Hello there, gods, half-bloods and friends, welcome to the next chapter of The God Hunter and the last update of 2024.
I know I've been updating this story a lot, but I had a blast writing it.
Also I had a couple of different scenario's for this chapter but that's for the end of chapter author's notes.
Hope you enjoy and now story time.
In the distance, the sun was setting behind a city skyline when Matt came out of the captain's cabin where he had watched over Annabeth. He could see a beachside highway lined with palm trees, storefronts glowing with red and blue neon, a harbor filled with sailboats and cruise ships.
"Where are we?" Matt said as he joined Percy at the wheel.
"Miami, I think." Percy said.
The waves pushed them forward, and in no time the Queen Anne's Revenge pulled up to a yacht club, and once they got back on land, they were back in the mortal world.
They wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers. If anybody noticed them, six kids coming from an old pirate ship and looking like they'd just had a fight with a monster, they didn't let on.
Grover had put on his cap and sneakers. Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high school letter jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.
Annabeth ran to the nearest newspaper box and checked the date on the Miami Herald. She cursed, "June eighteenth! We've been away from camp ten days!"
"Really?" Matt said hands in his pockets, "Feels a lot longer than that."
"I know." Percy said, "Time travels differently in monstrous places."
"Thalia's tree must be almost dead." Grover wailed, "We have to get the Fleece back tonight."
Clarisse slumped down on the pavement. "How are we supposed to do that?" she said as her voice trembled, "We're hundreds of miles away. No money. No ride. This is just like the Oracle said. It's your fault, Hauer! If you hadn't interfered..."
"Matt's fault?!" Annabeth exploded, "Clarisse, how can you say that? You are the biggest..."
Matt smirked when he heard Annabeth stand up for him, as she stomped her foot in frustration and Clarisse put her head in hands.
"Clarisse, what did the Oracle tell you?" Matt said.
She looked up and instead of telling him to piss off, instead she took a deep breath and recited her prophecy:
"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone. You shall find what you seek and make it your own. But despair for your life entombed within stone, and fail without friends, to fly home alone."
"Wait a minute. I've got it!" Percy said as he searched his pockets, "Does anybody have any cash?"
Matt, Annabeth and Grover shook their heads morosely. Clarisse pulled a wet Confederate dollar from her pocket and sighed.
"Cash? Like... green paper?" Tyson asked hesitantly, he rummaged in his saddle pack and pulled out the Ziploc bag full of cash that Hermes had included in their supplies.
"Hey Big T." Matt said, "How did you?..."
"Thought it was a feed bag for Rainbow." he said, "Found it floating in sea, but only paper inside. Sorry."
"No, no, you did great." Matt assured him, "Your a live saver."
He handed Percy the cash. Fives and tens, at least three hundred dollars. He ran to the curb and grabbed a taxi that was just letting out a family of cruise passengers.
"Clarisse, come on! You're going to the airport." Percy yelled, "Annabeth, give her the Fleece."
Matt mouthed a big 'what' when as Percy took the Fleece letter jacket from Annabeth, tucked the cash into its pocket, and put it in Clarisse's arms.
"You'd let me..." Clarisse said.
"It's your quest, we only have enough money for one flight." Percy said, "Besides, I can't travel by air. Zeus would blast me into a million pieces. That's what the prophecy meant: you'd fail without friends, meaning you'd need our help, but you'd have to fly home alone. You have to get the Fleece back safely."
It was easy to see her mind at work, Clarisse had a terrible poker face. She was suspicious at first, wondering what trick Percy was playing, then finally deciding he meant what he said.
She jumped in the cab. "You can count on me." she said, "I won't fail."
"You better not." Matt said, hands in his pockets watching as the cab peeled out in a cloud of exhaust.
The Fleece was on its way.
"Percy." Annabeth said, "That was so..."
"Generous?" Grover offered.
"Insane." Annabeth corrected.
"Hey, it's her quest, she deserves a chance." Percy said, "She'll get the Fleece safely back by tonight."
"Percy is nice." Tyson said.
"Yeah, too nice." Matt said.
"Well we can't all be like you." Percy said.
"True, we can't all be as awesome." Matt said as he looked around, "...So how do we get home?"
That's when he felt a sword pointed at his back.
"Hey, cousin." Luke said, "Welcome back to the States."
His bear-man thugs appeared on either of side of them. One grabbed Annabeth and Grover by their T-shirt collars. The other tried to grab Tyson, but Tyson knocked him into a pile of luggage and roared at Luke as Percy reached for his sword.
"Percy, tell your giant to back down." Luke said calmly, "Or I'll have Oreius bash your friends heads together."
Oreius grinned and raised Annabeth and Grover off the ground, kicking and screaming.
"The feck do you want, Luke?" Matt said, more annoyed than anything.
He smiled, the scar rippling on the side of his face, "Why, Matt." Luke said, "I want to extend my hospitality, of course.", he gestured toward the end of the dock, and the biggest boat in port was the Princess Andromeda.
The bear twins herded them aboard the Princess Andromeda. They threw them down on the aft deck in front of a swimming pool with sparkling fountains that sprayed into the air. A dozen of Luke's assorted goons, snake people, Laistrygonians, demigods in battle armor, had gathered to watch us get some 'hospitality'.
"And so, the Fleece." Luke mused, "Where is it?", he looked them over, prodding Percy shirt with the tip of his sword, poking Grover's jeans.
"Hey!" Grover yelled, "That's real goat fur under there!"
"Sorry, old friend." Luke said with a smile, "Just give me the Fleece and I'll leave you to return to your, ah, little nature quest."
"Some old friend!" Grover protested.
"Maybe you didn't hear me." Luke's voice was dangerously calm. "Where. Is. The. Fleece?"
"Not here." Percy said, "We sent it on ahead of us. You messed up."
Luke's eyes narrowed. "You're lying. You couldn't have..." he said, his face reddened as a horrible possibility occurred to him, "Clarisse?"
Percy nodded.
"You trusted... you gave... Agrius!"
The bear giant flinched. "Y-yes?"
"Get below and prepare my steed." Luke said, "Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to the Miami Airport, fast!"
Matt and Percy exchanged a glance, it seemed he had a plan but he needed Matt to buy him as much time as he could.
Which was something Matt could provide.
"Hold up, got it right here." Matt said digging his hand deeper into his pocket before removing his hand and making a circle by pressing his index finger to his thumb.
"Fuck you, Hauer." Luke growled, gripping his sword so tight his knuckles turned white.
"Not even in your dreams, Luke." Matt snarled, calling his sword to his hand, "Come on then. One versus one me."
"Very well then." Luke said, "Time to put you out of my misery."
"Look at you! Trying to act like your the shit." Matt said with a smirk, "While your not even the fart."
The rest of Luke's crew looked uneasy. Maybe they'd never seen their boss so unhinged before.
Percy threw his last gold drachma at Luke, who he dodged it easily. The coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-colored water.
"You tricked all of us!" Percy yelled at Luke, "Even Dionysus at Camp Half-Blood!"
Behind Luke, the fountain began to shimmer, but everyone's attention was on Matt and Luke.
"I'll kill you quickly." Luke said as he raised his weapon. He whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield, making him grin wickedly at Matt.
"Luke." Annabeth said, "At least give him a shield."
"Sorry, Annabeth." he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."
"Don't want one of your stupid shields anyway." Matt said, "Let's do this."
"It wouldn't have done you any good." Luke said, "I have exhaustively noted your strengths and weaknesses."
"Strengths: A lot and very powerful." Matt told him, "Weaknesses: Nearly none and irrelevant."
Luke lunged and almost killed Matt on the first try if he hadn't moved and blocked. Matt took a swing at Luke who blocks with his shield but he was surprised when Matt pressed down with strength Luke hadn't expected.
"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?" Matt growled.
"I did, of course." he snarled as he pushed Matt off, "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus!"
Luke struck at Matt, but he moves out of the way barely in time. Both being an aggressive fighter, they slashed at each other as their blades clashed.
"So Chiron had nothing to do with it?"
"You know he would never do that." Luke said, "The old fool wouldn't have the guts."
"Is that what you call betraying your friends!?" Matt said, his weapon transforming into his Gauntlets, "Endangering the whole camp!?"
Matt moved so fast and hit so hard he punched through the shield as Luke was send reeling back. He continue to press, keeping the pressure until the shield was shattered in half with the final punch.
"You don't understand the half of it." Luke said, "I was going to let you take the Fleece... Once I was done with it."
Luke rolls out of the way as Matt came down, shattering the deck upon impact, before he followed it up with a series of round-house-kicks. Transforming back to his sword, Matt and Luke clashed with each other. Attacking with another strike, Matt evades under it and sends Luke down with a kick to the chest.
"You wanted the Fleece to heal, Kronos." Matt said, "Right?"
"Yes! The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold." Luke said, "But you haven't stopped us, only slowed us down a little."
"So you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up." Matt said, "All to help Kronos destroy the gods."
"You know that!" Luke said with gritted teeth, "I know your a stereotypical dumb blonde but why do you keep asking me?"
"Oh, it was Percy's idea." Matt said, "We needed the audience to hear you."
"What audience?" Luke demanded.
Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and his goons did the same, they gasped and stumbled back.
Above the pool, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was an Iris-message vision of Dionysus, Tantalus, and the whole camp in the dining pavilion. They sat in stunned silence, watching us.
"Well, some unplanned dinner entertainment." Dionysus said dryly.
"Mr. D, you heard him. You all heard Luke." Percy said, "The poisoning of the tree wasn't Chiron's fault."
"The Iris-message could be a trick." Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly on his cheeseburger, which he was trying to corner with both hands.
"I fear not." Mr. D said, looking with distaste at Tantalus, "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."
Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn't bolt away from him. He lifted it from the plate and stared at it in amazement, as if it were the largest diamond in the world. "I got it!" he cackled.
"We are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus." Mr. D announced, "You may return to the Underworld. You are dismissed."
As he dissolved into mist, his fingers clutched at the cheeseburger, trying to bring it to his mouth. But it was too late. He disappeared and the cheeseburger fell back onto its plate. The campers exploded into cheering.
Luke bellowed with rage. He struck forward, catching Matt by surprise and actually managed to run him through with his sword. White hot pain spilled out of the wound as his shirt began to form a deep crimson stain. Kicking him off his sword, Matt fell to the ground as blood began to spill out his front and back.
Right there on the the deck of Princess Andromeda, Matt began to bleed out as life began to escape him.
One of Luke's men blew a brass whistle, and the deck doors flew open. A dozen more warriors poured out, the brass tips of their spears bristling.
"Who's the fart now, Hauer? Guess you'll never get to keep your promise." Luke taunted as he smiled down at him with a manic grin, "Oh, there is just one more thing. I want you to watch something before you bleed out."
He looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was still holding Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon Appetit."
That's when all Hades broke loose.
Darkness exploded from Matt as his eyes and hair began to glow. He floated off the ground until he was in a standing position as a massive translucent shadow forms out of him and floats behind him.
The same one Percy had seen when Matt and Annabeth had been pulled underwater.
The shadow looked like a tall, androgynous woman made up of dark blue fire. Over its shoulders she wears a long, coat with three separated coattails, and a high collar. On its head it had long, straight hair and glowing golden eyes.
The Entity moved with a mere thought of Matt, gripping Oreisus by the head before popping it like an overgrown pimple.
"Brother!" Agrius wailed. He was forced to let go of the Pegasus's reins, the black steed flew off, over Miami Bay, when the Entity grabbed him by the head and lifted him off the ground.
With its other hand, it gripped its legs before pulling and tearing it in two before it was tossed aside.
For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies dissolve into smoke, as the shadowy fire figure towered over them.
"Sie sind das essen und ich bin der jager." Matt said as he pointed at Luke, his voice deeper and began to emit an echo of power.
Matt and the Entity moved in synch, mowing down monsters and knocking half-bloods aside in their singular goal of reaching Luke, who looked as if the Grim Reaper itself was personally coming for him.
"Power. Give me more power!" Matt roared, preforming a three hit combo before knocking a half-blood to the side, "And if I become a demon, so be it. I will endure the exile. Anything to protect them."
The Entity grabbed a hellhound by the back of the neck before slamming it into the deck, turning it into dust.
"H-How?" Luke shouted trying to keep his cool, "How many bullshit powers does he have!?"
Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell.
"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.
Matt and the Entity snuffed out a Scythian Dracaenae, but Matt had trouble processing everything that was happening as his sole thought was about getting to Luke and take him out. Permanently if he had to.
Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives were almost nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said 'Party Ponies: South Florida Chapter'.
Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number I. Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and-straw attachments on either side.
Luke was raising his sword to rally his troops, mere moments before Matt and the Entity could grab him, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool.
"No!" Matt roared as Luke's warriors had scattered, "He's mine!"
Facing the hooves of a rearing stallion is scary enough, but when it's a centaur, armed with a bow and whooping it up in a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior would retreat. Chiron galloped toward Percy, Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back.
Luke was crawling out of the pool. "Attack, you fools!" he ordered his troops. Somewhere down below deck, a large alarm bell thrummed.
Any second they would be swamped by Luke's reinforcements. Already, his warriors were getting over their surprise, coming at the centaurs with swords and spears drawn.
Matt without realizing it was now fighting without the entity, but instead he was fighting along side Tyson.
"Watch your cover!" Matt said as he was fighting with his Gauntlets and Greaves, show what he had learned in his kickboxing classes.
Tyson nodded and mimicked his stance, a bit more sloppy than Matt, but that was the national chap difference. The duo slapped a dozen of warriors aside each, knocking them over the guardrail into Miami Bay.
But more warriors were coming up the stairs.
"Withdraw, brethren!" Chiron said.
"You won't get away with this, horse man!" Luke shouted. He raised his sword, but got smacked in the face with another boxing glove arrow, and sat down hard in a deck chair.
Matt was about to charge towards him but a palomino centaur hoisted him onto his back, "Dude, get your big friend!"
"Tyson!" Matt shouted, "Let's go."
Tyson dropped the two warriors he was about to tie into a knot and jogged after them. He jumped on the centaur's back.
"Dude!" the centaur groaned, almost buckling under Tyson's weight, "Do the words 'low-carb diet' mean anything to you?"
Luke's warriors were organizing themselves into a phalanx. But by the time they were ready to advance, the centaurs had galloped to the edge of the deck and fearlessly jumped the guardrail, as if it were a steeplechase and not ten stories above the ground.
They plummeted toward the docks, but the centaurs hit the asphalt with hardly a jolt and galloped off, whooping and yelling taunts at the Princess Andromeda as they raced into the streets of downtown Miami.
Streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. It felt as if space were compacting as if each centaur step took them miles and miles. In no time, the city was left behind.
They raced through marshy fields of high grass and ponds and stunted trees until finally they found themselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers, tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito netting.
They were in a centaur camp.
"Dude!" a party pony said as he unloaded his gear, "Did you see that little blonde dude? His shadow just like smashes that bear guy!"
"Yeah dude! That was excellent!", the centaur with the googly-eye glasses laughed, preforming a motion as if playing a guitar, "Head slam!"
The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces.
Chiron sighed. He set Percy, Annabeth and Grover down on a picnic blanket next to Matt and Tyson.
"I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together." Chiron said, "They don't have the brain cells to spare."
"Chiron..." Percy said, still stunned by the fact that he was here, "You saved us."
"Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name." he said with a dry smile, "But you where doing well on your own."
As Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Chiron where looking at Matt, who looked perfectly fine for someone who had been run through with a sword.
"Yeah..." Annabeth said as she turned to Matt, "That large shadow, what was that?"
Matt gave her a shrug before he went to check on his wound. His shirt was still thorn in the spot Luke had run him through. But it looked like steel had never pierced him.
"I know I joke about it a lot." Matt said, "But I might actually be immortal..."
The uncertain tone in his voice didn't went unnoticed by Percy and Annabeth but they decided not to press the issue at the moment.
"Chiron, how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.
"Advanced planning, my dear." Chiron said, "I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."
"We are a pretty strange group." Matt said with a nod.
"No, no, I didn't mean it like... oh, never mind." Chiron said, "The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."
Over at the campfire, where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun.
"So what now? We just let Luke sail away?" Percy asked Chiron, "He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway."
"I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw." Chiron said, "We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won."
"Screw that! I play to win." Matt said, "Let me at him for round two."
"Matt, we got the Fleece! We won in our own way." Annabeth said sternly, "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."
"Gods, she sounds sexy when she talks like that." Matt thought wishfully.
It does seem to never fail to capture your attention. Perhaps I should adopt a similar tone when we train? Or when I try to warn you of incoming danger?
"What? No. It's different when you do it." Matt thought, "No, just no."
Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy. "You are all true heroes. We must return to Half-Blood Hill as soon as possible. The centaurs shall carry you."
"You're coming, too?" Percy asked.
"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's music." Chiron said, "Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see... I'm curious about the Fleece."
Over by the campfire, Tyson let loose with his paintball gun. A blue projectile splattered against one of the centaurs, hurling him backward into the lake. The centaur came up grinning, covered in swamp muck and blue paint, and gave Tyson two thumbs up.
There you go, another chapter, hope you enjoyed. Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite, or follows this story.
Damn it, almost made it to the end of Book 2 before the end of the year.
A bit of a shout out to the song Break Through It All from Sonic Frontiers, which I was listening when I wrote the scene after Matt awoke to his Entity.
As I mentioned before, I originally had two other scenario's for the battle with Luke. The first one was Matt becoming overwhelmed with power, and going berserk. Let just say he would enter a mode where every attack was a Fatality and he was playing a Skarlet. I went against it because I thought it was too early in the story for something like a super powered evil side.
The other scenario was after he got stabbed by Luke, Lucifer would have appeared and delivered a very one-sided battle. Buying enough time for the heroes to escape. I didn't do this one because, it would make Lucifer appear too much as a good guy and there is no reason for him to not just obliterate all of Kronos's forces. Meaning the story ends at Book 2.
So it became a toned down version of the first Scenario.
Anyways enough of my ramblings, take care of yourself, get some rest, drink plenty of water, and I will see you people in 2025. Best wishes for the new year.