𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

34

Nico and Ajax tumbled over each other. Nico accidentally gave himself the heimlich maneuver with the pommel of his sword and curled on the deck.

Ajax landed awkwardly on top of Nico, making his pain worse. Through a fog of pain, they heard the ship's figurehead, Festus the bronze dragon, creaking in alarm and shooting fire.

Ajax scrambled to his feet, offering a hand to Nico.

Dimly, Ajax wondered if they'd hit an iceberg—but in the Adriatic, in the middle of summer?

The ship rocked to port with a massive commotion, like telephone poles snapping in half.

"Gahh!" Leo yelled somewhere behind them. "It's eating the oars!"

What the fuck? Ajax wondered.

Everyone else was scrambling. Jason ran past them, his sword drawn, and raced toward the stern. Piper was already on the quarterdeck, shooting food from her cornucopia and yelling, "Hey! HEY! Eat this, ya stupid turtle!"

Turtle?

"Dork?"

'Loser" Nico answered. He seemed fine enough, but Ajax was still concerned. Nico could take care of himself though. With the flick of his wrist, his sword formed in his hand.

Together, the two ran towards the commotion.

Leo frantically worked the ship's controls. "Oars won't retract. Get it away! Get it away!"

"Styx—it's huge!" Nico saw what it was first. "Port! Go port!"

Coach Hedge was the last one on deck. He compensated for that with enthusiasm. He bounded up the steps, waving his baseball bat, and without hesitation goat-galloped to the stern and leaped over the rail with a gleeful "Ha-HA!"

Ajax staggered toward the quarterdeck to join his friends. The boat shuddered. More oars snapped, and Leo yelled, "No, no, no! Damn you slimy-helled son of a bitc-!"

Ajax reached the stern and couldn't believe what he saw.

When he heard the word turtle, he thought of a cute little thing the size of a jewelry box, sitting on a rock in the middle of a fishpond. When he heard huge, his mind tried to adjust—okay, perhaps it was like the Galapagos tortoise he'd seen in the zoo once, with a shell big enough to ride on.

He didn't envision a creature the size of an island. When he saw the massive dome of craggy black and brown squares, the word turtle simply did not compute. Its hell was more like a landmass—hills of bone, shiny pearl valleys, kelp and moss forests, rivers of seawater trickling down the grooves of its carapace.

On the ship's starboard side, another part of the monster rose from the water like a submarine.

Hecate's Polecat!... was that its head?

Its gold eyes were the size of wading pools, with dark sideways slits for pupils. Its skin glistened like wet army camouflage—brown flecked with green and yellow. Its red, toothless mouth could've swallowed the Athena Parthenos in one bite.

Ajax watched as it snapped off half a dozen oars.

He couldn't just stand back and watch it destroy the ship. He stepped towards the rails. Magic flowed through his veins, begging to be let out. When he used his powers, a ball of pure green magic, enough to do damage ten times that of Greek fire, Ajax felt the most alive. His mind was sharper, his senses on high alert, adrenaline coursing through him.

He aimed the shot straight at the turtle.

It bounced harmlessly off it's skin.

"Oh come on"