CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED NINE

There Be Dragons Here, Part 2

This new enemy wasn’t just any dragon though. The Drakon Kholkikos, as the ancient Greeks called it, was an ancient earth dragon with a thirty-foot serpentine body that sported bright green scales, poisonous claws, and rows of wickedly sharp teeth. Now, it didn’t have wings like Medea’s solar dragons did, and it looked more like an oversized anaconda than the conventional drake, but there was no mistaking its terrifying, draconic eyes, that legends claimed could paralyze men with just a stare.

WARNING! You are being targeted by an ocular attack. Countermeasures deployed.

Dark-tinted shades fell over the peepers of Sam’s mask.

The Mask of the Argonaut’s [Shades] ability is now active. The chance to deflect an ocular attack increased by 50%.

Yes, a few of the Mask of the Argonaut’s abilities had been unlocked to match Sam’s growth. He’d just been so busy that he failed to pay them any mind until now.

Sam waited a second. Then two. Then three.

Paralysis was successfully blocked.

He let out a relieved sigh before yelling, “Don’t look it in the eyes!”

The Drakon Kholkikos let out an angry hiss—as if Sam managing to stop its attack had offended it—before its head lunged forward.

There was a half-moment where Sam thought about using Bulwark to block the incoming blow, but his survival instincts told him this was not a horror whose attack he could stop. This is why Sam managed to roll away in the nick of time just as the dragon’s fangs tore into the ground he vacated. He wasn’t out of the woods yet though. For no sooner had Sam rolled to his feet when the dragon’s thick, tree-trunk-sized tail whipped toward him.

“Styx,” Sam breathed as he braced himself for the blow.

He caught the scent of fire in the air and then Dr. Hearthstone was suddenly at his side with arms alight in an aura of warm, orange flames.

“Excelsior!” Dr. Hearthstone yelled.

The pair of them just had enough strength between them to deflect the dragon’s tail.

Then the air suddenly smelled of ozone, and they heard the crackle of lightning as it flashed in the sky.

Krak-ka-boom!

Sam glanced over his shoulder. He watched, half-in-awe and half-terrified, as Thunder leaped into the air with her hand raised to catch the jagged bolt of lighting as it streaked down toward the earth.

She’s so freaking awesome, Sam thought.

With the lightning bolt cracking in her hand mid-leap, Thunder dived for the dragon's head and stabbed its pointy end into the Drakon Kholkikos’s snout just as the horror’s head rose up in search of its prey.

Krak-ka-boom!

A powerful shockwave exploded outward, battering Sam and Dr. Hearthstone in strong winds and elemental energy similar to the feeling of being underneath a raging storm. Sam was quick to shrug off the jolt of pain though because he was desperate to run into the blast’s epicenter to catch Thunder as she was thrown off the dragon’s head.

“I've got you!” he yelled. And, as she fell into his arms, Sam said, “Do you have to be so reckless?” before adding, “Healing Hand,” in a whisper.

“We’re in the endgame,” she huffed. Sweat coated her brow. “Now’s not the time… to be conservative.”

He felt his life force drip into hers, reinforcing Thunder with his healing energy enough that they both easily dodged the red-hot flames of dragon fire surging toward them.

The Drakon Kholkikos’s flames chased after them like a flamethrower, and it might have caught Sam in the back too if Jackboot hadn’t jackknifed the side of the dragon’s head at just the right moment to divert the direction of the blast.

“Is it just me, or is that thing unfazed by you going nuclear on its butt?” Sam asked.

“It’s not you.” Thunder’s brow creased. “That thing’s scales were barely singed by my lightning bolt… It must have a really strong defense.”

“I did say”—Farsight popped up next to them—“we couldn’t beat it conventionally with just us, right?”

She had an arrow notched to her bow. An arrow that Sam noticed had a familiar hypodermic needle for its tip.

“Much as I hate to credit that psycho witch, Medea had it right”—Farsight let loose her arrow—“we have to put that thing to sleep.”

Even without her probability powers helping her aim, the teenage seer still managed to launch her arrow straight into the dragon’s mouth, which was one Hades of a feat considering how its head thrashed around in the air like a drunk about to hurl their dinner on the floor. Sadly, the Drakon Kholkikos was no wild beast. There was an intellect shimmering behind its eyes. An intellect that was quick to shut its mouth so that Farsight’s arrow harmlessly bounced off its sharp teeth.

“Metrokoites!” Farsight cursed.

“Language,” Dr. Hearthstone scolded.

He too had moved to join the others who were now a safe distance from the range of dragon fire. All except Jackboot, who, in a display of daring Sam recalled seeing that first time they met, continued to harass the Drakon Kholkikos to keep its attention fixed solely on him.

While Jackboot bounced around in the air to avoid the dragon’s teeth, Farsight passed around the vials of high-grade tranquilizers to the others.

“These won’t penetrate through its scales, will they?” Dr. Hearthstone asked.

“No, they won’t,” Farsight admitted. “We’ll have to chuck them directly into its mouth.”

“Getting in danger-close,” Thunder juggled the thick vial in her hand, “I’m in.”

Sam sighed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“The threat of sudden death with the prize just within our reach, Hades, I am enjoying this.” Despite her hair clinging to her sweat-coated cheeks, Thunder was smiling. “I'm tired of holding back while the rest of you keep getting hurt for me.”

She patted Sam affectionately on the arm just as she stepped past him.

“I can be a little more reckless tonight.” Thunder glanced over her shoulder. “I’ve got you and the fleece to heal me after the fight.”

“Fair point,” Dr. Hearthstone agreed, as he too joined Thunder in her charge forward.

Farsight, however, stayed behind, and her face was quite grave when she said, “We don’t have a lot of time, Herculean…”

“Why?” Sam asked. “Did you see something?”

“It was right before we arrived here…” Farsight notched another tranquilizer arrow to her bow. “…I had a vision of a great golden dragon soaring above the mist…”

At her words, Sam recalled seeing a glint of gold in the sky while they traveled across the Golden Gate Bridge. It had only been for a moment, but he was sure he’d seen it.

Sam’s brow creased. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“Because I didn’t want to add to everyone else’s worries,” Farsight admitted.

She aimed her bow at the dragon being harried on three sides by her friends.

“Contrary to what you might think, I do care about this team,” She pulled back her string, “but I will deny it to death if you ever tell anyone I said that.”

“Guess you’re not just a snarky little teenager.” Sam spared her a grin right before patting her on the back. “Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea.”

He ran forward just as she fired her arrow. Sam didn’t see if it hit its mark or not though as his brain was busy recalling one of those old Saturday temple sermons. There was another version of the Drakon Kholkikos battle that was very different from Medea’s sleeping potion solution—an option far more dangerous than anything Sam had ever attempted before.

“This is Thunder's fault… She makes me believe I can do the crazy heroic stuff too,” Sam sighed.

He reached Dr. Hearthstone, and then took the duffel bag from him.

“How far can you throw me?” Sam asked.

Dr. Hearthstone spared him a glance, eyeing him up and down as he did. “Far enough… You want the fastball special?”

“You can never go wrong with the classics.” Sam secured the duffel bag around his shoulder. “Just make sure you aim first, okay?”

An aura of flames burst out of Dr. Hearthstone’s muscular arms. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Sam said, although he didn’t sound very confident. “It’ll be fun.”

Dr. Hearthstone grabbed onto the back of Sam’s Apollonian armor, and Sam could feel the intense heat emanating from the veteran hero’s aura.

“Excelsior!” Dr. Hearthstone yelled as he lifted Sam into the air like he weighed nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Then, with a “Good luck” on his lips, Dr. Hearthstone sent Sam up, up, and away.

Sam screamed, “Herculean!” into the sky while he hurtled through the air at breakneck speed. They must have heard him coming because both Thunder and Jackboot chose that moment to push forward as well. It was as if instinct had driven the other two to act—because Sam certainly hadn’t told them about his crazy plan—but they each sent powerful blows into the Drakon Kholkikos’s underside, forcing the dragon to bellow in pain just as Sam’s momentum sent him smashing into its mouth.

Although neither Jackboot, Thunder, nor even Dr. Hearthstone probably realized that Sam’s plan was far more reckless than simply shoving a bag full of tranquilizers into the dragon’s throat.

Oh, blessed, brilliant, magnanimous Athena, please let this insane idea work…

Sam whispered his prayer to the goddess of wisdom while he used his hands to pull the two halves of the dragon’s snout even further apart, widening them enough for a man to jump into its mouth without fear of getting torn apart by those sharp teeth.

Then, with a final glance at Thunder’s confused face, and a whisper of, “I’ll be back,” Sam dove into the Drakon Kholkikos’s mouth and forced the horror to swallow him whole.