The cavern before the doors that led to Python descended into madness faster than the demigods would have thought possible. Though they attempted to remain as a group it wasn't long before they had been separated. Percy, always the opportunist, ducked and cut his way past two dragons leaving them dripping ichor onto the ground and roaring in frustration. A blue dragon, Percy really hoped blue meant water, opened it mouth and sent a jet of high pressure water at the son of Poseidon. Percy grinned in success, taking control of the water as it came near him. The dragon seemed perplexed by this unexpected development and hesitated a moment before sending a second jet of water at its target. Percy took that water too. As he fought the water swirled around him in a protective orb, parting when he attacked and closing around him when he defended. It proved to be extremely effective against the blue water dragons, especially since every jet of water they sent at him added to his liquid shield, and the red dragons which he was unsurprised to see breathed fire. The real problem was the brown and green dragons. Percy had almost been reduced to a puddle when he discovered that the green dragons did not breathe fire or water, instead they breathed jets of very volatile acid. The brown dragons on the other hand released a cloud of what Percy guessed was poison. Thankfully the poison seemed to dissipate fairly quickly, otherwise they would have been in very big trouble. As he fended off yet another pillar of flame Percy allowed himself to quickly check on the others. Annabeth was fighting in a way that befitted a daughter of Athena: strategically. She waited for a dragon to lash out too far or leave itself exposed in some way and then she would rush forward and cut away at the beast. Percy felt a glimmer of pride and affection when he saw his girlfriend fearlessly infuriating and fighting against multiple dragons.
Dragging his eyes across the cavern Percy saw that his initial estimates of the dragons' numbers had been off. He had first thought there were dozens and dozens of them, but that was probably the ADHD. He couldn't focus on just one and had undoubtedly counted several of them more than once. There were actually probably about twenty dragons at most which was nineteen more than their group should have been forced to handle. Percy leapt backwards as a green dragon attempted to bathe him in an acid. His water-shield turned a motley shade of green as some of the acid splashed into it and Percy made a mental note not to touch the water any more. He vaulted onto the top of a blue dragon, running up its back and cutting at the beast's neck. The dragon roared in pain but, to Percy's great annoyance, did not dissolve into a cloud of dust. As Percy leapt off the beast it whipped its tail at him but Percy's shield absorbed the blow. He was sent flying across the space, skidding to a halt right beside Piper. Like Annabeth, she seemed to be having absolutely no issues holding her own against the beasts. Although Percy soon realized that she had taken a different route than Annabeth. Piper had seemingly charmspeaked one of the red dragons and was now directing it around to attack its compatriots. She glanced at Percy, nodded, and continued speaking to the dragon in warm, soothing, and reassuring tones. It occurred to Percy that this was the same voice she used when she was speaking to a startled newborn Pegasus or unicorn. "Neat trick." Percy said before moving away from her. Piper's charmspeak was an extremely effective tool, but it had the unfortunate tendency to work on her allies as well and Percy had no intention of getting in the middle of a dragon-on-dragon fight.
He ran at a smaller deep green dragon, his wall of water moving in front of him to protect him from the inevitable acid breath. The dragon opened its mouth to presumably do just that but it suddenly pitched over as its back feet fell through a hole in the earth. Percy looked for Hazel, this was for sure her handiwork, but could not find her which didn't bother him. A few seconds later various gemstones seemed to pour from the ground and fire at the dragon like buckshot. The dragon roared and thrashed against the trap but soon crumbled to dust leaving its massive head and what looked like a dragon-hide cloak behind. "Great job!" Percy shouted. He spun around and nearly decapitated what looked like a skeleton warrior in a faded camouflage uniform. It wielded what appeared to be a stygian iron sword and it charged at a brown dragon, followed by a dozen more of its undead comrades. Nico. Percy looked for the son of Hades but, like Hazel, he did not seem to be visible.
Will was at the edge of the cavern, his bow drawn, firing arrow after arrow at the dragon's eyes and rarely missing. More than one dragon had been reduced to using one eye to search out their prey as its other was pierced by an Imperial Gold arrow. Every time that an arrow would zero in on the son of Apollo will would mysteriously vanish via an underground tunnel or seemingly step into thin air and disappear. He would reappear several hundred feet away from where he had been and resume firing arrows, an expression of fierce concentration on his usually cheerful face. Percy waved at him encouragingly and then turned his attention to another dragon, a blue one this time. He danced in with several teasing sword strikes, hoping to infuriate the beast into spraying water at him, and then leapt back as the dragon's tail came crashing forward. Percy was just about to rush forward again when the dragon suddenly began to convulse and roar, its wings flapping like mad. Percy warily back up a few steps, momentarily confused by the dragon's sudden spasm, and quickly saw what caused the beast's discomfort. Ryker was running across the beast's back, his claws tearing chunks out of the beast's hide. He leapt onto the beast's neck and, to Percy's surprise and slight disgust, bit the dragon's flesh. Ryker spat out the flesh and began to slash at the dragon over and over until his arms were coated with a fresh coat of golden ichor. The dragon quickly crumbled away to dust and Ryker let loose a howl that seemed more beast than human, the sound bouncing off the cavern and drawing the attention of another dragon.
Deciding that being near Ryker wasn't perhaps the wisest idea, Percy returned to Annabeth's side just as the dragon she fought crumbled away with her sword in its chest. "Hey Seaweed Brain," She said through gritted teeth as she charged at another dragon, Percy at her side this time. "Having fun?"
"We really need to put a hold on these quests." Percy complained, blocking a dragon's claw with his water shield and pushing away the beast. They had only been in the cavern for perhaps fifteen minutes and it was already growing difficult to maintain the water shield. "Ugh, come on, how many are left?" Percy demanded, Riptide slashing through the thin membrane of a dragon's wing.
"Less talking, more fighting." Annabeth snapped back. Percy was certain that he heard the signs of weariness in her voice, as well as his own. This sort of battle, which had been rather hopeless at the beginning, was now looking more and more possible if they could continue fighting as they were. The dragon that Percy fought suddenly fell through the ground and Percy was presented with a lovely target. Riptide slashed through the flesh of the dragon's neck and the beast crumbled away. "Four. There are four left." Annabeth panted, her own dragon nothing more than a pile of bones.
"Oh, well four is just great." Percy sighed, looking around the cavern for their next targets. He was relieved to see that two of the dragons seemed more intent on fighting one another than the demigods, undoubtedly courtesy of Piper McLean.
The third was being slashed at from all directions by a small army of skeletal warriors and it seemed to Percy that the beast would soon be overwhelmed, particularly since the skeletons had a tendency of fighting on even if they lost an arm or were bitten in half.
The fourth dragon brought a moment of surprise to Percy and the others. "No way." Annabeth said in a low voice.
Hazel and Nico appeared out of the Mist beside them and shook their head in agreement. "Definitely cool." Hazel admitted.
The dragon, an average sized red beast, was not even attempting to fight Ryker. In fact, it had pressed itself against the ground in what Percy had thought was a demonstration of submission that some animals exhibited. Ryker was standing in front of the beast, a snarl on his face, crouched over and ready to attack. The hunter strode around the side of the beast, a clawed hand running along the beast's hide, and stopped when he was next to the dragon's chest. With a sudden savage grin Ryker plunged his clawed arm into the dragon's chest, disintegrating the beast. Ryker loosed another wild howl and began to look for his next victim.
Disgust was never something that Percy would have thought he would've felt at a monster's death and yet the way that Ryker killed that dragon filled him with the emotion. Percy placed great value on leniency and that dragon, monster or not, had surrendered. Percy was about to march over to Ryker and read him the riot act when Annabeth grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Look," She said, her eyes locked on Ryker.
Percy followed her gaze and he quickly found what she was referring to. Wrapped around Ryker like Percy's water shield had been wrapped around him was a strange sort of energy. As Percy watched the energy took form as various different animals, all of them apex predators. Ryker himself seemed to be different as well. He scanned the cavern and his gaze settled upon Percy and the others. His lip twitched in a snarl and he slowly began to stalk across the floor.
"That doesn't seem good." Will said in a low voice and Percy nodded in agreement. "I think…. I think he might be hunting us."
"Ryker?" Annabeth called warily. Percy saw that her sword was held at the ready and he mirrored her readiness with Riptide. "It's over now. We won."
"What's going on?" Piper asked, joining them. Percy glanced around the cavern again and saw that the remaining dragons had been dealt with. "Whoa. What's… what's Ryker doing? What's that thing around him? Is that Cybele's blessing?"
"I think it might be Mars' doing actually." Hazel said darkly, her mouth pulled into a frown. She cleared her throat and repeated Mars' words. "You, who fights like a beast of the wild, will become more and more like a beast the more you fight like them."
"So you think that this is that?" Nico asked. He regarded Ryker for a long moment and then shrugged. "Could be. He… he doesn't feel human right now. He feels more like an animal."
"Uh, guys?" Will asked, eyeing Ryker as the hunter drew ever closer. "Less thinking more planning. He looks like he wants to eat us."
Annabeth thought for a moment before glancing at Piper. "You woke Festus up with your voice." She stated.
Piper nodded hesitantly. "Yeah," She said at length. "You want me to try the same thing with him?"
"Either that or try to surrender." Nico said darkly. "And we saw how well that went for the dragon." Percy was surprised to hear the same tone of disgust in Nico's voice that he himself had experienced. Perhaps Nico, being the son of the Lord of the Underworld, had greater feelings of discontent when an unnecessary life was taken.
Piper stepped forward uncertainly and Ryker took that to be a challenge. He leaned forward and began to run just as Piper shouted out with a voice that was layered with Charmspeak; "RYKER! WAKE UP!"
Percy instantly felt wide awake despite the fact that the words had not even been directed at him. He glanced around and saw that the others had been similarly affected. Ryker looked like he had run headlong into a brick wall. The aura that had been surrounding him vanished and he fell to his knees, his eyes distant. He sucked in a rattling breath and his eyes abruptly grew focused and sharp. His claws vanished and he fell onto his hands, retching. The others looked at each other with varying degrees of panic, but Will was the first to recover. He strode confidently to Ryker's side and pushed the infirm demigod onto his side. Percy watched with curiosity as Will grabbed Ryker's hand and then immediately paled. Will pulled off his bag and stuffed a rather large square of ambrosia into Ryker's mouth. When the son of Cybele attempted to spit it out on reflex Will did something that Percy was certain was not medically correct. He placed his hand over Ryker's mouth and forced the wild demigod to eat the food.
"Are you trying to kill him?" Hazel asked, repulsed by Will's unusually rough treatment.
"He needs ambrosia." Will said, his hand still over Ryker's mouth. "His vitals were incredibly weak. Whatever it is that lets him fight like that, it takes an incredible toll on his body. His heartbeat was far too slow and his blood sugar levels were dangerously low."
"How long until he's back on his feet?" Annabeth asked. Percy was sure that she heard worry in her voice, though whether it was for the quest or the infirm demigod Percy wasn't certain.
Will pressed a hand to Ryker's chest and shook his head. "He isn't going to be fighting any time soon." He said with utter certainty. "He's too weak. That must be the drawback to his power. When it fades off he becomes incredibly weak. I doubt he could stand right now, much less run or fight."
"We have time," Nico said reasonably, crouching down next to Ryker. "He's not close to death, how long will he have to rest?"
It struck Percy as odd then, just how helpful those two could be working in concert like they were. Will had the medical expertise to save a life and Nico had the ability to keep souls from leaving a body, if only for a short time. Percy had been thrown by their relationship at first but now he truly appreciated how much they complemented each other. As different as night and day, and yet one could not exist without the other. He glanced to Piper and he saw a small smile on her lips and he had the distinct impression that the daughter of the goddess of love was thinking along the same lines he was.
"It will take him at least a day." Will said heavily. Ryker had seemingly dozed off after his forced meal, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling evenly. "Maybe longer. Also, I need to stay with him. I need to see if I can figure out what triggered whatever it was that he just did. If I'm right then this is going to be time based. The more time he spends in that form or whatever it is, the bigger the whiplash it gives him."
"Sort of like how too much shadow-travel causes me to fade." Nico suggested.
Will nodded. "Exactly like that."
"So, what do you guys think we should do?" Piper asked. "Should we wait and go after Python all together, or should we try to get the Oracle back with just the five of us?"
"Strategically speaking it would be wisest to wait for everyone to be completely healed." Annabeth said slowly, "But we also don't know how about this. There are too many variables here. We need to act soon."
"Do we even need to fight Python?" Piper asked suddenly. "Maybe I could charmspeak him into giving me the Oracle?"
"Maybe." Annabeth allowed. "But I wouldn't bet on that working. I'm not doubting your skills, but relying on that could get us killed."
"What about shadow-travel?" Nico suggested. "If you can distract him I can run and grab the Oracle and then shadow-travel out of there."
"What if the doors close behind us and seal magically?" Percy shot the idea down with a shake of his head. "You said it before, it's hard to end up in a specific shadow. We got lucky last time, I don't want to push it."
"What do you think we should do then?" Hazel asked exasperatedly.
"I think we should do what we just did here." Percy said honestly. "We just took down like two dozen dragons, plus however many Ryker took on before we got here. If we all do what we did against them against Python we should be able to beat him."
"It could work." Annabeth allowed. She glanced down at Ryker and Will. "But we would be missing two members. And you are all assuming that the Oracle is going to be easy to transport. What if it isn't small at all?"
Percy and the others fell silent as they considered her words. They were all lost in silent contemplation when Will gave a sudden shout of surprise. He fell back onto his butt, the hand he had been touching Ryker with now a bright red. It took Percy a moment to realize that it was covered in red angry blisters as though he had been touching something hot. Percy looked over to Ryker and his mouth dropped open in surprise. The golden ichor that had been splashed across Ryker's chest and arms was now steaming off his body. Ryker's eyes snapped open and he leapt to his feet, his eyes wild. "Whoa!" Percy said, raising his hands and backing away.
"What happened?" Ryker demanded, his skin still steaming. He staggered a step and he braced himself, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. His stance was not aggressive Percy was happy to see, it was simply confused. "What did… where are the dragons?"
"What do you remember?" Will asked, rising to his feet. He placed the back of his hand an inch away from Ryker's skin and frowned.
Ryker seemed to become aware of the golden steam rising off his chest and looked down at his palm in dismay. "One use left." He muttered, closing his fist.
"One use of what?" Annabeth asked, gesturing for Ryker to show her his palm.
Ryker obliged, showing the mark of a flaming spear on his hand. "Mars gave me this when he introduced himself." Ryker explained. "Said it was useful for my way of fighting."
"So it's pretty much an auto-recovery." Nico said brightly. When the others looked at him Nico assumed a defensive look. "I've been playing video games alright?"
Hello my readers, Hallowed here. I wanted to take the time to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Years. A bit late on the Christmas, but better late than never. For all of you that don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays! I would like to take a moment and thank all of you for taking the time to read my story. All of you are awesome! Wishing you the very best!
Cheers, Hallowed
