Percy Talking
Percy Thinking
Adamos Talking
Adamos Talking
Chapter 43
The Great Escape
"I can't believe that I encouraged her to come." I grumble as I rub my face with my hands. "I wanted her to come because I thought it would be fun but now she's probably traumatized. Gods I screwed up."
It was supposed to be a fun adventure like we had done before, with Lou and myself traversing through theses caves and finding the lost treasures. But now I had probably traumatized her.
Thalia walked beside me and gave me a light shove. When I looked to her for an explanation, she rolled her eyes.
"I thought you were over this. It happened and you didn't know so get over it." She explained in an exasperated tone, seemingly done with my self-deprecation session. "It's not like you could have known she had a bug phobia."
"That's the thing! We've been around bugs before but she was fine then. We were even chased by a swarm in the Lab—Never mind." I stop myself before I can speak more. The Labyrinth was a forbidden thing in camp. While most know of it Chiron has made it very clear that it should be stayed away from because of how dangerous it is.
It wouldn't do me any good if people found out I used it casually to get to camp.
"The what? What were you gonna say?" Thalia asks but I just wave her off. "No, no, no don't stop right there Jackson. Tell me what you were trying to say."
"Nothing," I insisted as I think of an excuse. "Lou has her own lab you know." I bullshit. "She tests things out any spells she knows and she's used bugs before."
Thalia's eyes glow as she stared at me with an intensity that I would say there was electricity in the air, which in this case was probably true and about a moment or two from zapping me. "…So, what's changed this time?" Thalia finally relents and backs off though I could still feel her gaze.
Internally I release a sigh of relief that she backed off but I also feel a small amount of guilt well up within me that I squash down. Lying to so many people I know about everything has been a bit…stressful. "I have no idea."
"Well, you'll just have to make it up with her later because we are stuck down her now." Thalia puts the emphasis on the now. "Stop trying to think too far ahead Jackson, its starting to smell like burnt copper down here."
I was about to retort when a sudden faint scent hits my nose. It was sharply metallic and overpowered the earth scents that had surrounded us before. Like standing in one of those old rusted out buildings near the docks close to my mom's apartment. "I think your right."
"Of course, I'm rig—wait what?" Thalia paused, not expecting me to agree with her.
"The smell. Its metallic." I point out. "It was all earthy before but now it smells like a lot of metal."
Thalia inhales deeply through her nose twice, making her face shift through a few different emotions; confusion, irritation, contemplation and then realization. The smell must have finally hit her as she nods to me in confirmation.
The two of us walk continue forward at a brisker pace and more and more scents begin to get caught in the mix. Old leather, oil, rotting wood amongst a plethora of other things that only get stronger as we move forward.
I trace my hand against the wall and look forward.
My senses spread out to a massive circular area with multiple levels and dozens of rooms in connection to each level but unlike before there are multiple sources of vibrations all moving around in the rooms with the room on the highest level being both the largest and having the largest collection around it yet being seemingly empty save for the occasional ant entering for a brief moment, all of which I relay to Thalia.
"Where is the one with the least ants?" She asks.
"Just a bit further up ahead and through the left turn." I answer not seeing what she wanted. It was one of the smaller rooms and inside it only had two ants.
"Alright. Since its just you and me we're going to have to go around and kill all the ants around us."
"Wah?" I froze as I heard her and it took me a second to mentally review what she just said. "You want to fight these things!?" I whisper harshly instead of shouting. "We can't take on these things with just the two of us!"
"Not all of them kelp head!" Thalia whispers back with just as much heat. "Just a few at a time! We go in, kill them and get out without any of them knowing, rinse and repeat."
"You are leaving this all very open." I criticize, though it was very weak because I could actually see myself coming up with the same thing.
"It's not like you're coming up with any ideas." She responds without a beat. "And we're not gonna be able to go deeper without thinning their numbers, right?"
I sigh as even without actually knowing it she was right. The further that we moved the more that the number of enemies increased. There was no way were gonna be able to get where we wanted without killing something.
"Fuck it. Fine. How do you want to do this?" I concede and almost regret it as I see the slightest hints of a smirk come across her face at the small victory before it disappears.
"Simple. We go through the rooms one by one and kill them."
"But that's gonna take forever." I point out.
"Yeah, well its either that or risk them all coming after us from all sides." She retorts.
There were so many things that could go wrong with this plan that I wanted to point out but held my tongue. It wasn't the worst plan but really wasn't the best either. However, a lack of any other ideas forced me to go along with her haphazard plan and the two of us were sneaking into one of the rooms where I felt two ants marching around.
Best to start small with these things.
Thalia and I stealthily move through the entrance and into the room. Learning from our past mistakes we look around for any traps or hidden enemies, especially above us, but don't really find anything other than rocks.
Good, no reason to go through that experience again.
Up ahead of us we could hear the sound of various clicks and faint scurrying. We carefully moved closer, crouching as low as we could to reduce any sound, and saw two ants that seemed to be excavating the room further. The two of them weren't all that big, barely the size of a medium sized dog and that was pushing it. Small size or not though these things were still ants and were much stronger than they looked.
"How do you want to do this?" Thalia asked as we looked at our targets. "High and low? Left, and right? Maybe good cop bad cop?"
I looked around at our surroundings for anything we could use but there was nothing but large piles of excavated stone.
Wait…that might actually work.
"How about you distract them with your shield while I sneak up on them."
Thalia gave me a confused look as she canvased the room. "How are you gonna sneak up on them? It's an open room."
"Just trust me alright." I pressed making her sigh and nod as she stepped out into the open, slowly edging towards our targets.
I however made my way to one of the piles of excavated stone and got behind it, blocking Thalia and the ants from my vision, but not my tremor sense. I then pressed my hands and feet to the pile and began to pull myself up while also willing the pile to compact into a singular stone mass so that I didn't make any sounds while climbing.
Thalia opened her shield and even from here I can feel a cold twinge of fear run down my spine. The ants however reacted far more erratically, being in the shields direct effect, dropping the rocks they were carrying and practically freaking out. Thalia beat her shield with her spear, drawing their attention along with their violent chittering.
"Come on!" Thalia beat her shield as she called out. Electricity began to run down her arms and across her spear. "I'm right here!"
The two ants rushed her, their multiple feet skittering as they moved far faster across the floor than I thought they would.
Not that it mattered.
I pushed myself and launched myself over the mound and into the air. Riptide was in my hands as I descended onto the ant farthest from Thalia. I feet collided with the ant's body, stamping it into the ground. Their shells were harder than I thought, holding back most of my blade even if it sank a bit into its shell just barely enough for it to kill the monster.
The first ant turned around as it heard the dying chitter of its comrade only to be fried by Thalia's electric imbued thrust, spreading golden dust across the ground.
"Really? You trying to be an assassin now?" Thalia jokingly questioned as she leaned on her spear.
I couldn't help the snort that came out of me as I sent her an amused smirk. "Fuck no." I denied. "Thought about it once before I realized just how ridiculous it was."
"Yeah, you don't look like you have the patience for being stealthy."
"And you do?" I snarked back.
"Oh, I could totally be a stealthy assassin," Thalia said with a puffed-out chest. "Or a spy. I could totally woo the secret launch codes out of some idiot."
"When you say woo, does this or does this not involve you punching them in the face? Maybe in a tight cat suit?" I tease and if not for my night vision I probably wouldn't have seen the slight reddening of her cheeks.
Instead of being flustered for long however Thalia dug her heels in and looked me in the eyes. "Fantasizing about me already Jackson? Imagining me in tight clothes?" I denied it. I didn't hesitate to deny it but in truth the image did actually pass through my head of the demigoddess in such attire. If the way her smirk seemed to widen and the heat, I felt in my face meant anything than I probably failed hard.
"My, my. How shameless, thinking of a girl like that in enemy territory."
"L-Lets just get going. We've got more rooms to go through." I said tersely, trying to push past the moment while ignoring the teasing in my head.
Thalia didn't say anything, letting the moment drop but still wearing that smirk that spoke a thousand words.
"Where the hell have you been?" I snapped once Thalia and I fell into silence. "I could have used you earlier before we got separated from the others."
"You were doing such good job I thought you could handle it." He says without a care.
"But I wouldn't need to handle it if you had helped."
"I believe in allowing my students to make their own mistakes."
"And I believe your just lazy." I retort only to get a laugh.
"Say what you want but my track record for training heroes is pretty good. So, it clearly works." With his piece said I feel him retreat back into my mind.
Pushing forward together we moved through the rooms one by one ambushing the ants that were inside. We tried multiple different ideas, changing up how we proceeded even if the method worked perfectly. It was a good chance for the two of us to try our hand at thinking on the spot of trying new things since we had someone to watch our backs and in a relatively controlled environment with enemies that we didn't need to hold back against.
I don't know how but at some point, we made it into a sort of competition and it was honestly kind of fun. The two of us were trying to one up each other with our kills. Thalia would try to take out three ants all at once with her lightning while I tried to kill two of them at the same time with my sword.
She won that round.
Another time we tried to use our shield only, leading me to show her my shield which made quick work of my targets due to the absorbing properties as opposed to her Aegis which only made them freak out.
Point to me.
It went on as we cleared the numerous rooms until we made it to the last room. A tie led us to where we were now. Looking at a room with four ants each spread out from each other and carrying some kind of oily substance in their pincers.
"Alright so I get two and you get two?" I offered. "Most impressive wins?"
Thalia scoffed good naturedly as she twirled her spear. "I'll take three."
"Like hell you will." I challenged. "I'll take the left if you want the right. You can even have the smaller one." I pointed to one of the ants.
"It's the same size as the rest of them." Thalia retorted.
"Whatever excuse helps you!" I said as I charged out from our hiding place, ignoring the 'hey!' from Thalia as I took the lead. The ants all turned to us and I veered to the ones on my side. A streak of lightning that I recognized as Thalia's spear flew past me like a spear punched a hole through the ant like it was tissue paper and I clicked my tongue at losing the first hit.
The monsters on my side scuttled forward and threw my shield in a straight line towards the ground, directly before the first of my ants. The metal disc skipped when it hit the ground and hit the first ant from bellow, the stored kinetic energy releasing and launching it towards me.
I skidded to a halt as the giant insect flipped head over heel in the air and swung Riptide. The blade cut through the soft part between the hard shells, cutting he monster in half and turning it to dust.
Thalia, not wanting to be out done lowered herself as she ran. Her shield blocked the pincers before they could ram into her as the ant seemed to terrified by the shield to bite, only for her to swing the metal dish to the side in a wide arc. Electricity coated the edge, giving the shield some extra power as it cleaved through the ant's spindly legs, Thalia didn't stop her turn however and further spun on her foot, letting the side sweep flow into an over head hammer arm that split the ants head in half with the shields edge.
I clicked my tongue as I looked at my last opponent with only a partial idea on how to kill it. I needed something to give me an edge to win, something she hasn't seen before. I don't know why I'm investing so much effort into this competition but I'm actually having fun and I really, really don't want to lose to her.
I smirk as I came up with an idea from something, I saw on tv once.
The ant came up to bite me in the leg but missed as I took a quick step back and retaliated with a swift kick to its face followed by a slash from Riptide, the celestial bronze striking the hard shell and bouncing off as it left a nice dent.
I hold my hand in front of my face, my pointer and middle fingers extended as I cast the spell Ignis Aard but try to maintain it as much as possible. The spell itself is rather rigid in its uses as its meant to be used quickly by warriors as an alternative attack since they aren't as dedicated to magic as actual mages, but simply maintaining the spell over a period of time is well within its parameters.
The runes form in front of my mouth and a stream of flames come forth, almost like I'm breathing fire, or in my case casting a novice ninja magic.
I can feel my insides clench the longer I push the spell past its intended usage, my stamina draining faster and faster by the second. The flames cover the ant and it is slowly cooked over until the area is filled with the scent of cooked insect.
"Ok! I call bullshit!" Thalia calls me out as she marches right up to me. "Since when could you breathe fucking fire?!"
"I've always been able to breath fire." I say coyly. "It's just one of my many talents."
"No," Thalia denies with a glare. "the earth bending…whatever I can believe, you having military explosives I can take, but I am drawing the line on you breathing fire Jackson. There's only so much bullshit that you can spew."
"Are you really that mad about me breathing fire or is it because you lost?"
"I didn't lose!" She denies as she gets up in my personal space. I had to resist the urge to smile as she got up in my face and glared. I don't know why it felt so hard but for some reason the entire thing just seemed so funny.
"Would you agree to a tie?" I compromise as I lean away only for her to follow me.
She scrutinized me for moments, looking me up and down like she was trying to figure me out before she spoke again. "On one condition. You teach me how to do that and that shield thing you were talking about earlier."
"I gue-wait what?" I almost accidentally agree but catch myself at the last moment. I expected her to question me more and push for winning, but I hadn't expected her to ask for me to teach her. "You want me to teach you?"
"That's exactly what I said Jackson." Thalia pushed forward with her request. "You're going to teach me magic."
"Wouldn't Lou be a better choice." I deflect. I didn't really feel too good about dumping Thalia on Lou but I already had my own training to consider, both physical and magical. I couldn't just take on Thalia as a student when I was still a student myself. I try to ask Adamos for help but like so many other times the god is quiet, probably deciding that this was to entertaining to intervene. "She's a one of Hecate's kids so she would know better than me."
"Maybe she does." Thalia agreed. "But I'm not looking to learn how to be a witch or whatever. What I want is to learn what you know. You did something to that spear when we first sparred, you don't need armor because you apparently have a forcefield, and now you breath fire."
"Wasn't actually breathing fire." I mutter under my breathe.
"The POINT is Jackson is that you know far more than you should and I want to learn it."
I'll admit that I was caught off guard as she continued to press me into teaching her. I had never had a student; I mean sure I taught a few things to some of the other campers and showed some magical stuff to Lou but those were more tips and stuff rather than an actual teaching position.
"We'll Jackson? Are you gonna teach me?" She pressed even further into my space to the point that I could smell the scent of ozone and pine coming off her and as I took a step back, I felt my back touch something hard and I just realized that I was now cornered. I could just push past her and ignore her but I knew her type, I could see it in her eyes that she wasn't going to let this go. She would probably hound me to teach her every time we crossed paths.
No, don't break under the pressure Percy. Just look her in the eyes and say no. Don't get distracted just because she doesn't understand the concept of personal space and is practically pressed against you.
"I…guess I can make some time." I say weakly and I can still feel her breath on my skin. "What in the hell are you doing!?" I mentally berate myself. "Why are you caving to her!?"
Thalia, unaware of my internal chastisement just smirks and leans back out of my space. "Glad your so willing Jackson. Maybe you're not as bad as everyone says."
"I-er yeah, no problem I guess…wait what do you mean not as bad?" I ask but Thalia just walks off with a satisfied smirk. "Thalia? What do you mean 'not as bad'? Thalia? Thalia!?"
Despite me asking over and over for clarification she still didn't expand on who was talking shit about and instead just wore an amused look on her face. It hadn't even been a few minutes and I was already regretting the idea of spending time to teach her. I could tell my future was going to be full of headaches.
The two of us walk out of the room at a sedate pace as I reached out to make sure that we were alone. My senses expanded and I searched around us only to find nothing. There was no movement of any kind and as far as I could tell none of those eggs anywhere. "I think we're in the clear." I told Thalia as I detached myself from the wall. "At least in our immediate area."
"Which leaves the last room." Thalia pointed to the hole in the wall farther down the path. It was larger than most of the other rooms based on the entrance alone and seemed to be where most of the ants had gathered while we were killing them.
Thalia took the lead without any prompt and strutted up the levels to the highest room with me following behind. Her sudden gasp and muttering of 'holy shit' drew my attention and I pushed forward to see what she was seeing, and let it be known that I was very surprised.
Piles upon piles of different items were systematically stuffed into the room like a hoarders wet dream. Everything from armors to weapons, monster trophies to drachmae, and even a chariot was all stored into the room with expert care. They were all well polished and seemingly glowed in the dimness of the cave, giving the entire thing a lost magical treasure sort of vibe.
It was amazing just how large the hoard was to the point that I couldn't really find the words. Thalia however had no such problems.
"How much shit do we have!?" She asked with arms in the air. "There's gotta be like, enough crap down here to out fit the camp and then some."
"I think most of this stuff is in better condition than we have them." I commented as I walked over to a sword and pulled it from the pile, accidentally casing a small avalanche of items that forced me to step back. "Is this why we only have crappy used equipment? Because all the good stuff keeps getting stolen?"
Twang! Think!
I look over to see Thalia holding bow in a finished pose while an arrow was stuck inside of an old leather chest piece. "Aha! I knew I was a decent archer. It was the crappy equipment that was messing me up."
I let out a laugh as she tosses the bow back into its pile and begins to search for something else to play with. I meanwhile take off my backpack and unzip it, opening the bag of infinite space to take all of this back to the surface.
I grabbed a sword and a helmet and start put them in the bag before stopping. I take a step up to get more height, only wobbling for a moment as I balance myself on top of the unstable pile. All around me are piles and piles of items both large and small that reach far back.
"Fuck me this is going to take forever."
"Yo! Jackson come check out what I found!" Thalia calls from somewhere.
I turn to her direction but don't see her until a stray hand rises over the piles only to descend just as quickly. It takes me a moment to realize that she's jumping so that I can see her better, something that wouldn't have worked if I wasn't on top of my pile.
I slide down the heap, dragging metal objects down with me and sending them clanking into the floor before attempting to navigate my way through the piles.
Going around I came up to Thalia, who was hunched over something large, from behind. I couldn't see what she was looking at but whatever it was looked almost the size of a small car and much like everything else in here it was clearly made of celestial bronze.
"Check it out Jackson." Thalia said excitedly as she stepped out of the way, letting me see what had her so obviously pumped and what I saw was not what I expected.
Sitting there buried under a pile of junk was a huge head of a dragon, and not just any kind of dragon mind you but a gods damned robot dragon! The head reached the bottom of my chest alone and was made entirely out of celestial bronze. Its mouth was filled with rows of serrated steel blades that must have been meant as teeth along with an inner row or cone shaped drill heads. The eyes were massive red orbs that I almost thought were rubies if it weren't for the fact that they didn't feel like gemstones.
"What heavy metal album did they steal this from?" I asked halfway between sarcastic and genuine curiosity.
"It's so cool right?!" Thalia was actually looking pretty excited as she looked it up and down, almost like a child on Christmas. It was a contrast from her usual bold and upfront personality, but then again she was geeking out over a robot dragon so it was understandable. "Look there's even some disconnected parts at the base of the skull which means that it might actually have a body around here somewhere."
"Thalia there's no way we can actually look for its body right now." I say, not really wanting to kill her enthusiasm but pushing forward anyways. "We have people up top that are counting on us."
Despite trying to remind her she still gets a dejected look on her face and even kicks the ground like a kid told no. I'm gonna be honest it was very amusing. "Fine, but he's gonna be mine when he's all fixed up." She demands.
I just shrug, not seeing a problem. "Fine with me, every girl needs her own dragon shaped murder bot."
"Damn straight." Thalia nods, ignoring my sarcasm.
"But if you want him your going to have to convince the Hephaestus cabin to fix him for you but I gotta tell you they ain't cheap."
That actually gives Thalia pause as she sends me a confused look. For a moment I don't know what she wants but then then it occurs to me that she's probably never had any work done by the cabin. "The Hephaestus cabin already has a long list of things that they're working on," my ship being one of them. "So it's gonna be a long time until they start working on this guy, unless you can convince them to put this first or have something with enough value to put it first."
My explanation only further seemed to sap the wind from Thalias metaphorical sails as I'm pretty sure she didn't own much beyond her weapons and clothes. "But it's a robot dragon!" She said, in what I would almost call a whine, as if that mere statement explained everything.
I mean robot dragons were indeed awesome so it was completely understandable.
"Actually," I looked at all the stuff around us and sighed to myself. "I don't think we'll be able to take any of this." I admitted.
"Why not." Thalia asked. "Isn't all this stuff the reason you put this whole thing together? Why are we just leaving it behind?"
"There's just to much stuff," I explained. "It would take us all day to search through it all and take it with us, even with my infinite bag…plus I'm pretty sure I can't fit that into the opening of my bag." I point to the dragon head as I add on that little tidbit after a moment of thought. The two of us could definitely lift it, demigods were naturally strong after all, but there was no way my back pack could open up enough to push it through.
"The what are we going to do about all this Jackson?"
I cross my arms over my chest as I think about how to solve this. We couldn't carry it out as there was far to much to search through and we couldn't have the guys topside fighting all day and night. That meant that we would have to come back to retrieve it later with others, but how would we get them out of here? The pathways the ants made would be too small for some of this stuff.
"Your missing the obvious solution." Adamos spoke up, interrupting my train of thought.
"Really? How?"
"Your trying to figure out how to take this stuff away when that's the easy part. What you need to do is make this easier on yourself."
"I guess I could make the tunnels bigger so that moving everything is easier." I think, coming up with an image of a mining shaft in my head.
"That's not…sigh, why would you worry about making the tunnels bigger when you can just raise it all to ground level."
I frown in confusion. "But wouldn't that collapse the entire structure on top of us?"
"Not if your doing it from above the structure."
It takes me a moment to figure out what he's talking about before I smack my forehead for being such a fool.
"Uh, you ok there kelp head?" Thalia asks me with a raised brow.
"Thalia!" I ignore her questioning look as I turned to meet here with a smile. "How would you like to learn your first lesson in magic?"
"I'd love to but is now really the time?"
"Of course. Now is the perfect time because you are going to help me with a spell." Her eyes widen for a moment as a smile stretched across her face. She turns to me fully, giving me her undivided attention. "Now the first thing you need to learn about my magic is that isn't the same as Greek magic."
Once more Thalia looks at me with confusion, as if I had grown a seconded head. "What do you mean 'Greek' magic? Isn't it just magic?"
"Not at all." I shake my head at her assumption. I couldn't really blame her as I had similar thoughts when I first started out. "Greek magic is mostly manipulating the Mist with words, intent, or rituals to create a desired effect. If you want to learn that than you would need to go to Lou. My type of magic isn't something that can be learned at camp."
"Ok if it's not something you can learn at camp then what kind of magic is it?" She asked skeptically.
I grinned as I crouched down and began to draw in the dirt. I pushed some of my power into the world and felt my gut clench slightly before releasing as the a small shard of ice sprouted from the ground. I smirked when I saw Thalia mouth open and close a few times. "The basis for my magic is runic magic. Using an entire language to create phenomena."
"That is so cool. What else can you do?" The Demigoddess asked in excitement as she crouched down in front of me, once again losing the tough attitude. It was actually endearing in a way, that she was willing to open up this much. I'll even admit that I was getting a bit excited to teach her.
"Runes just make up the basis for the spells I normally use. The breathing fire one is actually a variation of the runes and something else but you have to learn this first. It will take some time but you have to learn to write these down."
The moment I mention writing her excited smile flips into a frown. It's one that I know very well as I've seen many a demigod, myself included, wear that frown at the mention of paperwork or anything resembling it.
"Hey now no frowning." I chastised. "You're the one who wanted to learn this. Now instead of making you learn the entire alphabet I am going to write something on the wall and I'll need you to copy it as best as you can. The size of the letters doesn't matter it how well it looks does." I the proceed to walk over to a nearby wall. I trace my finger over the dirt, putting some of my power into it it as I wrote and making each letter glow until a sequence for 'beacon' and 'tracking' was made.
"Now I want you to write this," I pointed to the glowing runes. "All along the wall. Size and spacing doesn't really matter for the runes but how well you write them does."
Thalia nods and looks over the runes before slowly trying to write it out as best as she could. Nodding at her I began to walk over to a different wall to get started.
"Yo Jackson!"
I didn't even make it five feet before I had to turn around. "It hasn't even been five seconds. What did you get wrong?"
"I didn't get anything wrong." She snaps defensively. "It's just not glowing like yours."
I look between the two works and while Thalia's runes are crude and need work they are still legible so sh didn't get any of that wrong. "Have you tried putting some of your power in it?" I asked. "These things don't just run on hopes and dreams you know."
"There are some spells and phenomena that do." The unhelpful voice chimes in.
"How do I do that?" Thalia asks impatiently.
"Magic comes from the same place as your demigod powers." I begin to explain, pulling from my own lessons with Adamos so long ago. "Both are like muscles on your limbs. You demigod abilities like your lightning and I'm assuming wind make up the majority of your power. They are strong but generally set in what they do, however magic would be your hand. Fully destroys and can do far more than what your arm is capable of but not nearly as strong." I look back to Thalia and feel satisfied when I see that she at least understands what I'm trying to explain. " now I'm not saying that they are exactlsy like an arm and a hand but that's a close comparison. You can train powers to be more flexible and magic to be stronger, but ultimately they come from the same place."
"I guess that makes sense." Thalia nods in some understanding. "So I just have to do what I normally do but put it into the words?"
I shrug."Generally yes. Your not really trying or move anything around you but more trying to put that power into a container." I pat the inscribed words. "From there it will be contained. Generally runes like this will sustain themselves off the mana in the atmosphere or something so you really just need to start them up. Others vanish when cast but those are the ones that have an immediate effect or some such, it will be easier to explain when we're in a nicer setting."
Thalia nods and places her hand over her runes and adopts a look of concentration. Now I've never really looked at the magical process from the outside despite having around Lou so often but I definitely felt the shift in the air as Thalia began to pour power into the runes.
"Your doing to much," I warned and felt the air shift. "Now to little."
"Well how much am I supposed to put?" She snaps lightly.
"Like a middle amount?" I say, unsure as to an adequate amount that can be properly described. "Like instead of a 'bwoosh' or a whuum' you go with a hmmrgh' kind of feeling."
Thalia just looks at me like I'm an idiot and I start to feel my face heat up from the intensity. I'll admit I felt like an idiot for how I worded it it but it's hard to describe in general! It's not like there's a number system for this shit!
"Look just put in a decent amount." I say hurriedly as I march off to my side of the room to put in my runes and maybe die a quiet death from embarrassment.
The two of us don't really speak after that as both of us are focused on our work. Occasional I see Thalia stopping to take a break, at which I go back to review her work before returning to mine. I'll admit that she does some decent work for a beginner but her had writing needs some serious work. It's pretty bad, even if it's still legible.
It took us a while but we managed to get a good portion of all the walls with runes. When I close my eyes and reach out I could see the outline of the entire room laid before me.
"Alright that's good enough. We can head on out."
"Oh thank gods." Thalia groans as she stretched her had to get rid of cramps. I truly felt for her in that moment as writing was still a pain even after getting used to it. "I don't think I can move my hand any more." I dig through my pack and pull out some of the nectar which she takes with grateful look before downing a mouthful. "So what do we do now?"
"Now we go down and end this."
X
I don't really know how long it took use but with my ability to map out the nest Thalia and I found ourselves delving deeper into the tunnels to where the queen was supposed to be and where most of the ants seemed to be moving about.
We killed more and more of the insect monsters as we delved deeper to the point our clothes seemed to be coated with monster dust. We were slowly running out of our ambrosia and nectar rations as we pushed forward despite our mounting fatigue.
Thalia crushed the skull of the last member of a squad of ants with the edge of her shield. Her face and hair were coated in sweat much like myself. She had taken off her jacket and stuffed it in my bag, leaving her with just her sweat soaked shirt that seemed to cling to her form in a way that would have been distracting if I wasn't so tired as well. The underground tunnels providing little circulation for air and making the entire area rather humid.
"Is that it?" Thalia panted as she let her arms slump.
"Yeah." I said feeling just as tired in the muggy air. I pressed my hand on the wall and searched around only to find emptiness everywhere except below us. "Nothings gonna come get us and we are right where we need to be."
"Fucking finally." I heard Thalia mutter, a feeling that I agreed with. I had no idea how long we had been down here but I was ready to end this and put it behind me.
"You remember the plan?" I asked as I dug through my pack and stacked the C4 bricks along with Greek fire bombs.
Thalia nodded in affirmative as she started to recite our plan. "Your going to lower me from the ceiling and I'm going to plant the bombs. Once that's done we get the hell out of dodge and blow this place when we get topside."
"Sounds about right." I hand her a length of rope that she uses to tie around her waist using the knots we learned from camp, followed by the explosives. "Remember to space the out. We have to get as many as possible."
"Yeah, yeah I got it. Don't get your panties in a bunch." She waves off.
I let the dismissal slide as I create an arch in the ceiling to act as a makeshift pulley along with some runes to reinforce it since it's made of dirt and stone. I the open a hole in the floor directly into the room of the ant queen.
The two of us laid down and stuck our heads through the hole in the ground to get a full view of the room. The entire place greatly resembled the room where we found the treasures. Fully round with multiple entrances/exits at varying levels around the room. However where the previous room was mostly empty this one seemed littered with various eggs all along the ground and walls, different from the other room where we were separated from our group since that one was filled with pupa. Ants walked through various paths, all carrying food. And at the center was—
"Holy shit that's a big bug." Thalia hissed as we laid our eyes on the massive thing that must have been their queen. Compared to even the largest of the ants that we had killed the queen was much larger. Even in a resting state she was probably almost twenty feet tall with a pointed exoskeleton as compared to the smoother ones all the other ants had. Her mandibles were large for in comparison to other ants, being twice as long in comparison. The abdomen however was completely massive to the point that I actually wondered if it could move at all, let alone turn around.
"Ready?" I asked Thalia as we shimmered our torsos back up the hole. She met me with a determined nod and I looped the rope around the arch in the ceiling and began to lower her slowly.
My arms strained with each moment as Thalia descended. She wasn't heavy, and I would never tell her she was because I liked my nuts in bruised, but slowly lowering a person was kinda hard. Having to slow down so that she isn't detected and keeping a steady pace took effort.
The rope swayed back and forth and I stopped, only wondering how Thalia was fairing down there since I couldn't see.
X
Thalia could only wait as she let herself be lowered inch by agonizing inch into the egg infested room of the ants. It wasn't the same as flying or being in a how tower so she didn't have too much of a problem with being so high, despite being suspended. She knew that Percy wasn't going to drop her, you don't invade a monster infested nest without some level of trust being built up after all.
And on the subject of the son of Poseidon, Thalia didn't really know what to think of him. When they had first met (popping from the tree doesn't count) she could almost claim to have not liked him at first sight. He had an easy going attitude and a crooked smile that seemed friendly enough but at the same time there was always that mingling little feeling in the back of Thalia's mind that told her he was hiding something.
And Thalia was never one to ignore her instincts.
As the days went on Thalia had watched Percy Jackson whenever she had the chance and it only proved her suspicions more and more. Despite seemingly being friendly with everyone in camp she never really saw him hanging out with people. Sure he did have a small group that he interacted with like Lou Ellen, Beckendorf, and sometimes the Stolls but he always seemed like he had something better to do.
He barely even participated in some of the camp activities, although Thalia herself barely went to any that didn't involve combat so maybe that wasn't much of a hint.
But the real kicker was his weird array of talents. From combat, to magic, to even his powers he fought like someone who had been practicing for years rather than the implied two and a half years that everyone says. She heard he was a swordsman but he wielded a spear just as as well as her which had been a surprise and he even admitted to to knowing magic that didn't come from anywhere in camp, not that Thalia was going to call him out in it.
She still wanted to learn how he did that fire ball and the other things he does so she'll let that slide.
But that doesn't extend to everything else, like the fact that he's been sneaking off in the midlife of the night to do knows what. Thalia only found out one night when she was having trouble sleeping and decided to sit outside her cabin only to see him leave in the middle of the night. After that she began to stay up late to watch him leave at roughly the same time every night only to return in the morning.
Where was he going and what was he doing? Despite how lax everyone seemed to be they all knew that war was brewing on the horizon and were on the look out for anything suspicious.
And what is more suspicious than a guy that everyone seems to like yet with few friends that seemingly disappears into the night.
Definitely suspicious.
But for now she'd play along if only to keep an eye on him.
Thalia tanked on the rope, signaling Percy to stop as a trio of ants wandered just underneath her to carry more food to the massive queen in front of her. The demigoddess silently thanked whatever deity that took pity on her that the massive thing couldn't turn all that well.
When the ants passed beneath her Thalia rang the rope again to signal Percy to start lowering her once more. There were no o her interruptions as she felt her feet hit the floor with a soft tap. She pulled the explosives close to her chest, trying not to jostle them as she untied the rope began to move between the eggs.
She began to place the fire bombs randomly in the mass of eggs with a brick of C4 every now and then. When the bombs go off they would break the fragile casing of the fire bombs, causing them to detonate as well in a chain that would hopefully engulf the room.
Thalia wasn't an expert in explosive ordinance but she had blown up enough monsters and things in her life to at least know where to put them so they could do a lot of damage.
Click!click!click!
Thalia paused as and crouched lower behind a pile of eggs as an ant wandered close to where she was. She could hear it's light steps against the floor as it passed by. Thalia grimaced when she felt the gross slimy texture of the egg on her back.
"Gods this is so gross." She thought once the ant passed and she felt she could safely peel herself off the egg. Sadly the slime stuck to her hair and back and clothes leaving it stuck to her. She could have used her electricity to fry it off her but she was pretty sure it would draw unwanted attention so for now she would deal with it.
One by one she placed the bombs around the nest to be detonated until she can full circle right back to the rope. She was about to reach out to be pulled when a thought struck her.
"Why should I stop here?" It was a simple thought but one she had to consider. These ants ranged in the thousands and existed right in the camp. How much longer would it be until they would grow back to their current number, and even worse could they be a problem with the war on the horizon?
Making up her mind Thalia grabbed one of the nearby C4 charges and a fire bomb and crouched low as she steadily made her made her way to the giant queen. Ants scurried all around her in organized chaos as she tried to make her way to the queen. There were many close calls but nothing came about as she walked right up to the queens blind spot.
The massive abdomen pulsed grossly as the massive ant continued to gorge itself on food, a scene that made Thalia gag in distaste.
Not wanting to be any longer than usual she placed the two bombs between the ridges of her exoskeleton in the hope that it would hit the meaty insides pretty hard.
"Keep on on munching Fat ass." Thalia matured to herself as she got the bombs to stick. "Your gonna have barbecue tonight." She let out a quiet laugh at her one liner.
Click!
The ominous click made Thalia nearly jump and attack before she turned around slowly, hoping that it wasn't what she thought it was.
The fates however weren't kind to her as behind her stood a relatively small ant, one that was no bigger than a fully grown chihuahua.
"Hey little guy." Thalia spoke calmly as she raised her hands in a sign of peace even though she doubted it could understand her at all. "Nothings happening so why don't you just run along and leave the room okay?" Her voice was low enough to carry to the ant but that was it. She slowly backed away from the small ant and queen, not wanting to appear threatening. If she had the chance she would have just killed the thing already but her spear wasn't sharp enough to cut the ants shells without lightning to boost it and lightning has a tendency to be loud.
Thalia slowly backed away, the small ant following her like a puppy as she left. Of all the ants that she had to be found by she managed to get caught by the most curious one.
"Look I don't have any food on me so go away," Thalia warned as her limited patience began to slip. "Just go dig a hole somewhere and—crack!"
As quiet as it was to Thalia it might as well have sounded like a gun shot. She looked down below her as something wet began to seep into her shoe.
There beneath her shoe was a pill of goo and shell bits along with half of a dead larvae. The fool pooled around her shoe soaking into it.
Thalia looked horrified at the mess beneath her foot before looking at the small ant. "Wait don't—!"
HISS! CLICK! HISS!
The little ant began to make all sorts of sounds before rushing the demigoddess. Thalia didn't let it as she kicked it with all her might sending it through the air and across the room.
CLICK.
The heavy sound caused Thalia to freeze and slowly look over her shoulder and directly into the eyes of the massive ant queen.
"…Hi?"
HISS! CLACK!
The twin pincers snapped in Thalia's direction, trying to cut her in half but between Thalia's superhuman agility, her electric powers enhancing her muscles, and the queens size she managed to leap out of the way and ovoid becoming cut into.
She raced as fast as she could, leaping and bashing through the rows of eggs while a swarm of ants answered the queens calls and chased after her. They nipped at her heel, tearing at her clothes with near misses that would have taken a limb if she wasn't moving like the wind.
"Fuck! Pull the rope up Percy! Up!" She shouted as she kicked through another row of eggs, splattering their insides all over her.
Percy must have heard her because the rope suddenly began to ascend so she put on the speed. Pushing her power into her legs she felt the wind begin to gather beneath her and she leapt.
The wind wasn't her easiest power, that spot belonged to lightning, but it wasn't as if she never used it. She had plenty of practice using it to make sure her demigod scent didn't travel very far when she was younger.
The wind carried her through the air and Thalia had to close her eyes in fear for how high she was in mid air. She almost choked and gave up but a primal part of her pushed forward and grabbed the rope as she passed by it and began to ascend very quickly.
X
I have no idea what the fuck Thalia was doing down there but I could practically feel the entire nest wake up in alert. The top suddenly got tight as weight was suddenly added to it but I didn't let that stop me as I pulled more and more until a teenage girl popped out of the hole.
"That Hades are you covered in?" I couldn't help but ask as I got a good look at Thalia. She was covered in weird funk and seeped to be an uncomfortable kind of wet.
"Detonate the bombs and run Jackson!" Thalia ordered with force as she started to push me to leave. I just looked at her confused as she pushed me in the direction we came.
"Thalia what happened do—." I tried to ask when a few heads popped out of the hole she just came from. They hissed and clicked their pincers viciously and the dots began to connect in my head. "Oh shit."
"Blow those bombs and run Jackson!"
I didn't need to be told twice as I pumped my legs as fast as I could until I caught up with her and snapped my fingers.
"Jackson! Did you blow the bom—"
KABOOOOMMMM!
The massive explosion practically knocked us off our feet with how strong it was.
"You okay!?" I had to ask/yell as I tried to ignore the ringing in my ears.
"Yeah!" Thalia yelled back to me with a slightly muffled voice that went back to normal pretty quickly.
"We can't stay her we have to—!" I tried to speak but I was cut off as pain flared through my leg and I was suddenly pulled back! My chest hit the ground hard and I felt the wind get knocked out of my gut. I heard Thalia call my name but I was to focused on the ant trying to pull me back into a rushing horde to listen.
I kicked it in the face with my other foot as I reached into my poacher to draw Riptide. The ant exploded before I could draw my weapon as a bolt of lightning hit it dead on.
"Come on Jackson get up!" Thalia ordered my as she pulled me to my feet. I tried to stand but my leg had a pretty large hole in it and I was pretty sure I could see bone.
"Fuck! I can't run Thalia!" I tried running despite my injury but only managed a sort of stumbling jog before Thalia had to throw my arm over her shoulder and carry some of my burden.
"Don't yo fucking bitch out on me now Jackson!" She growled as she shot lightning into our horde of pursuers. "I'm not leaving you behind."
"Since when did I ask you to leave me behind?!" I snapped as I used my sword to decapitate an ant. I heard the sound of clicking from behind us and cursed when I saw a group of ants coming from our flank.
I took myself off of Thalia's shoulder, earning a confused look until she saw the slightly smaller amount of enemies coming from behind.
The two of us stood back to back as we were surrounded on both sides. Our weapons were drawn as the two of us were prepared to fight our way out of this mess.
"Don't you worry Kelp head. When I kill all of mine I'll help you out." She said with confidence and I couldn't help the laugh that came out of me at the bold comment.
"Please, as if I need your help." I snarked back. "Even down a leg I bet I could still out do you." I tried to put as much confidence as I could into my voice just like her but I had a feeling I might have failed.
"Really running out of options here." I called to Adamos as I wasn't really seeing a way out that didn't involve potential death. "You got any advice for me."
"…I don't believe we ever truly explored the lake inside the camp." Adamos says without explanation.
The lake? I'm about to be eaten and he's wants to explore the lake?! What does that have to do with anything? I can't help but rant in my head as I clashed with an ant, using my shield to bat it away.
The lake is to far way to use so how am I supposed to use water to help us? It's not like I can just bring it too me from out of the ground…gods I feel like an idiot.
"Thalia I'm going to try something so cover me!" I call out and close my eyes and try to feel around me.
What are you trying to do Jackson?!" Thalia asked as she electrocuted another ant but I ignore her.
I push my senses as far as I could looking for all sorts of water beneath the earth. The lake itself is a source of fresh water that's connected to the ocean. It still needs water to come from somewhere and if I remember correctly there are large pockets of fresh water beneath the earth.
I push deeper and deeper, pulling as much water as I can to us. My gut clenched painfully as I used by my powers of water and my power over the earth at the same time.
"Jackson?! The grounds shaking, what are you doing!?" Thalia screamed but it seemed so muted to me.
I pulled and pulled and it felt like something inside me was about to shatter at any moment the more I strained myself and then the entire room exploded!
Thousands of millions of gallons of water flooded the tunnels like a tidal wave. Thalia screamed as the water rushed over her but I grabbed her tightly before she could be swept away and spread my immunity to her as the currents lifted us off our feet and down the tunnels. The ants that were caught up in the flood were torn apart by the violent currents that carried us.
"Fucking hell Kelp head!" Thalia snapped at me with barely any heat. "Want me next time before you decide to drown us."
"I said I was doing something." I said with a smirk that earned my a light ouch to the chest that I laughed off. The pain in my leg subsided and I knew the wound was healed up.
"I thought you were going to make a barrier out of the dirt of something." Thalia groused as I maneuvered us down the tunnels as the waters filled the entire nest. The water needed a way to escape so it would lead us to the surface.
"I don't think a dirt wall would hold them for long."
"It's safer than flooding the entire area."
"Maybe but th—," I stopped as I dealt the water begging to spread above us. "Thalia prepare a landing strategy." I said earning a confused look. There was very little I could do the slow out exit as the water was desperate to leave the confines of the ant nest. It didn't want to be restrained fan do was far to exhausted bringing forth to attempt to slow our exit. "We're going to make a very explosive exit so brave!"
"What the Hades do you mean an explosive exit Jackson? Jackson?!" I didn't respond as the two of use were shoot out of the exit to the surface in a powerful geyser. I didn't know who was screaming louder while we were both airborne but I tried to at least cushion our landing.
I pulled in as much water as I could manage despite the pain in my gut to create a cushion beneath us as we descended. I hit it first and landed fine, the water protecting me as it should, Thalia however wasn't able to control her descent and landed right on top of me, her head colliding with my ribs painfully, and breaking my concentration.
The watery cushion popped beneath us, sending us to the ground with a thud. Thalia cradling her head while I nursed my most likely bruised ribs.
"Dear gods woman how hard is your head?" I groaned as I curled in on my self.
"Fuck you I think you gave me a concussion." She snapped back, more out of habit than actual anger.
"Percy!" A familiar higher pitched female voice called out. I probably should have recognized it but I was to busy trying to regain my breath. "Percy are you okay?!"
"Hey Lou." I moaned. "Glad to see you are okay."
"I'm also here by the way." Thalia said as she shakily got to her feet, denying help from the Stolls.
"After we got separated we decided to head back up and wait for you." Travis…Connor, whichever Stoll it was commented as he forced Thalia to lean on him.
"Glad we didn't look for another entrance." The other Stoll said.
"Did you guys manage to do it?" Lou asked. She obviously seemed more concerned for my injuries, which was sweet, but still wanted to know if it was all worth it.
"Yeah." I nodded and immediately regretted the action. "Treasure has been found and ant sown has been destroyed. Mission accomplished. Yay." I cheered in a rather deadpanned and exhausted voice despite the small smile on my face. "Just have to come back later to collect."
Lou let out a laugh as she helped me back to my feet even though my chest protested the action. Her much shorter stature only eased my burden a little as I stumbled off into the woods until the spare Stoll slung my arm over his shoulder easing the amount of effort I needed to walk.
Despite the bruises and chest pains I couldn't help but laugh. We stumbled at the beginning and made some mistakes along the way but in the end, we did what we came to do and came out of it like heroes walking off to the sunset.
It actually felt really good to do this with all of them.
A/N: Hey everyone I wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy holidays. the reason I haven't really updated this in a while is due to the fact that my family is insistent on spending the holidays at a bunch of parties hosted by family friends so I've been restrained by societal convention and forced to socialize. Ugh. Anyways the other reason is because I'm trying my hand at my own Gamer story. Its just starting so give it some time. I'm working with other people that write gamer stories so I'm enjoying it.
Anyways have a happy holidays and a blessed New Years!
Momentei