AN: Great news everybody! My copyright finally went through so this mega update is to celebrate! My short story is called 'The Stranger' and you can find it on amazon. There will be a link to it on the Facebook page for my stories. I want to thank everyone for supporting as I write and for anyone who ends up getting my story. This is hopefully the latest step to becoming a full-time writer.

The Silver Hunter

Chapter 10

-Percy-

The first thing he realized was that he wasn't feeling any pain. The flames licked his skin, dancing across his flesh and burning away his clothes, but he felt no pain.

With the lack of pain, he felt elation, a fistful of flames held up in his hand as all others in the arch, both friend and foe, looked on in undisguised shock. Focusing the flames in his palm began to condense and swirl, harnessed by his will alone.

With elation, he realized he still lived. Grinned, Percy let out a yell and hurled a ball of flames into the face of the Chimera, the beast rearing back and roaring angrily as it struck. "Hell yeah!" he crowed, charging at the monster with renewed confidence. The sound of gunfire let him know that Annabeth was still distracting Echidna and Lou quickly got apace with him as they charged the terryfing creature which had shaken off the flames and embers from his attack.

"Well damn Percy," Lou grinned "just when I thought you couldn't get any hotter."

"Can't let you get bored with me now can i?" he quipped back, ducking underneath a strike from the Chimera before cursing when he saw Echidna cast a spell, her son's severed limb flying back and reattaching itself.

"I'll admit little demigod, you surprised me there." Echidna hissed out, lazily sending a serpent like whip at Annabeth who had to roll away to avoid being bitten "I wasn't expecting you to be able to manipulate fire."

"Guess I'm just that awesome." He grinned, firing a bullet towards the Chimera who lowered its head, the divine silver bouncing off the draconic scales that adorned its head like a crown "Okay that's just bullshit."

"Language young man!" Echidna scolded before cackling "And I think we've played with you three long enough. Sonnie, be a dear and kill them already." With a roar the Chimera let loose another blast of fire, this one far larger than the first. Stunned, Percy was barely able to tackle Lou out of the way of the flames that were focused more on her than himself. Rolling he let out a scream as the monster was on them in an instant, its claws ripping through the flesh of his back, almost hitting his spine.

"Percy!" Annabeth cried out, screaming in rage as she fired her pistol as fast as she could at the mother of monsters who merely scoffed at the attempt, blocking each bullet with a spell.

"Loyalty, how cute." Echidna sneered, grabbing Annabeth by her throat and hoisting her into the air, as the Chimera stood over them, Lou clutching his bleeding body close to her. "I think I'll be nice and let you three all die together." With an uncaring snort the monster queen tossed the daughter of Athena towards them, her body rolling to a stop on Percy's other side.

Gritting his teeth, Percy tried pushing himself to his feet, blood dripping down his arm from his torn flesh. "I won't die so easily bitch." He spat, forcing the blood running down his flesh to obey him, the liquid glowing red before freezing into a lance in his hand.

"How vulgar." Echidna sneered, "Sonnie, if you would." Faster than Percy could see, the serpent head of the Chimera's tail shot forward and sunk its head into his thigh. His scream rung loud in the room, even as Lou lashed out and severed the serpent head from the tail, Annabeth frantically ripping the fangs from his body. "You think you'd have learned that severing a limb means nothing when I'm around." Echidna snorted, saying her spell again as the serpent head floated up and went back to the screaming in pain monster.

Panting, Percy looked around, seeing something that he knew would work despite the bad taste it left in his mouth. "You might have won this fight." he coughed out blood, getting up and pulling Lou and Annabeth close to him.

"Not just the fight but do go on, this should be entertaining." Echidna snorted, having clearly not noticed what he had with how he and the girls blocked the view of it.

"Your day will come Echidna," he vowed "one day your head shall mount my spear and your son's pelt adorn my wall. This I swear to you, upon my blood, my mothers legend, and my fathers name."

"You seem to think you're actually going to survive." Echidna chuckled "That's cute. Deluded, but cute." Percy didn't say anything to that, simply held the girls tight, gave a pained smile, and leapt back, into the hole the Chimera had burnt through the floor, Echidna's enraged scream echoing behind as they plummeted into the missisipi River.

The shock of the cold water snapped his eyes open as he gasped, the water rushing down his throat and into his ripped open flesh, filling his body and strengthening him. Annabeth and Lou both panted, a large bubble of air forming around the girls as he was kept in the river, the water cocooning around him to tend his wounds. The current ripped away the last shreds of his burnt and ruined clothes as he felt his flesh stitch itself back together.

"Percy!" Lou's voice was faint and distorted through the water but he could easily hear her frantic panic at his condition, his friends pressing against the bubble in an attempt to reach him.

"Be at peace demigods." A gentle voice echoed through the water as they saw a woman forming out of the current, "He will be fine. The water is his kin, and looks after its own. Echidna and the Chimera were forced to flee with your disappearance as without you around other gods could hunt them and not be at risk of interfering in a quest."

"Did Zeus really send those monstesr after us?" Annabeth asked, the daughter of Athena shaken by the fight that they had no true chance of winning.

"That I do not know child." The water spirit said softly, almost motherly, as she gazed at them "It could have been thus, or it could have been another ancient force wishing to sow strife, Echidna could have simply made it a lie to distract you."

"We weren't strong enough to win." Percy's voice was soft but it carried easily through the water, his wounds closed so the only thing left damaged was his pride, "I won't let that happen again. A dry humorless smile twitched across his face, "We've got our work cut out for us, don't we girls?"

"Yeah," Lou gave him a shaky smile, her eyes showing her relief that he was getting back up "but we wouldn't want things to be too easy, might get boring."

-Poseidon-

"Zeus!" the god of seas and storms raged, having to be restrained by Ares and Hephasestus who honestly looked like they wished to join him in beating the god of thunder into a puddle of ichor.

"I did nothing!" the panicked thunder god exclaimed, even Zeus' arrogance not enough to delude the youngest of the big three into thinking he could win the fight against an enraged Poseidon, especially if he got the help of Ares and Hephaestus.

"It is highly possible that Echdina was lying." Athena's countenance was as stormy as his own, the main difference was her focus on being sure of who was guilty.

"See!" Zeus yelled, pointing at Athena as if that one sentence was proof of his innocence.

"She's saying you might not have done it, I could easily believe that you did." Poseidon spat out, the other gods not inclined to disagree. They had just seen Percy, Lou, and Annabeth fall into the hole left by the Chimera and into the river, they had yet to get out of the water.

"How did he even control the fire anyway?" Hermes asked confused, bringing up a new question in an attempt to difusse the tense situation.

"I believe it's because of his bloodline." Hephaestus spoke up, releasing Poseidon's arms when the sea god stopped struggling "Sally Jackson was my most powerful child I've had in centuries, possible ever. While she wasn't a fire user the godly blood ran true within her veins. Added to that Percy's father is Poseidon, and as a matter of principle the children of the sea are more powerful than my own. It's possible that Poseidon's blood took my power within Sally and enhanced them further than any of us thought, adding the strongest potential for my powers onto what he gained from the sea."

"If you'll excuse me though," Ares grunted and moved out of the throne room "I think I need some exercise. I hear St. Louis has a good spot or two to go." Smirking dangerously the god of war summoned a blade and vanished.

"I think your son might have to wait a time to fulfill that vow of his." Apollo said dryly, most of the council sighing in relief when they saw the group emerging from the water, Percy's thankfully having put on new clothes while underneath the surface.

"I'm sure he'll survive." Poseidon sighed out, wishing there was someone he could pray to in thanks that his son had survived.