Josh's P.O.V
Just then, Clarisse walked over to us, and anticipating her clap in the back attack, I immediately moved behind my daughters.
"Hey, what's up?" Clarisse asked.
"We have just practiced wrestling." Melody said. "And I won!"
"That's great. Wanna go have a swim?" Clarisse asked. "The pool is full now."
Since when the pool is full? Chiron said that this pool is going to take at least 4 days to be completely filled. Or perhaps the magic in the bowl works just too well.
"It's already full?" Melody clutched her head.
"Yeah." Jessica appeared in a form of shadows and finally a person. "Come and see."
I went with Jessica, holding her hands. I was so glad that I spend my moments with her. I squeezed her hand lightly and she smiled back at me. For some reason, I was already eager to enter the pool again, and since the pool is full now, I bet that campers are going to swim in the pool.
Me and Jessica were the first ones to climb the ladder. We both reached the top and we looked at the pool that is now almost full. I looked at the bowl that is continuously filling with water. Now I do understand why we must put the canopy on earlier. It was for the limiter, in case the pool is full.
I looked up at the sky. I was having so much fun that I didn't realize it's already noon. But we wanted to swim anyway.
Jessica, Stella, Melody, Jarren and myself looked at the huge pool. On one corner, it was an underwater combat training, where the dummies are. The other corner is the swimming agility, where series of hoops are there and you must go through the hoop. The hoops can be slanted in an angle, small, and they represent various challenges.
Who designed this? I got to tell you, it's Chiron and the camp director, Mr. D himself.
Anyways, there are a lot more challengers await in here. Right next to the waterbowl, there is the water sphere that I was talking about earlier, where David Blaine used to perform, but he performed in a sphere tank that is smaller than this one. To tell you the truth, I also wanted to perform in the sphere tank full of water, but this time I will be getting air pockets from the air above the sphere.
Me and Jessica wasted no time and jumped into the pool. I could imagine a mixture of light and dark swirling in this pool.
Me and Jessica split. Me going to the hoops, and Jessica to the dummies. Unfortunately, Jessica can't withstand the pressure, so she swims back up. Then, I looked at the lever just beside the dummy training and pulled it, and as I watched, the glassy platform for the dummy training just rose to about 3 meters from the surface. I surfaced and gasped for breath and guided Jessica to the underwater dummies. At first, Jessica was reluctant, but as I showed that the platform was adjusted, Jessica was happy to try again.
Me and Jessica dived underwater at the same time, and I went to the hoops to control my swimming. I entered the first hoop, and then quickly moved to the next one and I hit the next hoop in my head.
I jerked backwards and tried to reclaim my posture. I just realized that my breath had been knocked out, so I swam to the surface and take huge gulps of breaths before I get down again.
I caught sight of Mary that is walking around below the pool, and I quickly swim down and hit the glass floor gently to get her attention.
Sure enough, Mary looked up, and waved at me. I waved at her too, and pointed up, as if telling her to come to the pool. Mary agreed and about half a minute later, she came splashing down the pool. I looked at Mary, and she swam at my direction and grabbed me. She held me close to her chest, her very huge chest and I just simply hugged her.
It's probably because Mary didn't know that Melody radiates warmth more than I do, but I don't mind. I summoned my bows and arrows, and this is the one that can shoot underwater arrows. I conjured some propeller arrows and shoot at one dummy. The arrow went like a corkscrew shape, and hit one of the dummies that is at the bottom of the pool. I swam towards Jessica, and she still combating the dummies. Then she surfaced and got out of the pool. I continued to swim around the pool, looking for something to do. I then blew bubbles that rose to the surface, just enough for me to sink down to the floor of the pool. I very slowly swam towards the training dummies, while looking down at the campers through the glassy floor.
As my body approached the training dummies, my mind began to flash. I thought about the war. Gaea is now preparing her very big war against the gods, and we just sat here like this.
But I'm sure that the demigods here are preparing for war, and that is exactly what we're doing here. I am sure that the battles that I am going to fight will take place underwater. I just got this feeling that Gaea will put me to fight underwater to die.
I snapped out of my trance and slowly coming up to the surface. Once I got to the surface, I gasped and coughed. I was panting heavily and saw Melody sitting at the rim of the pool just right next to me.
"Father!" Melody said, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the pool's rim. I continued panting heavily and is on my knees.
Melody glared at me. "Father, you shouldn't push yourself too hard. You might die.... and I don't want my lovely father to die."
"Melody, I'm not going to die, alright." I assured her. "Now..."
Just then, a conch horn blew, which means that we have to stop whatever we are doing right now and go to the campfire.
I and Melody quickly climbed down and go to the camp fire. Jessica simply shadow travelled to the campfire, completely dry despite the fact that she had swam a few minutes ago. Probably Jessica had changed super quick and got here as fast as she can. I was still on my swim suit, sopping wet.
Chiron cantered towards the campfire, where all of us are.
"Campers, I have some bad news." Chiron addressed. "The first wave of monsters are attacking New York."
The campers murmured amongst themselves. Melody walked beside me and placed her hands on my shoulder.
"Get your gear, campers." Chiron told us. "We have a war to fight."
So, I quickly grabbed my shield, sword, and of course, bows and arrows. I quickly ran outside to see the campers are running out. I must not fall behind, so I quickly sprinted towards them and joined them. Melody, Jessica, Jarren and Stella are ahead so I caught up with them. I'm sure that the monsters are also attacking Camp Jupiter too.
We headed to Mount Olympus, where the monsters are going to attack. It took just about 5 minutes of running to get to the Empire State Building.
As soon as we get to the Empire State Building, I saw the monsters approaching the Empire State Building in huge numbers. Some of the monsters are actually imbued with magic, which can only mean one thing: Circe or Hecate has joined Gaea's side.
But fortunately, we have Melody, one of the most powerful sorceress in the camp. She waves her right hand, and does a throwing motion, and some of the monsters screamed before they disintegrate. I guess that eliminates the monsters that have magic. Now, it is time for us to make a move.
I charged at the monsters. The monsters include Laistrygonian Giants, Cyclops, Dracaenaes, Telkhines, and the Teumessian Fox.
First, I drew my bow, and fired at the first laistrygonian giant, which disintegrates into ashes. Then I quickly slung my bow on my back and drew my swords. I find it quite awkward fighting in my swimming suit, but one second is the only difference needed to determine the world ending or not. I stabbed one cyclops in its heart, and the cyclops disintegrated.
The other cyclops tried to grab me, but I ducked and stabbed another at the neck.
I quickly glanced at the other Laistrygonian giants, and they began summoning bronze fiery balls. They throw it at me, but I dodged. Melody, who had been busy battling the scythian dracaenaes, conjures an invisible sphere at the dracaenaes and trapped them there as Melody rushes to help me. The giants threw the bronze balls to me and Melody, but Melody held out her hand and the bronze balls stopped in its tracks. Melody then made a crushing gesture and the bronze balls smashed itself into pieces, and it became smaller and smaller until it's in the form of red sparkles and it went inside Melody.
"Melody!" I rushed towards her, but she held out a hand and fires appeared in the palm of her hands. Then, the giants began throwing another volleys of bronze balls but Melody flicked her hands aside and the bronze balls just went to the left, where she is pointing at. Then, she pointed at the laistrygonian giants and one of the bronze balls hit the group of laistrygonian giants and instantly disintegrated all of them.
Fortunately for Melody, the giants had produced another bronze balls before they disintegrated, so Melody can use those balls to her advantage.
I quickly glanced back just in time to find a Cyclops that is about to strike me. I quickly stepped aside, but isn't quick enough to completely evade the blow. The cyclops hit my stomach and I was thrown a few meters away. I clutched my stomach in pain and stood there, waiting for the cyclops to advance. I waited, and once the cyclops is close enough for me to strike, I sidestepped and stabbed the cyclops in its chest.
I saw Mary defending Camp Half-Blood, swinging her javelin left and right, throwing many monster away and disintegrating some. She is a formidable ally.
I quickly looked in front of me, and a dracaenae is right in front of me. I thrust my sword forward and the dracaenae disintegrated into ashes.
I covered my eyes for a while to avoid the dust, and when I open it again, I saw a female cyclops right in front of me. I was about to make a move when the cyclops grabbed me and started running away.
I writhed and kicked and punched the cyclops, but to no avail. The cyclops is too strong for me. I was shaken left and right, and the cyclops ran towards the Brooklyn Bridge, just near the river. There, he shoved me underwater. I fought harder and continued my effort to escape from his grasp, but it's futile. So, I just lay still until the cyclops finished dunking me underwater, pretending to faint. Then, the cyclops threw me to the ground and left me there helplessly.
As soon as I know that the cyclops was out of range of him attacking me, I got up, and quickly whipped my bow and fired a blunt arrow at the cyclops. It hit the cyclops, which make him face me. That got his attention, so I notched a very sharp arrow this time, which pierced his neck and the cyclops disintegrated.
I took a huge gasp of breath, and returned to the Empire State Building. There were my friends, Travis, Leo, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, Melody, Stella, Jessica and Jarren. They are fending off monsters in the front line, and Mary is just trying to decimate the number of troops to make it easier for us to fend off the wave of monsters. I grabbed my arrow and shot an incendiary arrow that landed in the middle of the monsters and exploded.
My friends looked at me, and they cheered: "Josh!" But just then a monster tries to take advantage of this moment, so I sidestepped and jumped and stabbed the monster in the chest.
My friends looked at where I was just then, and they continued fighting. Mary's legs were scratched up from the monsters that are attacking her but she is still standing. Me and my friends keep attacking the monsters until the last of them disintegrated.
There was a cheer coming from us, indicating that the first wave of monsters have gone. It was already night, about 21:00.
Chiron had assigned me and Melody to stand by in case there is more monsters coming. Chiron had also told that the roman campers have been successful in fending off the first wave of attackers. Chiron had told me to watch the oceans since the enemies are going to come by boat, while Melody was told to fend off the attackers that came by foot that's going to attack on New York. This is just like what my feelings had told me, that soon or later, I would have to fight underwater. I wonder, why didn't Chiron just assign Percy to stand by the ocean? Ocean is his element anyways.
But I didn't argue. I looked at the distant ocean, and began to saw a faint shape of a ship. The ship is just a rowing boat, much to my advantage. Apparently Gaea hasn't thought about much about passing through the seas, which isn't her element at all.
I entered the water silently, and I held my breath and submerged. Only my eyes and my forehead is visible so that I can keep tabs on the enemies. I rose slightly higher to take a breath. It was very dark, and the only thing that allows me to tell the presence of the enemy is the light from the moon that hits the enemies. When the enemies are only 100 meters away from me, I took a deep breath and dived underwater. I checked on my watch and set the measurement to depth. I continued to dived deeper until I was directly below the monsters, and I created a ball of light torpedo and just let it go. As soon as it reaches the surface, it explodes, knocking monsters to the water, and since monsters can't swim, they drown and disintegrate. I light my right hand in a superheated laser, which sizzled under the water, and fired it at the boat. Some of the monsters started throwing their weapons at me, but none of them hit me. I swam directly below them, and fired a laser at the boat. The boat had a hole in them, and monsters started panicking and trying to get to the adjacent boat, but failed miserably.
I was having fun taking out the monsters that I had forgotten that I had to breathe. My body was begging for air, and I had to swim to the shore without getting detected, but the only way to do that is staying underwater.
But there is a problem. The water is pitch black, and I can't see the shore, so the only way for me to survive is to keep fighting.
I fired another laser at another monster's boat, and this time, in the middle of the group. The laser blow a hole on the wooden boat. The monsters are trying to get out of the ship by jumping to adjacent boats, causing the other boats to lose control. I took this advantage to find the shore.
The shore apparently is far from where I am, and my little body was already pleading furiously for air. I know that I have to find air soon or else I will drown like an insect.
I took no chances and swam straight to the surface. I fought my body's pleads to stop moving, and as soon as my head broke the surface, I gasped for breath and coughed. I kept panting and to my luck, the monsters are still on chaos, as the monsters tried to board another monsters boat.
I took my time to calmly make my body into a normal state again, and when I calmed myself, I saw that the the only remains of the monster is an empty boat. I got the feeling that Gaea is messing with us, tricking us into thinking that the monsters we fought are low class monsters. I took a deep breath and swam under. The water was freezing cold in the night. I tried to illuminate my hand in a ball of light, and realized that it had failed. I had not taken into consideration of my usage of powers to lighting my way back, and now I am stranded in the middle of the sea between the bridge and New York City There are no light in the night, and worst of all, I am in the middle of the ocean. I swam deeper and deeper, eventualy bumping into something solid, a steel to be precise.
It was one of the fragments of the Brooklyn bridge, and I knew that I was still on the right path. I swam up, and gasped for breath. I tried to look for clues, and just as my luck is about to ran out, I saw a flare, a bright flare lighting up the whole sky. My body was already telling me that it's too cold to continue, but I know that if I didnt continue, the coldness and the night will claim me alive.
Then, I saw a huge flare fired up towards the sky. The flare not only told me the right location to go to, but it also gave me a very small energy boost. I continued to swim towards the dim light on the shore, which I know it's a flare. Come on, Joshy.... just a mere 100 meters more, and you're home free. It was a very exhaustive effort, but it's vital in deciding between life and death. I continued my way towards the shore, and as soon as I reached the shore, I felt the cold wind of the night blowing. It was freezing. My skin, flesh and bones can even feel the cold and cause me numbness.
Then, to my luck, I saw a light in the distance. I was too weak to move, so I do what I best to: firing a small ball of light into the sky. It was my last resort if I wanted to be found.
I prepared my hand, and I made a ball of light and throw it into the skies. Then, my body went limp and everything went black.
Melody's P.O.V
I saw a ball of light being thrown just 20 meters in front of me. I knew immediately that must have been Josh.
"Father!" I yelled, running towards his direction. I looked at Josh's limp face. His body showed signs of severe hypothermia, and he must be carried to the infirmary right away. It is now already 2:00 AM dusk, and I quickly teleported to the infirmary with the limp Josh.
"Chiron!" I yelled. Chiron quickly cantered over to our direction. "Joshy is hurt!"
Chiron didn't hesitate to say "Bring him to the infirmary at once." So I quickly brought him to the infirmary to be taken care of.
I didn't bring him to the infirmary. I brought him to his cabin since me and Josh stayed in the same cabin. I radiated warmth and enveloped Josh in a hug. Josh's body that was once was cold, now has begun getting warmer. I held out my right hand and my right hand was surrounded with golden sparkles and it becomes slightly warmer and hold Josh in his chest. I could feel his body starting to warming up again. He squirmed around and opened his eyes.
"M-melody?" He asked in confusion. "Where.... am I?"
"You're in your cabin, Father." I said softly, and I placed my hand on his back.
Then I went to sleep with Josh, while hugging him.
Dreams found me, and it was Gaea. She is talking to her new ally, Nadine.
"It was a failure!" Nadine exclaimed. "I knew that the massive wave attack isn't going to work!"
"On the contrary, sister." Gaea said. "Right now, they are probably preparing themselves for another attack. Let's send in the Clazmonion Sow first. Let's see how they handle the flying pig. The last time was destroyed by that petty Daedalus's statues. This time they will be in an extreme disadvantage."
"Right...." Nadine mused. "So, how was operation kidnapping Josh McLean going?"
Gaea put her face in her palms. "Will you stop concentrating on kidnapping Josh McLean?" I could tell that Gaea is frustrated. "We have something a lot bigger to do, and it is to overthrow the gods. You want that, do you?"
"Yes sister." Nadine said in her cruel voice.
"Now listen." Gaea said. "Send the Clazmonion Sow. After that, send in the storm giant, Typhon."
"Wow, are you going to put the gods out of commission again?" Nadine asked.
"It's gonna be more than that. The gods would be exhausted after they have defeated Typhon, and then they will be faced with a horrendous beast, also known as the Kraken."
Nadine trembled at the sound of it. Something tells me that this Kraken will be something that we had never fought.
"Ohh... don't worry Nadine. The Kraken won't bite you. Besides, he is ready to do your bidding." Gaea said.
"Oh, right." Nadine said, and then she sends Typhon to Mount Olympus.
My dream changed to Camp Jupiter. Jason Grace had a feast of victory after defeating the first wave of the monsters. Hazel and Frank sat in the 5th cohort while being crowded by their friends.
"For the bravery of Rome!" Jason cheered. "For protecting this camp!"
The other campers cheered, but then it stopped because the wind speed increases.
"Jason? What just happened?" Hazel asked.
"No it's not me." Jason told Hazel.
The winds begin to pickup speed. Jason realizes what is going on, and he looks outside. What he looks at is a horrendous beast that is in the form of a storm.
"Typhon!" Jason screamed, and he quickly began to pray to his father.
Just then, there was a flash of lightning around the storm, and it hit the storm square in its chest, but all it does is make the monster stagger a few steps, and then continued its monstrous march to Mount Olympus.
I woke up with screaming. Josh, who I had been hugging, also woke up with screaming. We definitely had a very bad dream.
Josh's P.O.V
The dream was very disturbing. Typhon had marched from somewhere, and what place did Typhon came from, he definitely came across Mount Othrys. I was already unnerved by this. I got up from my cabin and walked out. Melody also do the same thing.
For some reason, my body still feels cold from yesterday. I was shivering a little and continued my way to the dining pavilion.
Once I get to the dining pavilion, I grabbed the usual food that I usually get: Burgers with vegetables and meat, and of course, steak. I ate them and it tastes very good indeed. After I ate, I sacrificed a portion of the food to the gods, and said thank you for letting me live another day. I glanced at Melody, who was sitting at Phoebe's table with her mother, Jessica.
There has been a rule that when a child of two half-bloods can stay in whoever their godly grandparents are. I approached Melody and sat in Phoebe's table.
"The monsters will be coming soon." I told Melody and Jessica. "This time it will be Typhon."
Jessica's eyes widened. "You're not kidding, right?"
I shook my head, with absolute certainty in my face.
"It's gonna take a long time to cast a spell that can kill Typhon in one blow." Melody said.
We both stared at her. "You know how? Please tell us."
"The spell is called Abyss Break, and it's an extremely powerful spell. I've heard about its usage in the ancient times. It's used for destroying large cities and towns."
"Then don't use that spell." I suggested. "What else can you use?"
"Twilight Break." Melody said. "Can be used when I remove my magic suppresants."
"Okay..." I said, not sure about that also.
"We'll discuss about this later." I said, returning to my table.
I noticed that Melody is following me, and once I got to my table, I asked her about the Twilight Break, and how destructive it is.
"It's same like Abyss Break, but this time in involves light and darkness. It was the mixing of both elements that led to the destructive power of Twilight Break. Abyss Break involves earth and wind. It just collapses everything within 0.25 to 20 kilometer in radius, but the destruction is controllable." Melody told me.
"How long does that take you to cast that spell?" I asked.
"It takes at least 12 hours to prepare it, but the longer it takes for me to prepare it, the less mana that I have to use."
"Abyss Break sounds very dangerous. Perhaps we should let Poseidon deal with it like the last time?"
"Yeah..." Melody agreed, and I put my plate at the table on my right and leave the dining pavilion. I walked towards my cabin since I'm still feeling dizzy from last nights encounter.