HEY! I'm back, after like a year of procrastinating, though I had started writing another story, it was apparently trash to everyone except a few hundred views much less reviews and follows and the like, so I'm coming back over here, after my tests irl, so hopefully it will be uninterrupted updates for you all. Anyway, I'd better get started with the story before you all massacre me…

Percy's POV

"Victoria, wake up Via." I kept saying as I nudged Victoria, apparently my blood is enough to get her into a 'food coma' as humans would do. I then, deciding that drastic measures were necessary against this very sleepy 8-year-old, I pinched her cheek, which was enough to wake her up finally.

"I-I'm awake, I think… she sleepily says.

"Come on Via, we need to get somewhere safe, this temple of Hermes here isn't exactly real estate."

"Neither is the rest of Tartarus, you dummy…" She says as she yawns, revealing that her fangs get longer the wider she opens her mouth, which means she had 1-inch long fangs for a moment there.

"Come on, I think it would be best if we started heading toward the valley walls, maybe we can climb them and see if there's anything remotely nice nearby. Unless you know of something better?" I ask Victoria.

"Well, one time when I escaped the mistress' grasp, I tried climbing the walls, but they were to steep and the hand and footholds to sharp to grab."

I scowl, there goes one idea. "Then out the front door we go, maybe we can find a hellhound or two, that would be neat."

"Why would you want to find a hellhound?" Victoria asks as she looks up at me from her position walking next to me.

"Simple, I can control up to three of them."

Victoria stares at me almost dumbly, as if questioning my sanity.

"I'm not kidding, I can control them because Nyx gave me her blessing."

Victoria blinks once, twice, and then.

"WHAT?!"

"Shhh, keep it down, we don't want to be heard in this hell-hole, and yea, Nyx blessed me, so I can now shadow, travel, speak with hellhounds and control up to three."

Victoria's left eye twitches a bit more but then stabilizes and I can literally feel her shrug, as if saying 'whatever' to all this.

"Anyway, come on, once we get past that bluff there, we'll see a large expanse of plains, I remember as such from when I was traveling here."

Victoria's nose wrinkles at the thought of more walking but continues nonetheless.

Just as we near the top of the bluff, I hear a loud growling, I motion for Victoria to crouch and she does so immediately, I peek over the edge and find several Hellhounds cornered by what appeared to be the Manticore, except he was weird, his body was distorted, as if he were underwater. Almost like a mirage…

It wasn't until it started firing spines in every direction that I realized it was manipulating the mist to an insane degree.

I duck before the spines hit me and Victoria actually manages to catch one that ricochets off the edge of the bluff, which she then flips and uses as a dagger in an icepick grip. I take out my cup of infinite beverages which more like a goblet now that I think about it.

A spike whizzes past my ear.

I think of water and immediately turn the goblet upside down, and gallons of water pour out of it like a fire hose. I start redirecting the water to form in a large spear hidden by the bluff, and when I found it large enough to be lethal, I raise and fire it at the manticore in a very quick motion. The Manticore, as powered up as it was, stood no chance as the spear went through it's spiky tail and out the lion body's chest. Killing it instantly.

The dust settles down, and then flies into me, which makes me feel weird, as I feel a growing pain in my hindquarters, soon enough a scaly tail rips through my pants, giving me a almost dragon-like tail, fortunately, there were no spikes. I stand up, and motion for Victoria to do the same. The Hellhounds, which I have now gotten a chance to study look at me and start walking around me, one was enormous, big enough to give Cerberus and maybe even Skia a run for their money. The other two were much smaller, but had one slight addition to their bodies, they had six legs, instead of four, with two pairs being were the normal front pair were, allowing them to stand on 4 legs and use the front two to pummel things into oblivion. They were about the size of elephants, while the bigger one was the size of a Double-Decker bus. The manticore was the size of an exceptionally large elephant.

One came very near to me and I decided to speak to it.

"What is your name, Hellhound." I asked, in a cautious but firm tone.

The hound growled at me, but in the way that doesn't sound threatening, more like an acknowledgement that I am here.

"My name is Brutus; my companions are Guinevere." One of the other hellhounds step forward. "And Jeanne D'Arc." The other steps forward.

I raise my eyebrow at that but nonetheless say nothing.

"I'd like to ask, what did that Manticore do that it was able to corner you so well, when there were three of you and one of him, not to mention you are enormous, you could bat him away with a single paw."

Brutus simply turns around so could see his side, which I now see is full of dozens, no, hundreds of the Manticore's spikes. Victoria gasps behind me and before I can say or do anything she rushes forward and jumps, using her natural abilities as an Elder Empousai to jump onto Brutus' back and start picking off spikes.

"When I was still trapped in the grasp of the other Elder Empousai, they would inject me with Manticore poison, to 'test my tolerance' according to their words."

I scowl, "I'm glad I killed them."

The Hellhound on the right, Jeanne, if I remember right, stepped forward and was about to say something, but the ground started to rumble, and rocks started to fall from the massive cavernous roof of Tartarus.

Brutus howled and then said something to his companions. They kneeled down, and I heard a soft, yet firm female voice says.

"Get on"

I approached her and used one of her offered front limbs to get up. Victoria mounts the other small hound, Guinevere I believe.

Then the ground started to crack and warp, the stalagmites on the floor violently exploding and the stalactites above falling and crushing more stalagmites, which causes even more to explode.

The Hellhounds take off, and I look over to Brutus and ask mentally.
"Where are we going!"

He barks and then relays a picture to me, he must not be able to form words while unfocused.

It was of a massive cliff, with an overhang on top, the bottom of the cliff was surrounded by large stone stalagmites and there was a tributary of the Phlegethon. Which flowed into a small pool, however it was surrounded by several Scythian Dracaena and there was a harpy nest on the overhang. We would have to take place first, but for now, we need to escape this Tartarus-quake…

Tartarquake?

Nah.

Anyway, I didn't expect for this to take so long but I got a mild case of writer's block and I couldn't always return to my computer to keep typing, but, here you go, a new chapter.

P.S. If you've read this story more than a week and a half ago, re-read, a lot has been edited!

Other than that, thanks for your kind reviews!

And good night cause I'm tired…