Chapter 26: Going into an underground tunnel and facing my greatest fear.

If I'm being honest, without Artemis, Enceladus would have definitely killed us.

The goddess and Enceladus were locked in one heck of a battle while I just stood in one place, watching the battle. Artemis shot follies of arrows at Enceladus, who quickly parried them and slashed at her with his spear. However, she was very quick, swiftly dodging his attacks and countering.

My friends and I quickly joined the fight, taking the opportunity to get in a few blasts while Enceladus was distracted with Artemis. Amethyst was still tending to Kai's wounds in the back, but Artemis seemed to be distracting Enceladus enough for him to not notice.

Enceladus finally took note of the rest of us and sent a ground-shaking punch that knocked us upwards. Artemis threw a duo of knives at him, landing in his stomach before she blasted a ray of dazzling moonlight at Enceladus, knocking him down.

But Enceladus instantly got up, breathing fire onto the ground. Artemis and the rest of us scurried out of the way, barely dodging the attack. Artemis then shot an arrow at the giant's face, but Enceladus only blocked it.

"Face it, goddess," Enceladus said. "You can't kill me on your own."

Artemis showered him with blinding moonlight. "You forget that I am not alone."

She motioned towards us, her yellow eyes gleaming. We jumped back into action and began overwhelming the giant from all sides while Artemis shot at him from range. Geneva and I slashed away at his legs, tripping him up while Arthur blasted him with static shocks and Alexander slammed his shields into Enceladus's stomach.

With the help of Artemis, we eventually knocked Enceladus down on his back. We had finally defeated him.

"Lady Artemis, you answered my prayer!" Amethyst exclaimed, walking towards the goddess.

"Indeed I did, Amethyst," Artemis said. "However, it was no trouble. My hunters and I have sensed a great force rising. Monsters and creatures we believed to be slain and sealed in Tartarus have made their way out. That includes Enceladus."

My mind blew up with questions. "Hunters? Prayer?"

Alexander cleared his throat. "My fine madam, the Hunters of Artemis are the followers of the beautiful moon goddess, Artemis."

"Um..okay," I said, weirded out. Since when did Alexander actually know something, and secondly, WHO SPEAKS LIKE THAT?

That's when I found the answer. He was staring at Artemis like she was a golden trophy, maybe his trophy with the way his eyes were glowing.

Artemis nodded, taking note of Alexander's infatuation. "To be a hunter of mine, you must pledge your allegiance to me and swear yourself off from the company of boys and love. In return, you are blessed with immortality and will travel with me on various quests."

I had no idea how to respond to that, so I instead said, "I see."

"Hold on. What did you mean by prayer?" Arthur asked Amethyst.

Amethyst opened up her hands, revealing a couple of brown seeds. "Well a few days ago, I picked up a few seeds from a cypress when me and Alexander went to search for supplies. They're one of Artemis's sacred plants, so I thought it might help later on."

"Impeccable timing," Kai said, hobbling toward us with his left ankle wrapped up in a gauze. "You saved our lives from this bozo. Now we just need to find the mask, which is…"

"Somewhere where you won't find it," Enceladus said, rising off the floor. His face was now scrunched up and he looked quite angry.

Artemis raised her bow. "Go find the mask, heroes. I'll keep him occupied."

With that, we ran out of the room and down the flight of stairs.

"You'll never find it!" Enceladus bellowed. "Especially when you have hordes of monsters on your tail!"

Hellhounds and empousa came bounding down the stairs behind us.

Arthur blasted one of the hounds. "Split up and find the mask!"

I accompanied Amethyst and Kai while the others held off the horde.

We ran down to the first floor, having checked all the other rooms for the mask. We were getting nowhere once again and it seemed like there was no hope in finding the mask.

"The guy really knows how to hide his masks," Kai noted.

We searched through the boxes, still not finding anything.

"Guys," Amethyst said. Kai and I turned towards her, where she stood next to an underground tunnel. "When I pushed over one of the boxes, this opened up."

Underneath the box was a large dirt tunnel that seemed to lead to some sort of room. The tunnel was pretty dark and had a large metal ladder that led down into it.

Kai limped over to her. "It looks like it leads further underground. That's such a great place to potentially hide a mask."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked. "Let's go!"

We climbed down, Kai having lots of trouble doing so and groaning as we made our way down.

"I really don't like this, guys. We're going underground and I have a broken ankle. Literally the worst combo."

Amethyst rolled her eyes. "Then add you and your complaining and you have an even worse combo. Stop groaning and deal with it."

We eventually made our way to the end of the tunnel. We were in a medium sized room, which was mostly spacious and dark. In the back of the room was another tunnel.

"If I know Enceladus, this place is probably going to be boobytrapped," I guessed. "Let's try to be careful."

Kai ignited his sword, lighting up the room a bit. "Can't wait to face even more traps, especially when I'm barefoot and injured."

We began walking forward, cautiously turning around and checking around us. Turns out, that was pretty redundant as we ran into our first trap.

Amethyst tripped on a tripwire, sparking a chain of events. A column of rock fell down on us from the wall, which we were luckily able to dodge. Then, a large boulder started falling from the roof, about to crush our heads in. We rolled out of the way, only for flamethrowers to pop out of the walls.

"Everybody, behind me!" Kai yelled.

We crouched behind him as the flamethrowers shot fire streams at us. When the flamethrowers stopped, Kai seemed to be okay, just that his shirt was melted off.

Kai looked down at himself. "Not again! What's the point in being immune to fire if it still bakes off your shirt?"

We continued forward, making our way into the tunnel. As we progressed through, the tunnel got smaller and smaller, squeezing us in. At the very end of the tunnel was a small hole, big enough to jump through but small enough to still squeeze us.

We crawled into the hole, Amethyst having to steady Kai so he didn't fall on his ankle. When we got out, we were in another medium sized room that was almost an exact replica of the first. At the end of the room was a large stone door with golden handles, hopefully where the mask was.

"Where does this stupid underground place end?" I asked with frustration. I just wanted to give up on finding the mask and take a nice, big nap.

Amethyst raised her bow. "Come on. Let's find the mask quickly and get back to Artemis."

As we walked towards the doors, wary of traps, I noticed that my shoes were getting wet and that it was getting harder to walk.

"Is it just me or does anyone feel like their shoes are getting wet?" I asked.

Kai started backing up. "It's water. I do not like water, guys!" I looked down. Kai was right. Below us, was a large pool of water that was already up to our heels.

"You seemed fine on the ship," I mentioned, now also backing up.

"Well, that's because I wasn't actually in the water," Kai explained. "And I have no idea how to swim!"

The water only got higher, rising up to our knees.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Kai screamed, wading through the water to the door. I joined him as the two of us desperately tried opening the doors. Amethyst was trying to pull herself upwards, the water now completely above our heads.

The water then reached the roof as I began holding my breath. Amethyst quickly swam over, joining Kai and I in opening the doors. Just as I was about to lose hope, Kai was able to yank the doors open. The water carried us through the doors into a large tunnel, taking us to whatever was next.

Eventually the water dropped us off into the next room, identical to the first two rooms we went in. Above us, I heard squawking noises, giving me a weird feeling.

"Are there birds in here?" I asked, looking up at the roof.

"Worse," Amethyst said, horrified. "Ravens are in here."

I frowned. "Ravens? Why do those freak you out so much?"

"Apollo has a bad history with them," Amethyst told me. "He fell in love with a woman named Koronis and eventually, she got pregnant. Then, Apollo was told by a group of raven's that she was cheating on him with a man named Ischys. Out of anger, he turned the raven's feathers black, ripped out Ischys's eyes, and killed both Koronis and Ischys but kept the baby."

I blinked. "That's messed up."

"Since then, ravens hate the children of Apollo. And then a couple of years ago, Kai and I were attacked by a large flock of them. Thankfully, Kai killed them but ever since then, I've been terrified of them."

The ravens suddenly flew at us, their talons raised. Amethyst ducked behind me and Kai, immediately putting away her bow.

I began slashing away at the ravens, black feathers flying everywhere while Kai shot blasts of fire at them and stabbed at them with his sword. Together, we were able to slay all of them, but not without getting a few scratches. Kai had one large scratch on his forearm, while I had a few small ones on my arms and legs.

I helped Amethyst off the ground, who was laying there like an old granny. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good now," she responded.

We went through the doors at the end of the trail, which is when I realized something. "Hold up. The last two challenges we faced were both of your two biggest fears. Does that mean that the next challenge we face will be my greatest fear?"

Amethyst shook her head. "Probably, but it could just have been a coincidence or something."

I nervously nodded as we entered the next room.

That's when I got mega scared.

This room was unlike any other. It was about the same in width and height, but instead of a spacious room, it was a forest. The worst part? There were these German Shepherd-size ants that stood on large anthills and had mounds of gold and silver around them. They also had large armour on their backs and had huge mandibles that could eat a child.

"W..what are those t-things?" I stuttered, backing into Amethyst.

"Myrmekes," Amethyst answered. "They're large ant creatures that steal loot and spit acid."

Those last couple of details only freaked me out more as I fell onto the ground.

Kai furrowed his brow. "You've got a fear of insects, don't you?"

"W..well yeah, they're creepy, disgusting, f..fowl little v..vermin that b-bite you and s..sting you, and ughhh." My paranoa only got worse as more tinier insects began crawling around us.

Kai lit up his sword. "Don't worry, Rose. We'll take them from here. These guys are about to become toast."

Kai and Amethyst ran into battle, slaying the tiny insects while I laid on the grass and watched with horror. The myrmeke swarmed the Birchwoods, covering them from all sides and biting at them. I had to do something, but I just...couldn't.

Kai whispered something to Amethyst, who nodded and began running, a trio of smaller myrmekes chasing her. I slowly got up, my muscles tensed as I cast a fire spell, burning the three myrmekes to dust.

Kai then engulfed himself in flames, sending a large wave of fire that slayed all the myrmekes in an instant. I slowly walked over to him, quivering in fear and biting my teeth. Amethyst helped usher me along as we made our way out of the mini-forest area.

However, instead of another tunnel leading us into another room, there was a coffin in front of us.

Kai opened it up, the third mask awaiting us. It was a dandelion yellow and had white streaks on its cheeks and forehead. Finally, we had found the mask after hours of searching and fighting monsters.

"All right guys, let's grab the mask and head out of here," Kai said. "We've got a giant to slay!"