Hunter groaned as he pushed himself up off the ground and rolled over. He rubbed his back and looked up to see many broken branches and he assumed that’s where he came from. He picked himself up and leaned on a tree a little as he tried to adjust to his surroundings. “Wha…Ugh…” Hunter took a deep breath and cringed a little as he put weight on his legs again. “Never ride a pig again. I should write a freaking book.” Hunter drew his bow and nocked an arrow, running through the forest. He needed to get back to Will and Kyle and Marina or they could get hurt. Hunter ran and climbed a tree, trying to get a view of where they were. He finally heard the roar from the hydra and he leapt to another tree, making his way toward it.
Hunter finally entered onto the clearing, but kept his distance in the tree. The Echidna and the manticores and the chimera were closing in and so was the hydra who still seemed to be getting over the pain from the manticore spine. What was he going to do? He knew he wasn’t going to like this plan, but it was all he could think of. He nocked an arrow and aimed at the hydra, the poison emanating off the arrowhead. He took a deep breath and fired the arrow slicing off one of the heads. It roared and everyone turned toward Hunter.
“Hey, monsterface! Over here!” Hunter shouted, waving his arms. They hydra grew its heads back and then shot poison at him, but Hunter managed to leap into another tree. Hunter fired another arrow, slicing off another head. Hunter knew that he was just making things worse, but now he had the hydra right where he wanted it. Hunter fired another arrow which sliced off another head and then climbed down before taking off into the woods. He went slow, but soon he could hear branches snapping and trees falling down which meant that the hydra was chasing him.
They hydra frighteningly close and Hunter saw venom spit landing all around him.Thankfully none of it on him. Hunter whipped around and fired another arrow into its head, but then tripped over something and toppled to the ground. He looked up as the hydra towered over him and he started to scramble backward, but his hand landed on something. It felt like a bunch of snakes or a head? He looked and saw a pile of snakes in a box and Hunter grabbed it and held it up, hoping he knew what it was that was in this box. The hydra had a mouthful of poison when it laid eyes on the medusa head. The sound was significant. The quiet cracking as it started slowly to turn to stone and a moment later a giant statue of the hydra stood in front of him. There was a sizzling and Hunter looked down to see the medusa head slowly dissolving with the hydra venom. Hunter gasped a little and dropped it, hoping none of the poison got on him. He watched as the head dissolved to dust and Hunter cursed under his breath.
“There goes our best weapon.” Hunter said with a sigh. Hunter brushed himself off and then started back toward the other group. He wasn’t sure how long he had been running, but it felt like a long time before he broke into the clearing again. Echidna immediately looked at him and cried out.
“YOU KILLED MY BABY! YOU ALL KILLED MY BABIES!” she shrieked before turning toward Will and attacking. Hunter was about to go help, but a familiar beast stepped in his way. The chimera, lion head snarling ran at him. It pounced and Hunter quickly slashed at it and dodged around before Marina appeared at his side.
“I’ll take the snake side. You can wrangle the lion’s fire.” Hunter said before rolling around the chimera and immediately dodging a snake strike from the chimera’s serpent tail. Hunter moved and Marina slashed, working like two cogs in a machine. Hunter glanced around and saw that Kyle had the manticore tails wrapped up like a bouquet of flowers so that they couldn’t move. Hunter turned back and saw Will holding his own against Echidna, but Hunter could tell he was getting a little tired. Echidna was strong and fast. Hunter faced the chimera again and when it lunged, he caught the tail with his knives and sliced it off, causing the chimera to roar our in pain. Marina took the opportunity to slam her sword into its head pinning it to the ground. She placed a hand on its nose and in a moment, it burst into flames, leaving a small pile of dust in its wake.
“Kyle!” Hunter turned and saw Will running at the somehow free manticores, Kyle lying motionless between them. Hunter looked over at Marina who looked broken. She wasn’t sure what to do. The manticores moved in quickly and grabbed them, holding them in place. Echidna cackled and approached them.
“You’ve tried so hard and now it’s all come crashing down. You’re the camp’s leaders. The 4 of you.” Echidna got in Hunter’s face and with a razor sharp claw flicked open Hunter’s jacket and clawed his chest, leaving a nice cut on his chest. “Especially you, mortal. Hunter. You grew up here. You’ve been here longer than anyone except Chiron and Dionysus.” Hunter’s eyes couldn’t help, but float over to the motionless body of Kyle laying on the ground. His heart clenched and his stomach dropped. Kyle was one of his best friends. He was brought back to the matter at hand by a loud roar that came from behind Echidna. Hunter looked up and saw Peleus burst in, Argus on his back. Argus leapt off the dragon’s back and with a large sword ran right at Echidna. Hunter was shocked to see it. Argus had always been so calm and now he was attacking the mother of all monsters singlehandedly…and was winning. Hunter noticed that Echidna seemed too frozen in fear to try and attack and all she could do was dodge around Argus’ strikes. Hunter looked over and Peleus jumped and swung his tail, knocking two manticores off into the woods. With a roar and a fireball, the manticores that were holding up Hunter burst into dust. Hunter landed on the ground and immediately ran forward to attack Echidna, but Argus stood there, sword in hand, looking down at the pile of dust that used to be Echidna.
“Oh my gods, Kyle!” Hunter turned around and saw Marina cradling Kyle. “Thank Olympus…”
“I’m fine, Marina. I’ve just got a headache.” Kyle said, rubbing his head.
“Hunter!” Hunter turned again and saw Chiron entering the clearing. “We’ve done it! The monsters are retreating!” Hunter smiled and breathed a sigh of relief, but he was quickly reminded of the problem in Manhattan.
“We need to get to Manhattan. When I left, things were going okay, but Prometheus and his army had pulled back a part of the soldiers.” Hunter said with a sigh. “I don’t know if we can beat him, Chiron. I’ve fought him twice now and he can see everything that I’m going to do. He’ll dodge everything that we can possibly throw at him.”
“Well, how was Echidna defeated?” Marina walked over and joined the group, Kyle leaning on her, her eyes red from tears. “Argus killed Echidna the first time. She was afraid and it threw her off. I have an idea that might throw Prometheus off his game. Kyle take off your shoes.”