This chapter took way longer than it should have. Way, way longer.
I hate writer's block.
Every time I turned on my computer, I would just stare at the page. And the little cursor thingy would blink.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
It mocks me.
But I got it done, so yay!
Chapter IV
Annabeth
Annabeth emerges on deck just in time to see Percy go flying through the air. Fortunately, he has a soft landing. Unfortunately, that soft landing is Annabeth.
"Oh, sorry, Annabeth. Didn't see you there." Percy stands and helps Annabeth to her feet. She's pretty sure she's going to have several new bruises tomorrow, but she can worry about that later.
"It's not going well, in case you couldn't tell. Any ideas?" Percy looks over her shoulder then and spots Jason, Piper, and the others. He nods to them. "Nice of you to finally join the party."
"Ignore them for now, Percy, we need to come up with a plan." A few sounds of protest behind her shows that the others object to being excluded, but Annabeth listens to her own advice and ignores them. "Where's Leo?"
Percy points. "He's over there, trying to blow something up." Annabeth sees him, working frantically at the controls, his attention completely absorbed by the task at hand. "Quick, duck!" Percy shoves Annabeth to the ground, just as the monster's head smashes into the wall overhead. It hisses like a boiling teapot and retreats. As it does, Annabeth notices something.
"Percy, where's your sword?" He glances down at his hand briefly, as if surprised to find that Riptide isn't there. Then he looks up and points at the monster's head.
"I stabbed the stupid thing in the roof of the mouth and my sword got stuck. I didn't have the time to pull it out before the monster shook me off, so I'm waiting for it to come back to my pocket, which will hopefully be soon."
"Your arm is bleeding." Annabeth tells him. He seems vaguely surprised about that.
"Must've happened when I stabbed it. One of the teeth probably just caught my arm when I pulled it out." He tears a strip of fabric from his shirt and wraps it clumsily around his arm as a makeshift bandage. Then he gets back to business. "What's the plan?"
"There isn't one." Annabeth answers grimly. "But since when does that matter? We'll figure something out as we go along, like we always do. We've already established that the thing's only vulnerable spot appears to be its head, so we'll target that and see if we get lucky." Annabeth hates not having a plan. But she knows that, with Percy, problems have a way of resolving themselves. Unless the problem was caused by Percy himself. That's a whole other kind of problem, though, so she's pretty sure they're safe.
He nods, smiling the same troublemaker smile Annabeth fell in love with. "Sounds good to me. And look, Riptide just returned to my pocket. Things are looking up already." And then he turns and jumps onto the monster's body, drawing Riptide as he goes. Annabeth turns behind her.
"You guys heard all that, right?" They all nod. They don't seem to mind the fact that she's giving orders, so she keeps doing it. "Try to confuse it. Split up and spread out. Make sure it knows you're there. Don't let it target any one person more than everyone else. Keep it busy while Percy and I try to think of a way to kill it."
Jason looks a little ashamed about the whole sleeping while a sea monster is attacking thing, but he leads everyone out onto the deck and starts hacking at the monster's side. Annabeth, meanwhile, looks for a way to get to Leo, and decides to crawl again. It might not be very dignified, but it's safer than running through a forest of spikes.
She reaches Leo without incident and taps him on the shoulder. He whirls around and nearly brains her with a hammer.
"Whoa, Leo, calm down! It's just me!" She holds up her hands in surrender.
"Don't sneak up on a guy like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack." He turns back to his controls. "I'm trying to find some sort of explosive we can use against it, but I don't have anything that I can aim with any kind of accuracy, so things could get a little dangerous. Barring that, I'm trying to find a way we can get the stupid son of a mother to let go of the ship."
"Are you having any luck?" Annabeth asks, hopeful.
"Not really. Although if all else fails, we could always just throw some Greek fire at its face like we did last time. But I don't like that plan very much, since the monster has itself wrapped around the ship." His hands are moving a mile a minute, but Annabeth doesn't have a clue what he's doing. It looks complicated.
"Hey, Leo!" Percy shouts to attract their attention. He's running back and forth across the coils, trying to evade the monster's mouth. "Could you maybe distract this thing?"
"How?" Leo yells back.
"I don't know!" Percy answers impatiently. "Chuck an explosive down its throat or something!"
"That would definitely distract it." Leo agrees, nodding his head thoughfully.
"Leo!" Percy screams. "Could you hurry up? The stupid thing just nearly bit my arm off!"
Annabeth raises an eyebrow. "You'd better hurry up, Leo. Or I think Percy might strangle you."
Leo shrugs. "Meh. He'd have to get away from the snake first."
"Leo!"
"Okay, okay, I'm on it. Geez." Annabeth leaves Leo then, looking for a way to help Percy. She stands next to Festus and watches him, figuring out the situation. She gets a little distracted watching Percy.
Water droplets fly from his messy black hair, probably from the water that's dripping off the monster. His sea-green eyes shine as he yells defiantly and slashes at the creature's nose, causing it to retreat. His expression is fierce as he rolls quickly to avoid the monster's teeth, and then jumps right back up to thrust at its eyes. As Annabeth watches, the creature opens its mouth to roar at Percy, and he stabs its tongue. The sound the monster makes is akin to nails on a chalkboard.
It retreats in a hurry, giving Percy a brief respite. He doesn't particularly look like he needs it, but he uses the time to rest, lowering his sword and leaning against the railing. He notices Annabeth watching him and smiles his sarcastic troublemaker smile, the one she loves so much. She blushes slightly as she realizes she's been staring at him for several minutes now, and turns to see what the others are doing.
Jason is slashing through the forest of spikes on the monster's back, his sword cutting through them easily. Piper is doing the same on the opposite side. Frank keeps changing form to attack the creature's impenetrable scales, trying to find an animal that can cut through them. Hazel is crawling underneath the thing's coils, presumably looking for weak spots.
Annabeth looks back at Percy. The monster still hasn't raised its head. She looks away again, this time looking for Leo, who isn't standing by the controls anymore.
"Annabeth!" She hears Percy yell her name.
What now? She thinks as she turns back to her left. Percy is racing towards her, running as fast as he can across the monster's coils while still being able to avoid the spikes. All traces of his earlier smile have disappeared. Now, his face is pale, his eyes filled with worry. He gestures wildly at her, but she has no clue what he's trying to tell her. Then, a sound behind her causes her to spin around and lift her sword high.
The monster's head is less than a meter away from her. Its mouth gapes open, strings of saliva stretching between its nasty yellow teeth. Its breath is horrible, like the smell of dead fish after they've lain in the sun all day. All eight of its red eyes glare down at Annabeth, the largest of which are the size of dinner plates.
Annabeth gasps before she can stop herself, but it's more in surprise than in fear. She's faced worse in Tartarus. Still, this could get ugly fast.
She finds herself backing up as the monster inches its head slowly forward, not as if it's scared, but as if it's gloating. Annabeth decides that she doesn't like that, and thrusts with her sword, this time with perfect aim.
The monster screeches in pain as one of its eyes goes dark. Then it narrows its remaining eyes at Annabeth angrily, and swings its head, knocking her to the ground and pinning her there.
Annabeth hears Percy's cry of anguish and looks for him, realizing that in her new position on the ground, she can see him where he stands on the monster's body. She knows he won't be able to reach her in time, and gropes with her fingers for her sword, which flew out of her hand when the monster knocked her down. She can't reach it. She looks up at the monster in horror, thinking, no way. No way is this the way she is going to die. She's been to Tartarus and back. This can't be how it ends.
But here she is, lying prone on the deck with the sea serpent's teeth inches from her neck. She closes her eyes, waiting for the fatal blow. But it doesn't come. She can still feel the monster's hot breath on her face, though, and she squeezes her eyes shut even tighter, sure that she's about to die.
But then, suddenly, the monster lets out such a horrible, high-pitched wail that Annabeth can't help but clap her hands to her ears in an effort to block out the sound. When she opens her eyes to see what's going on, the monster is no longer hovering over her. It's thrashing its head back and forth in the air, as if it's trying to shake something off. And Percy is kneeling on the monster's body, both hands wrapped around the hilt of his sword, which he somehow managed to stab deep into the monster's side, even with the impenetrable scaly armor. Blood that looks like dark, inky water is pouring from the wound.
Annabeth jumps to her feet, walking quickly towards Percy, who has also stood and is attempting to pull his sword from the sea serpent's body. He's not having much luck. It's really in there deep.
And then things go wrong-again.
The monster roars, managing to summon what will probably be its last burst of energy. It swings its head like a club and sends Percy flying for the second time. He lands on the deck, but his head hits the boards with a sickening crack, and although he starts getting up, he's too slow.
Annabeth sees what's going to happen a second too late to prevent it.
"Percy!" She screams in despair, as the monster lunges forward straight at him. Somehow, though, he manages to evade a direct hit, and the creature's head hits the boards at his feet. But it's not finished yet. It just manages to scrape its head sideways, crushing Percy against the railing and then sending him overboard.
The sea serpent then dissolves into a puddle of black water. It's dead.
But Percy is nowhere to be found.
DUN DUN DUN!
I am disappointed in this chapter. I don't know why. I just am.
If anyone has any requests for POVs, just post it, and I'll see what I can do.
Just so you know, the next few chapters may or may not suck epicly. We will just have to wait and see.