This Dark Night ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase¹

―xvi. a trick ends in death

Annabeth and Naomi stood on either side of him. Naomi pulled her helmet down over her face, then tightened her hands around the hilts of her swords.

"Will you guys help me?" Percy asked.

"That's what we do," Annabeth said miserably. "Help our friends."

"Unfortunately," Naomi managed.

"Annabeth, go invisible," Percy said. "Look for weak links in its armor. Naomi, try to use the shadows to blind it, trip it up, whatever you can do. I'll try to keep it busy. Just... be careful."

He whistled. "Mrs. O'Leary, heel!"

"ROOOF!" The hellhound leaped over a line of centaurs and gave him a kiss.

Percy drew his sword, and the trio charged the monster.

❊

The drakon was three stories above them, slithering sideways along the building as it sized up the demigods' forces. Wherever it looked, centaurs froze in fear.

From the north, the enemy army crashed into the Party Ponies and the lines broke. The drakon lashed out, swallowing three Californian centaurs in one gulp before Naomi could even get close.

Mrs. O'Leary launched herself into the air - a deadly black shadow with teeth and claws. Normally, a pouncing hellhound was a terrifying sight, but next to the drakon, Mrs. O'Leary looked like a child's night-night doll.

Her claws raked harmlessly off the drakon's scales. She bit the monster's throat, but couldn't make a dent. Her weight, however, was enough to knock the drakon off the side of the building. It flailed awkwardly and crashed to the sidewalk - hellhound and serpent twisting and thrashing. As the drakon tried to bite Mrs. O'Leary, Naomi threw a ribbon of shadow between the creature's teeth and Mrs. O'Leary's neck, diverting the drakon's bite to a cluster of carefully-planted trees across the street.

Percy charged the monster, plunging Riptide deep into the monster's left eye. The spotlight went dark. The drakon hissed and reared to strike, but Percy rolled aside.

It bit a swimming-pool-sized chunk out of the pavement. It turned toward Percy with its good eye, but Naomi covered it with a thick shadow, keeping it from seeing or paralyzing.

The rest of the battle wasn't going well. Centaurs panicked under the onslaught of giants and demons. An occasional orange camp t-shirt appeared in the sea of fighting, but it quickly disappeared. Arrows screamed. Fire exploded in waves across both armies, but the action was moving across the street to the entrance of the Empire State Building. They were losing ground.

Suddenly Annabeth materialized on the drakon's back. Her invisibility cap rolled off her head as she drove her bronze knife between a chink in the serpent's scales. The drakon roared. It coiled around, knocking Annabeth off its back.

Percy reached her just as she hit the ground, dragging her out of the way as the serpent rolled, crushing a lamppost right where she'd been.

The monster went to snap at Percy's head and Naomi threw up a shadow-shield above him and Annabeth, throwing one of her swords at the monster's throat. The blade landed true, but it only seemed to piss off the drakon.

Naomi ran to her friends' sides as Mrs. O'Leary body-slammed the drakon's face to get his attention so Percy and Annabeth could get out of the way.

Meanwhile, their allies had retreated to the doors of the Empire State Building. The entire enemy army was surrounding them.

They were out of options. No more help was coming. They'd have to retreat before they were cut off from Mount Olympus.

Then Naomi heard a rumbling in the south. It wasn't something you heard much in New York, but Naomi recognized it immediately: chariot wheels.