Percy Jackson Meet The Underland

Leviathan

"Aah!" Percy had just enough time to let out a yell before the tentacle gave a terrific yank. He flew over the side of the boat and would have gone straight into the water if one of his boots hadn't caught on the edge. "Mars!" A second yank pulled him headfirst, under the water up to his waist. He managed to get his sword out before he submerged. His legs were sliding under, too, now. He could feel the cold water climbing over his thighs, his knees, his ankles — oh! Someone had him by the feet and was pulling back!

A tug-of-war ensued, with me as the rope. For a dreadful minute, it was touch-and-go, with the creature dragging him deeper and Mars dragging him back out. I beat at the tentacle with his sword, but it didn't seem to have much effect. Finally, he got his mouth up to his arm and sank his teeth into the tentacle as deeply as he could. He didn't know if he did any real damage, but he surprised the animal enough for it to loosen its grip a bit. Just then Mars gave a big heave-ho and Percy flew out of the water, surprised by the sudden attack. He dangled upside down a moment, his boots locked in Ares's claws before the bat dropped him on the floor of the boat. I retched, and a gush of water rushed out of my mouth. He vaguely noticed it was salty, like the ocean.

"Overlander!" he heard Mareth cry. "Can you fight?"

Fight? I struggled onto my hands and knees and got my first good look at their situation.

Tentacles were shooting up over the sides of the boat right and left, their suckers latching on to anything they came in contact with. The crew was fighting back with whatever they had — swords, teeth, claws, pincers — trying to sever the appendages from the ghastly creatures looming in the dark water beneath them.

"Catch!" he heard Mareth yell, and he saw a sword flying at him. He grabbed it out of the air by the handle just in time to slice through a tentacle that had encircled his ankle.  I tossed it back on the ground and took out Riptide.  Photos Glow-Glow and Zap were blazing. But even without their help, I could have seen by the light of the water, which shone an unearthly phosphorescent green. "Leviathan!" I shouted.

The three bats were in flight, diving down and ripping with their claws. Mareth and Howard were slashing away with swords. Doner was a whirlwind of gnashing teeth.

"Overlander, your friend!" he heard Mars warn.

I turned to see Temp, standing over the still-sleeping Nico. The roach's mandibles were snapping away at the intruders. I was disabling many tentacles, but they kept coming. Three grabbed on to the cockroach's life jacket and pulled him into the water, leaving Nico completely unprotected. As Mars dove into battle for Temp, a particularly large tentacle whipped over the stern.

When I saw the suckers latch on to Nico's blanket.  He was angry.  I went into a killing frenzy. Around me, somewhere, there were voices and thuds, and glowing green water being beaten into frothy foam. But all I was really aware of was the attackers. My sword began to move.  I summoned a hurricane. I hacked away at tentacle after tentacle after tentacle and —

"Overlander!" He heard Mareth's voice reach out for him. "Overlander, enough!" He didn't stop.

"Percy, Stop! Stop!" I heard Nico yelling

The world zoomed back into perspective. I was standing in the middle of the boat. Severed tentacles flopped on the floor around him. My breath was coming in short, rasping gasps.

Mareth grabbed his shoulders and gave him a sharp shake. "They are going. It is over."

My arm, the one the squid had caught, not the one holding the sword, throbbed. Four angry red circles, sucker marks, swelled on his forearm. He was drenched with sweat and seawater and squid slime.  I willed myself dry.

I turned out of Mareth's grasp and saw Nico sitting, still half-tangled in his blanket, but unharmed. Muck from the squid had splattered him as well. Temp sat next to him. He was missing two legs. I tossed away the sword.

I sunk down on a seat.

While he sat there, Howard appeared with a pail of water and cleaned me off. Somehow he distracted Nico.

I had spent a lot of time amusing his little sisters. I recognized a good toddler bit when I saw it.

"You make that up?" I asked Howard.

"Yes. For Chim. It was always hard to get her to take baths," said Howard, avoiding his gaze. It crossed my mind that he had not been particularly nice to Howard. He had lumped him in with Stellovet and the other cousins, but Howard hadn't liked what his sister had said to Luxa about Henry. And he had not bragged about their dad being in charge at the Fount.

"Temp, do you need some bandages or medicine?" I asked.

"No. More legs, I will grow, more legs," said Temp. He didn't seem too upset about the loss.

Photos Glow-Glow and Zap were uninjured and very pleased with the bounty of Leviathan parts that littered the boat. Apparently, Leviathan was a real delicacy for fireflies, and the two had no time to squabble as they embarked in a heated race to see who could wolf down the most.

Andromeda and Doner had a couple of sucker marks, but mine were the worst, as the Leviathan had held on to me the longest and I had no fur to protect my skin. As they all cleaned the slime off their bodies, I saw the swollen red circles were beginning to ooze pus. My whole body felt hot and shaky.

"I think maybe it poisoned me or something," Gregor said, and suddenly his knees gave way and he was lying in the boat. Everything was swimming around. Someone pressed something against his lips and ordered him to swallow. He managed to obey just before he blacked out.

A fevered dream followed. He was submerged in bubbly fluorescent green water, wrestling with writhing tentacles, while hideous fish dug their fangs into his arm again and again. His whole family watched over the side of the boat, reaching for him, trying to pull him to safety. He screamed at Nico to get back, but he kept yelling and reaching. Temp appeared in the water beside him, bobbing around in his life jacket. He pulled off his legs, offering them to me. At some point, thankfully, he sank into nothingness.

When he came to, I could tell that a lot of time had passed. My arm was bandaged and pulsating with pain. It hurt to open my eyes.

And when he did, he had a moment of confusion.

For there, sitting in the bow of the boat and smiling down at him, was Luxa.