CHAPTER LXXXV:Wall To Wall;

The fighting started in a instant, I was clearing the north batch of enemies. Each time an opponent got close I would end their undead existence with my daggers. Santoro was behind me, to my right, fending off enemies with his dagger. Santoro blocked a hit, slid his dagger down the enemies sword, and stabbed the enemy in the opponents chest. Santoro ducked under another sword swing, and sliced the offending opponents throat. Olivia was behind Santoro sending out a fury of blades, she was taking more damage than the rest of us. Olivia's arm was slashed, and she shot a sandstone tip from her dagger into the ground. A wave of water came from the ground, and she used it to knock out ten enemies in a instant.

I had spun in the defensive circle killing two enemies to see Seth fighting behind me. Seth kicked an enemy making the opponent keel over allowing Seth to roll over their back and shoot another opponent with a phoenix laced crossbow bolt. The bolt sent off a wave of orange energy burning a dozen enemies in just one shot. The enemy Seth rolled over went to stand up, and Seth just slashed their throat open with no effort.

I turned back to my enemies as a cyclops took a swing at me, I dodged quickly and rolled on the ground. A sword came through my arm send a burst of energy and a shockwave of pain through my body. I turned around quickly and stabbed a man in the chest dissolving him to dust. I stood up straight as blood dripped down my arm and stained my white jacket sleeve. I held my daggers close and shadow hopped between enemies slashing blindly, when I reached the wall I turned around and saw twenty ghost dissolve into dust. I turned my twin daggers into rings, and drew my blood magic dagger, slipping my hand in between the snakes body on the handle, and held it out.

Seth and Olivia were overwhelmed by the increasing numbers of the dead and damned, and Santoro was being cornered by a cyclops. Seth got stabbed in his stomach and caught a blade with his bare hand. Olivia was too busy calling waves of water to help him, and Santoro was dodging and rolling trying to be avoid being grabbed by the cyclops.

A burst of energy came through me, I stabbed my blade into the ground to raise my own legion of the undead. I really only wanted a few Spartans or a few Romans. My blades power surged across the ground, and raised Leonidas and a few dozen of Elysium's guards. I also raised an entire legion of Roman soldiers followed by Achilles and Theseus. The fighting began between the undead almost immediately, legion against legion chopped each other done. I ran to Seth, going through crowds of enemies, to see if he was okay. I saw him holding his hand over his stab wound.

I knelt next to Seth and moved his hand, "Gods, they got you good."

I reached into my pocket as Seth tried to give me a bloody smile, "Oh thanks, don't worry about making me feel better."

"I'm not Apollo," I said grabbing a vial of combat ambrosia from my jacket pocket.

"You sure? You act like him enough," Seth taunted as I snapped the glass top off of the ambrosia vial.

I gave Seth the vial and he practically downed it. "Yeah, if I was Apollo I would've fucking stabbed you," I answered getting up.

Seth laughed and stood up next to me, I reached in the jacket pocket for more combat ambrosia. I felt around and didn't feel anything. My sleeve had turned garnet red. That's not good, I thought to myself putting a hand over the hole in my arm. Seth handed me a crystal vial of a liquid with a golden hue, that was pure, uncut, ambrosia.

"I can't," I said.

"It's this or bleed out," Seth said glaring at me.

I grabbed the vial with my hurt arm and quickly snapped the top of it off. I downed the liquid, which tasted like fresh strawberries, and immediately felt the hole in my arm close. I fell back and Seth caught me. My vision blurred a bit, and the world slowed down. I heard my name being called out faintly but it was lost in the sounds of metal hitting metal, and commands being shouted. The last thing I saw as darkness consumed my vision was Hecate calling for a stop to the fight.

I woke up in Town Demeter, also called Town Diana, in front of a weapons store. The sign above the store has black letters that read 'Vulcan's Forge' in Latin. I walked in with Hades, who was showing me all of the towns. I was cowardly, and was hiding behind my father. I was only eleven after all, but I was still a demigod with the full power of Hades.

Behind the register was Sheldon Marco, before he had an important role in the legions, he was showing off a blade to Lisa Klein. Lisa looked so much better, and her medical uniform was traded for Roman armor with a, burnt, orange uniform. The blade Sheldon was showing Lisa was a British arming sword with 'REQUIESCAT IN PACE' carved into the blade. The phrase was Latin, the rough translation was Rest In Peace, and it was carved into more than half of the legion blades.

"Hey Pluto! What can I get you?" Sheldon asked looking over at Hades.

Hades chuckled, "I came for an order, number six-five-two-one."

Sheldon thought for a minute, "Ah, I was wondering who ordered that. You got it boss!"

Sheldon walked away as Hades took a seat, I looked around at all of the weapons around. One in particular caught my eyes. I walked over to a wall, and saw a xiphos with an obsidian hilt. The blade had gold veining and the handle had a sliver reinforcement. That was my first sword, a sword I had lost in my first trip to The Labyrinth. The sword was named La Sfortuna, the translation from Italian is Bad Luck, and it didn't seem like a fitting name. The price wasn't anywhere on the blade, Lisa laughed.

"It's free kid, but I wouldn't take that sword. If you really want it though, I'll give you a proper belt sheath," Lisa said through a kind smile.

I nodded, "Yes please."

Lisa went behind the counter and grabbed a black belt sheath for the xiphos. She came back around and took the sword off the wall, putting the sword in its sheath and handing it to me. I wasn't expecting the blade to be so light, I immediately put the belt on and drew the blade. Lisa knelt down, keeping her kind smile.

"This blade has an interesting history, every owner of this sword had the blade break immediately. Legend says that it's waiting for the right owner, but others say that it can only be wielded by a god. Each bit of gold veining is a different owner, who knows though, you might be the one the blade is waiting for," Lisa explained.

I smiled and put the blade back in it's sheath, and in the background I saw Hades opening a box. Hades pulled a dagger, no, he pulled my original dagger from the box. I could feel the negative energy coming off the blade, and that's when Hades sheathed the blade and handed it to me. I took the dagger out, carefully putting my fingers between the snakes body, and accidentally cut my finger. A burning went through my body, and I cried out dropping the blade.

Hades held my hand and knelt down to my height, "Sweetheart sweetheart, it's okay. Watch this."

Hades closed the wound on my hand and the burning stopped, almost immediately. Hades put the dagger on my belt, and sighed. It wasn't too long after that he explained what blood cursed weapons were, and what said weapons did to your soul. Hades and me walked out of the store, I looked at my finger and remembered how I got the scar on my finger. I figured my scar was from a childhood accident, the truth was worse than that.