I watch the monsters march down the street from the rooftop of one of the building at the side of the street, they're all looking serious and on their guard. Seriously though, why are they doing that? Do they even know that they outnumber us at least five to one? They can at least be a little bit more laid-back, relaxed, or something like that, not dead set serious and ready to kill us. I sigh quietly in my heart, complaining silently won't do us much good.
'You're too tense, relax.' Nathan is the one who breaks the silence.
I heave out a sigh, 'Of all the people that I can be stuck with, I'm stuck with you.'
Nathan rolls his eyes, 'Hey, you're not my first choice in the list of top ten people I want to be stuck with either.'
I carefully put my eyes on him, examining every single thing about him. Can we really trust this guy? I mean it's obvious that he's really really suspicious, so why did we let him in? Because we need every help that we can get? That would be a valid reason except that he's only one demigod, how much help can he really give us, not to mention is it even worth risking our safety for that? He might be a spy. Then again, not like he has done anything so far to let us believe so. Also, he did point to us that there's not much to spy from us anyway, to this, Annabeth agreed. He never did leave our sight as well, so he couldn't have told anyone about anything, but now is crucial. What if suddenly he springs to his feet and starts yelling like a madman?
I grumble again in my thoughts, I usually rely on my experience of watching over countless of movies, but this is something that I can't really solve because this goes two way. I've seen movies that led to the betrayal of the mysterious suspicious helper, and I've seen movies where the mysterious suspicious helper actually helped the protagonist.
Nathan raises his eyebrow, 'What? Don't tell me you're falling in love with me?' I didn't even realize that I'm still staring. He sighs, 'Dude, I know I'm gorgeous, but seriously, I'm not really into boys.' He says while looking at me from top to bottom, 'And even if I were, you're not my type.'
I grunt, 'You know, you really are one narcissistic Cyclops' pain in the butt.'
There's a wide smirk on his face, 'Thank you, I try my best to be so.'
Nathan stiffens almost right away, his eyes are directed to the street. His index finger is placed over his lips, he hushes me silently. I tear my gaze away from him to the road below. One of the Cyclopes has parted from the marching monsters, it sets its way to our directions, its eyes are fixed on the upper part of the building, scanning and searching for something, searching for us. I put my head even lower, as if I want to melt down and be one with the floor.
Nathan and I tense up as we steal small glances without even moving our head to the road below. The Cyclops stands there, staring in our direction. I feel my heart slamming against my chest, if they discover us, they'll be flooding into this building which goes against our plan. For our traps to work, we need them to march down the pre-determined road normally.
Finally after a while of staring, the Cyclops seems to have determined that there's nothing here, so it turns back and enters the lineup of monsters. Nathan and I exhale in relief, we let our body relax. Though I'm pretty sure Thalia is going to kill me later, she definitely saw we both almost spoiling the plan.
I memorized it earlier, the imaginary lines connecting to each other, forming a square shaped area. It's as vivid to me as if someone had drawn it in a bright illuminating paint. As soon as the monsters fit perfectly in the box, Nathan springs to his feet. There's not a second to waste after all. In his hand is a vial of greek fire and throws it to the feet at the monsters in the front.
Green fire lights up the ground the way people would write someone's name with fire in films. Annabeth suggested using oil as a path for the fire to travel; the green fire traps the monsters in a box. The blaring fire burns brightly and destructively. I can feel the burning heat even all the way up here as the heat of the flame kisses my skin. Sweats trickling down my face, and I can see that it trickles down Nathan's too. The wind blows easily, but it's enough for the blaring flame to reach the monsters in the open box of fire. They start burning down, some turn instantly into dust, others wildly make their way out of the flame. In that instant, Clarisse springs into action with the ground troops and a roaring battle cry, from the shadows of the alleys between the buildings. They mow down any monster that comes out of the fiery box, the monsters provide almost no resistance of having their head chopped off. Thalia, with the hunters, are inside the building, already smashed every window apart earlier before, orders the hunters to volley the monsters with arrows, arrows with head, lighted with greek fire. This all happened so quickly that the monsters behind, outside of the fiery box, are too dumbfounded to do anything.
'It's working perfectly!' I say loudly to Nathan, but still coming out normal because of the cries and roars of the battle.
Nathan is kneeling, looking down below. 'Yeah, well, it's too bad we don't have enough greek fire or oil, otherwise we could have just lighted up the whole army without having to trap them in the first place.' he grunts.
I raise to my feet, 'We can't have everything now, can we? Now come on! Next position!' I turn around and sprint to the edge of the roof. We also took the liberty of removing every railing that the next ten buildings have, just in case. I jump off one roof onto another, I land and I roll forward, glancing back to see if Nathan is following me, which he is. 'Move it! Before they regroup!'
Nathan lands perfectly right next to me, his look is serious. 'Don't have to tell me twice.' He makes his way to an edge of the roof, the one facing the army of monsters. He throws the vial of greek fire to the feet of the monsters, and green fire bursts out of the destroyed vial, boxing a portion of the monsters again. The hunters are spread between two buildings, and they spring into action as soon as the ground lit up. All of the monsters in front of the first building have disappeared, so Thalia and her hunters must have already made their way to the third building. We repeat this process again and again until we come to the fifth rooftop.
'Last vial!' I yell out.
'I could have done this all by myself. Why do I need you again?' He grumbles. Right after he says that, five harpies shoot up into the roof. In that split second, the harpies have our unyielding attention and they use that second to dive and knock Nathan off his feet.
'That's why you need me!' I ready my celestial bronze sword; the celestial bronze blade reflects the moonlight.
The greek fire fumbles from his grip as Nathan's back slammed against the floor, the vial slides away to the edge of the side that faces the rooftop that we came from. The vial remains unharmed, or we all would have been burst into flame by now.
'Get the vial!' Nathan rolls to his stomach, his hands about to push him back up.
I dive for the vial but two harpies interfere and take me by my shoulders. Their claws sinking deep into the flesh of my shoulders as they take me up into the air. I yell out in pain, it takes me a whole second before realizing that they're going to take me off the rooftop and drop me to the ground where their friends are. Basically the option is whether I'm going to die from falling seventy five feet off the ground or being the chew toy of the monsters below.
I thrust my sword upward into one of the harpies carrying me, the blade penetrates its body and it dissolves into dust. The other harpy loses its balance, perhaps it's not strong enough to lift me up on its own. I take the opportunity to slash the feet of the harpy. It drops me down but to my luck, it drops me upper body on the edge of the roof and lower body over the edge, my body slides into the gap between the two buildings. At the last moment, I desperately grab the ledge and hang on there, dangling in the air. I pull myself up, rolling right away back to the ground. I lay on my back, looking straight up into the sky with my arms and legs spread. I lay there for five seconds flat before rising back up to my feet.
'I hate harpies.' I mutter. I look at Nathan, fending off now only two harpies. I would have dashed to his aid but I remember that I have something else that I need to do. I sprint to the last vial of greek fire and picks it off the ground. I make my way to the edge and I fling the vial to the feet of the monsters. It burns brightly but the monsters have broken off from their formation. The fire still works, burning the monsters, and causing more mayhem.
I turn quickly to Nathan, ready to help him, but when I look in his direction, his sword already went through the last harpy. He pulls his blade back and the harpy dissolves into dust. Nathan looks to be slightly out of breath, but his face is still deadly calm.
I look over to the ground force, disposing monsters at every move. 'How many do you think we've killed?'
Nathan stares at the battle below, 'Enough. Now their morale is low, we hold the higher ground, and their number is decreasing at an alarming rate.' Even though he says that, his face is grim.
I raise a brow, 'Why the long face then?'
Nathan shakes his head, 'It's just… It's hard to believe that Yukimura would allow his troops to keep charging wildly like this, leaving them all to be slaughtered. I didn't expect that we would kill so many.'
'You made it sound like it's a bad thing.'
He looks to me with a serious face, 'Yukimura is a master strategist. I don't believe that he would just let his troops march blindly without a commander. Not unless he has a plan.'
I sigh, in movies, he would be right. 'Couldn't it be possible that he contracted some sort of a disease and too sick to lead his army?' I watch the monsters below getting dissolved to dust one by one. We're winning by a seriously large margin.
He laughs a bit, 'That would be swell, but I don't think that's the case.' Nathan looks around, he's searching for something. 'Where's Annabeth?'
'Back at the white house, I think. She's preparing something for the serpent god, I don't really know what though, but I hope it isn't human sacrifice to appease the angry god.' Just then I feel Nathan stiffens.
'Sacrifice..?' He echoes, pausing for a moment. 'Ah, poop.' He groans.
I raise my eyebrow, 'What?'
He looks to me with a grim and serious face, 'I know where Yukimura and the angry serpent god are.'
I know, I know, I'm very late this time. Also... I need to take a little break, sorry, but I have to start studying for my entrance exam.
I'll try to update as often as I can. I won't disappear, so worry not!
