Chapter 25: My first encounter with a god who’s not trying to actively kill me

Note to self: Don't ever go to Beaver Island for a vacation. No offense, but it might be the most lame place in the world.

We got on the boat as Oman steered us across the lake. In the distance was a large, tropical island with lush trees. There was also a one-hundred foot tall tower (No joke) that mainly consisted of stone slabs and sandstone.

"Alright, y'all! We're closin' in on Beaver Island!" Oman announced.

Alexander gasped and began bouncing with excitement. "Are there beavers there? I can't wait to get Justin Beaver's autograph!"

"Justin Beaver? You mean Justin Bieber, one of the best singers ever," Amethyst corrected. Kai and I looked at her curiously.

Kai narrowed his eyebrow and began grinning. "So, Amethyst, should I talk to him? See if he's interested?"

Amethyst's face became as red as a tomato. "W..what..SHUT UP!"

"Ooohhh," I said. "Amethyst likes Justin Bieber!"

Amethyst became even redder. "You shut up too!"

"Amethyst loves a beaver!" Alexander pointed his finger at Amethyst and began laughing. I looked at him blankly as we walked away, a perfectly good joke killed right away.

"Eh, stop buggin' her, y'all," Oman said. "We're about to stop on the island."

We all took a seat as Oman drove onto the shore and stopped the ship. "Here y'all are! Please don't bring back any monster fellas here! I just got ol' Gatsby fixed up a couple of days ago!"

We got out as we gazed at the hundred-foot tall tower. We were standing on a small, empty beach area with some strand toys and seashells in the sand. Behind it was a lush forest and trees surrounding it on all sides.

Kai turned towards Oman. "You sure this is the place?"

Oman nodded his head. "According to the compass, yeah! This thing ain't stupid, you know!" Considering our encounter with Hypnos, he wouldn't be exactly right, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

We walked towards the tower, our weapons raised. There was something sketchy about this place, so it was better to be safe than sorry. Geneva opened up the wooden doors, where we met our first surprise.

The second the doors opened, a group of spears and knives stabbed into the ground in front of us. If we had taken a single step forward, we would have become the world's first human porcupines.

"Okay," Kai said, a bead of sweat drizzling down his temples. "Let's be a lot more careful."

We entered the tower, cautiously looking around us. The first floor of the tower was a large dusty room, which had boxes scattered everywhere and moss on the walls.

There was lint on the ground and spider webs hanging from the ceiling. In the corner of the room was a staircase that disappeared behind the front wall that led into the other levels.

Arthur pushed a box out of the way. "This place is most likely boobytrapped. Make sure you don't step on anything or trip an alarm."

We continued through the room and towards the staircase, watching our every move and step. As we approached the staircase, Geneva suddenly shoved Arthur, who was leading in front of us, out of the way.

"Trap!" she yelled. We all rolled to the side instinctively. On the floor where we were standing was a large black spike plunged into the floor.

Amethyst shuddered. "This place is definitely boobytrapped."

"Thank the gods you saw that," Arthur said, wrapping his arm around Geneva. "You saved our lives."

Geneva gulped. "Let's just keep going. I don't want to run into any more traps."

We walked up the staircase when I heard a clicking noise. "Guys, back off!"

Part of the staircase opened up into an eighty-foot deep underground tunnel.

Kai patted me on the back. "Nice catch, Rose."

"Whoever's guarding the mask in this place really likes their traps," Geneva observed. "Let's hope the other floors aren't anything like that."

Sadly, they were.

We jumped over the gap and went up to the second floor, which was just as dusty and messy as the first.

"Gods, does anyone clean up this place? Because if so, they're doing a pretty terrible job," I grumbled. No offense to the cleaner but come on, are you even trying at this point?

Kai nodded. "Amen. This place looks like it hasn't been used since 1893."

As we traversed through the room, we pushed boxes and other things out of the way as we searched for the mask. As we did this, we were careful not to trigger any traps. Ironically, we did.

Alexander flipped over a box carelessly and a creature jumped out. It was a scaly, lizard like monster with nine heads which were shaped like diamonds. It had sharp, pointy teeth and all in all, was the most disgusting creature I had ever seen.

"What is that thing?" Geneva exclaimed, backing up.

Amethyst nocked an arrow into her bow. "It's the Hydra."

"Which is.." I said.

"A monster dragon!" Alexander finished, turning his shields into a Stygian iron sword.

The Hydra roared. It opened up its mouth and began spewing acid on the floor, forcing all of us to take cover behind boxes. Kai brought out Scorcher and dashed at the creature, slashing off one of its heads.

Kai laughed. "Take that, Acid Spitter!"

"No, Kai!" Amethyst shouted. "It's only gonna grow two more heads!"

The Hydra's head began to reform, but this time, two heads took its place. They shot boiling acid at the floor next to Kai, catching his shoes as he tried to run away. His shoes instantly dissolved and we could now see his socks, which were also rapidly dissolving.

Amethyst muttered an incantation under her breath, enchanting her arrow in a green color. She shot it at Kai's ankle, the arrow fizzing through it. The acid went off of his ankles, effectively saving him.

Kai grinned. "Thanks for the assist!"

"Where'd the arrow go?" I asked, confused as to how the arrow just vanished through his ankle.

Amethyst shrugged. "Nowhere, really. It just got rid of the acid."

As great as that was, Kai was now running around barefoot, trying to dodge the Hydra's attacks. Meanwhile, Alexander kept slicing at the heads, completely forgetting what happened when Kai did that. Eventually, the Hydra had about fourteen heads and was spewing acid everywhere until Alexander finally realized what was happening and stopped.

"Guys, we might have a problem," Arthur said, blasting another light beam at the Hydra.

"Oh really? I couldn't tell!" Kai said, dodging yet another of the Hydra's attacks. "How do we kill this thing?"

Amethyst shot an arrow. "I have no idea. Swords don't work though. We have to try to get the heads off a different way."

That's when I got an idea.

I shot a big fire spell at the creature, melting off about four of its necks and heads. Surprisingly, the heads didn't grow back.

"Nice job! Keep doing that," Amethyst encouraged.

Kai got the idea, rushing forward and shooting a large fire stream at the creature, eventually melting off all of its heads and its body. We had just slayed the Hydra.

Arthur moved out from behind a box. "Well done, you two. Let's go."

We went up to the third floor, having to go through multiple traps along the way. For the next couple of floors, we went through even more traps and faced monsters, with hellhounds and empousa surprising us at random points.

Eventually, we made our way to the seventh floor, sweaty and tired from all the fighting and climbing.

"When do these levels of floors end?" I exasperatedly asked.

Kai groaned. "Never again will I search a boobytrapped, infinite floored, one-hundred foot tall tower!"

"Agreed," Geneva said.

We searched around the room, oddly not encountering any traps or monsters.

"Why aren't there any traps or anything?" Amethyst asked, warily scouring through a box.

Arthur wiped away a bead of sweat. "I have a feeling the next floor will be much worse than any floor we've faced."

"Yay," Alexander said unenthusiastically. "Let's find the..whatever thing for whatever and whatever happens next is whatever."

After searching the floor for another agonizing ten minutes, we gave up and went up to the eighth floor, desperate to find the mask.

The last floor was surprisingly a lot more cleaner than the other floors. The boxes were neatly stacked on top of each other on the sides of the room and the walls and floor were squeaky clean.

But that wasn't the biggest surprise though. Standing in front of us was a thirty foot tall giant, with bronze armor that had a flame design. His skin color was the same color as his armor and he had dreadlocks with bones woven inside them. He had glassy white eyes and had green dragon legs and claws for feet. He also carried a large spear and smiled at us.

"Hello, demigods. I've been expecting you," the giant said.

Kai snorted. "I couldn't tell based off of all the lovely traps and monsters you set out for us."

Amethyst studied the giant warily. "You're Enceladus, aren't you?"

"Indeed I am, hero," the giant confirmed. "And I know why you're here."

Arthur conjured up light in his hands, which Enceladus laughed at.

"You believe you can slay me, hero? Try, by all means. The Mask of Wisdom is your goal after all, isn't it?" Enceladus asked, raising his spear. "Now face me, heroes!"

He opened up his mouth and fire spewed out of it. We rolled away from his dragon breath, only for him to attack again. He stabbed his spear into the floor, making a small rip in the floor where Kai had previously been.

"You call yourselves heroes? This is cowardry at its finest!" Enceladus taunted.

Kai seemed to take it personally, as he rushed at the thirty-foot tall giant with Scorcher, attempting to slash away at his knees. Enceladus blocked quickly with his giant spear, knocking back Kai. Arthur and Kai proceeded to shoot a large stream of light and fire, pushing back Enceladus gradually.

I cast a time spell, slowing down the giant. Alexander was able to get in a large strike with his shield while Geneva and I were able to get some slashes away at his ankles. However, my time spell didn't last long as he swatted us away, as if we were some mere flies.

Enceladus sneered. "Have you never been told this, heroes? You can't slay a giant on your own. Your lack of knowledge amuses me."

"Really? Because we're about to go to town on your giant face!" Geneva snarled, bringing up her knives. She dashed at him but was again knocked backwards as he slammed his spear into the ground, creating a minor earthquake.

Enceladus laughed. "I applaud your bravery but alas, your foolishness gets in the way of your potential. You six will die very quickly."

Kai blasted him with a large stream of fire, merely bouncing off of Enceladus's spear. "Try me."

Enceladus snapped his fingers as the floor beneath Kai opened up. Kai was barely able to react in time, as he leaped to the side, landing awkwardly on his ankle and collapsing.

"Kai!" Amethyst cried, running over to him.

Enceladus grinned. "Such young, incompetent demigods you six are. The fact you believe you can kill me without the help of a god is foolishness."

Enceladus raised his spear upwards, ready to stab Kai. Luckily, Alexander blocked the attack with his shields. However, the sheer power of the spear still knocked Alexander down. I hated to admit it, but we were completely overwhelmed.

As Amethyst tended to Kai's sprained ankle, the rest of us kept fighting, trying to give Amethyst time to heal Kai. However, this plan quickly backfired. Arthur's light blasts were deflected back at him, eventually being knocked down and blinded by his own powers.

Alexander's attacks bounced off of Enceladus harmlessly as he was quickly disarmed and knocked back. Geneva recklessly dashed at Enceladus out of rage, but she was merely swatted aside by his hand. I was the only one remaining out of my friends as I stood off against the giant.

Enceladus smiled at me coldly. "You now realize that your bravery will do nothing. Face it hero; you will not retrieve the mask."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," a voice said. A young girl dropped from the roof, her bright yellow eyes shimmering fiercely. She had long auburn hair tied into a ponytail and was wearing a silver tunic with black leggings. A quiver was strapped to her back and she carried a glowing silver bow.

"Artemis," Enceladus growled, turning towards her. "I thought you Olympians weren't supposed to be wrapped up in mortal affairs."

Artemis readied an arrow. "Maybe so, but I won't stand by as you mercilessly kill this group of innocent demigods."

Wow, I thought. The first god I've met that isn't a total jerk.