Annabeth

I decided to take the serpent closest to me.

I ran, front flipped over the first serpent, slashing downward in mid air, cutting the back of the snake. When I came out of my landing roll, I dodged the second serpent's bite, then attempted to cut the ophidian's eye. I only succeeded in barely wounding it, though.

Before I went in for another attack, I glanced back to check on Percy. He was currently eluding a fang, then he pivoted and slammed his sword into the side of the assaulting serpent.

The snake writhed and hissed, but before it could recover, Percy thrusted once more, this time in the throat. The fatal strike caused the viper to shriek in pain. The horrible noise made me to sink to a knee and cover my ears, in fear of getting my eardrum blasted out.

When the uproar subsided, then faded into oblivion, I looked back to see Percy grimacing with a hand over one of his ears. There was no remains of the deceased serpent other than a pile of dust.

For a moment, the fellow snakes paused, staring at their dead companion, but then they resumed their ferocious attack, but they seemed more determined now. Yippee. (sarcasm should be detected)

I barely managed to evade a blade-like tooth snapping at me by rolling to the left. Unfortunately, rolling to the left put me right in front of the second serpent.

I stood, frozen, staring at those blond eyes. I was thrown out of my stupor when the snake gnashed at me. I sidestepped, then stabbed it in the side with my trusty dagger. But that wasn't enough, it only made the viper angrier.

I ran around, barely registering Percy, who was trying to kill the other snake to no avail. The snake that was after me kept chasing me.

Using my speed, I jumped, twisting in the air to face the serpent, my feet landing on a sturdy tree branch, and using my momentum, I pushed off the wood, somersaulting twice in the air, and landing behind the confused serpent. Twice I swung, and twice I succeeded in hitting the snake's tail. It turned around as fast as it could, but that just brought it into my whirling dagger.

Prepared, I covered my ears, shielding myself from that awful screech. When I saw the monster wilt and fall to the ground, bunched into a ball, I knew I had sent that monster to where it belongs: Tartarus.

One more snake, I thought.

I turned to see the last snake attempting a brave fight, but it had no chance. About five skeletons were hacking away at it's scales, thanks to Nico. Nonstop arrows were hitting chinks in the armor-like scales as well, and the occasional arrow hit the serpent's mouth when it opened to hiss. I spotted the archer, Thalia, perched in a tree nearby. Percy was agilely avoiding strikes and bashing it's head with Riptide.

Seeing as they were covered, I turned to look at the hydra attack, and see what was going on.

It wasn't pretty. Yeah, those three words pretty much summed up the fight with the hydra. The drakon was still hiding somewhere, but right now, we should be praising the gods for that much, for the hrydra by itself was a handful.

Most of the archers were running around, scrambling for arrows, seeing as they had used up theirs. Some had magical restocking quivers, but facing a hydra wasn't exactly a calm attack, and the ones with arrows were too frantic to shoot straight.

The seven-headed creature had managed to come back out of the pit once more, and this time, nothing could get it back in. I counted at least five arrows in five different heads, but it didn't do much.

I knew they needed help, and we could spare a few people.

"FRANK! HAZEL! LEO! HELP THE OTHERS!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, hoping the three would hear me.

I waited for a second, then a blazing fireball the size of my head came out of the forest about ten yards down from me, smoking the hydra in it's side. It didn't kill it, but it definitely damaged and angered it.

Leo came out of the surrounding trees and into the clearing, pitching more blazing spheres. A figure popped out of the ground, and raised it's hands. I'm assuming it was Hazel, for at the hand motion, rock sized balls of gold flew out of the ground, and pelted the beast, making it roar in fury.

But it didn't have much time to scream it's hatred, for an indigo dragon shot out of the sky, breathing fire right onto four of it's heads.

Yeah, the hydra didn't like that that much.

I spotted the archers reforming and gather arrows. Soon enough, Malcolm called a volley, and shafts zipped through the air, slamming into the monster like mini daggers.

I would've watched more, but at that moment, I heard a yell, swiveled around to the sight of Percy, clutching a bleeding arm. The snake hissed in triumph, and was about to strike once more, when Nico burst out from behind a tree, shouting a battle cry. He swung his black blade, slicing off the tongue of the snake.

While Nico moved protectively in front of his captain, the snake hissed as drops of blood splattered the ground, sizzling wherever they landed, thanks to the venomous saliva. Then Nico slashed once more, and hit the head of the creature.

Fortunately, he got the snake to back off. Unfortunately, the stygian blade got stuck in the scaly head, sticking out like a pin in a cushion. It didn't kill the snake, surprisingly, but the snake still shrieked and slithered back.

It regained it's energy soon, though, and lunged at Nico, who dodged, dragging a son of Poseidon with him. They spotted me, and started to sprint towards me.

But the snake was pretty fast, and it was about to catch them. Without a second thought, I switched my dagger to my left hand, reaching into my throwing needle scabbard, and pulled out two. I hurriedly put them between my knuckles, and drew back my arm.

I aimed within a second, my foot moving forward into the throwing stance, then hurled with all my strength, praying that my practice would pay. Sure enough, the silver blades whistled threw the air at unimaginable speeds. A sickening crack assured me that my aim was on.

The serpent went rigid, then it just fell, no scream or anything. The two needles stuck out of it's eyes, one in each, glinting in the sun like a bright light. They were buried up to the hilt. It soon melted into dust, leaving nothing but the needles.

Nico and Percy stood there, dumbstruck, staring at the monster's body.

Then Percy turned towards me, "Nice throw, Wise Girl."

I smirked, then my dimples went out as I remembered his arm, "Come here, I've got some ambrosia to fix that up."

He obliged, and Thalia ran up, "Looks like all that practice paid off, Annie!" I grinned and shook my head, ignoring the nickname.

"Good thing too, or else I would've been dead." I replied.

I handed Percy a slice of ambrosia, and watched him chew it. Soon, his arm started to mend itself, and Percy set to the task of cleaning off his crimson arm.

"Alright, we need to go help the others," I announced.

"Alright, let me go get Darryn, he's still in the woods. He encountered a few laystrygonian giants, but last I checked, he was doing a fine job terminating them," Thalia said, then the hunter bounded off into the woods. Nico ran over to go get his sword, which was still stuck in the skull of the snake. Percy walked over to grab his sword as well, which he had dropped when the serpent had bit his arm.

I stayed there, thinking about a plan that we could use to fight the hydra.

What if we split up? Then each of us could go for a head. We just need Leo to always be ready to launch a fireball, or Frank to breath fire onto the stumps when we get the chance to behead the beast.

It would still be hard, for the hydra can breath fire as well, they just haven't because Leo has been controlling the fire to stay in their throats. But soon, Leo wouldn't be able to handle it, and the fire could come at any moment.

Lets hope the drakon stays gone, I thought.

Then, I heard an earth shattering roar born from the sky, and from somewhere behind me, Percy screamed, "LOOK OUT!" I turned to see who he was yelling at, and to see if I could spot what had made that unearthly roar.

But when I turned, a body slammed into me, knocking both of us to the ground about five feet from where I had been standing.

I tried to see who had hit me, but at that moment, a blast shook the ground. Whatever had exploded had blown up right where I had been standing. If the person hadn't hit me down, I would've been dead for sure, cause if I had even been standing away from the blast by about ten feet, I still would've been thrown into the air. It was a good thing I was laying down.

I did nothing during the eruption, except cover my face with my hands. I felt arms go around my back, and a body move up against me on the side of the bomb, shielding me from the force of the blast. I'm assuming it was the person who had saved me by tackling me.

The heat rising around the other person and I was vast, and I could practically feel myself burning. I cracked my eyes open just a tiny bit, to see nothing but a blinding fury of orange and red. I instantly shut my eyes again, and buried my head in the other person's shirt, thankful for the darkness.

The explosion soon stopped, and I opened my eyes carefully to a dust infested sky. I breathed, and immediately started choking from the dirt. I felt the arms that had been around me stir, then retract from my waist. I looked up to see Percy laying down beside me, coughing like me. He stood up and offered me a hand, which I took.

When we were both standing, I looked at Percy and sheepishly muttered, "Thanks, Percy. For shielding me, I mean. I would've been fine, you know, though."

He smiled, "Burnt to a crisp, thrown back to Athena's temple by the blast, hit by the many things shooting out from the explosion, and not to mention dead. But other than that, you would've been fine."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head at his sarcasm, "Okay. Maybe I would've been hurt a little. So thank you for saving my life. Happy?"

He grinned, "Yuppers."

I raised an eyebrow at his answer, "'Yuppers'? Is that even a word?"

Percy shrugged, causing some dust to fall off from his shoulders, "Who knows. Who cares."

I sighed, "Whatever, Percy. Anyways, how did you not get hurt? Or burnt?" I asked curiously.

"I took some water from a nearby river and made a shield, protecting us from the flying objects and fire."

"Oh, okay," I said simply. I turned to see the hydra fight, to find that it was over.

Seven heads lay on the ground, tongues lolling about, but the body was gone. The heads hadn't disintegrate because they were now spoils of war. I looked at the archers to see most of them sprawled out on the ground, and some looked injured, but the ones that had been protected from the blast were nursing the wounded.

One archer broke free from the mob of people, running up to me and Percy. I recognized him as Malcolm. I quickly scanned for any injuries, and was relieved when I found nothing too bad.

"Wow. That was quite a blast. Are you okay Annabeth, Percy?" Malcolm asked.

I nodded in confirmation, then asked my brother, "Who killed the hydra?"

He shook his head, "No one did. The blast took off the heads, then the fire from the explosion burnt the stumps. So we could call the bomb a blessing." He finished with a mirthless laugh.

"How did the heads come off so easily? Well, I know the blast was big, but it shouldn't of torn off the heads!" I asked, confused.

"Well, before the bomb, the heads were mostly severed from slashes, thanks to Frank, and Hazel had taken gold and formed it to be kinda like a knife, then she started hacking away at the heads. So the heads were already torn, and the bomb just finished the job for us." Malcolm explained.

I nodded, "Well, then yeah, the bomb was kinda a blessing. Except that it could've killed us all, and me. It was headed for right were I was standing, but Percy saved me."

Malcolm bobbed his head in gratitude towards Percy, "My thanks to you for keeping my sister safe."

Percy grinned, "I was just repaying her, cause she saved mine and Nico's lives right before the explosion."

Percy's sentence made me jolt as I remembered Thalia and Nico and Darryn. I looked around, trying to spot any of them. I saw Nico, he was sitting up against a tree, grimacing and hugging his wrist. I ran over there, followed by Percy.

"Nico! Are you okay?" I asked frantically, pulling out some ambrosia (I always keep some on me, just in case.) I handed him the food, and he consumed it, then started to breath less raggedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just broke my wrist in the blast. What was that from, anyways?" He asked, standing up.

I frowned in confusion as well, then looked at Percy, "I have no idea, do you know Perce?"

Percy nodded, but he also looked confused, "I'm pretty sure it was a fire bomb."

My eyebrows rose, "A fire bomb? How is that possible?"

A fire bomb is basically a bottle of greek fire, and it detonates when it comes in contact with something hard relatively fast. They are extremely dangerous, and have very high energy explosives in them, mixed with the greek fire. But that's not the catch. The catch is that no one can use them except for the gods.

A long time ago, the gods declared that they were too dangerous, and so they cast a spell onto the bombs, permitting no one to use them, except the gods themselves. And nobody can make them, for it's the most delicate process. If you mess up in the least bit, you could be blown up. Only Hephaestus can make them, and even he has a hard time.

Only a handful of them exist, and not many have been used.

"I don't know, that's why I'm confused," Percy said.

I was still struck by the possibility of that bomb being a fire bomb.

"Annabeth! Are you okay?" The familiar voice came from behind us, and I spun to see Thalia and Darryn running up to us, looking okay other than a few bruises.

"Yeah, thanks to Percy." I said.

"What was that?" Darryn asked.

I wasn't listening as Percy explained what it was, rather, I was contemplating, and trying to figure out how someone could get their hands on a fire bomb.

I was pulled back into the conversation by a question directed at me by Thalia, "Do you have any idea, Annabeth?"

I shook my head, lips pursed, "No, I don't see how it's possible. The only way is for the person to have been a god…" I trailed off uncertainly.

Percy shook his head, "The gods may not care for some demigods, but they wouldn't be stupid enough to throw away a rare fire bomb like that. But I know one thing for sure: it was directed at you, Annabeth. Whoever it was had a pretty fierce desire to kill you." I shuddered at the thought of someone going as far as using a fire bomb to kill me.

"I have no idea." I said, frustrated.

"Well, we'll try and figure it out, but we need to go tend to the wounded right now." Malcolm said.

So we all went to go help the people that were hurt. I used up my stock of ambrosia, and got eight buckets of water from the stream for people to drink.

The whole entire time, questions were constantly sprinting through my mind.

Who is attempting to kill me? Why are they trying to kill me? Why are they so desperate as to use a fire bomb? Where would I have been without Percy when the bomb exploded?

And the most important one.

Why me?