Percy POV
Hours went by as I drifted into the sea and soon washed up on the shore of camp. I walked off and into the woods of camp, towards the central pyre. When I got there, I could hear Chiron making an announcement, or at least I could listen to the tail end of it.
"After so long, we have to assume Persues Jackson is no longer among us in the living. With that being said, I asked one of his closest of friends as well as some of his cabin mates to speak for him before we honor his memory," Chron said in front of the large pyre burning brightly. Still, the fire was small for some reason, it burned brightly, but the flames were nothing compared to what they usually were. I guess they would be if everyone thought that I died.
Annabeth and Adonia stood up on the podium to speak for me. I walked through the back behind everyone. No one had seen me yet, and everyone looking forward to the two speakers.
"Percy was one of the greatest friends I have ever had. Loyal to a fault, strong but not because of being a demigod. He was amazing, and... he's standing right there," Annabeth finally said, noticing me in the back. Everyone looked at me in shock.
"What? Continue on; I always wanted to be at my own funeral," I joked.
Once I said that, everyone in the Poseidon cabin bum-rushed me and tackled me to the ground in a big hug. Ares cabin made a few curses that I was still alive, and Clarisse rolled her eyes as if she was disappointed that I had the nerve to still be alive. Still, then she gave me a smirk as if to say that she knew I was too stubborn to die so quickly. Little Margey didn't know what to do, but she was happy. When she saw all the Poseidon cabin besides Adonia on a dogpile on top of me, she walked up to me and patted my head a few times.
"I like you alive. Don't die again," she told me. Adonia saw her, picked her up, and set her on the dogpile. Adonia then walked over to the other side, away from Margey, and stood stiff for a few seconds. Then she showed off her muscles on her arm before tapping her elbow twice and jumping in the air and full-body elbowing five of our siblings on the way down to the ground.
After a few seconds, I got tired of being at the bottom and stood up with every single last one of them on my shoulders. The dogpile was entirely being carried by me as all my siblings began fighting each other on my shoulders, and some of them were still trying to hug me, thanking dad that I was still alive.
"Percy!" I looked over to see Beckendorf standing tall and walking towards me. "Thank the gods."
"Beckendorf!" I said, bringing him into a big hug. Or, rather, he tried to give me a hug. It was hard, considering he had to avoid the occasional kicking leg and punching arm. "Where's Tyson?"
"We split up. We ran into Grover, Silena, and the lions on our way back, and they looked like they could use a bit more muscle. I was going to go with them, but we thought it best that one of us be there to give you back Olethros when you got back from the forges. It was going to be Tyson, but since he has a better nose, it made sense for him to stay with the other since they are going to be in the maze longer and could use all the advantages they could get," Beckendorf told me.
"Olethros, it's finished?" I asked.
"Yes. Everything is balanced out," Beckendorf gave me a small box that you couldn't fit anything much bigger than a ring in. "Dad made sure to do everything in his power to make that better. He didn't limit himself to his usual tactics either. He told me to say there are many gods, and with every god, there are many ways to do things."
"In other words, he didn't only use Greek and Roman ways to improve Olehtors. Probably Norse and Egyptian too," I uttered to myself out of earshot from everyone.
Annabeth soon walked over to me and smacked me in the face before hugging me tightly. She told me that I had been gone for almost two weeks and that they thought the worst.
"Silena, the lions, Grover, Beckendorf, and Tyson haven't come back yet. I can't send an Iris message to any of them," Annabeth revealed.
"I don't think I have ever been happier to see you return, old friend," Chiron whispered once he gave me a hug. "Where have you been, Percy."
"We both know, and I don't want to talk about it," I uttered back. "But I did learn something we should all know. I think I know how to get through the maze." Chiron thought it best for Annabeth and me to speak with him by ourselves.
Chiron quickly picked me up while simultaneously dropping all my siblings in the dogpile once more on each other. They fell with a heavy thud. Margey began floating down, probably using her control of the winds to glide herself down and landed on top of everyone once more. She sat down criss-cross apple sauce on the top and had the most oversized smile ever.
"She could fly? I wish I could fly," one of my siblings complained.
"You could breathe underwater," one of my sisters argued back.
"Whoopty-do, I could swim. Almost everyone on the planet can do that," he returned.
"You could talk to fish," a girl from Hermes cabin offered.
"Yes, I'm Aquaman, awesome. He's the butt of all Justice League jokes," he argued.
"Not anymore, not since he was in the movie played by the Soman guy that was also in Game of Thrones."
"Aren't you a bit too young for Game of Thrones?"
"We all are," another camper returned.
"I'm older than you," another camper said.
"I'm taller," another added.
"Why does that matter?"
"ADHD ladies and gentlemen. We could never carry a conversation and let it continue. It goes in one way and comes out up a tangled knot of what it used to be," a daughter of Hermes joked as if showcasing the rarest animal the world had ever seen, kind like the ring leader showing up the exotic tigers and lions in the next circus act. While they were talking, I turned to Adonia.
"The box, do you have it?" I asked her.
"The mysterious box that you have kept away if all tartarus breaks loose? Yes, I still have it. I haven't opened it yet, though," she informed. "Why do you have that thing? What's in there?"
"Something that could help if all tartarus breaks loose," I replied. "Don't let anyone else even touch the box, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir, boss, sir," she replied mockingly. "But hypothetically, if I were to have, I don't know let some dolphins use the box what you say to that?"
"Poseidon would have disowned all of us already if you did," I told her straight-faced. She looked concerned, and I continued on. "Then he would n longer hold back with his earthquakes and make the ones I pulled off look like child's play."
"Okay then, don't tell the others about the box at all," she said. Before I could turn around, she held my arm. "I heard a rumor from some anglerfish that a child of the sea was seen entering the maze."
"So, I was going to the maze a couple times," I replied.
"Not you. A girl. Considering that all of us are in camp beside, you can't be a child of Poseidon. I also heard they were strong. The entrance they went through was by the Mariana Trench, and they had to will many currents and sea plant life to move the boulders in the way of it. Apparently, only a royal demigod of the sea can pull off things like that."
"Maybe it's a niece of ours. It's rare, but I've heard of Triton or some of our other godly siblings having demigod kids," I returned.
"I don't know; the rumors say a lot of things that don't seem right. With the Oceanus making moves under the sea, our kingdom is getting ready fr war to I don't think they are our family. Nereus and Pontus could be in play too. Oceanus might be the father," she said. Whoever said children of Poseidon were dumb don't know us very well, mainly were just...rash.
"It can't be Oceanus; he's loyal to his wife. One of the few deities in the world that actually don't usually go out cheating on their spouse," I told her.
"That's true, but Percy, there are a lot of sea gods. There are more than any other terrain. Whoever it is not good for you when you go back in. Some orcas are even saying something that is making me think. Just be careful when you go back in."
Before he could say anything else, Chiron grabbed me. He turned around and made looked for someone else and quickly found them. Chiron grabbed Annabeth and Beckendorf and took us away from the others to speak to us since we were still technically a part of the quest. When we were by ourselves, I told them I had thought about what Hephaestus asked Aphrodite to say to me since we went to his forge for him and needed the information apart from our deal. So I told them my plan and how it would be possible to get through the maze.
"You've got to be kidding me," Annabeth said close to anger.
"That's... that's an idea I would have never thought of. Good thing I'm not the tactician out of the group," Beckendorf informed.
"There is a precedent for it. It could be possible, and it makes sense," Chiron advised.
Annabeth got jealous and angry at the idea. I don't know whether it was because I came up with it or because of what the idea insisted on, I don't know. But before she stormed off, she went into the bag she had and pulled out my black lion's fur coat, and threw it at me. She threw it the same time I would say something, and the coat landed in my face and stopped me from talking. Beckendorf gently picked the coat off my head and slowly placed it in my arm.
"There is something else you should know. Quintus disappeared about three days ago," he told me.
"I expected nothing less from the Athenian pain in my...."
"Percy!" Chiron stopped me before I could finish. "Juniper spotted him going into the Labyrinth; it would seem you were right."
"I mean, wasn't it a little too obvious. A strange demigod, middle-aged, comes out of nowhere when we need him most. That you have no recollection of training," Beckedndorf told Chiron.
"He works with Kronos' army. Go figure. What about the hellhound? Mrs. O'Leary?"
"The hellhound is in the sword fighting arena. No one was able to approach it. It would go feral otherwise."
"Even I know that the Athenian would not leave the hellhound like that."
"It would seem we were wrong about him in more ways than one. Now, go and rest. You will need to be fully ready for the battles to come."
With that, I left Chiron and checked on Mrs. O'Leary in the sword fighting arena. She was resting and when I went the hellhound noticed me and ran towards me. Now, usually, since I have terrible luck with dogs, I would have attacked the coming giant furball, but I could tell she just wanted a hug. She jumped on me, tackled me to the ground, and began giving me slobbery kisses. I could see something strapped to her collar and took it out. It was a flute made of ice. Frozen water from the river Styx and a note were wrapped around it. When I opened it I looked at what was written inside.
Spartan,
You may not trust me. Gods know, I barely do you. But trust this, I rather you did not die so soon. This flute may help you avoid that outcome. I would rather the Spartan ways die, but you, Percy Jackson, are essential to Olympus, and without you, it will fall. I would at least like to give my mother and the other Olympians a fighting chance, and you are it. Stay alive.
-A proud Athenian
I looked at the flute just bigger than my forearm and put it in my pocket. I looked to Mrs. O'Leary, and she made me think of my four-legged furballs. I then thought about my daughter. I prayed to Aphrodite, making sure my daughter was safe and sound. While in the sword arena, I knew I wanted to see something. I took out the box that Beckendorf gave me and opened it. Inside was the Olethros coin. I took out the coin and spun it around a few times before transforming it into a six-foot-long spear form.
The spear was similar to how it was like before. It was utterly golden, the shaft and the blade. Incitracte black lace was made for the grip just like before. But now, five small prongs jutted out of the spear. The two smaller ones were pointed and curved upwards towards the larger ones higher up on the shaft and closer to the spearhead. The two more giant prongs were pointed, curved upwards towards the spearhead; the spearhead was still a foot longer than the larger prongs.
I turned it into the sword, and it looked almost exactly the same. The golden goat skull wrapped around the crossguard and the golden five dragons' heads acted as the design for the pommel. But now, a secondary cross guard bent at an angle and pointed towards the blade's tip. The edge was now black, and the fuller, the centerline in swords, glowed bright golden like the core the blade was a golden sun.
I finally turned it into its ax form and looked at it. It was still the black and gold double-sided battle-ax with one side far larger than the other. The handle was black with golden engravings. The dragon's skull is engraving where the blades meet the ax's handle. The ax's edges were as black as sin, and veins etched into the metal glowed brightly golden like it did with the sword form. A spike between the two ax blades resembles a small spear or arrowhead. The blades of the ax were the same golden light as the etchings.
That night I slept, but I didn't dream of everything. When I woke up in the morning, I met up with Annabeth to leave the camp once more. She didn't look like she got a lot of sleep and her hair was a little more frizzy than usual. She told me that she had gotten an Iris message from Eurytion. Saying that Nico had left last night and went back into the maze. That scared me. I knew that Marcus and Kronos' army were more active in the labyrinth, which meant they had a bigger chance of finding Nico, a.k.a. another child of the Big three and another one of the children could fit the prophecy.
"He might be in danger," I uttered.
"No kidding," Annabeth added.
"Hey guys, ready?" Beckendorf asked us to walk up to us. He had some bags with little supplies. "I couldn't get us much. The camp preparing for war and all means we can't get everything we need to go back in."
"I know where we can find some stuff," I told them. "If I'm right, there should be an entrance to the labyrinth there too. Knowing the old man, he has it guarded at all times since he knows it's there too."
"So, we're going to the mortal first then?" Annabeth wanted to clarify. I answered her with a nod.
"I already Iris messaged someone to give us a ride," I told them. Before I could turn around, Beckendorf gave me a black hair tie and a new eye patch.
"Drew gave it to me for you. Said something about long hair being a pain to fight monsters with without it being pulled back," Beckendorf told me. "And no one wants to keep looking at your bandaged up eye."
"She's not wrong," Annabeth added. I grabbed the hair tied and put most of my hair in a man bun. Aphrodite got what she wanted supposedly; this style will be big in the 2010s.
We walked towards the edge of camp and found a limousine waiting for us. I could see Astrid sitting upside down on the hood waiting for us. She then saw me. She jumped off the hood with a double backflip. She ran to the car door and opened it while standing like a pristine servant of the Jackson family.
"Master Percy, she said with a smile. "How about skipping the quest and going straight to the victory celebration. My gift is underneath your sheets, though, care to help me look for it, sir?" she said bluntly.
"That's straightforward, even for you," Annabeth told her.
"She made out with me in a car chase, with Silena in the car staring at her," I told her in response. "I'm surprised she hasn't changed into her birthday suit yet."
"Is that a request? Wanna see if the carpet matches the curtains?" Astrid asked. A bit of lighting sparked in her hair as she got excited. I could also see lightning coming from under her pants when she said that.
"That's... that's a good one. I'm writing that down," Beckendorf told us without shame.
"You use that line on Silena, and I promise you I'll gut you like a trout and flay you like a salmon," I told him.
"Noted but worth it," Beckendorf told me while walking into the car.
When we all got in the car, we drove to Central Park; never underestimate a magically enhanced limousine driven by a crackhead daughter of Thor in love with her boss. I had told Astraid to text the person we were going to meet since I can't use phones; children of the Roman or Greek gods are like all you can eat buffets when we use phones. Astrid is a Norse demigod, so, loophole, beautiful loophole. Being rich and owning the city made it easy for me to find out where people were and their cell phone numbers. I don't use that trick all the time. With great power comes great responsibility.
When we got to the park, we could see Rachel in golden clothing. Astrid even made a joke saying that even her underwear had to be made of gold. Rachel was even painted golden, and she was standing still like a statue. Other people were doing the same things but in different colors. Annabeth said that we might get her attention if we pushed her. She then elbowed Beckendorf, he looked at me, and I shrugged my shoulders.
I noticed some people looking at me, starting to take pictures. If we had stayed with her for too long, we would never have had the chance to leave. Annabeth noticed this too and tried to move in front of me to be less obvious, but that did next to nothing.
Before Beckendorf could walk over to her, another person came up painted the same color as her and stood in place. After a few seconds Rachel started moving and looked over to us.
"Hey, Mr.Demigod," Rachel told me.
"You wanna say that any louder?" Annabeth argued.
"I think people are more starstruck than actually paying attention to our conversation," Astrid pointed out. We all turned around to see everyone begin to crowd as more than two dozen people started staring starstruck.
"Rachel, I know what I'm about to say is a little unnerving, but we could use your help," I said.
"Let's go then; I'm in," she said.
"I know that I'm not giving you a lot of context but give me some time to explain so that you can make your... wait. What?" I asked. "Just like that?"
"My summer has been extremely boring. It's going to be doomed to stay that way unless I take this opportunity. I don't care what we're doing or where we're going as long as I stop being bored," Rachel said.
"Yes, fellow redhead. Come let us commune and have a joyous time in battle!" Astrid said jokingly and flamboyantly while bringing Rachel into a one-armed hug around her shoulder.
"Commune?" Rachel asked.
"Ignore her," I said. "She's using bigger and less common words to stand out and be eccentric."
"Oh really?" Astrid asked with a gleam in her eye. "The real reason I'm doing this is to practice using my tongue with different words. I'm making sure my tongue knows how to move in alluring ways. If you want, I could practice a bit on you."
"Did she just say that out loud?" Rachel asked.
"As a person who is dating a daughter of the goddess of sex, I believe it safe to say that they have a lot of kinks. Since Percy has been with Aphrodite for so long, I'm going off on a limb to say he has all of those kinks. He might actually like what your suggesting," Beckendorf told Astrid.
"Did you just say Silena is kinky?" I asked. "How would you know that, you overgrown rusted car engine?" I asked with anger laced with every word.
Beckendorf started shying away and hid behind Annabeth and Astrid. "Silena and I are sixteen, with the average demigod life expectancy being just as much. As far as we are concerned, we are already adults," he said, scared.
"By any chance, do you know what kinks Aphrodite might have ingrained in him the most? I just asking for future reference on this quest, that is," Astrid asked, looking behind her to the cowering Beckendorf.
"You're not coming. I've got too many things to worry about. Adding a blood-lusting daughter of another pantheon's version of Zeus is not going to help," I told her. I turned back to Rachel. "We've got one more stop to make, and I'll explain everything on the way. You freshen up and change clothes once we're at the next stop."
Once I said that, we left quickly and drove all the way back to my home, Jackson Manor. When we got in, I could see most nymphs and other friendly creatures, and demigods sighed in relief that I was alright. Beckendorf had his mouth hung open. Annabeth had been there before, so she didn't have the same reaction, but she was still in awe. Rachel didn't flinch since the Dare family was extremely wealthy; I figured she saw stuff like this pretty often.
Once we got down, I could see that Alyssa and Brain were waiting for me. Alyssa and Brain were wearing clothing you would see us were at a soiree or ball, meaning that someone very important was at the house. When Alyssa saw me, she brought me in a bone-crushing hug.
"Never die again. If you do, I'll kill you myself," she whispered to me as she held me close.
"Um," I replied.
"Yes, I know what I said, and that doesn't matter."
"Yeah, dude, you being dead is way too much paperwork to deal with," Brain joked. "It's good that mom decided to hold off on telling anyone once Chiron told her you've been missing since the explosion of Mount St. Helens. Otherwise, all the vultures would have been all over you since you own multiple cities and didn't have a will made."
"Such a warm welcome," I said sarcastically as Brian gave me a hug.
"Astrid gave us the rundown of what's happened so far," Alyssa told us while looking at everyone in our small group. "We got stuff ready for your trip back into the labyrinth; Rachel, we got you some clothes and a bath ready upstairs. There's a gift waiting for you in the room, just in case, for the trip in the labyrinth."
"Where're the others?" I asked Brian.
"Mom is dealing with some ocean spirits that want protection just in case the battles with Kronos get a bit more...hectic. Dad is making sure that the cyclops are working double. And is currently meeting with some Norse ambassadors to get more weapons to use in the battles to come. The little rugrats we call siblings are terrorizing the manor with their inventions," Brian revealed.
"So basically, avoid the east wing of the manor at all cost since all the action is over there. It's a good thing the entrance to the labyrinth is the west wing either way," I clarified.
"Wings? You mean this place could fly?" Beckendorf asked.
"Not that type of wings," Alyssa told him. "But yes, this place could fly. Sadly the gears are shot due to an engine failure, so it's grounded until our repair guy comes in."
Once we went inside, Beckendorf almost had his eyes pop out of his head. Everyone was led away to separate rooms with supplies and a place to get ready before entering the labyrinth. Once we got back together, we were in one of the lower basements in the closet specifically for teas important from England. Once inside, we found dozens of cyclops guarding the room with weapons drawn. They were guarding the entrance to the labyrinth.
Everyone was ready to enter the labyrinth. I made sure my black lion's fur coat was on, and my eye patch was put on correctly. I took out Olethros as a coin and spun it a few times, fire licking the golden coin as lighting danced between it and my fingertips. I looked at the others and gave each other a nod. I looked to Rachel, who was thoroughly caught up with everything she needed to do and why she was here. She was a little surprised that demigods would need a clear-sighted mortal to go through the maze. In her hands was a small gun with a few magazines of celestial bronze. Apparently, my dad, another clear-sighted mortal, had been in the maze before and thought it best for a fellow mortal to have a weapon going in.
I looked to Rachel one more time before taking off my black lion's fur coat and giving it to her. Annabeth and Beckendorf looked at me like crazy, and Rachel looked shocked. Soon Annabeth realized why I had made my choice.
"Why did you give me the coat?" Rachel asked.
"You don't have the training," Annabeth clarified. "We could take care of ourselves if push comes to shove. You don't know how to fight."
"I have a gun," Rachel argued.
I then caused the water vapor around us to come together into water droplets. Then tightened my hand around Olethros, using the power to freeze the water into ice shards. Afterward, I shot the ice shards to the ground, causing it to impale itself deep into the bottom below.
"He could do that," Beckendorf said, patting Rachel's shoulder before walking inside. Annabeth followed, and I allowed Rachel to walk in before me once she put on the coat.
We walked in for a bit, and Rachel led us through the labyrinth. So far, walking through, we didn't find anything that was dangerous or anything that could have killed us, but none of us were convinced that we were going the right way, least of all Annabeth. I didn't know whether it was because it was the legendary skepticism of Athena and her children or if she was jealous of Rachel; either way, I agreed with Annabeth but hoped like Beckendorf that Rachel was doing a phenomenal job.
We walked until we found a crossroads with two separate hallways. One hallway looked like it comprised large black tiles, almost like the Ministry of Magic in the Harry Potter movies. The other corridor looked like an old mansion made of stained wood, and lamps hung off the walls. We looked at the two passages.
"Which way?" Beckendorf asked.
"Right," Rachel said, pointing towards the one comprised of polished porcelain midnight black tiles. Annabeth looked down that way, and Beckendorf and I looked to each other. None of us would have guessed that one, and I think we could all agree that we would have picked the other without even saying a word.
"Hope you're right," Annabeth said, forcing herself to believe Rachel.
"Just to make sure," Beckendorf said, pulling out two stuffed animals from his supply bag.
"Mr. and Mrs. Fluffles?" I questioned. "Why did you take the Fluffles?"
"I trust the whole following is a clear-sighted mortal thing, but I want to make sure we could all see the outcome of not listening to her," Beckendorf said. "Rather be safe than sorry."
He threw the stuffed bunnies down the two hallways. One flew through the one we were going through, and nothing happened. We all nodded our heads happily before turning to the one made of stained wood. Beckendorf threw the bunny down that hallway. At first, nothing happened.
Then the whole hallway instantly exploded with an inferno of blue flames. There was literally nothing in the hallway but bright blue flames like the ones you see on Hades in Hercules, the Disney movie. Then it instantly stopped. There was no bunny left. Then the walls immediately got spikes, and the two sides of the corridor instantly closed, leaving whatever was hypothetically in there nothing but swish cheese. Then it opened one more time and slammed together, opened, slammed, opened, slammed, opened, slammed, opened, slammed......opened, slammed. Then the spikes went away, and arrows were shot from the holes the spikes once were in. The entire room caught on fire once more, the spikes came back, and the room slammed shut one more time before opening up. This time it looked perfectly normal like nothing was happening in the room or nothing ever happened in the place.
"Right?" Rachel asked, petrified at what she saw.
"Right," Annabeth and Beckendorf answered, which direction we were now going.
"Mr. Fluffles?" I asked. "Mr. Fluffles!" I cried. "His wife was expecting triplets! How is Mrs. Fluffles going to pass by now? Her husband had no life insurance! He worked three jobs just t make enough for the two of them," I called and sobbed. Annabeth and Rachel continued down the safe hallway while Beckendorf patted my shoulder and consoled me as we walked down. I picked up Mrs.Fluffles and held her close.
We walked down for another thirty minutes, and Rachel asked if it was usually this easy. The rest of us looked at each other before a collective shiver went down all our spines. Annabeth said it was up to her interpretation of easy. If she considered making a rocket ship that can get us to Jupiter with only soda bottles, baking soda, mentos, and a whole can of Coca-Cola easy, then yes, it was straightforward the entire time.
When walking around, we heard a sound coming towards us, and it seemed to be getting closer. Rachel continued to lead us down the hallways, and slowly the sound was coming from other hallways and closing in on us. I put my hand on Rachel and looked to the others as we nodded collectively.
"What's happening?" Rachel asked. "Are we surrounded?"
"Whoever was following us has an amazing smell," I said out loud.
"They have an advantage in senses in speed then. They caught up to us and found a way to corner us when we had a way to go through the maze correctly. That means they know enough about the area to avoid and catch us," Beckendorf said.
"But the smell is what's wrong. I can't be a normal way of doing it since the smells down here are all monsters. That's what Grover and Tyson said, right? It shouldn't have been that easy to follow us and trap us. Only a few species of monsters can smell that good. And only one of them can be agile enough to catch up to and find a way to surround us so efficiently."
"Dracaena," I said. "But I don't think that's all of it." I looked around and saw something terrible. Some of the corridors were melted but not by fire; something else had melted it almost like an acid. The walls literally looked like ice cream left out in the sun, but they had been left there so long that the liquid walls had resolidified in weird shapes that should have only been down when something was as a liquid. I walked up to it and took a quick sniff. "Oh, gods. Run!"
Rachel looked at me, and she began running down the correct hallways. We followed behind her quickly. "What's wrong?" Rachel asked.
"Only one monster species can melt something like that. I don't even think I have enough space in here to fight it off correctly," I warned.
"What is it?" Beckendorf asked.
"The acid marks. You don't think...." Annabeth let her question hang there. I didn't respond, and she took that as her answer. "You do. He thinks a hydra is with the dracaena. No. Dracaenas, plural, there has to be more than one."
We continued to run down the corridors and make separate turns when a dracaena leaped out of nowhere with a trident. Dracaena, in a word, ugly, like every other monster in the Greek pantheon. Imagine a human with reptile skin and two tails instead of legs. Then, you get a gist of what I was facing. The trident went straight for Rachel. It would have run her through, but my lion's fur coat protected her and made the trident ricochet off as if it was impervious armor blocking a wooden stick.
Beckendorf took a moment and swung the hammer into the monster's head, killing it instantly. Before he could celebrate, another dracaena swung her sword, and Beckendorf had to use his war hammer to block the strike. Annabeth backflipped onto the monster's shoulders before driving her knife into its neck. A third dracaena tried to tackle her down, but Rachel shot the dracaena in the shoulder. It fell in pain, and Beckendorf slammed his Warhammer's chest, killing it.
A dracaena tried to sneak up on me, but I grabbed it by the throat with my golden hand and broke her neck with a single squeeze. Before I could turn around and say anything to others, I saw that a dozen more dracaena were coming in. No, scratch that two dozen. They surrounded us quickly and what made it worse was then something else came, the hydra.
I know I said this in the Sea of Monsters, but I will clarify. Olethros has beef with the first hydra, Scyleria. Because of this and her being the mother of the species, every hydra under the sun goes out of its way to try and kill Olethros users and those related to them. Now, since hydra works more with bodies of water and not the labyrinth itself, I thought they wouldn't follow me in here, but I stand corrected.
"Been a while, Olethros," the hydra spoke; it had twenty heads, and its body was at least thirty feet tall without the necks; it barely fit in the room. Each head said simultaneously, giving off a symphony of voices that sounded eerily like a dying little girl.
"Scyleria," I said worriedly. "You're almost as persistent as Vasilias. Gods know you two have to be a part cockroach."
"Not her again," Annabeth said, remembering the last time she crossed paths with the monster.
"The daughter of Athena as well, this is deja vu," the countless voices of Scyleria uttered just above a demonic whisper. She then turned to Beckendorf. "You have the smell of the daughter of Olethros and Aphrodite on you. But the scent has a certain sweet smell...love about it... I'm willing to bet you have the girl's heart as well as her scent."
"Now, now. Let's talk about this toxic breath," I told her. "You harm him, and when you wake up tomorrow, it will be six feet under."
"What are you going to do, use Olethros? We both know that the best way to kill me would destroy too much of the surrounding area, and there is no safe place to run. So, make your choice, kill yourself before I can or follow me to buy yourselves a few more moments of life," Scyleria told us. "It's your choice. Die here by my hand or live long enough to see the others die and then die by my hand. Either way, your daughters are next. Your choice."
Author's Note;
Hey guys, sorry for the infrequent updates. School has been challenging, and work has me doing a lot. Luckily, I could update a bit more frequently due to a schedule change. I want to say I am not stopping the series; however, The Last Olympian will be the last book for this part, until Heroes of Olympus comes around. IT WOULD BE A SEPARATE BOOK when I started the Heroes of Olympus. I wanted to make it easier for you guys to digest since I know it could be intimidating seeing how long this fanfic is already when it is only the first five books. I wanted update since my birthday was the 8th and wanted make sure I got a chapter out around then.
Thank you guys for your support of the series and for being such amazing readers. I love you all so much and can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate you guys. Please don't forget to vote and leave a comment. Comment down what you think is in the box that Percy is so has hidden.