the_blood_of_olympus_-_rick_riordan

‘Hold that thought!’ Leo dug around in his tool belt. ‘You haven’t seen my best trick yet. I have a
weapon guaranteed to win any contest!’
Nike hesitated. ‘What weapon? What do you mean?’
‘My ultimate zap-o-matic!’ He pulled out a second Archimedes sphere – the one he’d spent a
whole thirty seconds modifying before they entered the stadium. ‘How many laurel wreaths have you
got? Because I’m gonna win them all.’
He fiddled with dials, hoping he’d done his calculations right.
Leo had got better at making spheres, but they still weren’t completely reliable. More like twenty
percent reliable.
It would’ve been nice to have Calypso’s help weaving the Celestial bronze filaments. She was an
ace at weaving. Or Annabeth: she was no slouch. But Leo had done his best, rewiring the sphere to
carry out two completely different functions.
‘Behold!’ Leo clicked the final dial. The sphere opened. One side elongated into a gun handle. The
other side unfolded into a miniature radar dish made of Celestial bronze mirrors.
Nike frowned. ‘What is that supposed to be?’
‘An Archimedes death ray!’ Leo said. ‘I finally perfected it. Now give me all the prizes.’
‘Those things don’t work!’ Nike yelled. ‘They proved it on television! Besides, I’m an immortal
goddess. You can’t destroy me!’
‘Watch closely,’ Leo said. ‘Are you watching?’
Nike could’ve zapped him into a grease spot or speared him like a cheese wedge, but her curiosity
got the best of her. She stared straight into the dish as Leo flipped the switch. Leo knew to look away.
Even so, the blazing beam of light left him seeing spots.
‘Gah!’ The goddess staggered. She dropped her spear and clutched at her eyes. ‘I’m blind! I’m
blind!’
Leo hit another button on his death ray. It collapsed back into a sphere and began to hum. Leo
counted silently to three, then tossed the sphere at the goddess’s feet.
FOOM! Metal filaments shot upward, wrapping Nike in a bronze net. She wailed, falling sideways
as the net constricted, forcing her two forms – Greek and Roman – into a quivering, out-of-focus
whole.
‘Trickery!’ Her doubled voices buzzed like muffled alarm clocks. ‘Your death ray did not even kill
me!’
‘I don’t need to kill you,’ Leo said. ‘I vanquished you just fine.’
‘I will simply change form!’ she cried. ‘I will rip apart your silly net! I will destroy you!’
‘Yeah, see, you can’t.’ Leo hoped he was right. ‘That’s high-quality Celestial bronze netting, and
I’m a son of Hephaestus. He’s kind of an expert on catching goddesses in nets.’
‘No. Nooooo!’
Leo left her thrashing and cursing, and went to check on his friends. Percy looked all right, just sore
and bruised. Frank had propped Hazel up and was feeding her ambrosia. The cut on her leg had
stopped bleeding, though her jeans were pretty much ruined.
‘I’m okay,’ she said. ‘Just too much magic.’