I'm disappointed in you people…. Sam calls them oliphaunts, but Men and Elves call them "Mûmakil." The completely badass Haradrim war elephants.
Some guy said I copied his story (he was a guest). And that, my friends, is how to fail at hating.
Anyways, I'm sorry for not updating in a loong time. I'm busy with prep for State exams, my Hates story, Circle rewrite, and generally life in general. I don't know if I should continue this. I love all of you for your reviews, but I'm just losing inspiration. Any idea is greatly appreciated!
XXXI
Hazel
Hazel knew she was screwed when one of the elephants came straight at her. As she maneuvered her way through the chaos, hacking down telkhines left, right and above (some of them were being chucked into the air by pegasi), one of the 3 elephants looked Hazel in the eye.
She could've sworn it said, I'm coming for you, girl. The other 2 were running amok throughout demigod lines, throwing them up left and right.
"Oh gods," Hazel muttered and turned around and ran as the elephant began bowling towards her. She snuck a glance back to see a brilliant green flare shoot up towards it and explode across its flank.
The elephant trumpeted and stumbled, but continued on. Hazel tried to dive for the cover of a boat, but suddenly she felt crushed and weightless. She realized the elephant had wrapped its gigantic trunk around her. She yelped and stabbed at it, and even though it sank hilt deep, the elephant didn't seemed fazed. Instead, it threw Hazel onto the back of the elephant.
She landed right in the middle of several monsters, which snarled at her and drew swords. Fortunately, they still had huge bows out and stumbled trying to get their blades.
Hazel took the opportunity. With a cry, she slashed the first one into dust and kicked the second one in front of her down into the midst below. A growl came from behind, and she hacked blindly as a telkhine raised a sword. The blade clattered to the elephant's back.
Knowing she couldn't take all these archers, she looked for something to help her, and saw a rope attached to the platform. Impulsively, she reached over the railing and hacked it apart as an arrow whistled by her ear. The entire platform groaned, and several monsters growled uncertainly.
Hazel heard ropes snap, and the archer hole began leaning to the side, as well as the elephant. Thinking quickly, she jumped forward onto the head of the massive animal as the archers fell into the chaos below, splattering several dozen monsters in a phalanx. "Sorry," she said to the elephant.
Hazel took out her spatha, and steadied herself as she drove it hilt deep right into where the brain should be.
The elephant trumpeted, then its front knees buckled, and Hazel jumped off of the head as the front hit the ground and rolled over. "One down…" She looked up and saw the other 2 elephants down, "zero to go."
Without their mascot of battle, the monsters quickly lost morale and began breaking and routing back to their camp as demigods began cheering. Hazel heard Jason shouting down the line as he flew overhead, "Count the causalities and keep alert!"
That night was a fairly good mood. 6 demigods were wounded, 2 severally, and nobody had died.
The Athena cabin and leaders formed plans to search for the second piece as the campers partied in victory.
Hazel went to bed, and for once, had no nightmares about Gaea and her past.
The next morning, no monsters came to challenge them. The camp was entirely gone, and teams of metal detectors began scouring the large grassland for any sign of the bow. Jason had asked if Hazel knew anything, but the entire area was littered with too many metal weapons, both mortal and godly, to pick up any unnaturally powerful trace.
The day went by quickly as scouts looked around for demonic activity and teams uncovered a bunch of old weapons, but nothing that looked like a part of a bow.
By afternoon, Hazel's ADHD was in full drive and she was ready to nuke this mound of trees and shrubbery.
She would've bet that Gaea was purposely messing with them.
Around evening, this started heating up. A scout flew back on a pegasus towards where Jason, Hazel, Piper, Frank, Reyna (who looked bored, for once) and Nico were camped, crossing out searched areas. "An army!" Connor shouted. "Approaching fast!"
Jason was up instantly, blowing his horn.
Just as the last stragglers trickled in, the black smudge on the distance really began to enlarge, and the chanting of monsters became deafening within minutes. "Form ranks! Hoplites in the center, legionaries on the flanks!"
"Stoll, how many?" Jason asked as demigods rushed to cover as much of the plains as possible.
"At least 1500," Connor shook his head.
Everyone in the command tent, including Hazel dropped their jaws.
Reyna hissed angrily. "They outnumber us 5 to 1!"
"We need to fall back to the ships, Jason," Malcolm suggested. "Our weapons are in range."
Jason shook his head. "No. Funnel them towards the center in a V-formation, and surround and conquer."
Malcolm stamped his foot impatiently. "It's a big risk, Jason. The front line has to be able to hold long enough to have the entire army locked in order for the flanks to swing around."
"Do anything you can to hold the line- traps, archers, anything."
"All right," Malcolm said and left.
Reyna didn't look too sure either that this plan would work. "Are you sure this will come through, Jason?" She asked.
"It's our best shot."
Although Hazel had doubts of her own, and from her friends' faces, they also did, she didn't know much about tactics and decided Jason would be our best bet. I wish Annabeth were here, Hazel thought numbly. Why was it that most of their problems would have been easily solved if the 2 weren't down in Tartarus?
Just as Jason prepared to leave, Connor said, "Yo Jason, something else. A mile behind the army, there's a huge container I couldn't see through. But there was a monsters sitting on a platform in front of it, and he had the piece in his hands."
"They already found it?" Jason swore.
"Dude, if you like, we can peel off some soldiers from the main line and try and take it."
Jason thought for a moment. Then he looked at Hazel. "Hazel, Leo, Frank and Piper will mount pegasus and try and snatch the piece, OK? I'll stay here to rally the troops."
Hazel nodded. A part, finally.
"All right, everybody. You know what to do. Adjourned," and the leaders left.
xXx
"Ready?" Leo asked her as Hazel grabbed him tightly, hoping he could fly a pegasus.
"Can you fly?" She asked.
"Uh…. A little. Just hold on tight, 'k?" He said with a crooked smile and lightly brushed his against her forehead. Hazel thought she saw Frank scowl in their direction.
"Frank ready?" Leo called. He nodded, his sour expression gone. "Let's get this party started!" Leo shouted and flicked the reins of his pegasus. The horse whinnied in excitement and took off into the air, just as sounds of metal smashing against metal sounded a bit in the front as the vanguard of the monsters hit the demigods.
Hazel grabbed tightly as the pegasus ascended steeply. As he (it looked like a he), Hazel felt the familiar thrill of being free on a horse again.
"This feels so much like-"Hazel started.
"-Like Sammy and you riding?" Leo asked.
She smiled. "Yeah."
They rode in silence as the battle below them faded into the distance and something else appeared. Connor was right. The thing looked like a gigantic cardboard box. Hazel didn't want to think what was under it.
Leo dived, Frank and Piper right on his tail. Sure enough, at the bottom of the box, a very well armored monster was sitting on a wheelchair, and it held something slightly shiny, like a piece of metal that had lost its gleam over the years. It probably was that.
Now that Hazel could see it, she could feel power radiating from it.
"Stick it and I'll grab the piece!" Hazel shouted at Leo over the wind.
He grinned back at her in response and grabbed a huge lance on the pegasus's side and held it, ready to impale the monster.
The poor thing didn't even see him coming. The Celestial Bronze tip smashed through his shiny armor and he disintegrated. Hazel leaned over the side and quickly grabbed the falling piece of metal and the Pegasus shot back into the sky as the monster's guards shouted and nocked arrows.
As Leo took maneuvers to avoid flying sharp objects, Hazel quickly looked at their prize. It looked a lot like the first piece, slightly bent and dull.
"We got it," Hazel shouted.
Then a massive sound came up from behind her, and Hazel looked back to see what it was.
Oh gods, She thought.
Quote of the chapter- Everyone had photographic memory. Not everybody has film.
Song of the chapter- Tiptoe by Imagine Dragons
Entertainment of the chapter- Guild Wars 2
xXx
