27 Chapter 27

Another flash of lightning lighted up their surroundings for a second: "Yeah! I'll deep fry your asses!" an acute voice exclaimed.

"Asses is a bad word, Thalia!" Luke shouted from the driver's window.

The fact that Alex could hear him over the rain and the sound of the engine made it clear Luke was making an effort to be heard. At that moment, he realized that the two demigods were likely just as scared as him and were reacting in the same way. It was... exhilarating. Alex frowned, recognizing the alien excitement for danger in his chest. He hadn't had any temper issues since he started fighting monsters; it was like a part of him enjoyed fighting for his life.

Was that a universal demigod thing, or was it something else?

The truck turned left at an intersection. Alex looked to his right; something was moving in the line of trees. He thinned his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of it with the freezing rain shortening his sight. He reached for his sword.

When he was finally able to make out the figure of another baby drakon, the monster had already leapt from the left side of the truck; to Alex's right. The young demigod pushed Thalia out of the way, who was too busy laughing with all the adrenaline built up, and slashed his sword at the drakon's face.

A loud clang, similar to metal meeting metal echoed, but Alex was able to throw the beast tumbling backwards from where it came from, leaving it with a shallow wound across the snout. It yelped like a hurt puppy as it rolled along the asphalt and disappeared behind the fog-like rain.

"Fuck yeah!" Alex let out unintentionally. A loud "Hey!" made him chuckle nervously and clutch his sword tighter.

Just like clockwork, another baby drakon caught up to the truck. Alex and Thalia readied themselves for when it'd leap at them, but it never did. A gargling sound escaped its throat, and a jet of acid came shooting at them. Luke wouldn't be able to dodge on time, so Alex had to think on his feet. He raised his left arm and shouted "Aegis!"

The silver shield blocked most of the jet though some of the acid still splashed Alex. He hissed in pain before shaking his shield arm to get rid of the rest. That green gas left the drakon's nostrils as he galloped after them. It gargled again, readying another attack. 

"Thalia!" Alex shouted, and the punk girl obliged.

But she was smarter this time. She charged her attack, feeling her black hair rise in the air. She waited and waited, and only when the baby drakon had opened its maw to spit more acid, did she yell and fire off her attack. Thunder rumbled in the sky and a sharp lighting descended from above, striking the punk girl before she redirected it to the drakon. 

The beast, quite literally, ate the attack. What looked like regret flashed in its eyes before it burst into golden dust like a fireworks show. 

Alex and Thalia looked at each other with gleeful expressions, but that moment of distraction caused Alex to have his back to the trees on the left. Another one of the baby drakons leapt from the forest, hellbent on taking at least one of the demigods from the trunk. 

When Thalia noticed the drakon, she tried to push Alex away, but the monster was already too close. It tackled Alex, and its mouth clamped down on the demigod, who could only yell in pain as the monster took him into the woods.

"No!" Thalia screamed as Luke, who couldn't hear anything properly through the rain, hit the pedal and sped away, thinking the drakons were getting closer.

==========

When the monster crashed into the trees, Alex felt its teeth digging deeper into his flesh and splinters of wood stabbing him in the back as if he'd fallen on top of a bed full of spikes.

They rolled through the bush-covered ground like a bowling ball and the trees the pins. Alex tried to force the monster's mouth open to stop its teeth from reaching his bones, but it felt like a steel clamp had been fastened around him as if he were a piece of wood that was about to get drilled into another.

A moment later their momentum was weak enough that a large oak stopped them. The baby drakon was trashing around, trying to completely close its mouth, while Alex fought for his life to keep it open. He could feel and see the acidic spit leaking from the monster's teeth, burning the kid's flesh and causing agonizing pain. He had never felt anything as bad.

"Aegis!" He summoned, in a mix of sobs and a shout to give himself courage. The shield opened without a hitch, yet, nothing happened. The drakon's eyes couldn't see Medusa's face in the centre of the shield, so it only helped Alex by giving him some room on the left side.

He was desperate. Death was the only outcome if he didn't do anything in the next five seconds. Some of the teeth were already deep into his body, scraping bones and tearing flesh when the drakon moved around. The pain was so much he didn't feel it at all; his body was going into shock. Acid was entering his wounds, and soon it would melt him from within. 

So he did the only thing his awfully calm ADHD brain came up with. With the little room opening his shield had given him, he turned sideways and felt the lower teeth of the drakon dig into his back instead of his right arm. He moved deeper into the monster's mouth, to the point he must've looked like a bone in a dog's mouth, but he had no choice. He moved his left arm slightly upwards — the perfect amount that would make an equal trade of more teeth stabbing him for what he wanted. 

It must've only seen the edges of the face in the shield; perhaps some of the snake hair, or a glimpse of the terrifying mouth. Alex wasn't sure; his vision was what looking through a telescope looked like, minus the zoom. Even so, that small peek was what Alex needed, for the drakon loosened its bite for a second. 

He moved his torso like he was doing a curl-up and, without thinking, bit down on the monster's right eye as if it was a fucking meatball. It tasted horrible, by the way.

Besides a few spots, barely any light penetrated the thick canopy of trees above.

The drakon screeched in agony. It stepped away, rolling and running its snout across the dirt as if it would help with the pain. Alex spat a mix of his blood and golden dust on the ground. He ripped his shredded t-shirt away. Looking at the baby drakon in front of him, the feeling he had with Blink sometime ago came back. He'd send the beast to Tartarus even if he had to bite down its other eye. 

A familiar glimmer caught his attention. A good feet away from him was his celestial bronze sword sticking out of some bushes. Good, he thought. He did have it with him while they were crashing against the trees. 

But he didn't need it for what he was about to do now. The drakon, perhaps because it was so young, lacked the situational awareness to realize Alex was right beside him while it kept trying to soothe the pain from one less eye. The young demigod looked at the creature that was the size of a truck, curling up on the ground, trashing and roaring. 

Alex was bleeding from more wounds than he could count. Both of his forearms were riddled with burns, and his back felt so torn that he couldn't even bring out his wings. But he didn't care.

He balled his hands into fists and clasped them together; he raised his arms as a lumberjack did with his axe before cutting a log. And then Alex brought them down just like an axe, his log the gaping eye wound of the drakon. But Alex wasn't a lumberjack; he didn't know how to cut a log in one swing. So he swung again. And again. And again. 

Golden dust was getting everywhere. His eyes, mouth, hands, arms and chest. It was almost like sand; Alex didn't like sand. It was coarse and rough and irritating, and it got everywhere. And that made him hate the monster even more. 

The drakon yelped and screeched at first. It couldn't move — Alex had trapped its serpent-like body using his body weight. He didn't weigh that much, but it was enough for the drakon to be still enough so that his first few punches landed. After the third one, it stopped letting sounds out of its throat and focused on trying to run away.

No matter what it did, Alex had the drakon pinned down. At some point, when Alex had lost the number of times he'd punched it, the monster finally stopped moving altogether, and the kid barely took notice of the golden burst beneath him that made him fall to his knees. 

He forced himself up and limped to grab his sword. His muscles were screaming for rest, so much so that his left leg cramped and he had to hammer it with his fist to get the muscle to relax.

A low screech made him whirl around and raise his sword and shield. The two other drakons were growling and slowly approaching him. Alex had nowhere to run; not that he could, with his body like that. His heart felt like a drum in his chest as the drakon got closer and closer.

The first drakon jumped, mouth wide with rows of knife-like teeth. He dived to the side, feeling a whoosh of air when the creature's head slammed into the tree where he had stood moments before. Splinters flew, and Alex kept moving.

He tried to drive his blade through the underbelly of the beast as it struggled to free its fangs from the wood but was tackled by its sibling. This drakon had also tried to bite down on Alex, but the kid quickly raised his shield, resulting in a weak headbutt that he quickly recovered from with a roll.

This time, the drakons attacked in unison, one from the front and the other circling to flank him. Alex's leg cramped again when he tried to sprint towards the first monster, so he sliced his thigh with the sword. More blood leaked, but at his point, it wouldn't make any difference.

Alex ran properly this time; the adrenaline kept him awake and subsided the pain. He slid under the first monster's belly and slashed upwards. The drakon roared in pain and rage. It staggered, trying to comprehend the gaping wound that Alex opened on its underside.

The young demigod whirled on himself, raising his shield again. The last drakon was cautious, circling patiently around him like a predator. Alex knew he couldn't outwait it, or soon he'd bleed to death.

With a defiant cry, he charged. He feinted an attack to the left, and the monster followed him by twisting its body for a tail strike, but Alex dove to the right, narrowly avoiding the tail and a snap of its jaws. On the left side of the monster, it was completely defenceless so, in one fluid motion, Alex plunged his sword into the spot of its neck where the scales weren't as hard. The creature's cry was cut short as it collapsed, twitching, before slowly turning into dust like its siblings.

Breathing heavily, Alex stood straight amidst the carnage of ripped trees and gold. He was so drained he could only stare blankly in front of him and feel the raindrops on his body. But, like always, fate liked to play tricks on him. 

He felt a rush of air on his back. It's just the wind, he thought. But then it got hard to breathe, and his lungs felt like they were on fire. The wounds on his back felt as if someone touched them with a fireplace poker. He looked up and backward.

The mother drakon, in all her glory, was staring at him right from above, acidic gas leaving her nostrils like chimneys, and acid dripping down her maw like saliva. 

'I'm fucked.'