Chapter 25 : The chariot race

 I just finished the throne of fire, and I decided that I would make the next crossover a bit more shorter. Also I just started with the Demigod diaries which I haven't read since it was not published in my country. Maybe they'll be useful, maybe not. However here's the next chapter!

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Nyx made my life at camp...challenging.

After the incident at the Dinner Pavilion Dionysus had decided it was not safe to let Nyx roam around free which I agreed on. However because I took her to camp Dionysus decided I had to look after her, preventing her from destroying stuff. killing campers and so on. Nyx had no problems with the fact she was stuck to me.

Me however, it made my day at camp certainly more interesting. Since Tantalus released all the campers from their regular activities in preparation of the chariot race Nyx and I had a lot of free time to kill before we would sneak away with Tyson. Nyx had already claimed me as her teammate for the chariot race. I decided I would drive and Nyx would fight off the other teams for the safety of everyone. But since Nyx already had a chariot which she would conceal in mist. Besides that there was not much for us to do. So Nyx hung around at camp with me which was a constant quest for me. Nyx's moral compass was broken. She had no problem with killing and torturing nor did she care much about what she said.

For some reason she disliked random campers and liked others. She disliked Clarisse and Annabeth. Sometimes she would shadow travel behind them and made her whip strike the ground behind them, startling them.

No one really knew why Nyx hated Annabeth but they all grew used to it. When Annabeth was gone for a day people were already looking at Nyx with shock in their eyes.

When Annabeth came back from the library in Manhattan, she was surprised to see her cabin had started planning her funeral.

She liked Connor but disliked Travis which was strange to say the least since they were almost identical. Well, you get the idea. She was completely random with her friendships.

In fact the strangest thing was the fact that Dionysus seemed to like Nyx. He always said Nyx instead of some kind of variation of her name. Even though he never showed his likings openly toward Nyx he always turned a blind eye towards her antics.

That was bad news for Tantalus who was basically bullied by Nyx. She would always shadow traveled away when I wasn't looking and pushed him from behind against walls, into the lake or just threw him into sharp objects. (Read swords they are literally everywhere at camp) and then shadow traveled away. All the surrounding campers would swear they had no idea what happened.

Campers were rumoring behind our back about our strange relationship. They wondered why Nyx seemed eerily close to me and why we knew each other so well. I couldn't really tell them she was in my head for the last year so I kept it vague which led to more rumors. The Aphrodite campers thought we were in love, but Nyx naturally was totally oblivious to these rumors.

Nyx fought with two daggers and a whip, she tried to combine fighting with a whip and a dagger at the same time but that did not work out. Her combat skills were better than most campers but some of them could still beat her. Luckily I was also still better than her in a fight. Unless she would use her Shadow Travel during the fight which was unfair to say the least.

With the hearth quenched I could no longer use my fire powers. My water powers suffered as well. Pouring water from the air made me feel tired as hell and bending it was also way difficult for me. For some reason I had no problem summoning FrostSilver which made me sigh in relief. I was getting used to the ice sword and I was not looking forward to traveling the sea of monsters without it.

'Why do we let him ride again?' Shade asked.

Nyx and I stood nervously on her chariot. She named it NightShiver but I refused to call it that. The other teams were getting their chariots to the racing line.

'Because I say so.' Nyx said sternly.

The Stoll brothers had their own chariot which looked like it was about to break but I knew they probably had some tricks up their sleeve. They were Hermes kids after all.

The Hephaestus children had their mechanical chariot with automaton horses. Charles eyed Shade and Shadow with suspicion.

'Where do you two get those horses?" He asked. I had no idea what he saw through the mist Nyx had surrounded our chariot with but it must have been scary because he didn't look cheerful.

Nyx shrugged. "Got them from my mom."

'I did not name them, though.' Chaos said.

'You idiot, they think your godly parent is Thanatos.' I said but Nyx shrugged it off.

Charles just shook his head. He was used to the weirdness of Nyx.

A golden chariot came up the line and it made Nyx shiver. So bright was it. "Apollo." She muttered angrily.

'Oh...my chariot is ten times brighter.' Hemera said, taunting her mother.

'Yes, I know, she always parks it next to mine.' Nyx said.

'You guys have parking spots?'

'Don't bother asking.' Aether said.

"Get ready for war!" Clarisse challenged the other drivers from her chariot. Hers was colored with blood red paint and pulled by two skeleton horses. She didn't look nervous in the slightest. Her eyes met mine. "You are so dead Percy."

"No killing remember." I muttered.

"Maiming?" Nyx pouted.

"Nope."

To my surprise a fifth chariot joined the race, a sea-green chariot with realistically painted waves and vines intertwining on the sides. It was pulled by two white horses. Katie and Tyson had decided to team up apparently, which surprised everyone. Katie was mostly peaceful and stayed to herself (and her garden) so the fact that she was taking part in this was worth re-considering our odds.

Katie was holding onto the reins while Tyson had a big spear in his hand and waved at us with a toothy smile. "Hey brother!"

"You two are joining the race as well?" I asked Katie and Tyson.

"Yup!" Tyson smiled while Katie just looked determined.

I was about to ask Katie's reason for joining the race when Tantalus clapped his hands together.

Tantalus coughed before saying halfheartedly, "you all know the rules. A quarter-mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed. Dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill someone!" He glared at Nyx who returned a smile while summoning a black whip in her hand.

All around us ominous looking birds had gathered and settled down on the trees, watching us. I already had informed Nyx about them but she refused to lose the race so we took an air horn with us. It was one of those you could buy for a dollar and had the only purpose of making noise.

"Charioteers!" Tantalus shouted. "Attend your mark!" He waved his hand and the starting signal dropped.

"GO!" Nyx yelled as all the chariots came to life.

Nyx and I had decided not to use "shadow-speed" because, well I don't need to explain that.

We charged forward with the Hephaestus chariot driving next to us. It was coming dangerously close to our chariot and it looked like Beckendorf was aiming to ram us.

I saw Tyson throwing something into the Ares Chariot before they charged away. It looked like some sort of grenade. Clarisse noticed it too and kicked it out of her chariot where it harmlessly exploded behind them.

Behind us the Apollo chariot crashed right into the Ares chariot. I hoped they both were taken out, but only the Apollo chariot was destroyed. Clarisse was still in the race, and she was not looking happy. She was closing in on the Hermes chariot, it seemed the Stoll brothers had trouble getting rid of her.

Nyx and I had a good start, escaping most of the chariots. Hermes was right behind us while Charles was driving next to us, poking with a spear at our chariot. Tyson and Katie had managed to escape all the trouble and were now first.

Nyx was striking the automatons with her whip but they could not feel pain nor did they fear the whip.

"The wheel! Strike the wheel!" I yelled while trying to retain control over Shade and Shadow.

Nyx understood the suggestion and struck the wheel with her whip, the end of the whip wrapped itself around the wheel. Then she let go of the whip as it flew towards the wheel.

The chariot swung to the right as the left wheel broke.

"Bye suckers!" Nyx yelled happily and she summoned a pair of black daggers and threw one at the Hermes chariot. I turned the chariot around the corner, and it made Nyx miss and hit the chariot instead.

"Percy!' She hissed.

She threw one again, and she managed to scare the horses so badly that one of them tried to run away, flipping the chariot in the progress.

"Stymphalian birds!" I called out and pointed at the birds who had began attacking all the other chariots and campers. Even Katie was forced to slow down because the birds were picking at her horses.

We passed easily. A few birds strayed from the flock and tried to attack Shade and Shadow but when Shadow opened his mouth and snatched one out of the air and consumed it they stayed away from us. Nyx shadow traveled the air horn we taped onto the chariot into her hands and pushed it.

All the birds suddenly lost their mind as Nyx mercilessly kept using the air horn. They started flying in circles, running into each other like they wanted to bash their own brains out.

The Apollo campers managed to draw their boys and shot them out of the sky. The birds decided to abandon the track altogether and flew skyward in a huge dark wave.

Nyx and I grinned as we passed the finish line, soon followed by Tyson and Katie who managed to fight off the birds 'till we used the air horn.

"WE WON!" Nyx yelled and gave me an excited hug.

"Yeah! This went way better than the first time!" I exclaimed.

We turned around to see the Ares chariot being covered with flowers, and I glanced at Katie and Tyson who were smiling.

"Did you guys do that?"

"Yup." they both said.

We turned towards the stands to see that all the pigeons were taken care off and left behind an angry looking Tantalus.

He glared at the four of us. "Well, there are the four cheaters who ruined the chariot race!"

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