Yeah yeah it's super late I had exams and reports and a crippling lack of sleep but it's here now whoooo. I'd like to say it'll never happen again, but I can't lie to such amazing fans.

This will NEVER be abandoned, I will finish it if it kills me. I've never seen another fic like this that doesn't end up with Percy ruling the world or shacking up with a God or him somehow surviving eight hundred years in tartarus. I'm tryna be realistic, or as realistic as you can get in a world of Greek gods.

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Chapter 14

Percy IX

Percy winced and ran his hand through his dirty hair for about the hundredth time in a minute. He didn't know if he could take it anymore.

Kampé may be gone, but the sting from her tail had haunted both Damasen and Percy for a long time after. Unable to move, the giant simply lay slumped on the floor, face down, and Percy couldn't move him. They had to stay there, the river flowing unnaturally silent next to them, but at least it cut off a side of attack from monsters. Percy hated staying in one place; he felt like a target was painted on his back, and cursed himself for not being stronger, not being able to help Damasen walk. They were too open, too exposed. They'd both been sat there for days, weeks. Next to him, Damasen let out another gut-wrenching yell as the poison coursed through his veins. The pain was said to be unimaginable.

"Let it out buddy." Percy mumbled, sending a sympathetic glance from his position atop a rock he had been using as a lookout. "I'll protect us, don't worry."

He didn't know if Damasen even heard him, the giant was writhing on the floor, seemingly unaware of anything or anyone. The wails from the giant sounded wrong and unnatural, setting Percy's teeth on edge. But Percy himself was overly aware of how loud the giant was, he had a thick coat gold dust on his biceps as a testament to that. His screams attracted every ugly sucker from every corner of Tartarus, looking for a wounded giant but instead just finding an angry demigod.

Percy wasn't worried about himself when they came; the Achilles blessing made his skin a rival of Hephaestus' greatest metal creations, made him faster, stronger, better. But he still couldn't shake the fear that he wouldn't be able to save Damasen. Monsters thought travelling in packs was safest, and could swarm them, cutting him off from the paralysed giant. Slicing through them was like waving his hand through water, but a second was all it could take.

Luckily, they focused on him instead.

Percy craned his neck around, doing regular scans for monsters. A thick feeling of paranoia plagued him; with his improved Achilles hearing, a stone could be kicked a couple miles away and Percy would have his swords out before it could even land. It was frustrating, and he could feel heavy bags of exhaustion underneath his eyes. It was only up to him to stay awake. They'd all die if he didn't.

He blinked as a monster came round the side of a cliff. An empousai froze in its tracks, just a few metres away from him.

Percy twitched the drakon bone dagger in his hand. Behind Damasen, a previously sleeping Maia rose her head and let out a low rumble. The monster hesitated, baring its teeth uncertainly.

"Just go away." Percy snapped at it tiredly.

The empousai took a step back, then paused. Percy narrowed his eyes. It could be a distraction, Percy's mind whispered, it's a trap.

Before he even realised what he was doing, he was throwing his sword so quickly it was a blur in the air before it buried itself in the empousai's chest. A cloud of gold floated across his face as he stood, furiously checking Damasen over.

"Come on!" He yelled, the noise rivalling Damasen's screams.

He span around, head darting from side to side. Maia batted him with her head and he twitched, stopping his hand from descending towards her. His chest was thumping.

The attack came quickly, a heavy mass suddenly jumping on his back, three more slithering in from seemingly nowhere. Percy twisted, trying to rip the beast off of him.

It scrabbled, avoiding his reaching arms and spinning movements, and Percy's head jerked back, eyes wide, as claws wrapped around his neck, trying to slit his throat. But instead, they just raked over his skin, not even leaving the barest hint of a scratch. Percy caught a flailing ankle, and judo flipped it over his shoulder. The monster slammed into the ground with a howl; Percy slashed to finish it off, but as soon as one was dead, the others took his place, and Percy, exhausted from his lack of sleep, was barrelled into. The three monsters remaining knocked him clean to the ground, his sword clattering out of his grip.

They snarled and clawed on top of him, and for the few seconds Percy's eyes were open, all he could see was a wild mass of open jaws, sharp teeth and slashing claws. He managed to get an arm up, throwing it over his eyes as they tried to tear him apart.

He could feel their talons on every part of his body, an overwhelming sense of being cornered rising up in him. All he could hear were their snarls, right in his ear and in his face, the ripping of clothing, and, somewhere beyond the writhing mass of monsters like a wall upon him, he could still hear Damasen's weak cries.

He jerked his head from side to side, trying to get away, and managed to get his other hand free. He squinted through the flurry of dark shapes, and shoved the one that was trying to see what was behind his lungs. It flew off, and Percy quickly knocked the others off, scrambling backwards.

The monsters growled, shaking themselves off, but Percy's hand had already curled around the handle of his sword.

Not even bothering to think, Percy flung himself at the nearest one, tackling it to the ground. His sword ran through the leathery skin, and Percy rolled through the cloud of gold, coming up to slash at the surprised beasts. He didn't even recognise what they were.

Kicking one in the knee, he brought the other one down with a powerful strike, before beheading the other one. He'd forgotten how good the Achilles blessing could make him. Even after he had lost it when going into Camp Jupiter, he felt he had retained some of the speed, the wild fluid technique that had made him stand out so much against the order of the Roman Legion.

He wandered back to Damasen, a tension building in his head. Like a mix of fatigue and adrenaline fighting in his head, and he couldn't shake the constant feeling that something was watching him, he knew it. He could feel its eyes constantly burning into him. And he'd kill it. He sat down heavily on to the ground and retrieved the bronze sword he had thrown.

His eyes were beginning to sting; he needed to sleep, especially with the blessing. He needed someone to watch his back. Percy didn't realise how dependent he had become on Damasen and Bob. He ran a hand over his sword.

He missed the fine flat sides of Riptide, the lightweight feel of it, effortlessly polished and ready to slice. The sword he'd made had served him well, but it was a mess of swirling bronze metal and sharp points at random places along the blade. Even the handle itself was spiky in some places. Riptide's ability to return to him was what he missed most about it, and he rubbed a hand against his forehead as he thought about a way to recreate that.

He could melt part of the handle and put some string through it, attach it to his wrist? But it was problematic for three reasons: A) He didn't have any string, B) He might want to throw it, and C) He would probably burn any string before he even began.

He wanted to be able to stretch his hand and just have it fly back. Being unarmed down here was the worst feeling. Percy wracked his brains, feeling a slightly Annabeth-esque voice in his head encouraging him to think. What could he do? He could control water, but unless he put some on the sword somehow... or inside. He could cut the handle and put water inside. Percy couldn't stop thinking about the idea, he knew it was ridiculous but it sounded great. He took out the bottle of Phlegthon water- it was for injuries on Maia or Damasen, but Percy had already decided that they wouldn't get hurt in the first place with him there.

Doing another scan, Percy couldn't see any monsters. In plain sight anyway. He propped the sword up on an angle and slowly started cutting into the handle. He went about making a well in the metal. It was rough and unpolished, but by the time Percy poured a little of the water into it, it was doing its job well. He closed it off with a thin layer of bronze taken from the bottom, slightly floppy from where he had used the water to heat it up. Percy raised the sword up, checking it out, feeling proud. He tossed it a few feet in front of him, and tried to summon it back.

Locking on to the flowing of water he could sense, the sword flew straight back to him. It smacked him in the nose, and fell into his waiting hands.

Percy blinked.

"That could have been bad if I didn't have the blessing." he mumbled, rubbing his nose.

He walked back to Damasen, pouring a little of the water onto where he had been stung. Damasen groaned loudly, digging his hands into the rock.

"I'm sorry." Percy said apologetically. "But it's healing you faster."

Damasen didn't respond, just went back to his low groaning. Percy hoped it would be over soon, but he knew it could be long before that happened. The strongest could be incapacitated for several hours, but that was on the surface. Down here... he knew it could be days or even weeks. He wasn't sure how long he'd been down here in the first place. Sometimes it felt like a week, the kind of week where it was nonstop, but sometimes it felt like a couple of months. Bob had always been annoyingly vague in his answers about time, but Percy understood now. There was no way to measure time, and Percy didn't have a watch, but if he did, he had a strong feeling that it would be spinning in circles. Or even going backwards. He could one hundred percent see why the Ancient Greeks had called this place hell, what better place to throw bad guys than in some poisonous pi teemingt with bloodthirsty and carnal monsters? Percy sighed. He was hoping it had only been a few weeks (or days, even), but he knew it could just as easily be months or...years.

Percy sat down next to Maia again and pushed his eyelids open to stay awake, before he found himself scanning the area for threats again.

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Ah right, you guys told me to go ahead with the plan so long as no one gets hurt or dies... Uh. I'll go ahead with it anyway. *insert cheesy and evil laugh here but it peters out because no one else laughs* ha ha yeah so anyway-

Don't forget about the Phlegthon water in his sword! It may come in useful later...

Yoyoyo updated 26/1/19