10. Chapter 9 (1/2)

chapter 9

3rd pov

eventually though, like the group knew...all good things have to come to an end.

the first indication that the group had was an ear-wrenching screech that made perseus cover his ears in order to save his eardrums any more pain. but he managed to ignore the pain and immediately pulling out his knives and turning around to face what was causing the loud noise.

standing in front of them and towering a good thirty feet high was a monstrous bulk of celestial

onze and mortal steel. the machine had the same shape as a regular human, but unlike a regular human, was clad in another layer of celestial

onze armor and mortal steel.

after several seconds, thalia

oke the silence. "what the fuck is that?" the raven-haired daughter of zeus yelled as she looked on at the towering pile of celestial

onze.

"looks like a newer version of talos probably designed to stop people..." phoebe guessed.

"who took something?!" both zoe and perseus yelled at the same time. their gazes immediately went to phoebe and tracy who held up their hands.

"it wasn't us!" they both yelled as the gigantic automaton slowly began to make its way towards them. perseus and zoe directed their glares at one another before quickly shaking aside any thoughts. despite not knowing one another very long, they both could tell the other would never put the quest in danger on purpose. that left only one culprit.

"thalia!" zoe yelled as she raced towards the daughter of zeus who had a look of madness on her face, holding a piece of scrap metal.

"why would you do this?" phoebe yelled out as thalia pulled out her spear and shield, electricity crackling around her as she snapped her fingers. at the motion, a lightning bolt slammed down in front of the group and thalia was teleported away.

"that fucking bitch!" perseus yelled as the group ducked for cover as the bolt made all of them fly back from the force behind the impact.

"anyone got any smart id-" but again, zoe didn't get to finish her sentence as a gigantic celestial

onze sword thundered towards the ground where she was. luckily her natural battle reflexes kicked in as she dived away from the gargantuan blade which created a huge smoke cloud when it connected.

after several seconds, percy's voice rang out through the smoke. "spread out!"

the moment those words rang out through the smoke, tracy went to try and find the edge of the dust-cloud. after all, even though the thing was huge, not even she could see it through the ridiculous cloud of dust the bolt had produced.

unfortunately, the young huntress had struck a pile of metal a little too hard and was rewarded for her life saving roll as her parka became snared on a lone piece of metal sticking out from a pile of unwanted trash. needless to say, when she attempted to get up and run for it, the snare held her back enough for her to stumble when it finally ripped free and she crashed to the ground again. only this time, the automaton had already begun his swing.

seeing this, tracy simply lowered her head and closed her eyes. there was no way she would be able to dodge the incoming swing. so she simply closed her eyes and waited...

for the swing that never came.

a massive thud was all he heard alongside a grunt of effort. tracy thought she was dead but risked opening her eyes. and to say that what she saw merely shocked her, was a major understatement.

perseus stood in front of her, a menacing fiery aura that chilled her very body to the bone encased the enigmatic son of hebe. his hands were held out in front of him and his knives were nowhere to be seen. instead, a thick, black shield held the sword of the wannabe talos in place. she wanted to ask a million questions but her mind and tongue refused to co-operate.

"tracy, get out of here now!" he yelled out the last part as the automaton's sword smashed into perseus' barrier, causing white spider-web-like cracks to form in the barrier. said huntress wasted no time as she sprinted like mad from underneath the barrier to re-join her comrades. unfortunately, she only turned around to see the son of hebe's barrier shatter like a window pane against a baseball as the talos wannabe back-handed his shield, sending him soaring through the air and beyond their field of vision as he plowed into a massive heap of scrap.

"perseus!" zoe yelled out in fear as the motionless form hit the ground.

"zoe, we need to deal with metal head here first!" phoebe yelled over the deafening sound of the automaton's movements. after several more seconds of struggling, zoe conceded to her point as she halted her struggles. but tracy couldn't help but notice the look of concern that remained plastered to her face.

"right everyone, we need to get some room between us an-" everyone stopped and looked towards where zoe was facing, and found themselves completely surrounded by three gargantuan piles of scrap.

tracy followed the rest of the quest members as she closed her eyes and awaited the killing strike from the automaton that was now rearing its arm up in order to