As Trevor fought to save and rally his troops, the rest of us continued to fight off the forest; only a few of us managing to lash out at the enemy gods themselves. There were some seriously powerful magics at our disposal, but a lot of them were hindered by close quarters. For example; it would have been an easy thing for Hades and me to blast out with bursts of fire, but we would have burned the beasts who were aiding and maybe even our friends. Instead, we had to constrict and direct our attacks, which was much harder to do; especially when you're distracted by strangling tree roots.
Speaking of the trees, Persephone was using her magic to drive them back, but she could only manage a few at a time and with the constant onslaught, it was all she could do to keep herself free. She wasn't even able to help her husband. Hades was handling his own, though; burning every tree that attempted to trap him.
This wasn't like fighting Zeus. Zeus' magic had been spread out among several gods, and they were all using it against us. It multiplied the power, and with this being their territory, they had an endless amount of trees to supply it with. I had a feeling that as soon as we destroyed one, several more popped into being at the back of the line.
It was looking like a hopeless stalemate. But the Argentinians didn't have to defeat all of us. They could take us down, one at a time, and take bites out of us as they did. They'd slowly turn the battle in their flavor. I mean favor.
As yet another tangle of strong roots wrapped up my legs, Tau—who had managed to survive Donnie's trident—started to smile hungrily at me. The bastard was probably picking out his condiments. But he'd forgotten one thing; the thing that my enemies kept forgetting lately.
I'm a fucking dragon.
The nine-pointed star had remained silent inside me, but it wasn't the only weapon in my arsenal. I roared as my dragon burst free; shifting skin to scales as I leapt into the air. The Argentinian Gods gaped up at me as I flew higher and higher until I had the altitude I needed to launch a proper attack. I noted where my friends were and then dove.
With a powerful stream of fire, I burned down the ring of forest around us. I incinerated it within minutes as the Argentinians scrambled about like headless chickens. The trees holding my friends released them as I doubled back and directed smaller bursts of flames at their branches. Without fresh trees to entrap them, the God Squad, the Intare, and the Greeks remained free and got back to the business of slaughtering our enemies.
I burned and burned and burned, and then the Water Gods—Poseidon, Triton, and Toby—put out the flames. My lions slashed and tore while the rest of the gods did their thing; lighting up the sky with beautiful colors. In the end, it was the Argentinians who became barbecue. But the whole thing had left a bad taste in my mouth, and my dragon turned up her nose and refused to indulge.
I was totally okay with that.
Chapter Forty-Seven
“It was all about power,” Triton said with a tired shake of his head. “They didn't care about their people or the resources of Argentina; they simply wanted to be stronger.”
We were celebrating again, but this was a more sedate party than the one in Hell. Most of my lions were outside; grilling meat, drinking the Hellbrew Luke had sent home with us, and basically behaving like a bunch of frat boys. They needed to blow off the residual battle steam so I let them have their fun without complaint.
But some of the Intare were inside with us; drinking hot chocolate laced with Amaretto and winding down in a more mature manner. Everyone had returned with us, even Hera. The ex-ruler of Olympus was a wreck, and despite all the damage she'd done to her own pantheon—and to me—I couldn't leave her sobbing into the sod of the Tupi/Guarani territory. Those were the two pantheons of Argentinian Gods, by the way; the Mamas and the Papa were the Tupi while Tau, his seven sons, and the other monsters were Guarani. They had ruled two different indigenous tribes, but the Tupi were pretty much gone while the Guarani still had a small number of people left.
Triton and Athena had been telling us everything they'd learned about the Argentinians during their short imprisonment. Tau—Mr. Embodiment of Evil—had been in charge of the motley group. His seven sons—apparently the products of rape—had been cursed into their monstrous forms by one of the Guarani's “good” goddesses. Although, why a goddess would curse children for the sins of the father is beyond me. And why the hell do all these gods have to rape women in the first place? Doesn't being a god get them enough willing women? Doesn't it give them enough power that they don't have to flaunt their dominance by forcing their divine dicks on ladies who aren't interested?
Anyway, this supposedly good goddess cursed all but one of the kids; the little blond boy. He escaped, by the way. He never returned after I had scared him off. We didn't bother looking for him either. It seemed as if he were merely going along for the ride and, frankly, I didn't relish the thought of killing a kid, even one who was obviously not a child.
So, we'd left him there to deal with the bodies of his family and friends. I think that was a harsh enough punishment for eating Zeus. Not that I was broken up about Zeus. It was just super disturbing and a
