Tyler looked to his left to find Percy riding Mrs. O'Leary next to him. Tyler looked to his right to find Frank as an elephant bounding next to him. Tyler glanced behind him to see all the Argonauts sprinting after him. Tyler looked ahead to see thousands of monsters of every shape, size and form, hailing from every land and clime awaiting his arrival. In the distance he saw the looming shapes of the Atlas Mountains and the outline of dragons, drakons, and Hydra. The monsters hunched down to their knees awaiting his arrival and licked their lips hungrily.
When Tyler was two feet away from his target he let loose a roar and leapt to his feet, leaving the ground, and soared through the air as if he was a falcon. Time seemed to slow around him as he moved like a bullet and everything moved in slow motion. The monsters looked up at him with awed expressions as they watched him soar over their heads. He cleared the first two front ranks and then crashed into a group of Empousai. He immediately started slashing away with his trench knife. He moved to and fro as he bashed with his shield and stabbed with his knife. He ducked under sword blades and came up swinging. Monsters exploded in the tens. Bronze dust rained as his fellow Argonauts joined him in the carnage. Monsters dropped like stones in free fall. The Argonauts may have been outnumbered five to one but they fought with the force of ten-thousand warriors. Thee spearmen skewered through masses of bodies, the sword wielders sliced through flesh, and the archers fired with pin-point accuracy. The deaths of Leo and Jason fresh in their minds allowed the Argonaut to fight with the ferociousness they needed to survive.
Achilles accompanied by Clarisse and the Spartans charged forward with their shields in front of them, acting like bulldozers. Bellerophon and his Riders rained death from the sky. Hercules held a cyclops in one hand and his club in the other and swung both of them wildly as he sent monsters soaring to space. Odysseus and his archers waded through the ocean of monsters firing arrows at will. Perseus hovered above the enemy decapitating monsters with his pale green swords as he went. Theseus wore his shield on his back, which was pierced with arrows, making him look like a hedgehog, a deadly and vicious hedgehog for that matter, as he twirled his sword and cudgel.
The Argonauts were dominating the battle field until Echidna and her children joined in. The Nemean Lions pounced on a group of unprepared satyrs and had a hearty breakfast. The evil Cerberus clone used it's three heads to snatch up any unsuspecting Argonauts. The drakons slithered through the ranks of Argonauts crushing them, breathing acid, and freezing them with paralyzing gazes. The dragons, the venti, and the gryphon spread chaos among the Riders as the two forces fought in aerial combat. Many Riders were unsaddled and feel out of the sky. The twin Chimeras breathed fire and melted shields. Out of all the monster, the Hydras did the most damage. Their multiple heads flailed around as they sent Argonauts flying. They spit acid causing flesh to burn. Accidentally, the Argonauts would cut off the beasts' heads and thus creating more. There was a group of Cyclops wielding two handed swords who deliberately cut off Hydra heads in order to create more and more of them.
"Don't cut off the heads!" Hercules ordered.
"Shoot them in the brain!" Odysseus shouted to the archers while aiming for the eyes of the Hydra.
The Argonauts began to falter as the indestructible lions, the fire breathing Chimera, the giant three-headed dog, the slithering reptiles, and the never ending heads of the Hydra pushed them back. Argonauts were flung into the air, eaten, mauled, or burnt to a crisp. Their initial momentum was lost, the rage was gone, confidence depleted, and panic began to ensue.
"Flee demigods!" Echidna cackled from atop her perch from the biggest Hydra. "Revenge is sweet! Never shall I bow to a god again! Hail Gaea!"
"Shut up!" Odysseus hollered as he fired an arrow at the plump snake woman. He cursed as he watched his arrow miss by centimeters. "Of course I miss now!" he wailed sarcastically. Odysseus fired again only to find that his arrow striking the Hydra instead of her. "Damn!" Odysseus notched in another arrow was distracted when a two headed dog lunged for him. He barley had time to put the dog down and before he could refocus on Echidna, his attention was diverted to more monsters who rushed him.
"No retreat!" Leonidas bellow as he thrusted his sword in the maw of a Nemean Lion that tried to tackle him.
"We're going to have to if we don't take out the Children of Echidna and their duplicates!" Achilles yelled over the screams of dracaena he had just impaled with his spear.
"I'll take care of them!" Hercules shouted, waiting for no response. He broke into a sprint, barreling through monsters as her ran.
"Right behind you!" said Perseus.
"Wait up," added Percy.
The trio made their way through cyclops, Earthborn, Laistroygian, and Hellhounds. A Nemean Lion jumped in front of them but Hercules gripped it's jaw and cracked it open allowing Perseus and Percy to ram their swords up the roof of it's mouth. The gigantic lion exploded into dust leaving it's pelt behind. The three ignored it though and ran on. Percy swatted away Orthus, the two head dog belonging to Geryon, who pounced at him. When the dog pounced again, Percy swung Riptide killing the monsters. As for, Geryon, he was nowhere in sight but there was no time to ponder on his location. Hercules picked up a cyclops and used it like a battering ram as he plowed through the ocean of monsters creating a makeshift pathway. Perseus used his Hermes Boots to flutter above them and protect them from dragons, venti, and gryphon.
The three finally made it to a squad of Argonauts being pinned down by the Hydra that Echidna was riding. Perseus threw his shield like a frisbee at the unsuspecting snake woman. It zoomed through air, on target, no doubt about missing the target. From out of nowhere the evil Cerberus snatched it out of the air and spit it on the ground. It looked to the trio and then bounded toward them.
"I'll take care of this oversized mutt," said Perseus. "You two get rid of the fat hag."
Hercules and Percy nodded, rolled out of the way of the charging Cerberus, left Perseus to deal with it, and ran to do battle with Echidna's hydra.
Perseus shot off into the air and attacked the dog. Perseus landed on it's middle head. The ones on the left and right snapped at him. Just before they made contact Perseus jumped out of the way. The two outer heads sunk their teeth into their middle brother instead of Perseus. That was all it took for them to start fighting each other. The three mouths full of razor sharp teeth began bitting and barking at one another, distracted from their real enemy. While they were busy tearing each other apart, Perseus moved in with his sword and buried it hilt deep into the skull of the middle head, and then swung his sword twice decapitating the remaining two heads. Before the body exploded, Perseus backflipped off the middle head and landed on to the ground safely. He found his shield covered in dog drool, hefted it onto his arm, readjusted the grip on his sword, and headed off to aid Percy and Hercules.
He found them in an intense brawl with the great Hydra. Hercules was beating away with his club trying to keep the multiple Hydra heads at bay while Percy rolled back in forth, blocked acid spit with his shield, and tried his best to not cut off any heads with his sword. They were on the defense trying to find away to take care of the beast without creating more heads and getting eaten at the same time. It was only up to them due to the fact that their allies were preoccupied with other enemies. Perseus joined them and tried to help in anyway he could. He only functioned as a distraction, nothing more. They were only preventing the inevitable and Echidna knew this. She cackled in delight.
"The three heroes that have caused me the most pain," snarled Echidna, "all together to die!"
To make maters worse, the Hydra she rode was joined by the other Hydras, the Nemean Lions, the two Chimera, and the remainder of the two headed dogs. They were coming to aid their mother. They all growled menacingly at the trio. Hercules charged froward but a Hydra head thwacked him and sent him sky high. He landed hard on a nearby boulder and it looked as if he wouldn't be getting up any time soon. Perseus looked to his unconscious half-brother and ran forward in rage. He was mauled by two Nemean Lions and was forced to take the fight elsewhere as they lead him further away down the battlefield. There was only Percy left. He stepped back slowly as the humungous monsters approached him. He gulped in fear due to his solidarity.
"The youngest will die first!" Echidna hissed delighted. "Last time we met I didn't get the pleasure to watch my son feast on your innards."
"I can't say that I'm sorry," said Percy.
"Die Percy Jackson!" she shouted ordering her children forward.
A glowing sun arrow, shot from behind Percy, whizzed over his head, and nailed Echidna in the shoulder. She lost her balance from her perch atop the Hydra and she feel to the ground.
"Not if we can help it," said Frank with his bow, Oriens, drawn with another sun arrow at the ready.
Frank was accompanied by Hazel riding Arion, Jason Grace, Piper, and Tyler. They joined Percy on either side of him. The Prophecy of Seven members all together, standing united. All of them except Leo.
From the ground Echidna screeched, "Children, protect me!" Her monster children formed a wall in front of her allowing her to slither away to safety.
"I guess it's the five of us against a bunch of them," shrugged Jason. He flipped his gold coin, which he found on the battlefield and was amazingly still intact after being used as an EMP. He caught in Javelin form.
"Isn't that always the situation?" Piper mused.
"We're right behind you Percy," said Hazel who readied her Spatha.
Frank transformed into a dragon, Piper tightened her grip around her knife, Tyler licked his knife, Jason hovered in the air slightly, and Percy banged his shield.
Percy ran forward and let loose a roar. Frank took off into the air and began to breathe fire. Hazel urged Arion forward who took off in flash of light, transforming into a blur. Piper walked forward behind Jason who was calling down lighting strikes. The Monsters soared and rushed to meet them in response. There was yelling screaming, stabbing, the twang off bow strings, roaring, snarling, curses, and all the sounds of battle. Percy cut away with his sword, Jason summoned lightning, Tyler and Piper stabbed with their knives, Frank strafed the monsters with fire, and Hazel rode Arion in circles as she hacked away with her sword. The small group was then joined by the Heroes of Old. Theseus dual-wielded his club and cudgel, Achilles advanced with his spear, Hercules battered with his club, Perseus zoomed all over the place, Odysseus shot with his bow, and Leonidas bashed with his shield. All around them there was death. Monster died as well as Argonauts. Riders feel from the sky but so did the skeletons of dragons. Monster dust was kicked up everywhere and blood splashed the dirt.
Hannibal the Elephant meet his tragic demise when a hail of arrows swelled over him. It took the fire of two dragons and the storm of several Venti to finally topple the giant beast. In rage, Frank whipped out his bow and somehow managed to pick off every single monster that killed one of his greatest friends.
Bellerophon fought like a madman over the limp body of Pegasus who was struck and downed by a lightning bolt from a Venti. Bellerophon whirled his lead tipped spear over his head as he defended against waves of monsters.
"Don't you dare touch him!" he snarled as he stabbed a Hellhound that took a bite out of the dead Pegasus.
Arrows pierced Bellerophon's body and swords nicked his flesh but nothing could down him. His rage was too strong. Even when his old enemy, the Chimera and it's clone breathed fire at him, he continued to fight. He let loose a volley of arrows at the large goat/lion/snake creatures till he had no more ammo in his quiver. He charged forward with his spear and impaled the first one in the mouth and pushed on the shaft till he could not anymore. The Chimera let out a muffled roar then exploded. The second one clawed at Bellerophon's unprotected back. Bellerophon let loose a yelp of pain but retaliated by jumping onto this Chimera's back and stabbed it in the back of it's head with his spear. It roared in anger and began to buck in order to throw him off. The snake tail whipped up to bite at him but Bellerophon caught it before it could and bit it's head off. The Chimera roared again and continued to buck, causing Bellerophon to snap his spear in half from gripping too tightly. Bellerophon took the broken end of the shaft and once again stabbed down into the demonic creature's head. The monster screamed and let loose a column of fire that doused a score of centaur, lighting them on fire. The monster exploded and Bellerophon fell to the ground. He crawled over to Pegasus and rolled to his back. He laid next to the limp body of his old friend. He closed his eyes and he slowly felt the blood leak from his open wounds and the life drain from his body. Slowly the comrades embraced death
The fight with the Hydras wasn't going very well. Although most of the Nemean Lions were destroyed, along with the two-headed dogs, and both the chimera, and Cerberus, the Hydras still remained. The Argonauts tried their best to not cut off any heads but there was a few accidents and in the end every Hydra had at least a dozen heads each.
"We need fire!" shouted Hercules.
Frank breathed fire on any headless stubs but there were too many of them and not enough of him to cauterize them in time. More heads were reforming than he could stop.
"We're a little short on that!" replied Percy as he rolled out of the way of chomping Hydra jaws and then blocked acid spit with his shield.
Jason decapitated one of the Hydra heads and called lightning down on it's stump. Nothing happened as two more heads emerged from it.
"Lightning isn't working either!" he told the others. "Also, I made two more heads, sorry!"
All hope seemed to be lost as the Hydras were joined by it's drakon cousins that slithered into the fray. The Argonauts ran forward to meet them but their scales were think and conventional weapons were useless. A good number of the Argonauts laid dead, Bellerophon was dead, many were injured, and they were exhausted. Not to mention the fact there was still a couple thousand cyclops, centaur, laistroygian, telekhine, dracaena, and empousai left. The Argonauts needed a miracle. Many of them prayed to as many of the god they could think of.
Their prayers were answered when a, "WHOO!" echoed through the Atlas Mountains.
From out of nowhere a fire bolt rocketed out of the clouds and swooped over a hundred monsters. The fire bolt took the shape of a human and from it's hands it let out columns of fire. Dozens of monsters were vaporized instantly.
"What the-" Jason uttered in awe.
The fire bolt came to the aid of two helpless Argonauts pinned by a pack of Earthborn. Then it held up it's hands and lit the two giants up like roman candles.
"Did someone order two large toasted Earthborn?" the fire bolt asked in a familiar voice.
The fire bolt touched it's feet to the ground and extinguished it's flames. It revealed it's true form. Standing before them was a curly headed Latino Santa Clause Elf with a tool belt strapped around his waist. The boy wore a smirk and his eyes twinkled.
"Leo," gasped Piper.
"Pretty cool huh?" Leo blurted before anyone else could speak. He talked at a million words per minute. "You thought I was all dead, right? Well, I'll tell you what happened. Medea lit the ship on fire and I was like, 'ah,' and I tried to fix it. Everyone was like, 'no, you can't man, you're gonna die,' and I'm like, 'no, I can' but really I couldn't and then I thought I was dead meat for sure. I tried to use fire to my advantage and make the ship's explosion even bigger, which I did, but just before the ship crashed my life flashed before my eyes. Then I had this weird vision of my dad telling my all my abilities and guess what? I'M THE MOTHER FLIPPIN' HUMAN TORCH! I can shoot fireballs, I can fly, just like Jason, you're not the only one bro! I flew off the ship before it crashed. It took me awhile for me to get here because I sort of flew to Olympus or something and the Gods told me a bunch of things about the war and this ILH group and some more stuff. And my dad even promised to rebuild Festus. Oh, it's so awesome! I'll tell you guys all about it later. But isn't all this FREAKIN' INCREDIBLE!"
Most Argonauts were too busy fighting for their lives to notice, others were just stunned from utter surprise, some were delighted, and others were eager to get back to the fight, yet thrilled to have Leo back.
"Leo were really glad you're not dead and all but we kind have a problem," said Jason urgently.
"What?" Leo asked dumbly. Then he looked at the Hydras. "Crap, you mean ugly over there! Yeah I can do this, no problem, fire, I got this." He was jumping on his toes and shaking his hands like he was about to run a mile. "You might want to stand back," he said gesturing for Thalia to step away.
Then he roared, "FLAME ON!"
Suddenly Leo's entire body was engulfed in flames. He jumped into the air and rocketed off toward the Hydra with Jason and Frank flying after him. Perseus, now running because he lost his Hermes boots after his fight with the Nemean Lions, followed them. He was accompanied by Percy and Theseus. The rest of the Argonauts who weren't already occupied charged forward after them. They began hacking away at any Hydra head that they could sink their blades into. The Hydra screamed in pain. Before the giant lizards could regrow their lost heads, Leo set fire to the stumps, cauterizing the wounds, preventing any heads' ability to regrow. Within moments the Hydras exploded into dust. All of them were eliminated allowing the Argonauts to focus their attention on other matters.
Both the Argonauts and the monster noticed the shift in the battle. The Argonauts took advantage of this moment and surged forward causing the monsters to skirt away from them. All the children of Echidna were wiped out thus fueling the Argonauts to fight harder and the monsters to cower. The satyr Argonauts played their pan flutes summoning vines that exploded from the ground which wrapped themselves around drakons and pinned them. This enabled the spearmen to climb up on the giant reptiles and stab away. Argonauts swords flashed, their bows twanged, their shields battered, and their spears rammed.
The monsters were left under the leadership of Geryon who wasn't a military leader of any sorts. He gave out orders awkwardly and his confidence faltered as the Argonauts continued to advance. The monsters were left unorganized and confused and whenever they did receive an order, it was one that left them unprotected, or sent them to their deaths.
"My Lord, what shall we do?" A dracaena hissed in terror as the Argonauts were getting closer and closer to their position.
"Kill them all!" screamed Echidna in rage. "VENGEANCE SHALL BE MI-" Her sentence was cut short when three arrows shot by Odysseus, Will, and Frank smacked into her forehead, causing her to explode into dust.
"We are being slaughtered!" whined the dracaena.
"I'M A BUSINESSMAN! NOT A GODS DAMN GENERAL!" Geryon screamed in frustration with his Texan accent.
"What are your orders My Lord?"
"RETREAT!" Geryon screamed in conclusion.
The monsters were grateful for the order and they fled in terror as they ran away from the progressing Argonaut army. The monsters fought each other as they squeezed through the entrance of valley. Geryon's retreat was not fast enough because he was ripped out of his chariot by two meaty paws. They belonged to an old business rival, Hercules. Before Geryon could even scream in terror, Hercules ripped him in half, length wise, making his three torso's useless. The three toro giant exploded into dust.
His servant Euyrtion, a demigod and son of Ares, didn't even bother to fight at the death of his master. He actually joined the ranks of the Argonauts.
"I'm done serving that greedy demon. I'm with you," he said hefting his giant sword.
"Forward!" Hercules urged his fellow Argonauts.
The Argonauts ran forward after the monsters who were squeezing themselves through a crack between two mountains severing as the entrance too the Valley of Death's Doors. Achilles spearheaded the way through the narrow crevice and lead the Argonauts into a massive wide valley. Only a few hundred yards in front of them stood Death's Doors. The Argonauts expected it to be a grand gateway that lead into the Underworld but instead it was merely plain wooden double-doors that blocked the entrance to a cave that jutted out from the ground. There was no doubt about it though, that was the Doors of Death and they were cracked wide open, revealing a swirling black portal. The Argonauts had finally made it. They secured a beachhead at the Battle of the Cliff, pushed through New Thermopylae, and suffered over two-hundred casualties to get their destination, but they had finally reached their goal. They would shut the doors and mourn the dead later. First, they had a mission, a quest, to complete.
The remaining five hundred Argonauts rushed into the valley excitedly only to find themselves surrounded by thousands of thousands of weapons trained on them. The forces that surrounded them included the Persian king Xerxes and one-thousand of his Persian Immortal Guard, the ones who almost took over all of Ancient Greece. Their armament was along the lines of wicker shields, short spears, swords or large daggers, bows and arrows, and underneath their colorful desert robes they wore scaled armor coats.
There was also Hannibal the Conqueror, not the Elephant, bug the very one that brought the demise of the Roman Empire. He was accompanied by one-thousand of Carthaginian warriors. They were armored similar to the Argonauts. Their weapons were mostly Greek like the xiphos and the falcata, but their armor was Roman like.
Then there was Hippias, son of Pesistratos, the tyrant king of Athens accompanied by one-thousand corrupt Spartans. They were carbon cut outs of your typical spartan warrior; hoplon (circular greek shield), xiphos or maikhra, and Spartan armor. They were almost exactly like true Spartans except for the evil aura they emitted.
On top of all that there was still the surviving monsters who were now rearmed and ready to seek revenge on those who made a fool out of them, not to mention that they were still starving and that day's special was demigod and satyr. They licked their lips hungrily. The evil forces formed a ring around the Argonauts allowing no chance of escape.
"PHALANX!" Achilles ordered quickly.
The Argonauts surged together and formed a dome by putting their shields together with their spears poking out of the chinks. The dome was large enough to cover the rest of the Riders and Ms. O'Leary. They were ready for anything, read to fight, ready for death. The men and monsters that surrounded them waited silently for the kill order. The Argonauts held their breath and prepared for battle. There was an odd hush that hung over the Atlas Mountains.
Frank gulped nervously as he recognized the aggressors that surrounded them. "Aren't all these guys mortals? How are we supposed to kill them?"
Hazel gave him an explanation, "When a soul is brought back from the Underworld via dark magic, i.e., Gaea, they bring a piece of Tartarus with them. They can be killed by Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold just like any other monster."
"Really?" Leo said. "That doesn't worry me. What worries me is how many of them there are."
"Where did they come from?" Octavian wondered.
"I think it's obvious," Reyna said pointing to Death's Doors.
"So close and yet so far," Thalia put in frustrated.
Annabeth reached for Percy's hand. "Stay with me," she whispered into his ear.
"Always," he whispered back into her's and returned her squeeze firmly. He then brushed his lips against hers.
Realization struck the Argonauts as they understood the situation they were in and was going to happen in the next few minutes. They set their jaws with determination and began saying final goodbyes.
Jason looked to Piper next to him, "I love you."
It took a moment for her make out what he had said but when she did she smiled brightly. She met his blue eyes with her color changing ones. She pressed her lips against his and they stayed like that what seemed like eternity. Fireworks exploded in their heads and the world spun around them. Not even their impending deaths could ruin that moment.
Frank pecked Hazel on the lips and smiled. "Not to shabby Ms. Levesque."
"Not shabby at all Mr. Zhang," Hazel smiled back.
"Damn!" curse Leo. "I have no one to kiss. Don't leave me out!"
Mr. O'Leary lapped her huge tongue over his face at his request drenching it in salvia.
Leo wiped the drool off his face. "That was my first kiss," was all he could manage in defeat.
From beside him Reyna stifled a laugh.
"What?" Leo said annoyed.
Shook her head through chuckles. "I would kiss you if you didn't have drool over your face." Her smile faded and her eyes darted around nervously. "This is out of pity of course," she added too quickly.
"I think I got most of it," Leo said excitedly really rubbing his face dry and.
Reyna sighed. "Fine, if we survive you have to promise not to tell anyone."
He felt a bit hurt but he shrugged and said, "I can do that."
Before he could do anything else, Reyna pressed her lips against his. An atomic bomb of satisfaction went off in his head and he almost burst in to flames right then and there. When they broke apart he was left dizzy and his cheeks red.
"What did you think of that?" she asked.
"I-I-I-I," was all he could manage.
"Well, it's been an honor serving with you all," Clarisse grunted cracking her knuckles in anticipation.
"Ditto," Tyler agreed as he flipped his knife between his fingers.
"Aye," the remainder of the Heroes of Old put in.
There was a hushed "Ahoo!" within the Argonauts' Phalanx. A few silents prayer were made and last minute apologies made to those they may have wronged.
Percy had a terrible feeling that they were all going to be slaughtered but the presence of Annabeth at his side made death seem almost tolerable. They weren't going down without a fight and at least he would be in the company of friends.
Live together, fight together, die together.
The Earth seemed to vibrate as giant footsteps echoed throughout the silent mountains. From the ranks of the Axis of Evil emerged two giants. The Argonauts recognized them from the old stories. There was Leon. He was not breed to kill a specific god but instead a hero and that hero was none other than Hercules. The hero who fought in the first Giant War. He stood at twenty-five feet, had reptilian legs like all the other giants, but his waist up took the form of a giant lion, except he had human arms, and he wielded a club the size of a tree. Then there was her. The leader of the wretched bunch. Pallas, who stood at thirty feet, had the standard reptilian legs, her torso was covered in greek armor, and her head was in the form of a goat's which had massive horns protruding from it. She carried a Greek xiphos and circular shield on her arm.
Standing bellow the two giants was thirty Trojan warriors lead by the handsome Prince of Troy, Paris, with his bow slung over his shoulder. Standing at his side and a head taller than him was his brother, Hector. Hector would have been equally as handsome as his brother if not for his scarred body. He was decked out in his full Trojan armor, his sword sheathed at his waist, his shield on one arm, and he leaned on nonchalantly on his spear. He wore an evil grin on his face that was wide enough to be seen through his helmet. His eyes scanned the Argonaut phalanx and when they settled on Achilles his grinned widened.
"ARGONAUTS!" Pallas boomed. Here voice was feminine but it almost sounded like a man's mixed with goat's. "LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!"
Leonidas responded by pounding on his shield twice and roaring, "GIANTS, COME AND GET THEM!"
The Argonauts screamed with all their might for Gaea, the Gods, the spirits, and the world to hear:
"AHOO! AHOO!"
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