~ Percy POV ~
I knew that the fates hated me. And I certainly knew that I had the worst luck. Id never was destined to have a particularly easy nor happy life. What I never thought would happen was for my entire world to fall apart in less than a year...
~ Flashback ~
I jerked, startled, and turned around and saw the last goddess I wanted to see. Athena. Not wanting to get on her bad side, I bowed and asked her, "Yes Lady Athena?"
"I'll let you stay at camp for a couple of months to train."
"Train? For what?" I asked, confused.
Athena's eyes glinted, and I instantly had a feeling of dread.
"Why, you're going to prove yourself, Perseus Jackson."
I stood at the boundaries of the Adirondack Park, waiting for Athena to show up and tell me what I must do. She was also apparently bringing me two companions to keep me company, they couldn't help on my quest, but they'd stop me from getting bored. There was a flash of light and a rustle. I turned around and bowed to Athena.
"So, what is it that you want me to do, Lady Athena," I asked.
"Well, I had originally thought of you doing the Labours of Hercules, who once was the greatest hero. But, you've done most of them already, so I'll just give you three objectives. One is to get the Girdle of Hippolyta, which should be easy enough, the second, however, is difficult. Even for you. I will increase your demigod scent by 200% so that any monster within a 100 miles will know where you are. You must survive like that for a week. Oh, and no hiding. You must face them all. The last objective, assuming you survive the second one, well, I'll tell you if you finish the second objective, alright?"
"Erm, ok, but who are my two companions?" I asked. Athena smiled, "Oh, you're best friends with them. And they could learn some fighting skills by watching you anyway." She snapped her fingers, and out of the shadows, Nico appeared. There was a barely perceptible rustle, and Thalia dropped down from the tree.
"Thalia! How long have you been spying on me?" I wondered.
"Quite a while, Seaweed Brain. You were always too stupid to sense when someone's following you. Why do you think I chose the forest as a meeting place?" Thalia replied.
"Oh, so Artemis is near?"
"Yeah, she let me accompany you, I think she thinks you're the only decent man left on Earth".
"Huh. Coming from her, that means a lot…"
"Oh boy, I can't wait to see you fight those monsters Percy, and especially against La- ahem, I mean the Drakons that'll probably appear," Nico said.
I squinted my eyes at him, he almost let something slip, and Athena was glaring at him. I glanced at Thalia, who was also staring at Nico the same way as I was.
"Well, enough time wasted, I suggest you hurry up and go find the Amazons, Jackson. Now, close your eyes, and hold your breath, and try not to throw up." Athena said.
"Wha..?.?" Was all I got out before we were blinded by a golden light.
Once the golden light faded, I felt me, Thalia and Nico beside me. All three of us instantly raised our hand to our mouths and coughed slightly. I was pretty sure all three of us were green.
"So, where are we?" Nico asked.
"Um, hey, I recognize this place! We're in Seattle. Alright, we need to fight the Amazon store." I said.
"What? You mean, the Amazon store as in Amazon the online shopping centre?" Thalia asked, incredulous.
"Yeah, online Amazon and the ancient Amazons are the same. Massive flirts and they even sell pegasi!" I complained.
"Oh, well, I didn't know that. You have any idea on how to obtain the girdle?"
"Yeah. Walk in there, get captured, beaten up, swear on the Styx that I'll return it once I show it to Athena, and poof, done." I said.
"Seriously, did you think I'm that stupid? It's going to be much, much harder to get the girdle, I promise you." A voice said. All three of us instantly whirled around, trying to see where the voice had come from.
"I'm right here, dumbos." We turned to see a blonde haired woman with stormy grey eyes standing right in front of us with a smug expression.
"Lady Athena. Didn't you say that I wasn't supposed to get any help?"
"Well, not from your two companions, but certainly I don't want you to die. Amazon is that way, I've already set everything up with them." Athena replied with an evil grin, and then she disappeared in a gust of wind.
"Oookkkk, that was weird," I said.
"Well, I don't care what she said, but at least she told you where the Amazons are. Now let's get going." Thalia said.
We walked up to the Amazons, and before any of us could say a single word, hands shot out and snatched us inside to complete darkness.
"Yup, it's them, bring them to Hylla Two Kill." A voice said. We were pushed and shoved among a dizzying amount of turns, twists, and 360s. We were handled rather roughly until a voice I recognized spoke out,
"Awww, you don't have to treat them so badly, at least, not for the Hunter. And I'd be personally pleased if you treated the tall, handsome, hot black haired boy well" "The other one, I dunno, so I don't care."
"Ooo, it's him, the one that helped Reyna, right? Let me handle him!" a voice squealed. There was a bunch of squealing, shoving, and small slapping sounds. Then I felt someone drape an arm over my shoulders, and she spoke. "I've got him," she said smugly. Cue the 'Awwws'.
There was a fair amount of snickering, and 'Yes ma'am's at this.
"Nice to meet you too, Kinzie…" I said.
"See? He remembers me! Isn't that so cute?" Kinzie exclaimed.
"Seriously, you'd think that tough Amazons wouldn't act like Aphrodite child's…" Nico grumbled. There were several slapping sounds, and 'Ow's' at this.
"You haven't proved yourself yet, boy, so shut up. Or I'll gag you instead." Kinzie said harshly. Silence. "Good, maybe there's hope for you yet."
We walked along, with Kinzie leaning on me with a surprising grip, I had tried to wiggle myself out but she had an iron hand.
"Alright, we've arrived," Kinzie said.
The doors opened into a room full of brightness, a room I recognized well, as we stumbled from the sudden transition to brightness.
"Ah, Percy Jackson and his two companions. So, you want the girdle? I know you are trustworthy, and you stick to your word, any fool can see that. If I were by myself, I'd gladly let you take it, but unfortunately, something has changed my mind, and persuaded me to give you the girdle only after you go through all our training sessions and reach the level of " Commander". Hylla said.
"Training sessions? That's easy, bring it on then." I said confidently.
Hylla smirked, "On average, it takes two years to finish the Commander training, boy, and our best ones finished it in one and a half years. Even you, skilled as you are, will take at least 6 months to finish it."
"What? Six months?" I practically shrieked.
Hylla smirked again, "Don't worry, you'll have plenty of, ah, distractions to keep you busy." She replied, glancing at Kinzie and all the other female Amazons. I then realized they were all staring at me, drooling. Crap. I knew what Athena was getting at, separate me for a long time, see if I still love Annabeth after all that time. Fine. I'll take whatever it takes to be with Annabeth.
"So, do you accept?"
"Yes, I accept" I grumbled.
"Excellent. Kinzie, take him and the Hunter to their respective rooms. Show Thalia around or whatever she pleases, Percy, be here tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock, sharp, then I'll take you to the arena for the trials"
"Um, ok, er, what about Nico?" I asked.
She looked at him rather distastefully. "Well, I suppose he could train with the rest of the Amazons. If that's alright with him, or we could put him to work like the other males" she said, motioning to the males in orange jumpsuits and iron collars.
"Erm, I'd love to train," Nico said hurriedly.
"Yeah me too, might as well, since I'm gonna have to live here for like half a year," said Thalia.
"Very well, now, leave me be, I need to get your levels and whatnot ready," Hylla said.
"At once, my lady" Kinzie said. She took us to our rooms, which was surprisingly well furnished, two nice looking beds, a TV, and a bathroom. Thalia obviously got a much better room, it was big, had a massive wall-sized TV, a cool looking computer, and a king-sized bed. Lucky her… I thought. Thalia gave a squeal of delight and promptly began jumping up and down the bed.
"Jeeze Thalia, can't you be more mature?" I asked. She responded by giving me a good glare and a shock. "Some things never change…" I muttered. "Wait, Nico, don't jump yet, we have to make sure they didn't rig the bed with traps," I said, as Nico looked like he was about to jump on it too. I carefully prodded and looked around the bed, silently thanking Travis and Connor Stoll's tricks, even though I'd never admitted it in front of them.
"All right, all clear, bounce all you want. Just don't break the bed". I said
Nico promptly jumped on it with joy, while I was half expecting the bed to snap with a large hole in the ground, sending Nico to who-knows-where. I crashed onto the bed and instantly fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, I woke up, found breakfast on the bedside table (Wow, room service!) inhaled the whole thing, took a shower, and opened the door, intending to ask an Amazon on how to get to the throne room. Instead, I was met by an Aphrodite-like dressed Kinzie, who stood there, batting her eyelashes at me with big puppy eyes. I jerked backwards.
"Aww, come on, you don't have to be shy, I'm just here to take you to the throne room. Then I gotta train." Kinzie said.
"You need to train in that type of clothing?" I asked, noticing that she was wearing killer high heels, extremely tight skinny jeans, and a low cut t-shirt.
"I can change clothes quickly," she said, laying a hand on my shoulder. "Want me to show you?" giving me a seductive smile.
I blushed. "No thanks. I'm not here for that type of thing, and never will. Now, where's the throne room?" I grumbled.
"Humph. I wonder what that girl Annabeth sees in you." She pouted. "Follow me". She took me to a door that looked completely normal. Then she took out a special card. "Only I and Hylla have this," she said. She swiped it, and the door retracted. I looked in, it looked like a big slide. "Um… " and then she shoved me forward. I flew down at high speed, and I must say, it's quite fun. Then the slide angled upwards, and before I knew it, I was in midair and crashed on the water. Well, that was considerate, as the water completely cushioned my fall. I willed the water to carry me out, just as I touched the floor, Kinzie walked out of a side door.
"How'd you get down here so fast? Especially in those heels?" I asked.
"That isn't the only slide, dummy," Kinzie said. "If you want, I could show you all those hidden doors," she said, giving me a sly glance.
"Stop flirting, Kinzie, he's here to prove himself," Hylla said. "In there, Jackson" pointing to another door. I walked through, with Hylla and Kinzie following behind. You'll spend a nice long time training, and at the end of each training session is your tests. However, since you're pretty good, we'll just do the tests for a couple of days. Then it'll be javelin throwing, throwing knives, darts, archery, etc.
"Archery?" I stuttered. I was horrible at it.
Hylla gave me an evil grin. "Yeah, we know you suck at it, but we'll see if we can do anything about it. I'll let you off if you don't make the archery since even Apollo said that with his blessing, you couldn't shoot the backside of an elephant."
"Very funny…" I growled.
"Well, let's begin, shall we?" Hylla said. She clapped her hands, and five automatons came rolling out.
"Only five?" I was surprised. This was supposed to be a challenge? Suddenly, one of the automatons arms moved with a blur and I instinctively duck. Just as a bronze throwing knife impaled itself on the wall behind me. Ok, maybe not so easy… and this was supposed to be the first level…
Hylla had a smug look on her face. "You were saying?" "And they're also built of Celestial Bronze, an extra challenge."
Oh, Hades. I pulled out both of my swords and slashed as hard as I could. It made a nice deep cut on the automatons chest, but it didn't slow him down. Even after stabbing him several times in the chest didn't help. I had to slice his cursed head off.
"Are you sure this is Commander level?" I yelled, dodging an almost too fast to see the blade.
"Oh. I lied. This is a completely new level, you should be honoured, Hephaestus himself built the automatons. More than fifty thousand in total." And if you make it through these levels, we'll call these the Percy Jackson levels. Hylla replied.
"FIFTY THOUSAND?" I more or less screamed, slashing off two heads.
"Pffft. Stop yelling, orI'll force you to kill them with only a bow and arrow. No swords." Hylla snapped.
I finally killed off the last automaton. "Ugh, please tell me that I only have a few more levels to go through…" I said.
Kinzie smiled. "Nope, you have another 800 levels to go through, plus training." "Of course, I could always give you a message if you want," she said in a hopeful voice.
800 more levels? I thought. This is going to take a long time…
I was sore and beaten up after my training. And those were only for the first 8 levels. 792 levels to go… I thought glumly. I more or less slumped into a seat in the mess hall and began scarfing down my dinner. Seconds after I had sat down, a very cheerful and happy Thalia and a grumpy, tired looking Nico sat on either side of me. Nico just mumbled a 'Hi' and began shovelling the food into his mouth, while Thalia gave me a cheerful smile and ate at a much slower pace.
"Jeez boys, what's the rush?" Thalia asked.
"Jeez Thalia, why are you so cheerful?" grumped Nico. Thalia must've been in a very good mood to not shock Nico to the Underworld since she answered in a such a happy tone.
"Oh, not much, we went skydiving, watched movies, played on a really neat obstacle course. It was very fun today. And we're going to do a lot more stuff too since we have like half a year of time." She said.
"Glad that you're happy, Thals…". I said in between mouthfuls of barbecue.
"Well, I gotta go to bed guys, need all the energy I can get if I'm to expect to survive tomorrow…" Nico said. With that, he jumped up and literally rushed to the staircases.
Thalia rolled her eyes and muttered "Boys… No endurance." Then she turned to me.
"So, how was your day Perce?" Thalia asked.
"Oh, same old, train on celestial bronze robots, get beaten up, and trying to wrench your sword out of a robots chest," I answered nonchalantly.
Thalia raised an eyebrow and gave me the 'really?' look.
"Yeah, more or less." On my last level, I'm so supposed to kill a lot of monsters and robots." I grumbled.
Thalia laughed. "Well, that's what you get for dating a daughter of Athena, Seaweed Brain. Tell you what, after you finish this stuff, and when you propose to Annabeth, three of us go to any restaurant and just hang out and catch up with the times. Deal?"
"Yeah, definitely," I replied. We shook on it.
"Right, I'm going to sleep too, Pinecone Face, so good night. Oh, and can you do me a favour?"
"Sure, what is it.?"
"Stop those girls from goggling me, I can't sleep with so many people staring at me," I complained
Thalia laughed again. "Yeah, sure, no problem, I'll do my best."
"Thanks again Thals."
"Good night"
I crashed onto the bed and barely had my head hit the pillow, I was snoring.
~ Time skip ~
And so it went. Every day, I would wake up, go down the slide, eat breakfast, and train and fight. Over the next few months, I could throw knives with pinpoint accuracy, I could calculate what angle to throw them, I could fight blindfolded, using only my other senses, I could throw a javelin through an oak tree from one hundred and fifty meters away, I could take an entire legion of celestial bronze automatons without breaking sweat, my swordsmanship was better than ever, and I had learned some fighting tricks, and some extremely cool counter-attacking moves. They apparently picked it up from a video game called Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. At first, I was incredulous, 'You guys learn fighting moves from a video game?' but when they showed them to me, I was pretty impressed. Then they gave me the game to play. And while some of the moves were for show, a lot of them were actually very smart. And I really wished that I had a pair of hidden blades. Those would have been awesome.
Unfortunately, even spending 5 months non-stop training, my archery had not improved a bit. I still couldn't hit the target, and most of the time, the arrow would fly in the opposite direction. I wanted to try a crossbow, but they didn't have any sense they thought crossbows were too slow. Ah well. At least I could use throwing knives.
Now, I was standing in front of a set of massive double bronze doors, ready to go against my last test. All the Amazons were in the arena, eager to see me fight since I had become something of a legend among them. The doors opened, and I walked in, three short javelins strapped across my back, a belt of throwing knives, a dagger, (I had become pretty skilled with it) and of course, my dual Riptides. They were my weapons of choice. I could literally block anything with them. And I was strong enough to block a direct Warhammer hit.
The Amazons were cheering like crazy, but they fell silent when Hylla stepped up to the podium.
"Amazons! You all know why he is here, so I don't need to do any of that introduction crap. However, Percy, I would like to tell you, there is a change of plans. 4 months ago actually. Athena, who has been watching over your progress, thinks that this is too easy for you. So, for your final test, you will fight against powerful monsters that we Amazons have spent much time and effort into capturing them. I sincerely wish you the best of luck, and hope that you succeed." Hylla announced. Uh oh. Athena changed plans? This can't be good. I thought.
"Good luck, Percy!" said a familiar voice.
I jumped slightly and saw a younger version of Hylla sitting in a seat of honour next to Hylla's. It was Reyna.
"Um, thanks, I didn't know you were the good luck type. I thought you were more of that It-depends-on-your-skill type of person" I replied.
"Trust me, with these monsters, you'll need a lot of luck. And don't let me down, I still accept you, even if Camp Jupiter doesn't." Reyna said.
I flinched slightly. After what I had done to Octavian, Camp Jupiter thought I was a cruel, ruthless, and cold-blooded torturer. They had effectively kicked me out so I couldn't go anywhere near the camp.
"Alright, enough talk, OPEN THE GATES!" Hylla's voice boomed out.
Three gates opened, and the first monster that came out was the Minotaur. Easy I thought. Then the second one opened. Hydra. Crap. The third one opened. Nemean Lion. Oh hell, Athena is really making this difficult. I quickly readied myself, drawing Riptide and pulling the second one out of itself.
I decided to spare the Minotaur since it is a stupid monster, could actually be helpful in taking down the other monsters. As the three Lions charged at me, I quickly ran straight into the middle, so if the Hydra spat or tried to bite me, I could jump aside and hopefully the attacks would hit the other monsters.
I had planned on trying to kill the Lion first, but it was pretty smart, it stayed back. So I decided to engage the Hydra and the Minotaur.
"Hey Beef Head, back so soon? Remember me?" I taunted. I could tell the Hydra was behind me, and that's what I was hoping for because, from my experience, the Minotaur has only one gear, which is forward. True to my hopes, the minotaur bellowed and charged, swing its Omega axe along the way. I waited until the last second, then did a flip over its head so I landed behind it just as the Hydra got into position behind me. The Minotaur slammed into the Hydra full force, and the two began attacking each other. Well, that should give me a bit of a break I thought. Then I turned my attention to the Lion.
The Lion charged, swiping its razor-sharp claws at me, which I barely dodged. I did a double slash with both of my swords, which would have turned it into Meow Mix, except its skin was invincible. But what I was trying to do was to make the Lion open its mouth. Or at least widen his eyes a bit. I attacked furiously, pushing the Lion back, forcing it to retreat straight into the brawl the Hydra and Minotaur were still having. It just so happened that the Lion got right into the middle, right when the Minotaur and the Hydra were going to charge each other. The Lion was caught in the middle, hit on one side by a big, heavy, axe, and the other by 18 pairs of super sharp teeth.
The Lion roared with pain, even though the axe and the teeth didn't puncture its skin, there was a lot of force behind it. As the Lion roared, I took my chance. I whipped off two of the javelins on my back and threw them, both of them scored, plunging deep into Lion's throat and brain. The Lion's eyes rolled upwards, and then it collapsed, leaving only its pelt behind. My victory didn't last long though, because the instant I killed the Lion, the Minotaur and the Hydra instantly turned their attention to me.
As the Minotaur charged, I calmly waited until the last second, then sidestepped and stuck my blade out. The Minotaur was so stupid that he continued running, and even managed a few steps when his head was lopped off. Then he turned to dust. Two down, one to go. Erm, strike that, nine to go, as I looked at the Hydra's heads. I tried to remember what Hercules did, he and someone else had use fire to cauterize the stumps. Great I thought while dodging and parrying the Hydra's teeth. Just when I need Leo, he isn't here. I looked around frantically, searching for anything hot. Just when I decided that I might as well try to cut all seven heads off at once, I looked in Reyna's direction and realized that she had a bronze brazier in front of her. She caught me looking and gave me a wink, all while innocently eating sausage that she had just cooked. She then took a deliberate sip from a large 1-litre water bottle next to her. Great, now I just need six more of those. I ducked under the Hydra's guard and slash its feet off, causing it to move much slower. Hey, wait a minute… crazy idea time…
I aimed a large swipe at all nine of the Hydra's head, causing it to jerk backwards. I then rolled underneath it, and slashed its feet off, effectively turning it into an immobile, seven-headed monster. "
"Excellent, now for the ouchy part" I muttered under my breath. I sprinted towards Reyna's brazier,
"Yeah, yeah, I owe you one Reyna," I said, just loud enough for her to hear. She gave a very good impression of being indignant that I had stolen her brazier and water bottle.
And took it. Inside was a lot of coals. Red hot. I was a son of Poseidon, which meant that I had increased heat resistance, but I didn't know my limit. Carrying brazier in one hand, and Riptide in the other, I forced the water out of the bottle and made a large ring out of it. I looped it around eight of the Hydra's neck, and leapt onto its back, and slashed one of its heads off. I quickly picked a coal up, which felt quite comfortable and stuck it right on the bleeding neck. Instantly, the blood boiled, and a terrible stench began to fill the air. I ignored it and began to slash the other heads off, one by one, cauterizing each one. I finally slashed off its immortal head, effectively killing it. I stepped back and looked at Hylla. She just gestured with her hand.
Once again the gates open. The first one, around 500 or so monsters came pouring out. Sure, I can take that I thought. Then there was a very familiar roar that shook the entire arena. No way... a drakon slithered out of the second gate. And it was the Lydian drakon, the same one that killed Silena Beauregard. A cold rage filled my heart since Silena was like one of two Aphrodite girls that I respected. Excellent, payback time I thought, even though I had no idea how to kill it since I didn't have an electric spear to stab in its eye. I was about to charge the monsters when another familiar sound came from the third gate. It was a squeal. Hades no…
The Erymanthian boar came out of the gate at me so fast, it looked like it was flying. I barely had time to throw myself to the side, and the boar seemed to really hate me. It kept on swishing its canoe sized tusks back and forth, and it was all I could do to dodge them. What was worse was that the other monsters had started attacking. The drakon was smart, it just stayed still, waiting it out. Hey, maybe I can use that to my advantage. It was just coiled up, its thick body like a huge roadblock. And the spaces in between its armoured plates would be very useful as handholds.
I sprinted toward the drakon, the boar in hot pursuit, and I began running alongside the drakon until, at the last minute, I jumped onto the drakon's back, and the boar smashed into the drakon's side. The good news: The boar went flying as it hit the drakon, flew through the air, and crash-landed among the big group of monsters, easily taking out a couple dozen instantly. The bad news: The drakon knew I was on its back, and it was doing everything it could to toss me off.
I hung on for dear life, as the world became a crazy blur, it was almost as if you were on a rollercoaster that went a thousand miles an hour and changed direction every second. After a while, the drakon seemed to think that I had most likely flown off, and paused, taking in its surroundings. I took the chance and began to climb its back like the rock wall back at Camp. I clambered onto the top of its head and was about to stab both of its eyes when the drakon suddenly tossed his head downward. I flew down and landed with a loud thump, both of my swords flew out of nerveless fingers and a cloud of dust surrounding me. I then felt a burning sensation on my left shoulder and realized with a shock that I had landed right next to a pool of Hydra acid.
Hey, wait, Hydra acid! I thought.
The drakon towered over me, its mouth wide open, ready to snap me up. It slammed its mouth down, and I rolled, then I hurriedly whipped off my last javelin off my back, dipped it into the pool of acid, and held it straight up just as the drakon smashed his mouth down around me. The was a loud crack as the javelin shaft splintered, but I knew the head had gone deep into its throat and brain. It arched its back as its eyes smoked, the drakon gave a final scream and collapsed into a pile of dust and scales.
"That's for killing Silena Beauregard, you disgusting snake," I said, quite proud of myself for killing the drakon.
The back of my neck tingled, and I instinctively threw myself sideways right as a pair of huge tusks came sweeping over where I had just been standing. As it stomped past me, I slashed with both of my swords, opening two large gashes on its side. It squealed with rage and pain and swung it's tusks again. As it swung, I ducked under the swing and held both of my swords straight up.
Crack crack!
I looked up and saw a tuskless boar. My swords had chopped it off when it swung, and now all it could do was charge at me. I sidestepped, and slashed again, opening another two gashes. And so it continued, as I kept on sidestepping and slashing, while the boar got slower and slower, until it finally collapsed, wheezing. I raised my sword and swung it with all my strength. There was a squelching sound, and its head hit the ground as the rest of the body slowly dissolved. I looked up, expecting a group of monsters to attack me, but I just found a nice big pile of monster dust. Heh. Turns out the boar was pretty good at killing monsters. I turned to Hylla and she nodded.
"Percy Jackson, you have proven yourself above all other heroes. Duh. Even Hercules had to beat them one by one. So, I will give you your prize, but you must swear on the Styx that you will return it after you have shown Athena" Hylla announced.
"I swear on the Styx that I will return the girdle after I have shown it to Athena," I said. Thunder boomed, and Hylla nodded. She gave it to me, and for some reason, the Amazons cheered. They put me on their shoulders and carried me all the way to the mess hall.
After all the celebrating, I was about to go upstairs to sleep on a nice, comfy bed one last time when a golden flash lit the room. I turned around and saw Athena.
"Lady Athena, I do not wish to be rude, but why are you here?" I asked.
Athena gave me an evil grin, "Well, I thought I might as well help you hurry along right? You said you wanted to make it as fast as possible. So, you can hand the girdle back to Hylla, and I'll transport you to California for your, ah, last objective."
"Last objective? I thought I had two more?" I asked, rather confused.
"Yeah, well, you did have two more, but after seeing you wipe an army of Hephaestus's bronze automatons with that much ease, killing those monsters isn't a very big challenge you know. However, I can promise you that your last objective will be harder than anything you have ever gone through."
I gulped. Harder than all those ancient monsters together? That doesn't sound good. "What's that," I asked.
Athena's eyes glinted, "Well, I want you to take a Golden Apple from the Garden of the Hesperides. By your own hand."
Everyone but me and Nico looked shocked. Nico had the I-already-knew-about-this look, while I was still trying to figure out what Athena meant. Then it hit me. I gasped.
"Y-you want me to kill…? I stuttered.
Athena's eyes were deadly serious. "Yes"