The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

sixteen

THE FINAL BATTLE

So much for a tender farewell.

The last Ariana saw of the king of the gods, Zeus was a hundred feet fall, holding the Argo Il by its prow. He boomed, "HOLD ON!"

Then he fossed the ship up and spiked it overhand like a volleyball.

If Ariana hadn't been strapped to the mast with one of Leo's twenty-point safety harnesses, she would have disintegrated. As it was, her stomach tried to stay behind in Greece and all the air was sucked out of her lungs.

The sky turned black. The ship rattled and creaked. The deck cracked like thin ice under Ariana's legs and, with a sonic boom, the Argo II hurtled out of the clouds.

"Jason!" Leo shouted. "Hurry!"

Her fingers felt like melted plastic, but Ariana and Jason managed to undo the straps.

Ariana gripped onto the rope.

Leo was lashed to the control console, desperately trying to right the ship as they spiralled downward in free fall. The sails were on fire.

Festus creaked in alarm. A catapult peeled away and lifted into the air.

Centrifugal force sent the shields flying off the railings like metal Frisbees.

Wider cracks opened in the deck as Jason staggered towards the hold, using the winds to keep himself anchored.

Then the hatch burst open. Frank and Hazel stumbled through, pulling on the guide rope they'd attached to the mast. Piper, Annabeth and Percy followed, all of them looking disoriented.

"Go!" Leo yelled. "Go, go, go!" For once, Leos tone was deadly serious.

They'd talked through their evacuation plan, but that slap across the world had made Ariana's mind sluggish. Judging from the others' expressions, they weren't in much better shape.

Buford the table saved them. He clattered across the deck with his holographic Hedge blaring,"'LET'S GO! MOVE IT! CUT THAT OUT!"

Then his tabletop split into helicopter blades and Buford buzzed away. Frank changed form. Instead of a dazed demigod, he was now a dazed grey dragon.

Hazel climbed onto his neck. Frank grabbed Ariana and Percy and Annabeth in his front claws, then spread his wings and soared away.

The ground wasnt much less chaotic.

As they plummeted, Ariana saw a vast army of monsters spread across the hills - cynocephali, two-headed men, wild centaurs, ogres and others he couldn't even name - surrounding two tiny islands of demigods.

At the crest of Half-Blood Hill, gathered at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, was the main force of Camp Half-Blood along with the First and Fifth Cohorts, rallied around the golden eagle of the legion.

The other three Roman cohorts were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.
Giant eagles circled Jason and Piper, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders.

Frank the grey dragon flew alongside with his passengers.

"Hazel!" Ariana yelled. "Those three cohorts are in trouble! If they don't merge with the rest of the demigods-"

"On it!" Hazel said. "Go, Frank!"

Dragon Frank veered to the left with Annabeth in one claw yelling, "Let's get 'em!" and Ariana and Percy in the other claw screaming, "I hate flying!"
Piper and Jason veered right towards the summit of Half-Blood Hill.