Uh, hi guys? (Cringes at the numerous death glares aimed at my person) I have literally no excuse. So, here's an apology of sorts? I'm just fluctuating on the line of apathy and emotional for the past year and a half and it was not pretty. We've had numerous Covid scares, my brother got positive and we lost our only living grandparent on my father's side (his aunt). So, yeah. Anyways, I'll do my best but I'm not making any promises. I won't do that to you guys. If I manage a full chapter, I'll post it immediately but if not, please do forgive me. I'm just not handling the past 5 years of my life that well.
Sorry about that. Here's the first Chapter of Ocean's Wings. Enjoy!
στην ιστορία!
It's official.
School sucks. Badly.
See, bad stuff always happens to me every year I attend school. No matter how well behaved I am, or the more "special" the school is, something always seems to go wrong so I won't finish a grade normally. I always need to take placement exams so I move up a grade, which, you know. It tends to make your name synonymous to "a failure in life".
Not even being melodramatic here, but let me give you the worst example.
Last year, I found out that my Pre-Algebra teacher wanted to kill me out of a huge misunderstanding with my family, which, take note, I wasn't even aware I had in the first place. No, seriously. I mean, I have Mom, but other than that, I wasn't even aware I had a full array of Uncles and Aunts, not to mention that I had a Dad. I mean, I knew I had a dad, you know, but I wasn't aware I had a Dad. And apparently, the reason why I didn't know was because of safety reasons. Why? Because said family was in the middle of a BIG internal dispute. And unfortunately, I was dragged into said dispute and put in the center of it all, which, for all intents and purposes, is NOT where you want to be.
So, yeah. I really don't have a good opinion of schools in general, but hey. Mom wants me to graduate, so, here I am, snark and all.
Though, as I said, since I was developing a bit of a reputation, the school I'm currently in is considered as one of the "special" ones.
Meriwether College Prep was this "progressive" school in downtown Manhattan where instead of sitting on armchairs, we get beanbags, the teachers all wear T-shirts and jeans, heck, you don't even get grades!
You'd think this school would be the a Holy Grail of the educational system, don't you? Since, let's face it, what student wouldn't want the freedom that comes with no grades, right? Even if you fail an exam, it really doesn't matter! If you don't pass the projects, heck, who cares, right? And that goes double for me, right? I mean, like most Half-Bloods, I have ADHD and dyslexia, so adding that with all the weird things that usually happen to me, not a good combination with being a model student. So, bottom line is I should be glad, right?
Well, I am, but there's a slight issue.
Meriwether's motto is "Always look to the bright side". And, well. The students themselves weren't that bright to begin with.
For example, my first class for today: English.
The whole school was made to read the Lord of the Flies by William Golding. After many, many English-induced headaches ("It's beast, Bluebell, not breast." "Huh. So that's why 'Kill the breast' didn't make sense."), I managed to finish the book and understand it ("Hey Mom, would the world be like this if Bush and the others weren't the ones elected two years ago?" "Now, that's a different topic altogether, Bluebell."). Unfortunately, I was apparently one of the vast minority who did, since most of the kids in school didn't seem to pickup the moral of the novel.
How did I know? Well, for our Christmas project, all of the English teachers conspired with each other and sent the entire school to the school backyard for an hour, without any adult supervision.
Yeah. You can imagine what happened. Pure, unadulterated chaos.
There was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eighth grader boys, a bastardized version of a snowball fight using pebbles and rocks, and a basketball game that looked like it was crossed with rugby.
The girls were all huddled against one of the walls of the school and gossiped like no one's business. Really, I could have sworn they would have been at home with Cabin Ten back at Camp, but I digress.
Anyways, all of the chaotic activities that the boys were a part of (which totally made my point in them not knowing about the moral of the project. Heck, I don't even think they tried to read it, for Poseidon's sake!) was orchestrated by the same stuck-up jackass of a person.
Matt Sloan, resident school rich kid and bully.
Sloan wasn't the biggest, strongest, or Fates forbid, the brightest in the whole school, but he was the kid with the richest parents. And with that situation, he usually got carte blanche on whatever he puts his mind to. He had the beady eyes of a pitbull (no offense to the cute dogs themselves), shaggy black hair (most likely trying, and failing, to emulate the "just shagged" look that many of the Hollywood actors had nowadays), and he has a chipped front tooth (rumor has it that he'd taken one of his daddy's Porsche sports cars and took it out for a spin. Ending was he ran into one of the "Please slow down for Children" signs near the school).
And, to top it off, for some Hades-be-damned reason, he's made it his mission to pester me for a date. Every. Single. Day.
Of course, I said no. Every. Single. Time.
Yeah. The first few times, he's laughed it off, saying that no girl that he's tried in asking (read: harassing) resisted him for long (talk about eww. I'd rather date my pseudo brother!), but I just said no every time.
In hindsight, that may have made me saying yes his goal than just a temporary flight of fancy, but still. I mean, who could say yes to that personality?
And the result is, since apparently I've been made a target of the resident rich kid/bully, that made me Undesirable # 1.
Most students avoid literally even talking to me or bumping into me in the corridors in fear of getting associated with me, and thus, getting into Sloan's radar of people he needs to get rid of to get to me. And that's not even counting his personal circle/cheerleading team of hussies and jocks that are trying to get his attention on them so they can profit off his money. And since his attention was on me, they tried every trick in the book to make my life miserable enough for me to stop showing up in school. Glue on my seat, flooded lockers, the works.
Too bad for them I've been through worse, but that didn't mean it was pleasurable altogether.
And so, with that in mind, here I was, minding my own business on one of the picnic tables that was situated far away from the idiocy that was my classmates were doing, and up comes Sloan, strutting up to me like the overgrown peacock that he was, with his entourage shadowing his every step.
"Well, well, look who we have here. Percy Jackson. Thought about my offer yet?" He smirked at me as he and his band of yes-sayers surrounded the bench that I was sitting in. He himself sat on the bench, put his elbow on the table, and put on the sleaziest smile that I swear could rival Gabe's.
"Answer's gonna be the same as the past few months, Sloan. Get lost," I said, not even moving from my comfortable slouched position as I continued to watch the rowdy game warily. I don't want to get hit by anything that was currently being thrown, thank you very much.
Though, not even a second later, the hairs on my neck prickled uncomfortably as I felt someone watching me. No. Not someone. Something.
I tensed a little, my eyes roving carefully around the yard. Who, well, whatever this thing is, it's as friendly as that hellhound last summer.
My eyes fell on a group of girls that were casually walking towards me and Sloan's group.
I didn't recognize any one of their faces.
Now, call me paranoid since they could be transferees or something, but it was getting far too close to Christmas holidays for anyone to transfer schools, let alone any school that will take them.
"The nerve! Who do you think you are?! You don't even deserve Matt's attention! You should be flattered!" One of the hussies harped as the whole circle glared at me. I inwardly rolled my eyes at them all. Weren't they a little young to try out the whole "social climber" gig?
The approaching group of girls, six in all, stopped by Sloan's side, one of them going as far as plastering herself on his back as she hugged him from behind.
"Who's this, Matty? A friend of yours?" She purred, her fake eyelashes doing little to disguise the venom in her eyes as she looked at me. The other girls that came with her all tittered in venomous glee.
"A target of mine, Kaida. She's still playing hard to get, I'm afraid," Sloan sighed like he was somehow the one inconvenienced with my answer.
"Oh, poor Matty. Don't worry. We're here for you," the girl, whose name was Kaida apparently, cooed at the prick, which promoted him to smile winsomely (which made him look like a rat, in all honesty) at her.
"Thank you. That's just what I needed to hear," he smirked back at me as if to say 'still gonna say no?'
I didn't even bother to stop my eyes rolling as the bell signalling the end of the period sounded out throughout the courtyard.
One of the English teachers, Mr. de Milo, then came outside to inpect the resulting carnage. He took one look at the rampant destruction (a couple of kids were still even in the middle of the wedgie competition) and nodded, saying that we all passed since we all understood the moral of the Lord of the Flies, and that we should never, ever grow up as violent and lawless as the boys in the book. Matt Sloan was earnestly nodding up at what Mr. de Milo said as if he wasn't the main instigator of the chaos that happened. Kaida just glanced at me and smirked.
I just sighed at the stupidity of people and went inside for our second period, all the way keeping my hands inside my pockets.
Science, our second period, was as disastrous as first period.
Mrs. Tesla, our teacher, has us all go to the science laboratory and handed us beakers of different chemicals and told us that our project was to make a concoction that explodes.
I barely controlled the facepalm that I wanted so make at that. I mean, seriously?! You give a bunch of kids different chemicals that has the potential of doing who-knows-what and instruct them to make something that blows up?! We only have flimsy goggles and lab gowns as protection!
And as if I was the only one who saw an issue with the damn project, my classmates just nodded obediently and got to work.
I grimaced as I grabbed two vials that were the closest to me and dumped them into the empty beaker in front of me, quickly backing away from the table as I waited warily for the chemicals to react.
Good thing that I did, since I somehow made a mixture that emitted enough foam to shoot out of the beaker. And was apparently hot enough that there was steam coming out of the foam. Great.
Though, it looks like mine was one of the more anti-climactic reactions, since two counters down, someone apparently put together something that was emitting orange smoke. Mrs. Tesla was praising the shmuck for his apparent success with the project while, at the same time, was dialing the Hazardous Waste Removal team.
I just shook my head as we all were dismissed early from class and headed for the cafeteria for an early lunch.
After a quite normal lunch period (no food fights aimed in my direction by Sloan's group, thank Poseidon), I had Social Studies, and we were asked to draw longitude/latitude maps. I sighed in relief at the normal activity.
As I settled down at a corner of the classroom since I knew no one would even attempt to talk to me about grouping up for an easier project, I opened my notebook to the front page and stared longingly at the photo nestled inside.
Two boys were posing for the camera. The one on the left had black hair, grey eyes and had an aristocratic look about him. Most people would call him handsome if he wasn't busy glaring at the other person in the photo with him, who looked like he was hugging the living daylights out of the other. The offender had blond hair and a scar running across his cheek, but his mischievous smile couldn't be mistaken for anything other than lighthearted fun.
Ethan. Luke.
Both of them were wearing their orange Camp Half-Blood shirts, but with Luke, the sleeves were torn off, revealing arms that were chiseled like an athlete's. They were posing in front of the Empire State Building, in what looked to be the Camp's now bi-annual visit to the place. I received the picture a few days ago in the mail, which prompted endless teasing from Mom (So, anything to tell me, Bluebell?" "Mom, no!").
To be honest, when I received this picture, it immediately served as a lifeline. A reminder that Camp Half-Blood was real and not a figment of my immagination. That I had friends elsewhere who cared.
I was about to close my notebook when a hand suddenly shot forward and ripped the photo from the binders.
"Give that back!" I glared at the offender and was not surprised to see Kaida examining the photo derisively.
"Hmm. So that's why you're so stuck up. You think you can do better than Matty," she huffed as she handed the photo to one of her companions, who looked me in the eye as she immediately ripped that photo in half.
The rest of the girls with her laughed mockingly as Kaida sashayed to where Sloan was watching us with amusement. He smirked as she pressed herself against his back once more.
"All of them are scouting out the school. Looks like they're moving here after the holidays. Isn't that great?" he crowed.
I barely refrained from snarling at the pompous jackass. He reminded me too much of a Cousin of mine that I had a rather big quarrel with last year. I plunged my hands into my pockets, my right hand immediately grabbing the special ballpen inside. I needed the comforting weight of it right now on my palm or else I'd really be tempted into decking the idiot.
Chiron warned me to control my temper against regular mortals since most often than not, aside from doing bodily harm, we might cause things to happen that are not the norm, which would cause pandemonium at best, the Mist intervening at the worst.
Chiron was the activities director in Camp Half-Blood, the most unique place in the world. It's the one place in the world that Half-Bloods, who are children of the gods, are safe from most things that would want to do them harm, like monsters and stuff. Though, if one of the gods is pissed at you, well, goodluck.
And yeah. Half-Bloods. Half god, half man. It also means that we somehow inherit traits that are directly connected to our parents. Which is a big no-no to use on or in front of mortals, of course.
So, yeah. If Chiron hadn't warned me to be careful, since outside of Camp we're a lot more vulnerable to possible monster attacks and I needed to have a low profile since I'm a lot more powerful than the norm, I would have throttled the jackass from the very start.
If anyone here knew the truth about me...
The bell rang, signalling the end of Social Sciences.
"See you in P.E., sweetie. We'll have a blast," Kaida mocked as she and the rest of the posse sauntered out of the classroom.
I took a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds before slowly exhalling. Calm. I need to calm down.
I took the ballpoint pen, which I was strangling the heck out of, from my pocket and stared longingly at the Ancient Greek writing engraved on its side: Anaklusmos. Riptide.
Fighting the urge to uncap it and unveil the magnificent weapon in all of its glory, I stuck it back inside my skirt pocket. I was going to late for P.E. at this rate. P.E., where apparently, some wannabe social climber wants to humiliate me in front of the school rich kid to score some points for his wounded ego. Joy.
At the locker area, I changed into the standard P.E. uniform for Meriwether: sky blue shorts and a tie-dyed shirt. Yeah, I know. It looks like a hippie designed the thing, which, in all honesty, might not be untrue. But yeah. What can you do.
I dressed as quickly as I could since I could hear snooty voices a couple of lockers away and my patience was wearing thin as it is. It doesn't need further aggravation.
When we all got into the gym, Coach Nunley, our instructor, was sitting at his little desk reading a sports magazine. Why was he sitting down when this was P.E., you ask? Well, because he's well beyond the age that standing up for long periods of time would be possible for him, much less teach sports.
Nunley had a greasy wave of grey hair (like a grandfather), had bifocals and absolutely no teeth. He looked like he was well past the age of graceful retirement, to be honest. The only other person I know that's older than him is the Oracle at Camp, and it was a freaking mummy. Yeah. You get the picture.
Matt Sloan stepped forward, a cocky smirk on his face.
"Coach, can we play dodgeball?"
Coach Nunley looked up from his magazine, his glassy eyes trying to focus on Sloan. "Yeah. Mm-hmm."
"Great! Can I be captain?"
"Yeah. Mm-hmm."
Sloan grinned as he immediately took charge of the picking of teams. He made me the captain of the other team, and of course, he got all of the jocks and popular kids, as well as the group of visitors.
On my side, I had Corey Bailer the computer geek, Raj Mandali the calculus whiz, and all of the other kids that Sloan and his posse bullied regularly. Normally, I'll be alright with this since I kinda focus on dodging the Hades out of the way until the bell rings, but the looks Kaida and her five groupies were giving me had my intuition blaring Code Red.
Sloan spilled a cage of balls in the middle of the gym. Then he leisurely walked to where Coach Nunley was and snatched the silver whistle that was sitting innocently at the desk.
Kaida caught my eye and smirked as she and her groupie flexed their hands, looking like they wanted nothing more than to eat us alive.
Sloan blew the whistle sharply. The game began.
Immediately, Sloan's team rushed for the center line, and my team tried their best to cower and take cover. Raj was shouting something in his native tongue while Corey crawled behind a nearby wall mat.
"Everybody, out of the way!" I screamed at a couple of kids standing frozen on the mat, but at that moment, a ball smashed into my gut, knocking me onto my ass. The other team exploded with jeers and laughter.
I coughed a little, feeling my lungs constrict as they desperately gathered air for me to resume breathing. My mind was racing. That... wasn't done by a normal mortal. Clarisse all but made sure that I could at least take hits from normal people.
My ears caught a slight whistling sound which made me roll to the side. Just in time too, since another ball was thrown in my direction. It hit where I was sitting a few moments ago and a resounding boom echoed all throughout the gym, halting the jeers and laughter of the other team. All of them were looking wide-eyed at the six newcomers.
Kaida looked pleased as the five others laughed weirdly, like they were dragging their "s".
"Who are you?" I growled at them, sticking my hand on the makeshift pocket that I had stitched onto my gym shorts, which always housed Riptide. 'Better safe than sorry,' my Mom lectured as she helped me with them. Never have I been happier that I listened to her as Kaida laughed, loud and long, as her eyes turned slit-like, like my Dad's Ex.
I shuddered, horrified. Dear gods. Please don't let them be who I think they are!
"Very good, Persis Jackson! Very good! It seems that the stories are accurate about you. Let's see how accurate they are, s-s-shall we?" Kaida's speech at the end of her sentence turned sibilant and to my rising horror, her lower body started to lengthen and grow brown scales. Her legs stretched longer and longer until they no longer resembled legs, but dual tails. Brown, scaly tails. Brown, scaly tails with black bands that were undulating and serving as her legs, leaving her upright.
Thankfully for my panicking mind and sanity, the resemblance to the wretched animals known as snakes ended there, because instead of her arms fusing to her torso, her skin just turned the same brown color as her lower body. Her face also stayed human enough, though her eyes became yellow and she gained fangs instead of teeth.
Quickly looking at her companions, it looked like they transformed more or less the same way.
Matt Sloan dropped the ball he was holding, mouth hanging open in surprise. "What the hell?! You're not from Vermont!"
The other kids screamed in fright and there was a mad scramble towards the exit, but one of the snake women behind Kaida snapped her fingers and as if it was magic, the door slammed itself shut. Raj, who reached the door first, rattled them, hoping that something would give. It held shut. Some of the jocks had reached the door at this point and started to hit the door, but it didn't even make a sound of protest.
"Let them go! They've got nothing to do with our world!"
"And lose our meals? No, Daughter of the Sea God. It's not everyday we happen to find a place where our whole knot can eat without feeling hungry after," Kaida smiled a parody of a grin as fangs dripping with venom shined in the paltry gym lighting.
She snapped, and instantly, spears and a sword made from bronze appeared in their hands, the tips of the sharp objects doused with fire.
"Coach Nunley!" I shouted, alarmed at the appearance of their weapons. The monsters, I can handle, albeit with some difficulty since I'm alone and all of them were half-snakes, ugh! It was mortals I was worried about.
You see, there's a magical force called the Mist that obscures the mortal's perception on the things that usually happen on our world. Basically, it takes things such as monster attacks and parses it out to events that would make sense to regular mortals. For example, a sword can be seen as a shotgun or rifle. Or monsters appearing as regular humans. That's the main reason why the weird (and usually dangerous, admittedly) things that happen to us Half-Bloods don't get that much notice or attention.
For example, right now. Maybe Coach Nunley was seeing a few eighth graders pummeling us with dodgeballs. Or maybe Sloan's club managed to smuggle in Molotov cocktails again. Maybe the kids were seeing the same thing. It really could be anything.
So, in any case, I'm really not confident they know the full extent of the danger we were all facing.
And so, naturally, Coach Nunley just looked up from his magazine, nodded at me and went back to it.
At this point, one of the snake women, dracaenae if I remember Mom's stories right, threw a dodgeball up into the air and whacked it with her spear. The red ball made contact with the firey tip. Dear Poseidon, please let that ball be punctured!
Alas, as is the norm with my luck, the ball not only withstood the pressure the monster punted it with, but it caught fire as well. Peachy.
And it was coming straight towards me like a firey comet about to obliterate a whole town into nothingness.
Hurriedly, I stood up as I pulled Riptide from my pocket and uncapped it, the ballpen shimmering as it elongated into a bronze Xiphos of medium length, the edges looking as sharp as ever.
I swung Riptide down, cutting the ball into two halves that lost most of its velocity that instead of making a boom, it just kind of went splat onto the mat behind me.
I straightened from my stance, acutely aware of the stunned silence of both the freaked out kids and my attackers. Though, judging by the snarls appearing on their snake-like faces, that won't last much longer.
"Run, damn it all! The lockers!" I all but screeched at the others, prompting all of them to snap out of it and run to the other set of visible doors. Though, before they could reach it, Kaida snapped her fingers, and the doors to the boy's locker room slammed shut.
"No can do, Princess! We're quite hungry, you see. One mortal can last us a week. Imagine how long our stomachs will be full with all of you!" Kaida cackled as she used her own spear as a makeshift golf club and swung at a stray dodgeball on the floor, aiming it at the terrified crowd of kids. Thankfully, they scattered just in time to avoid being burnt to a brisket as the ball impacted with the doors and exploded.
At the corner of my vision, I saw two flaming comets coming my way. I snarled as I cut them both into half with relative ease, but I almost didn't notice the third coming my way. I lunged to the side to avoid a direct impact, but the flames still grazed me, singeing my clothes.
As if that was some kind of convoluted signal, that prompted all of them to start hurling dodgeballs everywhere. Flaming balls of rubber doom flew all around the gym, prompting all of the kids to dodge for their lives, literally.
I screamed in frustration as I took note of a few balls aimed for Coach Nunley's direction and ran to intercept them. Thankfully, I managed to get in front of his desk in time and cut down the balls, though I immediately speinted to where the locker room doors were, seeing as Corey and Raj were still trying to open them, not seeing their firey doom coming closer to their backs at high speed.
"Dodge, idiots! Don't turn your backs on them!" I shouted as I arrived at their unguarded backs and cut down the balls. Corey gave out a high-pitch scream as he and Raj nodded and got out of the way, prompting me to try and charge at the dracaenae. I need to confront them at short range since they had the advantage in numbers, not to mention that I was extremely handicapped since I'm torn between protecting the mortals and trying to kill them.
And they knew that.
It was like a convoluted game of Hot and Cold. I would take a couple steps towards the group but immediately backtrack to save the kids or Coach Nunley from the flaming balls.
"Damn it all to Tartarus!" I snarled as I slashed a ball aimed at a couple of kids cowering behind one of the ball cages. At this point, the entire gym looked like a warzone at its finest. Steaming craters littered the floor and the walls looked as if one wrong tap on them would make a nice sized hole straight into Church Street.
"Fight me personally, you Hades-be-damned cowards!" I spat out as I weaved Riptide to slice another ball aimed towards me.
"We're not idiots, Persis Jackson. We know the strengths of Children of the Sea God. We won't give you a chance to kill us!" Kaida cackled as she and her breathren continued to hurl flaming rubber balls all over the place.
So. A battle of attrition. Either I tire out and they get us, or I snap and approach them heedless of any potential casualties. I bit my lip, hesitating. I couldn't in good conscience pick the second option since whatever happens, that would be a direct consequence of my actions and I'll never be able to look at Mom's eyes ever again from shame. But I knew my own limits, and I knew I was fast approching them. If I go down, it'll be a premium buffet for Kaida and her friends, with us on the menu.
As I straightened and grit my teeth to prepare myself for the long haul, two things suddenly streaked past me from behind and impaled two of the dracaenae, turning them into dust pillars that exploded, raining down on the screeching monsters.
"Who dares kill my sisters?! Who dares?!" Kaida screamed, her yellow slit eyes flashing with unveiled murder.
I blinked, looking at the spot where the two monsters disintegrated. Those looked like... swords?
Hope rising in my chest, I turned back to where the swords came from. Up in the balcony of the gym, a black haired figure was still in a throwing pose. He straightened his posture, his orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt proudly on display, as grey eyes narrowed at the snake women.
"Ethan!" I exclaimed, thankful, joyful and confused all at the same time. What a sight for sore eyes!
"Hiya, sis. I got the mortals. Go wild," he smirked as he stretched out his arms, hands wide open, towards the swords that were still embedded on the floor. And as if by magic, the two swords dislodged themselves from said floor and flew, handle first, into Ethan's waiting hands.
Sparing no time to marvel at the brand new, cool magic items (he can summon them back?! COOL!), I shot towards the dracaenae, prompting the other three snake women to meet me in battle as Kaida continued raining literal hellfire around the gym.
The only dracaenae wielding a sword met me halfway, a vicious snarl on her as she started to meet my thrusts and parries relentlessly. The other two stayed back a little, though they tried to get in a stab or two at my unprotected sides every now and again.
Fortunately, without worrying for the others, I could focus solely on the monsters in front of me, and not to brag or anything, but I was trained by the best swordsman that Camp had to offer.
Thrust, slash, parry, block. I countered and attacked as much as I could, without missing a step. That made the already seething monsters even angrier. Unfortunately for them, it looked like they were the kind to make hasty decisions when angry, since the sword wielding one took the feint I gave as her opening to attack, thus leaving her wide open for a counter.
Her eyes were wide as I sliced her head clean off from her shoulders, prompting her to explode into dust and rain on me.
The two spear wielders screeched angrily as they both did their best to impale me, though one of them overextended, giving me a clear shot of her ribs. I stabbed her, instantly transforming her to dust. With my instincts still running at full throttle, I immediately whirled around and slashed blindly behind me, Riptide meeting flesh as I cut the remaining one through her waist.
"My sisters!" Kaida howled, eye flashing murderously as she brandished her spear towards me.
"You'll pay for that, demigods! I'll have your heads in exchange for their lives!"
"Less talk, more action, Kaida," I growled as she screeched in anger and charged at me.
Strike after parry after slash after strike immediately followed, giving me no time to even breathe as she bore down on me like Enyo herself. I grimaced as I tried to retreat a little to give me some space, but she was on me like a woman possessed.
Cuts and bruises started to litter my body as I tried, and failed, to counter her frenzied attacks, she herself giving no heed to the slashes and stabs I managed to get through her guard.
"What's-s wrong, Daughter of Poseidon? I thought you were more than this-s?" the snake woman smirked, her tongue flicking out of her mouth.
I shivered involuntarily, instinctively recoiling at the action.
"Ha!"
Apparently, that was what Kaida was going for as she took advantage of my lapse of focus and lunged at my thigh, the spear going straight through my right one. I screamed in pain as she grinned down malevolently at me.
"Oh, did that hurt? Sorry about that. Here. Let me help," she cooed sadistically as she then forcibly yanked the spear's head out of my thigh, making the blood gush out in rivulets.
I screamed as I crumpled down on the floor, unable to support myself through the pain. She then smashed the butt of her spear on the hand holding Riptide, prompting me to let go of the sword. She then punted it well out of my grasp.
"Sis!" Ethan screamed out as he immediately ran full-pelt towards the staircase, his expression a mix of anger and terror as Kaida loomed over me, her spear raised directly over my heart.
"Any last words, Persis Jackson?" Kaida gleefully asked, fangs in a parody of a smile.
"Go to Tartarus!" I spat, refusing to back down even though my vision's currently going white and hazy from the intense pain. Ethan's still here. He'll make sure no one else would get hurt.
"You first!" Kaida cackled as she reared her arm backwards in preparation to impale my chest. Though, before she could continue, she suddenly went rigid, her expression morphing from sadistic glee to surprised horror.
I blinked as I spotted something glinting around her chest area.
Something shiny. And sharp looking.
She dropped her spear with a clatter, her head lolling down to her chest, also staring at the thing - what looked like the tip of a blade - protruding from where her heart was supposed to be.
"Curse- you-!" she rasped out, then burst into a firework of dust, raining down on me like demented confetti.
Standing behind her, holding a bronze Makhaira through the space Kaida was occupying a few seconds ago, his scarred face grim as burning angry blue eyes bore into the sudden open space, was a familiar blonde.
"Luke?" I managed to rasp out, all but gaping in surprise at his figure.
He turned to me, eyes all but softening as he met my gaze.
"Hey, Damsel fish," he grinned roguishly.
"Did you miss me?"
There you go guys. A bit short, I know, but here's where I stopped naturally. I'll try to continue slogging through but yeah. No promises on when the next update will be.
Also, some of you guys have messaged me recently, asking if I'm posting or active on any other sites aside from here. Well, I don't have any accounts active on any other sites aside from FF. If you see any, please tell me and I'll be taking action against them. I know I've been on a pretty long hiatus, but that's still no excuse for people to steal other people's works.
Also, as you can see, I'm in dire need of a Beta, since I typed all of this chapter in a day on my phone. If you guys can see any spelling or grammatical errors, hit me with a PM.
Also, to those who continuously left reviews, messages and things, don't worry. I read them constantly. And to be honest, you guys are the reason I managed to get this chapter up in the first place. So, thank you. You know who you are.
Here's hoping the rest of the year doesn't suck as much.
Read and review, guys. Love you!