20 Chapter 20

T/W for gruesome violence.

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Alex was nimble enough, even at a flat sprint, to dodge around the bigger Cyclops, but the monster was strong enough to flatten him with a swing.

The one-eyed dude was still confused. Alex trailed a spreading wake of shouts and confusion from the few customers who remained; they thought staying and watching the fight was more important than whatever they were doing.

Knowing the mist, it was probably making them see a kid beating up an adult.

The voices gave the cyclops enough warning to turn his head before Alex's swing reached his neck. The monster, faster than Alex expected, deflected the sword strike with his hand, losing a finger in the process, and used the other hand to catch Alex's arm. The cyclops lifted him in the air and squeezed until Alex gritted his teeth and dropped the sword.

"Blink has got you now!" He laughed wickedly, but Alex could only think about his weird name: Blink?

But the boy wasn't done. He stiffened his neck in the air and speared the dude: the top of Alex's head to the side of the monster's already broken jaw. Alex's arms tangled with his, and they tumbled over the tables, scattering pastries and cappuccinos in all directions. The other customers finally scattered, shouting incoherent surprise as the tables went down in splinters. By the time they skidded off the left of it to hit the brick steps on the other side, Alex could hear the ringing of phones calling for the police.

But he didn't care: he landed on top.

The edges of the steps crashing against the cyclop's spine had to hurt like a bitch; the monster's muscles loosened into stunned slackness. Alex spread his wings and locked his legs with the dude's, getting a forearm under his chin to force the head back and cut off his wind. The monster's eyes went from glaze to focus almost instantly when he saw the feathers, mouthing: You, and the half-buried flicker of fear that passed over his face called to something elemental inside Alex; a volcanic surge up from the base of his spine that thundered in his ears and shaded his vision scarlet. And this time, the ring kept quiet.

He was famous now, huh? That was rad.

"Alexander, The Winged One." The Cyclops mumbled.

"You bet your fucking ass it's me."

Alex created additional emphasis with a hammer hand that crushed and spread the regenerated nose across the dude's cheekbones. Blood and dust sprayed; it was on his fist, all over the monster's face, it was on Alex's lips, he could smell and taste it and he no longer cared if he died in the next breathe as long as he took his opponent to the grave with his teeth on the dude's throat.

So Alex hit him again.

The monster struggled beneath him, but he had him now and there was no way he was going to let him go. Alex slammed the dude's head into the edge of the step, and again, and again and again; the grey brick was now cracked and artistically spattered with the crimson of Blink's blood.

But Blink was still conscious, and was smiling up at Alex with those smeary lips and reddened teeth, and Alex had to choose between continuing to beat him up or getting away to grab his sword because, with no celestial bronze, it would take a lot to properly kill the dude.

At about that time, Alex realized Blink had been pounding at the side of his head with his fat elbow. He couldn't get any force behind it, lying down like that; he was doing it mostly to distract Alex from the other hand, which was sliding up the kid's neck to hook a thumb toward his eye.

As Alex swung again, he reared back out of Blink's elbow path and grabbed his upper arm, twisting it around so Blink's back was to him now. The hair on the pack of the cyclops head was matted with blood from a single cut where his scalp split against the edge of the step, and the golden dust fought to recover from the damage. Alex locked his legs around Blink's and rolled them again both over face up just in time — the other waitress, who, like Alex had expected, was also a cyclops, and was winding up for a free shot at his back. She lowered her hand uncertainly.

Alex's left arm snuck around Blink's face, over his eyes, to pull his head back while his right hand tried to reach for the sword. With it, it would only take a single stab through Blink's chest.

He watched from the corner of his eyes the female cyclops make a run for Annabeth.

"Tell her to back off or you're dead," Alex whispered in Blink's ear.

"Back off, Wink," He croaked. He coughed a wad of blood out of his throat, and his voice got stronger and more confident. "Alexander's an old friend of mine. We're not really fighting — this is just how we say hello."

Alex murmured. "You got a nice sense of humour, for a dying monster that is." The shoulder twitch of Blink's shrug felt careless against his chest. "Keep your hands where I can see them."

Blink extended his hands blindly in front of him and wiggled his thick 9 fingers. "Pretty, aren't they?"

Wink, the female one, didn't know what to do.

"You're pretty well-spoken for a Cyclops, aren't you? Did Echidna send you?"

"That bitch? Who knows? I've been busy with my coffee shop."

"Blink, Blink, Blink," Alex whispered in his ear like chiding a girlfriend. "There's no reason to lie: Think of this as a deathbed confession."

Blink chuckled. "Then there's also no reason to tell the truth. But I am, anyway. You're not worth lying to."

Alex believed him, despite everything. If he remembered correctly, cyclops liked the taste of human flesh and also went to Tartarus after death, but most of them were actually sons and daughters of the Sea God. But there was no reason for Poseidon to want him dead… probably.

That knowledge spread confusion through Alex's body.

"Last question: Why do monsters like my smell so much? And who the hell is the Crooked One?"

Blink's tone was mocking. "That's two questions."

The young demigod snorted. He didn't really need to know these answers badly enough to make him listen to Blink's crap worth his time, so he tightened the grip on the monster's neck to turn him into dust.

The neck barely bulged as if Blink's flesh had become steel.

Stupidly, Alex tried the same once more — he just couldn't believe it didn't work. When it didn't bulge again, he wasted a full second staring like an idiot at his hands like they had betrayed him.

He began to understand why Blink wasn't scared.

Well, he was in trouble, wasn't he?

Blink spoke in a voice bright but silky soft, "And now, for my next trick…"

The cyclops reached back and took Alex's left shoulder with one hand grip so crushing the boy didn't even feel pain: his whole arm went numb. Then he peeled Alex off him with irresistible strength — no art involved, just a long, smooth yank — and he came to his feet, holding Alex dangling in the air.

"Cyclops were always better than demigods," Blink said. "But now, I've been blessed by the Crooked One and Mother Earth. They made me faster, vastly stronger and more durable. They created a spell out of the mist just for me; they call it Blink's Buckler. You like it?"

Alex kicked him in the face, a short jab that smacked the ball of his foot into his broken nose, but Blink laughed at him. He caught Alex's legs with his free hand and lifted him flailing up high.

And he threw him over the tables, through the large glass wall leading outside.

Up, out of the shop — arcing high. Blink had more raw strength than every other monster Alex had fought before, possibly even the Nemean Lion. Alex felt the silver bracelet as he tumbled through the air and glass shards while people tried to duck out of his path.

His body, using the wings, sorted out the landing on its own; Alex's full attention was consumed with how he was going to beat Blink.

He didn't know where Annabeth had hidden, but he could see Wink looking for her, so he had to be quick about it.

By the time Alex crashed into a knot of people and they all went down to a surprisingly soft landing, he'd come to a couple of conclusions.

One, strength alone wouldn't help Blink for shit against Alex's sword, and—

Two, if this invulnerability of his was all he'd like Alex to think it was, the boy wouldn't have been able to break his nose.

Alex could still beat him; he just had to alter his tactics to meet a changed situation. He had a hypothesis about this magic that protected him — and like any good scientist, he had an experiment in mind to turn this hypothesis into a theory.

The people Alex landed on thrash away from him in a tangle of limbs, knocking him around a little, so he was still fighting to gain his feet as the crowd parts and Blink vaulted the rail of broken glass. He wiped his bloody lips with the back of his hand and stalked toward Alex.

"You're a lucky kid, Alexander," He said. "I made a promise—"

The best time to catch someone off guard was while they were still talking — too much of their attention was on what they'd say next. Still, on his knees, Alex willed for a small shadow hand to grab his sword and throw it at Blink's back.

"Puny tricks won't work, demigod."

There wasn't much force behind the throw, but force wasn't what Alex needed. Flying through the air, the blade tilted a bit towards his head, but Blink slapped it irritably aside — but it didn't cut his hand like before because that was where he instinctively focused that defence of his. Alex's good arm tensed with power: a thin, long dark spike hit Blink's leg an inch above the knee, slicing his green pants, and cutting the skin beneath.

It was only a little stab; a thin line of crimson droplets dropped to the ground. A hardly noticeable wound — but Blink looked down on it, and Alex looked at him, and when the monster's eye came back up, the kid saw the faintest perceptible twitch of uncertainty at its corner.

Alex stood up, catching the celestial bronze xiphos from the air.

"He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword," Alex told him. "This is probably blasphemy for the Gods in Olympus, but I like the quote. And where's your sword, Blink?"

The boy could see something else in the cyclop's eye now: the frenzy. He'd gone blood simple.

It was like looking at a wild animal.

Blink then spoke, inexplicably, "Fuck Kronos."

Who?

And he sprang at Alex, who leapt to meet him.