Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 72

Cressida was angry. She'd never been more angry in her life.

If Bob was going to do this for them, then it wasn't going to be for nothing.

She was angry.

"Percy!" she yelled, and he snatched up Riptide and she dove for the chains holding the Doors of Death in place. Her drakon-bone blade cut through the left-side moorings in a single swipe. Meanwhile, Percy drove back the first wave of monsters. He stabbed an arai and yelped, "Gah! Stupid curses!" Then he scythed down a half dozen telkhines.

The Solace Solution they took was definitely a good idea as he kept fighting and Cressida lunged behind him and sliced through the chains on the other side.

The Doors shuddered, then opened with a pleasant Ding!

Bob and his sabre-toothed sidekick continued to weave around Tartarus's legs, attacking, and dodging to stay out of his clutches. They didn't seem to be doing much damage, but Tartarus lurched around, obviously not used to fighting in a humanoid body. He swiped and missed, swiped and missed.

Castor was nose deep in monsters as he hacked through them, the remnants of his shirt having been ripped from his body by a griffin that had tried to swoop at him before he cut its wing off and then its head.

More monsters surged toward the Doors. A spear flew past Cressida. She turned and stabbed an empousai through the gut, then dove for the Doors as they started to close.

Cressida wedged a foot between them as she fought, her back protected by the elevator car as she fought. She also sent a path of fire cleaving through the armies, not affecting them but scaring them, specifically the ones that died by her fire.

"Percy, get over here!" she yelled.

He joined her in the doorway, his face dripping with sweat, and blood from several cuts.

"You okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "Got some kind of pain curse from that arai." He hacked a gryphon out of the air. "Hurts, but it won't kill me," he said before he realised he was left with no choice as he placed his hands on her arms and tried to ease her back into the elevator.

"What are you doing?" she asked, panic building inside her and he just gave her a smile.

"You've gotta go, Grape Girl. Let the Doors close, so I can hold down the button."

And he ducked as she swung her sword over his head, not aiming at him but at the cyclops behind him that deteriorated into dust with her blow. Though, that could've been a happy coincidence when she was truly trying to aim for him.

"You promised me, Fish Face. You promised me you'd always be my friend and never leave me behind."

"I also promised you a million other things! Like I'd take care of you. And that I love you, and that means getting you in that elevator, by yourself, so let go," he urged.

"NEVER!"

And her eyes widened as Percy spun swiping his sword in the air as he cut through a dracaena. And he was forced to look at her as her fingers cut little crescent shapes into the leather of his drakon tunic as she gripped it tightly.

"The only way you'll get me in this elevator is if you're in there next to me. And I will run you through if you try and force me to go without you."

"Dammit, Cress, you're impossible."

"So are you!"

"And you still love me!"

"And you love me! Which only proves why we should stay together!"