CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

Against Gods and Monsters, Part 1

Congratulations! You have solved the challenging riddles left for you by your predecessors, earning you fame from with your pantheon. Fame with the Olympian Pantheon increased by 500. Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, looks upon you with renewed interest. Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, enjoyed your showing of quick wit and daring. She gifts you 200 fame points. Current fame: 1,500.

Not that Sam wasn’t appreciative of the gods’ continued interest in his achievements, but he was far too focused on this new clue for him to pay much heed to the notifications popping around him.

A Newsletter Of Thus

Endowed Higher Wits

1, 2, 3, 4, 29, 18, 76, 11, 47, 7

“Is this the next clue?” Sam wondered.

His friends were gathered around him and the horn in his hands. Each of them had taken their time to inspect the thing, but Sam could see from their similarly confused expressions that his friends were as clueless about this new clue as he was.

“Could we perhaps be looking for a famous newsletter?” Jackboot suggested.

“That makes zero sense,” Farsight replied. “A newsletter wouldn’t relate to the other two lines...”

While the other two focused on these strange phrases, Sam noticed Thunder’s focus had remained with the underside of the cornucopia.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Look at these numbers...doesn’t it seem like they’ve been intentionally written out of order?” she asked.

“1, 2, 3, 4, 29...” A lightbulb lit up in Sam’s brain. “2 plus 1 equals 3, and 1 plus 3 equals 4—”

“3 plus 4 equals 7, and 4 plus 7 equals 11,” Thunder counted along with Sam.

“Oh, I get it. It’s a mathematical progression,” Farsight chimed in. “7 plus 11 equals 18, add 7 to 18 and you get 29... Wait, I know what this is.”

She paused for effect, a fact that irked Jackboot.

“Will you tell us already,” he urged.

“It’s the Lucas Numbers, a kind of mathematical integer sequence similar to the Fibonacci Sequence,” Farsight explained.

“And its purpose?” Jackboot asked.

“Apart from being out of sequence in this clue...I have no idea,” Farsight admitted.

However, Sam thought Farsight was on the right track. She’d even said the magic words. Farsight and Thunder had noticed what he hadn’t, and that was the fact that the numbers were out of sequence, which meant the other two phrases might have been jumbled too. He racked his mind for the different kinds of puzzles and wordplays his father had taught him and quickly stumbled onto something he hadn’t heard of in a long time.

“I know what they mean...” he breathed.

Sam borrowed Jackboot’s journal and then scribbled the two phrases A Newsletter Of Thus and Endowed Higher Wits onto a blank page. Then he rearranged the order of letters in the first phrase to form several alternate phrases using the same words.

“A southwestern felt, no... A fleeter who stunts, probably not... Sweeter loft shunt, this one makes no sense”—Sam’s brow creased—“Holy Zeus, I got it!”

Written underneath all the discarded phrases were the words, The Sunflower State.

“It’s an anagram!” Sam chuckled. “Godsdamn, that’s clever.”

“Then this second phrase is also an anagram,” Thunder guessed. “Do you know what it means?”

“We’re about to,” Sam promised.

It took a while, but figuring out that the Sunflower State was a nickname for Kansas led them to the answer of the second phrase. Endowed Higher Wits was an anagram for Dwight D. Eisenhower, thirty-fourth President of the United States of America and Supreme Allied Commander of the European Expeditionary Force during World War II.

“Makes sense...he was probably the most famous historical figure who was born in Kansas,” Farsight noted.

“Um, probably not the most famous...” Thunder said in an undertone, drawing the others' gazes toward her. “Never mind...” She brushed off their interest by diverting the topic to, “Hey, isn’t Eisenhower buried in Kansas?”

“We can find out with the Flint Consolidated powered supercomputer in our very cozy Argo VII as soon as we get out of this”—Farsight’s gaze snapped to the Achelous automaton before coming back to Sam and catching his eye with a wink—“weird magic dimension where my powers don’t work... Seriously, just being here is giving me a major headache.”

“Calling my domain weird is rude, you know,” Achelous grumbled.

The god-possessed automaton appeared at their side as if he’d been standing between Farsight and Thunder all along. And, after briefly gazing at each of them with a longing that Sam found super creepy, Achelous’ ire trained on Sam once more.

“Congratulations on solving the test,” he sighed heavily as if congratulating Sam was the most annoying thing in the world for him. “Now, I would appreciate it if you’d all go back to your trash-infested mortal realm and leave me to my solitude.”

He paused, turned a leering smile on Thunder and Farsight, and asked, “Unless either of you has chosen to remain and become my wife?”

“Nope,” Farsight replied, while Thunder added, “Not a chance in Hades.”

“No need to invoke his name into this,” Achelous sighed.

The automaton pointed a thumb behind him in a rather lazy way.

“You can take him with you as well,” Achelous grumbled.

“Him?” Sam asked.

“Him,” Achelous repeated tersely. “Also, it falls on you to inform your companion that it is the height of rudeness to enter a divine zone without an invitation from the God who controls it.”

“Him...” Sam narrowed his eyes in the direction Achelous pointed at. “Who are you—”

Standing on the sandy shore by the Eastern side of Lake Michigan was a man whose bulky physique and lion’s head hood left no confusion as to who had arrived to spoil their treasure hunt.

“Styx…not him again,” Sam scowled.

Thunder looked equally disturbed by Apex’s sudden appearance. “How is he here…didn’t the portal in the Chicago Water Tower disappear?”

“The dome was flooded too,” Farsight chimed in.

“If he swims to this island”—Sam glanced up at Achelous—“will the lake’s water guardian try and stop him?”

“It didn’t stop you…why would it fare any better against that muscle-bound oaf?” Achelous reminded Sam.

“Well, for once, I’m rooting for the bigger monster to win,” Sam whispered.

You think so, kid? Chiron challenged. A hundred drachma says Apex makes it.

Sam didn’t take that bet. He didn’t like his odds.

They watched as Apex went into the water and began to swim toward their tiny island at the center of Lake Michigan.

“Come on, come on,” Sam whispered. “Where are you?”

Sam’s prayers were answered soon enough. A giant, monstrous fin broke through the lake’s surface at a spot right between Apex and the island.

“Yes!” Sam pumped his fist into the air, earning him a sidelong glance from his friends. “I’m just happy the things with fangs aren’t just focused on us for a change.”

A second, a third, and then a fourth fin appeared to stretch behind the first like one long serpent’s spine, with the sight of them sending chills up Sam’s back. Geez, I hate serpents...

“Heads up. They’re about to collide,” Jackboot reported.

“Let’s go kaiju fight!” Farsight yelled.

The water guardian’s dragon-like head—scaly blue skin glistening under the pale moonlight—rushed out of the water with its mouth wide open. Its sword-sized fangs crashed down on Apex’s head as powerful jaws snapped shut on his body, dragging the villain back down into the watery depths.

“That was bloody visceral, wasn’t it?” Jackboot asked with a furrowed brow.

Yes, they were all surprised by how savage the water guardian’s attack had been. Although they all hoped Apex wouldn’t be coming back either as none of them were sure they could take him on in a fight.

Seconds ticked by while they watched the water with bated breath while the lake’s surface gave them no indication as to what could be happening down in the depths.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Achelous whispered ominously.

Bubbles formed on the water’s surface. Great big frothing bubbles that made it seem like a portion of the lake was beginning to boil. Then the water turned red as if a great amount of blood had been spilled. Far too much for it to have come from just a single man's body.

“Blimey...I reckon we have a winner, and it’s not who we’d hoped would win,” Jackboot reported.

The guardian of the lake’s severed head floated up to the surface moments later, and all thought of getting out of this without having to fight was suddenly drained from Sam’s mind. Styx…here we go.

The Fates were determined to make Sam's adventures as challenging as they could make it. At least that's what Sam was beginning to believe.

“We can’t let him reach us,” he realized.

Sam ran into the lake, stopping only after the water was up to his waist. It was around this time that Apex’s head cleared the surface, too. He was also much closer to the island now. Roughly halfway there.

“Sam!” Thunder called. “What are you doing?”

It took a moment for Sam to reply because he was busy checking his status and making sure he had enough life force to waste on this special move.

“Trying something new,” Sam replied, but then he added, “I’ve got this... I’ve got this,” to psyche himself up before he screamed, “Herculean!” into the sky.

[[Herculean (Δ)] is now active. Based on probability and threat assessment calculations, your current Strength is temporarily tripled. [180]]

Sam could feel the energy coursing through him once more, strengthening his muscles with the same explosive force that was simultaneously tearing them down.

“I’m definitely…never …getting used to this...” he said through gritted teeth.

You’re planning on doing the thing, aren’t you? Chiron surmised.

“We’ve practiced it…enough times,” Sam replied.

He willed all of Herculean’s energy to gather around his hands, to spread across his palms, and flow into the tips of his fingers.

Sam grunted. “It stings...”

His hands felt like they were on fire while power continued to build up around them. There was so much of it gathered there, in fact, that what was once invisible to everyone else had appeared as sparks of teal-colored lightning crackling across the back of Sam’s hands.

“Best hurry it along, Sam… You’ve got incoming!” Jackboot warned.

Apex was swimming across the lake's surface at a speed that would soon see him collide with Sam.

You’ve charged your hands enough, kid...any more and you're likely to pop a blood vessel, Chiron warned.

Sam spread his arms to the sides, but even this took effort as it felt like he was lifting a five-hundred-pound barbell in each hand.

“I...can...do...this,” Sam grunted.

Apex launched himself out of the water with fists stretched forward in the kind of superman tackle that would cream Sam in the chest if it hit him.

Now! Chiron ordered.

“You can’t pass!” Sam drew his hands forward and slapped his palms against each other. The shockwave that spread out from the point of impact was so powerful that it caused a fifteen-foot tidal wave to rise and devour everything in Sam's field of view.

NOTE: Those of you reading Iron Blood Arcanist may have noticed that it's no longer on RR. That's because I'm in the middle of its rewrites too. There are more chapters on the kids' indoctrination, and that latter half of the story will change somewhat to make the mystery even better. I'm also giving it a new cover so it's basically a relaunch this April. I hope you can all give it the same love as its first version. Thanks.