“LEO!”
Nico saw how the manticore jumped over them, saw how it attacked Leo, and there was nothing he could do about it. Leo slumped down into a heap of unconscious demigod, his screams of pain fading, but Nico didn’t let it stop him. He kept fighting, charged and charged again. The face of Dr. Thorn showed ugly yellow teeth in a victorious smile.
He hated him. He hated him so, so much. He still remembered military school. He’d only been a boy back then, oblivious to the world around him. But then, of course, Percy had fought his way into his life – quite literally. That’s when everything had changed and when he’d seen the monsters for what they really were.
Dr. Thorn was right, Percy wasn’t here to save him this time. He didn’t need to be. Long ago, Nico had decided that he didn’t need anyone to take care of him; he’d save himself (except for that one time he’d been stuck in a jar in Rome, but that’d been an unfortunate congregation of circumstances).
“Watch the tail!” he yelled at Frank. Frank nodded curtly and fired another arrow. The point buried itself in the manticore’s hide, but became just another annoying itch to the beast. His back had become a giant pincushion.
Nico somersaulted forward, dug his dagger into one of the monster’s big, hairy feet and came to his feet again behind the beast. He slashed at the tail, but missed and jumped aside hastily to avoid a shooting spike.
The poisonous thing ended in the fire that protected the children, which reminded Nico that the children were actually still there.
“Frank!” he yelled. “Take the children outside!”
“But…” Frank dodged a lion’s claw. “How?!”
“I don’t know! Turn into a monkey and swing them out, for all I care!”
Frank nodded, shot his last arrow, flung his spear after it and jumped over the weakening circle of fire, disappearing from Nico’s sight.
Looking at all the broken arrows and dashes of daggers in the manticore skin, Nico realised he had to come up with another strategy. First, he had to distract the monster, as to grant the children, and Frank, safe passage outside. Second, he needed to make sure neither of them stepped on Leo in the process.
So he ran, and tumbled, and jumped and made quick turns. Dr. Thorn’s head followed him, snarling at first, but more patient later on. He was waiting for the right moment to attack, and Nico had anticipated that.
The manticore slashed at him – a perfectly timed blow, had Nico not seen it coming and dodged away. He sprang up, used the soft side of the lion claw to lift himself up (bringing the sword down as a hold, because one cut more or less wouldn’t matter anyway) and kicked the monster in the face. A thin line of blood streamed from Dr. Thorn’s nose and Nico felt a sense of satisfaction. That’s for those horrible lessons in 21st century discipline, he thought.
Nico had been hanging from the monster’s shoulder and quickly slid down its back when another poisonous spike shot from its tail. It grazed Nico’s neck, cut off a lock of his dark hair and disappeared in the lion’s coat. Dr. Thorn screamed and cursed, and Nico took the opportunity to attack the unattended scorpion’s tail. His Stygian blade cut through it with remarkable ease and the tail fell with a deadweight down on the floor, turning black before vanishing to ashes.
He’d expected the rest of the monster to disappear with its tail, but he had no such luck. Dr. Thorn wailed loudly, a screech that made the hairs on Nico’s arms stand up. Using the moment of pain and confusion, Nico checked on Frank and the children. He was slightly taken aback when he saw an overgrown squirrel monkey with a little boy on his back. The monkey used its tail to swing over the fire and then disappeared through a broken window. The curtains that had kept out the light had been ripped and bound over its cutting edges.
