Percy of the Huntsmen

How to Destroy a Maze

Percy turned around. The giants were holding Thalia and Rachel high into the air with their claws pressed firmly into the girls' necks. He wouldn't be able to free them before at least one of them was killed, and Percy couldn't afford to lose either of them.

Percy turned back to the arena. There was a three-foot tall wall surrounding the arena on each side, with stadium-style seating on the two sides to Percy's immediate right and left. He looked up to the raised platform. "What do you want from me?" He asked Luke.

"I do not want anything from you, feeble demigod. My friend, however..." Luke trailed off and extended his hand towards the middle of the arena. A figure even larger than the giants holding Percy's friends dropped from a different podium near the ceiling, landing with a loud crash and a cloud of smoke. At a glance, Percy judged him to be at least fifteen feet tall. He wasn't wearing anything besides a loincloth, which really didn't compliment his large figure.

"Percy!" The man called. "I am Antaeus, Lord of the Labyrinth Arena. I have heard much about you from Luke, and I wish to fight you. And then, of course, kill you."

"What if I say no?" Percy asked.

Antaeus laughed at him. "We both know you won't refuse. But, if you don't follow your usual tendencies, I can always convince you. How about this: if you defeat me, you can pass through my arena. If you can't beat me, my giants kill your girls."

"I accept."

"Good. We will fight as we are."

"Unless you want a weapon," Percy suggested, seeing that his loincloth didn't have any weapons on it.

Antaeus spread his hands. "I need none."

"As we are, then." Percy jumped over the low wall, drawing his sword from over his shoulder upon landing on the sandy ground.

As always, Percy has thought up a plan before even beginning this fight. Antaeus was the son of Poseidon and Gaia, so both water and land would heal him. The natural solution would be to remove him from both land and water. As Percy looked up and saw chains stretching from the podium Luke was on to the podium Antaeus used to be on, he got an idea.

Percy twirled his sword quickly in his hand and then charged. Antaeus moved into a sumo wrestler stance, feet wide and hands out, waiting for Percy to come within reach. Percy dodged around his waving hands and sliced his sword across the back of Antaeus's legs. He stumbled, momentarily surprised, but sand rose from the arena floor to heal him.

Antaeus laughed. "You think you can defeat me, boy? Look around you!" He swept his hands at hundreds of stakes driven into the ground around the stadium with skulls at their tops. "Those are all that remain of others that have fought me. In the name of Poseidon, I slaughter my enemies!"

"And I'm sure that Daddy is proud of you. However, in the name of Death I come to slaughter you." Percy's wings extended from behind his back. With a few flaps, he was up to the ceiling.

"I though you said you'd be fighting, boy, not running away from me!" Antaeus taunted.

"Don't worry, I'll fight." Percy's voice drifted down. He hacked one of the chains off Antaeus's podium. With his dagger, he split open the last chain, making it a hook.

"I'm still waiting down here. Have you abandoned your friends to die?"

"Pardon, I couldn't quite hear you. Did you ask to die? Well, I aim to please!" With that last word, Percy dove down from his perch, chain in tow. Before Antaeus could react, Percy hooked the chain onto the back of his loincloth and hoisted him about twenty feet into the air. Antaeus struggled to stay upright, and to cover his parts, but failed in both. Percy flew around the arena once, in a sort of victory lap, before swooping back in and cutting Antaeus's head clean off his neck. He landed in the center of the arena, basking in the jeers from the monstrous crowd. Luke's eyes were burning yellow with anger.