LVI
Piper
(A/N: Short chapter. There wasn't much to write about. Next chapter is gonna be awesome. I swear. It may also break a few hearts. Enjoy and don't forget to leave a review!)
Piper ran out of the way of the axe.
It was ten fifty-five. Assuming that Gaia would rise at midnight, why had he assumed it would be eleven o'clock that Gaia waked up?
Thanks to Percy Jackson. She shuddered when she realized that Percy might have had a part in that.
"DIE!" Agrios yelled. He picked up a pair of flaming nunchucks and threw them. Piper ducked while Leo intercepted them head on. "OW!" he yelled. As soon as the nunchucks touched him, his skin blistered and swelled.
While the nunchucks weren't burning him as much as they would have burned Piper, they were still pretty painful. Piper could see him gripping his hand in pain. She was sure that he was shocked at feeling how painful getting burned was. The giant stormed up to him and swung his axe at him. He dodged, but the giant kicked him halfway across the room.
Yeah, he was really getting burned today.
Piper's dagger suddenly felt heavier in her hand. She couldn't even lift it. She had never been good at swordfighting, and all the adrenaline had left her now. All she could do was to keep the Cyclopes at bay, continuously yelling things at them to keep them doing the same thing.
Now, she was beginning to question whether or not this was a battle that they could win.
There were no gods, and Piper and Leo wasn't exactly a dream duo for this kind of fight either. That would be more like Percy and Annabeth, or Frank and Hazel.
Meanwhile, Leo was blasting the giant with plumes of fire, but it didn't seem to be doing very much. All that he was doing was annoying Agrios even more. He blocked the fire with his battle-axe and charged at him. Leo was lucky enough to dodge the swing, then he rolled under him. He grabbed a sword from the pile and stabbed it straight into his heel, causing him to scream in pain. A cyclops managed to break out of the trance and storm at Piper. She ran from it, remembering to keep yelling commands at the Cyclopes. She grabbed a spear from the pile and stabbed it in the Cyclops' chest. He dissolved into dust.
"You! Cyclopes!" Agrios yelled. "Shake it off! Fight!"
The Cyclopes immediately snapped out of their trance, and after getting their bearings, they charged at Piper, screaming for blood. Piper had no choice but to run. She swerved and doubled back on herself, only delaying the inevitable. But in a short time, the Cyclopes had caught up to her, trapping her in a corner of the cave. On the other side, Leo was fighting a losing battle as well. He has nearly out of tricks, and had resorted to throwing various mechanical tools to keep the giant at bay.
Piper closed her eyes. This is the end, she thought, waiting for the moment when the Cyclopes would tear her to shreds. But as it seemed with all of those moments, it never came.
When Piper opened her eyes, she saw a muscular guy bashing the Cyclopes' heads together with his bare hands. He had a blacksmith's apron on. He was completely bald, and on his waist was a tool belt not unlike Leo's.
He was holding a hammer, bashing out the heads of all the Cyclopes. One by one, they turned to dust. In seconds, the entire army had been brought down.
"Phew." the man said. "That was exhausting." he had a deep voice. He turned to look at Agrios. "Agrios!" he yelled. "I have come to kill you."
Agrios turned his head to look at the man, and laughed. "Hephaestus. Have you come to be subjugated as well? I think the true blood of Olympus would be a much better sacrifice!"
He threw his axe straight at Hephaestus' chest. He managed to dodge it, but it did cut his arm. Golden blood- ichor- started to drip out of the wound.
Agrios laughed. "When that blood touches the soil, there will be no more need for a man and woman's blood! You, Hephaestus, will be the one who makes Gaia finally able to rise! Without your help, Gaia would have been stuck underground for centuries, until the time was again right. So... thank you."
He laughed, but Hephaestus stood firm, the cut already beginning to heal. "I think that you would be a wiser man if you did not interrupt me." he said, eyes flashing. He pulled out a little cube, about the size of one of those tiny cubes in a Rubik's cube..
"Ha!" Agrios boasted. "No machine of yours can defeat me!"
Hephaestus threw it and it exploded in his face. Staggering, he pulled out a large sword. "You will pay for that!" he ran towards him, screaming bloody murder. Hephaestus' hand glowed red and he torched him with fire. Leo helped as well. The cavern turned red in the light. Piper, even though she had her eyes closed, could see their shadows growing more and more solid by the minute. Then, the light died down. When she opened her eyes again, all that was left of Agrios was a pile of ash.
Leo slumped down, exhausted.
"You two." Hephaestus said. "Come over here."
Piper walked over to him, exhausted. He handed them a credit card. "Take a flight back to New York City. As for the airport, I'll arrange that for you. Son," he added, "I have never been so proud of you for doing your duty. I just want to you to know that- I love you."
He hugged Leo tight. Realizing that Piper was watching, he immediately let go. "All right! You two need to catch a plane."
He flicked his hand, and the world spun around them.
(A/N: Q&A TIME!
call me annabeth: who is krios
Answer: He's that Titan at Mount Othrys that the Romans had to fight while the Greeks were at the Empirew State Building.
musicforlife: They should have played Justin Beaver! He sings like a girl! Although I like Let it Go and 1D, i've heard them a lot.
Answer: I used to like 1D. And I never thought about Justin Bieber, but nice idea. The point was to destroy Porphyrion's eardrums.)