Chapter 19: …but we do find them hilarious
[Percy's Pov]
A word of advice on fighting an invincible lion:
Don't.
"What do you mean you don't know how to kill it?"
I yelled at Annabeth as 1000 pounds of lion's claw clattered against the floor, chasing us with malicious intent. Even while running for our dear lives Annabeth managed to frown at me.
"I said I don't know how to kill it yet. Athena always has a plan, Seaweed Brain."
I was about to retort back when this scrawny girl of a hunter butt in with a grin.
"Oh, I see now. You two crave each other."
""Shut up!""
Luna stuck her tongue out at both of us. Annabeth grumbled something about how she managed to be a hunter of all people.
Ignoring that completely, Luna fished around her pack strapped at her waist, and dropped half-a-dozen metal pearls onto the floor. They rolled across the floor in the opposite direction to us, and then a sound of a million bubble gums getting popped came from behind.
I looked around, not daring to stop, and saw that the Nemean Lion was caught in a string of metal fibers that strangely looked like…
"Spider webs?" Annabeth asked with a shudder.
"Metal spider webs. Harder to get rid of. Though I don't think it'll hold that forever."
The Nemean Lion was clawing and chewing away at the metal strands with pure strength alone, and they snapped away like tree branches. The trap won't hold longer than 2 minutes tops.
"We need to regroup."
Gladly, we ran into Zoë and David at the main hall. The main hall itself was blaring with several alarms going off, the speaker saying something about terrorists in a jetpack, and people screaming as they evacuated out of the building.
They were both bloody, and their faces were so miserable that I would've stopped and asked what was wrong if it were not for the huge roar of the lion.
It had broken free.
"Is that The Nemean Lion I hear?"
Zoë murmured in disbelief.
David's eye twinkled in excitement at the name.
"You mean the lion with the invincible skin? The one Hercules-"
Zoë made a loud scowl. That effectively shut off his rant.
I quickly filled them up with the details. By that time the actual lion had almost made its way to the main hall, still, some metal strings caught between his teeth, and it didn't look happy about that at all.
Now David wasn't looking too excited as well. He clicked his lighter and grabbed his sword, Zoë and Luna both materialized a set of silver bows and notched them with arrows. For some reason, Zoë was shooting her a glare to which Luna ignored completely.
"We have to attack its mouth," Annabeth said.
I looked at the drops of blood oozing down from its maw.
"You mean like, the inside of it?"
I wished she would say no, call me a Seaweed Brain, things she usually did when I suggested a dumb idea. But she just nodded grimly.
"That's the only vulnerable spot in its body. Make it open its mouth wide, and the hunters could snipe it out."
"Solid strategy."
David was eyeing the lion as it struggled to make it through the hallway of the left wings of the mall. Thank the gods it was at least narrow enough to slow it down.
Annabeth took out her dagger as well, but she was looking down at it with a skeptical/sour note on her face. A dagger wasn't a suitable weapon to fight big opponents, and the Nemean Lion was at least a foot bigger than Thorn.
The mall was evacuated completely with emergency shutters were down behind the entrances. That meant we were locked in with a 7 foot tall (not long, it was way longer than that) lion with indestructible skin.
The lion broke free from the corridor and lunged straight at us.
Someone yelled "Scatter!" and David and I rolled under its belly, while Zoë and Luna darted backward, keeping their distances as they let their arrows fly.
Two silver arrows bounced away harmlessly against its face. It still managed to falter it in his place as Zoë nearly sniped the right eye out. That meant the lion focused on her as his threat/new target.
It crouched down, ready to pounce when David slashed at its flank. It would've cut straight down to the bones if it was any other monster, but this one just deflected the blade with the smallest sparks sputtering in the air.
"Ow, that hurt-JeSUS!"
Thunder boomed from afar as David jumped back, narrowly avoiding the lion's paw from ripping his head off.
Huh, Zeus hates Jesus; you learn new things every day. Hope this thing won't end mine.
I charged at the Nemean Lion.
Ok, let me get one thing out first.
It was nice to have a fellow swordsman fighting side by side to me for once.
I never realized I was the only one who fought with a sword as their primary weapon during quests until I got to properly keep in step with one.
David and I both had our rhythms, but we also quickly found the most efficient harmony as we hacked, slashed, ducked, and weaved around the lion. If that thing didn't have impenetrable skin, it would've become a pork chop (or a feline chop) in seconds.
Even with our blades bouncing off of its skin with sparks flying out, the lion roared in frustration. It could never focus on one of us because that left it with an opening that the other never missed taking advantage of.
It snapped at David but he stepped back quickly, allowing me to try and stab its eye out. The lion quickly swatted away my blade with its paw, but that only meant that David would reenter the fight with a slash at its knee, not leaving any gash, but forcing it to focus on him again, rinse and repeat.
But still, the fact that it couldn't be damaged was a huge problem. We can't keep up with it forever, and sooner or later one of us would slip up.
We had to find a way to make it open its mouth wide for a certain time; fast.
Our current strategy was to make it roar out long enough, but it didn't seem too eager to keep its mouth a gape for longer than a second. An arrow would occasionally zip by when the bloody pink maw was wide open, but the lion would always quickly snap its jaw and reflect the arrow.
David's breath was getting heavy. His skills were good, but it wasn't yet trimmed, and the signs of injury suggested that he already had a battle with some other monster right beforehand.
"You doing ok?"
"Yeah…I am, I think-"
The lion finally managed to land a blow against his shoulder, knocking him into the air and over the rail.
"David!"
I focused on the fountain below. After a familiar tug in my gut, a gush of water exploded out and made a sort of a net at the top, safely catching him.
But that distraction was all the lion had been anticipating.
Before I could turn around, it ran up and slammed the entire mass of its body against me, sending me over the rail as well. I splashed into the fountain, and my concentration broke. David splashed down right after.
We both leaped out of the fountain immediately as a large black shadow loomed over us, and a second later the lion landed in the middle of the fountain, splashing water everywhere.
I was completely dry, and being in touch with water actually boosted my strength, so I lunged at the lion again.
However, it was a completely different situation for David.
He was doused in water from head to toe, and the wet clothing weighed him down. Not to mention that he hadn't perfectly recovered from being smacked by a giant meaty paw.
Our harmony broke, and the lion targeted the weakened links between our joint attacks. It snapped at David's thrust and caught the blade between its teeth and threw him at me as I tried to jump it.
We collided in mid-air and fell in a heap, both dazed and suffering serious bruises from where we crashed into each other.
"I think I'm going to throw up…"
"Please don't say that while you are lying on top of me."
David groaned as he rolled off me. We both struggled back to our feet, but the lion had advanced prior; it slammed into both of us, sending us flying back several feet and crashing against a line of seats.
"Can I throw up now…?"
"Yep."
And then I heard Annabeth's voice: "Here, kitty! Treats!"
She was waving a pack of something silvery; my head was still pounding angrily for me to focus on the letters on it, but I could tell the lion wasn't impressed.
I was about to yell at her to duck, hide, anything before the lion ripped her into tiny bits. But as the lion roared, she chucked 2 silver bags in a nice 3-pointer arc straight down its gullet.
The lion choked; its eyes bulging out of its socket as it tried to gulp down the thing she threw, but Annabeth took her chance and threw 3 more packs into its wide-open mouth.
"Now!"
The silver arrows set flight. It landed straight inside the lion's mouth. Two, four, six; I thought we had it in the bag.
The Nemean Lion buckled down on its hind legs, about to fall over, but it still wasn't going down.
Then a faint whistle sound came from behind.
Before I could register who it was, the whistle played a sharp jerky tone and his black sword flew on its own and sunk in deep up the lion's palate.
The lion clawed at the air one last time, and then it fell backward with a thud.
Zoë and Luna skidded down the handrails of the stairs. David stumbled to a random bench and slumped on it. The kid looked like he was about to pass out and throw up at the same time, but waved his hand to signal that he'd be fine.
"What did you throw?" I asked Annabeth. She cracked a smile.
"Space foods. Your mother told me how you choked on it back at the car, remember?"
"Oh."
My face felt hot. She was talking about the time when we rode to Westover Hall, and I wondered how many embarrassing stories of me she remembered. I decided not to ask her. I was too scared to know the answer. Annabeth was well known for her memories.
Luna was snickering slightly watching the two of us, and Zoë was shooting me daggers by her eyes as if I just kicked her pet wolf or something. I turned my attention back to the lion.
It was slowly melting, the way dead monsters do sometimes until there was nothing left but its glittering fur coat, and even that seemed to be shrinking to the size of a normal lion's pelt.
"The lion's fur."
David murmured in awe, still looking much worn out.
"It's supposed to be the best gear for protection. Hercules-"
Zoë scowled loudly again.
Ok, she had a gripe with Hercules, which I wasn't thrilled to find out.
Look, I admired the dude, ok?
Everyone at Camp Half-Blood, at least every male camper I knew, all had some respect for the greatest hero of all time. Even though I favored him most because he had the worst luck out of the bunch.
"We should take it," Zoë said with distaste. She might've just as well said we should take a giant trash bag or another boy on the quest.
Annabeth nodded in agreement.
"We can't let the enemy get hold of this. Luna, you take it."
The young huntress jumped to her feet.
"What? You should take it! It was your strategy-and it was brilliant!"
"Trust me, you'll need it the most."
She sounded so ominous that I nearly flinched away from her.
What did she mean by that?
Clearly, Luna understood. Her smile disappeared quickly, and after a hesitant glance and Zoë, took the lion fur coat.
"We should get going. Now."
[Line Break]
[David's Pov]
Annabeth told her what she'd say at the history section during our mad drive down the now clearer traffic. She glanced at me a bunch of times for some reason and sounded ever so slightly wistful mentioning this guy named 'Luke', neither of which Percy appreciated.
"The skeleton warriors; they must be the 'Spartoi'."
"You mean the one who grew out of dragon teeth that Cadmus slew?"
Zoë nodded. Now she was looking concerned as much as Annabeth.
"They are warriors that cannot be defeated by others; they are the grudging of Ares."
"Grudging of Ares?"
Percy frowned. He really didn't like Ares, did he?
"The dragon Cadmus killed; 'Ismenios' was a sacred animal dedicated to Ares. That's why all of Cadmus's descendants had a terrible life."
"For example Actaeon. That filth. It deserved a much more painful death than what it got."
I noticed how Zoë called him 'it' like he didn't even qualify to be a human.
"I'd say getting torn off bit by bit by your dogs is the worst punishment you can get, honestly."
Zoë glared at me through the back mirror, and for a second I thought I managed to topple down what little reconciliation we might've had after fighting the bear twins, but then a familiar sound was heard above us.
A sound of a chopper blade.
I looked out the window and saw a sleek, black military model of one coming straight toward us.
"I think they know the van. We have to ditch it."
Zoë swerved into the fast lane. The helicopter was gaining. Their weapons are loaded. Somehow, I could tell that.
"Maybe the military will shoot it down?" Luna said hopefully.
"The military probably thinks it's one of theirs," Percy said. "How can the General use mortals, anyway?"
"Mercenaries," Zoë said bitterly. "It is distasteful, but many mortals will fight for any cause as long as they are paid."
"But don't these mortals see who they're working for?" He asked back. "Don't they notice all the monsters around them?"
Annabeth shook her head. "Percy, the Mist is a really powerful source of magic. I don't know what the mortals see, but they won't see something we do."
Zoë smacked her lips on that sour note.
"And I doubt it'll matter to them if they knew the truth. Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters. I've seen many proofs to that."
The helicopter kept coming, making a lot better time than we were through D.C. traffic.
"Let's put aside depressing moral debate for now. That thing is going to shoot us any second!"
Annabeth was skimming through the map inside the van until she found what she wanted.
"Zoë, hard right! The parking lot!"
"We'll be trapped!"
"Trust me."
Zoë shot across two lanes of traffic and into a mall parking lot on the south bank of the river. We left the van and followed Annabeth down some steps.
"Subway entrance," She said. "Let's go south. Alexandria."
Never thought of that, but it was good enough.
Also, the van exploded from behind us.
We hurried down the steps as pedestrians screamed and ran away. I hope Argus and Chiron won't be too mad.
[Line Break]
The helicopter followed us relentlessly and somehow managed to keep a tab on us even after we went underground.
We had to shuffle subways several times, effectively draining our money (or mortal cash, by Zoë's dictionary) down to a whopping 15 dollars and 72 cents.
So, you know, we were totally broke.
"At least we lost the copters."
Luna said, fiddling with the edge of her lion fur coat. None of the rest shared her positive viewpoint.
Annabeth had her face buried on the map she had brought to try and figure the best way out, while Percy kept looking around, one hand in his pocket where his ballpoint pen was stored.
I also had my hand over the empty black lighter, just in case one of the old ladies in the subway might turn into a giant snake or something. At this point, I doubt that was a paranoiac idea.
And for Zoë…well, she looked miserable. She was leaning against the opposite side of the wall, away from everyone, blankly staring at the subway lights that occasionally passed the window.
The bear twins must've gotten to her—to be honest, their story didn't sit with me very well either.
I knew a lot of stories in Greek Myths by heart, and even if Argus and Oreius's story was new to me, I was very much aware that they were not the only mortals who suffered by getting sandwiched in between the gods.
Then, it was just a story. Something I can enjoy without thinking about too deeply.
Now? Not so much.
We passed a few more stations without saying a word. The chopper seemed to have lost us, but it was still circling the area.
"We could take this lane to the terminal station," Annabeth suggested.
She said that it would take us near to New Mexico, which was a solid way west from here.
I was more surprised that she had the entire subway station mapped inside her head than anything; I guess being a daughter of Athena makes you a supercomputer.
We all turned to Zoë, who took a full 3 seconds to bring herself out from her head.
"Yes, that would suffice." She murmured half-heartedly before leaning back onto the window.
At this point, I decided to do something-comfort her, even if I was terrible at doing that. I seldom had to console anyone at Westover Hall, and before that…
…
…I can't remember.
Either way, I decided to give it a shot. I did my best to look concerned instead of being tired and said: "Hey…"
Zoë flashed me a dangerous glare that would've scared off a pack of lions, but then the flash of fury died down and she looked away.
"…I do not wish to have a conversation with thee."
"Right." Off with a pleasant start.
"But on the other hand, you never would wish that, so…"
I did my best 'I-am-totally-innocent' shrug. Zoë glared at me, unimpressed. For a moment, I wondered if she was going to gut my stomach open with her hunting knife. But she sighed and turned her head just enough to meet me eye to eye.
"I guess not. Very well, speak."
"Oh."
This was the exact moment when I realized that I had no idea how to comfort her. I didn't know who Polyphonte is, how close she was to Zoë—heck, I was half wondering if Artemis was worth saving, and that idea alone would be enough reason for her to slit open my throat.
"So…where, did you learn to do, archery…?"
"…what?"
Zoë stared at me like I just banged my head against a wall for no reason. To be fair, I was tempted to do that right now. I think that line has the potential to be marked as the worst conversation starter in history.
After a significantly long pause, Zoë hesitantly opened her mouth.
"Usually hunters learn archery from their seniors. Though some are taught by Lady Artemis herself."
"So you were taught by Lady Artemis?"
Zoë shook her head.
"No, I learned it from Phoebe. I wasn't skillful enough at the start."
"Not skillful enough? You nearly punctuated the eye of the Nemean Lion from, like, 20 feet across!"
"I had to practice for thousands of years." She answered. It might be my imagination, but there was a slight sense of pride in her voice.
Wait a minute…
"Thousands of years?"
I looked at Zoë again; it was a stretch to see her over 20, much fewer thousands and thousands of years. Then I realized her jawline was tensing up, and quickly averted my eyes.
"For thou's nescience, every maiden who joins our hunt is granted immortality. We do not age. We are always loyal to Lady Artemis as her servants, her friend, and…sisters."
Zoë looked down. Somehow, we came back to the elephant of the room.
"Look, about the bear twins…"
"No."
Zoë cut me off with a stern voice. She was glaring at me again, but her coffee brown eyes were wavering dangerously—as if they were at the limit of shattering into million pieces.
"You don't understand." She muttered.
"You can't understand. So don't…" Her voice trailed off with a small sigh, and she looked more miserable than ever as she stared out the window.
Great job, me.
I stared out of the window myself. The lights whizzed past at a regular pace, and when they were absent I could see Zoë's reflection staring back into the subway—which meant she could see my reflection as well.
"Can you tell me about Polyphonte?" I asked.
Zoë gave me a dangerous look once more, but this time I kept my eyes on the reflection of her and continued.
"Why on earth would thee want to hear about her?"
"Well, for one I don't know much about her—I don't think she appeared in any of the myths I remember. And…my ma-mother is very good at counseling."
"I do not follow."
"When I used to have nightmares that scared me up in the middle of the night, she always encouraged me to write about the dream.
While I tried to remember the details, the scary parts became less scary, and the whole experience became more enjoyable as a whole."
Zoë went silent. She seemed to be pondering about the idea, but before she could say another word, the subway stopped.
The announcement declared that the train arrive at the terminal station. I looked around, only to find that the train was more or so empty except for us.
We filed out of the station and found ourselves in the middle of an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks.
And snow. Lots and lots of snow that sank right up to my thighs—in Luna's case, 3 quarter of her legs.
"Where do we go from here?" I asked out loud into the night sky.
No one said anything.
I'm sorry if there are way more grammar errors than usual. I use Grammarly to check, but currently, my internet is not working properly at the moment so.
Also, the conversation between Zoë and David was my best shot. Don't blame me, never had any accountable experience in real life
