Changing the Future

Chapter 35

The moment my feet touched the heated sand, I knew something was wrong. The waves were slamming against the shoreline with such vengeance that it was a wonder that the sand dunes were still standing. The wind made my hair repeatedly slap my face while also kicking up clouds of sand, blurring my vision.

After my eyes started to burn from the amount of sand in the air, I put my sunglasses back on, glad that they provided enough of a barrier that I didn't need to squint. I walked towards the water, tucking my shoes away into my bag so that they didn't get soaked.

But the moment my feet touched the ocean, I jumped back, cursing under my breath as I felt like someone had poured acid on me. My feet and ankles were bright red and covered in blisters, something that reminded me of the time that one of my classmates dumped hydrochloric acid onto a skin graft, and before the acid ate away a hole in the graft, it turned red and was covered in blisters.

However, this wasn't hydrochloric acid, because the effects were already disappearing by my stepping away from the water.

Frowning, I stooped down and picked up a smooth stone, the kind that was perfect for skipping, and chucked it into the ocean. I barely had enough time to duck before the same rock was flung back at me, lodging itself into a wooden stake that had been set up as a part of protection for a turtle nest.

"Okay, Poseidon," I muttered under my breath, tying my hair back into a tighter ponytail. "What's going on?"

I received my answer in the form of half a dozen serpentine creatures darting out of the waves. They were an inky blue color, the same shade as the darkest depths of the ocean, each about two feet long. And while I could deal with sea snakes any day of the week, these weren't your typical Sea Kraits or Coral Reef Snakes.

Each snake had this set of horns on them, but they looked more like they'd accidently skewered themselves on a piece of sharp metal, then their bodies grew around the foreign body instead of appearing like horns that you'd see on something like the Minotaur.

I summoned Epithymia, backing up as the serpents approached. Then, when one of them got too close, I slashed downward, hoping to cut off its head. Imagine my surprise when this thing leaped up and wrapped itself around the edge of my blade, spitting a bright green liquid at my wrist.

I screamed as I felt its poison land on my skin, the smell of my burning flesh flooding my nostrils. The other snakes, which I now recognized as Cerastae, took my moment of weakness as a chance to attack.

Right before the remaining five could burn me with their poison or bite me, I lit myself on fire, the only thing that could defeat Cerastae. I allowed my flames to race down my blade, causing the Cerastes wrapped around Epithymia to hiss in pain and flop into a dark blue puddle of goo on the sand.

I shot out a steady stream of fire until I was sure that the Cerastae were all gone, stopping the second the last snake disintegrated into gold dust. I then collapsed onto my knees, my energy having been severely drained from my wrist wound.

The skin around my wrist was starting to turn green and bubble, the tell-tale signs of poison. I swore under my breath as I rummaged around for my flask of nectar, biting down on a roll of gauze as I poured some nectar over the wound.

This was some pretty potent poison, even more painful than touching the River Acheron, which is saying something since that river is the literal personification of pain. Yeah, let's just say learning to navigate the Underworld took some getting used to at first.

Capping my flask of nectar, I took the gauze from my mouth and soaked it in the ocean, sighing in relief that the water no longer burned like it had earlier. I then wrapped my wrist, which was still a sight for sore eyes, to prevent infection. From what I could see, the water wasn't doing much in terms of healing, serving more as a way to dull the throbbing pain that was still left behind from the poison.