Percy Jackson Pirate AU

The Blood of a Baneful Beast

Annabeth, of course, had expected to face monsters when they reached the Sea of Monsters. It was sort of implied within the name.

Although, as she watched Percy raise the hydra straight out of the ocean, she felt a strange sense of relief. It wasn't the moment to get sentimental and she knew it, but she was glad to have a group of demigods to fight alongside. It made her feel less alone, and her task less daunting.

This way, if she died she would at least have someone to take her body back to Camp Half-Blood.

The hydra was clearly unhappy in its bubble of water that Percy held suspended over the sea. It roared and thrashed temperamentally. As Annabeth drew her knife from under her belt, the others ran onto the soaked deck.

Jason was armed with a long golden sword, Hazel with her spatha, Leo with the hammer, Piper with a short, shiny blade that Annabeth vaguely recognized (It had likely been in the Camp storage cupboard years ago) and Frank with a bow. Only the latter of the array of weapons seemed useful in this circumstance. She had heard from the others about Frank's skill with a bow, but looking at the guy, she had doubted it. A burly guy like him would be better with am axe or something else that required his strength, not a delicate long-range weapon like a bow.

But, as he loaded his bow and shot, his arrow skewered right through the highest up of the hydra's head. Annabeth was amazed at his pin-point accuracy, but forced herself to focus.

A hydra. She'd learned a great deal about these monsters in the past at camp, thankfully. Annabeth's mind raced for a plan. The hydra seemed simply more annoyed to be trapped than it was trying to attack them, but she knew it would not lose its chance at a demigod buffet if they let it back in to the ocean. She stepped back as the others attacked to let her mind think, with her knife raised lethally in front of her. With the hydra suspended out of any of their reach (Beside Frank, who had limited arrows), she was unable to wrap her head around what they could possibly planning.

Jason shot straight upwards into the air until he was level with the hydra and began swiping at it furiously, in an unfamiliar and aggressive Roman style of stabbing. He easily pushed himself around with the wind, diving forward and attacking its thick skin every time it swung its heads away from him. His face was steely in a way that Annabeth hadn't seen before. Although the wind was otherwise on his side, his short blond hair blew around his head uncontrollably. Annabeth's ears ached watching him.

Percy still stood near the edge of the now soaked ship, closest to where the hydra was being held, with his arms still raised above his head. Annabeth could see beads of sweat forming on the back of his neck, his hair beginning to stick to his skin with perpetration. Although he had told her that he did not often get wet should he not chose to, the water splashing over the deck soaked him from the roots of his hair to the leather of his shoes. The concentration in his face was painful to look at. She saw him take a sharp breath as his arms tremored slightly, causing some water to fall out of the elevated bubble and splash back into the crashing sea.

Holding a monster out of the water for this long, especially one such considerable size like the hydra, was not an easy task for even someone of his strength.

Piper was shouting things at the hydra which made a weird feeling sweep over Annabeth. Charmspeak, it must be. It was a rare gift amongst the demigods, but by the scale of the powers the others had, it would not surprise her. Annabeth had to tune out her words in order to straighten her thoughts and iron out the distractions all around her. She turned her thoughts back towards coming up with an idea of what to do.

Just as a plan was beginning to form inside of Annabeth's head, a large splash caught her attention as one of the hydra's many heads fell, severed, in to the sea.