Percy
I shouldn't really be surprised with how fast this particular monster attacked me.
The others were afraid if I got to close with my blade, but the Nemean Lion had no such worries.
It's hide was as strong as ever as I found out shortly, and it was still very angry at me.
As it came down on me I sidestepped with my blade appearing in my hand and crackling with the power I wielded. I swung at its neck, hoping that the power on the blade could pierce the fur. But this is me we are talking about, and that would have been to easy.
My blade bounced of the lion as easily as it did all those years ago, and I quickly went to the age old secret method of fighting monsters. Get as far away as you can, and come up with a plan to come out ahead. I leapt backwards as its claws occupied the space I had just been.
I remembered that the last time this thing had died, it had been because its mouth was not invulnerable. So I had to come up with a way for it to open its mouth in the first place, and somehow get it to open while I was in a position to stab it.
"Wonderful," I thought sarcastically.
But then it occurred to me that the last time it had opened its mouth, it was because I had no weapons on me, and then I realized what I had to do.
I threw Riptide at its head, and it merely lowered it while my sword bounced off. With what I swore was a grin, it leapt at me again, with its claws outstretched. I simply took a step back out of its range.
It landed with a growl and began swiping at me as fast as it could, not trusting what I was doing for a second. So it refused to open it mouth in an attempt to take a bite out of me. It mattered very little, for it could not touch me no matter what it did.
I dodged every time it made a move, sometimes coming up with very interesting positions to fully avoid the blow. But while its seemed like I was simply playing defense, my plan had finally taken effect.
The lion was so furious that it couldn't even touch me that it finally opened its maw to roar in frustration.
Moving so quickly that only immortal eyes would be able to keep up, I willed Riptide into my hand again. With a snarl of my own, I thrust my faithful blade into the roof of the lion's mouth, causing it is disintegrate on the spot.
I plopped myself down on the ground, taking the time to rest. If I considered the Nemean Lion its own group of monsters, I had fought ten group today so far. My record of twenty-one groups still stood, but they had not been nearly as challenging as the ones today.
After a few minutes in quiet contemplation and catching my breath, I finally turned my attention back to the present. With the Nemean Lion's death, I found myself once again in possession of my old prize, the invulnerable fur pelt.
I put it around my shoulders to start. The pelt had already taken its old form as a full-length golden brown coat. Then I noticed that the clothes I had been wearing for the past three months, were almost ready to fall apart on me. I had been washing them whenever I could, but regular mortal clothes simply could not last that long.
Then I got another idea, I called upon my now not so new powers and focused them onto my lion's pelt. The pelt seemed turn to liquid, and spread from where it partially covered my body to entirely cover it, absorbing and settling over my old cloths. I was now wearing a golden shirt over my torso that was not to loose, but wasn't skin tight either. It was short sleeved, but I instinctively knew that when I wanted it to I could have it cover my entire forearms.
I looked down even farther and saw that I now wore jeans that were amazingly comfortable. I figured that they would also be able to turn into shorts when I wanted them to. I moved around a bit in my clothes after willing the sleeves to extend and was astonished by my freedom of movement.
"Pretty cool," I said out loud.
Comfortable clothing that gave me more protection that the strongest armor was a pretty strong advantage here in Tartarus, especially with the range of movement it granted me.
I longed greatly though for the ability to turn them a different color.
After a few more minutes of admiration, I turned back to the real reason why I had wound up so close to the lion.
The next piece of essence was close, and I had a feeling I could use every advantage I could get.
As I approached where my senses told me the next piece of essence waited, I took a moment to appreciate the dark beauty of the structure I was approaching.
It was tall, almost tall enough to be able the reach the next level in Tartarus.
A temple as old as the pit itself, made with stone as smooth as marble, but as dark as the void.
Even with my enhanced sight, it did not seem like the stone returned any light at all. It simply devoured it.
I walked in what seemed to by a courtyard between two rows of pillars.
All were made of the same stone as the temple walls and carved with different symbols and patterns. Each one was topped with a different monster that I had beaten comprehensively.
I suspected that it wasn't a coincidence as I had noticed that the order that they appeared on the pillars was they same as the order I had killed them.
I was sorely tempted to explore the rest of the temple more and more as I kept walking, but I had to come to a stop.
I finally reached an arch decorated with all the evils in the world and seemed to pulse with energy.
I saw nameless figures being tortured and raped. I saw them being starved and sold as slaves. And I saw them condemned to fates worse than death. I drew my eyes away from the arch and settled them on the huge door that was below it.
This door seemed to be made of a silver metal whose name quickly came to mind. "Imperial Silver," ran through my mind, and I swear I could almost heard Ouranos's voice again.
I quieted my thoughts then accessed everything the old one knew about imperial silver. I saw the lengthy process to create it, the dangers it held, and the power one could coax from it.
It was deadly like imperial gold but not as volatile. It would not explode if it was broken. But it was nigh on impossible to break. It was also more powerful than imperial gold and celestial bronze put together.
A cut made by an imperial silver blade would be three times as dangerous as a cut by the other metals. A minor cut from the other two metals would simply heal. A cut made by imperial silver would either kill or poison the being who was cut. The poison wasn't deadly surprisingly. It merely weakened the one who was poisoned until the poison was drawn out of the being by any other imperial silver equipment.
Returning to the real world, I realized that whatever was behind this door was more dangerous than I originally thought. Unfortunately, I had to go in there if I ever wanted to get out of this place.
I mentally prepared myself, pushed open the imperial silver door, and walked into the innermost sanctuary of the temple.
Riptide was already held lightly at my side so I could spring into action at a moment's notice.
As I entered, I noticed two thing right off the bat. The first was the essence sitting at the center of the altar, on the far side of the room. Like the first one, it glowed with a light that seemed to come from within it. I could not tell if it pulsed like the first one though, as I was to far away, even with my powerful eyesight. The second were all the bones on the floor.
I original thought they were human, but as I looked closer, I saw it was not the case. I saw quite a few vertebrae around the room and at least two skulls. They skulls looked long like a horse but also narrower at the top and bottom. Not to mention the skulls themselves were the size of a horse.
I thought I saw saw places ground down on the skull where horns would be, but I dismissed those thoughts and forced myself too keep moving.
I took a moment to gaze around the room while walking towards the essence. I noticed that the room looked like a place of worship. It might have once been beautiful in a Gothic sort of way, but it was in such disrepair that no one would have noticed if they weren't into architecture. Or in my case, dating someone who was into architecture.
I kept approaching the altar, where the essence still glowed warmly, until I felt my instincts screaming at me to turn around which I did.
My eyes widened, my jaw tightened, and Riptide assumed a ready defensive position.
The arch which had pulsed so ominously as I had approached it outside now had black streams of energy coming out of it. They were collapsing into a dark ball of energy that hovered in the center of the room, though it didn't seem to be doing anything at the moment.
When the arch grew dim, I knew that all of its power had been expended. And I had a feeling that I would know exactly what would happen when the last of the energy touched the ball. I got my answer less than a second later.
All the bones began to shudder and shake. Then they lifted off the ground and began orbiting the sphere of energy. The sphere seemed to have a tendril of power connected to every single bone. As one all the bones began to assume their positions.
In less than ten seconds, a skeletal monster roared at me. It had three heads was the first thing I noticed. I slapped myself mentally when I realized that I had never even seen the third head while it was on the ground.
The second thing was what appeared to be the framework of what must had once been massive wings.
Finally I took in the size of the creature itself.
All of that put together, and I knew exactly what I faced, even without Ouranos 's knowledge.
As if to confirm my thoughts, three pillars of blue fire shot out of the creatures mouth.
"Dragon," I thought, "Why did it have to be a dragon?"
