Ivy Pittaluga had always made a solemn vow to keep her distance from Percy Jackson, determined to keep her world separate from the camp hero.
However, she realizes that fate has a mischievous plan in store for her. Suddenly thrown together as unlik...
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Hearing the words "Destroy them" was all it took for me to snap out of my paralysis. I pushed back the fear and gripped my sword.
"Percy!" I raised my sword.
Percy snatched up Riptide. I dove for the chain holding the Doors of Death. The sword 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!" Percy scythed down a half dozen telekhines.
I lunged behind him and sliced through the chains of the other side. The Doors shuddered, then opened with a pleasant Ding! Bob and Small Bob continued to weave around Tartarus's legs, attacking, and dodging to stay out of his clutches. Tartarus lurched around, obviously not used to fighting in a humanoid body. He swiped and missed multiple times.
More monsters surged toward the Doors. A spear flew past my head. I turned and stabbed an empousai through the gut. I dove for the Doors as they started to close. I kept it open with my foot as I fought.
"Percy, get over here!" I yelled. He joined me in the doorway, his face dripping with sweat and blood from several cuts. "You okay?"
"Got some kind of pain curse from that arai." Percy nodded. He hacked a gryphon out of the air. "Hurts, but it won't kill me. Get in the elevator. I'll hold the button."
"Yeah, right!" I smacked a carnivorous horse in the snout with the butt of my sword and sent the monster stampeding through the crowd. I tried to call on the vines, but it wouldn't easily break through the fleshy tissue of the heart we were standing on. Irritated, I gave Percy a narrowed look. "You promised, Shark Boy. We would not get separated! You're not leaving my side ever again!"
"You're impossible!"
"Yeah, love you too!"
An entire phalanx of Cyclopes charged forward, knocking smaller monsters out of the way. I grit my teeth together. Vines broke through the ground. At the same time, Percy gave out a battle cry and a red vein in the ground burst open, spraying monsters with liquid fire. Vines stabbed through monsters nearby. Monsters combusted from the tidal wave of heat and vines. The burst vein sealed itself, but nothing remained of the monsters except a row of scorch marks.
"Ivy, you have to go!" Percy said, his voice tight. "We can't both stay!"
"No way!" I cried out. Something started to run toward Percy from behind. "Duck!"
Percy crouched and I vaulted over him. I brought my sword down on the head of a heavily tattooed ogre. Percy and I stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, waiting for the next wave. Vines made a protective barrier in front of us, clusters of grapes growing.
"Well, then," Percy said, "you have a better idea?"
"Not at the moment." I grumbled, gripping my sword. "But you're not leaving my side, Seaweed Brain."
