Chapter 16 -
Come What(ever) May (Stone Sour)

(Percy POV)

After an agonizingly quite walk, we finally made it to the front of the arch leading to the next level. Apollo's level.

To be honest, I was more than ready to start this round. After all, the walk down had practically burned my friggin' brain out. The entire walk all I could think about was Thalia. How she had kissed me, and how she had pulled away and was pretending that nothing had happened. To make matters worse she hadn't said two words to me since we left the cave.

I wasn't sure what to think about it. First of all, she's a Hunter of Artemis for Poseidon's sake! To even be one, she had to swear off boys for eternity! Not to mention what Artemis would do to me when she found out.

Secondly, there was Annabeth. She had kissed me back when I thought I was gonna die on Mt. Saint Helen's. I wasn't completely sure why I thought about that but I did. It's not like it meant anything, right?

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I looked over at Thalia, silently asking if she was ready. She nods and we continue on threw the arch and on to level seven.

Thanks to Thalia's new bow, the Apollo Level was actually fairly easy, meaning we managed it without any injuries. It consisted of mostly flying type monsters like harpies, so it was no issue to just shoot them all down. At least for Thalia it wasn't. Next, was the Demeter level (A/N). I honestly had no idea what was waiting for us there. Honestly, I had to say I was looking forward to it. It seemed with every battle, I was getting more and more eager for the next.

Before long we arrived at Demeter's level. I had to admit, I was really happy and more than a little surprised that we had already made it so far. Nearly eight out of twelve levels down. Soon, we would be able to save Nico.

Stepping into the rotunda for the next level, I cast a quick glance around. Rising from the all too familiar pools of darkness, was the typical mix of Hellhounds and Undead Warriors. I grinned. All too easy, I thought.

Suddenly, an extremely large pool of the dark, swirling, energy gathered in the center of the rotunda. Dragging itself up from the massive darkness, came a creature that looked like a cross between a Lystragonian giant and an elephant. It let out a roar that sounded like a cross between a scream of rage and the trumpet of an elephant. It reached into the pool of darkness at its feet and pulled a giant club out of the swirling mass. Hefting the massive club on its shoulders, it took an earth trembling step forward. Thalia stumbled before catching herself.

Giving her a pointed look, I called over to her. "You handle the small fry, I got big ugly over there." Glancing back and forth between me and the mutated elephant for a moment before nodding and turning her gaze to the circling undead and Hellhounds. Finally focusing on the ugly as hell elephant in the room (pun intended), I briefly wondered if this was the bigfoot mortals were always talking about. Deciding it didn't matter, I pointed the tip of riptide at the hulking monster. "Let's dance, Ugly."

(Third Person POV)

Leaving the assorted lesser monsters to Thalia, Percy rushed the massive Juggernaut. As he drew close, the monster raised its club high above its head and prepared to smash the son of Poseidon. At the last second, Percy threw himself to the side and the Juggernauts club smashed the ground beside him and then leaping up to be eye level with the hulking monster, he stabbed Riptide into the center of its trunk. However, before he could concentrate enough to use Theseus' Judgment(A/N), the Juggernaut roared in pain and thrashed about, throwing Percy off of him and into the hard stone of the rotunda's flooring. Unfortunately, this allowed for an opening for the Juggernaut to attack and only the years of honed battle reflexes kept Percy alive as he rolled and rolled out of the way of the massive monster's earth shaking blows.

While Percy was being forced on the defensive, Thalia was busy slaughtering the typically weak Hellhounds and Undead. She couldn't help but think that if Nico was hear that he would be able to force the Undead to fight for them. Parrying a weak attack made by an Undead, the daughter spun on the spot and slashed a prowling Hellhound in half, before blasting the Undead behind her with a quick Piercing Shard's attack. The ones that weren't killed instantly, exploded soon after due to the effect of the shards. Quickly cutting through the remaining monsters, she allowed her thoughts to wander a bit. after all none of the lesser monsters were much of a threat any more, even if she wasn't paying much attention.

Percy, however, was in a bit of a bind. When he was shaken off of the Juggernauts face his sword was left impaled in its trunk. And even without the use of its trunk, the monster was still plenty deadly. The good news was the Juggernauts speed was no where near fast enough to catch the elusive son of Poseidon. Ducking and dodging around the monster till he was near one of the pillars of the rotunda and behind it at the same time, Percy used the pillar to push off and leap onto its back and grab Riptide. After a moment, Percy was riding the Juggernaut and using it to smash up some of the remaining monsters. Not that many had survived fighting Thalia for this long.

Feeling the ground shake underneath her, the Daughter of Zeus looked up to see the massive elephant monster being rode by the Son of Poseidon like it was a horse. Every couple of steps the Juggernaut would be force to smash a handful of Hellhounds or a group of Undead. Until, finally, the monster ran out of steam and fell apart out from underneath Percy. Landing on his feet, the grinning Son of Poseidon walked up to the remaining Undead Warrior and stabbed it in the throat before continuing over to the waiting Daughter of Zeus.

(Percy POV)

Since neither of us got hurt, we agreed that we would skip the rest spot up ahead, and just go straight for the next Level. Luckily Thalia was talking to me again, and I figured as long as I avoided saying anything about what happened in the cave before Apollo's level, we could avoid any awkward conversation. That and Thalia would keep talking to me. I would rather argue with her nonstop than have her stop talking to me.

Chatting about nonsense, we made our way to Hermes' level. I was a little worried about the enemies on the next level. After all Hermes is well known for his speed, so it would only make sense that any monster on his level would be crazy fast. And while me and Thalia are great fighters, it would be incredibly hard to out fight an opponent with a massive speed advantage. Hell, that's what mainly makes Kronos such a deadly enemy. The fact that he can make anyone as slow as he wants and keep himself at top speed, makes it nearly impossible to fight him fairly.

I only tasted a small portion of that power on the top of Mount Tam this summer, but it left quite an impression. Luck and Rachel's blue hairbrush saved my life that day. That and Nico's powers as a Son of Hades.

Deciding to see if could upgrade the Head of Euryale, I took out my weapons chain. I figured that being the ability to petrify an opponent could be useful, especially if you could catch them otherwise. And, if it was more powerful it might not be as hard to do. Also, could be a ton more useful. Besides, it couldn't hurt right?

(Thalia POV)

Soon enough, we were standing in front of yet another archway. "Gods above," I mumbled, "I am getting so sick of seeing these archways."

Percy grunts in agreement beside me. "I mean its not like this is the ninth one we've seen before or anything," He replied sarcastically.

"So," I continued, "Do I get to take the boss on this round, or do you want to?"

"If you think you can handle it," Percy smirked, causing my heart to skip a beat, "go right ahead."

Smirking back, I spun the Spear of Destiny in a lazy circle before replying, "Just try to keep up."

Bringing my spear into a ready stance, I leaped through the archway, with Percy right behind me. Jogging forward towards the center of the rotunda, we looked about cautiously. There was no way of telling what monsters we would be facing this round. Not that we knew before any of the other rounds, but even then we had a good idea. Now we had no real idea.

As the barriers rose at both ends of the rotunda, shadows started to pool in small circles all over the smooth, pale granite. from them rose the the volatile Olympus' Fiends. We encountered them in some of the earlier levels and by now more than aware of their 'suicidal tendencies'.

In fact their explosions were so powerful, they nearly blasted Percy over the edge when one of them got to close to him. It was a frightening moment, but he managed to stab riptide into one of the pillars and use his momentum to rebound back.

Anyway, they made for powerful enemies. "Are these the bosses of this round?" Percy asked hesitantly. And as if in response to his question, two other pools of darkness appeared and gave form to two band new monsters.

The looked similar to the Undead Legionnaires in the head and upper torso, however that is where all similarities ended. Instead of the weak and decaying arms of the Undead, was a wickedly shard and curve blade that could rip a stomach open with little effort. Fortunately, they appeared to be a little rusted and old, so, with luck they wouldn't be as sharp as they look.

The waist down seemed to be just a tattered bottom half of a robe and they appeared to be floating a few inches above the floor and didn't seem to have any actual legs(A/N). Swallowing nervously, I replied, "I guess that's them, right?"

(A/N): Alright, sorry for the long wait everyone. I was kinda busy with the whole being a dad thing, and then my baby momma decides to go all psycho on me and lets just say I've had a very stressed filled past few months since I last updated. I would've liked to included the battle against the Wraiths, which is the main enemy of the Hermes level BTW. Also I had some one point out that I was repeating a representative for the levels, so I changed one of them to Demeter instead. Also, Starting next chapter I will be answering any reviewed questions during the Author's Notes. So, got any questions about the story, or about the mechanics behind something or even suggestions, Just Review and I"ll post it here! I'm doing this because I've noticed a recent influx of Guest Reviewers and would like to answer them as well. Anyway, next chapter I hope to wrap up the last of the levels or at least get them reunited with Nico. I'm not wanting to spend too much more time on this particular Arc (The Descent To Hades Arc), and get started on the next (The Tower Of Damnation Arc). As always thanks for the veiws and reviews, and have a good day and good bye!