New Toys
Ratatatatat!
Bullets tore through the halls of the Princess Andromeda like a storm of fire, ripping apart chunks of metal and wood while the deafening sound of the minigun echoed through the entire ship.
Percy ran down the corridor dodging the shots while fragments of wall exploded beside him. The heat from the bullets even grazed part of his arm when one passed way too close.
On the other side of the hallway, a gigantic Laestrygonian let out a manic laugh while holding what looked like a damn military minigun in his enormous arms.
"HAHAHAHA! DIE, DEMIGOD!"
Ratatatatat!
The monster swung the weapon back toward Percy.
But Percy had already moved.
He ran directly toward the wall and pushed off it in a perfect jump. His body spun through the air in a backflip while the bullets passed beneath him, tearing apart the metal floor.
The moment he landed, he rolled across the ground and launched himself forward again without stopping for even a second.
The giant widened his eyes.
He moved the minigun, trying to aim at him again.
But instantly noticed the weapon had stopped firing.
"Huh?"
He lowered his gaze.
The ammo belt was empty.
"Shi—!"
He tried to quickly move his hands to reload another belt. But he wasn't fast enough.
The demigod leaped forward and slammed both feet directly into the giant's chest.
BOOM.
The giant was sent flying backward, smashing through the ship's railing. The metal violently bent from the impact before the monster disappeared into the ocean below.
A massive splash echoed upward from beneath the ship.
Percy landed back on the ground and rose with a slight motion like nothing had happened. Then he stretched his arms and neck, as if the previous fight had barely been enough to warm him up, while his gaze swept across the surroundings now filled with bullet marks everywhere.
"Well… looks like they upgraded their weapons," he commented while lightly kicking the minigun lying on the floor.
He had only boarded the Princess Andromeda a few minutes ago.
Running into a giant carrying a damn military minigun definitely wasn't something he expected today.
Though he hadn't even needed to draw Riptide or his black sword to deal with him.
The massive ship was way too empty for what it should've been.
But that didn't surprise him much. Most of them were probably out searching for the Ophiotaurus in the boats they had seen from above.
Percy moved forward through the corridor again while looking at the destruction marks on the walls. He could easily tell the bullets were pretty ordinary and would probably work against many weaker demigods, but it would be really difficult for them to pierce celestial bronze defenses. So he didn't really understand why they had changed weapons now. Though honestly, he didn't care enough to think about it further.
Footsteps began echoing through different sections of the ship along with hurried shouts and orders.
"Whatever. I just need to grab Luke and get out of here," Percy said in a cold voice, not too bothered by it, as he tried to remember the path to Luke's room.
But the moment he turned a corner…
Fwoosh!
Percy instinctively tilted his head backward while a spear sliced through the air right in front of his face.
Percy slowly raised his gaze toward the person in front of him.
While the person holding the spear also looked at him and stopped the attack, clearing her throat awkwardly.
It was Thalia, standing there with her spear still extended, now realizing she had almost attacked Percy.
For several seconds, the two simply stared at each other in silence.
Then Thalia looked at the minigun lying on the floor.
"What the hell is that?"
Thalia kept staring at the massive weapon on the ground like she was still trying to process why a monster had been carrying something like that.
"A giant tried to kill me with it," Percy said, though his expression immediately turned serious. "Alright, let's make something clear real quick. For now, my mission is going to be finding Luke and kidnapping him, then beating him until he tells me where Annabeth is. If you want to stay and help, fine. But at least don't get in my way," he added in a serious tone.
Thalia frowned hearing his words. But Percy didn't wait for any response from her. Instead, he suddenly inhaled deeply, drawing a huge amount of air into his lungs before aiming his mouth downward.
"LAAS YAH NIR."
After releasing the Whisper Aura shout, the air vibrated slightly for a brief instant before the entire ship seemed to reveal itself before Percy's eyes. Through the walls, traces of red aura began to form, showing the life force of the people inside the ship. Some massive, belonging to the Laestrygonians. Others smaller, from hellhounds and lesser creatures.
But there wasn't a single human aura.
Percy let out a faint mocking snort. Even though Luke claimed he trusted monsters, it was obvious he didn't trust them enough to help search for the Ophiotaurus, probably only sending the demigods and mortals under his command.
No… wrong. There was one human aura.
It seemed to be moving quickly through the corridors toward Luke's room, like it was in a hurry.
"Found you," Percy murmured while a faint dangerous smile appeared on his face, not doubting for a second that the aura belonged to Luke, who was probably about to call every demigod nearby back after learning Percy was here.
He could already see all the auras moving rapidly toward him from different sections of the ship.
"What are you doing?" Thalia asked, not understanding why Percy was staring through the walls after speaking those strange words. She already understood a little about the abilities Percy had thanks to his master, but she still didn't fully understand them.
"Come on. No point wasting time with these guys. If the demigods get here too early, what I'm planning is going to get annoying," Percy said with a serious look while, thanks to seeing the auras, he knew exactly which directions everyone was coming from to ambush him.