Elves and Demigods

Chapter 16 - Percy

Percy was in zero mood to fight the monsters. 

By now he had figured that elves were no fighters. Which means that he, Annabeth and Leo had to kill these six monsters by themselves.

"How do you manage to regenerate so fast?" Percy asked the monsters. "It took me and Annabeth forever to get out of Tartarus. This isn't fair".

The dracenae hissed confusingly, like they weren't sure why we were not running around screaming. 

Instinctively, Percy uncapped riptide and Annabeth readied her drakon bone dagger. Leo pulled a large hammer from his tool belt, but didn't light his hands.

Percy suddenly remembered that Tam, Biana, Alden and twelve Elvin councillors were witnessing them. 

"Uh it's best if you evacuate this place", Percy told them. "We'll deal with the monsters".

"But- but you can get killed!" Oralie exclaimed.

Leo snorted. "Trust me when I say that compared to all we've been through, this is child's play. We have done this before".

"Let us help", Alden said.

"No offence, but unless you have some combat powers I don't see how you can", Annabeth said. 

"I can help", Tam announced, conjuring some dark misty thing around his hand. 

"Me too", said a councillor named Clarette, who added that she was a flasher.

"I can help", said councillor Bronte.

"Percy!" Annabeth called. 

Percy turned around to see a cynocephalus about to attack him. He must have run out of patience. He swung his sword and beheaded it's dog head. The dead cynocephalus burst into dust as it travelled back to Tartarus. 

Percy could basically hear the elves wince. They were clearly not made for war. 

"Everyone except those who can fight get out of this place immediately!" Percy shouted. This time, it wasn't a request. It was an order. An order they obeyed. The only people who stayed back were councillors Bronte and Clarette, Tam, Annabeth, Leo and Percy. 

Percy saw something flash behind councillor Bronte. Without thinking, he stretched out his hand in the councillors' direction. A jet of water erupted behind him, blasting the dracaena behind him.

"Two down", Percy announced.

"Percy", Annabeth said. "You might want to see this".

Percy saw what she meant. He had just slayn a dracena and a cynocephalus, which should have left them with the karkinos, one dracaena and two cynocephali. But there was the karkinos, four cynocephali and three dracaenae. 

"Two monsters appear for each one you kill", Annabeth explained. 

Percy got a sense of déjà vu. It was like the hydra's heads. Get rid of one, earn two free. But that didn't make the hydra invincible. Cut off the right head and it was doomed. 

"We need to kill the karkinos", Annabeth said, mirroring my thoughts. 

Just as she did, the other monstors formed a protective barrier around the karkinos, as if trying to protect it. 

"Now what?" I asked.

"I'll take care of them", Leo said. "You deal with the crab. But be quick, or we will have more unwelcome guests". With that, he set down his hammer and lit his hands. The councillors gasped. Leo ignored them and directed the flames at the monstors. One Cynocephali in the front was too slow and got caught in them. The rest of the monsters scattered. Percy bounded after the karkinos as Annabeth and Leo fended off the other monsters. Percy used the same trick he had used to defeat the karkinos before. He wet the floor and slid underneath the crab, which wasn't a very good sight. When he was under it, he stabbed it and the crab immediately vaporized. Percy hastily got off the floor and checked on the others. All the monsters disappeared. 

"See?" Leo told the elves. "No problemo".

Hissing.

"Leo", Percy said. "You should really follow my never-think-it's-over-or-there-will-be-more-monsters rule".

The door banged open again. 

Good news: no karkinos. Bad news: more Cynocephali and dracaenae. And this time there were at least a dozen of each. 

Nobody had time for plans this time. Percy, Annabeth and Leo began destroying every monster in sight. The elves helped too. Councillor Bronte seemed to be staring at each monster. When he did, the fell, writhing in pain. That didn't kill them though. Which is where Tam and Councillor Clarette helped. Tam created spheres of dark, shadowy stuff and the councillor made circles of light. The raised them and combined the light and shadows and somehow aimed it at the monsters councillor Bronte shot down.  

They were making good progress. But it wasn't enough. Each minute, more monsters stormed into the hall. 

"This is getting worse", Tam commented.

As if one cue, a blinding light shone in the room. It was so bright, the demigods and elves had to cover their eyes so that they don't go blind. This feeling, for some reason, felt familiar to Percy. The light stayed for a few minutes and slowly faded away. 

When it had gone completely, Percy opened his eyes and blinked a few times to get his vision back into focus. 

"What just happened?" Councillor Clarette wondered aloud.

"Apollo happened!" Came a voice. "Did I mention I help demigods- and elves- in need?"

Sure enough, the sun god stood in the centre of the room. 

"Apollo? What are you doing here?" Annabeth asked.

"Like I said, I'm helping you. As you may have noticed, my light drived the monsters away".

Percy nodded nodded. "Thanks Apollo".

The god frowned. "That's strange. It feels like someone's summing me. I have to go now but Percy, don't neglect that wound".

Percy just had time to ask, "What wound?" When his vision darkened and he blacked out.