Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

XXIV. Defending Everything I Hold Dear (Like A Madman)

Enemy demigods emerged with the next wave after we had literally mowed down the first. Some of them also stepped on some of the remaining mines, and as a result, we all had to bear witness to some pretty nasty sights that I will not discuss further here. Some of them got entangled on the wire and became sitting ducks for me and Michael to pick off with the MG42. Others fell to Austin's Garand.

By this point, I had lost track of how many rounds we had fired off. I do know we had gone through four to five barrels by this point, so that should give you a reasonable estimate as to how many rounds we had fired off by now. Some of our opponents veered off to the left (their facing of left), intending to find a way around the combination of lethal explosive arrows as well as bullet fire raining down from above on them, only to collide with the rest of those of Apollo's cabin on the front line, plus that of my cabin and the other cabins, including Percy and Annabeth. I did see Grover and his girlfriend, Juniper down in there too. Belle was fighting alongside Percy and Annabeth, and I could see Katie nearby too.

Soon, a forest fire started, which was bad news since it just so happened since it was right near the tree that Juniper drew her life force from. I swung the gun to the right about 20 degrees, surprising Michael who stumbled to the left a little before he recovered, and turned the power of the gun on the monsters attempting to get close to Katie, Percy, Annabeth, Belle, Grover, and Juniper. Travis came rushing in to help them, but with the monsters approaching them still well within range of the MG42, I was able to keep them at bay long enough for Percy to summon a wall of water out of nowhere that flowed across the valley in front of our position and took out the flames, drenching everyone down there. Needless to say, while Grover and Travis were sort of amused, Belle, Annabeth, Katie, and Juniper were not.

Of course, Percy was able to stay dry, no surprise there. But it didn't matter. The crisis - at least around Juniper's tree had passed - and I swung the gun back towards the labyrinth entrance, resuming the action of mowing down monsters and enemy demigods alike. A few explosions went off as some of them stepped on the locations of where the few mines that were left were, and paid the price.. some not immediately though.

The monsters kept coming, no matter how many we cut down. Some of them were caught in the spikes and barbed wire and became just more sitting ducks for archers, Austin's Garand, and the MG42. The Whitworth sat propped up against the wall near the loophole between me and Michael's position and where Austin was, loaded and capped but still at half cock. Others hit a trip wire here or there, and were incinerated by Greek fire. We were all exposed to scenes of death and suffering that probably still haunt us even after this and everything else that happened down the road, but we couldn't stop killing. It was kill or be killed.

The sight of a dozen undead warriors colliding with some of the monsters caught me by surprise, but in the brief moment I turned my head towards it, I knew I didn't have to fire on them. Right behind them was none other than the son of Hades, Nico Di Angelo. He got forward a few steps and then crumpled to his knees, which was concerning. Nevertheless, his undead warriors fought on, tearing monsters apart. Then, I could see Clarisse come into view, taking apart a group of Dracanaes when a few hellhounds leapt out of the labyrinth and went straight for her. I swung the gun again, determined to protect her and everyone else, and unloaded into the hellhounds, killing all seven in a matter of seconds.

One of our demigods, a kid by the name of Zac, was killed by an arrow from an enemy demigod, in the woods. I saw it happen, only moments after I had killed the hellhounds, so I fired on his killer in the woods, and ripped him to pieces before turning back to the monsters and enemy demigods, which still poured forth from Zeus' Fist.

At this point, I'm pretty sure me and Michael had gone through close to 20 barrels by now, but we still had plenty of rounds and spare barrels. The battle had been raging for gods know how long - I had lost track - but we were winning. I could see Castor and Lee helping wounded off of the field together in the woods, and for the most part, we seemed to be holding them pretty well dandy.