The Son of Kronos - Chapter 10 - Rough Feeling
The trip down Mount Othrys was surprisingly uneventful, I hoped that my father or another Titan may have been looking over me and helping a little but I truly believed that it was more to do with luck than divine intervention. I reached the bottom of the mountain in about ten minutes and fell to the floor at the base of the cliff and looked up at the sky and at the setting sun on the horizon. I noticed the rocks above me where those i'd cut the edges off to provide an easy climb up the mountain when I arrived. I managed a weak smile before closing my eyes and drifting to sleep, unable to get back to my feet when I tried.
I woke up the next morning feeling rough. I would've moaned for at least the next five minutes had I not held up the sky the day before, the fact I was still able to wake up was surprising enough. I got to my feet with a fair amount of effort and almost fell when I did, having to readjust myself to moving. I wondered how long I'd be almost useless before returning to normal and found the answer about twenty minutes into walking around randomly as I started to feel more awake and not want to fall over every ten seconds.
I thought about using my scythe to give myself strength but I didn't want to attract the attention, or use anymore of the mist than I had to. The mist kept regular mortals from seeing the truth about the world and probably why nobody had commented on the scythe that was attached to my back. I'd been told by more than one Titan that the mist was a power of the greek gods and that I shouldn't rely on it or use anymore of it than was needed to travel around myself. I headed towards a park and found a bench to sit on while considering my next move.
I pulled the vial of Atlas' blood from my pocket and studied it intently as I relived my recent time on Mount Othrys. I looked back up to the mountain and it looked as regular as mountains got, if I hadn't been up there then I may have had trouble believing the mountain was home to anything other than an few mountain goats. I noticed the bright and blazing sun above the mountain, piercing through the dark clouds that were the mist hid so well. I chuckled while I looked at the mortals around me, living their boring and menial lives, unaware that the Titan Lord Kronos was soon going to rise and wreak havoc on all these ignorant nobodies.
I put the vial of valuable ichor back in my pocket and turned my gaze towards the Golden Gate bridge. I smiled at the thought of laying waste to it myself, but then thrust such childish ambitions out of my mind. I shifted through time to try and find anything interesting that may have happened in San Francisco but there was nothing to be found. I stood up and breathed in, readying myself to go on another walk to nowhere that would probably lead to nothing when an arrow embedded itself in the bench i'd just been sat on. I plucked the arrow out of the wood and examined it.
"That's new." I commented dryly as I noticed the poison on the tip, probably the most cowardly way in which anybody had tried to kill me.
Another arrow came hurtling at me, this time on fire and I ducked down, watching it hit the concrete I was stood on, about an inch from the grass.
"That's just downright stupid." I called to the archer who I'd seen fire the arrow from across the street.
"In a park, really? Grass burns you know." The archer stood from behind the wall he was crouched behind.
"How did you know I was here?" He asked and I stared at him, surprised to discover he was serious.
"I looked where the arrow came from." I told him slowly, making sure he knew how little respect I viewed him in. He notched another arrow, no special coating this time, and took aim at me. I sighed at his idiocy and didn't bother moving as he fired. When the arrow was about a centimetre from my head it just stopped in midair.
The archer cocked his head and wondered what had happened while I plucked the frozen arrow out of the air and threw it to the ground, keeping his attention on the arrow while I pushed the poison tipped arrow carefully up my sleeve.
"Too easy to just move." I spoke as I climbed the small wall in front of me so only a street separated us.
"You'll die now, Morwin, son of Kronos." He certainly had conviction, which was the only good attribute he showed.
"You know who I am, now who are you?" I asked curiously.
"I'm a distraction." I noticed the boy in front of me for the first time, a green shawl covering his face but I could still tell he was only about twelve.
I took a second to sigh and put my head in my hands before shaking my head and lazily asking him a question.
"Distraction from what?" I kept shaking my head as he proceeded to answer my question rather politely.
"Well your comrades from your camp are in this city and my comrades are going to finish them off."
"Don't suppose you know if they are carrying blood of any greek gods?"
"What?"
"Never mind." I crossed the street and looked the boy in the eye. "You're nice. How strong was the poison on the first arrow?"
"Not poison, a sleeping mix." I smiled, letting him know that was helpful to me.
"Then I don't need to feel sorry about anything, but in future I'd prefer if it killed instantly."
The boy cocked his head again and then decided to take the risk of speaking.
"Why, you want to die?" I let the smile on my face turn into a harsh scowl.
"No, I want you to." I slipped the arrow back into my hand and stabbed it into the boy's gut, who hit the floor with a grunt, followed by a hard crack on the concrete floor. I thought about moving the body but kicked it instead, more for my own pleasure than the boy's pain. I drew my scythe and took a quick look at the inscription, tracing my hand over it, the squared spiral and the sphere. My motivation was as strong as ever but as I closed my eyes and leant against the building I was stood next to I knew that my physical strength was probably worse than ever, or at least it felt that way.
I had no idea when the feeling would fade but had little time to dwell on the matter, I had to save the useless demigods that I was forced to call my comrades. I took off through the city at a slow paced jog before coming to my senses and realising where they'd be, the exact place i'd choose for an ambush…the Golden Gate bridge. I sprinted off towards the bridge and was pleasantly surprised to see that I could still sprint, maybe I was in a better condition than I felt. As my energy ran low I touched my scythe on my back and pressed my index finger to the sphere symbol and looked back to see the weapon glowing orange and energy surge through my body.
I reached the end of the bridge and instantly knew I was too late, the bridge was closed for whatever reason but I knew it was just the mist, what was really going on was much more dangerous than whatever these mortals thought. I rushed past the barricade without being noticed and stumbled onto the bridge, observing the situation. About twenty archers in total had Liz, Vern and Raan surrounded. Raan was keeping them talking and I didn't hesitate to use the time to form a plan. When the situation looked like the peaceful negotiations (well as peaceful as negotiations between enemies pointing weapons at each other can get) were ending I made my move.
I summoned a dagger to my hand and threw it high into the air, over the top of the bridge and it came back down, hitting the road between the demigods and the archers and making them all look up and the archers point the weapons at the top of the bridge, probably more than their dim witted comrade would've done. As they did so I was disappointed but unsurprised to see that the demigods took no advantage of the opportunity. I strolled in until I was about a metre from the closest side of the circle of archers surrounding my comrades. I dropped my scythe into my hand and decided to bring attention to myself.
"Not going to take advantage?" I asked sarcastically.
When everybody's attention and my enemies bows were on my I slammed the flat side of my scythe into the closest shawl-covered face. I turned under a barrage of arrows and stabbed one of the archers in the stomach, who went down quickly. My boot found the face of another and the edge of my blade tasted the blood of another's neck. One fool drew two knives and ran at me, swinging wildly. I slammed the hilt of my weapon into his chin and swiped his feet, I almost kicked him in the head to knock him out but slashed him across the chest instead.
I looked around for more people to fight but saw that the demigods had managed to knock out the rest of the group, none were dead though, unlike a few of those i'd fought. I noticed Liz looking at some of the critically wounded behind me but she decided not to comment. I greeted my comrades and told them why i'd come here in the first place, to get the blood of the Titans. They wondered how i'd done such a thing so I told them i'd just cut if off Atlas when he was under the sky, but I couldn't help myself feeling bad as I lied about the Titan I'd vowed to save. My comrades told me their story in return, in short they'd just asked Liz's mother, Athena for help and she'd told them to go here and see if they could enlist Poseidon's help.
I looked around for a minute and then realised where we were stood, on a bridge…above water.
"Where did Athena say to meet Poseidon?" I gulped.
"On this bridge, I think." Raan told me. I held my breath and then the bridge began to shake. I shouted at my comrades to run and joined them in fleeing the reached the beaches within a minute and the bridge stopped shaking instantly. I was quite pleased that the miniature earthquake had stopped, until the waves began to rise. I quickly urged my comrades to run and told them to meet me at the park i'd been at earlier. Thankfully, they obliged and I was able to face the greek god of the ocean myself.
The water rose into a human form and Poseidon stared straight into my eyes, I returned his gaze.
"Why shouldn't I kill you right now?" The god growled, but his words still sounded smooth, like a calm sea.
"Because you need Kronos alive." I told him and was met with a laugh.
"Why?"
"The dark one's bane." I said simply and Poseidon's sea green eyes widened.
"How do you know about that?"
"The prophecy, Kronos needs to rise so that you can all use the dark one's bane to finish him once and for all, making sure he never rises again." Poseidon stared at me in what I knew was disbelief, he knew that what I said had reason behind it and was finding it hard to argue.
The waves behind him grew larger and the ground rumbled a little.
"Be that as it may," Poseidon disappeared into the air. "I'd rather have Kronos stay in Tartarus than have to kill him one more time." I thought about being respectful but with the combination of pure hatred of greek gods and the knowing that Poseidon was going to attack me anyway I saw little point in it.
"I suppose if you get eaten again then you'd be as much help killing him now as you did before." I retorted and the shaking increased. The water shook more and more but I stayed where I was, not wavering in confidence but unsheathing my scythe. I may have felt terrible physically but I had to do my best to get ichor of a greek god, or my father would be locked away forever.
A giant body of water rose up, as tall as the top of the Golden Gate bridge and with huge muscles, made of water but still impressive. The form was unsurprisingly bald and looked like it should've been made of rock, not water. The water creature raised its right hand, curled it into a fist and sent it hurtling towards me. I braced myself but the impact still sent me hurtling back and crashing into the flat side of a small cliff behind me. I slumped to the ground but instantly got to one knee, in the same position as when i'd held the sky. In the past twenty-four hours i'd held the sky, survived a dim witted archer, helped comrades I hated and made a promise to a Titan that was almost impossible to keep, just to get one part of the recipe I needed. I was damned if I was going to get pushed around by a god if i'd watched a Titan that could've beaten him to a pulp suffer.
Apparently the anger was all I needed to shake the terrible feeling i'd had all day. I rose to my feet and picked up my scythe of the ground and roared at the form Poseidon had taken on. I rushed towards the water, covering ground as quickly as I could. I got close to the water before a huge, watery fist smashed near me, throwing me to the ground. I saw Poseidon's other fist come thundering down towards me and tried to find a way to escape, to no avail. I had all but accepted my watery death before a blinding flash of light hit Poseidon in the face, destroying his watery face which reformed in seconds. I looked over and saw fire. Fire in the form of a man, in golden armor who looked back at me. His eyes, like miniature suns burning bright and strong. His long gold sword was strapped to his side and his hands firmly at his sides, one smoking from he'd fire a blast of light…Hyperion, Titan of light.
I had less than a second to take in the awe of Hyperion, the greatest Titan warrior, excluding Atlas, of course. His face and whole body was made of flames that were only held together by his golden armor, covering his body. Hyperion drew his sword and fired another blast of light into the chest of Poseidon with his free hand. He ran onto the water and leaped, striking the greek god in the chest and slashing frantically. I took the opening and ran forward, unlike Hyperion I couldn't walk on water, but I could walk on Poseidon. Another fist came down, narrowly missing the Titan of light and I jumped, gripping onto one of the fingers that was the same size as me. I travelled upwards as I tried to climb to the top of Poseidon's hand and eventually succeeded.
As quickly as I'd reached the top of the colossal fist it was thrust down again, forcing me to jump off and land on the god's shoulder. I pressed the orange sphere symbol on my scythe followed by the purple squared spiral and the scythe glowed orange and the purple version appeared a metre in front of me. I got near Poseidon's neck then thrust my arms backwards and swung them forward with all the strength I'd gotten from Atlas' added power. As I swung Poseidon moved his head and hit me in the chest, making both of my scythe powers fail and disappear. I remembered the first power I'd ever used with my scythe and aimed the end of my scythe at the Golden Gate bridge. I willed all my power into destroying the top of it and succeeded. The edge of the bridge hit the water and created a hued wave, knocking Poseidon off balance. Hyperion used his blade to slide at the chest of Poseidon, where he was joined to the water.
I rushed back up the god's shoulder and brought back my scythe like a baseball bat, having no time to activate any scythe powers. I thrust the scythe forward and into the colossus' neck, where it got stuck. Poseidon let out an almighty shout and shook, throwing me off his shoulder. I landed on the beach and rolled upon landing to my feet, looking for my scythe still stuck in the neck of the god. Hyperion was hit by a fist and thrown into the cliff beside me, where he quickly got to his feet and eyes the god in front of us. I looked at the great Titan warrior in awe but quickly formulated a plan before he darted forward.
"Throw me." I told the Titan who nodded with his head of flames and golden helmet.
Hyperion stood just in front of me as I ran then stepped into his cupped hands, I expected him to throw me but as my foot hit his palms a miniature explosion happened, sending me hurtling high into the sky, past the clouds. Everything slowed as I stopped ascending and the clouds turned black, not too welcoming as I crashed back through them. I locked my arms at my sides and dived towards the water. I vaguely saw Hyperion pick up his sword and start dancing gracefully around Poseidon's huge fists. I heard rumbling behind me and then looked back to see thunder heading straight at me.
I thrust my weight to the right side of myself and edged that way, narrowly dodging the blast. It could've been coincidence but judging by how quick the clouds changed colour and the lightning came I was fairly sure Zeus was baying for my blood. I ignored the fact that the strongest of gods had just tried to kill me and kept myself diving towards Poseidon. I somersaulted in the air as I got close and then landed hard on his shoulder, the watery surface shifting underneath but easily holding my weight. I rushed towards my scythe but was thrown as Poseidon's almighty fist came down again. I got back to my feet and ran forward as fast as I could. My scythe was less than a few metres away but the god had noticed me and his fist was heading towards me.
I let out a quick curse and summoned an empty vial to my hand, quickly checking that the Titan ichor was still in my pocket, it was probably the most valuable thing I carried. I jumped as the fist flew past and narrowly grabbed my scythe as I fell, dragging it downwards as I'd hoped. A large gash opened up in Poseidon's neck and the scythe stopped cutting downwards, leaving me hanging on it in midair. Everything was silent as Poseidon shook and a river of golden ichor fell down to my left. I bit the cork of the vial and held it out into the ichor and it filled quickly with little effort. I pushed the cork back in then shoved the vial in my other pocket, so I wouldn't mix the ichor. I climbed back up my scythe and up the god until I was on his forehead. I slide down his neck, shoulder and arm until I was back on the beach. I noticed that Hyperion was not attacking as Poseidon focused on his wound.
I ran to Hyperion and saw he was cradling something cupped in both hands, one on top and one on the bottom. I saw orange light inside of it, growing brighter and pulsing the longer Hyperion held it.
"Look away." Hyperion advised me and I did. I heard the sound of the light leave the Titan's hands and smack Poseidon in the face, dissipating the colossus form he'd taken and forcing him to retreat. As he did so the clouds turned back to their original, puffy white, colour. I looked at Hyperion with amazement and he looked to me, checking I was fine. He waved his hand over me and I felt great, better than usual, I was fairly sure that even my broken rib had healed. I thanked him for all his help and he told me that I should hurry and raise my father before disappearing, becoming the light than surrounded everybody.
I sheathed my scythe and compared the two ichor, which looked identical to each other so I kept them separated in different pockets. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and for the first time in twenty-four hours I didn't want to fall down and sleep. I turned around and began to scale the cliff face next to me and make my way to the park, with only one more ingredient left to collect.