Chapter Ten
Nico's POV
It hit me like the Hellhound would a few seconds later, something was pushing out of her chest. My mind went blank. What could this be? Was this what had the camp on panic mode?
Then the aforementioned Hellhound hit me. Two more hit Annabeth and Thalia. We rolled, me and the Hellhound. I was too close to effectively use my sword. I didn't even notice when he girl stopped screaming.
Then my Hellhound dissolved, a stray arrow from Thalia, still fighting for her life, had come through the chest cavity. Lucky it didn't hit me.
I turned to help, but instead found that they had fought free of them and were fighting for their lives. I'd be willing to bet that these two were the best of the pack, probobly only killed in the first place by Thalia's arrows, and she only had three more. Enough to kill them both for sure, but not enough to do more then escape as they reformed.
"Nico!" Annabeth called over the clash, "We have to retreat and regroup!"
"What about the girl?" I called back, but looking at her, it was clear that not even Apollo himself could have fixed her. The remains of her ribcage was in tatters around the remains of her corpse.
"I'll meet you at camp!" I called over, grabbing two rocks.
"Nico..."
I ignored her, and threw the rocks at the Hellhounds. My genius plan worked. Now was the part where I ran of, and killed these two when I was good and ready.
Running though the forest at night was great fun, if you could see in the dark, and I could. I was going to stop short in a bout ten yards and use the hounds' own momentum to cut them open, then shadow travel back to camp, then sleep for a week.
But my plans were ruined when two consecutive death yelps echoed behind me. I stopped and got in a defensive position. Out of the darkness walked on all fours, cocky as a massive black cat, sure that no foe was a threat, a dark, shiny, sleek, creature. Terrifying on a primal level. Stoping not five feet from me, it's mouth moved to show sharp pearly whites, and behind them, more pearly whites, almost like a mouth within its mouth. It snarled. Something glinted in the air just behind it, rising like a knife.