Author's Note: Hello again! See I told you guys I would try my best to update daily now to make-up for my previous extended absence! Originally, I had planned this chapter and the previous chapter to be combined into a very dramatic and action-filled chapter, but it was way too long for a first chapter of the story, so I split it into two. Now I just wanted to mention something really quick before everyone can find out what is happening with the Seven, and that is that as this story progresses, you may see a couple similarities between this story and my other completed Fan Fiction from last year of The House of Hades, and I have my reasons behind doing that, which I will explain if needed when the time comes. Also, for the POVs, I am doing what Rick did in The House of Hades which is include all of the Seven (Nico will also have a POV as well as another bonus character), but not in any specific order, so like this chapter is narrated again by Percy. All right, now without further ado, let us see who is attacking the Seven (this time around).
Chapter 2- Percy POV
The second Percy heard the ear-splitting screech followed by what seemed like a dozen sets of claws landing, his face lost all its remaining color as he exchanged a panic-filled look with Annabeth. The other demigods of the Argo II looked like they didn't recognize the monsters that had just arrived by the sound but they had enough sense to jump to their feet anyway.
Ignoring the return of the excruciating burning pain in his lungs, Percy sprinted up the stairs with the others up to the main deck, already drawing Riptide out of his pants pocket and uncapping it, letting it extend to its full sword-glory. He could see out of the corner of his eye, how tense and anxious Annabeth looked, and Percy knew he must have an identical expression on his face, and he wished that for once, the world would give them a break, wasn't it enough they had saved Olympus once and later survived Tartarus, closing the Doors of Death?
Before he could contemplate the injustice of the universe any further, Percy skidded onto the main deck and saw exactly what was attacking them, and the situation was worse than he had originally feared.
Originally, Percy thought that they were being attacked by just Stymphalian Birds, based on the sound their landing had made, judged only on his sole encounter with them almost 4 years ago, in his second year of camp, during the dreadful chariot race. But now, he saw that the Stymphalian Birds weren't what they really had to worry about, he recognized that they were there almost for a distraction, that the real challenges were the Sphinx and Echidna who both looked like they would like better to do worse to them than tear them to shreds.
It was a testament of how well the Seven knew one another, each other's strengths and weaknesses, that nothing needed to be said, everyone just knew what they needed to do, what to fight with, who to fight, and who to partner with.
Automatically, Percy saw that Leo set both his hands ablaze and ran to join Frank, who had transformed himself into a giant dragon, and Hazel in distracting the Stymphalian Birds. Piper and Annabeth immediately took out their weapons, Katropis and the drakon-bone blade respectively, and went after the Sphinx, who looked like she recognized Annabeth from their previous encounter in the Labyrinth, where Annabeth had beaten it at its own game of riddles.
That left Percy and Jason to tackle the problem of Echidna, the mother of all monsters. While Percy wasn't thrilled to be facing her again, she was one of the few monsters he had faced but not defeated, battling her when he was 12 on top of the St. Louis Arch where her pet dog, the Chimera (long story), was able to stab him with it's poisonous snake tail. While she didn't look as dangerous as she did back when they faced off on his very first quest and she had the Chimera as her weapon, Percy knew that she had other tricks up her sleeve to destroy them all.
While Percy's knee-jerk instinct may have been to partner with Annabeth, he was glad that he had Jason fighting by his side, due to them having similar powers, and when those powers and their fighting styles combined, they were a pretty epic team, even able to defeat twin giants just the two of them (Bacchus was no help whatsoever, no matter what the god will certainly tell you otherwise).
So before giving themselves a chance to chicken out, Percy exchanged a quick glance with Jason, who looked like he wanted to object with Percy fighting so soon when he looked absolutely dreadful but was resigned to the fact that the Seven needed him and his fighting abilities. Without a word exchanged, Jason raised his arms, quickly summoning pitch-black clouds filled with electricity around him, and Percy raised his own arms adding water to the lightning-charged clouds, effectively creating a raging hurricane around them, which they did notice was harder to do in the Mediterranean than it had been before.
"Is that all you got mighty son of Jupiter? No wonder both the Romans and the Greeks don't want you as either of their leaders! And what happened to the unbeatable Percy Jackson? Not so great now that Daddy isn't around to protect you!" Taunted Echidna, baring her fangs and hissing her snake-like tongue.
Barely paying Echidna's taunts any attention, Percy saw out of the corner of his eye Piper charm-speaking the Sphinx into confusion, desperately trying to make it forget its purpose of attacking them. If it was any other demigod, even Medea herself, wouldn't have been able to efficiently disorient a monster determined to kill, but there was no other demigod like Piper, who possessed the most compelling charm-speak Percy had ever seen or heard of.
It certainly didn't hurt though, that Piper was paired with the smartest child of Athena alive. Percy knew Annabeth well enough to recognize one of her plans, and this certainly was one of them.
Just as he was thinking that, the Sphinx suddenly had a razor-sharp drakon-bone sword protruding from its chest, and within that second, it exploded into a pile of golden monster dust, smelling slightly of the usual burnt rubber, revealing a smirking Annabeth, completely satisfied that her plan was executed flawlessly.
Percy snapped back to attention to his own fight to quickly perform a clumsy back-handspring to dodge one of Echidna's vivid-green serpent tails, aimed at his shoulder. Unfortunately, as soon as Percy's feet touched the ground again, Echidna sent her other tail at the fleshy part of his right thigh.
Before the tail was able to connect though, a great lightning strike appeared and blasted Echidna backwards into the side of the railing, almost pushing her overboard. She sadly recovered just in time to prevent herself from plummeting into the sea, and didn't even look affected by the 100-volt attack Jason had just sent at her.
Using speed that no one knew she possessed, Echidna whipped one of her serpent-tails at Jason before either of them could react, hitting his chest with the force of an iron-clad punch, making the son of Jupiter fly backwards and slam into the aged look-out pole, that teetered unsteadily at the sudden impact, where he lay still.
Even though he wanted to make sure Jason was OK, Percy knew that he had to take care of Echidna once and for all before he could do that. However, it was just his misfortune that the burning sensation in his lungs would return with ten times its usual force, almost making him pass out on the spot.
Desperately trying to blink the black spots out of his eyes, Percy wasn't able to see Echidna's other tail coming at him, roughly seizing his right arm, snapping his humerus into two, making him drop Riptide, his only weapon that he possessed that wouldn't sap his already dangerously low-energy.
Before Echidna could launch another attack to either further incapacitate or kill him, Percy quickly closed his eyes and brought forth all his remaining concentration to summon a giant wave to crash down upon Echidna, knocking her onto her back.
This was when it was obviously a disadvantage to have the body of a serpent, because it prohibited you from getting up quickly in a giant puddle of water, a lesson Echidna was learning the hard way. Just as she was about to recover her senses, Percy was able to clumsily pick up Riptide with his left hand from where he had dropped it, and quickly stabbed Echidna in her chest, right where the form of woman and snake met.
"My mistress will make you regret this son of Poseidon! Just you wait, she will have your blood and it will be the end of your precious Olympians and little half-blood friends!" Was Echidna's last words before she too returned to Tartarus to wait, hopefully, many years before she could reform to terrorize the world once more.
Now that his opponent was defeated, all the adrenaline immediately left Percy's bloodstream, and he collapsed to his knees, his head swimming in pain, from both his broken arm and his lungs.
The last thing Percy saw before the darkness completely took over his mind was Leo shooting fire at the last of the Stymphalian Birds, Frank breathing fire at them, and Hazel manipulating the mist to make them think they were surrounded by bronze bells ringing, effectively making the rest of them flee from the Argo II, leaving behind the mountains of dust which was the only remains of their fellow monsters.
Disclaimer:
Percy: "Judging by just these first two chapters, I'm guessing you didn't think that I suffered enough in Rick's House of Hades?"
Me: "It's not that, I stand by what I said so many months ago, the action and drama of injury, really does add to the story. Although, this time around maybe I will be a little bit more nicer to you, maybe only injure you every other chapter instead."
Percy: "Yes! Wait a minute, that's not much better! How about not hurting me at all?"
Me: "I'll consider it, remember though it all depends on me, because this is my Fan Fiction, not the official Blood of Olympus, that is unfortunately exclusively owned by Rick Riordan."
