"Watch your step here guy's!" I yelled into my radio, wondering if Nico and Jason could hear me over the howling winds. "It's a tight squeeze on this part!"

"Thanks for the heads up," Jason's garbled voice answered back. "We're getting close to the Bolt - I can sense it."

"Great news Jason," I told him. "If you can sense it, then we must be close. Keep those senses up."

Nico, who was only a couple of feet below me, shouted into his radio. "We're at twenty eight thousand feet - South Summit ends at twenty eight thousand and seven hundred feet! We still got way more to go."

I made the mistake of looking down at Nico...and into thin, open air. I didn't notice before because I was so focused on climbing, but now that I've stopped for a moment I am left with the fact that there is nothing for me to land on if I fall of the ledge of South Summit's face. Beneath me, the clouds churned and swirled mad, making it look like a white black hole that can still suck me in.

For once, I felt sympathy for my friend and cousin, Thalia - she was deathly scared of heights, despite the fact that she was the daughter of Zeus, the Sky God. I can imagine looking down and see that there was nothing beneath me.

"Holy Poseidon," I muttered, panting lightly as I tightly held onto the rope I was attached to. I figured enough was enough and that I should get going again. But I couldn't move for a moment, so there I was in a kneeling position on the sloped off face of Everest's South Summit. I looked at my left arm and I'm reminded of how much it killed. I might have had water in my system but the thing about snow is that when you melt it all up, you realise that despite the large amount of snow you filled your breaker up, there just isn't enough fluids for your body. 

At this point, I was incredibly thirsty and hungry - that slab of venison wasn't enough to fill me up. I swear to myself then and there that when I get home, my first thing to do is order the largest pizza Camp Jupiter can make.

Nico came up to me and a concerned look on his face appeared. He removed the sunglasses that he brought with him and looked at me. "You alright Percy? Do you need a break?"

I didn't speak for a moment, but I did nod in response. Nico held onto the rope and placed his knees on the slope, keeping him in place. Jason was about to do the same, but he looked up and he shouted a cry, "Percy, watch out!"

I looked at what he saw...and I was rewarded with a snow boulder in my face.

The force was enough to snap me off the rope that was keeping me secured to the mountain. I fell backwards and crashed into Jason, who was torn off the rope as well from the impact. We both yelled as we tumbled and skidded down the mountain slope, my face scraping against the rock and ice. Before we skidded off the ledge that we climbed over, Jason brought out his climbing axe and swung it hard and deep into the snow. We continued slipping down the snow until we slowed to a hault.

I groaned as I started to stand up, but I just fell face first into the snow. I tried desperately to get up, but my arms were doing me no good. I felt something wet on the entire left side of my face. I brought my hand onto my face and looked at my hand. It was red all over - I knew instantly that I was bleeding badly from scraping my face against the rocks.

"Percy!" Jason shouted. He crawled over to me and instantly started taking things out of his bag - medical bandages; antiseptic cream and water. At this point, my eyes felt heavy - the boulder's weight and size did give me a nasty ache in my head. So, there I was fighting to stay awake, but my tiredness was coming at me in waves, crashing into my head.

"You're gonna be fine Percy!" Jason said, frantically pouring water down my face so I could heal. "Just stay awake pal!"

Nico came up to us, looking somewhat startled about what happened. "Just checked out what caused that snow ball to come at you. There's a large pile of snow just at the top - the earthquake must've made it unstable. We best try and go around it."

I barely heard what he said; I was too tired to listen. I looked over the ledge and saw how high we were - I couldn't even see the bottom of the mountain, which was covered by clouds and continuous snow. All around Everest, other mountains of the Himmalaya's were visible - they jutted out of the clouds and were sort of reaching towards the open air, as if they were trying to reach outer space.

In my sluggish mind, I felt the cut's on my face close up and my head started to clear. I was still tired though and I was still hungry. 

Nico patted my shoulder. "You feeling alright Perce?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Jason didn't look convinced. He made me look at him so he could look directly at me. He said, "I don't see any signs of concussion, but a blow like that could've knocked you out. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I repeated. 

I struggled to my feet - they didn't feel broken. "Let's keep going."

Before we even made a step forward, something fell out of my pocket. I looked down and my eyes widened as I saw my pen-sword Riptide on the snow, glowing with a blue aura. I reached down and picked the pen up cautiously, wondering why it was reacting like this.

Nico frowned at it. "What's going on with it?"

"I have no idea," I answered, confused about why Riptide was glowing.

I uncapped the pen and it sprang into a sword, but not as it usually does. As soon as the cap was off, the sword flared up like a lightsaber - it grew longer and longer until the blade was the length of a metre and a quarter ruler, blazing with a blue beam of energy. I could feel the heat off the weapon, like it was sending a heat wave in my direction. I could still see the blades design - that curve in the center of the blade and the faint outline of the blades sharp edges.

"Whoa," Jason murmmered, leaning back as he blade shot out quickly - just like the lightsaber movies when the saber ignites. "What the heck happened to it?"

Before I even answered, an un-earthly roar creamed out behind us.