✔︎ PERFECT WORLD ━━━━━ p. jackson¹

008.

"Fine!" Geryon snarled. "I'll deal with you later, after the boy is dead!"

He picked up two carving knives and threw them at Percy. The boy deflected one with his sword. The other impaled itself in the picnic table an inch from Eurytion's hand. Percy went on the attack. Geryon parried his first strike with a pair of red-hottongs and lunged at his face with a barbecue fork. Percy got inside his next thrust and stabbed him right through the middle chest. 

"Aghhh!"

Geryon crumpled to his knees. Okay, why didn't he disintegrate, like the way monsters usually do? He grimaced and began to stand up. The wound in his chef 's apron started to heal.

"Nice try, sonny," he said. "Thing is, I have three hearts. The perfect backup system."

He tipped over the barbecue, and coals spilled everywhere. One landed next to Annabeth's face, and she let out a muffled scream, whilst one landed on Vivi's leg. She let out a shrink of pain and throw it off of her. Tyson strained against his bonds, but even his strength wasn't enough to break them. Percy stabbed Geryon in left chest, but he only laughed. Three hearts. The perfect backup system. Stabbing one at a time was no good. . .

Percy ran into the house. 

What the fuck?

"Coward!" Geryon cried. "Come back and die right!"

Ignoring the severe pain that the coal caused on her leg ( she was sure it had been a second degree burn by now ), Vivi craned her neck to see what was happening in the living room. The living room walls were decorated with a bunch of gruesome hunting trophies ─ stuffed deer and dragon heads, a gun case, a sword display, and a bow with a quiver.

Geryon threw his barbecue fork and Percy, and it thudded into the wall right next to his head. He drew two swords from the wall display. "Your head's gonna go right there, Jackson! Next to the grizzly bear!"

Now, what did Percy do after that statement? He dropped Riptide and grabbed the bow off the wall. From what she heard from her brothers and Will Solace, Percy was the worst one at archery. He couldn't hit the targets at camp, much less a bull's-eye. Vivi prides herself she learned it in less then a week, making Travis lose in the bet he and Connor had if she would hit bull's-eye.

Geryon laughed. "You fool! One arrow is no better than one sword."

He raised his swords and charged. Percy dove sideways. Before Geryon could turn, Percy shot the arrow into the side of his right chest. Vivi heard THUMP, THUMP,THUMP, as the arrow passed clean through each of his chests and flew out his left side, embedding itself in the forehead of the grizzly bear trophy.

Geryon dropped his swords. He turned and stared at Percy. "You can't shoot. They told me you couldn't. . ."

His face turned a sickly shade of green. He collapsed to his knees and began crumbling into sand, until all that was left were three cooking aprons and an oversized pair of cowboy boots. Percy ran out of the house and untied them. Eurytion didn't try to stop him.

"You okay?" Percy asked Vivi, looking at the burn mark coal left on he skin.

"Fine," she muttered, rubbing her wrists from where the rope as tied, "I'll just pour some nectar on it and it'll go away."

Percy stoked up the barbecue and threw the food into the flames as a burnt offering for Artemis and Apollo. The sky thundered in the distance. Annabeth poured nectar down Vivi's leg, making her hiss slightly, until the pain slowly went away. However, the coal did leave the mark on her leg, but she didn't mind it.

"Yay for Percy!" Tyson said.

"Can we tie up this cowherd now?" Nico asked.

"Yeah!" Grover agreed. "And that dog almost killed me!"