A Typhon chimera stood in front of me, its teeth bared, black smoke dripping from the corners of its mouth. The monster’s eyes burned a bright crimson, and its black tail snaked back and forth in the air above its head, the scorpion’s stinger on the end pointed at me like an arrow seeking a target.
I stared at the creature, studying every single thing about it, from the way its crimson claws dug into the floor to the ripple of the muscles in its broad, powerful back to its long, sinuous strides as it paced back and forth in front of me. My Spartan instincts took over, and that movie started unspooling in my head as I thought about and discarded various plans of attack.
I had to stay away from the chimera’s teeth and claws, or the fight would be over in seconds. The same thing went for that stinger attached to its tail, and forget about bashing it in the head. Those ram’s horns were much too hard for that.
I had to go for one of the chimera’s weak spots, like its stomach. If I could get underneath the creature, then I could cut open its belly. I didn’t know if that would be enough to kill it, but it would be a good start.
Another inhuman scream ripped through the air, and I glanced over the balcony railing. Down below, Amanda was running around, putting more and more study tables between herself and the first chimera, which was yelling out its frustration at not having killed her yet. The Amazon would have to take care of herself right now.
I couldn’t help her if I was dead.
I looked at the creature again, which was still stalking back and forth in front of me. My gaze moved past the chimera, and I scanned the balcony for something I could use as a weapon. I could try to topple one of the statues on top of it, but I doubted I had the necessary strength to move the heavy stone, and the chimera could easily claw me to death while I tried. The flimsy ink pens in my messenger bag wouldn’t even scratch through the creature’s thick fur and skin. Even the heavy reference book I’d been reading earlier wouldn’t so much as stun the monster if I threw it at the chimera’s face.
That left me with only one option: Babs.
The sword was lying off to my right, closer to the chimera than to me. Her eye frantically swiveled around as she looked from me to the creature and back again.
“Hey, Babs!” I called out. “I hope whoever put you in that case remembered to sharpen your blade.”
“Oh, no!” she called out. “Don’t you even think about using me!”
“Sorry. Not a lot of other weapons lying around here.”
“Why?” she wailed. “Why does this always happen to me? All I want is a nice, quiet life in a museum somewhere. Is that too much to ask? Is it?”
The chimera grew tired of waiting for me to run, and it hissed and sprang through the air, its claws outstretched, ready to pin me to the ground and rip me to pieces. I darted forward, running straight at it.
At the last possible moment, I threw myself headfirst, diving across the floor for the third time. The slick stone helped me slide right on past the creature, which hit Sigyn’s statue and bounced off, much the same way I had done earlier.
As I slid, I stretched my hand out toward Babs’s gleaming silver hilt. The sword’s eye widened.
“No!” she yelled. “You don’t know what you’re doing! Don’t pick me up! Don’t pick me up! Don’t pick me up!”
I frowned. What kind of talking sword didn’t want you to use her in battle? But I didn’t have time to puzzle it out. My hand closed over the sword’s hilt, right over her mouth, muffling her frantic cries.
The chimera bellowed out a loud scream that made the hair stand up on my arms. I knew what was coming next. I flipped over so that I was lying on my back on the floor and snapped up the point of the sword. A shadow fell over me, blotting out the overhead lights, and all I could see were the chimera’s crimson claws, zooming toward my throat—
Crunch.
The chimera landed beside me just as I shoved the sword upward—straight into the creature’s stomach.
The chimera threw back its head, snarling and screaming with pain, and it stretched a giant paw up, as though it were going to swipe it down and lay my throat open with its claws. I gritted my teeth, locked both hands around the sword’s hilt, and shoved the weapon even deeper into the creature’s belly. The chimera might kill me with its claws, but I was taking it with me the way a true Spartan would—
Poof!
Just before the chimera’s claws would have cut into me, the creature dissolved into a cloud of smoke. I coughed and coughed, trying to get the sulfur stench out of my lungs, and waved my hand in front of my face, trying to clear away the smoke, which stung my skin with its intense heat.
Babs slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor. The second the sword stopped rattling around, her eye snapped open, as though she had it shut tight during the fight with the chimera.
“Okay, that wasn’t so bad.” Her high, nervous tone made her Irish accent far more pronounced. “At least there was no blood to dirty up my blade. Now, if you’ll just do me a favor and find me a new display case, we can forget that this whole thing ever happened…”
Babs babbled on and on about how all she’d ever wanted was to live in a case with a nice view, but I tuned her out, got to my feet, and lurched over to the balcony.
Down on the first floor, Amanda was still running circles around the other chimera, which was taking great pleasure in leaping from table to table and swatting at her like a cat playing with a mouse. It wouldn’t be long before the creature moved in for the kill. Amanda knew it too, and she was trying to get to the exit doors. But every time she moved toward the main aisle, the chimera would leap onto the table in front of her, cut her off, and force her back to the center of the library. Amanda swung her staff at the chimera over and over again, landing several solid hits, but she couldn’t do enough damage to slip past the monster.
She was dead—if I didn’t save her.
I had already killed one chimera. I could kill another one. Even more than that, I wanted to do it. My Spartan instincts screamed at me to wade back into the fight, to hack and slash until all my enemies were dead, dead, dead.
The chimera leaped closer and closer to Amanda. In seconds, it would launch itself at her one final time, knock her to the ground, and tear her throat open with its teeth. I didn’t have time to run over to the door and rush down the stairs, and there was only one other way to get down to the first floor. I looked over the balcony railing, judging where I was in the library and the distance down to the ground. This was going to hurt, but there was no other way. But first, I still needed a weapon, so I whipped around and sprinted over to where I’d dropped Babs.
“Oh, no! Not again! Don’t pick me up!” Babs yelled. “Don’t pick me up! Don’t pick me up—”
Too late. Once again, I ignored her frantic cries and scooped the sword up off the floor. Then I ran forward, took hold of the stone railing, and leaped up and over the side of the balcony.