Chapter 22: The Maze Runner: me edition

You see, my dad always used to talk about the Colosseum in Rome. Yeah, big nerd he was. Anyways, I always told him that I wanted to go there someday. So, you can imagine my surprise when I found out that I was in a Coliseum-themed amphitheatre.

The colosseum was a bowl shaped stadium large enough to fit thousands of people. It was like a real life stadium except it had seats made out of sandstone and the arena was made out of sand and not grass. The amphitheatre was supported by large white pillars and had a great view of the sunny skies overhead.

It wasn't exactly the colosseum in Rome, but that wasn't my main concern. My concern was the fact that we were trapped here, with two large giants in front of us, both ready to kill us.

The two giants were almost identical, with the only difference being that they had different hair colors. The first giant was about twelve feet tall and had long green hair, with a multitude of coins braided into his hair. He was wearing black pants and wore no shirt, to the disgust of me. He had a ten-foot tall spear tied on his back.

The second one was also twelve feet tall and had long purple hair. He also wore black plants and was shirtless, which made me want to retch out my guts. He had the same spear the other one did on his back and grinned at us.

The audience didn't make me feel any better. They cheered for the two giants and booed us, making me want to run away and hide in a hole.

The purple-haired one smiled at the crowd. "Hello, hello! Welcome to the twelfth challenge of the Deadliest Maze Ever Made by Ephialtes and Otis! These are our contestants!" His voice was sadly familiar, being that of Ephialtes.

The green-haired giant, presumably Otis, took the spear off of his back. "The challenge begins...now!"

We hastily brought out our weapons as we dodged their first attack. The only plus side of facing a ten-foot tall spear is how slow it made Otis and Ephialtes swing.

"Guys what are we going to do?" I panickely asked as we dodged another attack from Otis's spear. Kai and Arthur blasted a big beam of fire and electricity, which Otis merely deflected back, forcing the two to roll to the side.

Amethyst shot an arrow, which was easily blocked. "No idea. We just have to hope we can take them down and grab the mask."

"Another question," Geneva said. "How does this coliseum fit inside a small factory?"

Kai blasted a fireball at Otis's legs, tripping the giant up momentarily. "That's your question? How about this: Where in Tartarus do we find the mask?"

"Let's deal with those questions later," Arthur said, shooting light beams at Ephialtes's eyes.

Alexander leaped up and let out a battle cry before punching Otis in the stomach. Surprisingly, Alexander's punch did a good amount of damage, making Otis stumble backwards.

I shot a big Mist cloud at Ephialtes's face, allowing Kai to get in a a big strike on the giant's knees. However, Ephialtes delivered a huge kick to Kai's stomach, sending Kai crashing into the floor, sand erupting in a dusty cloud around him.

"Kai!" Amethyst screamed, running over to him. Otis regained his balance and looked towards the two Birchwoods, his spear raised. Arthur and I quickly blinded him before he could strike his spear, allowing Amethyst time to tend to his wounds. I looked at her, mouthing the words "Is he okay?".

She shook her head. "It's not good. Kai is completely out and he has a big wound on his stomach. We have to get out of here and quickly."

"How though?" Arthur asked, shooting a lightning bolt at Otis. "We would need to distract them and anyways, what about the mask? We can't leave it behind."

Geneva barely dodged one of Otis's strikes. "Our only choice is to keep fighting. We can't afford to lose our lives over some half thought-out plan."

"Do I hear scheming?" Ephialtes boomed, stamping his foot into the Earth. "I refuse to let that happen!"

Ephialtes threw his spear into the ground, delivering an earthquake in the stadium and knocking us all down. The floor shook with immense force, as if someone had locked us in a box inside a moving van. Even Otis seemed to be taken aback as he barely kept his balance.

Ephialtes brought his large spear up, ready to finish us off. "Goodbye, heroes!"

"No! I will not let you hurt my friends!" Alexander yelled. I hadn't heard him say anything normal in so long, that it sounded almost unnatural when he said that.

He morphed his shields into a large spear and jumped up at Ephialtes, jabbing his spear in Ephialtes's gut. Ephialtes responded in time however and blocked Alexander's spear, knocking it to the side.

Ephialtes cackled. "You think you can stand up to me, puny mortal? You are a disappointment to demigods! Worthless child, you will never amount to anything!"

Fury burned in Alexander's eyes. He charged at Ephialtes, no armor, no weapons. As Ephialtes brought his spear around for the kill, Alexander was surrounded by a faint red glow. Red fire flickered off of him, making him look like a vicious monster.

Alexander delivered a huge punch to Ephialtes's face, jumping above his spear and right to his head. Ephialtes stumbled backwards and fell down on the ground, dropping his spear. Alexander then turned towards Otis, who was holding his spear defensively.

He jumped up above Otis's head, leaving Otis flustered as Alexander came down, his fist glowing red. Alexander punched Otis on the head, making the giant fall down as he landed on the ground effortlessly.

"Dang," I muttered, looking at the two giants Alexander had just smacked down.

Amethyst put her hands on her cheeks in amazement. "Alexander, you just took down two giants single-handedly!"

"I did?" Alexander said, his red aura glowing brightly. "Wow."

Arthur gave him a curt nod. "Good job. However, those two are not going to stay down long. We should probably find the mask and leave."

As if Ephialtes had heard Arthur's words, he rose up from the ground, his face expressing pure anger. He grabbed his spear as Otis woke up next to him. "You dare try to kill me, demigod? I will show you true suffering!"

"Guys, RUN!" I screamed as we ran for the maze, Alexander carrying Kai's limp body. We burst out of the colosseum doors, it and the audience fading as if it were never there.

"Oh," Geneva said, taking a brief look behind us. "That's how the colosseum fit into the factory."

"It was probably a simulation," Amethyst guessed, as we continued running through, clumsily getting through the last challenges we attempted.

Thankfully, it seemed like some of the challenges were disabled after we had completed them, as we got through the lava pit agility course quite easily. Behind us, we heard the large stomps of the two giants.

"We created this maze!" Ephialtes roared. "We know every crook and cranny of this place! You can't fool us!"

Geneva jumped over a rock on the ground. "They're right. They know this maze better than us, so we can't fool them. We're just leading ourselves to our death."

"Hold on there, Geneva," Amethyst said. "There might be a way to fool them. Remember that lava pit challenge we did near the start?"

I nodded. "If Kai wasn't there, we all would've died."

"Right. They'll definitely know about the lava pit underneath that block of wood," Amethyst continued. "However, as a daughter of Hecate, Rose, you can manipulate the Mist to change what they see."

I stared at her, a confused expression on my face. "What are you suggesting exactly?"

"Make them see an entirely different room, maybe a straight trail or something," Amethyst instructed as we ran through the empty lake trail, the water now sucked dry. "They'll completely forget about the lava pit and fall in, giving us time to find the mask and leave."

I shook my head. "I can't do that. I can barely use a sleep spell, let alone a mind-changing, Mist-warping, lava pit spell!"

"You have to believe you can, Rose," Amethyst said as we neared the lava pit. "You got this, I know you do."

I remained silent. All of my friend's lives depended on this very task. If I failed now, then there would be no saving Camp Half-Blood. I had to do this, whether or not I believed I could.

Amethyst looked at me, mouthing the word "Now!". I cleared my head and thought about what Ephialtes and Otis would be seeing as they followed behind us. I imagined them seeing a straight, grassy trail with no trap doors or wood floors.

As the six of us (Kai was still knocked out, but you get what I mean) ran around the trapdoor, I heard the screams of Otis and Ephialtes behind me as they slipped into the pit, burning under the intense heat of the lava.

I had done it. I had actually saved my friends and I from two crazy giants. We stopped running as we turned around and admired the sight of Ephialtes and Otis burning in the pit.

I gave Amethyst a hug. "Thank you, Amethyst for believing in me."

She smiled at me. "No problem. Now let's go get the second mask."

When we got back to the colosseum, I gazed at it with confusion. It was no longer an amphitheater, but a medium sized room. It looked like the room that we had entered to get into the maze, with colorful tiled walls and a disco ball hanging from the roof. But that's where the similarities ended, with there being a large stand in the middle of the room that had a projector standing on it. In the back of the room was a metal table with a red cloth on it.

"So, is the mask actually in here?" I asked, looking around for it. Why couldn't the masks ever be in easy places to find?

Arthur pointed towards something in the back of the room. "Look. There seems to be something under the cloth."

He pointed towards the metal table with the big red cloth on top of it. Now before you say I'm an idiot, let me explain. I didn't think it was there because no one hides things underneath a big red cloth and the sight overall was just weird.

We walked over to it as Arthur pulled the cloth off. Underneath was a large red mask with mustard colored streaks and an Ancient Greek inscription on the forehead.

"The Mask of Power," Amethyst translated, trying to pick up the mask. However, when she touched it, the mask sent her flying backwards.

I was extremely confused. "What just happened? Why did it do that?"

I helped Amethyst up as we tried to figure out why the mask had resisted her.

"Maybe you need to say some secret word or something?" Geneva suggested weakly.

Alexander nodded as he set Kai down on the floor. "Eureka!"

The mask didn't budge.

"Let me try again," Alexander said. "Bloosh on the coppus of Albus Silverstein!"

Still nothing.

"Abra Kadabra?"

Ugh, we were never going to be able to retrieve this mask.

That's when Amethyst's face lit up. "Hold on. The Mask of Power, as the strongest out of the four masks, was given a special binding spell after the gods used it on Ares."

"What does the spell do?" I questioned.

Amethyst looked at Arthur. "The mask can only be wielded and used by Zeus or one of his children."

"So I can carry it?" Arthur asked.

Amethyst nodded. Arthur grabbed the mask, not getting hit or blasted back by it. He shoved the mask in his backpack, meaning we officially had two of the four masks of Olympus.