Percy Jackson || Son Of Artemis

(20)Ophio-what?

For MissJackson23

By the way, I suck at writing fight scenes.
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Percy's POV

Nerues smiled, "The answer is the Ophiotaurus, also known as the serpent bull."

"Uh, Ophio-what?" I asked. I looked at Annabeth who gave a shrug in return, "Can you repeat your answer?"

"Ophiotaurus. A serpent bull."

He answered as if the answer's going to hit me in the head.

Thalia frowned, "What's a serpent bull..."

I shrugged in reply and looked at Zoe's calculating face. She seems to be thinking so hard when her face lit up.

"That's right!" Zoe remarked like she just recalled something, "Why didn't I see it before?!"

"What? What is it?" Thalia asked but Zoe ignored her question and turned towards Phoebe, "I should've known! Phoebe, the Ophiotaurus is the monster Lady Artemis is hunting!"

Phoebe frowned at her, "I don't even know what an Ophio- Oh gods! You're right! Why haven't we thought of this? Gods I feel dumb right now." Phoebe's face lit up, "We need to stop Castellan or else-"

"Can anyone start speaking English!?" Thalia shrieked.

"The Ophiotaurus is a sea bull. It is half serpent, half bull. It is doesn't exactly eat mortals and it's quite innocent actually." Zoe answered.

"That's right," Annabeth nodded as if slowly understanding, "They want to kill the Ophiotaurus and use it as a sacrifice to raise Kronos back to life."

She snapped her fingers and continued, "That must've been the reason why Zeus ordered Lady Artemis to kill it."

"But why?" I intervened, "Why the Ophiotaurus-"

"Because it's innocent. Killing an innocent is one of the strongest and most powerful kind of sacrifice one can make. It is said that whoever kills an Ophiotaurus and burns its remains will be granted power to defeat the gods. Once the Ophiotaurus' blood is spilt, Kronos will rise and finish the Olympians once and for all." Zoe answered like she was in race.

Hearing her answer, my blood run cold. This could be 'game over' any second now.

"How can we find the Ophiotaurus then?" I asked, "We can't be too late now, are we?"

Zoe was about to come up with an answer when Nereus laughed incredulously. He laughed like there was no tomorrow.

"You can't catch the Ophiotaurus! That's ridiculous! No mortal or immortal can capture it. It lurks the seas and cannot be captured by even Poseidon himself."

Zoe turned to Nereus and glared at him, "How are we going to catch it then?"

"That's another question my dear," he gave a toothy smile, "The thing is, you're going to die and I'll be here having the time of my life."

Wow, words of motivation. An a-plus on that.

"Wait," Phoebe said slowly, "Isn't that a good thing? No one can find the Ophiotaurus. That means, no sacrifice to raise Kronos back."

Nerues grinned, "Are you sure about that?"

"Oh shut up." I snapped at him before turning to my friends, "There might be other ways to catch the Ophiotaurus that none of us know."

"So what, are we going to head straight to Atlas and fight him now?" Phoebe asked.

"That isn't much help but there isn't another way. We need to save Artemis. At least now we know how they plan on raising Kronos back." Zoe answered, "At this point, I'm sure they haven't gained that much recruit. So we need to plan an attack of-"