Chapter Six

I Meat the Monster of Eternal Throw Up

So there I was, fighting a dumb Kronos' army once again. One of the archers fired an arrow straight through my left arm, and I immediately beheaded him with my sword.

Now with that arrow wound, I knew I couldn't last long, but I still slashed at them, one by one, the demigods were killed. Just when I thought that the demigod army was defeated, a nasty looking creature stomped out the door.

I have seen Typhon, but this monster was a lot worse. His legs were humanoid, but he had a bull's head—like the Minotaur. His arms were gigantic scaly snakes and his torso looked somewhat like a skeleton.

Will Solance came running up.

"What in the world are you doing, Percy?"

"What am I doing? Fighting this creature!"

"Come on, Percy! Go back to where we camped, it's only about half a mile down behind us."

"What? And let you die?"

Look. My fatal flaw was excessive personal loyalty. Annabeth's mom Athena had told me that a few years back. I would gladly throw myself at a monster or a demigod army to keep my friends safe…but what if this time, someone had to do it for me?

"You have that wounded arm. You can't fight! It's suicide!"

"Oh—"

Then the two mortals—brother and sister, came running up.

"What are you doing here? You'll get yourselves killed!" I said.

Will whispered "We can't do this without mortals! That beef guy is no monster. It's a mortal monstrosity!"

"I can't let innocent mortals be harmed!"

"Well you can't die!"

I screamed to the mortals "Get back! Retreat to safety, do whatever! Just get outta here!"

The mortals obeyed. I took out the pistol I looted from the Kabra person and handed it to Will.

"Use this if your arrows just fly right through the beef man. This is full metal jacket mortal ammo. It should work against him."

With that, I ran. Before long, I heard a loud scream and ran back to Will.

There he was, on the ground, the gun in one hand and his bow in the other. He seemed to have a sword wound in his chest.

"Promise me, Percy. At whatever cost, kill every single one of Kronos' people. Avenge him for the deaths of Lee Fletcher and Michael Yew."

"I promise."

"Now run before you die too! Take the gun. You'll need it."

"What about you? Can you heal yourself?"

"This is beyond healing, Percy! Run! Get out!"

I ran, leaving Will behind.

I met up with the rest of the group ten minutes later. They all asked me where Will Solance was, and, after reading my glum expression, they all seemed to know what happened to him.

As we walked forward, Annabeth talked to me.

"I know this might be a little hard on you."

"Yeah"

She asked me more questions, and I replied with "Yeah" or "Yes" or "Uh-huh". Finally, Annabeth quit and asked me what Will told me.

"He asked me to promise to wipe out every man in Kronos' army."

"Impossible?"

"No."

"Percy, remember the prophecy? There was a line about keeping a promise when someone is dying?"

"You think I'm going to die?"

"Percy! You've been through a lot, and you think you'll die here?"

"I guess."

"Ok—"

Annabeth never got to finish, because at that instant, more of Kronos' demigods jumped out, and a familiar figure. It was the Kabra person I tried to kill with water.