Rise of Erebos: Search of the Hidden

Chapter 19: I'm Getting Pretty Sick of Facing Monsters

Waking up my friends was way easier than I thought previously, with one exception.
I went to each of them individually and tried to shake them awake. Luckily for me, they immediately woke up, except for Alexander, who I spent a full minute trying to wake up. Everytime I tugged on his shoulder, he would lash out and punch the air, saying, "Go away, Mom!." I tried throwing rocks at his face, but that just made him punch the air more.
Just as I was about to give up hope, Kai came over and pressed his hands on Alexander's arms, waking him up instantly.
"It's not a phase, mom!" Alexander gasped, now awake.
Even after I woke everyone up, the scene still wasn't pretty. Geneva and Arthur were embracing one another, their faces streaked with tears. Kai was consoling Amethyst, the latter crying in a corner. Alexander seemed fine, but his face was ghostly pale and he kept screaming, "Go away, mom!"
I couldn't tell if part of his brain still thought he was in the simulation or if this was just Alexander being Alexander.
"W..what was that, that w..weird simulation or dream?" Amethyst asked, shuddering.
I shook my head. "I..don't really know, but I think it was a nightmare or something."
Kai stood up, helping Amethyst up. "It had to be an endless, looping nightmare. The entire dream's purpose was to get over some fear you have. It was pretty trippy."
"How can you not be traumatized after what happened? We were put in a never ending nightmare that we would have been in forever if not for Rose!" Geneva's voice then broke as she buried her head into Arthur's chest.
"Whatever the case, we have to find out who did this," I said, steering the conversation away from our nightmares. Crying and talking about our individual nightmares wasn't going to get us anywhere. "Does anyone know who did this?"
Alexander nodded. "It was that guy!" He pointed to a random rock and fell on his face. "Ow! How dare you, floor!" I guess Alexander had other problems other than being traumatized.
"Um, before I fell asleep, I saw the outline of a black haired man with a pendant," Geneva recalled.
"Same here," Arthur said.
"Black haired man with a pendant," Amethyst repeated, furrowing her brows. "That sounds like Hypnos, the Greek god of Sleep."
Alexander leaped up, triumph in his eyes. "I knew it was him! That snake!"   
    "But where is he now?" I asked.
    Kai shrugged. "It seems the second he put us to sleep, he left. Hypnos isn't exactly the most lively god. Dude takes naps twenty-one hours of the day."
    Geneva grabbed her knives. "Then let's find him and take him down. After what he showed me..." She trailed off, glaring at the wall.
    "As much as I hate Hypnos, we can't kill him," Amethyst said. "He's a god firstly, so killing him would be impossible. Secondly, we don't have enough time. We gotta get out of here and get the next mask."
    "She's right," Arthur agreed. "Hypnos may have tortured us, but trying to find him and kill him will only delay our mission further."
    Geneva frowned, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "Fine, I guess. But I won't forget what he did to us."
    "Anyways," Kai said. "If it really was Hypnos, what was he doing here? The guy doesn't really like doing work, unless that includes finding a bed and taking a big nap."
    "Hold on," I said. "What if Hypnos is working with Nemesis and Ares? It would make no sense that he would randomly take action on a group of six demigods unless he was told to do so."
    "But why would he just not kill us then?" Geneva countered. "If he's working for Ares, who wants to kill us, why would Hypnos pass up a chance to do the same?"
    Amethyst stared at the ground. "Like Kai said, Hypnos doesn't like doing a lot of work. When he put us to sleep, he might've told Ares or someone else to handle the situation instead of doing it himself."
    Arthur nodded. "If that's the case, we should leave immediately."
    With that, we began heading for the exit of the cave. As we got closer to leaving, waves of monsters suddenly ran at us from behind. I hadn't noticed before but the cave had a second entrance on the other side, which is probably how the monsters got in.
    "Crap on a spatula," Alexander groaned, pulling out his shields and morphing them into a big sword. "I hate these things."
    Amongst the large crowd of monsters were boars, vultures, empousa, big bats, snakes, hounds, and scorpions. I pulled out my knives as we all split up into teams of two, each group going for a certain monster.
Me and Geneva took on a huge group of hounds, with some ground scorpions and snakes joining in. Our daggers span through the air, slicing down monsters left and right. Meanwhile, Arthur and Amethyst were out to the side sniping down the big bats and vultures. Alexander and Kai slashed through hordes of boars, their backs to each other.
Despite how well we were doing, we were tiring and the groups of monsters didn't stop coming. My magic began weakening and my hands got sore. Across the field, the other four had been further split up, each one of them having to take down multiple groups by themselves. We were completely overwhelmed.
A large boar ran at me from across the field, its head crashing into my stomach and sending me into a back wall. My knives clattered out of my hands and my stomach felt like it was about to burst with pain. Kai and Alexander were being overwhelmed in the middle, vultures pecking at their clothes, and snakes, scorpions, and empousa attacking them from all angles. Amethyst and Geneva had fallen down and were struggling to protect themselves as monsters swarmed them. Arthur was all alone, desperately blasting the monsters with his light beams and trying to keep them away.
My situation didn't get any better as more monsters crowded me. I had nothing to defend myself as the vultures squaked angrily at me and hounds bit at me. Everyone else had fallen down and were now getting pelted by monster attacks. It seemed to be the end of our quest.
"No! We will not die!" Arthur yelled. Suddenly, the ground rumbled as lightning and rain hit the ground outside. His eyes were no longer their regular color, but rather a stormy blue, as if lightning and thunder itself were pulsing through his irises, traveling throughout his body. His skin also became golden, as if he had become a metallic statue.
A bolt of lightning struck Arthur like the lightning had hit him at LionsWorth Enterprises. The mob of monsters surrounding him were blasted away as he flew up, levitating above the ground. Lightning protruded from his body, and he was eclipsed by an electric aura. He struck down lightning on the creatures attacking us, slaying them easily. Eventually, he was able to destroy all the monsters, the cave completely empty except for the six of us.
However, Arthur's powers were on the fritz. He started shooting lightning randomly around the cave, forcing all of us to move around it. One of his bolts went right above my head, raining pebbles upon me.
"Dude, stop!" Kai yelled, ducking under another of Arthur's stray beams.
"I can't!" Arthur shouted back. Lightning continued striking around us, showering the cave with a blinding glow.
Alexander tried blocking one of Arthur's bolts with his shields, but the force of the strike hit Alexander backwards.
"Arthur, stop!" Geneva ran over to him.
"That's a bad idea, Geneva!" Amethyst warned, too late to stop her. I was sure something bad was going to happen.
But, I was wrong. His lightning aura faded and he levitated down to the ground. Geneva embraced him, gazing into his now normal blue eyes.
Arthur pulled away. "I'm sorry guys. I don't know what happened."
Geneva kissed him. "It's ok, Arthur. You saved our lives earlier. Without you, we would've been eaten by those monsters."
"Seriously. It's cool, bro," Kai said, patting Arthur on the back. "But I have to ask; What the heck just happened?"
Amethyst looked at Arthur with shock in her eyes. Arthur looked at her warily. "What?" he asked.
"You were able to use and manipulate electricity. Do you know what this means?" Amethyst explained.
"What?" Arthur asked.
"You're a child of Zeus," Amethyst said.