Chapter 17
Percy was glad he couldn't quite see the monster yet. If he could sense its presence from this far out it had to be knee weakening, large, and powerful. He felt Mark put a hand on his armor clad shoulder, "Go Percy. We believe in you, and will do everything we can to support you. We have a plan, let's execute it."
Turning to face Bianca she gave him a very forced smile, "I'll try not to drop anything on your head."
Percy gave her a crooked grin, and then proceeded to dive off the side of the bridge. Before he impacted the water that would've killed a normal person he turned his body to hit the water feet first, and having a geyser come up in the air to slow his descent. When he began processing the sea around him he felt his strength surge. His adrenaline was pumping with fear as he began to make his way out towards the deep.
To most it would've been a dark abyss of nothing, but to Percy he could see living creatures everywhere, and it didn't take long before he spotted his enemy in the distance. He swallowed heavily as he took in the size of the sea serpent. It was easily fifty foot long, and had massive grey scales. It's head seemed to have some type of hood that was flapping through the water like it weighed nothing. He knew that couldn't have been true though. The size of its heads must have weighed hundreds of pounds alone, and while a cobra's hood was a part of its normal skin this creature's hood seemed almost...armored. He was positive he didn't look forward to catching the size of its teeth, or finding whether it could spit poison under water.
Percy drew the trident off his back and prepared for the fight of his life. The trident seemed to glow in the depths of the Bay, and as soon as the creature's head turned his way he knew the fight had begun with the speed it took off at. The speed in which the creature could move was uncanny. It had crossed hundreds of meters of water in seconds coming upon Percy almost faster than he could move out of the way. Thankfully Percy was no mortal in the water as he willed the currents to move him out of the way as quickly as possible, but to his displeasure the creature already seemed done with him, and continued to swim towards the bridge.
Percy growled in frustration as he willed himself to chase after the massive serpent like a torpedo. He caught up to it easily enough, but attacking the thing was proving to be a problem. He wasn't sure where to hit it. Deciding to plunge right in he attacked from the side with his trident which barely drew even a small amount of ichor. Despite the small drop of blood he drew from the creature it thrashed its body catching him vaguely unprepared, and launched him out of the water with a hit from its tail. Instead of flopping back into the water though he summoned a wave to catch him, and propel him back towards the fight. This time however he had a different tactic. With the wave propelling him forward he summoned the water to shoot him up into the sky, and with a scream he dive bombed the ocean propelling his body forward with all his might, and imbued his trident into the back of the beast. This time ichor did not just drip out like his first strike, but instead now a massive wound was on the back of the beast, and Percy tried to do more as he began stabbing the creature as fast, and as hard as he could repeatedly. He created a small geyser above the water giving Bianca the signal, and he propelled himself out of the way as massive stones hit the water, and crashed into the beast most certainly killing it.
Percy rode a wave back to the bridge, and sprouted himself back on top of it next to Bianca and Mark, "See guys nothing to it. We've all been stressing for nothing."
The Praetor asked excitedly, "Did you see it dissolve?"
Just as Percy was about to answer that an ear splitting roar shook the bridge. The blood in his veins ran cold as he turned to see the massive fifty foot Trojan Sea Monster rising from the water. The three stared in horror as the creature bared its hood at the bridge, and shot a dark black liquid out of its mouth straight for them.
Mark had just the sense to tackle Bianca to the ground screaming, "EVERYONE DOWN!"
Percy turned his back to allow his armor to take the blow, and he felt the poison impact him taking him to the ground hard. Realizing between being tail whipped and smacked in the back with poison that the armor had already saved his life he gave a quick prayer to his father and the Lord of the Underworld. The first prayer to Pluto was to thank him for the armor, the second was for his father to give him the strength to continue fighting. Percy was about to dive back in the river to fight back, but the massive creature had decided the bridge no longer needed to stand. With a massive strike to the middle of the bridge it flopped its body on top of it immediately breaking through thousands of pounds of concrete and steel reinforcements. The ground shaking that followed made Percy think an Earthquake had arrived, but knew it was the force of the creature breaking its way into the bay. He stared in horror as he heard the screams, and cries for help from mortals who had barely escaped the creatures path of destruction, and felt an empty pit in his stomach at the thought of those who couldn't scream.
Mark grabbed Percy and shook him, "Percy you can't be done fighting. We have to draw its attention back over here. There are millions of people in the Bay Area, and our home is in the crossfires of this monster. We can stand, so we have to keep fighting."
Percy just continued to stare, "All I did was piss it off. What are we going to do?"
Mark slapped Percy across the face hard making the boy grab his face as he stumbled, "Come on Percy snap out of it. We can't do this without you."
Suddenly a new voice came from above them, "You guys look like you need an assist."
Jason Grace in golden armor, and greaves came in from above them on a pegasi landing on the bridge gently with dozens of other pegasi and riders touching down shortly after. Percy stared at the group barely acknowledging the lead creature that Jason was riding that naturally greeted him as, "What's up boss?"
When Jason dismounted and walked over to the group he raised an eyebrow at Percy, "New digs? I like it."
Percy looked at his cousin admiring the armor he was wearing as well, "Standard officer armor. I like yours as well."
Bianca groaned, "Are we going to admire each other for much longer or face the problem?"
Usually Percy would love to fawn over a pegasi for at least a few minutes but in that moment he was too busy praying to every God he could think of for help, "Thank the gods you are here. I have no idea how to kill this thing." He stared at the armored demigods behind him and asked, "When did we get a pegasi corp?"
Jason grinned at his friend, "You've missed a few things in the past few days. Those Pegasi Reyna and I helped free were all waiting for us at Camp. Gifts from Lord Neptune. They follow instructions incredibly well, and when we got your cry for help this is all we could muster up. I'm in charge of this assault team for now, so what can we do?"
Mark came forward with a grin, "Sounds like Lord Neptune is going to get one hell of a sacrifice when we get back to camp, but that's for another time. Centurion Grace I believe you have been working on your ability to fly for quite some time. If you will allow it, I will take your pegasi and lead these Roman's into an aerial assault against this thing to try and slow it down. While you, Jackson, and Di Angelo prepare for a massive elemental strike."
Jason nodded, "I can do that. It's a giant snake in the water let's try giving it a hell of a shock, and see if that does anything."
Percy shook his head, "Lightning striking the ocean would help, but it wouldn't kill it. We will also have to avoid hitting the pegasi in the crossfire."
Mark easily countered this, "We will coordinate strike patterns. On my signal Jason can light the bastard up."
Jason nodded agreeing with the plan while Mark turned to Bianca, "Have your archers try and lay some cover fire down to see if we can get it to whirl back this way towards the bridge. We already have a body count on our hands further down the bridge, but this could turn into a disaster if it decides to strike open ground."
The monster which was still propelled on top of the water surging across the bay was immediately fired upon by longbow skeleton archers at Bianca's command. As they watched the arrows harmlessly bounce off its skin she asked, "Percy said that we couldn't kill it with lightning in the water, but what if we managed to get it out of the water?"
Percy and Jason both looked at her in surprise and asked together, "What?"
Bianca rolled her eyes, "The creature is clearly not that interested in the city yet. If it was here to wreak devastation it would've kept attacking the bridge. It wants New Rome. Well I say we meet it there, and I will pull the Earth out from under it, Percy will encase it in water, and then Jason you light it up with everything you got."
The two stared at the girl in awe, while Mark barked out, "Either of you got anything better?"
Immediately the two shook their heads, and Mark nodded, "Alright then let's move. Pegasi corp form up, and follow my lead."
Percy noticed Reyna in full battle armor standing closely behind Jason, and not speaking in the open. He nodded at her as Mark mounted the pegasus and led them all off into the skies. Percy turned back to Jason who was yanking him and Bianca into a hug, "I am damn glad to see both of you. You have to tell me about your quest after this is over. I've got other big things to tell you both as well."
Percy grinned for the first time in a while, "I wasn't sure how we were going to pull this off till you got here. Let's go finish this, and swap stories over cokes later."
Bianca rolled her eyes at his proposition, but was happy to be with her friends again. Jason launched himself into the sky shouting below his wishes of good luck
Percy turned to Bianca taking her hand and saying, "We should go together through the water. We can assist Jason and adjust our attack location if necessary."
She nodded with a tint of pink coming to her cheeks, and followed him on a run towards the side of the bridge. Percy hated to leave so many hurt mortals behind, but a lot more people were going to get hurt if they didn't move quickly, "Are you ready?"
She nodded looking nervous. He grinned at the girl sheepishly, "This is gonna sound ridiculous, but I don't wanna lose you in the water. It would be best if you jumped on my back."
She rolled her eyes, "I always knew you wanted to be like one of your fathers creations. Come on giddy up we are losing time."
She came up behind him and quickly jumped onto his back, and in turn he jumped off the side of the bridge. The scream in his ear coming from Bianca was near deafening, but once the wave caught them and began spurring them through the water in wake of the monster she started to calm a little.
They could easily spot Jason in the skies above them, and to his credit he was already raining an occasional lightning bolt on top of the water a good way ahead as Pegasi would dart out of the skies allowing their riders to slice the monster and run away. It seemed to Percy as if they were trying to wrangle the Sea Monster towards Camp. Of course it would make sense. If they could get it to attack just outside Tiber the water wasn't nearly as deep as it was in open water. If Bianca could raise the beast out of the water even just a little Percy and Jason would be able to do the rest. It would still be quite the monumental task for the three of them to all be able to use their abilities in the way they are speculating, but it was the only idea they had.
It didn't take long for the lights of New Rome to reach their eyes, and they knew the final stand was coming. Jason had stopped striking the water to allow Percy and Bianca to move in on the beast that was now surfacing once again to wreak more devastation. Speeding past the creature Percy shouted at Bianca, "I'm gonna push you to the shore, and I will slow this thing down. Do what you can. No matter what happens I'm glad we rescued you in Vegas."
With that Percy summoned a wave that would carry her the rest of the way towards the shore line. The son of Neptune however turned against the shouting daughter of Pluto, and stopped in his tracks staring at the rapidly approaching creature. He reached deep down into his gut throwing both hands forward, "You will not destroy my home."
A wall of water that started at a measly fifteen feet tall grew, grew, and grew until it stood at sixty feet. Percy strained under the power he was holding praying Bianca was going to do what she did soon. He felt the monster strike his wall of water, but he kept it up refusing to back down, summoning more and more to his tidal wave to keep it standing. The sweat was already pouring down his face, and he felt dizzy at the amount of exertion it was taking to keep the wave up. She had to act now if they were going to survive.
It didn't take long for her to answer his prayer as he sensed the ground rumbling below the water. He held his wave for a few seconds longer when he heard the hissing of a furious creature. He knew it had to have been surfaced. With a scream of power he dumped the wall of water over, and saw that in fact the creature was thrashing around on top of a massive stone looking rock as his wave washed over it. This didn't last long as the son of Neptune wrapped the water around the creature resubmerging it, and then lifting it out of the sea. The tug in his gut was agonizing. He was screaming in pain and exertion as the fifty foot creature was being held in the air in a massive ball of water. He yelled out, "JASON NOW!"
Then all hell broke loose across the skies. Lightning fell from the heavens, and struck the massive ball of water half a dozen times causing cries of anguish from the frolicking monster. Percy felt his eyes begin to roll back as he released the water he was holding, and he felt a hand grab him by the shirt, and tug him hard, throwing him on the back of a soft creature. His eyes were fuzzy, and they were flying through the air but only for a moment. When they touched down he put the pieces together that Mark had pulled him from the water on the pegasi, and brought him to the shore where Jason, and Bianca now were.
Jason was heaving for breath, while Bianca was on the ground looking pale. Jason cried out, "We hit it with everything we had, but it still hasn't dissolved yet."
Percy swore, "I don't have another round of that left in me."
Mark however galloped off with his lead pegasi, "You three did your part. Let us do ours."
With a battle cry the Praetor charged off, "Fulminata!"
Lightning flashed across the sky, and the Praetor was already glowing red as the beast began to slowly rise from the water to strike again. The rest of the Pegasi riders answered the battle cry, and began giving a final sweep through the air slicing pieces out the monster that was now barely fighting back. Jason swore as none of the riders were delivering a finishing blow, "This thing just won't die."
Percy rose to his feet shakily, "We can't stop. We have to keep fighting. If this thing finds a second wind we are screwed."
Bianca grabbed his arm, "You can barely stand Percy. What are you going to do?"
He sighed as he felt the water rush to his toes, "Something stupid."
With that the water swept him out to the Ocean Jason and Bianca screaming his name to come back, but he rode the tide out. He was almost certain he had some divine help in this final push, and he went to one knee on the wave as he cried out, "LORDS OF THE OCEAN HEAR MY PRAYERS. Give me the strength to end this once and for all."
As he came within range the water geysered out of nowhere launching him into the skies. With ease he controlled the water and began to force his body down with unnatural speed as he drew his trident for a final strike. The creature faced Percy in rage firing a blast of poison at him. Using the water to protect him he deflected the acid away from him, and he knew he was going to have to beat this thing like Hercules himself. With a scream he dove towards the mouth of the beast trident first, breaking through its gnarled teeth shooting straight into its mouth. The amount of force he hit the massive creature with tore through the first set of armored scales, and with the water propelling him forward he broke through the outer layer of skin snapping the prongs of his trident on impact and coming out the other side covered in the monster's golden blood. As he fell back towards the Ocean water he saw a blast of golden dust erupt, and knew he had done it. His eyes rolled back into his head as he fell towards the water, and knew that if this was his final moment of life he very well may have brought honor back to the house of his father.
(A/N) Welcome to the Friday update. This chapter was hard to write because it was much fighting, and not a lot of dialogue. Stay tuned for next weeks update!
To answer reviewers:
Redlox2, that is a good question about quests. Percy and Jason ended up doing the Lightning Thief quest themselves, and we won't get into the Sea of Monsters, though you can definitely see some elements of book 2 in my last few chapters, including the introduction of everyone's favorite Pegasus. Soon the events of the Titan's Curse will begin unfolding, and everything is going to change. Stay tuned and find out ;)
To everyone who mentions to poor grammar structure, and other problems with spelling please feel free to point out specific things if you see them consistently and I will get them fixed :).
Cheers everyone!
WfnmhMjMeB
