Chapter 196 - Prototype

"What did she want with you?" Bianca asked once they'd told them about Aphrodite.

"Nothing significant to our quest," Drako said.

It was true since nothing talked inside that limo was going to influence their mission.

"Well, she said to be careful in her husband's territory," Percy said. "She said not to pick anything up."

Zoë narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."

"For once I agree with Zoë," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."

"So," Percy said, trying to change the subject, "how do we get out of here?"

"That way," Zoë said. "That is west."

"How can you tell?" Drako asked.

In the light of the full moon, Drako was surprised how well he could see her roll her eyes at him.

"Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west."

She pointer west, then at the northern constellation, which was hard to make out because there were so many other stars.

"Oh, yeah," Drako said. "The bear thing."

Zoe looked offended. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

"You act like it was real," Percy said.

"Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!"

They'd reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

"Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff… some of it looks like real gold."

"It is," Thalia said grimly. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyards of the gods."

"Junk?" Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels. It was broken on one side as if it had been split by an axe. "You call this junk?"

He bit off a point and began to chew. "It's delicious!"

Thalia swatted the crown out of his hands. "I'm serious!"

"Look!" Bianca said. She raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates.

She picked up a bow that glowed silver in the moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!"

She yelped in surprise as the bow began to shrink, and became a hair clip shaped like a crescent moon. "It's just like Percy's sword!"

Zoe's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."

"But—"

"It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed."

Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.

"I don't like this place," Thalia said. She gripped the shaft of her spear.

"You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" Percy asked.

Thalia gave him a hard look. "Zoe is right, Percy. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now, come on, let's get across the yard."

"That's the second time you've agreed with Zoe," Drako muttered, but Thalia ignored him.

Drako stayed silent afterwards. He had a feeling that things are going to get harder from now on.

They started picking their way through the hills and valleys of junk. The staff seemed to go on forever, and if it hadn't been for Ursa Major, they could've gotten lost. All the hills pretty much looked the same.

On the way, some couldn't ignore some of the cool stuff placed there. Still, they didn't dare to pick it up.

Finally, they saw the edge of the junkyard about half a mile ahead of them, the lights of a highway stretching through the desert. But between them and the road.

"What is that?" Bianca gasped.

Ahead of them was a hill much bigger and longer than the others. It was like a metal mesa, the length of a football field and as tall as goalposts. At one end of the mesa was a row of ten thick metal columns, wedged tightly together.

Bianca frowned. "They look like—"

"Toes," Grover said.

Bianca nodded. "Really, really large toes."

Zoe and Thalia exchanged nervous looks.

Drako's sense were ringing.

"Let's go around," Drako said. "Far around."

"But the road is right over there," Percy protested. "Quicker to climb over."

"It's dangerous, really dangerous," Drako said. "Do you want to die in this desert?"

Ping.

Thalia hefted her spear and Zoe drew her bow, but Drako acted faster and summoned his sword. He directed it towards Grover's throat. He had thrown a piece of scrap metal at the toes and hit one, making a deep echo, as if the column were hollow.

"Why did you do that?" Drako asked fiercely.

Grover cringed. "I don't know. I, uh, don't like fake feet?"

"Come on," Thalia said. "Around."

After several minutes of walking, they finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt.

"We made it out," Zoe said. "Thank the gods."

But, apparently, the gods didn't want to be thanked. At that moment, Drako heard a sound like a thousand trash compactors crushing metal.

He whirled around. Behind them, the scrap mountain was boiling, rising up. The ten toes tilted over, and Drako realized why they looked like toes. They were toes. The thing that rose up from the metal was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armour. He was impossibly tall—a skyscr.a.p.er with legs and arms. He gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. He looked down at them, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off. His joints creaked with rust, and across his armoured chest, written in thick dust by some giant finger, were the words WASH ME.

"Hey, Sage, use Status Inspection," Drako mentally said.

[You can't use Status Inspection on something that has no life]

"F.u.c.k."

Drako sense started ringing with more power than before.

Right now, they were in serious danger.

Drako thought on using Laevatein Noble Phantasm for the first time, but it would be ineffective cause that piece of metal didn't have life.

"Talos!" Zoe gasped.

"Who—who's Talos?" Percy stuttered.

"One of Hephaestus' creations," Thalia said. "But that can't be the original. It's too small. A prototype, maybe. A defective model."

The metal giant didn't like the word defective.

He moved one hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. The sound of it coming out of its sheath was horrible, metal screeching against metal. The blade was a hundred feet long, easy. It looked rusty and dull, but Drako didn't figure that mattered. Getting hit with that thing would be like getting hit with a battleship.

"Someone took something," Zoe said. "Who took something?"

She stared accusingly at Percy.

He shook his head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."

Bianca didn't say anything. She looked so guilty, Drako didn't need to much time to realize who was the culprit. Still, there was no time to talk. Talos took one step towards them, closing half the distance and making the ground shake.

Not even Tiamat was as big as this defective Talos.

"Run! Now!" Drako commanded.

They listen to him, but it was hopeless. At a leisurely stroll, this thing could outdistance them easily.

They split up, the way they'd done with the Nemean Lion. Thalia drew her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. The giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which exploded in sparks and scattered across Thalia's path.

Zoe's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal. Grover brayed like a baby goat and went climbing up a mountain of metal.

Drako and Bianca ended up next to each other, hiding behind a broken chariot.

"You took something," Drako said.

"No!" she said, but her voice was quivering.

"Give it back," Drako said.

"It's too late!"

"What did you take?"

Before she could answer, Drako heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow blotted out the sky.

"Move!" Drako tore down the hill, Bianca right behind him, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where they'd been hiding.

"Hey, Talos!" Percy yelled, but the monster raised his sword, looking at Bianca and Drako.

Grover played a quick melody on his pipes. Over at the highway, the downed power lines began to dance. Drako understood what Grover was going to do a split second before it happened.

One of the poles with power lines still attached flew toward Talos's back leg and wrapped around his calf. The lines sparked and sent a jolt of electricity up the giant's backside.

Talos whirled around, creaking and sparking. Grover had bought them a few seconds.

"Come on!" Drako told Bianca. But she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a small metal figurine, a statue of a god. "It… it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."

"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" Drako asked.

There were tears in her eyes.

"Never mind," Drako said. "The giant is not going to leave us alone anyway."

The giant kept coming after Grover. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing Grover by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, and then Drako couldn't see them anymore.

"Now, group the rest of us and run. I will buy time for you."

"But—"

"No buts, I'm not going to die here. Remember? The dragon will die at the dragon's hands," Drako said.

Bianca looked at Drako reluctantly, but she nodded and ran towards Zoe.

Meanwhile, Thalia distracted Talos to save Grover. She pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed but immediately started to rise again. It was hard to tell if it could feel anything. There weren't any emotions in its half-melted face, but Drako got the sense that it was about as ticked off as a twenty-story-tall metal warrior could be.

"Talos!" Drako shouted.

Drako summoned his bow, Gandiva, and shot an arrow. It hit between Talos' eyes, causing a small explosion.

His arrows were far stronger than Zoe's. Still, it didn't cause a scratch in the metal giant. It looked like he was indestructible.

But, Drako only wanted to have its attention with that arrow. And he manages to get it. The giant turned towards him and raised its sword.

"Run! Escape!" Drako shouted to Bianca and the others.

Bianca should have talked to Zoe and the rest already, as they didn't doubt to run. Drako didn't have time to see if they were worried for him or not, since he needed to protect himself from the metal giant.

Talos swings his sword, aiming it towards Drako. The dragon ran, avoiding the sword with a little bit of difficulty. It was not easy to avoid such an enormous sword.

At that moment, Drako's bow started to burn. A bright flame in the dark night burned in Drako's hands. Without a doubt, he was calling the name of his first Noble Phantasm again.

"Agni Gandiva: Flame God's Roar"

Drako shot the missile toward Talos.

Precisely, this one exploded in the centre of Talos' head. The impact sent the metal giant backwards, and it was so clumsy that it fell backwards. However, it rose immediately.

Drako felt cold sweat running down his back as he realized the effect of Gandiva.

In exchange for more than 1/4 of his MP, Drako had managed to disfigure part of Talos' face.

At this rate, it was impossible to kill this mechanical monster.

Talos had risen once more, and that's when Drako saw it.

On Talos' left foot, there was a trap door leading into it. If Drako wasn't wrong, he could kill the monster from the inside.

"Agni Gandiva: Flame God's Roar"

Drako fired the Noble Phantasm once more, buying more time for his companions to flee.

Knowing that his attacks did not do much damage to the giant, at least not lethally, Drako aimed directly at the knees.

The blow was effective, and Talos fell again. This time on his knees and he had more trouble getting up.

MP - 27520/153750

In the distance, Drako saw how the group had emerged from the junkyard.

Now, it was time to run.

Drako didn't have much MP left. He saved Gandiva, and he summoned Golden Drive instead.

However, it wasn't that easy to escape from the place. Talos was in the middle of Drako and the rest of the group.

By the time Drako got on the bike, Talos was back on his feet. Now, Drako had to overcome the giant obstacle to get out of this situation alive.

But one question remained: would Talos follow the group if they left the junkyard?

Drako did not know, so he hesitated to take his next action.

Finally, Drako started the bike and ran in the direction of Talos.

If the giant lifted his right leg, Drako would dodge at full speed. If he lifted his left leg, Drako was going to try and destroy him from the inside.

The best was the second option, which is why Drako forced the giant to raise his left.

Talos stepped in, and Drako took the opportunity to sneak inside.

"Golden Drive-Good Night: Night Wolf Deadly Nine - Golden Dash"

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