Invisible ― Jason Grace

xiv. shrimpzilla attacks

CAMILLA'S REST DIDN'T last nearly as long as she'd hoped. Barely half an hour after Percy brought her back down to her cabin with a vial of nectar and an order to sleep, the ship lurched to one side.

She sat up as the ship's bell rang over the intercom, signaling an attack.

Camilla stumbled up the stairs with the rest of the crew.

Percy yelled, "What's going—Gah! Shrimpzilla!"

"Oh, come on!" Camilla complained.

There was a giant sea monster as long as the Argo II. It looked like a cross between a catfish, a shrimp, and some never-before-seen monster that hid in the depths of the sea. A forest of tentacles sprouted from each nostril, which was probably the grossest mustache Camilla had ever seen.

The monster rammed the ship again. The hull groaned, and Camilla, Annabeth, Piper, and Jason all tumbled to starboard and nearly rolled overboard.

"How did it get so close?" Annabeth shouted, pulling herself up on one of the rail shields.

"I don't know!" Hedge snarled.

"I'm stupid!" Leo scolded himself. "Stupid, stupid! I forgot the sonar!"

The ship tilted farther starboard. Either the monster was trying to give them a hug, or it was about to capsize them.

"Sonar?" Hedge demanded. "Pan's pipes, Valdez! Maybe if you hadn't been staring into Hazel's eyes, holding hands for so long—"

"What?" Frank yelped.

"It wasn't like that!" Hazel protested.

"Doesn't matter!" Piper said. "Jason, can you call some lightning?"

Jason struggled to his feet. "I—" He only managed to shake his head.

"Percy!" Annabeth said. "Can you talk to the thing? Do you know what it is?"

He shook his head, clearly mystified. "Maybe it's just curious about the ship. Maybe—"

The monster's tendrils lashed across the deck in a blur. One slammed Percy in the chest and sent him crashing down the steps.

"Percy!" Camilla yelled.

Another tendril wrapped around Piper's legs and dragged her, screaming, toward the rail. Dozens more curled around the masts, encircling the crossbows and ripping down the rigging.

"Nose hair attack!" Hedge snatched up his baseball bat and leaped into action; but his hits bounced harmlessly off the tendrils.

Jason drew his sword. He tried to free Piper, but he was still weak. His gold blade cut through the tendrils with no problem, but faster than he could sever them, more took their place.

Camilla summoned Hurricane, ignoring the fact that her legs felt like they were about to give out at any moment, and charged into the fray.

The crew attacked at all different angles, but they couldn't overwhelm the sea monster—all they managed to do was annoy the thing. It bellowed, and rocked the ship. The mast creaked like it might snap off.

Camilla really hoped someone had a plan, because she had diddly-squat.

As she hacked at the monster's tentacles, she was half-aware of Leo shouting at Hazel, hopefully coming up with some plan to get rid of the monster. Camilla just kept slicing away, looking back at the doorway to the stairs every so often, waiting for Percy to reappear abovedeck.

When Camilla looked up again, she saw Hazel and Leo wrapped in one of the monster's tentacles, suspended thirty feet above the ship. Camilla's breath caught in her throat.