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chapter ninety. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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I WAS HOLDING BACK a Hyperborean giant when Percy found me again. I was holding my ground well—my agility was definitely a perk of being blessed by Artemis—but I couldn't kill the giant, and it wouldn't be long before he got sick of my baiting.
A wave of relief washed over me when a familiar pegasus dove in front of me. Off his back jumped Percy, shield brandished in some sort of sledding-motion down the giant's face. Percy bashed his nose in and the giant stumbled back, 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 he was covered in frost like a sugar donut.
"Hey, ugly!" I yelled, lifting my bow and pulling back an arrow.
Blue Boy bellowed and turned toward me, exposing the unprotected back of his legs. Percy charged and stabbed him behind the knee while my fingers released the arrow, which—as I expected—whistled limply to land in the woods. I'd come so close to freeing myself of this stupid hold Ethan had on me.
The Hyperborean buckled, wailing from the injuries Percy had inflicted. I waited for the giant to turn around and battle Percy, but he froze. I mean, he literally turned to solid ice. From the point where Percy had stabbed him, cracks appeared in his body. They got larger and wider until the giant crumbled in a mountain of blue shards.
"Thanks," I said to Percy, panting. "How's everything else?"
He shrugged. "Good as it can be."
"For now," I muttered, rolling my shoulder as it screamed in pain. I shouldn't have been fighting so soon after such a bad injury, but I sure as hell wasn't about to sit and wait for everyone else to fight the war.
Percy caught my wince and raised an eyebrow. I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine. Come on—we've got plenty of enemies left."
And we rushed off. The next hour was a blur. I fought like I'd never fought before—wading into legions of dracaenae, taking out dozens of telkhines, destroying empousai and knocking out enemy demigods. No matter how many I defeated, more took their place.
Every once in a while, I'd try to summon whatever I'd done to Ethan—that odd plague-thing—but I could never manage it, and the enemy would just laugh in my face before diving for another hit. It was a waste of time, and it wasn't long before I gave up on it.
Percy and I raced from block to block, trying to shore up our defenses. Too many of our friends lay wounded in the streets. Too many were missing. Too many were dead.
