The Chains That Bind Ch 14

Author's Note
When I started writing this series, The Lost Hero hadn't come out yet so the fact that Midas appeared in that book doesn't really have anything to do with my story as I don't consider The Heroes of Olympus canon in my story universe. That is all.

Chapter 14: The Golden Touch, Part 1
“King Midas, but you died,” Erika called from behind me. We all tried to wrap our heads around this golden man standing before us. By all accounts he should be dead but we could figure out why he wasn’t.

“I should be yes, but I’m not. I loved gold so much that toward the end of my life I used my power over gold to turn myself into a golden statue to stand forever. However, my own touch did not kill me as I had thought but I became an immortal golden being,” he said triumphantly, until a depressed look crossed his face. “However, Hades not liking the loss of a soul appeared before me and gave me the punishment to forever guard his ring so I have stood here for many millennia destroying anything that appeared before me.”

As I looked around the room, I believed it. I took a closer look at the statues I had only glanced at earlier and saw monsters and people alike with their pained or scared expressions on their faces, most likely knowing the end as they were slowly turned to gold.

“We can’t touch him,” I warned my friends knowing that if we even got close, there was a chance we wouldn’t be walking out of here.

“No problem,” Erika said as a rose whip grew from her hands. She swung it around and let it fly. It wrapper around Midas but he looked completely unaffected by the attack. He then smiled as the vine around his body turned to gold and started crawling up her vine.

“Drop it!” Kat yelled and Erika did just in time. Then the whip seemed to be absorbed into his body and thorns began to grow along the length of his arms as if he had taken on the form of the whip.

“Alright,” Erika said, “I’ll just attack from a distance.” She placed her hands on the ground and several large vines sprung from the ground and completely encased Midas in them. They slowly turned to gold and were once again absorbed into his body. He laughed as he now had sharp tentacles forming on his back and he was even more dangerous now that he had some range.

“I am master of gold fools. You cannot defeat me here.” He called to us. I thought about this and remembered the last guardians we had fought. We didn’t have to defeat them and maybe if I could simply get the ring then we could escape.

“Guys, by me some time,” I told them as I got ready to sprint for the fountain. Kat tried to think of a simple daydream while Erika made several small vines sprung from the ground. Kat’s small dream bubble took the form of four Greek soldiers in full battle armor. They didn’t appear to have faces and looked more like mannequins shop owners have in their windows. The four soldiers charged forward and I circled around and made a mad dash for the ring. As I glanced over at the soldiers to make sure they were doing their job, they appeared to be looking around in confusion and I didn’t see Midas. As I turned my head back, I saw him literally rising from the golden floor in front of me. I stopped as fast as I could and jumped back, just out of reach of his hand. But two of the vines on his back sprung at me. I dodged the first one by falling to the ground and rolled backward onto my feet and ran back a few steps to rejoin my friends.

“Well, anyone else have a plan?” I asked not really knowing what to do next. Midas again walked back to the center of the room and simply stared us down as if giving us the chance to leave if we so wished.

“Take all the time you need, I like to give my opponent a sporting chance,” he called over to us.

I looked at the ring behind him being propelled in the air by the marble fountain…wait. Everything in the room was made of gold except the marble fountain, that had to be the key to beating Midas but how could we get to it. I turned to Kat and Erika and I whispered to them my plan. It wasn’t a good plan but it was all we had.

“You’re crazy,” Kat said but got into position while Erika did the same. I pulled out my hammer and got ready.

“Here goes something.” I said as I took a quick gulp.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive  00:52, June 22, 2011 (UTC)