XLV

Leo

(A/N: READ. REVIEW. ENJOY.)

"Jason." Leo muttered. "are you sure about this?" he was standing on the gangplank, looking down at the rocky terrain below him. Snow pelted at him from every direction.

"Yes." Jason's face looked grim. "Leo, you need to do this. I definitely can't climb up that high. I'd freeze to death. Ask Alabaster why he didn't bother to fix the heating system."

Leo glared at Alabaster.

"What?" he said indignantly. "Would you rather have a walking toilet or a flying ship? I'm not a plumber, you know."

As it had turned out, Alabaster had not fixed the entire ship. The engine and wiring was okay in general, but he hadn't had enough time to use magic to fix the plumbing. Now, all their bodily excrement flew straight into the air blow them using the power of gravity. Leo wondered what the mortals would think when they looked up and saw it raining stools.

Leo was wearing a thick jacket, but even that wasn't enough. He had to light a big fire in his hand in order to keep himself warm enough.

"Well," he muttered, half to himself. "See you around."

He jumped onto the snow. Luckily, his shoes were waterproof. He lit his entire body on fire to keep himself warm, melting the snow around him and revealing the rock underneath.

He turned around to see the Argo II leaving, the oars paddling in the air. He started to walk. Festus' GPS had said that Mount Everest was right in front of him- all he needed to do was climb up a hundred meters or so.

In the corner of his eye, he saw a sherpa eye him curiously, then scream and run away. Seeing a burning man climb up a mountain by himself might cause some psychological trauma.

He made his way across the plateau. It was a little steep, but not overly so. In front of him, he saw the steep slopes leading up to the summit. He had no idea how he was going to get up there, but try he would.

He walked over to the slope, where he realized that it was so steep that he wouldn't be able to climb up it. Then, he heard the rumbling.

It was sending rocks flying down the edge. It was like a thumping of feet, almost as if there was an army stomping its way through the snow. Then he realized that it was getting louder- and it was coming for him. He immediately found the nearest boulder he could find and hid behind it, reducing the brightness of his fire so that they wouldn't notice him. The stomping grew louder and louder, until it stopped. A deep voice said, "He's here."

A giant? Maybe a cyclops? Leo didn't know, but he wasn't about to look.

"Search everything! He must be found! Leo Valdez!" the voice boomed. Leo crouched even lower behind his rock.

He heard the flapping of wings and the pounding of paws. The guy must have sent out monsters. Leo shuddered when he realized that he was going to get easily caught, hiding behind this boulder.

The leathery flapping of wings got closer. Then, they stopped. Leo looked up and saw a harpy standing right on top of his rock. He crouched even lower into the shadows, hoping it wouldn't see him. It seemed to work, because the harpy looked around and flew away. He let out a sigh of relief.

Bad mistake.

The harpy's head immediately turned around, and noticed him. It charged straight towards him. Leo, pressed against the boulder, had nowhere to go. He shot a beam of fire at it, and it shrieked, burning to a crisp.

"There he is!" the voice behind him shouted. Leo heard the monsters running towards him. He waited until the very last second, then jumped away from the rock, firing a beam of fire straight at the monsters. It turned into an explosion, which sent a good number of them flying off the cliff.

Now he could clearly see who it was. It was a giant, fully equipped with the snake feet and everything.

The monsters charged.

Leo knew that against this many monsters, he'd never be able to defeat them all by himself. He ran, keeping his fiery protection around him. If he removed it now, he'd freeze to death.

The monsters gave chase. Leo had to swerve, duck, roll and do 180s in order to get towards the giant. He put his hands to the ground, sending waves of intense heat through the rock. The ground started to soften and fracture, turning into lava. He kept running, hearing the satisfying screeches of monsters behind him.

He ran towards the giant, who contorted his face in anger. "Who are you, anyways?" Leo yelled. The giant, who was looking at something behind him, grinned. "I am Alcyoneus. Last time, I was defeated by those two pesky romans. This time I won't make the same mistake."

He raised a spear and charged.

Leo sent a wave of fire at him, but he simply deflected it and carried on rushing towards him. Leo suddenly remembered that Alcyoneus couldn't be killed unless he was thrown out of his territory. Last time, Frank and Hazel had been lucky. This time? Maybe not so much.

Leo dodged the spear, but when it hit the ground, skeletons climbed out of the earth. He laughed. "My spear is tipped with the teeth of drakons. Every time I strike it into the earth, skeletons appear. They're bent on killing you."

Leo ran from them when he saw them removing their ribs and using them as daggers. He blasted fire at them, hoping that it would have the effect of an incinerator. Unfortunately, the fire wasn't hot enough.

Leo then realized that he was stupidly running towards his own lava trap. He had to swerve to avoid it, hoping some of the skeleton warriors would fall in. Well, they did, but Alcyoneus was banging the spear tip on the ground, sending wave after wave of them towards him.

Leo sighed. He heated the ground, creating a sort of moat between him and the skeletons. They seemed to slow down, but only for a moment, because they jumped in and began to make the swim across to him. At the same time, some of the monsters had successfully crossed the lava he'd created earlier, and were bounding towards him. Harpies swarmed the sky.

Leo was completely surrounded, with nowhere to go. He sent blast after blast of fire at the monsters, but they were soon replaced by more of them. Soon, the first skeleton warrior made it to the island. He was dripping with lava, and some of his ribs had been burned off, but he was fine otherwise.

Leo dodged his attack, grabbed his bony arms, and kicked it towards a group of crossing monsters. It pushed them back a bit, but not by much. Leo was slowly losing. There was no way that he could get out.

A hellhound pounced towards him, which he dodged, only to see another one doing the same thing. Then time slowed down. He thought of something completely crazy. If rockets can do it, so can I.

He put his hands down by his side, and fired two intense beams of fire straight at the ground.

Liftoff.

Leo soared into the air, which was nice, but then realized that he was running out of strength. He quickly directed himself at the giant, then blasted himself straight at him.

"Let's go!" he yelled.