Chapter 11: A two-on-four fight, a bunch of monsters, and a possessed goddess

Have you ever felt nervous about something? Maybe before a soccer game or a test? If so, I could definitely relate.

As we went up the elevator, I couldn't help but feel extremely anxious, wondering if this meeting was going to end good, or if we'd end up dead. Yeah I know, it sounds a bit extreme but at this point, anything could happen.

"So, should we still go along with the idea of Kai-Demistry?" Kai asked. "Because at some point, we're going to have to tell him about our quest and everything."

"Kai Demi-Tech firstly," Amethyst corrected. "And secondly, he's expecting us to meet with this made up company, so yes, we'll go with the alias of Kai Demi-Tech."

Finally, we hit the seventh floor and the golden elevator doors opened up. We exited the elevator and entered into a medium-sized room with a similar design to the hall in which we entered into the elevator. There was a small brown table with a potted plant at the very end of the hall, and in front of us was an even larger room that had a multitude of open glass offices and meeting rooms.

"So what room are we supposed to go in? The receptionist wasn't very clear," I asked as we walked out of the hall.

"Right there," Amethyst answered, pointing towards a large brown door labeled, "Meeting Room 7A". It also had a sheet of paper hanging from the door, reading "3:05 PM-3:45 PM: Kai Demi-tech for Arthur LionsWorth".

We walked towards the large brown doors and opened the door. But instead of walking into some sort of office or meeting room, we were greeted into a pitch black room, so dark in fact that the only thing we could see was an outline of a person.

But suddenly, the person summoned a bright ball of energy in their hands, lighting up the room. Standing across from us was the teenage boy from my vision, Arthur LionsWorth. He then looked at us and smiled.

"Hello there, I presume you are from Kai Demi-tech, right?" Arthur asked.

"Um...yes! We are here about a...business opportunity!" Kai stuttered, awkwardly looking down at the ground.

"I see," Arthur said. "But you know what's funny? LionsWorth Enterprises has already manufactured a design for a demigod-compatible phone, so tell me; What are four demigods doing at my company?"

I stared at him with shock. How had he figured us out so quickly? We all fell into a silence, as no one knew what to say.

Arthur then broke the silence. "You have about a minute to explain yourselves before I decide what to do with you."

Amethyst looked at us nervously as she began telling him our entire journey, from my visions to Rachel's prophecy, including everything that had happened to us during our quest.

Arthur laughed, as if we were telling him some joke. "You expect me to believe that? I highly doubt that I'm part of any prophecy, as well as my girlfriend."

"Dude, you got to believe us. It sounds really wacko, I know, but it's all true," Kai said.

That's when Alexander ran up to Arthur and gave him a hug. "Can I have your autograph? I'm a huge fan!" He continued hugging Arthur, squeezing his ribs so hard, Arthur looked like he was about to pass out.

"Get off me!" Arthur wheezed angrily, Alexander pulling out of the hug. "Convince me that what you're saying is true and I'll join your quest."

"And an autograph?" Alexander asked with a glint of hope in his eyes.

"Sure," Arthur responded flatly.

We all looked at each other, trying to figure out how to prove to him that we were telling the truth.

"Look, we just need you to trust us. I know what we say is crazy but we're telling the truth! On our way here, we were attacked by monsters. That's why we're wearing these terrible clothes," I suggested, hoping he might understand.

Arthur shook his head. "I don't know if I can-"

He was then interrupted as the doors behind us flung open, a girl entering into the room. She was also the other person in my vision, Geneva Rhodes.

"Geneva?" Arthur asked with confusion. "What are you doing here?"

Geneva walked to his side, looking just as beautiful as she did in the vision. "Who are these people?"

"They're a group of demigods trying to convince me that you and I are part of some ridiculous quest," Arthur answered, glaring at us.

"Oh," she said. "Then they might be the ones responsible for sending a bunch of monsters into New York City."

I suddenly started sweating. "What?! We just said we were being attacked by monsters? Why would we summon them?"

A large crack of thunder boomed outside. I looked outside through a large paneled window in the room. Rain was trickling down and lightning struck throughout the city in an unpredictable pattern.

"I gave you a chance to tell the truth," Arthur snarled. "Clearly you betrayed my trust." He threw his charged-up white energy ball at us, knocking us backward.

Geneva then lunged forward at me, carrying two daggers. I rolled to the side, but that's when I realized I wasn't the target. Geneva instead dashed at the door and put a lock over it, effectively trapping us in.

"Oh for Hades sake!" Kai groaned. He turned towards Arthur, pulling out his Scorcher and igniting it in flames. "It's time to make some fists!"

Kai dashed in at Arthur with his lit-up sword and his left fist covered in scorching red flames. Meanwhile, Geneva charged me with her two knives. I quickly pulled out Merlin and Marianne and blocked her strikes.

Amethyst was in the background, suspending arrows at Arthur and Geneva as Alexander took on Geneva with me, his shields now morphed into a spiky bludgeon. Geneva and I were locked in a pretty intense knife fight, with me having to parry and sidestep her slashes. She was a much better knife fighter than I was, with the only thing keeping me alive was Alexander popping in and striking with his bludgeon.

Across the room, Kai and Arthur were shooting blasts of flames and light at one another. Eventually, after a couple of minutes of me trying to defend Geneva's attacks, Alexander was able to disarm Geneva with a powerful strike with his hammer. Before I could use a time spell to slow her down though, I heard a huge lightning blast across the room.

Kai had slashed an electric cable on a test tube, blasting Arthur with a powerful blow of electricity. But instead of getting knocked out, Arthur absorbed the electricity, not getting damaged whatsoever. Electricity coursed through his body, flickers of blue emitting off his limbs. His eyes glowed with a fearsome blue, stormy and bright. He turned towards Kai and struck him with a blast of electricity, smashing Kai into a wall.

"Kai!" Amethyst shouted, running over to his side with worry in her eyes.

I was about to join her when Arthur saw Geneva unarmed on the ground and charged me, electricity coursing through his fist. I narrowly ducked under the blow, but was hit back by the shock waves the fist had sent. Alexander stood his ground, turning his hammer back into his two Stygian shields.

Arthur shot three beams of electricity at Alexander, who was able to deflect the first two but was hit back into a metal desk by the third. He turned towards me once again, charging up a ball of energy to finish me off.

"Wait!" I screamed. I knew it was hopeless but I wasn't going to die yet. "I know how we can prove our story to you!" I summoned a hazy mist in front of him, hoping it would do what I intended it to. After a few seconds of pure silence, Geneva got up, holding her two knives and scowling at me.

"You're lying! You just blinded him!" she roared, lunging at me once again.

Kai slowly got up and sped in front of me, swiping away Geneva's knives with his sword. "Nice try, pretty girl," Kai taunted, pointing his sword at Geneva's neck.

"Stop!" Arthur shouted, panic coursing through his electric blue eyes. "What they speak is true, Geneva. The monsters were sent by an external force."

Arthur looked at Kai's sword. "Put that down or I'll blast you again, and this time, you won't get up."

Kai lowered his sword hesitantly. "Fine. Now how in Tartarus did you do all of that?"

"I have no idea. I just absorbed the electricity and was filled with an immense power," Arthur admitted.

Geneva retrieved her knives from the ground. "Wait, hold up. How do you know that they're telling the truth?"

Arthur nodded his head at me. "The mist cloud she shot at me showed me the vision she was talking about. Someone within the vision ordered their forces to send monsters to LionsWorth Enterprises and capture us."

"So now that you believe us, will you join our quest?" Amethyst asked hopefully.

"Of course," Arthur said. "What's the big guy's name?" He pointed at Alexander.

Alexander hauled himself up, tilting to the side clumsily. "My name's Daffy Duck, and will you sign my butthole?"

"Sure, I'll give you an autograph, if that's what you want."

Alexander nodded enthusiastically, beaming with joy as Arthur signed a piece of paper Alexander had given him.

"If Arthur's going, then I'm going too," Geneva said fiercely. "I can't let my boyfriend go on a dangerous quest without me coming along!"

Amethyst nodded. "Good. We've got a squadron of monsters awaiting us, so we better deal with them. I've signaled to Oman to come get us, but he still hasn't responded."

"Geneva, would you unlock the doors for us?" Arthur asked. Geneva did as he asked, and unlocked the doors.

"Let's hope we can rely on your friend to get us out. Geneva, how many monsters were there?" Arthur asked.

Geneva crossed her arms. "Too many to count. There were boars, vultures, and gods know what out there, ready to eat us."

"Yippee!" Kai squealed sarcastically. "I can't wait to die by an absolutely overwhelming, monster filled, death-inducing trip to Monster Land!"

We headed down the elevator to meet our certain death. Might I say that elevator music has never been as bad as it was now. It was playing the devil's music: Justin Bieber. Kai and I cringed as Amethyst was humming along to the song.

When we reached the ground floor, we were met with a surprise: the monsters had broken their way into the building and were waiting for us in front of the entrance.

"Gods of Olympus, there's so many of them!" Amethyst exclaimed with shock. Awaiting us was a large fleet of empousai, hounds, vultures, boars, and other species I couldn't even name.

"If you think that's bad, they forgot about our free sushi dinner!" Alexander groaned.

Arthur wiped away a bead of sweat. "We can't take them all. Try and clear your way through them and escape. We might be able to trap them inside or something."

We charged into the lobby, the monster squadron dashing at us viciously. Kai and Arthur teamed up against a horde of hounds and boars, fire and light energy coursing through the air. Alexander picked up couches and other furniture in the lobby and threw them at the hordes. Geneva slashed through a couple of empousa while Amethyst sniped down the vultures.

Meanwhile, I was busy blasting fire spells and mist clouds at the fleet and slashing away at everything in my path with my daggers.

Kai then jumped up in the air. "Everybody, clear out!" We all quickly scrambled out of the way as Kai came down to punch the ground, sending a wave of flames at the horde and throwing them backwards. He promptly fainted afterwards. Alexander quickly grabbed him as we escaped through the entrance, the monsters slowly starting to get up.

We ran through the crowded streets of New York, dodging and swerving crowds and people as Amethyst led us into an abandoned grocery store. The inside of the store was horrific, with several of the aisles broken apart and dust scattered across the small building. The walls were vandalized with graffiti and most of the supplies in the store were either gone or destroyed. All in all, the store got a total F.

We laid down our supplies while Amethyst tended to Kai's injuries. Turns out, that was a pretty big mistake.

Just as we were about to settle down and get some rest, the roof of the store cracked open, debris falling down. From the hole came a black-haired woman with curly hair, wearing a dark red jacket, black jeans, and black boots. Her eyes were covered by a purple bandanna, making her fully blind.

"It's time to die!" the woman screeched.