𝙩𝙪 𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨 - p. jackson [₂]

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒙𝒙𝒗.

𝐈 𝐑𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐎.

as soon as we charged, the giants had disappeared in a twin puff of smoke, reappearing on opposite sides of the room. jason and piper went after otis, while percy went after the big f.

i was forced to dodge snakes that hung from metal bars, and leap over large fiery fits. a pair of leopards stalked nico, who still wasn't awake enough to realize what was happening.

i saw jason and piper from the corner of my eye, attacking the giant with their weapons. i gave piper an extra knife i had on me, and she was climbing the giant, leaping away when he got close to swatting her.

percy was battling a hydra, which put me on edge. i placed an energy shield over nico, blasting a beam of light near the leopards feet, sending them scurrying away.

"nico," i bent down next to him, trying to keep my voice from shaking. "nico, you okay?"

"ughh," he groaned, still trying to gain his senses.

"stay with me, okay," i muttered, ruffling through my pockets for the backup.

i pulled out a black bead, not special in any way. i placed it on nico's skull ring, pressing it in and watching as his suit unfolded around him. the suit i carried was filled with pockets of nico's magic and nectar. tubing brought the nectar to nico, while his body sucked up the stored magic.

"okay, i've — i've gotta help percy," i told him. "i'm right here, okay?"

"uh-huh," he said, unable to move properly.

i created an energy ball in my hand, aiming it at the hydra in the distance.

"duck and cover!" percy yelled.

something fired, and i shot out my energy to meet it. as fast as i could, i threw shields up around all us, an explosion rocking the whole building.

the hydra vaporized instantly. unfortunately, a bunch of other projectiles launched themselves in the sky, dropping cages and shooting against the ceiling.

i kept the energy shields up as best i could. once the shaking stopped, i dropped them. 

otis threw his spear at jason, who maneuvered it with the wind to shoot sideways and into ephialtes.

"otis!" ephialtes stumbled away from his control board, clutching the spear as he began to crumble into monster dust. "will you please stop killing me!"

"not my fault!" otis had barely finished speaking when percy's missile launching contraption spit out one last sphere of roman candle fire. the fiery pink ball of death hit the ceiling above otis and exploded in a beautiful shower of light. colorful sparks pirouetted gracefully around the giant. then a ten-foot section of roof collapsed and crushed him flat.