End of the Line

#47 - The Dryad Hero

Chapter 47 - The Dryad Hero
published: Wednesday, 18 December 2019

The landscape was a blur as Annabeth sprinted through the chaos. Everywhere lay carnage of the battle; the corpses of demigods, warriors, and invicta alike lying as evidence of the fight.

"Annabeth!" came a frantic shout.

Screeching to a halt, Annabeth searches for the source of the cry — it was Drew Tanaka. She was losing terribly against a bunch of invicta, and had a nasty gash along her cheek.

Annabeth flew at the monsters, stabbing the first invictus' shell. The monster roared as she grabbed onto the dagger with both hands and dragged it downwards, creating a large crack in its shell.

It took most of her strength, but the shell soon cleaved in half and collapsed, leaving the harmless water spirit to soak into the grass below.

Annabeth glanced up to see Drew taking care of another invictus, but the third one was approaching her unopposed from behind. Leaping between them, Annabeth parried the monster's massive sword and slashed at its knees.

The monster leaped over her dagger and tried to punch her out of the way, but Annabeth danced around the lumbering invictus. They fought a battle of metal as Annabeth blocked, dodged and landed blows.

Soon, the monster left its right side open, and Annabeth took the opportunity to slice cleanly through its arm and yank over its sword. Dropping her dagger momentarily, Annabeth swung the gigantic sword and sliced cleanly through the invicta's abdomen.

Hearing the whistling of a sword, Annabeth whirled around with her blade raised instinctively to block the other invictus' strike. She parried it with a groan and stumbled away for it.

Reaching down an arm, Annabeth picked her dagger up off the floor and wielded both blades determinedly.

Her gaze sidled to where Drew was sprawled on the ground behind the monster, bleeding from her arm as she struggled to regain consciousness.

Come on, Drew, Annabeth prayed silently.

She gritted her teeth and leaped at the invictus again. This time, the monster saw her coming. With her depleted energy and heavy sword, Annabeth wasn't so quick to react. The sword caught her in the gut, leaving a horrible slash below her ribs.

Annabeth let out a pained cry and crumpled to her knees, gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut as she focused on maintaining shaky breaths.

"Hey, ugly!"

Her eyes constantly flickered open and close, giving her a flashing image of Drew jumping onto the monster's back from behind. Drew's shrieks pierced the air, but miraculously, she held on.

As Annabeth tried her best not to pass out from the pain, she watched as Drew pulled the invictus away from her and hacked at its shell like a lunatic.

To her disbelief, it seemed to be working. Drew created holes in the monster's shell more quickly than it could seal them, and bit by bit, the water spirit started to gush out. A few more seconds and Drew leaped off the invictus' back, landing on the ground with a slight wobble, as the monster crumbled into dust.

The next moment was a big flash of red for Annabeth as she tried to move and was rewarded with the feeling of a spear ripping through her gut all over again. She let out a painful cry, her breaths shallow.

"Oh, come on," she heard Drew mutter as the daughter of Aphrodite knelt down in front of her. "You're supposed to be smart. Who doesn't bring godly food with them to a battle?"