New chapter, guys! Hope you're all doing well. I haven't had time to write a full chapter for the other book, so I don't know how I'm going to be fast enough to update them both regularly lol. This chapter won't have a cliffhanger cos everyone's complaining about them *hugs knees and cries*
cardmaster11: Well now you've given me the idea, I'm very, very sure it won't happen...
Mika1303: Read on, and your questions shall be answered, my friend! And fine, I'll let up on the cliffhangers...
le hooman: I try my best lmaoo. Nah, school starts next Monday for me, but it'll all be online and stuff so I get to stay home!
TheMeister7: I'm probably gonna sound like an idiot here, but what's a beta? (Unless we're talking about wolves or radiation lmaoo)
Hope you enjoy! Totsiens!
Percy braced himself for impact. He knew the punch was coming and he couldn't dodge it in time, so he simply crossed his arms, shifted his feet against Polybotes' nose and prepared for a whole lot of pain, all in just a fraction of a second.
He didn't even close his eyes, unflinchingly watching the fist that was speeding towards his eyes.
Then Percy went flying, but not with as much speed or pain as he should have. He landed on the ground, groaning.
What happened? He wondered. There was a blur of silver- Shoot! Artemis!
Percy looked down to find the goddess in a heap on top of him, looking up at him weakly. "Saved you... Percy."
Percy got annoyed. "Why would you do that?! You're our best fighter, you should have taken him down and gotten Jason or someone to finish him off!" He whispered, to keep up the appearance that they were both knocked out. Polybotes was monologuing to the rest of the Seven, telling them to come and fight him since he thought the two were out of commission.
"I'll be fine," Artemis said, snuggling into his chest. Was the pain making her not think straight or something? Percy liked what she was doing, but, well... Probably not the right time.
"I'll shoot him from here when he's ready to die. Don't worry, I still have the strength for that." Artemis continued, and Percy nodded. He decided to take a risk, and as he got up, placing her gently on the ground, he kissed the man-hating goddess on the forehead. She rolled her eyes. "Boy, go already. If I didn't need to conserve strength, I'd slap you."
Percy grinned and turned to rush into battle once more.
The forces of Olympus were all standing in a semicircle in front of Polybotes, wondering what to do. Their goddess and best fighters were all out of action, and here the thirty foot giant knelt on one knee, talking in a patronising manner to them.
Jason, getting angry, started to float. Nico too drew his sword and got ready to fight.
But they were the only Big Three children to fight.
Carla and Zeke would later say that they knew they wouldn't be needed, but in reality they were just dead scared. Thalia went to attack as well, but Annabeth pulled her back. Jason and Nico were two of Percy's best friends. Losing them would break his spirit entirely, she thought.
Knowing that Thalia wouldn't agree to sacrificing her little brother no matter how much she hated Percy, Annabeth lied. "We need to find his weakness first, analyse his fighting style," she whispered.
Seeing this, Frank grimaced. Was Annabeth really so callously evil to just let Jason and Nico die? In anger, he turned into a dragon again and started prowling towards the giant.
But then all three demigods stopped in awe at the miraculous sight before them.
Percy, in full black and gold armour, wreathed and lined with water, sprinting towards Polybotes and leaping at the giant.
Polybotes swung his trident, hoping to cut the demigod in two, but Percy disappeared just before the massive weapon could cleave him into Per-seafood.
Everyone, including Polybotes, looked around frantically to locate Percy, but only Jason, who was flying and had kept looking straight at the giant saw, and smirked.
Percy, from midair, had vapour travelled to a point in midair right beside Polybotes' head, a little behind it and to the side.
Percy and Jason made eye contact and grinned.
"I LIKE YA CUT, G!" Percy yelled and smacked the giant upside the head with his trident, so hard that Polybotes flew forward and crashed face first into the ground.
Still midair, Percy hurled his trident. Polybotes had just rolled over onto his back and sat up, and looked up to see the trident coming for his head. He dodged it and turned to face it, getting up.
"NOW, Artemis!" Percy yelled, and immediately, a shaft of moonlight sped on its way to a point in the centre of Polybotes' forehead.
Percy made his trident turn around and accelerate, so it hit that point at high speeds, just before Artemis' arrow did.
Percy's trident penetrated into the giant's skull, and embedded itself up to half way along its long handle. Then a millisecond later, Artemis' arrow of light hit the trident on its end, pushing it deep into Polybotes' head, so far that the arrow even made it into the hole.
Polybotes went cross eyed, and collapsed immediately, looking like he wanted to have some last words but couldn't speak. Percy smirked. With that much brain damage, he was surprised the giant was still alive.
Then the giant's body rapidly decomposed into lots of some poisonous looking tarry substance, a pile of reptile skin bits and scales, and a whole load of seaweed, just like he had when Percy dropped Terminus' head on him last time.
Yep, he was dead again.
Percy finally landed again. His control over the water vapour in the area had greatly weakened due to Polybotes' effect, and fully knowing Percy would feel something like that after what happened last time at Kymopoleia's place, Jason had started supporting him with the wind instead. Percy nodded his thanks seriously, and went back to his joking self.
"Who wants some seaweed? It's really good for you!" He shouted, and picked up a huge bit of seaweed with his trident. He then swung the trident, and the seaweed went flying like an organic ballistic missile.
It smacked into both Annabeth and Thalia's faces, and they screamed in disgust, trying to wipe themselves off. The Romans burst out laughing, and Zeke and Carla started forward to try for some vengeance.
Only to be sent flying back by some even faster seaweed to the face, courtesy of Jason's gladius.
The two boys laughed, and the army of Olympus started traipsing back to Camp Jupiter.
Artemis had passed out, so Percy picked her up and carried her bridal-style to Apollo's temple. In her sleep, she snuggled into Percy, and all the hunters apart from Thalia squealed. They'd wanted this happening for ages now. Any boy apart from Percy, they'd kill without hesitation. But they trusted Percy like one of their own now, and wanted to see both him and their mistress happy.
"So cute!" Grace screamed, and Percy looked down at her threateningly, making his trident fly in an offensive position beside him.
"Young Lady, if I catch you there will be no end to your suffering..."
Percy's voice trailed off at the sight that befell his eyes as he walked into Apollo's palace.
Celyn, who had just finished administering some healing magic to Alex, had just kissed the sleeping boy's cheek and turned around to walk out. She blushed when she saw Percy staring at her.
"You saw that, didn't you." It was a statement, not a question.
"Yes, yes I did. Aren't you under oaths of maidenhood and all that?" Percy said, a small smirk on his face.
Celyn went red again, then came up with an idea. "Yes. But! So is milady." She said, gesturing to the goddess Percy held carefully in his arms. "So..."
Percy looked at her blankly. Was she trying to be insinuating or something?
Celyn looked at the goddess being held comfortingly by Percy, to the demigod, who was being snuggled into like a blanket, and back, and then at Percy again, trying to hint that both he and Artemis liked each other.
Still Percy didn't say anything, confused.
Celyn slapped her forehead, something she'd picked up from Alex. "Boys," she said as she walked out.
Percy wondered what the Hades she had been on about, and placed Artemis down on Apollo's altar. Soon, Apollo flashed in, in a doctor's uniform.
"What the hell happened here, man?" Apollo questioned, looking at his sister. Percy shrugged.
"Polybotes happened."
Apollo nodded, taking it as a very valid excuse, and started healing his sister. They made small talk, and Percy got some water and started healing Alex, who was lying nearby.
Soon, Alex woke up again. "Ah, that's better. Thanks, man. Also, I like ya cut G? Really?"
Percy grinned, shrugging. "I wanted to say something, and by what I was about to do it was the first thing that came to mind," he laughed. "Now, how about you go have some nice chats with Celyn, huh?" He said, wiggling his eyebrows.
Alex's eyes widened. "Man, what? How'd you know I like her?" He whispered, glancing at Apollo.
Percy had had no clue he liked Celyn back.
"Of course I knew, do I look like an idiot to you?" He scoffed. Alex paled. It was that obvious?
"Well, that's awesome! You two better treat my sister and daughter well, huh!"
Percy and Alex both jumped violently in surprise as Apollo slung his arms around their shoulders, grinning.
Alex dashed.
Percy turned to his friend. "Just heal Arty already," he said, rolling his eyes.
"What! She lets you call her that? She gets angry when I do it," Apollo huffed in the tone of a whiny young kid.
Then got smacked upside the head.
"That's because you're the most annoying person ever created." Artemis said, having snuck up on him. "As if nine months squashed into the same space as you and your ego wasn't enough!"
Apollo grinned. "Fine! I'll stop it with the 'Arty'. Since it's obviously reserved for Dear Percy." He started laughing, then disappeared immediately when Artemis pulled out her bow. "Sheesh, woman!" Were his last words before he was gone.
Percy grinned at Artemis. "So how are you, Katniss?" He grinned. The grin was immediately wiped off of his face when she raised her still loaded bow at him. "Okay, okay!" He laughed.
Then he frowned, remembering something. "Before, before Polybotes showed up, you wanted to tell me something. What was it?" He said, looking at the moon goddess.
Suddenly, Artemis went red. Percy really hoped the reason was what he thought it was.
You better not do it in my temple.
"Get out of my head, Apollo!" Both Percy and Artemis shouted at the same time, then looked at each other and laughed.
Still, they both left Apollo's temple quickly.
"Let's go for that walk that Polybotes interrupted," Artemis suggested.
They walked for a bit until they reached the place where the battle had taken place. Percy looked around at all the carnage Polybotes had done to the forest. "Why did you want to come out here, anyway?"
"All the hunters will be in my temple."
"Ohh, so you want to be alone with me, hmm?" Percy snickered. Artemis slapped him upside the head.
"Ow! What is it with you and doing that!" Percy exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head.
"What is it with you and saying things like that?" She retorted. "I'm still not totally comfortable with what I'm feeling..." She muttered quietly, almost hoping he wouldn't hear.
But he did. "And what are you feeling?" He said gently, stopping her by taking her hand.
"I'm not even sure at this point..." She muttered.
Percy made up his mind. If he'd understood the hints everyone had been dropping correctly, this would work.
It'd better, otherwise he could die.
He spun her round to face him slowly, looked her in the eyes, and kissed her deeply.
Then broke off and tensed his body in case he had to run. "Did... Did that help?" He said quietly, unsure of himself. He was a lot more unsure of trying things with Artemis than he had been with Annabeth, because, well, now he knew that Annabeth had been faking her reactions the whole time, and of course there was also the whole castration thing Artemis did.
But then Artemis jumped at him and kissed him, and he smiled into it. Mission accomplished, he guessed.
Artemis pulled back after a long moment, looking at him. "Does that answer your question?" She asked gently.
Percy smiled euphorically. "Yeah..."
Then Artemis smacked him upside the head.
"Owwww. Enough, moonbeam!" He teased. She slapped him again, albeit with a smile.
"The first one was for surprising me," she said. "As for the second one, don't call me moonbeam!"
Percy grinned. All in all, it had been a pretty good day. Well, apart from the whole Polybotes thing.
Then he felt Artemis' hand hesitantly slip into his own. Yeah, never mind that dumb giant, it was a good day.
No cliffhanger today ಥ_ಥ
