Addy chuckled and rolled her eyes, but when Lewis signaled for danger, she stopped. Shadows were moving across the walls at high speeds, as if there was an entire army marching past when it was only the six.
"I think it's just light tricks," she whispered. Cautiously, she summoned a little sphere of light in her palm and held it to the wall. The shadows stopped moving. She sighed with relief and kept walking, still keeping her eyes peeled for anything else.
"I can't believe I drove us into the Labyrinth…" she said after awhile. "How does that even happen?"
"It sucks," Lewis said, "But it's not your fault. I-I think the wave of monsters from earlier may have been trying to drive us here, if not kill us on the spot."
He let out a soft sigh. This was miserable, but what could they do except forge ahead?
Addy nodded, though she still quietly blamed herself. She'd driven them down here, and now she had to bring them out. She just had no idea how to do that…
She summoned a little ball of light in her palm as the tunnels got darker, and every turn they made seemed to lead them deeper and deeper into the Labyrinth, even if it sloped upwards.
"How the heck are we supposed figure this out?" she groaned angrily.
"Carefully, and very patiently," Lewis murmured, "I know it's- it's quite frustrating, to say the least."
He fiddled with his necklace a bit again, but had his attention out into the depths of the Labyrinth.
"Part of me wonders why, if this danger is out there, they don't teach us more about the Labyrinth at camp. There's probably a trick or two that would make things at least a little easier."
"I mean, what do you need to know? Traps everywhere, head towards what looks like the newer paths. Easy." Michael said.
Lewis turned his face so Michael couldn't see his scowl, but he held his tongue from saying anything too scathing.
"…Easy?" he remarked, trying not to laugh at the sheer hubris that lurked underneath words like those.
My gods, who does this guy think he is? Many a demigod has died down here, and he has the nerve to call it easy?
"Well, the instructions are easy. Not actually doing them."
Addy stopped, and signaled for everyone else to stop as well. She heard a noise, like a loud thud sound ahead of them, followed by some hissing. "Oh gods," she whispered. "I think it's an Echidna."
(Isn't there only one Echidna?)
"An echidna?" Lewis murmured, "There's only one Echidna, and- a-are you even sure?"
He made sure his crossbow was ready again.
Michael glanced forward. "Should we go for it or head back?"
"Wait, what's an echidna?" Angel asked. That's probably a stupid question. I should know things like this. "It's like a hedgehog, right?"
"Well, yes and no. There's also an animal echidna, but this one… this one is a snake lady- mother of monsters," Lewis explained quickly, "Do we even have anywhere to turn back? Or another direction to take?"
"Uh." Angel spins around. "I think the path closed. We'll have to go another way." she answers.
(Sorry, greek monster grammar is difficult to remember…)
"Maybe it's not," Addy ventured. Why is that the first thing I thought of? There are other snake monsters. but then she thought a little longer. Argus had killed Echidna, but Zeus had allowed her and her children to live to torture future heroes. Her children were most of the monsters that they fought, but everyone knew that she was still out there. It was possible that the gods had put her in the labyrinth…
"Run," she whispered to everyone, and she bolted down a tunnel to her left, away from the hissing.
"Keep formation!" Michael whispered harshly, grabbing Addy by her sleeve. "You never know what you'll run into in the Labyrinth."
"We can stay in formation while running," Addy whispered, jerking her arms away. The hissing behind them grew angrier and faster, and with a chill, Addy realized they were being followed.
Michael turned towards the noise and held his gun ready. "C'mon, let's go."
Lewis held his place in the formation. He once again checked his crossbow and cast a glance over his shoulder.
"Do we have a chance of getting away?" he whispered.
"We won't know unless we do it," Zyra whispered back, throwing glances back every so often. "And, Addy, why don't you try blinding it with your light?"
"Won't that give us away?" Lewis asked, "It's fine if we're going to fight, but…"
He shuddered at the thought. He'd had enough monsters for the day. LEwis' jaw was clenched tightly with all the tension and fear that sat in his chest.
"If it comes to it, I'll do whatever I need to to get it away from us. But there's still a chance we can get away."
"Step lightly, but quickly," Michael said. "Let's go."
"I could try and blind with, but with darkness," Zyra muttered quietly, looking tense as they walked.
"So what exactly is the plan here?" Daisy asked, arching an eyebrow. "Run, unless we can't? Are we fighting or not?" She wasn't exactly good at planning, and at this point she didn't even know why she argued with them. But this uncertainty was putting her on edge.
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