Chapter 21: I almost fall face-first into a lava pit

Ephialtes was definitely right. The challenges didn't get easier.

The wall at the end of the lake opened up, revealing our next challenge. Before us was a grassy trail with large tilted trees off to the side. It looked like a scene out of Slenderman, with dead trees and pitch black skies. All it needed was Javier Botet staring us down in a CGI Slenderman uniform and we would be good to go.

"Your next challenge," Ephialtes announced. "Survive the wrath of falling trees in a dark, spooky forest!"

"Falling trees? How are we supposed to deal with that?" I asked, just wanting to get out of the maze.

Alexander scoffed. "It's really simple. We climb the trees like monkeys so they don't fall down on us."

Kai looked at him. "Nah. Watch this."

He walked forward, getting closer and closer to the trail.

"Kai, don't!" Amethyst yelled. "All of them will fall down!"

Kai ignored her though and put his right foot on the trail before pulling it out. The trees then toppled over one-by-one, covering up the entire trail.

Kai turned towards us and gave us a smirk. "There you go!"

We jumped onto the trees and walked over to the end of the trail.

"See? I was right!" Alexander exclaimed, his eyes full of pride.

Kai patted him on the back. "You did it, buddy. You're a genius."

"God dang it! Otis, why did you make the trees like that?!" Ephialtes asked, smashing something with his fist.

Otis scoffed. "Well, why did you tell them about the falling-"

"OTIS, SHUT UP!" Ephialtes screamed. "Nevermind. The next challenge will be sure to freak you heroes out."

The wall lifted upwards, a pitch-black space in front of us. It was so dark that none of us could make out anything.

Ephialtes laughed. "Your next challenge: make it through a pitch-black maze with groups of blood sucking empousa chasing you! To make it even harder, they carry Imperial gold weapons capable of killing even the strongest demigods!"

"Ephialtes, you need to stop telling them all the details," Otis groaned.

"I will not have this conversation with you again, Otis! Let me do the talking!" Ephialtes shouted back.

Geneva cursed under her breath. "It just has to be a dark maze."

"Okay, we need to try and distract the empousa and hope we can run out before they find us," Amethyst instructed.

"But it's pitch-black. How will we know if they're near us or not?" Geneva asked. It was a good question, but it definitely didn't calm my nerves. This might've been our most dangerous challenge yet.

Amethyst glared at her. "I'm aware that it's dark. Just listen closely for the empousa. They're pretty clumsy, especially if they have clunky weapons. Also, they breathe loudly. Just listen carefully."

With that in mind, we began heading through the maze, sticking close together. As we felt around the walls of the maze, I began hearing the low breathing sounds of the empousa.

That's when we met our first dead end. We ran straight into a black wall as we heard the empousa's weapons scrape against the walls.

"Kai, use your fire," Geneva whispered. "We need to be able to see the empousa before they kill us."

Kai nodded, but Amethyst grabbed his arm. "Are you crazy? If he lights up even the smallest bit of flame here, the empousa will be able to see us!" she said.

"Don't we want that?" Geneva countered. "Just kill them now so we can head through the maze unimpeded!"

Amethyst scoffed. "It's not that simple, Geneva! There's a big group of them with weapons that can kill us! We're clearly at a disadvantage regardless!"

"But running away won't do anything either. If we just kill them, we'll be able to get through the maze easily and with no trouble!"

Before Amethyst could respond, the empousa's breathing got louder, so loud I could almost smell their breath. They were awfully close and ready to attack.

Kai summoned fire on his hand, illuminating the maze with a dim light. There were twelve empousa, each of them carrying golden swords or spears and growling at us.

"Zombies!" Alexander screamed, pulling out his shields. Arthur picked up a sword on the ground as we all brought out our weapons. The empousa split up into six groups, each of them targeting one of us.

Unfortunately for me, I got the largest empousa of the group, being at least a foot taller than the rest. It carried what seemed like the largest spear in the world, with it being about his height and a quarter of his width. It was so sharp, I cowered under the gaze of it.

"Puny mortal!" the big empousa growled. "Die in my hands!"

A second empousa dashed at me, their gold sword aimed for my head. I ducked underneath and hit it in the back with a fire spell, disintegrating it. However, the big empousa wasn't too happy about me killing his friend. It swung its spear at my legs, forcing me to jump upwards.

It brought its spear back around and went for a jab, forcing me to roll to the side just as I hit the floor. I took the opportunity to get in a couple quick jabs with Merlin and Marianne while the empousa's side was still open. However, it only got angrier and smacked me in the face with its beefy arm, throwing me into a wall.

As I slid down the wall, my back felt paralyzed and my nose was bleeding. The empousa walked toward me with a menacing stare, it's spear raised and ready to kill me. Before it could, a fireball knocked its spear out of its hand. Kai and Geneva dashed in at the empousa and slashed away at it, turning it to dust. Geneva helped me up as Amethyst handed me a piece of ambrosia.

"Thanks, guys," I said, biting down the ambrosia Amethyst handed me. It tasted like my dad's old grilled cheese sandwiches he used to make me and Marianne when we were young. I sighed with satisfaction. Those were the good days.

Arthur wiped some blood off his arm. "Now that we got the empousa out of the way, we can find the end of the maze."

With Kai igniting Scorcher, we were able to find the exit of the maze pretty quickly as we headed into the next trail.

"Gah! How do they keep winning?" Ephialtes groaned. Otis just cried with frustration.

"Whatever. These next challenges will be sure to make them struggle. Heroes, your next challenge will be an agility course over a dangerous lava pit. If you fall, you'll die!" Ephialtes said.

Otis continued sobbing with despair. I'm pretty sure he wanted to kill Ephialtes for making our lives a little bit easier, but he'd probably just be told to shut up again.

The agility course looked like somewhat of an Urban Air ninja course with a total of three sections part of the challenge. The first section consisted of a bunch of leaping stones, each half submerged into the lava (We're going to die). The second section, which I like to call the Tarzan Section, had several ropes hanging on stone slabs, each of them we had to jump to in order to get to the last and final section. A large block of rock (that rhymes) led into another rope in which you had to use to get to the other side.

"Why us?" I whined.

Amethyst looked at me sympathetically. "I know it's ridiculous, but we can do it. We should establish an order so we're not all jumping on something at one time."

Arthur nodded. "That's a good idea. I'll be in the back."

"I'll go in the front," Kai volunteered.

Geneva raised her hand. "I'll go after him."

"Okay, then I'll go," Amethyst said. "Rose, go behind me."

"So the order is Kai, Geneva, Amethyst, Rose, Alexander, and me," Arthur reconfirmed. "Let's go."

We first jumped across the stones, which was easy enough. Kai went first before Geneva followed, with Amethyst and I following shortly behind. Alexander and Arthur finished last, officially putting us past the leaping stones.

Next we had the Tarzan Section. Kai jumped onto the first rope, Geneva coming right after him. The two of them finished by landing on the big slab of rock at the end. Amethyst and I got there next, having a little bit of difficulty near the end but still getting there. Alexander and Arthur finished right behind us, meaning all six of us were in the final section.

Kai's eyes widened as he peered at the exit. "How in Olympus are we supposed to get over there? Not even Tarzan could do that!" Turns out, the final course was a lot harder than I thought. The rope seemed to be miles away from land.

Ephialtes cackled. "Good luck getting past that one, heroes!"

"Okay, I've got an idea," Amethyst said. "Alexander, try pushing Kai forward to give him an extra boost. Arthur, if you can, try using the winds to push Kai further forward."

Arthur looked at her with confusion. "Wind powers?"

"Children of Zeus can manipulate the winds. We'll definitely need the winds to help us if we want to get to the next stretch of land," Amethyst explained.

Arthur nodded slowly. "But then what happens when all of you except me have gone? I'll have to use the wind powers on myself after already using them beforehand."

"Well, maybe Rose can levitate you upwards," Amethyst suggested. "We'll figure it out as we go."

Kai grabbed onto the rope, Alexander and Arthur behind him. "Ready?" he asked. Alexander and Arthur nodded as Alexander then pushed Kai's back. Arthur thrusted his hands forward, attempting to summon the winds to push Kai up. Thankfully, it worked as Kai landed on the other side.

Geneva and Amethyst went next, also successfully making it to the other side. I nervously grabbed onto the rope as Alexander put his hands on my back. He pushed me forward, as I ascended. However, Arthur's wind power barely pushed me upwards as my head became level with the platform and my arms swung desperately. I was about to fall down into the lava pit.

Just as I was about to accept my fate, Kai grabbed onto my outreached hand and pulled me up, saving my life.

I hugged Kai. "Thanks. You saved my life."

"It was nothing," he said, hugging me back.

Arthur looked at me from across the rope, his hands on his head. "I'm sorry, Rose. I had no idea my powers would sputter out like that."

"It's okay, Arthur," I said, reassuring him. "You've done a lot."

Alexander was next up as he grabbed onto the rope and jumped forward. Amazingly, Alexander jumped up extremely high, allowing Arthur to easily push him to the platform with a gust of wind. However, Alexander crashed right onto the floor of the platform, landing on his back. Thankfully, he seemed okay.

Arthur grabbed onto the rope and began swinging. Amethyst nodded towards me, cueing for me to levitate Arthur to the platform. I lifted him up to the platform where he quickly jumped on, meaning all six of us had made it.

"Nooooo!" Ephialtes yelled. "Why won't they just die?"

Otis groaned, finally done crying. "Because you keep givin-"

"Shut up, Otis! SHUT UP!" Ephialtes screeched. "Never mind that. You heroes might be able to get past any physical challenge, but the next one will be sure to scar you!"

The rock opened up, putting us into a large, domed room. It was made out of marble and was mostly empty, with only a speaker on the ceiling and a large door in the very front of the room.

"Your next challenge heroes! I will give you a riddle that you must answer. I'll give you one attempt to unlock the door. If you can't unlock the door after your one attempt, a plethora of weapons and lava will swarm the room, killing you immediately," Ephialtes explained.

Amethyst smoothed her hair. "In all fairness, why wouldn't you just kill us?"

Ephialtes scoffed. "Because that would make terrible TV! What kind of entertainment is killing the challengers immediately? If you heroes are going to die, it will be by attempting the twelve challenges."

A few seconds later, the wall behind us closed, trapping us into the dome room. We were only getting out by solving the riddle or dying.

"Your riddle is: I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?" Ephialtes asked.

"A noise!" Alexander said.

Arthur shook his head. "Noises don't come alive with the wind. That'd be more like a whistle or something."

"But neither noises nor whistles can speak," Kai reasoned. "This is one dumb riddle."

I crossed my arms. "Maybe it's a flame. They need oxygen."

"But flames still don't speak or hear without a mouth," Geneva countered.

Alexander popped up. "It's a mouthless, bodiless, and earless rabbit with wings and an iPhone playing music!"

I looked up at the tall ceiling with exasperation. This riddle should've been easy but it felt like someone was asking me to do calculus.

"Hold up," Amethyst said. "Like Arthur said, noises don't come up with wind. However, there is a type of noise that does: an echo."

Arthur's face lit up, his eyes widening. "It would be an echo. It makes noise without a mouth and hears without ears."

"And it doesn't have a body," I added. I felt like an idiot. Of course it was an echo. That was the most basic riddle in the book.

Kai looked up at the speaker. "The answer is an echo."

"Gosh dang it!" Ephialtes groaned. "You are sadly correct."

The door opened up and we entered through for our second to last challenge. In front of us was a large hallway leading to a wall. I scanned the hall for anything that could be dangerous but found nothing. We may have had a straight path to the wall, but I had a feeling it wasn't nearly as straightforward (pun intended) as it seemed.

"Your eleventh challenge," Ephialtes boomed. Surprisingly, he didn't reveal any more details. I guess all of Otis's complaints had finally got to him.

We cautiously walked forward, our weapons drawn. About halfway through, I heard a swift movement near me.

"Did you guys hear that?" I asked cautiously. Before anyone could answer, a group of about eight demigods came out, all wearing black stygian armor and combat boots. They had the name "Ghosts" labeled on their armor and wielded a variety of Celestial bronze weapons.

"Your penultimate challenge: a six-on-eight demigod fight!" Ephialtes announced. "Get ready to fall, heroes!"

Amethyst pulled out her bow and drew an arrow. "Split up into two groups!"

I quickly joined Arthur and Geneva as Kai and Alexander joined Amethyst. The eight followed similar instructions as they split up into groups of four and squared off with each of our groups.

"Fight!" one of the demigods roared, thrusting his spear up. I went up against a scrawny, black-haired kid wielding an uncharacteristically large staff. He had dark brown eyes and gazed at me with a determined look.

I shot a large Mist cloud at his face, blinding him temporarily as I got a slash on his armor. He countered by jabbing me in the side before thrusting his hands forward. Grape vines binded my legs together, making me a sitting human target. Before he could hit me, I shot a fire spell at the vines, freeing my legs and giving me time to roll past his strike.

I then came in on the aggressive, slashing away at him with my knives and ducking under his staff strikes. Eventually, I was able to disarm his staff and kicked him in the jaw, knocking him down. I turned around and looked around me. Arthur and Geneva were holding their own against a trio of sword wielding demigods but our other group wasn't doing so well.

Amethyst had her bow knocked away and was being chased down by a spear-wielding demigod. Kai and Alexander were being overwhelmed by a group of four demigods, having to dodge multiple attacks. I quickly ran in, throwing my knives at the demigod chasing Amethyst. Merlin landed in a chink of his armor while Marianne bounced off his steel armor.

He turned towards me, pulling Merlin out of his armor and throwing it back at me. I sidestepped and cast a fire spell at his armor, blowing him backwards. I speedily retrieved my knives and joined in on Alexander and Kai's fight. I shot a Mist cloud at the group of four demigods, blinding them and allowing Kai and Alexander to retreat backwards.

"What's our plan of attack here?" I asked.

Kai smirked at me. "Attack."

He ignited his Celestial bronze sword and dashed in at the four, Alexander close behind. I ran in after the two and kicked one of the demigods in the face, separating her from the group. She pulled out her daggers as we began slashing away at each other, in a tangle of hits and dodges until I was able to disarm her and blast a fire spell at her, knocking her down. I turned around, ready to help Kai and Alexander when I saw there was nothing to help them with.

Alexander had knocked a demigod back with his shield while Kai went full blitz on the last two, surrounding himself in fire and tackling them down. Arthur and Geneva had defeated their opponents and were now waiting for Kai and Alexander to finish.

Finally, Kai knocked down the last demigods, meaning we had officially beaten the eleventh challenge.

"WHAT?!" Ephialtes screeched. "They were able to defeat eight trained demigods?! This is preposterous!"

"So, what's our last challenge, Ephialtes?" Amethyst asked smugly, a smile tugging at her mouth. Just one more challenge and we would be done with these god-forsaken trials.

The wall opened up. "Your last challenge: Defeat me and Otis!" Ephialtes announced.