𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭y.

Centaur Stampede

The numbers were over-powering, for a while the fight seemed equal but they found themselves backing further and further Into Midtown.

It was a war zone. There were little skirmishes everywhere. A giant was ripping up trees in Bryant Park while dryads pelted him with nuts. Outside the Waldorf Astoria, a bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin was whacking a hellhound with a rolled-up newspaper. A trio of Hephaestus campers fought a squad of dracaende in the middle of Rockefeller Center.

The defenses were collapsing. The enemy was closing in on the Empire State Building.

The Hunters had set up a defensive line on 37th, just three blocks north of Olympus. To the east on Park Avenue, Jake Mason and some other Hephaestus campers were leading an army of statues against the enemy. To the west, the Demeter cabin and Grover's nature spirits had turned Sixth Avenue into a jungle that was hampering a squadron of Kronos's demigods. The south was clear for now, but the flanks of the enemy army were swinging around. A few more minutes and they'd be totally surrounded.

Percy flew over a familiar silver owl banner in the southeast corner of the fight, 33rd at the Park Avenue tunnel. Annabeth Lilia and a few of their siblings were holding back a Hyperborean giant.

"There!" Percy told Blackjack. He plunged toward the battle.

Percy leaped off his back and landed on the giant's head. When the giant looked up, he slid off his face, shield-bashing his nose on the way down.

"RAWWWR!' The giant staggered backward, blue blood trickling from his nostrils.

Percy hit the pavement running. The Hyperborean breathed a cloud of white mist, and the temperature dropped. The spot where he'd landed was now coated with ice, and Percy was covered in frost like a sugar donut.

"Hey, ugly!" Lilia yelled at the giant.

"That's no way to greet me Doll-face!" Percy yelled.

"Not a great time for jokes Bubble-brain!" She yelled back, he grinned.

The giant bellowed and turned toward her, exposing the unprotected back of his legs. percy charged and stabbed him behind the knee.

"WAAAAH!" The Hyperborean buckled. They waited for him to turn, but he froze. He literally turned to solid ice. From the point where Percy stabbed him, cracks appeared in his body. They got larger and wider until the giant crumbled in a mountain of blue shards.

"Thanks." Annabeth winced, trying to catch her breath. "The pig?"

"Pork chops," Percy said.

"Good." Lilia flexed her shoulder. The wound was still bothering her, but she saw Percy expression and rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, Percy. Come on! We've got plenty of enemies left."

She was right. The next hour was a blur. Lilia fought like she'd never fought before-wading into legions of dracaende, taking out dozens of telkhines with every strike, destroying empousai and knocking out enemy demigods. No matter how many they defeated, more took their place.

Lilia, Annabeth and Percy raced from block to block, trying to shore up their defences. Too many of their friends lay wounded in the streets. Too many were missing.

As the night wore on and the moon got higher, they were backed up foot by foot until they were only a block from the Empire State Building in any direction. At one point Grover was next to them, bonking snake women over the head with his cudgel.

Then he disappeared in the crowd, and it was Thalia at their side, driving the monsters back with the power of her magic shield. Mrs. O'Leary bounded out of nowhere, picked up a Laistrygonian giant in her mouth, and flung him into the air like a Frisbee.