XXXVI

Nico

(A/N: So, these author's notes have become kind of bland. So this time, whether you're reading this in the distant future, or if this just got posted, comment down below who your Percy Jackson OTP is. Mine is CALEO (Calypso x Leo). Besides that kind of bad attempt at user interaction, please enjoy this Chapter! I swear, posting 3 chapters a day is really messing with my mind. And yes, unfortunately, I didn't hit my goal of 4 chapters. However, I did some calculations, and I'm still good. So let's hope for the best. Read, and don't forget to review even if you don't like it. Criticism is welcome. Enjoy!)

Nico was kind of annoyed that there was a herd of red bulls charging at them. Then his fighting instincts kicked in, and he started to shake Reyna and Coach Hedge awake. "Guys!" he yelled. "Get ready to fight!" as soon as they opened their eyes, they immediately jolted to life. "Where's the enemy?" Coach Hedge yelled, his eyes still half-closed.

Nico pointed behind him.

Coach Hedge screamed like a little girl and ran off, charging straight at them. "DEATH!" he yelled.

Reyna looked back at him. "Can you shadow-travel us out of here?" she asked. Nico felt better. He knew he could transport three people, but with the statue? No.

"No, I can't!" he yelled back, over the snorting of the bulls. "What are those things, anyway?"

"They're Ethiopian Bulls!" Reyna yelled back at him. "They eat flesh, and their skin is impervious to any weapon."

They looked at each other, and charged straight at Coach Hedge. "NO!" Nico yelled. "DON'T-"

His words were cut short when Coach Hedge slammed into them head on. They trampled all over him, and Nico could only hope that he was okay.

Some of the bulls had stopped, Nico could guess, to feed on Coach Hedge's body. He picked up a stone from the ground.

"Um, Nico?" Reyna asked warily. "What are you doing?"

"Do you want Coach Hedge to die?" Nico shot back at her. He threw the rock as hard as he could, and by some miracle, it hit the bull at the very head of the pack. He reared in pain, and charged straight at them. The rest of the pack followed suit.

"RUN!" Nico yelled. He zipped towards the nearest treeline, hoping to stop the bulls from going any further. They couldn't possibly penetrate the forest, could they?

They both ran into the forest, dodging branches, jumping over logs, trying to outpace the bulls before they managed to go too near. They stayed near the outskirts, just in case the bulls decided that they were too hard to kill and went back to Coach Hedge, but far away enough so that they would be able to run if the bulls, for some reason, managed to take the forest apart.

They waited. And waited. As the bulls descended on them, Reyna tightly held Nico's hand. Nico felt his face heating up.

Nico would have much rather preferred it if the bulls were too weak to push down trees. But no such luck. As the bulls neared the edge of the forest, they didn't even slow down, barging straight through the trees like they were made of soft butter.

Nico and Reyna made a mad dash left. The bulls screeched on their hooves, and made a mad turn left as well. Nico and Reyna kept changing direction, so that the bulls would slow down considerably, so that they wouldn't be able to catch them. As they progressed through the forest, they heard a tree fall in front of them. Another part of the herd had tried to cut around them and attack from the front.

"Stop." Reyna said. Nico did so, realizing what Reyna wanted to do. As the bulls behind them started to catch up, so did the bulls in front of them.

Three… two… one…

Nico ducked and rolled. So did Reyna, and the two bulls charged straight into each other. The one that had been following them (which must have been the leader) apparently decided to take the action as a challenge, and he rammed into him again. Nico and Reyna sprinted back towards Coach Hedge, out of the forest.

He was sitting on the ground, eating ambrosia, a grudging expression on his face.

"Hey, thanks, kid." Coach Hedge said, grudgingly. "You saved my life back there." He felt the bruises on his cheeks. "They messed me up pretty badly."

Suddenly, Nico felt a breeze on his back. He turned around, and he saw a bull getting lifted up into the sky by a giant, dark, bird-shaped shadow.

What the… Nico was completely shocked that a bull could have killed them while they weren't looking.

The shadow squawked, in a really loud, robotic announcer voice, "I am the Caucasian Eagle! Hephaestus sends you his best wishes!"

He flung it around, and shot a beam of white-hot fire into his mouth. The bull burned to dust, and the eagle shot towards the woods.

"What the heck was that?" Coach Hedge muttered.

Nico finally remembered something. But then again, it was his duty to remember all the previous inmates of the underworld. "The Caucasian Eagle was a bronze automaton. Its job was to continuously eat Prometheus' liver."

Reyna winced, but Coach Hedge only got more excited. "YEAH!" he yelled. "I LOVE THE SOUND OF THAT!" he ran like a madman towards the woods.

Meanwhile, the eagle was getting some decent work out of the bulls. They were all running around, head-butting its tough armor. They were making pretty good headway- there were a few large dents in the celestial bronze, but nothing had gone through yet- which was a good thing, because the eagle was doing the bulls one by one.

Nico nodded to Reyna and Hedge, and they dashed to help.

Nico started by immediately impaling the nearest bull in the mouth. It buckled and disappeared into dust. He then dodged a charging one and stabbed the next one in the ear. It really wasn't too hard- most of the bulls were focusing on the eagle anyways.

In a very short time, all the bulls had been completely destroyed. All that was left of them was a giant pool of dust.

The Eagle landed on the ground. "I am here to carry the statue!" it said proudly, in its weird robotic voice.

Nico and Reyna exchanged a look.

"Look," Nico said, sighing. "I can get us to the edge of the Mediterranean right now, but only if it's us three. On the other hand, if we choose to bring the statue along, then we're going to have to wait quite a while."

"And Eagle flies very fast!" the Caucasian Eagle squawked.

Reyna looked at the eagle, then at Nico.

"Fine." She sighed.

The eagle screeched with delight. "Where do you want to go?"

"Lisbon, Portugal."

It flew up, grabbed the statue, and disappeared in a flash. Seconds later, Nico heard a sonic boom.

"Wow," Reyna commented. "Quick."

"Hold hands!" Nico yelled. They made a circle. Nico concentrated, a giant shadow appeared underneath them, and they fell into the darkness.

Suddenly, something hard hit him on the head, let go of both Reyna and Coach Hedge, ricocheted off the side of the tunnel and blacked out.