The Adventure That Lies Ahead | PJO x HP

CHAPTER 31

"You'd think he'd run out of rocks," Isa muttered.

"Swim for it!" Grover said.

He and Clarisse plunged into the surf. Annabeth hung onto Clarisse's neck and tried to paddle with one hand, the wry Fleece weighing her down.

Isa tried to will the water to help them, but she was too concentrated on Polyphemus.

But the monster's attention wasn't on the Fleece.

"You, young Cyclops!" Polyphemus roared. "Traitor to your kind!"

Tyson froze.

"Don't listen to him!" Percy pleaded. "Come on."

Percy and Isa pulled in Tyson's arm, but they might as well have been pulling a mountain. He turned and faced the older Cyclops. "I am not a traitor."

"You serve mortals!" Polyphemus shouted. "Thieving humans!"

Polyphemus threw his first boulder. Tyson swatted it aside with his fist.

"Not a traitor," Tyson said. "And you are not my kind."

"Death or victory!" Polyphemus charged into the surf, but his foot was still wounded. He immediately stumbled and fell on his face. That would've been funny, except he started to get up again, spitting salt water and growling.

"Percy! Isa!" Clarisse yelled. "Come on!"

They were almost to the ship with the Fleece. If Isa could just keep the monster distracted a little longer...

"Go," Tyson told his siblings. "I will hold Big Ugly."

"No! He'll kill you," Isa told him. They'd already lost Tyson once. They weren't going to lose him again. "We'll fight him together."

"Together," Tyson agreed.

Percy and Isa drew their sword.

Polyphemus advanced carefully, limping worse then ever. But there was nothing wrong with his throwing arm. He chuckled his second boulder. Percy and Isa dived to one side. But they still would've been squashed if Tyson's fist hadn't blasted the rock to rubble.

Isa willed the sea to rise. A six-meter wave surged up, lifting her and Percy on its crest. They rode towards the Cyclops and kicked him in the eye, leaping over his head as the water blasted him onto the beach.

"Destroy you!" Polyphemus spluttered. "Fleece stealer!"

"You stole the Fleece!" Percy yelled.

"You've been using it to lure satyrs to their deaths!" Isa yelled.

"So? Satyrs good eating!"

"The Fleece should be used to heal! It belongs to the children of the gods!" Isa said.

"I am a child of the gods!" Polyphemus sailed at them, but they sidestepped. "Father Poseidon, curse these thieves!" He was blinking hard now, like he could barely see, and Isa and Percy realized he was targeting by the sound of their voice.

"Poseidon won't curse us," Percy said, backing up as the Cyclops grabbed the air. "We're his children, too. He won't play favorites."

Polyphemus roared. He ripped an olive tree out of the side of the cliff and smashed it where they'd been standing a moment before. "Humans not the same! Nasty, tricky, lying!"

Grover was helping Annabeth aboard the ship. Clarisse was waving frantically at Percy and Isa, telling them to come.

Tyson worked his way around Polyphemus, trying to get behind him.