Nico's point of view

I headed toward the three demigods who were fighting the nemean lion. It was obvious that they were having a hard time against the monster since their weapons just bounced off its metal hide. I frowned swords wouldn't be much use against this monster since the only vulnerable areas of its body are its eyes and mouth.

I remembered the story of how it was beaten the last time, and I knew that arrows would be our best option to beat it. Unfortunately the only one of us that had a bow and arrows was Luke, and I didn't know if he would be a good enough archer for this. I figured that swords were probably his best weapon considering that Percy's his father.

Regardless Luke is our best option right now, unless a child of Apollo, Eros, or a Hunter shows up to help Luke is the only archer we've got. As I was thinking about that I summoned a few of the dead, I kind of felt bad about it since they wouldn't stand a chance against the monster, but I needed a distraction. I yelled "Luke use your bow!" He did as I had said and quickly returned his sword and shield to the form of a ring and a watch and removed his bow from his back and fit an arrow to the string. As he tried to find a good shot at the monster it must have figured out what Luke was doing or something, because it prepared to pounce on him.

I yelled at the monster trying to get its attention off Luke but it was focused on him. I yelled "Luke move!" But he was frozen to the spot focused on something. Finally the son of Nike shoved Luke out of the way, but that left him at the mercy of the monster. And it was only seconds after Luke was out of the way that the monster pounced. One of its huge paws smacked the son of Nike to the ground, as the monster landed one of its claws pierced his armor, and his body. Only seconds later I felt his soul leave his body, and I knew Hudson had felt it too.

I guess when he saw the looks on our faces Luke put the pieces together and figured out that his friend was gone. His expression changed to a sad one for a moment, but it quickly changed to an angry one. He returned his attention to the monster that had just killed his friend. I could tell that Luke was focusing trying to get a good shot, but it looked like he wasn't having much luck since the monster kept his eyes closed to the point that they were slits, and its mouth was almost completely closed except for when it roared.

"I can't get a good shot!" Luke complained frustrated. I remembered the story of how Percy, Thalia, Grover, Bianca and Zoe had beaten it and I knew that we would have to do something similar. I couldn't see any other way to beat it. I yelled at the monster once again trying to draw its attention, this time I succeeded. It looked at me and roared, its mouth opening wider, Luke was still trying to get a good shot at the monster.

Remembering what Percy had done I picked up a chunk of broken asphalt from the ground, not very edible I know but neither was what Percy threw at it the last time. Besides we didn't exactly have food to throw at it right now, we were trying to avoid being its dinner ourselves. So I threw the chunk of asphalt at the monster, its eyes and mouth opened wider as it tried to swallow it. Just after this Luke shifted his stance slightly adjusting his aim and then let his arrow fly.

The arrow flew into the monster's mouth and not long after the monster dissolved leaving behind its pelt as a spoil of war. I walked over and picked it up we exchanged glances wondering who should take it. We fought off less powerful monsters as we argued about it. Eventually Hudson and I won the argument since we both agreed that it had probably been Luke's arrow that had killed it. the chunk of asphalt that I threw hadn't been that bid it had just been meant as something to distract the monster and to get it to open its mouth further, if Luke hadn't shot his arrow when he had the monster probably would have been able to swallow the asphalt it just wouldn't have been very appetizing.

It was clear to me that Luke was rather stubborn, once he got his mind set on something it took a lot of arguing to change his mind. Also he seemed reluctant to take the credit for his part in defeating the monster. Both of those traits were ones that I suspected he had gotten from Percy. Obviously I didn't know Luke's mother but I did know Percy. So I suspected that Luke had got those traits from him.

Percy's point of view

I fought my way forward, it seems that I will be facing beef head yet again. I'm seriously getting tired of having to deal with him though. When I reached him I said "Beefhead will you seriously ever learn?" Once he realized who I was he looked plenty mad. He charged at me, guess he hadn't gotten any smarter while in Tartarus.

When he was close enough I sliced off both his horns and then I stabbed him in the stomach. He disintegrated and I kept fighting. After a while I ran into an old friend, Chris Rodriguez, he was fighting a group of dracnae, I killed a couple of them leaving the rest to him when he noticed me he said "Percy." I said "Long time no see Chris."

We were silent for a bit concentrating on the battle until I asked "Where's Clarisse? I never saw her at the meeting, or in the battles so far? Did she stay back to protect camp?" He snorted and said "Hardly, she'd want to be where the fighting is, and I'm sure camp is probably fine." "Then why..." I asked trailing off. He answered "She's out of commission for a while. She can't really fight right now." He was silent waiting for me to get it.

I thought to myself for a minute and then decided that there was only one thing that made sense. Clarisse wouldn't let a monster injure her badly enough to put her out of commission for any length of time, and she is just too good a fighter to let another camper or monster slip past her guard.

So there was only one logical explanation that I could think of. I asked "Is she..." he said with a smile on his face "Yeah, we found out three months ago. We were silent for a while before Chris spoke again. He said "I'm a bit worried to be honest, I'm not worried about being a father again, I mean we already have one kid. What I'm worried about when this war is over, and we go back to camp. When Clarisse was pregnant with Max she just about killed me a couple times, even when she was eight months pregnant."

I struggled to hold back laughter, I could totally imagine Clarisse doing that. I tried to be sympathetic but I hadn't had to deal with anything like that myself since I had to leave amber, and even if I had been able to stay I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have tried to kill me, not that she would have been able to anyway. Once again we stopped talking and continued to fight. But once again Chris spoke again he said "Percy" "Yeah" I answered he continued and said "We don't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl since we decided to be surprised, but if it's a girl we will probably call her Silena." I couldn't stop a smile from crossing my face. I admitted to Chris that I had actually suggested that name to amber, as a possible name before she knew what she would be having. He didn't seem all that surprised by that news. We fought on the battle seeming almost endless.