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Without bodies to shadow travel, Percy, Annabeth, Claudia, Nico and I were all forced to take the bus two and a half hours from Long Island to the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch. Bullshit.
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“God, I forgot how annoying long bus rides are,” I muttered the moment I stepped out the doors, feeling a bruise forming on my tailbone thanks to those concrete seats.
“Yeah, astral projection is ass and we’re never doing it again,” Nico muttered.
“Um, rude,” Claudia scowled, flicking him on the head, “It’s not my fault. Maybe you’ve gotten too used to the convenience of shadow travelling.”
“Actually, I’m feeling a lot better,” Annabeth smiled, “I feel so much lighter. How exactly are you able to perform magic acts as a mortal, Claudia?”
“Channeling, ‘acourse,” she smiled, “I use the natural magic found in things like herbs and stones, as well as performing rituals and offerings to Hecate.”
“Hecate?” Annabeth repeated, sounding intrigued, “Strange. I wonder if the Olympians know about that.”
“Um, you could do me a favour and not bring it up,” Claudia flashed her a smile, “They still don’t quite get along. Doesn’t mean we can’t, though!”
“Sure,” I sighed.
“Hey, um,” Percy said slowly, “Do you guys… hear that?”
Nico stopped to listen. “I just hear people.”
As everyone went quiet, the bustling sound of a crowded street slowly climbed to a tizzy, then commotion, until distressed screams quickly filled the air.
“Oh, how convenient,” I scowled, scanning in between fleeing bodies for the monster.
“Gods,” Annabeth grumbled, “Look, by that coffee shop!”
We followed her gaze as the sound of shattering glass echoed through the street, a large bull tearing through the small coffee shop’s walls.
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Hey, wait a second…
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“Um… we should probably do somethin’ about that,” Claudia prompted.
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With this big group of God-related beings, we might as well be a giant banner that says “Free kills here!” on it. The bull quickly locked on its target, and came barreling towards us with incredible speed and… strangely fluid movement. It quickly came into view as it bulldozed its way down the street, sending cars careening into shops and crushing lampposts with just a single fist.
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“Oh, seriously?!” I groaned, realising the beast's serpentine-esque legs, “Why do every one of you freaks gotta have snake feet?!”
“Gods, that’s Ophiotaurus,” Annabeth mumbled worriedly, “It can only be defeated by burning its entrails.”
“Huh?” Nico said, looking a little repulsed.
“Uh… does anyone have a lighter?” Percy laughed nervously.
“Ooh, ooh, I can make fire, does that count?” Claudia beamed, far too calm considering a bull the size of a dump truck was about to hit us.
“That’s perfect,” Annabeth nodded, unsheathing a sizable knife from her belt, “Percy and I will gut it, Bella and Nico will distract it, and Claudia will burn it before it can heal itself.”
Nobody had anytime to disagree before the serpent bull was upon us.
“Great, you mean we have to play tag with this thing?” I sighed, cringing as I narrowly avoided a flying fire hydrant from hitting my face.
“We need to keep those fists busy, so those two can get in there,” Nico instructed, drawing his own sword, “Can you teleport around a bit? Draw its aim?”
“I can try,” I mumbled. 130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDb6LgiJEcG
In case it wasn’t obvious, egging on a giant bull with two giant hooves that would smash me to bits in an instant and a heavy, slimy snake tail hissing like poison is asking for a death sentence. But with no time to make a better plan, I did my best just barely dodging attack after attack. But it was no use, since the bull had more than enough attention for all of us. As Percy tried to get into position, the acidic tail of the beast careened him into the brick building beyond, landing with a very painful sounding crack on the concrete.130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Nbq02fFLX
I cringed, “Jesus, you okay?”
“Ow,” he mumbled, “Hey, can you do a better job of… doing your job? It doesn’t look very distracted!”
“Hey, fuck you,” I scowled, “What else do you want me to do?!”
“Heads!” Nico called, and instinctively I blipped out of the way. I was clear, however, Annabeth was not.
“Wh-! Give more warning than ‘heads’!” she snapped, recovering from the newspaper stand that was just sent into her torso, “We’re not on a highschool volleyball team!”
“Heads is a perfectly acceptable warning, everyone knows what it means!” Nico retorted, scowling.
How about we please kill this thing and argue later?” Claudia yelled from the sidewalk.
“We’re trying!” everyone shouted at once. 130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTffhShcBU
God, we’re not very good at this team thing, are we?130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnZ1esZZWiE
I sighed, “Okay, we gotta do something, fast.”
“You think?” Nico muttered, wincing as a hoove came rocketing into the ground just a few inches away from his feet.
“You slice it, I’m going to try to keep it in place, okay?”
“Got it.”
Teleporting in front of the beast, I raised my hands as the skittering of energy skipping across my arms came rushing to my palms. 130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnj74nZeiVN
What the hell? 130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLoy9fWNPSr
Something felt different. But I didn’t have time to examine the strange feeling, or else Nico would get munched. I cast the spell, shooting a purple wave of energy directly at the beast’s chest.
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Please just freeze in place, for even a second!
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To my gratitude, it did in fact stop moving. To my confusion, it stayed that way. For a long, long time.
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“Did you just kill this thing?” Nico looked at me, confused.
“I- I thought Annabeth said we have to burn it?” I said, confused, “Gut that thing before it gets up!”
“Um, I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon,” he said, poking the thing with his sword, producing a tink tink sound, like he was tapping glass.
“What the fuck?” I muttered to myself, trying to get a better look.
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It was frozen solid. Before I even touched my hand to the scaly tail, I could feel the cold emanating from it like an ice cube. Nico tried to cut into it, but it may as well have been titanum. He barely made a scratch. Gentle streams of steam floated off of it’s skin as the hot sun hit it.
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“Is… is it dead?” I asked.
“You can only kill it by burning it,” Annabeth said again, looking annoyed, “Although, now it looks like that’s not an option.”
“Well, at least we can get out of here,” Nico sighed.
“And let this thing thaw so it can eat some more people?” Percy frowned, “We gotta kill it.”
“Oh please,” I snorted, “We all know it only wants us. I’m sure it’ll disappear down whatever rabbit hole it came from as soon as it wakes up. Er, if it wakes up.”130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYO22ujQYcA
Fuck, I really hope it does. How the hell did that happen?130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYReTf057cS
“There’s nothing to be done now,” Annabeth sighed, “Let’s just get on with it.”130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiAi7EJs8Uh
Annabeth charged ahead, clearly frustrated, and Percy quickly followed.130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMpfEoC1ShI
“Hey, did you do that on purpose?” Claudia asked once they were a little further up ahead.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you could cast a spell that strong,” Nico added.
“First of all, rude,” I shoved him, “And no, I didn’t. I was just trying to get it to stay still for a second so Nico could cut it up. I don’t know what went wrong. It… felt strange, too.”
“Well, at least you got rid of it,” he sighed, “For now.”
“Yeah, and made those two real pissed,” I muttered, motioning to the two demigods ahead of us.
“I think that was because of your ‘teamwork’ skills,” Claudia snorted, “Seriously, you guys looked like soccer players on a skating rink.”
“We work together just fine,” I muttered, “It’s just those two.”
“I’m sure they feel the same way about us,” Claudia countered. I hate it when she does that. Especially when she was right.
Nico sighed. “Well, they’re used to things going their way, all the time. They’re big heroes at the camp.”
“Well, we’re not at camp,” I snapped.
“I didn’t say we were. But if we’re going to be working with them, we should try a little harder.”
“Whatever,” I muttered, “Let’s just get to this stupid arch.”
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