XI. Another one bites the dust

"Well this is turning into quite the mess", muttered Naruto after being slammed against the barrier of the arena for the umpteenth time. Who knew that going up against an adult cyclope could be such a drag.

"Come on, Master, you can do it", yelled Grace from the sidelines, while doing her best to restrain herself from interfering with the match and curb stomping the cyclope's rotten teeth. She herself had already beaten one of her opponents and now it was Naruto's turn. They each had two opponents to beat to win the game. If one of them happened to lose, their opponents would fight the one left. If they both lost, they would join the hunters as prisoners of Coeus. But if one of them win, they would free the hunters and would get to ask one question out of Coeus.

Grace's first opponent had been a very mouthy and very unlucky Empousa who had the misfortune to make some comments on eating Naruto. Useless to say that Grace had slayed her seconds after the duel started, cutting her surprised head off with a swift slice of her sword.

It was now Naruto's turn and his opponent was a 7ft Cyclope with a baby shaped head and a snarl on his face. She knew that her master was strong enough to take the cyclope down, but he was only twelve and wasn't as battle ready to quickly deal with these huge but shifty and smart monster.

"What is it boy ?", taunted the cyclope, "you're not looking too good". Grace resisted the urge to bare her teeth. "You're a proper lady, Grace and Naruto is watching" she told herself.

"You look like you've seen better days yourself", fired back Naruto with a shit-eating grin. The kind that goes straight to your head and just makes you want to punch it out.

The cyclope wasn't in the best shape. His body was covered in blood, seeping from the numerous cuts inflicted by Naruto's sword which was too fast for him to catch. And worst, the more he fought the kid, the more he had this feeling that the kid was getting stronger while he was barely able to keep up. The hit he had delivered right now had been luck. the kid in his retreat from another slash of his sword had taken a wrong step, which had afforded the cyclope the opportunity to drive it's fist into the kid's gut. Unfortunately, the tremendous hit had only pushed Naruto back but had failed to do any real damage.

Naruto got back up. He needed to end this fight quickly. He didn't want to tire himself out our sustain too many injuries that would hinder his abilities in the next fight.

"Looks like I might have to go all out on this one", he muttered to himself while gripping his sword tighter. The cyclope was a great opponent, but he wasn't used to fighting sword wielding foes. That would be his downfall.

'I just need to use all of my speed, I close in, and cut off his head' thought Naruto, mentally hyping himself up. Two things could happen. One, he was fast enough and he sliced the cyclope's head off. Two, he wasn't fast enough and he was a dead man. Naruto took a breath. Studying the cyclope's tense posture. He needed an opening, he needed for him to relax, for a split...THERE IT IS.

The alarm bell went off in his head and Naruto felt his body taking off. In a single jump he closed the distance between them, his sword already in the cutting motion.

Schpplt!

The cyclope's head had come clean off. It rolled around a bit before coming to a stop, a shocked expression still printed on the victim's face.

The arena erupted in jeers.

"Wooooooooooo", cheered Grace with the expression of a proud wife. Artemis too was looking on with a satisfied look and Argylls gave a hoot of approval.

"Oh Philip poor you", said Coeus referring to the newly departed cyclope who was now slowly turning into a gold dust. "Well he did always talk about his cousins in Tartarus so, good for him in a way".

Coeus clapped his hands.

"That was a delightful fight, who's next ?"

As Naruto was stepping off the arena, he saw a laistrygonian giant step into it with a smile. The crowd cheered as he raised his arms and paraded with a proud look.

"Johnny-Boy is a crowd favorite", explained Coeus while grabbing a glass of wine, "One of our best fighters, with a 36-0 record".

Grace looked at the monster who was now sharpening his sword, his eyes locked on her, his smile becoming more feral. She was by no means afraid, but something was a bit off about this one. These giants weren't known for their intellect, but this one was smart. She could not ignore the gleam of intelligence behind these blue eyes that were screaming murder at her.

"Will you be okay?" asked Naruto with a worried look. Grace turned toward him with the sweetest smile.

"It'll be over in a jiffy", she said while cupping his face, "rest now you need to for your next opponent".

Grace steeled her gaze and stepped into the ring herself. The cheers and jeers of the monsters in the arena got a lot louder. They were up for a treat and they knew it.

"What is your name woman?" asked the Giant as he readied himself for the fight.

"What good will it be to you in Tartarus?" answered Grace while her own sword appeared in her hand.

"I just think it's polite to know each other's name before a fight" replied the Laistrygonian with an amused grin.

"Grace", was the simple answer that came.

"Enough chit-chat", cut Coeus with a bored wave of his hand, "It's time to get bloody, FIGHT".

As soon as the words left his mouth, Grace and the giant lunged at each other.

It went so fast that Naruto almost missed it. But what nobody missed, was the ear grinding sound of the celestial bronze swords clashing. Sparks flying around as the ground beneath them shook. It was a pure contest of strength right now, and they were evenly matched.

"There is no reason for one of them to be so advanced", said Artemis with a surprised look. Laistrygonians were strong but were usually easy to deal with.

"This is were you are wrong granddaughter", chimed in Coeus, "This one is quite special you see, I may have gifted him with a bit more knowledge than usual".

Artemis gazed at him in shock. Coeus raised his hands in a defensive manner.

"Just a little experiment Arty", he said in a fake apologetic voice, "one that turned out quite well I must say". Johnny-Boy managed to pushed Grace back with a big slash of his sword. Grace retreated and used the cage around them to propel herself toward the giant, her sword in a slashing motion. Johnny-Boy adjusted and their swords met, creating more sparks. What followed was a blur of slashes and parries as both equally skilled fighters began a dance of death.

"Wow" muttered Naruto. He had never caught a glimpse of the extent of Grace's power and it seemed she was even stronger than he thought. what was worrying was that the Giant seemed to match her, blow for blow.

Suddenly for a split second, Grace was faster. After parrying another blow from the giant she spun around and brought her sword with the clear aim to cut off his head. The managed to dodge the highspeed strike but did not come out unscathed as a clear line was showing off his neck.

"You fight well" complimented Johnny-Boy with his seemingly unfadable smile.

"You too, after all you managed to escape me so far" replied Grace in a breath. They were both catching their breath but were remaining tense, sizing each other up, waiting for a movement, an opening.

The crowd was at it's loudest. The monster were yelling jeers and sentences that Naruto couldn't understand but was sure were pretty graphic. He could relate. The fight was pretty intense so far and had Naruto been a neutral party, he would be having the time of his life. He looked at Artemis who was watching arena with a cold calculating gaze. Her eyes steady and focused, scanning the entire place for anything out of place. A trace of her hunters perhaps, or exit possibilities if push came to shove. Naruto had no idea what she was looking for. To be honest he was more focused on how beautiful she was. This time she harbored a teenage appearance, with an approximate between 16 to 18 years old. her Auburn hair was a bit longer, falling on her shoulder and her hunter dress usually worn when she took her 12 years old appearance looked awfully short on her now. Naruto averted his gaze, in fear of being caught and turned into a Jackalope. Fantasizing about the virgin goddess by excellency? What a way to dig an early grave. No he would rather focus on the fight. But the two were still not moving, caught in an eye battle that was making the atmosphere heavy.

"They should just- Oh here we go" said Coeus while straightening himself in his seat. Grace and Johnny-Boy had just lunged at each other, sword ready and eyes as cold as ice. Their swords clashed again under the roars of the crowd.

"Grace should end this soon, we're losing time" came the voice of Artemis. Naruto turned toward her.

"What do you mean we're losing time ?" Artemis threw him a sharp look.

"The longer this drags on, the less I think my dear grandfather her is going to hold his promise" She whispered with her eyes kept on the arena. "He his known for his ever changing moods. He can always find loopholes around promises, even the ones sworn on the river Styx".

"Man- Then we need to hurry up indeed", said Naruto finally catching on the possibility.

"And that is without mentioning that you have a highly important quest to get back to", added Argyll who had stayed quiet until now. "It's best not to keep you away from it for too long, lord Zeus wouldn't appreciate that too much, he's already thorn between simply snuffing you out or letting this play out, if you are doing side-quest in the meantime, it's not really helping your case".

Naruto finally understood the urgency of the situation. He was wondering how Percy, Annabeth and Grover were doing. Were they safe? Were they on the right track? He had no idea and that wasn't a good feeling.

"Come on Grace, slice him open", he shouted in encouragement to his guardian. She smiled for a split-second before her expression turned as feral as an angry cat. Her movements became more fluid and more aggressive. She was gaining an advantage with every strike. Each one pushing back her adversary who was starting to struggle a lot to keep his sword up.

"You might be superior to your peers", said Grace in a voice filled with bad intents, "but you-are-still-a-puny-little-MONSTER".

The last word came out with a particularly vicious slash that cleanly chopped off the head of Johnny-Boy. The Laistrygonian was in the motion of parrying but Grace was simply too fast for him. His remains started dissolving as the crowd, quiet as an howl, looked on in disbelief as their champion faded into thin air.

Naruto's clapping was heard across the Arena as Grace stepped off the ring with a bright smile and hugged Naruto.

"That was unbelievable, I had no idea you were so strong", said Naruto.

"Well It was always better of me to prevent the situations where you would have had to see this side of me", replied Grace with a shy look. She was worried her more demonic side would freak Naruto out, but he seemed to be okay with it.

"Well I'm off to finish this", said Naruto with a smirk. He stepped into the ring and noticed that his opponent had yet to arrive.

"Hey old man, what is this? where's the last loser?" taunted Naruto with a grin.

Coeus looked at him with an eye smile and said with a clear voice.

"You have to forgive us, since we clearly underestimated your party's strength we had to make some adjustments to the line-up".

A rattling noise came from under the ground as it exploded in front of Naruto. A shape jumped out of the newly formed hole and stood in front of Naruto. It was slim, with pale white skin and was wearing what appeared to be a suit. What caught Naruto's attention the most was the sharp tail sticking from out behind the monster. A scorpion shaped tail.

Naruto sighed. he knew that one.

"A freaking Manticore ? Really?" He yelled desperately.

Thank you everyone that is still keeping up with this story. So much has happened in my life since I last wrote and uploaded here. And it's about to get a lot more packed. I will find time to write here and upload chapters. I cannot give an accurate rate of updates tho, I can just say I will try my best.

enjoy.

Phaeris out.