All Heroes Fall

It took a long time to reach the ground. A seriously long time. But enough time. Enough time for us to formulate one of our famously suicidal and stupid plans. Almost anything is impossible when you're invisible.

While I fought Polybotes and distracted all the other monsters, Annabeth would take the helmet and slay him as I found an opening. We would make a simple blow, look deathly. It was an easy plan to follow. But anything can go wrong when you're a demigod.

"Percy, wait!" Jason yelled. I turned to him with an annoyed look, but I couldn't hear what he said.

Polybotes scream echoed throughout the crowd as his yells of anger, became bellows of excitement from the crowd. The scenery around us changed from one of the outside to Hades House, to an arena. I smiled. Perfect, I thought. But my happiness was cut short as I dove out of Polybotes way. Distractions. I hated them. The monster stumbled a bit as he flew past me, but quickly regained his footing. Turning toward me, he flicked his sword in a sharp movement and began to run towards me again. I unsheathed Riptide and braced myself for impact. His sword came down on mine as the crowd gasped. Apparently I was living longer then expected. It had only been about a minute though. These guys should expect more from me by now. I swung at his leg, but he blocked me and went for my head. I ducked out of the way and rolled to the side where I was able to clash open his ankle. He hollered in pain and kicked me to the other end of arena. The crowd cheered as I struggled to hold the contents of my lunch in. My head was killing me by the time I got to my feet and swiped the dust from my pants. Polybotes cackled.

"It looks as though it was just luck with you the last time we met, Perseus." He tilted his head to the side and frowned. "Come forward, Percy, so that you may die." I held up my hand as I coughed to the side.

"One moment, I think I swallowed something." I said as I choked on nothing. Polybotes walked forward, his sword drawn. The moment he was close enough, I jumped up and cut at his left arm. He stumbled backward and I looked around for any sign of my friends. My eyes scanned the crowds for no more than a second before I found them. I caught Leo's eye as he gave me a thumbs up. The smile on his face was fake. His eyes darted to the left. I didn't catch it at first, but once I did, I smiled back and waved. I felt a hand on my shoulder, but I didn't start. I knew it was her. I turned my head to the side that she stood and winked. Together, we charged forward towards a very angry monster. I stabbed his foot. Quickly, I pulled the blade from his flesh and stabbed his side. He stumbled again and fell to the dust, where I pulled up my blade and stabbed downward. I had missed his heart. But his head was bleeding. I hopped off of him, to see a clear hole right through his skull.

The silence of the crowd was all that greeted my victory. Murmurs swept through it as the crew looked uncomfortable. They all stood and tried to make their way to me. Jason and Piper were in a great hurry. They were dragging a girl. I didn't know where she had come from, because as far as I knew, it was just the monsters and us. But I had more important things to worry about. Nothing had happened to the rest of the monsters and I didn't understand why. Until Jason ran up to me.

"Percy," he said, out of breath.

"Save the congratulations for later," I said. "We have a problem." Jason just rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't going to congratulate you bubble brain. You didn't defeat him." I looked over toward Polybotes who was still sitting in the sand, and had not vanished.

"Yeah, I see that." I said exasperated. "But why?"

"This is Amber," he said motioning to the girl. "She was captured by the monsters on her way to Camp Half-Blood. She pointed out something very important. Something important that you're missing."

"I don't see what I could possibly be missing. I have a sword, my head, and pants. Annabeth has the helmet. What could be missing?" Jason took me by the shoulders and started to shake me.

Don't you see?!" He said in a harsh whisper. "Polybotes is your dad's mortal enemy!" The girl, Amber, spoke up then, in a sweet, frightened voice.

"You need a god to help you kill him. Polybotes isn't dead." she said.

Shit.

Notes

Wanted to give a shoutout to @SweetNectar for being a great person to talk to! This chapter, "Amber" has been dedicated to you. Just like you helped the team in the story, you helped me a lot. Thanks again!

xoxo
Alex