Myth Mashup (A Percy Jackson, Magnus Chase, and Kane Chronicles crossover)

Chapter 23: Carter's POV

My idea of a fun afternoon was not fighting a war (It's probably Sadie's idea of fun, though. Update: She didn't even deny it).

Nevertheless, there I was. When the zombies showed up, I instantly became wary of the prophecy shown in Piper's dagger. I had hoped it wouldn't come true, but when does what I hope ever come true? (Answer: never.)

Nico was just standing there, silent and stoic, in front of an entire ghostly army.

Why? I thought. Why would he do this?

I got a glimmer of hope back that Nico hadn't betrayed us when I saw that his eyes were red. I knew that something had to be controlling him. Not a good sign, but that meant I could still trust him when he came to his senses. On the other hand, it meant that while he was under the influence, he may be as ruthless as I could imagine.

The undead were attacking me from all around. I tried to fend them off as well as I could, but I was completely surrounded, and my khopesh alone wasn't going to do me much good. I was by the beach, trying to fight my way to Nico, when the huge ring of water burst from the surface.

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest, but I was extremely grateful that Percy had arrived as the cavalry. The wall of water crashed down onto everything in my surrounding area, including myself. (He probably could've kept the water from splashing on me, but he didn't. Rude.)

The water dissolved the surrounding zombies into dust. Note to self: the dead aren't waterproof.

Percy landed in a somersault by my side, and I gave him a high-five as I looked down at my sopping wet khakis and polo.

"Thanks for the save," I said.

He shook his head. "No problem."

"Should we try the thing we did against Setne? I take Riptide, you take my khopesh?" I asked. I'm not going to lie - I really wanted to try out his sword.

Percy shrugged. "What the heck. Why not? Just don't drop it. It'll return to my pocket."

He took the small ballpoint pen out of his pocket, uncapped it, and tossed it to me. I returned his exchange with my golden khopesh, which he tested a few times with practice swings before running out into the battle.

With all the commotion going on with Percy, I didn't even notice that the zombies were standing completely still. Either Nico had gained control over himself again, or Walt was stopping them from attacking.

I should probably mention something: I had had another dream from Tartarus the night before. But this time, he had given me visions - monstrosities of what was to come. All the while, he was taunting me with insults and threats to everyone I loved. I saw Sadie, dead. Anubis leaving Walt's body, and Walt himself dying from his curse. Zia burning. None of it made any sense. I had to believe that the prophecies were false, propaganda, meant to trick and discourage me. If I didn't believe that, then there wouldn't be much of a point in fighting.

I slashed through monster after monster like butter, taking as many down as I could. The style of Percy's sword was definitely not what I was used to, but for whatever reason, it seemed to be more effective against the monsters. I had to put considerably less effort into my fight than I would if I carried my own weapon.

I took down so many creatures, I lost count. The vast majority of them were Greek, but a few here and there were Egyptian. Those ones targeted me specifically. It all passed by me in a rush.

I arrived in a clearing where multiple people were standing in the center. I caught sight of Zia, Leo, Sadie, Alex, Sam, and Hazel. Alex was shifting between animals, slashing through monster after monster with her sharp claws. Panther, lion, snake, monkey (monkey?), bear - it went on and on. I got a headache from watching.