Guardians: The Last Elder

Chapter 25: The Battle of Morlea (part 1)

"'Greeks!' Percy yelled. 'Let's, um, fight stuff!' They yelled like banshees and charged."
~Rick Riordan (Blood of Olympus)

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"Ava? Ava! Wake up!"

"What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know! Ava, can you hear me--?"

I forced open my eyes, even though my eyelids seemed heavy as if they had been closed for years. For a while, everything seemed blurry until two faces, hovering above me, swam into focus. Vanessa's face lit up in relief but there was certain urgency in her movements as she helped me up. There was another girl with her whose name I was pretty sure was Sam. I had seen her couple of times in training. She was kind of hard to miss with her dark, ebony skin and neon-highlighted hair and a curling dragon tattoo in her collarbone.

"Vanessa," I said, after taking a moment to orient myself. "I had the strangest visions--"

"There's no time," the girl, Sam said, tapping her sword that I hadn't noticed before, impatiently on the floor. "We need to get going."

Vanessa nodded grimly. She turned to face me and said, "We're under attack."

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The three of us rushed down a corridor that was oddly quiet and deserted. But a moment later, when we were out on the main atrium, I could see dozens of people rushing around, almost everyone armed.

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed. "What is going on here?"

"They're preparing to go out for battle," Vanessa said, as she regarded the clamor of people moving around, grabbing shields and armor and weapons.

"Are you two just going to stand there?" Sam said. "We need to go out as well. We've had training. They'll expect us to fight."

"I know. You go ahead," Vanessa said. "I'll make sure Ava is safe and then join you."

I started to protest but no one seemed to hear me.

"C'mon Ava," Vanessa said after Sam had headed off. "You can go down to the crypt where most of the children are-"

I shook away my hands from her. "I'm not a child!"

"I know. Try to understand, you don't have enough training to go out there and fight."

"No, you try to understand!" I cried. "I need to go out there! They're here for me!"

Vanessa recoiled. "What?!"

"If you'd have listened to me, I was trying to say I had some visions! Flashbacks, really. I know what's happening. I know everything now. They're attacking to take me. The Hooded Demon promised he'd come for me at the beginning of my 16th mortal year. And today's my birthday!"

"What are you talking about? Why would he come for you?"

"To sacrifice me! And my entire family! He said I was the ultimate element that would complete the ritual that would bring back Ozoman."

"Whoa! Slow down! O-Ozoman?!" Vanessa cried in shock, her eyes wide with fear and confusion.

"Yes! Don't you understand? All these murders....how there was no blood in the bodies of the victims? How there were symbols engraved in their body in the language of Ozra? It all makes sense! The Hooded Demons are collecting blood to perform some sort of sacrificial ritual and awaken the Dead Devil."