Chapter Two – The Underwater Armies
A/N - I do not own any of these characters nor do I own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This story takes place six months after TLO.
Percy POV
I looked at hundreds upon hundreds of sea creatures. Among the creatures, there were dozens of whales, sharks, and fish of all kind. I knew that it was an impressive army to say the least; I just wondered whether it was a big enough force to stop Oceanus' forces.
"Army of Poseidon," my voice boomed, "recently we were overrun by Oceanus and he sacked the palace of Poseidon." Murmuring and hissing seemed to go through the group as if I had just hit a low blow. "This only happened because Poseidon had to stop Typhoon or there would be no world above these waters left, as the Titans would now be ruling. This time when Oceanus strikes, however, Poseidon will have his whole army behind him, and he will not leave mid-battle to fend for the world above. We will win this battle, and we will make sure that he is never able to strike against us again!" I shouted the last few words to the top of my lungs to try to instill confidence in the army. It seemed to do the trick too, because they soon let out a war cry that was pretty intimidating.
"There will be four groups total of the army. The sharks and whales, attack their bigger threats such as their sharks, whales, and octopuses if possible. I want the Cyclopes' group to split in half. I want each half to attack from a different side and try to break through the side lines of their armies to the center. Everyone else will attack the army straight on and try to break through the center, where the Cyclopes will hopefully meet them. I will wait here along with Triton for any major threats to come this way unless we see an area that needs serious reinforcement. Everyone move into position." Massive movement occurred as all of the sea creatures moved into position.
Just as every group had moved into position, I saw Oceanus' forces approaching; leading them was a group of 8 mermen each having the typical double edged sword. With that I yelled, "Attack for Poseidon!" and began one of the largest underwater battles of all time.
Thankfully, Triton and I were currently on good terms, and he consented to fight with me. I had recently helped him out of sticky situation in which he found himself outnumbered against a group of sharks that would not back down. Looking back on it, these sharks must have been part of Oceanus' forces because they would not listen to him. When the three sharks saw me approach, they swam away as the odds of winning had dwindled between having to face just a minor god, to having to face a minor god and the son of the sea god. After helping him, he promised me he would one day return the favor and fight alongside me in battle as long as I did not tell anyone what had happened. I consented.
After I yelled the word attack, all four groups split up, tearing into the Titan's army.
"You ready to take out some mermen Triton?" I asked as I uncapped Riptide.
"Of course," he replied with a smile, "Four for each of us, see you on the flipside." And with that we swam toward the group of 8 mermen.
I tried using my underwater communication skills, which Poseidon had been teaching me to get better at. I said something along the lines of, "Why are we fighting, when you could just turn around and go home?" to which they simply replied, "Kill the half-blood." With their response, I figured logic and reason were not likely to happen so I charged in. I used my water skills and created a strong current pushing two of the mermen back a good distance. I then began to fight the two that were still standing by me quickly before the other two came back. I began to dodge and block their attempts to kill me. Thankfully the one that had been attacking from my right side was not a great swordsman, and I got a lucky blow in quickly killing him. The other merman was a different story, however, as I had to try three successive times before he finally fell after falling for one of my fakes and I spun and sliced through him. It was none too soon either, because as soon as he fell the other two mermen returned to continue the fight.
I began fighting again as they came toward me. They moved around me similarly to the previous two who fought me had done. I began blocking and trying to parry their moves. The one that was to my left tried to go for my head, and I ducked as quickly as possible and slashed his hand, as his swing got nothing but water. He writhed in pain and drifted back a few paces, which was all I needed. I turned and faced the other merman head on, blocking his sword attack with my invulnerable arm, and killing him instantly. The other one then charged back and quickly met his end. He had switched his blade to his other hand, after I slashed his right hand badly, and was utterly rubbish at fighting with his left hand. He fell quickly to me and then I turned and looked toward Triton to see how he was doing.
I saw Triton still fighting against two mermen, so I swam silently behind one and killed him quickly, while Triton took out the other one with a blast from his trident.
"Thanks", he said panting for breath, "I was beginning to wonder if they would ever make a mistake."
"No problem, Triton, they were quite a handful." He simply nodded his head in agreement.
"Where should we go next?"
"I think we should wait for a bit, and try to find the place that looks to need the most reinforcements, or to see if there is a bigger threat heading this way." I answered Triton, thankful that we had a slight break in action to catch my breath.
Our forces so far, were managing to drive Oceanus' forces backward. Our sharks and whales were holding off some of their bigger creatures, while the fish and dolphins were starting to break through their line. The Cyclopes were not pressing in near as much as I had hoped at this point, as they were wrestling with huge sea serpents.
"There!" I shouted, having noticed the massive object heading toward us. Swimming toward us, wielding a five foot long bronze club, was a massive 15 foot tall enemy Cyclops. Triton and I both looked at each other stunned to have to fight something so massive. "You take the left side while, I'll take the right side." He nodded, agreeing with me and began getting ready to summon power through his trident to attack this enemy. I began to channel my water powers also, telling the water currents to swirl together faster. Soon I began compressing the currents around the Cyclops. The Cyclops narrowed its eye at me, sensing that I was the one doing this to the currents and charged me as quickly as possible.
I tried compressing the currents tighter and tighter eventually making a small underwater tornado around the monster, but he was still progressing toward us, slowly.
When the Cyclops was about 10 feet away from us, he could no longer overcome the compressive force of the currents and was stuck in the water with both of his hands stuck out, trying to undo what I had done to him. Triton then struck with his miniature version of Poseidon's weapon. With the Cyclops' full attention on trying not to get torn apart by the force of the currents, he was unable to block or avoid Triton's energy beam and was immediately turned to dust.
"Good team work." Triton said, with a slight smirk on his face. "That Cyclops never stood a chance against both of us."
"Agreed" I responded tiredly, after the energy I just exerted "but honestly, how many things in the ocean can?" I asked curiously and probably somewhat mockingly.
It was soon apparent, that I spoke far too soon.
A war horn was blown in the distance, and the second wave of their army arrived, in this wave were over fifty telekines, fifty swordfish, a couple dozen whales and sharks and the largest octopus I have ever seen, as well as Oceanus at the very back slowly making his way up being pulled by a few of the evil versions of Tyson's sea ponies.
It was absolutely rotten timing, as our dolphins and fish had broken through their lines, and the Cyclopes were making major headway into their ranks. Triton and I looked at each other, and decided it was time to split up. Triton went to the left to face the large octopus, while I went to the right to face as many telekines and swordfish as humanly (or demigodly) possible.
Poseidon's POV
I watched as Percy and Triton worked together to take out the large enemy Cyclops. They were impressive together and for a split second I honestly thought we would easily win, and perhaps Oceanus would just go back to whatever lair he has hid in all of these years. When the war horn sounded, however, I knew my hopes of an easy fight were no longer. I grabbed my trident and got ready to face the most powerful sea being still around, Oceanus. He was leisurely making his way through the battle, while keeping his eyes fixed upon my palace. He finally spotted me, and glared into my eyes, and our longtime battle of the previous few years was ready to truly commence again.
Both armies seemed to somehow split apart, letting the Titan stride through. A wide ring of space was left for the battle between Oceanus and me. I kissed Amphitrite goodbye and asked her to stay inside and began to swim toward the circle where I would make the final stand for my palace.
"Good to see you again nephew, though I have to admit, I am highly disappointed that it was this easy to get through your defenses, to your palace." Oceanus sneered.
"Ah Uncle, you seemed to have forgotten, that you have yet to get through the greatest defense of the palace yet, namely, me. I think you'll be slightly less disappointed than originally thought, as far as level of difficulty to get to the palace, if a fight is what you are truly after." I said as I raised my trident, and his eyes narrowed.
"You may have the second most powerful weapon in the world, but the fact still remains that I am more powerful than you. I will beat you in this fight, and take the weapon that should belong to the true ruler of the ocean and seas." And with that the battle began.
