage as he unleashed everything he had in him.

The ground split in several more places and water poured from the sky where there were no clouds moments ago. A crackling sound filled the air as everything went into a flash freeze. Ice and frost coated the walls and the dismembered bots. My breath fogged in front of me.