AMETHYST

Chaos had enveloped the city.

The whole ordeal reminded me of Times Square and the initial mayhem that had ensued then. Mortals were screaming and running everywhere, going crazy over what they were seeing. Cars were stopped in the middle of the street and shops were being evacuated. The city had gone into complete lockdown mode. Police were evacuating the mortals out of the city, as calls went out from nearby communications towers telling everyone to get out of the city.

The chaos certainly did not help us as the Lycanthropes took our lack of focus as a chance to attack, their fangs bared and their claws up, giving us little time to flee.

One wolf jumped at me, causing me to roll sideways to avoid its attack. It lunged at me once again, taking the, 'Eat their faces' approach and being relentless in its efforts.

I was narrowly able to dodge, but it continuously jumped at me, forcing me into a cyclical cycle of dodging and rolling. Eventually, I was able to tire the Lycanthrope out - the red eyed wolf stopping to catch its breath - and I pulled out my bow, nocking an arrow and shooting the Lycanthrope straight in the heart just as it jumped at me. The wolf immediately collapsed onto the ground, dead and unable to move. For a moment, I thought that I was in the clear until two other Lycanthropes began eyeing me across the street, their eyes gleaming and licking their lips at me.

I turned around and sprinted down the street, trying to run as fast as I could. I had no idea where I was going, only that I needed to somehow lose and eventually kill the Lycanthropes behind me. They were for sure faster than me, but I had gotten a pretty big head start and I had successfully weaved behind cars and ran past crowds of retreating residents, which no doubt slowed down the creature's pursuit of me.

As I approached a small block of shops, the Lycanthropes now expectantly closer than the last time I glanced back, I turned my sights towards a small alleyway between a music shop and a restaurant. As I ran through the alleyway, I shot explosive arrows at the brick walls to the side of me. When they all detonated, everything behind me was covered in debris, and I heard the two Lycanthropes groan in pain as the debris hit the ground.

I sighed deeply as I wiped my forehead of the oncoming sweat and began to think of a way out of this mess. My friends were spread out across the city, being chased by Lycanthropes, Lycaon was nowhere to be seen, and I essentially had no idea where to go next.

I immediately racked my mind for the story of Lycaon and his Lycanthropes for some semblance of an idea on how to beat them. I remembered Lycaon's story, about how he had been transformed into a wolf by Zeus after he tried fiddling with Zeus' immortality via a series of tests, and how he had created many other creatures like him, aka the Lycanthropes, to exact revenge on the Olympians and Zeus.

However, I didn't remember what killed his wolves exactly. I remembered reading up about it and hearing how they had one big weakness, but my memory of what it was exactly was frustratingly dim, my heart racing too fast to truly focus on what I had read all that time ago.

Right now, all I could do was find higher ground, slay the stupid Lycanthropes, and find my friends.

I continued down the alleyway, checking every once in a while to make sure the Lycanthropes weren't on my back. Luckily, they weren't. It's very possible that I killed both wolves when I collapsed the roof on top of them, but that didn't cross off the potentiality that more Lycanthropes could be coming.

When I made my way out of the alleyway, I arrived in yet another series of shops and small little stores, with some apartment complexes near the end of the block.

I then heard the low growl of Lycanthropes and without looking, began running. One of the wolves seemed to have gotten crushed in the debris, but one had somehow gotten out in time and then somehow caught up to me. I knew it was the same wolf as the sound had come from the general direction of the alleyway and it's growls sounded stunted yet angry. My efforts had certainly injured it, but they also gave the Lycanthrope more of a drive to eat my head off.

I bought myself a little time by twisting around and shooting an electricity-infused arrow at the Lycanthrope, the arrow connecting with one of the wolf's paws and paralyzing the creature temporarily.

I ran up the steps to one of the apartment complexes nearby and clambered up the steps as fast as I could, about halfway through when I heard the Lycanthrope growl and begin bounding up the steps.

When I reached the roof of the complex, I scanned the city for a brief moment, trying to see where I could go and where my friends were. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Kai being cornered by a gang of wolves in a nearby alleyway. I wanted to help, but then I heard the Lycanthrope's loud footsteps reach the top of the staircase and had to continue forward. I used a grappling arrow to get to another building far down the road, but the Lycanthrope was able to make up the ground by leaping onto other buildings with tremendous pace.

I grappled onto yet another building, and once again, the wolf was able to get there by using the other buildings as stepping stones. From across the city, I could spot Lycaon on top of a building, shouting out commands as wolf howls became far more audible and loud. I saw Geneva flying across the sky in the form of a bird, being chased vigorously by a threesome of wolves. Rose and Alexander were also having their fair share of troubles, as they were camped in an alleyway and trapped by wolves, similar to Kai.

I was suddenly tackled down to the ground from behind, and when I turned around, I saw the wolf that had been chasing me right on my chest. I reached for one of my taser arrows and stabbed it in its shoulder, being able to slide out from underneath its grasp as the Lycanthrope howled in pain, sparks flying off its body. Then, I realized I was at a dead end, no more buildings to jump on and out of grappling arrows unless I wanted to start backtracking.

As the wolf approached me again, I nervously pulled an arrow out from my quiver and shot at it, but it dodged with outstanding pace. I fired an arrow at a long, silver pole on the roof next, knocking it down on top of the Lycanthrope. To my surprise, the wolf turned to dust, dying on impact with the pole.

Silver. That was their weakness.

An idea then came into my mind, a ridiculous one at that.

I used an explosion arrow on the roof, and jumped into the apartment complex I was on top of. I was in a small little space, with a kitchen, a living room, a door leading to a bathroom - an assumption I made based purely off the foul, repugnant smell deriving from said room - and a hallway leading into two more rooms.

I went into the kitchen and searched the drawers, fitting as much silverware as I could into my quiver and jean pockets. I then made my way out of the complex, passing the cadaver of the Lycanthrope I slew earlier, and headed towards where I had seen my friends last. I first went towards where I had seen Kai earlier, as he was all on his own against a whole band of Lycanthropes, and, given his deliriousness, he was probably the least equipped to handle his current predicament out of all my friends.

To my surprise, he seemed to be holding his own, keeping them away with Scorcher and blasting them down with fire as I arrived at the scene.

Still, I exacted my plan, throwing a bunch of forks and spoons at the wolves, all slaying them on impact.

"You're telling me that when I hit them with my sword, they don't die, but when you throw a spoon at them, that's when they decide to die?" Kai asked, a big yawn parting from his mouth midway through his tangent. "What was I saying?"

I rolled my eyes as the two of us exited the alleyway we were in and found Geneva almost immediately. She had taken the form of an eagle and was flying away from a pack of Lycanthropes who ran atop the tiled roofs of the city to chase Geneva down.

"Geneva, lead them down to the ground!" I yelled.

Geneva cawed loudly and with a sudden change in pace, headed towards the street. The Lycanthropes bounded down after her, and as they recovered from the long falls they sustained, Kai and I slayed them all with the silverware.

"Thanks for the assist," Geneva said, reverting into her human form as she took a long breath.

"No problem," I replied. "Hey, it seems you've gotten the hang of your shapeshifting."

"Yeah, it certainly feels like it. Some kinks to work out for sure, but I've got a far better handle on it than I did previously."

Kai smacked his lips loudly and dryly. "Alright, you guys wanna stop being nice to each other so we can just finish this mission and I can FINALLY get my beauty sleep?"

"Whatever you want, Kai," I replied flatly.

Seems like the coffee he had drank down at the Starbucks had made him suddenly cranky instead of cuckoo-crazy, as he was muttering under his breath about something like some angry conspiracy theorist.

The three of us moved onward and tried to ascertain the whereabouts of Rose and Alexander, with me unable to remember what exact alleyway I saw them in on the rooftop.

It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought though, as Alexander yelled, "WHY ARE THERE SO MANY OF THEM!", and gave up his location immediately.

We traced the direction of the sound and found them dead tired and fighting against a bunch of Lycanthropes, especially Rose, who was sweating very hard and breathing heavily.

I swept through a few of them by slicing them down with a fork, while Geneva and Kai slayed the other ones.

Alexander cheered loudly after this, saying, "Whoo, forks saved the day! Kai, we should make a podcast about forks like we always said we would!"

Kai rolled his eyes. "Whatever man. As long as I'm able to take a nap, I'm game."

"You know how I said I had a headache earlier, but couldn't figure out why?" Rose asked.

I nodded.

"Yeah, now I know why."

The five of us scared away any of the wolves that came near us as I heard Lycaon's howls of frustration.

"No! They're just demigods! Go get them!" Lycaon shouted from atop a building.

None of the wolves obeyed his commands, as they scattered at the sight of our silverware.

"Yeah, we may be demigods, but we demigods with freakin' forks! Fork yeah, boy!" Alexander exclaimed.

Lycaon roared in rage before dropping off the building he was on, landing right in front of us.

"I've been given a lot of money to end your lives, and I intend to claim that bounty," Lycaon snarled.

He dashed at us angrily, but was met by Geneva, who was in the form of a lion. Geneva clawed at his face, getting a good strike in, but Lycaon jumped on her and stopped her from trying anything else. Before he could do anything though, I threw a fork at him, hitting him in the shoulder with perfect accuracy.

He howled in pain, allowing Geneva to get out from beneath him. Alexander then threw another fork at him, hitting him right in the gut. Kai hit him with a fire blast, and Rose added to his pain by hitting him in the face with a purple energy wave.

"This won't be the last you see of me, heroes," Lycaon snarled.

"Yeah, right," Kai said. "Focus on getting those forks out of your body and then come back, 'aight?"

Lycaon sped off into the distance, leaving us alone as his remaining wolves followed suit.

"Well, I guess we should head back to the ship," Rose said.

"What ship? What-what are you even talking about?" Alexander asked. "The only ship I know is Ross and Rachel, but I can never truly tell if it's sailing or sinking."

"Oh gods," Geneva muttered. "Let's head back. Alexander seems to be going insane."

The five of us headed back to the ship, careful to avoid the police that had arrived at the scene to investigate what happened. We also had to avoid the onrushing citizens that came in when the police gave the all clear to reenter the city.

We were able to arrive at the ship and Oman flew us away from Spain as we all got some well deserved sleep.

Whew. What a long day.