Starcrossed: A Leo and Calypso Fanfic

Chapter Eighteen: Clytius Just Got His Podex Handed To Him

A/N

Hello guys! Here is another update for you! But hey, I still need help with the book cover! I would appreciate it if you guys made me one. Hey, maybe I'll dedicate a chapter for you! :)

Thank you, goodbye. :)

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Leo

        I woke up with a pounding headache, I gues this is how people feel when they wake up after a party and they end up getting a massive hangover, well I wouldn't know, I've never gotten drunk before, but I guess I just did experienced a hangover.

        "Wh-what. . .?" I gasped, struggling to peel my eyelids open. I faintly heard Hazel's voice, and someone elses I didn't recognize, oh great, more enemies to fight.

        "What's going on?" I tried to sit up. "What can I--"

        I was interrupted by Hazel. "Watch Percy and Annabeth. Stay behind me. Stay in the Mist." Hazel drew her spatha.

        "But--" She gave me a look that could have really have killed me, making me shut my mouth and gulp in fear. "Yeah, got it. White Mist good. Black smoke bad. Stay right here, guard Percy and Annabeth. Got it."

        I watched Hazel advance the giant. Clytius spread his arms, and the dome ceiling shook, and his voice echoed and magnified a hundred times.

        "Formidable?" the giant demanded. "Because the girl has learned your magic tricks, Hecate? Because you allow these weaklings to hide behind in your Mist?

        Black smoke swirled around the giant's arm down to his hands, the smoke solidified into a black sword--a Stygian iron blade much like Nico's, except five times the size. "I do not understand why Gaea would find any of these demigods worthy of sacrifice. I will easily crush them like empty nutshells."

        I have to admit I was a bit insulted with what Clytius had said, but before I had anytime to say a comeback, Hazel suddenly screamed. I heard a sound like ice cracking, and dozens of gems streaked toward the giant, punching through his armor.

        Clytius staggrered backward. His disembodied voice bellowed in pain. His iron breastplate was peppered with holes, big and small. Golden ichor trickled from a wound on his right arm. His shroud of darkness thinned. His expression was now murderous.

        "You, worthless--"

        "Worthless?" Hecate''s quiet voice said. "I'd say Hazel Levesque knows a few tricks even I could not teach her. I'd say she is far from worthless when she had managaed to pierce through your armor and wound you."

        Oh, damn, Clytius just got his podex handed to him. And by Hecate. I have to say it must've really hurt his big bad ego. Or pride. Meh, they're practically the same thing.

        Clytius dug his fingers into the wound on his biceps. He pulled out a diamond and flicked it aside, and the open wound closed.

        "So, daughter of Pluto, do you really believe Hecate has your interest at heart? Circe was a favorite of hers. And Medea. And Pasiphae. Look what happened to them, eh?"

        Oh, great, he's using the turn-your-allies-against-you-using-past-mistakes. Annabeth and Percy started stirring behind me, Annabeth groaned in pain while Percy was muttering something like, "Bob-bob-bob?"

        Clytius stepped forward, holding his sword casually at his side as if they were comrades rather than enemies. Hecate will not tell you the truth. She sends acolytes like you to do her bidding and take all the risks. If by some miracle you incapacitate me, only then will she be able to set me on fire. Then she will claim all the glory. You heard how Bacchus dealt with the Alodai twins in the Colosseum. Hecate is worse. She is a Titan who betrayed the Titans. Then she betrayed the gods. Do you really think she would take faith in you? She is much worse than the gods who use demigods to do everything for them, see this? The gods sent you to defeat Gaea, Gaea herself. Because the gods are cowards."

        "I cannot answer this accusations, Hazel," said Hecate. "This is your crossroads. You must choose whether to believe him and give up on your friends and leave the world to be ruled by giants and monsters or to fight and save the world."

        "Yes, crossroads." the giant laughed. "Hecate offers you obscurity, choices, vague promises of magic. Full of lies. While I am the anti-Hecate. I will give you truth. I will eliminate choices and magic. I will strip away the Mist, once and for all, and let everyone see the true horror of the world."

        I was full of this guy. I stood up slowly. "Y'know, you kinda actually fight magic with magic, you're using magic too, magic will never really be gone." I turned to Hazel. "Seriously, we should keep him around for inspirational seminars. Or I could just light him up." My hands ignited like blowtorches.

        "Leo, no. My father's temple, my call."

        "Yeah, okay, okay. But--"

        "Hazel. . ." Annabeth wheezed. "The chains. . ."

        I heard Hazel's sudden  intake of breath, either from hearing Annabeth's voice or when she realized that the Doors of Death was still open, shuddering against the chains that held them in place. Someone had to cut them free so they would disappear and be finally out of Gaea's reach. The problem was: a big smokey giant stood in the way.

        Hazel raised her spatha and charged.