The Last Olympian - Battling Monsters

I couldn’t call out. The last thing I wanted to do was bring her to Kronos’s attention.

Fortunately, Hades caused a distraction. He charged at the wall of force, but his chariot crashed against it and overturned. He got to his feet, cursing, and blasted the wall with black energy. The barrier held.

“ATTACK!” he roared.

The armies of the dead clashed with the Titan’s monsters. Fifth Avenue exploded into absolute chaos. Mortals screamed and ran for cover. Demeter waved her hand and an entire column of giants turned into a wheat field. Persephone changed the dracaenae’s spears into sunflowers. Nico slashed and hacked his way through the enemy, trying to protect the pedestrians as best he could. My parents ran toward me, dodging monsters and zombies, but there was nothing I could do to help them.

“Nakamura,” Kronos said. “Attend me. Giants—deal with them.”

He pointed at my friends and me. Then he ducked into the lobby.

For a second I was stunned. I’d been expecting a fight, but Kronos completely ignored me like I wasn’t worth the trouble. That made me mad.
The first Hyperborean giant smashed at me with his club. I rolled between his legs and stabbed Riptide into his backside. He shattered into a pile of ice shards. The second giant breathed frost at Annabeth, who was barely able to stand, but Grover pulled her out of the way while Thalia went to work. She sprinted up the giant’s back like a gazelle, sliced her hunting knives across his monstrous blue neck, and created the world’s largest headless ice sculpture.

I glanced outside the magic barrier. Nico was fighting his way toward my mom and Paul, but they weren’t waiting for help. Paul grabbed a sword from a fallen hero and did a pretty fine job keeping a dracaena busy. He stabbed her in the gut and she disintegrated.

“Paul?” I said in amazement.

He turned toward me and grinned. “I hope that was a monster I just killed. I was a Shakespearian actor in college! Picked up a little swordplay!”

I liked him even better for that, but then a Laistrygonian giant charged toward my mom. She was rummaging around in an abandoned police car—maybe looking for the emergency radio—and her back was turned.

“Mom!” I yelled.

She whirled when the monster was almost on top of her. I thought the thing in her hands was an umbrella until she cranked the pump and the shotgun blast blew the giant twenty feet backward, right into Nico’s sword.

“Nice one,” Paul said.

“When did you learn to fire a shotgun?” I demanded.

My mom blew the hair out of her face. “About two seconds ago. Percy, we’ll be fine. Go!”

“Yes,” Nico agreed, “we’ll handle the army. You have to get Kronos!”

“Come on, Seaweed Brain!” Annabeth said. I nodded. Then I looked at the rubble pile on the side of the building. My heart twisted. I’d forgotten about Chiron. How could I do that?

“Mrs. O’Leary,” I said. “Please, Chiron’s under there. If anyone can dig him out, you can. Find him! Help him!”


- The Last Olympian, Chapter 18