Traitor To The Gods; Hero To The Halfbloods [Percy Jackson]

32

The battle had already started by the time Blackjack and his buddies landed next to Thalia's Pine tree. The Golden Fleece still hung on one of the branches, glittering brightly and proudly.

Peleus, the dragon that usually had its body wound around the tree, was with the campers, who were fighting monsters. Not the Greek kind, but the ones that were found in the Labyrinth.

It was clear that the monsters' only goal was to destroy all the campers. Demigods and monsters alike were falling everywhere, and their blood stained the ground beneath them.

Blackjack caught sight of a few pegasi lying on their sides, blood flowing out of their wounds.

The Aphrodite kids were blinding the monsters, throwing their various makeup supplies at their eyes, allowing the weapon-wielding campers to finish them off.

In a moment, all of the demigods next to Blackjack had their respective weapons out.

The pegasus could see Clawless, smashing the other monsters into gross, bloody piles of mush, a dark-skinned girl on its back, slicing anything that came into reach of her sword.

The Satyrs, Dryads and Naiads were doing their own part. The Satyrs made vines rise from the ground and entangled the monsters within them with their reeds and a little help from the Dryads. The Naiads splashed the water in the lake all at once, causing wave after wave of water to come crashing down on both the monsters and demigods.

"Hazel!" Frank cried, turning into a dragon, almost crushing his friends with his gigantic wings as he flew towards his girlfriend. It seems the daughter of Pluto was able to escape her kidnappers and join in on the battle.

The rest of the demigods charged into battle, their weapons raised, their faces determined and, in Hestia's case, fire sprouting from her arms.

Looking around at the huge mass of monsters, Blackjack was glad Reyna had told her troops to start marching towards Camp Halfblood before they left.

Without any weapons to fight with, the pegasus flew into the battlefield, kicking at monsters with his hooves and, if the monster had no body armour, he would sink his teeth into their flesh. The other pegasi did the same.

Over the sounds of battle, Blackjack heard marching. An entire army of Romans had arrived, their well-polished weapons glinting in the sunlight. They moved in as an organised group, as opposed to the Greeks, who ran about slaying any monsters they could.

More than three hundred monsters were dead, but there were still what seemed like millions more — though it was probably no more than a thousand, which, now that I think about it, is still a pretty large number.

The demigods were falling fast, too. A child of Apollo, after taking down five or six monsters with her arrows, was taken down from behind, along with two of her siblings, one of which was Will Solace. And yet the gods did nothing to help their children.

Blackjack could hear Nico's wail of grief over the sound of swords clashing against armour. The earth shook, knocking monsters and demigods down. Bony arms shot up from the ground, their hands grasping at the air.

Hordes of skeletons had joined the fight, wearing worn out armour and wielding rusted swords and shields.

They attacked the monsters relentlessly, their anger fueled by their master's thirst for vengeance.

One of the monsters, a beast as dark as night and twice as terrifying, fell to the ground, oozing black liquid which Blackjack assumed to be its blood.

The liquid pooled and, before long, had become a puddle, increasing in size every few seconds.

The sky darkened. The clouds concealed the sun, which had been shining brightly only a few minutes before, behind their large grey forms, showing promise of a storm.