The New Demigods

Chapter 7: The Arenas

Catching up to the back of the group I heard Hera lecturing Ares about his comment, "don't you EVER go off script again."

Ares let out a dark laugh, "again? What again? Hera, stop kidding yourself, this is our last chance. Might as well enjoy it while you can." I had expected Hera to retort with an angry comment, but instead her eyes hit the floor and it seemed like she was genuinely hurt by what Ares had said.

"On your left you will see the first arena, designed specially for the king of the Gods, Zeus, and his champion Zach!" Announced Eleanor, opening the arena door to reveal a vast courtyard equipped with racks of armour, spears, shields, swords; automated training dummies; an obstacle course that was at least 3 stories high; and a large digital control centre that had dozens of screens showing battle leadership techniques.

As we all rushed through the arena door to get a better look, I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body. Eleanor and Nathaniel gave a brief tour of the arena, and afterwards I found myself drawn to the weapons rack as most of my peers explored the obstacle course. I never had an interest in weapons before, at least I don't think I had, but something about the racks of weapons seemed to catch my interest. One spear in particular appeared to surge with electricity and as I reached my hand out to touch it, I could feel the hairs on my arm begin to raise. When my fingers were no more than an inch away from the spear I felt the jolt of a large hand quickly wrapping around my arm.

"Not for you," Zeus said through his teeth, then dropped my arm. He picked up the spear and the electricity pulsed from the spear into his body, illuminating his eyes. "Zach, this is yours!" Zeus tossed the spear to Zach who had been watching a video on one of the large digital monitors.

When Zach's hand wrapped around the spear, the vein shaped scars all over his dark skin seemed to glow and resemble lightning bolts. He held the spear uncomfortably, unsure of what to do with it, but smiled and nodded back at Zeus, "Thanks!"

"If you'll all excuse us, Zach and I have lots to discuss." Zeus announced as Eleanor and Nathaniel herded the rest of the teenagers off of the obstacle course.

Walking back into the hallway, I realized my sponsor and the 3 others who were not deemed part of the '12 Gods of Olympus' had waited in the hallway the whole time; I found it odd that they seemed to be treated like outcasts.

The next arena belonged to Hera and Harper, it was equally as vast as Zeus' arena, but was inside a large room full of hanging tapestries depicting various scenes of Greek life. The weapon rack was filled primarily with large shields and daggers. The large screens played videos about managing the relationships of your army. I wondered just how effective the videos were after seeing Hera's aggressive management style.

Again the 4 outcast sponsors had waited in the hallway throughout the tour and we returned to them as Hera rushed us out of the arena.

The arena behind door #3 had sand for a floor and I could taste the salt in the air from the body of water that stretched out into the distance. How a small sea was able to fit within a warehouse was beyond me. Even more shockingly, there was a herd of horses walking the shorelines.

"Wow, this quite the room," I said to Peyton as she pet one of the horses.

"I know, isn't it perfect? I can't believe I get to be trained by the ocean! I thought I was going to have a boring room like Zach and Harper."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Posieden watching me like a hawk as I talked with Peyton, so I went back to the door to wait for everyone else. As I approached the doorway I could see the 4 outcast sponsors huddled in a conversation and their whispering stopped as I got closer.