Infinite Suprises [HEAVY EDITING IN PROGRESS]

I Hate Echidnas

Makai's Pov

My eyes widened as The huge Cyclops brought its foot down to squish me. I would've been a pancake if Nico hadn't grabbed me and pulled me out've the way. I immediately assessed the situation, the Cyclops was temporarily distracted as it chased Andy as Scarlet shot it continuously.

Meanwhile the Chimera was trying to get past the cyclops, the ocean was on one side and a black cliff of sea rock on the other, and attack us, spewing fire and snapping its jaws at us. I picked my sword up and unsheathed my dagger, I had learned a few tricks from Reyna. I gave Nico a quick kiss on the cheek before climbing up the back of the the cyclops. It's shirt was leathery and slippery and it took all my concentration to not fall off. When I got to it's shoulder I stabbed my dagger into it to stay on and then swung as hard as I could at his throat. He fell with a thud and I pulled my dagger out and rolled to safety. I joined Andy in fighting the Chimera and once the monster fell we faced Echidna with confident smiles.

Big mistake.

She laughed, throwing back her head with tears streaming down her face. Then her appearance changed, the upper half of her body growing younger, grey hair getting colour back, and the bottom half growing stronger.

"You really thought you could stop me? I'm sorry to tell you but that's not going to happen!" She sneered at us and threw her arms up, gesturing to the ground around us. "I am going to raise my husband Typhoon! And there's nothing you can do about it" She turned her back on us and looked at us over her shoulder, a smile curling on her face.

I rolled my eyes. Yes. Okay. Get on with it. As if she heard me, Echidna screamed and monsters broke out of the ground, crawling up through the dirt. She walked away, towards the cliff wall in front of us. I looked around, still trying to come up with a plan. This was not my area of expertise. I dove behind a jagged boulder as the monsters turned their attention to us. My stomach burned and I hissed in pain. Forgot about that.

I found myself beside Nico and immediately relaxed. Now we had to find everyone else, which should be relatively easy. Nico examined me worriedly. "Are you okay, Makai? Don't you dare lie to me." He demanded. Closing my eyes for a second I assured him. "It's just my stomach, I should be fine." Turning away I clenched my teeth. I would be okay. I have to be.

I examined the area we had landed in. It seemed like we were on the coast somewhere, a cliff of black rock dropping off into the sound of waves crashing. Echidna was in between us and the cliff, the hoard of monsters blocking us from the ocean.

I spotted Scarlet and waved her over, trying to find Andy. Where was she? Nico grabbed my arm. "I think I found her." He slowly pointed to where Andy was running towards us, every single monster chasing after her. My eyes widened and I took a step backwards. "Well... I think we should fall back a bit, find a good place to make a plan." I decided. The others slowly nodded, all of us taking in Andy running from every single monster in existence. Scarlet whistled slowly. "I don't even think even Percy could have managed that." I shrugged and then stood up, sprinting along the hard rock to try and get closer to the cliff. I heard Scarlet and Nico scrambling behind me and I pushed myself to go faster.

I noticed a cave cut into the cliff wall and aimed all of us into that direction. I could sense it lead to the sea and I ran even faster. If I could get all of us to the ocean it would be easy to take out the monsters.

We reached the cave and I shoved Nico, Scarlet, and Andy into the cave, pausing to chop a few monster apart before sliding into the cave with them. I noticed everyone else groping around in the darkness and pushed them towards the waves that were slowly filling up all the space in the cave. "Makai! We're going to be trapped in here with the tide coming in! We need to go back out!" Scarlet yelled.

I raised my eyebrows. "Have you forgotten who you're with? Fam. I'm the daughter of the sea god."

I raised my hands and pushed the water away, easily holding it outside the cave. "Okay. We need a plan and I'm not making it. Scarlet?" She rolled her eyes but started to frown in concentration. "Well. The evil monster lady has to finish the chant to free Typhoon from the underwater prison Poseidon stuck him in. Obviously we need to stop her. From what I saw, she has a bunch of monsters working on Typhoons chains while she's breaking all the spells binding him to that place. Makai, you need to go underwater and start to get rid of them. I think it'll probably be those weird dog things again. They seem to be really involved. Andy, you and me will go and pick off the monsters surrounding Echidna so that once Makai is done we can all attack her without them getting in the way. Andy are you paying attention?" Scarlet stopped giving us our roles in the plan. I watched Andy as she poked the wall of water in the cave doorway. I made some of the seawater splash her in the face and she sputtered. "Yes! I'm paying attention! Go outside and kill stuff. That's what she said right?" She whispered the last part.

I sighed. "Yes. That's basically what she said." Andy nodded and continue to poke the water. I clenched my teeth and focused harder on keeping the water back. "I'm not having a picnic here! A bit faster would be lovely thanks."

Nico ignored me. "Where am I in this plan? You didn't mention me." He turned toward Scarlet. She nodded impatiently. "You help Makai."

I frowned. "Last time I checked he couldn't breathe underwater."

She rolled her eyes again. "You figure that part out. But we need to go now." We all nodded and even Andy payed attention. "Hey guys. Thanks for coming with me. Y'know." Her voice got serious and I wrinkled my nose. "No goodbyes. Okay?" I turned towards the water. "Now you guys, go! We need you to distract Echidna from noticing what we're doing. Go!" I pushed them towards the cave exit. Andy gave me one last look before heading towards the exit. I gave Scarlet a hug. "See you soon." She whispered before running out with Andy on her tail.

I laced my hand with Nico's. "I'll make a bubble so you can breathe but you'll need to go back up on the shore and wait for me. I'll heard the monsters out of the sea to you. It shouldn't take long. Ready?" I quietly asked. I knew Nico had been on tons of dangerous quests. But this was going to be the most impossible thing I'd ever done.

"Hey, you kno-" He started but I interrupted him.

"No goodbyes. You heard me." I closed my eyes and turned away, pushing everything to the back of my mind. Nico wrapped him arms around me in a hug temporarily. "It'll be fine." He whispered. I nodded, pulling away. "Σε αγαπώ." I whispered. "Not goodbye. Just, stay safe." Opening my eyes again we turned towards the wall of water and I released it. Gripping Nico's hand tighter, I wrapped a bubble of air around him and pulled Nico out of the cave and into the angry sea.

My eyes widened as I took in the huge army of underwater monsters crowded around huge chains wrapping around a underwater mountain. I used a ocean current and looped it around Nico, dragging him away towards the shore, but around the cliff a bit, so it was out of Echidna's sight. I blew him a kiss and he waved goodbye. My grin faded as I looked back at the hoard of monsters.

I was a tiny piece of dust in a ocean of huge monsters.

Authors note.

Thanks for reading! This chapter is dedicated to _internet_queen_ for the beautiful cover. Thanks so much! Also, Merry Christmas!