It was a strange story. Then again, Bianca and Nico were Half-Bloods. Nothing would be normal for them.
"So, you've been raising Nico pretty much all your life?" Drako asked. "Just the two of you?"
She nodded. "That's why I wanted to join the Hunters so bad. I mean, I know it's selfish, but I wanted my own life and friends. I love Nico—don't get me wrong—I just needed to find out what it would be like not to be a big sister twenty-four hours a day."
At that moment, Zoë and Grover arrived with the drinks and pastries. Hot chocolate for Bianca and Percy. Coffee for Drako, Grover and Zoë.
"We should do the tracking spell," Zoë said. "Grover, do you have any acorns left?"
"Umm," Grover mumbled. He was chewing on a bran muffin, wrapper and all. "I think so. I just need to—"
He froze.
Zoe gasped. "Grover, thy cup."
Grover dropped his coffee cup, which was decorated with pictures of birds. Suddenly, the birds peeled off the cup and flew away—a flock of tiny doves. My rubber rat squeaked. It scampered off the railing and into the trees—real fur, real whiskers.
Grover collapsed next to his coffee, which steamed against the snow. They gathered around him and tried to wake him up. He groaned, his eyes fluttering.
"Hey!" Thalia said, running up from the street. "I just… What's wrong with Grover?"
"I don't know," Percy said. "He collapsed."
"Uuuuhhhh," Grover groaned.
"Well, get him up!" Thalia said. She had her spear in her hand. She looked behind her as if she were being followed. "We have to get out of here."
They made it to the edge of the town before the first two skeleton warriors appeared. They stepped from the trees on either side of the road. Instead of gray camouflage, they were now wearing blue New Mexico State Police uniforms, but they had the same transparent gray skin and yellow eyes.
Most of them need a moment to realise how fucked they were when they saw them using handguns. The only one who was immune to them here was Drako, so they needed to be careful.
Thalia tapped her bracelet. Aegis spiralled to life on her arm, but the warriors didn't flinch.
Their glowing yellow eyes bored right into Percy.
He drew Riptide, though Drako wasn't sure what good it would do against guns.
Zoë and Bianca drew their bows, but Bianca was having trouble because Grover kept swooning and leaning against her.
"Back up," Thalia said.
They started to—but then two more skeletons appeared on the road behind them. They were surrounded.
"They are only a group of shity skeletons," Drako said. "What are you afraid of?"
Drako didn't understand why were they so cautious. Each one of the skeletons was at the level of a mid-class Devil, maybe a little bit better than the average.
"You will understand when you see it," Zoë said.
Then, one of the warriors raised a cell phone to his mouth and spoke into it.
Except he wasn't speaking. He made a clattering, clicking sound, like dry teeth on bone.
Drako understood what was going on. The skeletons had split up to look for them. These skeletons were now calling their brethren. Soon, they'd have a full party on their hands.
"It's near," Grover moaned.
"It's here," Percy said.
"No," he insisted. "The gift. The gift from the Wild."
"We'll have to go one-on-one," Thalia said. "Four of them. Four of us. Percy, you have to protect Grover."
"Agreed," said Zoë.
"The Wild!" Grover moaned.
A warm wind blew through the canyon, rustling the trees. Drako got shocked by the pressure that he was sensing at that moment.
Something was coming, something really powerful.
A skeleton fired at Drako, but the bullets didn't do anything. Drako lost like 10 hp for each bullet, and he got back that hp in the next second.
Drako summoned Laevatein, and charged toward the skeleton. He swung the sword and cut him in half.
It was so easy to kill the skeleton.
But, Drako didn't receive any experience.
The bones of the skeleton unknit and clattered to the asphalt in a heap. Almost immediately, they began to move, reassembling themselves. The second skeleton clattered his teeth at Drako and tried to fire, but he knocked his gun into the snow.
In that moment, the other two skeletons shot at him.
But, they didn't have enough strength to do any serious damage to Drako.
Thalia charged to the second skeleton. Zoë and Bianca started firing arrows at the third and fourth. Grover stood there and held his hands out to the trees, looking like he wanted to huge them. Percy was looking over the fight, prepare to help at any moment.
There was a crashing sound in the forest to their left, like a bulldozer. Maybe the skeletons' reinforcements were arriving.
Drako understood why the skeletons were so scary for Zoë and the rest. They were unkillable; they didn't die even with Laevatein.
There was no way to stop them. Zoë and Bianca fired at their heads point-blank, but the arrows just whistled straight through their empty skulls. One lunged at Bianca, and Drako was about to go to her, but she whipped out her hunting knife and stabbed the warrior in the chest.
The whole skeleton erupted into flames, leaving a little pile of ashes and a police badge.
"How did you do that?" Zoe asked.
"I don't know," Bianca said nervously. "Lucky stab?"
"Well, do it again!"
Bianca tried, but the remaining three skeletons were wary of her now.
No matter how many times did Drako cut them, they still reappeared. It didn't stop.
"Plan?" Drako asked as they retreated.
Nobody answered. The trees behind the skeletons were shivering. Branches were cracking.
"A gift," Grover muttered.
And then, with a mighty roar, the largest pig Drako had ever seen came into the road. It was a wild boar, thirty feet high, with a snotty pink snout and tusks the size of canoes. Its back bristled with brown hair, and its eyes were wild and angry.
"REEEEEEET!" it squealed, and raked the three skeletons aside with its tusks. The force was so great, they went flying over the trees and into the side of the mountain, where they smashed to pieces, thigh bones and arm bone twirling everywhere.
Then the pig turned on them.
Drako raised his sword, but Grover yelled, "Don't kill it."
The boar grunted and pawed the ground, ready to charge.
"That's the Erymanthian Boar," Zoe said, trying to stay calm. "I don't think we can kill it."
"It's a gift," Grover said. "A blessing from the Wild!"
The boar said "REEEEEY!" and swung its tusk. Zoe and Bianca dived out of the way. Percy had to push Grover so he wouldn't get launched into the mountain on the Boar Tusk Express.
"Yeah, I feel blessed!" he said. "Scatter!"
They ran in different directions, and for a moment the boar was confused.
Only Drako stayed in front of the Boar.
This monster was the biggest he has ever found. He wanted to have a fight against him with his real form.
"GrrrrrRRR!" Drako started to growl as scales started to appear on his skin.
"WAIT! IT'S A BLESSING" Grover shouted when he saw what Drako was going to do.
Drako stopped the transformation for a moment. He wanted to hear what Grover had to say.
"It want to kill us!" Thalia said.
"Of course," Grover said. "It's wild!"
LMAO
"So how is that a blessing?" Bianca asked.
It seemed a fair question to Drako, but the pig was offended and charged her. She was faster than he'd realized. She rolled out of the way of its hooves and came up behind the beast. It lashed out with its tusks and pulverized the WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT sign.
"Keep moving!" Zoe yelled.
The boar turned towards Thalia, and she made the mistake of raising Aegis in defence. The sight of Medusa's head made the boar squeal in outrage.
The boar charged towards her.
Fast, Drako ran towards Thalia.
"This way." He grabed Thalia's arm and they ran along the rails while the boar roared behind them, slipping and sliding as it tried to navigate the steep hillside. Its hooves just were not made for this, thank the gods.
Ahead of them, Drako saw a covered tunnel. Past that, an old trestle bridge spanning a gorge. Drako had a crazy idea.
"Follow me!"
Thalia slowed down—Drako didn't have time to ask why—but he pulled her along and she reluctantly followed. Behind them, a ten-ton pig tank was knocking down pine trees and crushing boulders under its hooves as it chased them.
Thalia and Drako ran into the tunnel and came out on the other side.
"No!" Thalia screamed.
She'd turned as white as ice. They were at the edge of the bridge. Below, the mountain dropped away into a snow-filled gorge about seventy feet below.
The boar was right behind them.
"Come on!" He said. "Jump!"
"I can't!" Thalia yelled. Her eyes were wild with fear.
The boar smashed into the covered tunnel, tearing through at full speed.
"Now!" He yelled at Thalia.
She looked down and swallowed. Drako could swear that she was turning green.
"Tch."
Drako pushed her, throwing her down.
She started to scream. Drako jump behind her and opened his wings, he embraced her while trying to find the balance.
The boar was less fortunate; it couldn't turn that fast, so all ten tons of the monster charged out onto the tiny trestle, which buckled under its weight. The boar free-fell into the gorge with a mighty squeal and landed in a snowdrift with a huge POOOOOF!
Drako went down to the ground. Thalia was breathing really hard. Next to them, the wild boar was squealing and struggling. All Drako could see was the bristly tip of its back. It was wedged completely in the snow like Styrofoam packing. It didn't seem to be hurt, but it wasn't going anywhere, either.
Drako looked at Thalia. "You're afraid of heights."
Now that they were safely down the mountain, her eyes had their usual angry look. "Don't be stupid."
"That explains why you freaked out on Apollo's bus. Why you didn't want to talk about it."
She took a deep breath. "If you tell anyone, I swear—"
"No, no," Drako said. "That's cool. It's just… the daughter of Zeus, the Lord of the Sky, afraid of heights?"
Thalia blushed and looked at other place in shame.
That moment, above them, Grover's voice called, "Hellooooo?"
"Down here!" Drako shouted.
A few minutes later, Zoe, Bianca, Percy and Grover joined them. They stood watching the wild boar struggle in the snow.
"A blessing of the Wild," Grover said, though he now looked agitated.
"I agree," Zoe said. "We must use it."
"Hold up," Thalia said irritably. "Explain to me why you're so sure this pig is a blessing."
Grover looked over, distracted. "It's our ride west. Do you have any idea how fast this boar can travel?"
"Fun," Drako said. "Like… pig cowboys."
Grover nodded. "We need to get aboard. I wish… I wish I had more time to look around. But it's gone now."
"What's gone?" Percy asked.
Grover didn't seem to hear Percy. He walked over to the boar and jumped onto its back.
Already the boar was starting to make some headway through the drift. Once it broke free, there'd be no stopping it. Grover took out his pipes. He started playing a snappy tune and tossed an apple in front of the boar. The apple floated and spun right above the boar's nose, and the boar went nuts, straining to get it.
"Automatic steering," Thalia murmured. "Great."
She trudged over and jumped on behind Grover, which still left plenty of room for the rest of them.
Zoë and Bianca walked toward the boar.
"Wait a second," Percy said. "Do you two know what Grover is talking about—this wild blessing?"
"Of course," Zoë said. "Did you not feel it in the wind? It was so strong… I never thought I would sense that presence again."
"What presence?" Drako asked. He wanted to who was the one who could emit the strong presence that he had detected earlier.
Zoë stared at Drako like he was an idiot. "The lord of the Wild, of course. Just for a moment, in the arrival of the boar, I felt the presence of Pan."
Riding a giant pig wasn't something that you could experience every day.
They road the boar until sunset, which was about much as most of them could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was.
Drako have no idea how many miles they've covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until they were galloping (do boars gallop?) across the desert.
As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.
"This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."
Nobody needed convincing. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then they waddled away as best they could with their saddle sores.
After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.
"It likes the mountains better," Drako guessed.
"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."
Ahead of them was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoë Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door.
Beyond that was a range of hills… but then Drako noticed they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.
"Whoa," Percy said.
"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"
Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to everyone, but Grover looked concerned.
"That's us," he said. "Those six nuts right there."
"Which one is me?" Drako asked.
"The little deformed one," Zoë suggested.
"No, I think that that's is Percy's."
"Oh, shut up."
"That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."
"A monster?" Thalia asked.
Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge…"
He pointed straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.
They finally decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of them wanted to go Dumpster-diving in the dark.
Zoë, Bianca and Thalia produced six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks.
The night got chilly fast, so Grover and Percy collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Pretty soon, they were about as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.
"The stars are out," Zoe said.
She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.
"Amazing," Bianca said. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."
"This is nothing," Zoe said. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."
"You talk like you're not a human," Percy said.
Zoe raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"
"For you," Thalia corrected. "Not thee"
"But you use you for the beginning of a sentence."
"And for the end," Thalia said. "No thou. No thee. Just you"
Zoe threw up her hands in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often!"
Grover sighed. He was still looking up at the stars like he was thinking about the light pollution problem. "If only Pan were here, he would ser things right."
Zoe nodded sadly.
"Maybe it was the coffee," Grover said. "I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe if I drank more coffee…"
Drako was pretty sure coffee had nothing to do with what had happened in Cloudcroft, but he didn't have the heart to tell Grover.
"Grover, do you really think that was Pan? I mean, I know you want it to be."
"He sent us help," Grover insisted. "I don't know how or why. But it was his presence. After this quest is done, I'm going back to New Mexico and drinking a lot of Coffee. It's the best lead we've gotten in two thousand years. I was so close."
"What I want to know," Thalia said, looking at Bianca, "is how you destroyed one of the zombies. There are a lot more out there somewhere. We need to figure out how to fight them."
Bianca shook her head. "I don't know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames."
"Maybe there's something special about your knife," Drako said.
"It is the same as mine," Zoë said. "Celestial bronze, yes. But mine did not affect the warriors that way."
"Maybe you have to hit the skeleton in a certain spot," Percy said.
Bianca looked uncomfortable with everybody paying attention to her.
"Never mind," Zoe told her. "We will find the answer. In the meantime, we should plan our next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road, we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."
"No!" Bianca said. "Not there!"
She looked really freaked out, like she'd just been dropped off the steep end of a roller coaster.
Zoe frowned. "Why?"
Bianca took a shaky breath. "I… I think we stayed there for a while. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember…"
Drako noted that Percy had a strange face. Grover and Percy exchange looks, like they were thinking the same thing.
"Bianca," Percy said. "That hotel you stayed at. Was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"
Her eyes widened. "How could you know that?"
"Oh, great," Percy said.
"Wait," Thalia said. "What is the Lotus Casino?"
That was what Drako wanted to ask.
"A couple of years ago," Percy said, "Grover, Annabeth, and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."
"No," Bianca said. "No, that's not possible."
"You said somebody came and got you out," Percy remembered.
"Yes."
"What did he look like? What did he say?"
"I… I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this."
"You can't avoid this talk even if you don't want to talk about it, Bianca," Drako said. "If you are brave enough to join the Hunters, you are brave enough to confront this."
Zoe sat forward; her eyebrows knit with concern. "You said that Washington D.C., had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway behind there."
"Yes, but—"
"Bianca," Zoe said, "can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right now?"
"Don't be silly," Bianca said. She told them the correct name of the president.
"And who was the president before that?" Zoe asked.
Bianca thought for a while. "Roosevelt."
Zoe swallowed. "Theodore or Franklin?"
"Franklin," Bianca said. "F.D.R."
"Bianca," Zoe said. "F.D.R. was not the last president. That was about seventy years ago."
"That's impossible," Bianca said. "I… I'm not that old."
She stared at her hands as if to make sure they weren't wrinkled.
Thalia's eyes turned sad. She knew what it was like to get pulled out of time for a while. "It's okay, Bianca, the important thing is you and Nico are safe. You made it out."
"But how?" Percy asked. "We were only there for an hour and we barely escaped. How could you have escaped after being there for so long?"
"I told you." Bianca looked about ready to cry. "A man came and said it was time to leave. And—"
"But who? Why did he do it?"
Before she could answer, they were hit with a blazing light from down the road. The head-lights of a car appeared out of nowhere. They grabbed their sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of them.
Drako knew this was going to be difficult. Inside the car, he could sense the presence of two gods. And, unfortunately, it wasn't Apollo.
The back of the limo opened next to Percy. Before he could step away, the point of a sword tried to go for his neck.
Clank!
The sound of metal hitting metal was heard in the dark night.
"Back off, Percy," Drako said. "You don't want to fight a god, do you?"
Percy paled.
Drako heard the sound of Zoe and Bianca drawing their bows.
The owner of the sword got out of the car.
He smiled cruelly. "Not so fast now, are you, punk?"
He was a big man with a crew cut, a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes.
Without a doubt, Drako used [Inspect Status]
[Level of normal skill [Inspect Status] was increased from 4 to 5]
[Normal skill [Inspect Status] has reached MAX level]
[AGI bonus]
----------------------------------------------------------------
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
[Ares]
Race: Divine Spirit
Strength: 9500
Defense: 6500
Magic: 2750
Agility: 4500
Abilities
-Prowess in Battle
-Battle Precognition
-Tracking skills
-Powerful Roar
-Warfare Expertise
-War Manipulation
-Telumkinesis
+Weapon Conjuration
+Weapon Transformation
+Weapon Curses
+Disarmament
+Weapon Omniscience
-Odikinesis
+Battle Jitters
-Pyrokinesis (limited)
-Necromancy (limited)
-Reality-Warping
-Transmutation
-Control of Animals
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
"Ares," Percy growled.
The war god glanced at all of them. "At ease, people."
He snapped his fingers, and their weapons fell to the ground. Laevatein included, much to Drako's shock.
Instantly, Drako recalled his sword.
Ares looked surprised. He then looked at the sword again, and he seemed to froze.
"That's sword there… where did you get it?" the god asked.
"I get from somewhere," Drako said.
"Give it to me, and I won't kill you."
"Are you sure?" Drako asked. "I'm pretty confident on my abilities and the power of this sword. You know it, right? The properties of this sword."
Anti-life and Anti-divine.
Ares would be heavily wounded if Drako manage to strike him with the sword. There is a great percent that he would be dead if Drako use the special attack of this sword.
Ares doubted, but he finally let a sigh.
"This is a friendly meeting." He then turned at Percy. "Of course, I'd like to take your head for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."
"What lady?" Thalia asked.
Ares looked over at her. "Well, well. I heard you were back."
"Thalia, daughter of Zeus," Ares mused. "You're not hanging out with very good company."
"What's your business, Ares?" she said. "Who's in the car?"
Ares smiled, enjoying the attention. "Oh, I doubt she want to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He jutted his chin toward Zoe and Bianca. "Oh, right, you're one of them now. Why don't you all go get some tacos while you wait? Only take Percy a few minutes."
"We will not leave him alone with thee, Lord Ares," Zoe said.
"Besides," Grover managed, "the taco place is closed."
Ares snapped his fingers again. The lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN. "You were saying, goat boy?"
"Ares, I want the other boy too," A feminine voice came out of the limo. "I want to see the one who made little Artemis break her own oath."
"You heard the lady," Ares said, looking at Drako. "Are you going to reject a lady's proposition?"
Drako looked at the rest of the team, and he finally nodded.
"Ok, I don't want Percy to be killed yet," Drako said.
The rest of the group reluctantly headed over to the taco restaurant. Ares regarded the two of them with loathing, then opened the limousine door like a chauffeur.
"Get inside, punks," he said. "And mind your manners. She's not as forgiving of rudeness as I am."
----------
Hi guys!
I wanted to take a break, so I did that :).
Anyways, I have already started university and its a pretty difficult degree, so I'm going to reduce the number of chapters posted during a week to 1 or 2 (depending on my mood).
Good Luck to all of you who are studying too!
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