Percy Jackson, Master Of The Elements

Chapter 18

**Percy**

Suddenly, the ceiling started flickering as if it was projected or just a virtual image. The illusion faded and the actual ceiling was much, much higher. Located at the top of the ceiling, was an enormous figure with the shape of a hydra but my senses told me it wasn't just a hydra. At that moment, it opened its many eyes and let out a guttural roar. 

The hydra leapt from its resting place and pounced on us. "Runnn!" Noah screamed. For once, he actually made sense. I rolled out of the way and slammed my fist into the ground. A stone pillar emerged from the ground with speed and slammed into the bottom of the hydra. To my surprise, the pillar shattered on impact. 

"It must be another one of those evolved monster!" Annabeth yelled across the room.

Just my luck that one appeared when we this close. The hydra blasted us with fire, water and lightning attacks from its mouths. We managed to dodge them with ease. "Well I hope its not immune to our weapons," Nico shouted as he shadow travelled to close the distance it. I summoned my blades and boosted myself toward it with a gust of wind. I did a spinning attack mid-air and sliced off most of its heads. Nico slid across the floor and finished off the rest. "Now Leo!" I shouted. Leo sent an inferno of flames at the heads with both of his palms. The flames neatly singed each stump where the heads were. "That was easy," Noah said without having a part in the action. "Wait a minute, why are there symbols on the stumps?" Piper questioned. There were lightning, fire and this time a water symbol on the stumps of the heads neatly divided into 3 groups. The lightning symbols were located at the top left, fire symbols at the top right and the bottom stumps were the water symbols.

Then to our surprise, the fallen heads started to grow. From each head that was sliced off, a tiny hydra with a singular head took its place. And for the evolved hydra, it regenerated all its heads. Now there was an army of mini hydras that charged right at us. I dodged backwards and shouted "Ha-Di!" and the mini hydras in front of me were nuked off the face of the earth. They immediately crumbled to dust, unlike the main one. The others were dealing with them easily too. But then the evolved hydra decided to join the fight. It sent a concentrated beam of elements towards Piper, Hazel and Annabeth. They rolled out the way but were either caught on fire, frozen partially or momentarily paralysed by lightning. On the other side of the room were Nico and Calypso working together to eradicate the mini hydras.

"Nico, continuously summon skeleton warriors to take care of the mini hydras," I yelled. I ran towards the guys while trying to focus my mind. Then it hit me, the puzzle before was a clue to this! We had to match the symbols on the evolved hydra's head! "Leo and Jason! I need you guys. We have to synchronize our attacks. We have to cut off all its heads and match each corresponding element like earlier." I explained.

"Makes sense," Leo responded while setting a  group of hydras ablaze.

The evolved hydra proceeded to blast lightning at me, shoot fire at the girls and the blast a concentrated water beam at Nico. I slammed my fists into the ground to cover all of us. I could feel somw strain now after summoning so many walls. The evolved hydra leapt over the wall near me and charged up its heads yet again. Jason summoned the winds to push it back and while it was airborne, I leapt into the air and punched it with a rock fist with all my might. It flew across the room and demolished the wall. As it was recovering, I sent an ice beam across to freeze it. It wouldn't hold long though, we had to act fast. 

"Leo and Jason, get ready!" I said.

"We're with you!" They chorused.

Most of the mini hydras were dead now and Nico was free to help.

The evolved hydra broke free and it was enraged. Its chest glowed really bright, with energy arcing throughout its body like a light show as it blasted an enormous beam of its combined elements at us. A stone wall wouldn't do this time. I channelled all the elements I had mastered inside of me. I put both my palms together and sent a bright elemental beam that matched and trumped its beam. 

"Nico now!!!" I yelled.

As my beam destroyed its beam and blasted the creature with a direct hit. As it was knocked back, Nico shadow travelled right in front of its faces like a ninja. While airborne, he lopped off all its heads with 2 clean swings. 

"For Olympus!!!" The three of us chorus.

Leo yelled "Blaze on!" and set himself on fire. He pulled his arms back and sent a Kamehameha of flames towards it. Jason somehow struck himself with lightning and imbued him with a lightning aura swirling around him. He pointed his sword at the beast and lightning exploded from it. I called upon Poseidon's power inside of me as how I did at Mount Saint Helens. I flooded the entire room with water without affecting my friends. Then, I drew it all together and sent it in a massive concentrated beam at the beast. It was a massive light show. Our elements tore the beast apart as we hit our mark. It didn't even crumble into dust, the sheer power of our elements disintegrated it. All that was left was a key. I picked it up and glanced at it. It was glowing with ominous energy. 

"Wow, just wow. That was amazing and beautiful guys." Piper congratulated us.

"The amount of coordination that took place was amazing," Hazel added.

"So what's with the key?" a cowering Noah suddenly appeared. It's not like he would have been able to do anything anyway.

"I think it's for that door over there," Annabeth responded.

"Oh yea, I totally forgot about it in the chaos of the battle haha," I said.

I walked over towards it, put it into the keyhole and turned it. The key disappeared in my hand and the symbols lit up. The door slowly creaked open to reveal a dark room with the forge located at the centre of it.

"Yes!! We made it!" Calypso cheered.

The moment of happiness swept across the room and lit us with smiles. It only lasted for a while and we went back to work. We headed towards the forge and peered in. There it was! The Aether ingots we needed! They were glowing with red coloured energy. We could sense its power. There was a mould that fitted Riptide perfectly. I placed Riptide in the mould and aligned it to the centre of the forge. Now, all we needed to do was melt the ingots and the sword. It required an intense amount of heat. 

"Just leave it to Captain Mcshizzle. I'll take over now." Leo said with an impudent grin.

"Its all yours. Just don't ruin my sword." I said with a wink.

"Don't worry, he's just literally gonna reduce it to liquid." Annabeth laughed.

"You guys better get cosy. This might take a while." Leo announced as he placed his hands on the forge.

This atmosphere of friendship really felt good. The banter that took place between us, laughter erupting around us. Just having these guys around me really made my life worth living. Nothing and no one will ever take them away from me. 

Just as we got comfy, something felt very wrong. All of a sudden, we were thrown to our knees. All of us were plastered to the ground, we tried standing up but couldn't. It felt as gravity was multiplied tenfold. I could feel the wind pushing us to the ground as if someone was controlling it. But there wasn't wind down here? 

"Puny demigods."