Chapter 23

Herry's vision was still sharp. He was still able to follow the fight and react accordingly, but his balance was starting to betray him. He was having trouble coordinating his footing. His shirt has been torn off to crudely wrap around his seeping wounds. At the least he had his right hand free to fight. Jay was making an obvious effort to stay close to him.

Exhaustion was creeping up on them all. Breaths came in labored gasps and muscles strained with exertion. Orthrus would not budge from between the heroes and the truck, keeping their chance for retreat isolated. They hadn't seemed to be gaining any ground on the beast, the back and forth was continuous. Jay didn't know how much longer they could keep it up for.

Beside him Herry staggered, Jay was only fast enough to help guide him to his knees. He gnawed on his lip as he looked at Herry's once green shirt wrapped around his arm. His usual sun kissed skin was flushed white. Herry groaned and reached over a hand to push Jay away, leaving a bloody print on the side of his yellow shirt.

"I'll be fine," he said and nodded over to the dog, "Worry about that." Jay hummed through pursed lips and looked over. Theresa, Archie and Atlanta were doing a decent job in distracting it at the moment.

"Come on man, I don't want to leave you here," he bent down to hook his arm under Herry's and hauled him to his feet. Jay dropped him down near the forest's edge and looked back to the fight in time to see Archie snap his whip around the snapping jaw that was just about to come down on Theresa. Springing over to the fray he swooped under Archie's whip and with an agile twist he tore his sword through the flesh of the dog's shoulder.

Orthrus yelped in surprised pain and retreated with a heavy limp. Jay let out a relieved sigh; finally they were gaining some ground. He spared a quick glance to Theresa, back on her feet and ready to fight. Pointing he started barking out orders to surround the beast and bring it down. His team was nimble with his orders, in seconds everyone was in place. Orthrus snarled and barked, lurching to the side he barreled into Atlanta, knocking her with his shoulder. She went flying into a thick tree trunk with a horrid crunch and fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

"Atlanta," Archie rushed for her, tangling the dog's feet with his whip as he went. He yanked the beast off balance and it went crashing to the ground. Atlanta had pushed herself to her hands and knees, gasping for breath when Archie reached her. Tucking his arm under hers he pulled her to her feet.

"I'm okay," she managed on a strangled breath, slipping out from Archie's support. Odie put himself between them and the beast, its footing regained. That slice Jay had made on its shoulder hadn't caused as much damage as he had thought. Holding his stun gun ready, he locked eyes with Orthrus. With dagger teeth bared it started to tread towards him. Its limp was still there, but hardly noticeable. Odie's mind raced for a solution. They needed one good shot at something vital and this could end this now.

The roaring of an engine cutting through the trees pulled his attention away from the battle. There was a flash of pearled white and then a man launching himself off the back of a motorcycled to the beast's back. Knife unsheathed and held tight in both hands, arms over his head. Percival drove his stiletto hilt deep into the section of the dog's shoulders where the spine for either head split. Orthrus cried out in pain and bucked. Jumping to solid ground, Percival landed neatly on his boots. He sliced his knife through the air, sending an arch of black blood flying.

The beast howled and whined. He would charge a few paces but then stumble in pain and retreat again. Cronus growled in frustration and stormed over to the dog. He whipped up a portal and disappeared through it with his now useless monster. The whole assembly of heroes was quiet for a moment, the natural silence of the forest now deafening with the absence of Orthrus' snarling. Jay watched the elderly man in slack jawed appreciation, when things died down he would need to talk to him about training. He was sure to have tricks to teach him and his team.

Percival scanned over the young heroes with hard eyes. He looked over to Herry and called his name.

"I'm fine," he said and forced himself to his feet. Jay dropped his sword and rushed over to help his friend to the truck.

"Get him to Chiron," Percival ordered, turning back to his bike tipped over in the mud.

"Can someone get my keys, left pocket," Herry said.

"Yep," Odie said, slipping his hand into his pocket sticky with blood. He made a sound of disgust and did his best to clean off the teeth of the key on his shirt.

"Odie can you drive?" Jay asked.

"Yeah," he replied, unlocking the truck.

"Odie," Herry warned as Jay ushered him into the passenger seat, "You break it…"

"It won't get so much as a smudge," he promised as he hopped into the driver's seat and turned over the ignition. Herry couldn't get comfortable in the passenger seat of his truck. It wasn't even the pain that was bothering him most. It was the churning in his stomach as he watched Odie's driving, the itches that poked up in random placed around his body. He clawed at the one on his cheek and shifted further down into his seat with an irritated groan.

"Odie," he called, "the speed limit's ninety."

"Herry," he said, "you speed all of the time for less of an emergency than this." Herry leaned forward to rest his head on the glove box, his stomach constricting further. He knew when his mouth suddenly became watery it wasn't Odie's driving that was making him nauseous.

"Pull over," he groaned. Herry had the door open before the truck even made it to a stop, staggering out of the door he dropped to his knees, tearing them up on the gravel. He fell forward onto his right hand and heaved into the ditch. Theresa came up behind him, her hand feeling alarmingly cold on his sweat slicked back.

"You're really warm," she said with sudden panic, she tugged his shoulder back and gathered up his face in both her hands. He wasn't about to tell her that he didn't feel warm, it was quite the opposite, there was chill that struck him to the bone.

"We need to move," Percival hollered over the rumbling of his engine, his motorcycle stopped behind Herry's truck.

Theresa moved her hands to Herry's upper arms and tugged him upward to signal she wanted him to get to his feet, "Come on let's get you back to the school."

He nodded as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. With a groan he rose from the graveled side of the road. He followed Theresa into the truck and settled down against the passenger door, closing his eyes and resting his temple against the glass of the window. It was funny how it always felt better after vomiting, at least now he could sit still.

"Ugh," he straightened and peeked under the cloth of his blood soaked shirt wrapped around his arm, "Why hasn't the bleeding slowed down?"

"There must have been an anticoagulant in the saliva," Odie replied with simple certainty.

"Odie, I have no idea what that means," he shot back in irritation, his patience for his friends scientific explanations worn paper thin by his pain.

"Anticoagulant, it stops blood from clotting, things like leaches and mosquitoes have it in their saliva," he explained.

"You feeling light headed?" Jay asked.

"Yeah, no shit," Herry responded shortly.

"I see you're also feeling grumpy," Neil taunted.

"You're lucky you're in the back seat Neil," he said and closed his eyes, leaning his head against the window of the passenger door. He could feel his mind starting to slip into blackness. Biting his lip he fought to stay awake. He didn't know how long it took to get back to the school, but it felt like an eternity. When the truck came to a stop he forced his eyes open and reached for the door handle.

"You doing okay man?" Jay took Herry's upper arm once he was out of the vehicle.

"I've been better," he replied, leaning on Jay as he led him into the school towards Chiron's office. The floor wobbled wherever he stepped and the walls shifted. His friends walking in front of him spilt into sets of twos. He groaned and blinked them into focus. If Jay wasn't there beside him to help orient his balance he would have long ago been keeled over on the floor. When they made it to Chiron's study he collapsed on the centaur's examination bench.

"What's going on?" the horse man asked urgently. His eyes scanned his guests, hovering on the gray haired man for a moment. Looking to Herry Chiron worked out the answer to the question himself, "Someone get me the IV." Quickly he gathered up supplies or called for others to get it for him. Taking Herry's arm he tugged off the makeshift bandage and washed the area clean. Then he began the tedious work of stitching the wounds closed.

"Herry, can you still hear me," he asked, noting the boy's stillness.

"Mmm," he replied but didn't open his eyes.

"Good," Chiron said taking the IV from Jay and rounded to the other side of the table to turn up Herry's hand with intent to search for a vein there. Finding his hand covered in blood dried brown he disinfected his forearm with his alcohol swab. The needle went in smoothly; he taped the tube down and gently lay Herry's arm back down on the bench.

Herry sank further against the table with a deep sigh, muscles that had been constricting in pain since the incident finally relaxed. The relief from the intravenous was instant. The tension from everyone else in the room dissipated when they saw the ease in their friend's pain. Chiron finished up the stitches and then dressed his arm with pristine white bandages. The last step was to wash up the blood Herry managed to have smeared all over himself.

While he worked Chiron instructed the teen to take it easy with his left side for the next little while. Jay's shoulders hunched as Chiron lectured, it would be a task and a half to make sure Herry took it easy, recuperating on a couch never did bode well the guy's active lifestyle. A sprained ankle had been his last injury, custody of a giant boar, and the gods damned fool went out for a jog the same weekend. If Jay could chain him to his bed he would, but the beast of a man would just bust his way out of them. It was going to be a long week.