He Stoll My Heart - Connor Stoll.

Ch.13: The Drakon.

A/N: This chapter (still) takes place during TLO, ch.16 ("We get help from a thief").

Haiku:

Oh, please don't mind me,
I just finished Burning Maze,
Leave me as I sob.

- Galatea Green (10/02/2025)

- - -

The drakon was a two-hundred-foot-long serpent as thick as a school bus, slithering down the side of a building. Its yellow eyes were like searchlights and its mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth big enough to chew elephants.

Rose was pale and her hands were shaking. Her parents would be fighting that thing and they hadn't fought anything in forever (as far as she knew). Connor was right beside her, holding her hand.

Meanwhile, the enemy army advanced down Fifth Avenue. The campers had done their best to push cars out of the way to keep the mortals safe, but that just made it easier for their enemies to approach. The Party Ponies swished their tails nervously. Chiron galloped up and down their ranks, shouting encouragement to stand tough and think about victory and root beer, but they looked like they would panic and run at any second.

Percy yelled: "I'll take the drakon! Everyone else, hold the line against the army!"

Annabeth, John, and Joan were right behind him. Rose was forced to turn away from them and towards the army.

It was always the same thing. Telkhines, empousai, dracanae, turned demigods. They never ended.

Rose fought and fought. Every one of her movements was mechanical and automatic. Over the many, harsh battles, she'd gotten used to the bloodshed.

Rose and Connor were a highly effective pair, but the battle wasn't going well. The centaurs had panicked under the onslaught of giants and demons. An occasional orange camp T-shirt appeared in the sea of fighting but quickly disappeared. Arrows screamed. Fire exploded in waves across both armies, but the action was moving across the street to the entrance of the Empire State Building. The demigods were losing ground.

Whenever they had a moment to catch their breath, Rose would spin around to look at her parents, Percabeth, and Mrs. O'Leary fighting the drakon.

The first time she looked back, Percy had stabbed it in its eye. The second, her parents had managed to slice half a dozen of its toes off and a whole paw. The third, Annabeth, was on the drakon's back.

"Connor, we can't do this, there's too many," Rose said. She was now holding her sword with her non-dominant hand since it had gotten injured. "I can't do this," she added, embarrassed.

"I'll get you somewhere high up, you can still shoot stuff with your bow," Connor said.

"Okay."

"On three, you jump onto my back, piggyback ride style. Ready?"

"Ready."

"One, two, three!"

Rose spun around and jumped onto his back, making sure her sword was pointed away from his face.

"Maya!!" Connor carried her up to a balcony.

She had a good view of pretty much everything while being decently protected from the onslaught of arrows.

"I'll go throw stuff on the monsters," said Connor, "easy things like—" he took a pained breath, "ice cream carts."

"Okay, be safe." Rose gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and he flew off.

Praying to Artemis and Apollo under her breath, Rose released arrow after arrow after arrow. Four-fifths of her shots reached a mark. She managed to shoot maybe 20 arrows a minute.