Chapter 13- Deliver Us From Evil (Bullet For My Valentine)

(Nico POV)

Blocking a slash from the small creatures that had been attacking me constantly since the tentacle belonging to the giant beast blocking my path had brought me here, I let my thoughts wonder slightly as I cut the small monster in half when it leapt for my face. I had been here fighting these lesser monsters for about six or so hours. Twice the larger monster had attacked. When I had managed to kill all of the creatures it kept spawning up from its spit. In anger it attacked me and I had barely managed to beat it back. After I had managed it the first time, I heard a voice in my head that I assumed to be Kratos tell me about the red orbs and what they did. I had noticed them already of course, but I had no idea at the time as to what they were for.

After that the monster started sending out wave after wave of the lesser monsters from before. It wasn't long before I started to fear that the waves would be endless, suddenly everything stopped and instantly I how to channel the red orbs to power up my sword. I channeled all of them into it, barely having enough to upgrade my blade. When it upgraded, the world around me continued its usual pace. But, it didn't matter because I had instinctively learned a new attack thanks to the upgrade of my sword.

I channeled the shadows cast by the smaller monsters and drew it into a black pool of shadows in front of me and I dove into it. From inside of the shadow, I moved with blinding speed across the battlefield, slashing my blade wildly through the shadow towards the monsters above for a few minutes before leaping out.(A/N)

Fortunately, I had managed to kill most of the lesser monsters. Unfortunately, my new attack had drained at least half of my strength. Deciding that I probably shouldn't used that attack again for the rest of the fight, I attacked the last of small monsters killing them far easier than before. It seemed that upgrading my sword had made me fast and stronger than before. After I had once again killed all of the mother monster's children, the enraged mother attacked once more.

Once again, the result was the same. I fought it to a stand still, barely making it retreat, and when it backed off it summoned forth more of its horrible spit children. The monsters vaguely resembled spiders with the arms it used for walking and the six small, beady eyes it had. Sighing, I started to lay waste to the monsters again. I hoped Percy and Thalia got down here quick. I wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer.

(Percy POV)

(Six hours earlier)(A/N)

After Thalia and I left our little cave and started to move further down the mountain, I wasn't so sure about Kratos' challenge. It was crazy risky, and if anything happened to Nico, I was going to give the former god a piece of my mind. I was more pissed at myself than anything. I should've been fast enough to save him, but instead I let an insane former god and some strange monster kidnap him. I felt useless, but I couldn't let that get to me. I've got eleven more levels to go till I could confront the monster that took Nico, and I intended to do it as quick as possible.

A few minutes down the trail we came to an arch with a large roman number two at the top.

"This must be the next trail." I mumbled. Looking over at Thalia, I asked, "Which god is this dedicated to anyway?"

Pulling the slip of paper the disgruntled son of Zeus had left behind out of her jacket pocket, she glanced at it, reading the line out loud.

"Level two; Hera." She replied.

"Hera?" I question.

"Yep."

"What monster couple possibly represent the Queen of Olympus?" I asked incredulously. Thalia's eyes flashed in anger before answering, "Ignoring the fact that she's a monster herself, I'd say Echidna. Since she is the mother of all monsters, after all."

"Great," I growled. Last time I had seen Echidna was on my first adventure and she had her son, the Chimera, with her. I wasn't looking forward to a rematch. "Let's just get this over with, we still have to hurry and save Nico." She reminded me before walking into through the arc.

With a moments hesitation, I followed.

(Third Person POV)

The moment both Thalia and Percy had stepped through the arch and emerged on the other side into a large and open area, with large stone pillars evenly spaced around the edge in a wide circle. When the teenaged demigods walked into the center of the rotunda, six demonic looking women wearing only a lengthy black skirt jumped out or the ground. Three on the left and three on the right. After the monsters appeared the same red energy barrier as before appeared in front of and behind them. The monsters had lightning crackling on their hands and around their demonic looking jaws. Thalia noticed and decided not to use her powers on them just in case it made them stronger.

Percy just looked at them in anger. They was in the way of him being able to save Nico. They would get no mercy. With an enraged battle cry, he leapt at the nearest Siren, barely registering Kratos' voice telling him what they were. His thoughts only on defeating them and moving on.

With three wild slashes the knocked the Siren back with a vicious cut to the chest and turned to face the next on believing he had finished the first one off.

That proved to be a big mistake when he was blast sideways and off his feet by a ball of electricity shot at him by the first Siren in retaliation.

Growling in irritation, Percy stood up, his legs a little wobbly from the intense voltage that had shot through his body.

"Percy!" Thalia yelled and attempted to run over to help the son of Poseidon, only to be surrounded by the other three Sirens.

Thinking to try out his new move Percy threw his sword at the second siren, turning it into a giant bullet of water on the way. Like before, once it came into contact with the skin of the monster it covered it head to toe, and solidified into Ice, freezing the monster to the spot. whipping his sword hand out to the side, the Ice shattered and killed the Siren. Making a come hither motion with his hand the ice unfroze and the resulting water turned back into his sword which flew into his outstretched hand.

The other two Sirens, unbeknownst to the hero, had been building energy in their mouths while he killed their sister. Before the demigod could turn and attack them, the demons released the energy with an ear shattering shriek.

The demigod fell to his knees under the combined assault of the horrible monsters. Every nerve in his body was on fire, as it was attacked by the vicious energy of the Siren's Shriek. "AAAAAAHHHHH!" Percy screamed in pain.

Luckily, Thalia was fairing much better against her enemies. having impaled one on the tip of her spear before instinctively shoving the tip into the ground three times in the direction of the other two Sirens she was facing, Planting small little bunches off crystals in the ground where the spear tip had been stuck. Having slammed the Siren into the ground repeatedly, it had dissolved of the end of her spear, and the other Sirens had exploded when they had crossed the crystals. However, the monsters could take an awful lot of damage because they just picked themselves of the ground and continued forward for the daughter of Zeus.

That's when she heard Percy scream.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!"

The sound made her heart stop. Yelling in rage, she slashed the throat of one Siren and threw her spear through the head of the other, only for the spear to return to her hand almost immediately. Making another slash at the throat of the other Siren, she managed to sever its head and both of the Sirens dissolved into dust, as Thalia turned around looking for Percy.

Finding him on his knees in between two Sirens who were screeching their lungs out at the son of Poseidon, Thalia's heart clenched in fear. Abandoning all rational thought, She screamed, letting loose all of her demigod power, slamming a forked bolt of lighting into the remaining Sirens, causing them to explode into dust.

Panting in exhaustion, she ran to Percy's side who was laying on his back breathing heavily and staring straight up.

'No nonononononono,' Thalia thought, 'Please be ok.'

"Percy?" She asked, slightly scared of him not responding.

After a scary moment of silence, he answered. "Ow."'

Gasping in disbelief, she contemplated hugging him, but settled with scowling heavily.

"Dammit, Kelp-Head! can you go one fight without almost dying?" She asked bitterly.

Groaning Percy rolled over and got to his feet. "I'm fine. Just a little off my game today is all. Is it me or were those things resilient as hell?"

Thalia's eyebrows furoughed in thought. "No, they were definitely not as weak to Celestial Bronze as most other monsters. They could take a beating before they die."

"Great," Percy sighed, "Just what we need, more durable monsters."

"Tell me about it," Thalia voiced.

In silence the pair turned towards the path leading further down. These challenges were going to be far from easy, if the first two were anything to go by. Praying to their fathers that they had the strength to succeed, they pressed onward.

(Percy POV)

Finally arriving at the arch that signaled the fifth level, I sighed. We were almost half way down the mountain, and it had only took three hours. It would have took less time, but in between rounds we needed to rest and in some cases heal before continuing on.

The third and fourth levels were not as dangerous as we had thought, considering the third level was Artemis' level, and fourth was Athena's level. The main enemy of level three was Skeleton Archers. They were deadly but nowhere near as deadly as the Sirens had been. The main enemy of level four was Undead Legionnaires. The hardest part of the fight was getting past their magical shields.

After level three I had had enough orbs to level up Riptide, and after the fourth level, Thalia had enough orbs to level of up the Arms of Olympus, as she was calling her new Spear and Shield combo. Now, Riptide had glowing blue wave designs etched into the Celestial Bronze just above the hilt that extended about six or seven inches up the blade.

The crystals on Thalia's Spear now glowed a light red color, and her shield's letters glowed a faint blue.

"You ready?" I asked looking back at her beautiful face. Wait beautiful? Do I have a death wish or something?

"Yeah," She replied, "This is your dad's level right?"

I sighed, "Yeah."

Glaring at the arch, I barked out, "Well, no time like the present. Let's get this over with."

With that we stepped through the arch.

(A/N): And yet another Chapter! Four in four days? I'm on a friggin roll! Anyway I dedicate this chapter to the speedy recovery of my friend WLLXTREME. He got hurt doing a cartwheel on wet pavement and had to go to the hospital. Here is to a quick recovery, hope you feel better soon! On to official business, the move Nico used against the monsters he was fighting is called Wraith's Ambush, from the Sword Of Hades available in the God of War: Ascension Multiplayer. It's his most powerful move to date. Also, the scene containing Nico was six hours ahead of where we were with Thalia and Percy when we swapped back to them in the story. Next Chapter, with have Poseidon's level and the next two levels or so, and a little more Perlia fluff! As always, stay tuned, also have a good day and goodbye! Don't forget to review!