Ayoooo. Whats up, Noun here, back with another chapter. All i want to say is that this chapter may not be the best. I wrote it with a sizable gap between the time of when i wrote chapter seven. So this chapter and the next few may be a little choppy, but don't worry, the plot will be just as great :). Thats all I had to say, enjoy the chapter.

Previously

But my victory was short lived as a new challenger arrived. I realized that the two hellhounds were not running from me but from the thing coming out the shadows. From the darkness emerged a cyclops , slightly smaller than the one Athena saved me from. In one hand it held a six foot long trident that looked like a toothpick in its meat hand. In the other it held a heavily looking iron leash. And one the leash was the biggest hellhound I had ever seen

Chapter eight

My eyes darted between the hound and the cyclops, trying to decide which was a bigger threat. I deduced that thy cyclops would probably give me more trouble. After a moment of staring, the giant spoke. "Look what we have here, Betsy girl, a juicy demigod!" Said the beast.

Betsy, huh. Weird name for a 7 foot tall killing machine. I summoned forth my spear, ready for a big fight, determined to win. I had been thrown around two much, and I guess I was tired of being the Greek world's punching bag. With that in mind, I charged the two beast, spear in hand. Probably not the greatest idea, but I didn't really care to be honest.

"Eager little demigod, aren't you?" The cyclops Said in glee. "Makes lunch easy." The cyclops let go of the leash and held his trident with both hands. I continued my charge, planning to take out the dog quick before moving on to the cyclops. But I realized something very important too late. That the bigger threat wasn't the cyclops, but the dog. As soon as I tried to plunge my spear into the dog it jumped to the side with lightning speed. In a fraction of a second, the dog swiped at me with its massive paw, hitting me a good three feet back. I got back to my feet to see the dog lunging at me, not giving me time to recover.

I quickly got in a defensive position to repel the attack. As soon as the dog was off me, there was a massive trident incoming. I quickly jumped back, avoiding the attack. "Quick demigod, aren't you." Said the cyclops, seemingly disappointed he wouldn't get an easy meal. Boat monsters hesitated before charging again, waiting for an opening. Deciding that I couldn't win this battle with boy defense.

I charged at the dog, spear first ready to land a killing blow. But at the last second I jumped to the right towards the cyclops. I flew high through the air, spear in hand. I imagined that the image must've looked like one from a Greek story. I landed on the cyclops with my spear plunged deep in its chest. I hopped off as the giant fell to his knees. It stayed there for a second, with its one eye opened wide. "Betsy?" It said as it poofed into dust.

I turned around towards the hellhound, ready for it to charge me in a rage. But instead it walked over to the place where its former master died. It sniffed the dust a little bit before walking away, seemingly unconcerned. "Wait." I called out to it to the dog. It turned back to me with a confused expression. I walked over to the dog fearlessly for some reason, ad reached for its collar. The beast jerked his head back, teeth bared. "It's ok." I said. I didn't understand why I was helping a monster, but it just felt right.

I reached for the collar again, this time the hound didn't move, but watched my every movement. I tried to take off the collar, trying to officially free it from its old master. The beast seemed to understand my intentions, and bowed her head head a little bit. I was able to pry the collar off with my spear, freeing the dogs neck.

The dog shook her head a bit before stretching out on all fours. I started to walk off content with my good deed. I turned around when I heard the dog bark. When I looked back my face was greeted by a big wet lick from the dog. I guess it was her way of saying thank you. The dog then ran into the woods, seemingly disappearing into the shadows.

As I was making my way back to camp I saw something pointing out in the moonlight under the cyclops dust. Lying in the dust was the stone trident that the cyclops wielded, with its the three dulled tips. But that wasn't exactly what caught my attention. On one of the tips there was a necklace with a pendant hanging on it.

I picked up the pendant and saw some sort of ancient writing on it. And to my surprised I was kind of able to read some of it. "Heart of the sea" was all I could decipher. I decided to take it back to camp and maybe Zoe could tell me about it.

I made my way back to camp, realizing that the sun was starting to rise and that the hunters were probably already awake. I started to run back to camp in fear of being left behind. I decided that I would ask Zoe about the pendant tonight as I stuck it in my pocket.

As I approached the camp I saw the hunters awake and packing up. I looked to see Zoe talking to one of the hunters. "And you have found no trace of the boy?" I heard her say to the hunter. I walked up behind her and spoke. "Uhh hello?" I said, surprising her. "Where have you been!?" She said angrily. "We al let left you behind."

"Didn't you say that I wasn't your responsibility?" I asked. "Your safety's not, indeed. But you forget the whole point of why I am letting you join the hunt in the first place. It is so we can take down the chimera without risking our own hunters. So it would not make sense to leave you behind right now."

"Oh." I said, kind of disappointed. I thought they were actually worried for me. But I guess it doesn't matter as long as they didn't leave me behind.

"So now that you are here we should get moving. The St. Louis arch is not too far away from here." Said Zoe.

"Wait the St. Louis arch? As in Missouri?" I asked. There's no way Athena teleported me all the way over here. "Well what other arch would I be talking about." Zoe replied.

"So your saying the chimera is at the arch? Why would it be there and how could you tell?" I asked. "Because our scouts went ahead and learned that the chimera attacked some demigods visiting the arch. So we will try and lure the beast away into the woods, far from any mortals." She replied.

"Well I guess that makes sense, but I don't really get why the chimera would be at a national landmark." I said. "We believe it was sent by someone to kill a specific demigod. But that does not concern us, our only goal is to find and kill the beast. Now are you done asking questions?" She asked, seemingly annoyed.

I shook my head in response. "Good," she said. She turned to the hunters and spoke. "We shall depart to the arch at once. It should not be more then a fifteen minutes run."

She looked back at me. "We are leaving, try and keep up." She said with a slight smirk.

I nodded. "Shouldn't be too hard." I thought to myself.

Instantly Zoe started off into the woods with the rest of the hunters following her. She gracefully weaved between trees and ducked under branches, seemingly one with nature. None of the hunters seem to have trouble sticking with Zoe, though I can't say the same for myself. I was constantly getting cut by branches and hitting rocks. And even though the hunters weren't really sprinting, the were going fast enough that it was hard for me to keep up with their pace.

I tried to plan ahead for the battle but the environment was really making it hard to focus. And there was also a sickening feeling in my stomach. Nervousness. I was nervous that this monster would kill me instantly. Sure I had a little practice against hell hounds but this thing will probably be much bigger then one. There's also the fact that it breathes fire, something I've never faced off against.

But then I remembered something. The real reason I was on this quest. Not to be a hero, or to save the world. But for my mom. I didn't really care about my dad too much seeing as how he never even thought to stop by once, and the only reason he contacted me was to ask for help. But my mom was the only person in this world I truly cared about, without her I wouldn't even be here. So I had to complete this quest, for her sake.

Th though of my mother filled me with energy, and I bounded forward making the way to the front of the group, right behind Zoe. But unfortunately for me, that's exactly when she decided to stop. "Halt." She said. Me, being deep in thought, ran right into her causing us both to fall to the ground. The hunters instantly rushed to her aid and gave me mean looks. "I am fine." She said, scowling at me. "Next time lay attention, for we are here."

I looked in front of me to indeed see, the St. Louis Arch. But the scene in front of me was not what I expected. There was the arch I'm a green field, with a huge burning whole at the top of it. There were police officers around the perimeter all pointing their weapons at the thing underneath the arch, though none of them seemed to have much confidence that the gun would protect them.

But the scary thing was the creature underneath the arch. There, in the middle of the burning field, was the chimera, in all of its glory. Safe to say, that the thing was terrifying. You see, I had been imagining pretty much a three headed lion with fire breath, which is scary enough. But the thing in front of me was much, much worse. Instead of a three headed lion, as I remembered, there was a beast with a massive lion head in the front with a goat head protruding from the side, the size of a 18 wheeler. To make matters worse instead of a tale, the beast had a snake for a tail that was at least 15 feet long.

"There it is." Said Zoe. The chimera.