²Olden Crown, heroes of olympus

023.

OLDEN CROWN
━━ chapter twenty-three

━━ ELISA DIDN'T WANT a first-row viewing of wolves' teeth, but here she was. A wolf launched at her, forcing her to step back. She swung Acantha like a golf club, hitting the wolf upside the jaw, and making it bite its own tongue. Maybe only silver could kill a wolf, but Elisa could still use Celestial bronze to give the monster some Tylenol-worthy pain.

               It yapped and snarled at her, but when it charged at her again, Elisa went right and stabbed. The Celestial bronze tip went straight through the leg muscles of the wolf, making it topple over in pain. The wolf slid across the snowy ground, unable to stand up and fight anymore.

               Through the chaos, Elisa caught glimpses of her friends. Jason had managed to tame a storm spirit in the shape of a hose, using it to ride right over venti. Piper was surrounded by Earthborn, but she seemed to be holding her own. She was so impressive-looking as she fought, that the Earthborn stared at her in awe, forgetting that they were supposed to kill her. They'd lower their clubs and watch dumbfounded as she smiled and charged them. They'd smile back—until she sliced them apart with her dagger, and they melted into mounds of mud.

               Delaney was confusing wolves with shadows, using the wolf's own shadows to attack them. The monsters's shadows would curl and form the shape of hellhounds, scaring the wolves so bad they backed away—right into Delaney's Stygian Iron sword, which seemed to work as well as silver. The wolves' dying shadows—which melted back to the ground once Delaney was finished with them—were soaked up by her sword, and seemingly energizing her.

               Leo had taken on Khione herself. While fighting a goddess should've been suicide, Leo was the right man for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he'd been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two silver-tipped ball-peen hammers to smash any monsters that got in his way.

               Elisa realized that Leo was the only reason they were still alive. His fiery aura was heating up the whole courtyard, countering Khione's winter magic. Without him, they would've been frozen like the Hunters long ago. Wherever Leo went, the ice melted off the stones. Even Thalia started to defrost a little when Leo stepped near her.

               Khione slowly backed away. Her expression went from enraged to shocked to slightly panicked as Leo got closer.

               Elisa was running out of enemies. Wolves lay in dazed heaps. Some slunk away into the ruins, yelping from their wounds. Piper stabbed the last Earthborn, who toppled to the ground in a pile of sludge. Jason rode his spirit storm through the last ventus, breaking it into vapor. Then Elisa whirled around and saw Leo bearing down on the goddess of snow.

               "You're too late," Khione snarled. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us."

               Leo set his hammers ablaze and threw them at the goddess, but she turned into snow—a white powdery image of herself. Leo's hammers slammed into the snow woman, breaking it into a steaming mound of mush.

               Delaney rightened her grip on Skótos as the last of the wolves was absorbed by the weapon. "You made friends with the venti?" She raised her eyebrows at the blond boy.

               Jason grinned. "His name is Tempest."

               Tempest reared on his hind legs, arcing electricity across his hooves.