Dedicated to Bobby for his birthday (: I updated, are you happy?
"You're fighting Enry today," Eros stated, looking somewhat bored as he flicked the steel gray fringe at the edge of his indifference quiver. "He's a tough one. Strengths lie in his agility and endurance, he's got bobcat quickness and that delightful scorpion armor and poison. You'll have fun trying to make a dent in that plated stuff with that dinky little sword. Aim for the fur."
I bristled at his dismissive remark about Riptide. My sword was not dinky! "He's not just going to be flaunting his vulnerable parts at me," I argued, gripping the hilt of my extremely useful and powerful sword. "Enry will keep the armor towards me as much as he can."
"I didn't say it would be easy. I said do it," Eros replied pointedly. He tossed his quivers over both shoulders, standing up and holding out his hand, palm up. I stared at him, wondering what he was trying to do, when suddenly a small silver object popped into existence on his outstretched fingers. "Here, put this on," Eros ordered, holding it out to me.
I took the silver thing from him. "What is this?" I asked, inspecting it carefully. The object was shaped like a candy cane, made of bendy silver wire and adorned with a small engraved arrowhead at the end no bigger than the nail of my pinky finger.
"It's an earpiece," Eros informed me, waving his hands around in a 'duh' sort of motion. "Put it on."
Dubiously, I curved the candy cane part around the back of my right ear.
"The arrow needs to be flat against the front of your earlobe," Eros added disinterestedly, inspecting his nails. "Or you won't be able to hear me."
"You're gonna talk to me through an earpiece?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at the god.
"Nah, I just thought it would look fashionable," Eros shot back, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Yes, Water Boy, I'm going to talk to you through the earpiece. Coach you through your fight, make sure you don't kill yourself and all that jazz."
"I don't need you to do that," I informed him, frowning at his condescending tone. "I can take care of myself perfectly well."
"Well I don't know about you, but if the king of the gods was personally trying to make me lose this fight, I would accept all the help I can get," Eros sniffed. "I'm a good strategist."
"Oh, sure," I snorted in disbelief, staring at him dubiously. "You'd probably get me killed."
Suddenly , the air crackled with heat, and Eros was only steps away from me. "Watch what you say, Water Boy," Eros warned me, his voice dead serious. He seemed more godlike now than ever before, all traces of charming man and bored teenager personas vanished. "I've been around for way longer than you have. I know what I'm talking about when I say strategy. How do you think I know about Enry's strengths and weaknesses? I watch, I listen, I observe, I compile my facts." He paused, blue eyes glittering. "I know what Enry can do, I know what Zeus will do, and I can keep your sorry ass alive."
I stared him down, unwilling to give in. "Why should I believe you?" I asked quietly. "You're the reason I'm here in the first place."
"Because if you die in one of these next battles and your little girlfriend hates you forever, my mom will be pissed beyond belief," Eros replied bluntly. "And that is not pretty at all." His nose scrunched up distastefully at the thought, and I shuddered in agreement. Angry Aphrodite sucked majorly.
We only stood there for a moment, staring calculatingly at each other. I didn't trust him, he didn't like me, but like it or not, we needed each other right now. He needed me to win, and I needed him to help me overcome Zeus' interventions.
Silently, my eyes still locked with Eros', I raised a hand to my head and bent the silver arrowhead against my earlobe.
"Good," was his only comment. "Get some sleep. Don't weigh yourself down at breakfast. I'll be in touch." Eros tapped his ear knowingly, then disappeared in a flash of silver light.
I sighed as I lay back down on my mat, wondering how much sleep I would really get before morning. Something told me that it wouldn't be enough.
Enry lunged at me, and I darted back, swinging Riptide at his furry bobcat head. It would've been far too lucky than my karma allowed for me to make contact though, so obviously I only nicked a couple hairs before Enry pulled back, and my opening was gone.
"Is that all you've got, young hero?" Enry asked quietly, his beady black eyes glinting at me as we circled each other.
"Is that what you think, Enry?" I replied, pretending to be surprised. "Let's see if you're right." And I tore in towards him, Riptide's tip seeking out his chest to aim straight for the heart.
Enry turned, lightning fast, and Riptide bounced harmlessly off the scales at his left side. I went past him, following the swing of my sword and trying to curve back around for a second hit.
"Watch out for the tail!" Eros screamed in my ear. I jerked backward at the sudden booming noise, and by pure dumb luck managed to evade the huge scorpion tail flying past my body. It was close enough for me to have felt the wind from Enry's movement brush my cheek. "You'll have to be more careful than that, Water Boy!" Eros snapped. "The poison in that tail touches you for a second, and you'll be paralyzed, bloated, and oozing all over the place in under a minute. Do you want me to send you back to your little camp as an oversized, slime dripping piñata?"
Great images, am I right?
"Sorry, sorry," I muttered under my breath. Eros didn't reply, and I wondered briefly if the earpiece even enabled him to hear my voice, or if it was solely one-way communications.
Keeping Eros' advice in mind, I watched the tail in my peripherals as I dove and twisted Riptide around Enry's half scaled, half furry body. Enry hissed as my blade tip caught in a crack between scales and carved a path along his plated abdomen. I rolled to the side to evade his swiping claws, leaping to my feet again and dodging his plunging tail.
Eros was right. Enry was very fast.
I had to finish this quickly.
"You're quick, young hero," Enry remarked, not sounding ruffled at all.
"Thanks," I replied automatically, my eyes darting everywhere, searching for an opening at his fur. "You too."
"I've had millennia of practice," Enry said simply. Then he shot at me like he had been blown from a cannon, and only pure instinct brought up Riptide's blade enough to save me from the silver claws that were crashing down towards my chest. The sound of metal on metal rang through the clearing, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Ka Rino scratching in annoyance at her sensitive feline ears.
Great. Another monster with metal claws. With my luck, they'd be just like Ka Rino's and leave lasting scars all over my body. I would look like I'd been through a paper shredder by the end of this stupid quest.
Enry and I fought for what seemed like hours. He didn't tire, didn't make mistakes, didn't let his guard drop. I, however, didn't have the advantage of being a monster with ridiculously long lasting stamina, and it seemed like Enry's claws and teeth were making contact more and more. Luckily, I managed to steer clear of the whipping tail behind him, so there was no green slime oozing from paralyzed, bloated limbs.
Yet.
"Could you be any dumber?" Eros snapped in my ear, waking me slightly out of my battle daze. "Aren't you like, invincible? Didn't you bathe in the Styx? Why aren't you using your Styxy powers? Why aren't you water bending or whatever?"
"This is not Spiderman or Avatar," I growled under my breath, jumping backwards to avoid another of Enry's swings. "I don't have Styxy powers or water bending."
"Whatever it is, do it quickly!" Eros retorted, sounding annoyed. "You're losing too much blood. He's nicked you too many times. Just get the damn battle over with, Water Boy."
"Easier said than done," I grunted, parrying away Enry's claws yet again. "I have to focus too much to use the water, and focus is not something I can spare right now, if you can't tell." As if proving my point, I realized a millisecond too late that my left guard had slipped. Enry realized it first, and in a second I had a new scratch tearing into my abdomen.
Damn. I only had one more extra shirt left in my backpack that wasn't ripped, shredded, or generally bloodstained.
"Then use the Styxy powers!" Eros insisted obstinately. His voice was beginning to irritate me.
"Would you shut up? I'm trying to win a battle here," I snapped, none too quietly.
"Are you talking to yourself, young hero?" Enry asked mildly, pulling his claws back and continuing to circle as he searched for a new opening. "Have you cracked under the strain of your quest?"
"You wish," I growled, lunging wildly forward in a sudden burst of energy. In some stroke of dumb luck, I actually managed to land a solid hit slicing across his furry collarbone. Enry howled in pain, darting backwards away from my blade as green blood began to well up across the wound. "Does it look like I've cracked?" I taunted, flicking some of the blood greasing my blade at the monster. "Actually, I think you've cracked instead."
It was true. My hit had managed to put a good sized dent in the plated scales on his chest, with small spider webs of fractures leaking out from the point of impact. Enry touched one clawed paw to the injury, grimacing as he evaluated the damage done. From the poisonous look in his eyes, it seemed like the boo boo hurt a lot.
"What was that you said before about my 'dinky little sword'?" I asked quietly under my breath, keeping my eyes locked on Enry. My success had given me a little burst of adrenaline, like a shot of espresso injected into my body.
"It was a lucky hit. His scales must be brittle from his horrible diet," Eros scoffed in my ear.
Before I could respond, Enry was attacking again.
Somehow, it seemed like the tide could be turning. I was landing more and more hits on Enry, who was slowing down gradually as his chest scales began to crack and fall to the ground. A soft, yellowish flesh was revealed as his armor broke, and I started trying to aim for the exposed bits as they opened up. Eros was silent through the earpiece, which I took to mean that he wasn't completely dissatisfied with my performance anymore. Either that or he didn't want to admit that he had been wrong about the sword not working on armor thing. That was a definite possibility.
Enry was trying to protect his now vulnerable chest area, and was leaving himself more open for attack as a result. I took advantage of this quickly, slicing at his knees and being rewarded as he fell to the ground, suddenly unable to take his own weight. I could tell that victory was close. I had actually did it. I beat Enry. I had beaten Enry!
And that's when his eyes started glowing gold, and I knew I was screwed.
Karma hates me. Or at least, the king of the gods seems to hate me, and that's equally as bad. Especially when your opponent's eyes start glowing and his wounds start healing over and he gets to his feet when you know for a fact he should be down for the count, waiting for the death blow.
Yeah. I was definitely screwed.
"Aw damn," Eros sighed in the earpiece. "Looks like Zeus has showed up. Goody. My favorite uncle."
"This isn't really the best time for sarcastic commentary," I muttered, watching carefully as Enry's armor started creeping back over the yellow flesh. All of my hard work, flying out the window. Zeus was reverting him back to his state of health at the beginning of the battle. I had to start over from square one, him perfectly fine while I dripped with blood over here.
And get this. Every time my sword made contact, every time I managed to draw some icky green monster blood, Zeus healed him. No wound, no blood, nada. Zip. Zilch. Enry was simply healed automatically, gold eyes flashing as he wiped away the blood to reveal the cuts and slashes instantly knitting back together.
Well that sucked. "Any advice, oh wise one?" I muttered, trying to slice at his chest plates to try and crack them again. Enry dodged with instant speed, retaliating with another claw swipe that I just barely managed to dodge. A few black hairs fell to the ground as his ridiculously sharp claws nicked them from my head. This was not good.
"Yes, actually, Water Boy," Eros retorted. "Do what you did with that octopusy leopard chick you fought before."
"Ka Rino?" I clarified, frowning dubiously at his description.
"Yeah, that one. Didn't you use her own weapons against her? It worked. Do it again."
"What are you suggesting? That I cut off Enry's paws?" I asked, darting backward as one of the said paws swiped in my direction. Enry was almost fully healed now, and meanwhile I was beginning to get dizzy from blood loss. To emphasize this fact, as I tried to back up away from Enry's claws, I actually toppled over and fell directly on my butt. Pain jarred through my spine, and Riptide clattered from my hand. To make things worse, I managed to land on something extremely hard and sharp. It punctured instantly through my jeans, creating another nice jagged hole in both my pants and leg. "Damn," I hissed, reaching to dig the offending object from my leg. "What the hell was that?" I pulled it out of the wound with a wince, and looked down at the pointy shard in my hand. It was a fragment of Enry's armor, one of the dozens that now littered the battleground.
"It's your weapon," Eros replied.
Before I could fully process that, Enry was back on me and I was scrambling for Riptide's hilt to defend myself. In a moment of pure desperation to delay Enry's claws from sinking into me, I pulled back and threw the jag of armor hard at his face.
Miraculously, I was on target. The shard pierced directly through one of the golden misted eyes, and Enry reeled back instantly, roaring with pain. Green blood poured from the wound, instantly flooding his left eye and concealing the gold. It dripped down his face in rivers, staining his fur and leaking off his chin to spatter the ground.
"Would you look at that," Eros commented dryly. "Was I right or was I right? That is a much better weapon than your dinky little sword. The scales actually leave lasting damage."
"Well how was I supposed to know that?" I snapped, annoyed by his superior tone. Eros was getting on my nerves big time with all of his stupid distracting commentary. I was kinda busy right now, if he didn't notice.
"With your Styxy senses," Eros replied loftily.
"For the last time, I am not Spiderman!" I yelled, finally fed up. Leaning down, I snatched up more scattered pieces of Enry's armor, throwing them rapid fire at him. Shards lodged in his face, furred parts, and even stuck in his plates of scales as easily as if they were butter. Green blood instantly welled up all over his body, and Enry staggered to a halt, falling once more to his knees. His tail lashed up behind him, and time seemed to slow down as I watched it come straight for my head.
I wasn't exactly sure how it happened, but the next thing I knew I was grasping Enry's tail in both hands, forcing it downwards until the tip plunged into his furry back. Enry stiffened suddenly, let out one last groan, and fell face first to the blood spattered ground.
"You should probably get rid of the carcass before it starts to bloat and ooze green slime," Eros advised airily.
"Charming," I muttered. I gingerly let go of the scorpion tail, careful not to touch any of the poison dripping on its point, and reached down to pick up another shard of Enry's scales. "Does this count as a trophy?" I asked no one in particular.
As if in answer, Enry's body vanished, leaving only one silver claw behind on the ground.
"Sweet," I murmured, leaning down to scoop it up. I staggered suddenly, and realized in surprise that my head was pounding with headache. Oh yeah, blood loss. I had forgotten about that little problem in the midst of my irritation with Eros.
Well, at least he was good for something.
"Excellent work, young hero," Frio said, coming up and supporting my arm in one massive paw. "I do have a question though…"
"Shoot," I gasped, grabbing my aching head as I tried not to fall down.
"Who's Spiderman?"
It was right about there when I finally passed out.
"There," Zeus said finally, sitting back on his throne. It had been harder than he thought, but now he was satisfied. Apparently it wasn't enough to personally control the monster and heal him constantly. He also had to make sure that Perseus exhausted himself on his own, without any direct hits. He was an excellent fighter, Zeus had to admit, but Zeus had millennia of experience of wearing heroes down, and he knew what he was doing.
But it was strange… he hadn't expected Perseus to do some of the things he had done. And he had been talking to himself the whole time, as if he was holding a conversation with someone during the battle. What was all that about? He couldn't have been receiving advice from Aphrodite since Zeus had forbidden her to do so, and none of the other gods were remotely interested in this quest of Perseus'. His father had already granted him passage to the island, but Poseidon wasn't much of a strategist when it came to battling monsters. And Athena wasn't particularly upset that Annabeth might stay indifferent to Percy forever if he failed, so obviously the best strategist of the gods wasn't helping him.
So who could it be?
Perseus would not be allowed to succeed on this quest, not if Zeus had anything to do with it.
Perhaps he could arrange for Percy's little fainting act to go on a little longer than necessary… it wasn't particularly difficult to keep someone asleep, after all.
Yes, that was an excellent idea.
"I'll just make sure Perseus gets a nice long rest after his tiring battle," Zeus said aloud, smiling to himself.
He didn't notice Aphrodite leaning around the corner of the throne room, avidly listening to his every word. The goddess' eyes widened, and she snapped her fingers quickly, disappearing in a shower of sparkling pink to warn her son.
There was no way that she was letting Zeus spoil her Percabeth fun.
Hey, long time no write. To tell you the truth, it's because I only got two reviews last chapter and I was like 'I sat down and wrote a fight scene for two reviews? That chapter took me forever!' and I was kinda discouraged. So yeah. Just FYI.
So review please? (:
~TMI~