D****, its been a month or something like that before I updated this story, so I would like to say sorry to everyone that enjoys this story that I took this long to do it as I can't use the excuse of school anymore. But irregardless, I would like to say that if the POV of Percy didn't seem to show his anger at hellhounds correctly, then could you please tell via private messaging or reviewing as I just started writing for the first time since I made this story and the others.

Thanks and please enjoy the story ~ Child

Annabeth's POV

When I heard the bark I was starting to really get scared as I may have ran away from a couple of hellhounds before when I was at home, but the barks didn't sound like it came from one, it sounded like it came from a group of them. ADHD only made more anxious and causing me to fidget a lot as I looked around the mines for a place that we could hide in, hopefully one with an odor foul enough that the hellhounds won't even dare to come closer to the hiding spot.

All I saw was old entrances to the mines with wooden beams that looked like they were once strong, now looked slightly gray and brittle. That seemed to be a good place to hide in as there are many entrances into the mines, meaning there are many exits out of it should our entrance cave in. But I kept looking for more stuff to hide in as I would like for our chances of staying alive to be as great as it can be as I rather like living. Sadly I only met failures as barrels which couldn't mask our smell and a mine cart with a tarp covering it didn't seem like a good choice to hide in. Even though trees are normally used by cats to stay away from dogs, I doubt that the same defense measure will work on 500 hundred pound dogs with claws that'll cleave the tree in half instead off raking the bark.

It seemed that the mines were the way to go.

I looked over at Percy to see if he was looking for a place for us to hide in and if he was just standing there looking like he was going to take on a gang of those creatures, I'll kick him in the shins and tell him this isn't the time for bravery or stupidity. Those thoughts were banished however when I gazed upon his form, he still held a mixture of anger and fear in his posture and his eyes were still cloudy. The only thought that came to mind was that I needed to snap him out of it and get him to safety.

With that thought I placed my hands on his tense shoulders

"Percy" I said with my hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

He stood still like an angry statue

Woof! Woof! They're getting closer, I need to get him awake now!

The situation didn't call for a repeat of the snake-woman event, so I went in front of him (he still had that look like I didn't even exist), raised my legs, and kicked in the shin, making his face morph from an angry expression to one of surprise, then back into in anger, though it was directed at me and was less intense than what it was before.

"Annabeth what are you doing, don't you hear them coming closer? Hurry up and hide!" He said while hopping on one leg..

"Percy you also need to hide-" I was cut off

Suddenly his shin seem to be fine again and he stood on both legs and he shouted.

"HIDE! HIDE! HIDE! That's all I hear when it comes to these monsters. I've done that before and you know what it doesn't always work!" His face showed nothing but pure hatred, I know it wasn't directed at me, but still I cowered underneath his glare.

"Besides these monsters need to be destroyed as once they've locked onto a scent that they find savory, they aren't going to stop unless their prey is shown to be stronger than they are or if they succeed in their hunt!" He spat that last word out.

Once he was finished with that tirade, I was left weak, but I knew that without a source of water or any kind of weapon, Percy might as well be a steak with a sign that says "Here I am, Eat me with your jagged teeth!" with a gloved hand pointing at him.

"Percy you know that you can't kill them, especially if they're coming in a pack. You also use water as your main source of offense and defense right? Well guess what, there is no source of water anywhere!" My voice started started out soft, but then louder with each word spoken. I will not let this Seaweed Brain get killed because of his anger and stupidity.

He looked at me with a glare and muttered under his breath "That's never stopped me before."

I didn't give that last sentence much thought as he was still mad and most likely not thinking with the brain he is suppose to have from birth.

"Regardless Percy we need to" I didn't want to say "hide" again as that's what set him off the last time "escape the hellhounds and just hope it works. It's the best option we have right now" I said that last part when he started to protest. To get my point across I leveled him with my own glare.

The glare didn't seem bother him so much, but it seemed that I got through to him as he reluctantly nodded his head and looked at me, waiting for my suggestion on where to hide.

I pointed my finger at the mine entrance as even though it might just cave in, at least there are other exits, plus the smell of the coal and anything else that's inside permeates the air and will throw off the hellhounds' nose when they try to follow us inside.

Woof!

That sounded really close to us so I ran fast into the entrance cuz you know my life depended on it, while Percy looked like a kid that was being sent to his room.

When we entered the mines, the feeling that a pair of eyes was focused on us was gone.

We raced down the tracks of the carts for a minute or two in the dimly lit darkness when we heard the Greek dogs at the mouth of the mine. I knew that they would get confused by the different smells in the air that overpowers ours but that didn't give me much comfort as this was what, as I would feel so much better if we at something that can kill them. We would get caught faster if we didn't zig-zag throughout the mine. We turned left, right and even backtracked sometimes from forks in the tracks to go the other way in another bid to buy time to get away from them; it was when we making another backtrack did I see a small glow coming behind a shredded blanket hanging on a side of the mine.

'Who would live in a mine? Never mind, if someone's living in there I should warn them of the hellhounds.' But I don't think that I should yell to warn whoever is behind the curtain, unless I also wanted the attention of nearby hellhounds.

I nudge Percy when he's about to walk down one of the two tracks, he looks at me with an expression that says 'what'. I point to the makeshift door at the wall of the mine. It takes him a couple of seconds before he gets what I'm trying to say and mouths 'okay'.

I moved to the torn blanket while Percy looks out for any signs that the hellhounds are getting close to us. I lifted the blanket a bit and saw that there was a small fire burning in the center of this room with swords and spears lining one side of the walls with a lonesome shield in the corner, there were some bands, a few canteens and a Ziploc bag of something that looked like lemon squares was also inside the room. I went inside the room completely as I momentarily forgot I was being chased by rabid dogs from Greek Mythology. I looked at the lemon square look-a-like closely and saw that it didn't really look any different from any other lemon square, except the smell that was coming off of it was really alluring, I was tempted to take a bite but I quickly put it down as I remembered that it wasn't mine. I grabbed one of the canteens and uncorked it to look inside, I only saw a yellow liquid and it seemed to give off a vibe that it tasted delicious. As with the lemon square, I quickly put it down and went to scan the swords and spears. Some swords were short, some were long, some with no handles, some with jagged edges, and there were a few blades with cracks on them. The spears really had little variations to them, most of which was the size and the shape of the point. But even though they looked like regular swords and spears I got the feeling that they weren't made of normal metal.

At this point Percy came through the blanket with a face that he tried his best to keep blank, though I could see anger. "Annabeth the hellhounds are coming, I can hear then sniffing."

I quickly snapped back to the fact that I had to run away and I took two of the shortest swords hoping that these were made up of the same stuff as the snake-woman's sword was.

"Why are-" Percy was beginning to question me when I cut him off, the Seaweed Brain just didn't seem to get that these sword could probably give us a fighting chance.

"They were in there and I thought that no one would miss them." I shoved a sword in his hands and that seemed to be a god enough answer for him.

We both got out of the small room and ran as fast as we could to get out of the mines even though the weight of the sword in my hand was uncomfortable. After getting a decent exercise from all that running did we see an opening with trees swaying gently in the bleak night; I wish our moods were as care-free as the trees.

We made it out of the mines but the feeling that someone was watching us was back again. Shortly after that feeling did a couple of hellhounds seem to rise from the shadows of the trees, oh Hades.

Did the Greek Monsters pick up some tactics from humans as was there a hellhound watching the mine to spot us? Was it even a hellhound watching us?

I didn't have enough time to ponder this as a hellhound decided to make the first move and charged at me.

Most people would be frozen stiff with fear that a dog that's red and black all over, the size of a man, and with jagged teeth charging at them at a hundred miles per hour, but as a demigod I jumped out of the way as it moved passed me like a freight train. I landed face-first on the ground while it skidded to a halt as it recovers from its failed assault. I raised my head just to see the glower that was clearly displayed on its face. Instantly I pushed myself off the ground and stood straight up just as it decided to run at me.

It walked when it was within striking distance and started to go in a circle around me in predatory fashion as it looked at with loathing. Even though I turned myself several times to keep the hellhound in my sight at all times, I was still unnerved, the fact that I kept thinking about hat would've happen if my relfexes didn't save me the first time and if it would save me the next time.

Suddenly it whipped its claw at my face. Instinctively I raised my hands to my face, inadvertently raising the forgotten sword to the front of my face. The claw and the sword met, with the claw being deflected and the blade being forced down.

In the fear of the moment, I punched the surprised monster in front of me with my other hand and felt the cold wetness of the nose before I heard a satisfying yelp. It jumped away from me and placed its head on the ground nursing its nose with its paws.

I should've ran up to it and stabbed it in the head or at least kick it in the nose, but I stood still looking at the beast and felt a sense of happiness as I managed to finally hurt one of the many creatures that plagued my life.

It growled, singaling it was done with nursing its nose and breaking me out of my joy. It rosed and bared it teeth at me, but at the moment I didn't care for whatever it did to try and scare me, I was feeling brave towards the monster that I managed to hurt. Then it charged at me like before and when it saw that I was looking at it defiantly, it seemed to growl louder.

It came closer and closer with each step, it didn't look like it had any intentions of stopping. My courage was weakening, I was getting scared with each of those steps, but despite all that I stayed firmly in place. Just when it seemed to be close enough did I close my eyes as I swung my sword albeit a little sluggishly as the weight of the sword didn't entirely agree with me.

I heard a surprised yelp and then the sound of something dissolving as if the Greek dog was hit with acid.

I opened my eyes as I saw a shadow sink into the ground 'I guess that was the hellhound'. I felt a little tired and happier than just a few seconds ago. That all stopped when I saw that the group of hellhounds some ways in front of me looked a little angry, though they didn't lunge at me.

Soon some of them were looking to the right which I thought was to trick me into looking the other way so one of them could kill me. That all changed when I heard sounds in that directions I immediately thought 'Percy!'.

I looked to the right and saw that Percy was alright with the point of his sword touching the ground, but he had that angry expression stuck on his face again. Then I thought that if Percy wasn't even fighting the whole time, why didn't he try and help me? I looked again, but this time not at seagreen-eyed boy, but at anywhere that could have signs of a fight with a hellhound. I noticed paw marks in front of Percy and littered around him.

I heard a bark and found my attention back on the line of mythical monsters in front of me. They were baring their teeth at us all the while growling. Two of them placed a paw forward as if to declare that they were the next challengers, though the dogs seemed to have gotten angrier when they did. One of them went to Percy as the other one fixed me a mean glare.

Percy's POV

Two hellhounds stepped out in front of the group to show that they were next fighters. It seemed that there was some pride amongst this group as they didn't try and gang up on one of us as they seperated and faced me and Annabeth respectively.

The hellhound that I was looking at face to mug glared at me with an appraising look in his eyes. I could tell that this monster was a little more smart than the other beasts. He circled around me once, but stopped after seeing that I would move my body so as to see his ugly nose. He stood on all four of his legs with his red eyes looking for any signs of a twitch, any kind of weakness.

We stood still for some time and we every passing second, the more my eyes had looked at his figure which made my brain send messages to my body to clench my sword tighter with every detail slowly being memorised. My teeth grinding together with the pain that was associated with this creature's kind. The red that was slowly invading my vision, slowly creeping over my eyes so I see the world in a red haze for all the anger that this vile dog's kind brought me.

Without a word, I leveled my sword to my shoulders with both my hands and pointed the tip at the beast and charged at it as quickly as my legs could move. Words were not needed when fighting one of them, it would only serve to give his presence away should he have some kind of surprise.

The monster jumped to the side and when I neared it, I had one hand push the blade in the direction of the animal while the other simply held the weapon in place. I made a clear arc of bronze just as the hellhound crouched to avoid sinking back to Tartarus where the he and the rest of his family belong. It sprung up, giving me a flash of its jagged yellow teeth where there were some dried blood being defiled just by being in the mouth of this monster.

Soon I found myself pinned on the ground with the pads of its paws where crushing my arm. The fangs where now more pronounced as though this thing seemed to have the equivalent of a smile. As some of the drool that escaped from its mouth was dripping onto my face, the gooey, disgusting, fluid sliding down my cheeks or my forehead, I became more enraged. The swords was out of my hands as I struggled to get free, I digged my fingers into the skin, my hands squeezing hard onto the forelegs to stop the blood flow, and my eyes shooting promises of death straight at it's forehead.

In my struggle, I thought to have one of my hands reach to the soil that surrounds me and grabbed some of the earth into my fist. Suddenly the Greek Monster drove its head to my neck, ready to make me into its next meal.

I jerked my head to the side and heard the hellhound got a mouthful of dirt. That wasn't all the dirt though, as I had also thrown the soil in my hand at the beast's head and as luck would have it, my head was facing the hand that held nothing. The paws were lifted from my arms as a cry of pain and surprise was heard.

As soon as the paws were off, my hand drove for the sword and rolled away missing a heavy paw from the blind and wild mythical animal. In the heat of the moment and the pain tolerance that I've built in the last year, I ignored the slight cuts from rolling with the sword and stood up to take a wild swing at the thrashing creature. I slashed into the right of the mug and its shoulder.

No doubt I cut into its brain as it turned completely black and fell to the ground in a glob of a shadow.

As I watch the remains of the creature fall to the ground and turned my gaze towards the living hellhounds, I felt that I wasn't happy with the death of one of them, I wanted the others to keep their fallen friend company down in Tartarus as he reforms. I mean what kind of person would I be if I kept them apart, a monster that's what I would be.

So the staredown between us kept going on with neither of us backing down, unwilling to show the other a moment of weakness. I was brought back to realty when Annabeth yell in pain. I twisted my head to look in her, my anger being replaced by worry and fear, direction and saw that she was sporting a cut on her upper right arm which she had her other hand covering it even though she was still holding the sword in her hand. Worst part of it is that she's paying more attention to the cut than her opponent. She's frozen from the sight of seeing her own blood

As I stared at Annabeth, her scared grey-eyes, and the looming char-black hellhound like a hunting dog for death, I remembered the fear that comes from them.

I started to run to her as soon as I see the hellhound's eyes gleam with delight. The leg muscles tense up in prepration to push her to the ground so it can maul freely. The thought of seeing Annabeth's blood on the teeth of that monster only serves to enrage amd frighten me even more.

I knew I wouldn't be able to reach her in time so I pulled the sword to my back and then flung it at the joyous hellhound.

I shout to get Wisegirl's attenion back on the creature in front of her.

"Annabeth! Stop looking at your cut and look at the big pointy teeth and claws!"

Annabeth turns her head to look at me first, much to my chargin, then snaps her head to look at the opposing animal in front of her. I see the terror in her stormy eyes as she notices the gleam in the hellhound's fiery eye. Just as the dog starts to pounce, my sword flies right in front of its face, just missing a hair's width of its nose. The sword ends up with a quarter of its blade buried in the ground.

Startled, the oversized dog lurches to a stop and just stumbles and falls to the floor.

"Wise Girl stab it!" I practically screamed at her.

She raises the blade slowly and shakily, still conflicted from seeing her own blood. Annabeth brought the blade to the neck of the beast, even though she didn't so much as swung it down than leting the weight of it pull itself down. As the metal was falling down on the neck of the monster, it began to stand, helping the sharp edge pierce through the flesh and seperate it from the body.

I shout to her once more to inform her to get distracted by anything. I know that it must've sounded harsh seeing as she's recovering from the first time of getting hurt by one of the many monsters from Greek Mythology, but I rather have her upset with me than with her dying. I look her over one more time and see that her face and her body language just scream fear.

Tearing my gaze from her, I look at the line of charred dogs in front of me that seemed to seeth anger, no doubt mad that I sort of double teamed with Annabeth to get rid of one of their own. Bit it didn't matter to me how angry they were over losing the chance of getting at least one demigod dead or for a meal, the familiar rage was bubbling up inside of me and a small part of my mind just hopes that Annabeth would live through this night.

Suddenly the dog in the middle barks, causing the others in the line to break up and head for me.

Guess they don't like it when their playmates don't play fair.