Percy Jackson , Protector of Earth

Chapter 14

Thalia's POV

We hit the ground with a thud.

"Oww..." Nico whined.

"Oh, shut your trap, Nico. It doesn't hurt that much," I said annoyed.

He pouted. "Yes it does."

"Suck it up, Di Angelo," I replied.

"I think I broke my butt bones," he complained.

"Sure," I rolled my eyes.

"Guys?" Percy asked. "Look." He pointed off to the distance.

"Holy Hera..." I muttered. It was a minefield of monsters. There were empousai, cyclopes, hellhounds, anything you can think of. There were even monsters I didn't recognize.

"Can you do anything with your powers to get rid of them Perce?" I asked him, pulling out my bow.

"Uh.. I don't know. I think I can, but I never tried'" Percy replied. He then put on a look of concentration.

Nothing happened for a moment, but then suddenly, half of the monsters yelled in pain and exploded into dust. They wouldn't be gone for long.

I heard a grunt and a thud. I whipped to the side to see Percy collapsing.

"PERCY!" Nico and I screamed at the same time. Nico bent down and checked his pulse.

He sighed. "He's fine. It must be from exhaustion. We'll have to kill the rest of the monsters."

I nodded and focused my attention back to the monsters. We were lucky they haven't decided to attack yet, I nocked an arrow and began shooting quickly.

Noting that Nico had gone off into the crowd of monsters to kill them, I was careful not to hit him, I shot them down, one by one, and at the same time, I was guarding Percy as well as Nico, shooting down any monsters sneaking up on him,

We were doing well, and of course our luck had to run out. Moments later, the more monsters came flooding in, and we were back to square one.

I tried shooting as fast as I could, but between doing that while watching both of the boys, I wasn't fast enough.

Eventually, the hellhounds I was shooting got near me and knocked the bow out of my hands several yards away. Luckily for me, it didn't snap, I remembered that my hunting knives were in my tent, which I collapsed, so I couldn't take them out.

Time for my old spear to make a reappearance, I slapped my bracelet and Aegis pooped out. Monsters jumped back a few feet, giving me time to reach for my mace.

Expanding it, I began to gut a few monsters, turning them to dust. All was going well, and it looked like I killed all the monsters. I turned and saw Nico looking back at me. What he didn't notice was the cyclops, ready to smash him. Nico widened his eyes, as I foolishly threw my spear. It impaled the cyclopes, but not before he smacked the side of Nico's head.

I felt a sharp stab in my abdomen. I looked down to see a spear sticking through my stomach. I whipped around, albeit painfully, and slammed Aegis into a dracaenae's throat. It fell clutching its throat, desperately gasping for air before falling limp. I fell unconscious seconds later.

Percy's POV

I woke up feeling hazy. My head was pounding. I sat up lazily and soaked in my surroundings.

I remembered the monsters we were facing. I also remembered that I used my powers, and then I blacked out. Oh my gods, Thalia and Nico. What happened to them?

I stood straight up and stumbled looking for them. I found Thalia first. She was lying on her side with a spear... sticking right through her stomach.

"THALIA!" I screamed. I scrambled to her. I winced as I pulled the spear all the way through. I tossed it to the side. Looking around, I saw Nico. His head was bleeding.

"NICO!" I yelled. I found my way towards him and carried him over to Thalia. I let him down slowly, ignoring my swimming vision. I focused my concentration on healing them. Agonizingly slow, their wounds began to heal. They were only halfway done when I knew I was going to collapse anytime now.

I faintly remembered the Phlegethon River, Annabeth and I drank from. Looking around, I saw it to my right. I stumbled to the river, and imagined a bucket to hold the fire. I slowly walked back, bringing fire towards them. I opened Thalia and Nico's mouth and poured the fire down their throats.

Their wounds disappeared as if they had never been there. They woke up.

"Percy? What happened? Why does my mouth feel disgusting?" Nico asked.

Meanwhile Thalia here said, "EEEWWWWW! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME! WHY DOES MY MOUTH TASTE LIKE PERCY'S PANCAKES?!"

"Hey!" I muttered weakly before I fell unconscious once again.

NIco's POV

Not again. I checked Percy's pulse again. It was still there as usual.

"He's fine," I said simply.

"Good. I'm going to go get my bow" Thalia told me and then she set off. She came back with her weapons.

"So... Do we just continue or?" I asked.

"Guess so. I don't want to stay here. Where are we supposed to go anyways?" She replied.

"I have no idea. Where would Tartarus hide Annabeth and Jason?" I questioned.

"Probably, somewhere deep," She grimaced. "Where would that be?"

"Hmm.. I would think the middle of Tartarus, maybe?" I suggested.

"It's a start," Thalia shrugged. Percy started to stir. Nice timing, cuz. He groaned.

"My head hurts," he whined. Thalia decided to slap him.

"Stop trying to worry us! Gods, this is like the fourth time!" Thalia yelled.

"Actually, it's the fifth time," I smirked. "When you disappeared after the titan war, falling into Tartarus, missing for a couple of years, falling unconscious, falling unconscious, missing anything?"

"Yup. He almost died when I first found him. He also almost died the second time, and on our little quest to the underworld for your dad's sword," Thalia replied.

Percy just groaned again.

"Hey. how did your powers work? I thought you said they didn't?" I asked him.

"At first I thought I did... It must be only my water powers. Tartarus must be strong enough to bind our Olympian powers, but he couldn't bind Chaos's power," Percy shrugged.

"Wow. That actually makes sense. Test it out, Kelp Head. One of Chaos's powers is creation right?" Thalia ordered.

Percy concentrated and a cup of water appeared in his hands. He concentrated again, but nothing happened. I assumed that he was trying to move the water.

"Nope," He said. "So where are we going?"

"I thought that we should go to the middle of Tartarus," I replied. "Do you know how we can get there?"

"Last time I was in Tartarus, um.. Annabeth and I followed the Phlegethon River, to get to the Heart. Then we followed Bob. Which reminds me, I wonder if he's still here. I still need to thank him and get him out of here. Damasen as well," Percy ranted.

"Well its our only hint so, let's go!" Thalia said as she walked ahead of us.

"C'mon. Let's go, Neeks!" Percy teased before he ran off.

"HEY! GET BACK HERE!" I yelled as I took off too