"Jason, call for a vote to engage the galleon due west right now! The Royal Navy is back! And this time, they're with Octavian!"
"Now!?" Will heard the captain shout exasperatedly above the sound of crashing waves.
"Do we even need to call a vote for this?" Hazel yelled from the quarterdeck. Frank had already made his way to the cannons and began cleaning and covering them. Octavian must be pretty formidable, Will thought, noting how Frank chose the larger cannons on the gun deck rather than the lighter ones on the main deck. Leo started to roll up the mainsail and topsails.
Jason sighed. "Alright. Nico, clear the ship for engaging! Hazel, Piper, prepare closed quarters! Percy, fill the tubs! Oh, Annabeth, keep an eye on Will," he added before running towards the quarterdeck.
Will turned to face Annabeth, who came running over.
"Why can't I join the battle?" Will asked Annabeth.
Behind him, Nico snorted. "Move an inch, Sunshine, and we're having grilled fish for dinner."
Will pouted.
"Well, I'd consider myself lucky, if I were you," Annabeth grinned, looking at the siren. "First-row seats to the Big Three's abilities on the second day aboard! Well, actually, I doubt you'd see the full ability of Nico's sword if we end the battle early today, but you're still up for a good show for sure," She gestured towards Percy, the closest to them.
Will's jaw dropped to the bottom of his tub.
He couldn't believe his eyes when the cheap plastic ballpoint pen extended towards the skies as Percy swiftly uncapped it. It grew into a formidable Celestial Bronze sword in a matter of milliseconds, shining under the droplets of water that flew up from the surface of the ocean together with it. Rubbing his eyes, Will watched with shock and wonder as large sheets of water drifted to the sword's bidding. The large tubs were almost instantly filled to the brim with seawater as thick waves and rushing streams of water followed the sword's lead, obediently splashing into the numerous tubs.
"That's not all, Solace. Look to your far right," Annabeth said.
Will turned his head just in time to see Jason flip his golden coin, flashing in the sunlight. Suddenly, the coin stretched outwards in two different directions, turning into a golden javelin. (At this point of time, Will mentally decided that he'd seen enough weirdness for a lifetime.)
Annabeth hummed thoughtfully as dark clouds formed above the quarterdeck. "He's probably trying to get things done fast today. I think he's sending thunderclouds to Octavian's backup ships to chase them away," she observed as Jason thrust his javelin forward, the clouds crackling with lightning as they made their way to their destination. Will watched in awe as rain started to pour down from the clouds halfway through their journey with occasional flashes of lightning. Strangely, it didn't come with ear-splitting thunder.
Almost as if reading his thoughts, Annabeth explained. "The lightning doesn't come with thunder because it's not true lightning. It's just...oh, I think Nico's getting ready!" Annabeth added, looking behind.
Will turned around to see the quartermaster draw out his Stygian Iron sword in one swift motion.
"Jules-Albert!" he commanded sharply.
It was so absolute that Will nearly traveled straight to his side. Even Annabeth wavered and turned her head around. Almost just like a siren, Will mused. How ironic.
Around them, the water started to wobble and sputter. The ship swayed from side to side unsteadily. Will mentally braced himself for the worst.
A single zombie popped out of the water.
Will stared, dumbstruck, at the sheer lameness of the zombie talking to Nico in comparison to the army he had expected. "Clear the ship for engaging," he heard Nico tell the zombie, who nodded in response.
Will looked up at Leo, who was grinning widely at him. Man, he was so going to get it later.
Suddenly, the sea behind him shuddered. The sea seemed to split apart as two walls of water rose, exposing an army of countless skeletons.
(Immediately, Will changed his mind about killing Leo in his sleep.)
The skeletons boarded the ship quickly, splitting into neat flanks that made their way to different parts of the boat. Will watched in equal measures of bewilderment and amusement as some skeletons queued outside the armory in one straight file, exiting in an equally orderly fashion while carrying all sorts of weapons.
In the middle of the mass of skeletons stood Nico, striding left and right while sweeping his hand in different directions, carrying an air of authority that no one dared to question. Will watched him as he barked out order after order, his jacket flapping wildly in the strong wind as skeletons scuttled across the deck. Watching the quartermaster's hair bob along with his brisk steps, Will wondered if he could do the same if he had the sword. Or maybe Nico had some secret technique or hidden magical power?
What a mysterious man he was! Will felt his heartbeat quicken as he stared absentmindedly at Nico's dark eyes, rapidly forming theories in his head.
Nico suddenly stopped. "What?" he snapped, staring back.
Only then did it occur to Will that he had been staring at Nico for a full minute at the least. He held back the heat flooding to his cheeks.
Instead, he grinned and gave Nico a thumbs-up. "Cool skeleton army."
Nico snorted softly and turned back around.
The silhouette of Octavian's ship sharpened as it drew nearer. Will could barely make out the words "H.M.S. Roman Legacy" painted at the hull. The galleon was easily 2 to 3 times the size of the Argo II, and definitely had a crew size far outnumbering theirs (despite the immense size of the skeleton army).
Jason, who was still at the quarterdeck, hollered in the direction of the galleon. "Octavian! Just give up for today and…" a yawn interrupted his sentence. "Seriously, Octavian! It's barely past Prime! Why can't you just cut us both some slack and go away? We can settle this some other day at a better time," he reasoned, emphasising the last two words.
They waited for a while. A muffled response came.
"Ha! You wish, Grace! The day I surrender is the day Jackson hates blue! How about you surrender instead, and give us the artifacts? Then we'll call it a truce and I won't come again." A pause. "Well, not on behalf of the Queen, at least."
Jason sighed in frustration and rubbed his temples. "That insufferable loser. You know what? Frank!" he shouted. "Prepare the first shots! Don't even bother waiting for that idiot. Leo, Annabeth! Try to lay from bow to amidships, we don't want the monsters flooding onto the boat like last time."
Beside Will, Annabeth straightened up. "Well, I've got to go. If we do manage to lay from bow to amidships, I'd suggest you follow me to the forecastle since it's safer and easier to keep an eye on you." With that, Annabeth ran off to the front of the ship. Will followed after her.
After the short exchange of first shots (which Octavian's ship hadn't managed to land any on the Argo II), Will watched as Leo spun the helm of the ship, causing it to swing to its left. Meanwhile, the skeletons tried to shoot down some of the monsters from where they stood. When the monsters were quite clearly visible, the skeletons also started to toss grappling hooks to the other ship.
Jason issued some final instructions. "As per normal, Percy and I will go aboard Octavian's ship while Nico will stay behind. Nico, the monsters?"
Nico's eyes swept across the galleon. "Octavian's brought a pretty decent selection of monsters today; they're quite evened out in strengths and weaknesses. But from what I can see, most of them seem to be weak against fire and Imperial Gold."
Is this guy a living monster encyclopedia? Will thought incredulously as hooks from Octavian's boat gripped on theirs.
Nico turned to face the crew. "So. Valdez, Hazel; you're with Grace and Jackson. Valdez, bring along your...fire gloves?"
"Flaaaaaame on!" Leo whooped as he grabbed a pair of gloves.
"...right. Hazel, bring along your spatha. The rest, stay on the Argo II."
The Argo II slowly settled into its favoured position, metres away from bumping into the Roman Legacy. The skeletons threw firebombs, shrouding the galleon in smoke.
Jason narrowed his eyes. "Ready?"
Thump.
"GO!"
Amidst the hectic battle cries and the thick sheet of smoke, it was pretty difficult to tell what was going on at first. Will saw Jason leap into the cover of smoke, closely followed by Percy, then Hazel, then Leo (who was cheering all the way). Quite a large number of skeletons followed after them. Swords clanged against each other and shots of gunfire erupted.
About a minute later, Octavian's crew made it past the first line of defences, clambering out of the smoke and onto the Argo II.
Octavian's crew consisted of mostly unintelligent monsters and almost no humans. While some of the monsters towered over Will and others had the wit to try to sneak past the skeletons, a large portion of the monsters charged into battle mindlessly.
Despite that, the monsters seemed quite tough. Most of them had to be stabbed and cut many times over before they collapsed; even so, some of them would just get up again. Will personally witnessed Piper stab a karpoi three times, turn around to deal with a harpy, then turn back to step on the stirring karpoi's face.
It wasn't long before Annabeth decided that it was too dangerous for Will to stay on the upper deck and moved him to the lower deck's engine room (while kicking aside a few...cow monsters).
Bored, Will swam around in the tub. It would've been fun if he could join in, but Nico would make him into fish paste.
Will decided to talk to Annabeth to kill time. "Who's Octavian? This guy sounds like bad news."
Annabeth made a sour face. "Octavian's one of the rats working for the Queen. Using his sweet-talk, he managed to climb to a high position after selling some of his magical prophecies. He's nothing much to worry about, actually; just like any other sailor from the Royal Navy, he's a weakling. The thing is that when Octavian leads a ship towards us, it means that he's bringing monsters like karpoi, harpies, gorgons and empousai, just to name a few."
Will recalled the run-ins he'd had with some of those monsters. None of them were happy memories.
"I'll be double-checking that the ship's working alright," Annabeth told the siren before fiddling with a glowing glass panel.
As Annabeth immersed herself into her work, he soon got bored again so he listened to the noises above. With his sharp hearing, he was able to get a pretty good grasp of the situation: the monsters and skeletons had dispersed all over the boat, engaging deeply in battle. Piper was all the way at the head of the ship, while Frank stayed around the front half. Nico, who was currently at the quarterdeck, took care of the back half of the ship.
Suddenly, Piper's footsteps pattered across the deck in the direction of the engine room and down the stairs. She jerked open the door.
"Annabeth, are you using Festus?" she asked.
Annabeth shook her head.
"I thought so. I think there's some problem with the ship; Festus keeps sputtering fire at nothing. Festus is the dragon masthead, by the way," Piper added, looking at Will.
Annabeth's eyebrows creased in thought. "That's strange," she muttered. "It didn't show up in the system. I'll go check it out. Help me keep an eye on Will for a while." She ran out of the door.
Piper paced around the room. "I have a bad feeling about this…"
"What's wrong?" Will asked.
Piper narrowed her eyes at nothing in particular. "The first shots and lying alongside were too easy to do for me to believe. Octavian may be a horrible captain, but he's not that bad...and then during the battle, we realise that the monsters are stupid, but they're tough to beat and there's a lot of them, not to mention the lack of trained sailors in his crew today. None of the backup ships are showing up, either, although they'd usually show up by now. It's almost as though he's trying to drag this out, or...distract us from something."
Will thought hard about it. "That's true. Also…it seems as though he's trying to divide your crew, or something?"
Piper raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "How so?"
"Well, it seems to me as though he lured Leo, an important member of your crew because of the number of roles he has, onto his boat with the monsters that were weak against fire. And then, using monsters that were weak against Imperial Gold, he also made Hazel go over. He probably didn't touch Frank, Annabeth and you otherwise it would seem like an obvious trap, so he let you guys be. But maybe he sent someone to tinker with your bronze dragon to distract Annabeth, the only person on the ship capable of repairwork, so that the Argo II would be missing a good brain. Frank would be left too busy fighting for anything he planned."
Piper nodded her head, smiling. "You're a smart one, aren't you?"
Will beamed back.
Piper tousled his hair, laughing. "Hmm…if that was the case, then what is his purpose for luring us? Is he trying to make us all do something?"
Will knitted his eyebrows. "Well, the last time I checked, you and Frank were both at the front of the ship, and Nico was alone at the back…"
Realisation dawned on both of them.
"When Annabeth checks on Festus, she'll be going to the front of the ship…" Piper breathed anxiously.
"Then Nico would be left alone at the back half of the ship," Will continued. "allowing backup sailors to easily enter from the back…"
"And Nico has…"
At the back of the Argo II, a single sailor drenched from swimming slipped onto the boat quietly.
Find the man with the black sword, the Queen had said. Take it and give it to me, and your family will be returned to you.
He walked towards the man, threading past crowds of monsters and skeletons until he was right behind him.
He reached out for the sword.