PFC Chapter 445: Baka!
Chapter 445: Baka!
[Third Person Pov]
As Nico was bleeding out, he held his gun tightly in one hand while the other pressed firmly against the wound in his chest. Every breath he took sounded strained. The sharp cracks of gunfire echoed through the dark ruins as he kept firing at anything that moved. Beside him, Bianca was kneeling on the dusty stone floor, frantically digging through her bag for a healing potion while trying not to panic.
"These undead are surprisingly agile," Nox nonchalantly stated.
Hands made of shadows burst from the ground and walls, trying to grab hold of the undead creatures, but they moved far too quickly. They crawled on all fours across the broken stone like animals, their limbs twisting unnaturally while low growls and rapid clicking sounds escaped their throats as they rushed toward the group.
Dagger-like crosses of light suddenly pierced through several of the undead, stabbing repeatedly into their bodies and pinning them against the walls and floor. Guttural screams echoed through the chamber as their bodies twitched violently.
"If you’re too weak just say that," Lucerna scoffed.
She summoned more glowing daggers around herself while gracefully weaving through the horde. The floating weapons shot forward one after another, tearing through skulls and limbs with precise accuracy.
"Weak?! You’re their natural enemy, so of course you would have the advantage here," Nox snapped back.
His hands transformed into dark claws as he charged directly into the undead. He decapitated one creature cleanly before pivoting toward another and driving his entire arm through its chest. Black blood splattered across the floor as he ripped his arm free.
Golden orbs of light suddenly shot across the battlefield, exploding violently against the undead. The blasts illuminated the ruins in flashes of gold while tearing apart entire sections of the horde.
"Sounds like an excuse to me."
"Careful you dimwit!" Nox exclaimed.
He conjured twin hatchets into his hands while dodging between lunging undead. His movements were quick and controlled as he countered their attacks with brutal efficiency. "We need to save the bodies for Father’s army!"
Nox’s sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, yet somehow his vest and dress shirt remained pristine despite the blood staining the walls and floor around him. "Aim for their heads if you have to, just leave the rest of the bodies for Father," Nox instructed.
One of the undead lunged at him snarling wildly. Nox buried a hatchet into its forehead, holding the creature in place long enough to slice its head off with the other weapon.
"Ughh, can you stop being a papa’s boy for five minutes," Lucerna groaned.
Even so, she followed his instructions. Twin crossbows formed in her hands, both glowing with holy light. She fired rapidly, launching cross-shaped daggers that exploded the undeads’ heads apart while leaving the bodies mostly intact.
The two siblings eventually met back to back against the advancing horde.
"You’re just mad I’m obviously the favorite," Nox said confidently while glancing over his shoulder at her, his hatchets crossed defensively in front of him.
"Maybe it’s because you don’t have a mouth that you can talk nonsense so confidently," Lucerna replied dryly, lifting both crossbows beside her face.
At the exact same moment, they turned toward each other. Lucerna fired a shot over Nox’s shoulder while Nox hurled one of his hatchets past her. Both attacks struck the head of an undead that had been seconds away from pouncing on them.
"Bullseye!" they both cheered confidently.
"As much as I enjoy seeing the two of you bonding, it’s starting to annoy me that you’re fighting for Lucian’s affection instead of mine," Annabeth commented.
As she spoke, she withdrew several terracotta doll soldiers from her pouch. She cast a spell over them mid-motion, causing the tiny figures to rapidly grow into full-sized soldiers while simultaneously animating them.
The clay soldiers immediately formed a defensive line in front of Nico and Bianca, shields raised and spears ready as the undead continued charging toward them.
"You’re blocking my shot," Nico grunted, trying to angle his gun around the soldiers while struggling to focus through the pain.
"Nico, drink the damn potion," Bianca growled, holding the opened bottle near his lips.
"Nebula, talk to me girl," Annabeth called out while already reaching back into her pouch for more tools.
"I can’t find him. This Ghul-Djinn is too good at hiding. He could be anywhere," Nebula admitted, clearly frustrated by her failure.
"It’s okay. These Djinn are masters of deceit and trickery," Annabeth reassured her while scanning the ruins carefully, her mind already working through possibilities.
She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully as another idea slowly formed in her head.
"Luckily for us, finding him was the easy way out. Now it looks like we have to do this the hard way."
Annabeth reached into her bag and pulled out her phoenix feathers before immediately dropping to one knee on the stone floor. Without wasting a second, she began drawing across the ancient ruins with quick and precise movements, glowing lines forming beneath the feather’s tip.
"What’s the hard way?" Nebula asked curiously while blasting another undead away with a burst of energy.
"Since we can’t find it on our own, we’ll use a little outside help," Annabeth explained quickly without looking up from her work. "I’m going to summon another Djinn here. Djinn can get extremely territorial over their burial grounds, so if another one appears, the two of them are guaranteed to fight each other."
She continued carving symbols into the floor while speaking rapidly.
"Even if this one somehow wins, it’ll still expose itself and burn through most of its strength in the process. That gives us our opening."
Another undead rushed toward her, only for a terracotta soldier to intercept it with a spear through the chest.
"I need all of you protecting me while I finish this," Annabeth warned seriously. "If I mess this up, I could summon the wrong thing. Nico, Bianca, I need your protection too!"
"Yes ma’am!" Nico exclaimed immediately.
Bianca helped pull him back onto his feet before dragging him behind the line of terracotta soldiers.
Nico, Bianca, Nebula, Nox, Lucerna, and Aerarius all threw themselves back into the fight while Annabeth continued constructing the magic circle. The terracotta soldiers stood in formation around her, shields raised as the undead horde crashed into them from every direction.
Despite their efforts, the overwhelming numbers made it difficult to hold the line.
One by one, the terracotta soldiers were smashed apart. Clay limbs shattered across the floor while shields splintered under the undead assault.
"Ahhh!" Nico shouted as one of the undead slammed into him hard enough to throw him against a wall.
"Nico!" Bianca yelled in panic.
Her momentary distraction cost her immediately. An undead lunged straight at her and pinned her to the ground. Bianca screamed as she shoved her bow horizontally between its jaws and neck, barely keeping its snapping teeth away from her face.
Lucerna was forced backward by several undead at once. While retreating, she failed to notice the corpse laying behind her foot.
"Ahhh!" she cried as she tripped and fell backwards onto the stone floor.
"Lucerna!!" Nox and the others shouted in horror.
"Touch my sister and you’ll be more dead than you already are!! Do you hear me?!" Nox roared.
The shadows covering his body deepened violently, almost moving like living creatures themselves as rage overtook him.
Without hesitation, Nox tore through the undead toward Lucerna while Nebula rushed toward Nico. At the same time, Aerarius dove toward Bianca and covered her body from head to toe in bronze-gold armor just as the undead nearly sank its teeth into her shoulder.
Above them all, the hidden Djinn clung to the ceiling in complete camouflage. Its glowing eyes carefully observed the battlefield, watching everyone desperately struggle to keep the undead away from Annabeth.
But Annabeth herself never stopped moving.
Still crouched over the nearly completed magic circle, she reached into her pouch and withdrew an old book. She flipped through several pages before beginning to chant softly in Arabic.
"Hailuusyin."
The Djinn stiffened.
Annabeth repeated the chant again while continuing to trace symbols into the ground.
"Hailuusyin."
The creature started growing visibly restless.
"Hailuusyin."
The Djinn’s anxiety rapidly turned into panic. It could sense exactly what she was trying to do, and worse, it realized the window to stop her was rapidly disappearing as the others recovered and regrouped.
Unable to tolerate it any longer, the Djinn finally attacked.
It dropped from the ceiling and transformed mid-air into a monstrous beast covered in blackened flesh, elongated claws, and rows of razor-sharp teeth. With a furious roar, it lunged directly toward Annabeth.
Its claws slashed through her body.
Then her entire form exploded into a cloud of magical mist.
The Djinn froze.
Confused, it looked around wildly before suddenly realizing where it was standing.
The magic circle.
Its glowing eyes widened as it slowly turned around.
The real Annabeth was crouched several feet away with one hand pressed against the completed circle. Mist rolled off her shoulders as the illusion hiding her faded away completely.
A large, deeply malevolent grin spread across her lips. She raised her middle finger toward the trapped Djinn before she exclaimed. "As Lucian would say at a time like this... BAKA!"
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