The Moon's Shine (PJO)

Chapter 34

A/N-This hydra is a bit different from the actual one in the book. Thanks for reading!

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Percy and Serena scattered as the Hydra spit poison toward their spots. Percy dove backward—but it was too late. There was the sound of a violent sizzling, followed by the smell of burnt rubber. Percy looked down in panic and found his shoes splattered in the liquid. Within seconds, the outer layer melted, revealing his socks. He quickly shrugged off the shoes before the poison could spread, throwing them far from him.

Meanwhile, Louisiana sprung into action. As the hydra's attention was diverted, she raced from her spot to Nico, quickly dragging him out of the open before turning him over and checking his pulse. "He's alive!" she called out. "But he needs immediate medical attention!"

Serena moved forward to help, but Percy grabbed her arm. "The hydra will detect you," he warned.

"But . . . I can't leave Nico like that!" Serena exclaimed, tears gathered in her eyes as she gazed at the demigod's limp body. 

Percy then realized that Nico meant much more to the recruits than he had thought. But now that he thought about it, the relationship made sense. Serena's healing power had tripled within the week—and that was all thanks to Nico, an excellent ability teacher who, thanks to his ability, could train one to the precipice of death, the best way to drill with a limited amount of time. But still . . .  

"Louisiana will take care of him," Percy told Serena. As though she could hear him, the daughter of Hypnos quickly slung the skinny son of Hades over her shoulder and crept toward the direction Alina had disappeared. "Let's run—"

To Percy's horror, the hydra swung toward Louisiana and Nico. The earth shook as the monster stepped toward the pair, causing Louisiana's knees to buckle under the strain and collapse. She struggled to push Nico off of her, but it didn't seem like she could do it with her current strength.  The pair could only wait in fear—one conscious, one unconscious—as the hydra stumbled upon them.

Percy's grip on Riptide tightened on the opposite side of the clearing. I can't believe I'm doing this, he thought. Then he threw his prized possession. 

Now, there was a reason why Percy was a swordsman and not an archer: he didn't have the affinity for it, thanks to a curse. And Riptide was now a serrated dagger, whose weight was still unfamiliar to Percy. But throwing something was way different than the art of the bow. Hence, his experienced hand-eye coordination could never fail him here. 

Riptide sailed across the clearing, whipping around hilt over handle multiple times. It only needed a few seconds to reach the hydra, but by that time, the sword had lost most of its momentum—all due to the inefficiency of the throw. After all of his hard work, Percy watched as his sword bounced harmlessly off the hydra's armored scales. To add insult to injury, the hydra didn't even pause its journey to Louisiana and Nico, as if a fly had tried to bite it.

His hand-eye coordination had definitely failed him.

So, Percy tried an equally desperate strategy. He raced into the clearing, waving his arms and insulting the hydra with his entire curse word vocabulary. "Hey, you rotten piece of frozen dung!"

The hydra didn't indicate that it'd heard what he'd said. But its ears flapped involuntarily. Emboldened by the result, Percy continued. "If you don't fight me, I'll cut you up into steaks and feed you to the Olympians!"

The moment the hydra heard "Olympians," it quickly paused its step and roared, eyes filled with hatred. Then, in the blink of an eye, it charged at Percy.