Michael POV

I rolled to the side as Menoetius slashed at me. A cold wind blew past me and a stumble followed as Menoetius went farther than he meant to. He turned around and stared at me with hate simmering in his red eyes. I growled at him. I felt some type of dark power start to spread through me.

Only this once, champion. A voice said inside my head. So you can show this fool of a Titan how to fight like a champion of the pit. My eyes widened but I didn't have time to contemplate what that entailed with what happened next. I felt myself grow bigger until I was as tall as Menoetius, which is to say about 10 feet tall. I hefted my sword in my hand, testing the weight. I grinned at Meno.

"Now it's a fair fight," I said before launching myself at him. I slashed at him, but he blocked and countered. I quickly brought my sword up and blocked as I sidestepped away from his flying fist. I slipped my sword underneath his and jabbed at his chest, which he stepped to the side of and swiped at my stomach. I sucked my stomach in and the strike just barely missed. I slashed at his leg which made him jump and swing his leg at my head. I leaned back and dodged his roundhouse kick only for his blade to meet with mine when I leaned back up. We quickly exchanged numerous blows and separated. He swiped at me again and I ducked under his swing. I jumped away and lazily swung my sword in the air.

"Dude, come on. I can't be that hard to kill." I taunted him. I ran at him full speed and spun, dragging my sword with me in a dangerous arc. Menoetius jumped back and swiftly brought his sword up in a strike at my back. I spun to the side and brought my sword with me as I crouched and swiped at his legs. He jumped and brought his sword down to meet mine. I stood up and let his sword push mine away. I used the momentum I gained from that a slashed at his arm. I smirked as my sword cut a large gash on his arm.

We traded a few more blows before he disarmed me. My sword fell behind him. Before he could bring his sword to my throat, I rolled to his right side, earning a cut on my left shoulder, and sprang towards my blade. I grasped the hilt and turned back to thwart his strike at me. I almost laughed at his shocked expression.

"Never had someone recover so speedily?" I asked him. He growled and thrust his hand out towards the cargo bay doors were. The massive doors opened, revealing a small army of monsters. Menoetius laughed at the look on my face.

"You won't win, demigod." He said. "They are driven by rage. Nothing will stop them." I glared at him.

"I will." I looked over to dad. "Dad, occupy him." He nodded and fired an arrow at Menoetius. Meno raised his sword and cut the arrow out of the air before launching himself at my father.

As for me, I shrunk back down to my regular height and stared down the army of monsters that stared back. I was still full of adrenaline and felt like I could take care of Menoetius. I noticed Bianca appear out of my shadow. She grinned at me and I grinned back. A cold wind lowered Theo down beside me. Luca walked up beside him. On Bianca's other side, Everett became visible, hefting his spear. Bianca notched an arrow. Something like a hatchet was in Theo's hands and Luca was holding Wyatt's sword.

Knowing that these demigods had my back, I charged the army.

I manifested a shield made of light and hefted it, flipping Aura in my hand once before the first of the monsters were upon me.

A swift, upward strike cleaved a Laestrygonian from naval to chin. He crumbled to dust, but I was already moving. I slammed my shield against an oncoming warrior, Aura slicing through another before I plunged the blade into the soldier I'd deflected.

Beside me, Bianca had abandoned her bow and arrow as the monsters attacked her. A sword made of shadows was unfaltering in her hand, a shield also made of shadows an extension of her arm, Bianca attacked like a warrior and dodged like a shadow.

Luca was fighting against a couple of different monsters. Wyatt's sword had been knocked out of his hands and was on the ground. A dracaena stabbed at him with a sword. Luca dodged and took its sword, spun around and speared the monster with it. He whirled around and sliced the throat of another. He twirled the sword in his hands and stabbed backward, and destroyed the lung of a cyclops. He picked up Wyatt's sword and began to decimate the small army, dual wielding swords with an accuracy that amazed me.

I stabbed right with my sword and killed a hellhound. I twirled around and decapitated an empousai and Cyclops in the same strike. I stabbed a cyclops and twisted my blade into its spine. I spun around to dodge a club coming my way. It ran through an empousai and I sliced the throat of the Cyclops who threw the club.

Theo's icy wind turned arrows to nothing as he hacked away at the monsters with his hatchet, now joined by a replica made of ice, which looked just as sharp. He felled hellhounds with his hatchets, decapitating them or slicing through their spines, causing so much damaged that they died on the spot. A small volley of arrows soared towards us from the back but another icy wind turned them to splinters.

Everett speared and destroyed monsters with his spear. Every time a monster tried to sneak up on him, he turned invisible and the monsters would be dust after a couple of seconds. His spear was lighting fast, felling monster after monster. He threw the spear and caught a cyclops, killing it. He scooped up a dagger from a fallen monster and slashed and stabbed and swiped at any monster that attacked him. Every time a monster attacked him their attacks were repelled by some type of wind.

I glanced back to see dad fighting Menoetius sword to sword. Dad danced back before charging at Menoetius so fast my eyes couldn't follow the movement. Menoetius hardly had time to draw his sword as dad brought his own down upon him.

Steel against steel rang out across the room. Sentries in the back unleashed arrows—only to be destroyed by a fierce wind.

Soon, we had defeated the small army. We stood there, panting, as we turned to see how dad was favoring against Menoetius. It wasn't good.

Dad was being forced back towards Athena as Menoetius pressed his attacks on him. Dad stumbled and Meno disarmed him. He pressed his blade against dad's neck and laughed.

"You are no match for me, Apollo." He said. "Now I have you and Athena to summon Epimetheus."

"No!" I shouted. I charged the Titan again. Menoetius pushed my dad back and blocked my strike. He swung his sword at me and knocked my sword from my hand. But he didn't stop there. He twirled his sword in a circle and when it came back around, he took off my right hand.

I screamed in pain as I stumbled back. Bianca was beside me in an instant, either shadow traveling or running, and steadied me. I stared in shock at the bleeding nub that used to be where my hand was. Lee appeared on my other side and ripped off his shirt. He wrapped his shirt around my arm, trying to staunch the bleeding, even though his own leg looked like it was broken horribly.

Menoetius laughed. "As I said, you are no match for me demigod. I will rule agai-" he suddenly began to make a choking noise. A spear was thrown into his eye from behind me at the same time the tip of a spear sprouted from his neck. Behind Menoetius, Athena hissed, "I told you that you would pay dearly for that, Menoetius. Now die." She twisted his spear and stepped back. Dad fired an arrow through Meno's head and the Titan collapsed to the ground, dead. His body slowly crumbled to dust as both Athena and dad ran over to us, shrinking down.

I was hissing in pain as Lee wrapped his shirt around my arm tighter, trying not to move as he had ordered me a second ago.

"Ahh," I grunted as he pulled one last time before letting go. I let out a breath. Dad gingerly lifted my arm. Pain shot up my arm as he did this.

"You won't be getting that hand back." He muttered to me.

"Whatever," I said through gritted teeth. I pulled away from his grip and walked over to Brooklyn, who was kneeling over Wyatt. I sat on her right side. "He was a good kid," I managed to say to her. She looked over to me, and her golden eyes were rimmed with red and filled with grief, her tears still rolling down her face.

"He was the best," she whispered.

"He will come back to camp with us." Lee's voice sounded from behind me. "His shroud will be burned with the same honor we give to all demigods. He died a hero, saving Athena. And saving us."

"He saved me," Everett this time. "He saved me by sacrificing his own life. I will never be able to repay him for that."

"Wyatt was our leader," Luca said. "He will never stop guiding me."

"He will go to Elysium, where I will make sure my father puts him." Bianca.

"Wyatt was our friend. He always will be." Nora said. "I-I'm going to miss him." She sounded like she was holding back her own sobs.

"He did this for us, Brooklyn," Alexia whispered, kneeling down on her other side. "He found us all and brought us together. He helped us learn what we are. We will never stop being grateful for him." Brooklyn started sobbing again.

"Michael," dad said. I gave Brooklyn a quick hug, as much as I allowed myself to give her, and stood up to face my father. "I need to get you to my palace." He turned to Athena, his face pleading. "Athena, sis, can you take the other demigods back to Camp Half-Blood? Please? And bring Wyatt's body." Athena surveyed us all with a hard look. Her face softened when she looked at Brooklyn crying over the son of Momus.

"Yes, I will do that Apollo." She agreed. She looked at me. "Take care, Michael. I will not see you for some time. And about your hand...ask Hephaestus. He has always been good with prosthetics." She vanished, the others going with her. I turned to dad.

"Let's go," I told him. He smiled before transporting us to his infirmary.

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Two days later, I was telling Percy the recap of this as Zoe slept in a bed adjacent to him.

"I just haven't gone to Hephaestus yet," I told him. "I was waiting until you were conscious. At least, after I found out that you took on the sky. Seriously though, bro? I lose a hand fighting a Titan and you hold up the sky, an impossible burden, and you stand with it on your back? Why do I try?"

"Nice to know that my agony is funny to you," he replied dryly. His sea green eyes shifted back over to Zoe.

"She was almost dead," dad informed him. "The only reason she's not is because of that girl you and the others picked up."

"Summer?" Percy asked.

"I don't know their names."

"The one with the hijab."

"No. The green-eyed girl."

"Lilly?" Percy asked incredulously. "Bu-but she's not a demigod."

"Yes, she is actually." Dad corrected. "The only reason Zoe was able to hold on until Arty brought her here was that this Lilly girl took on her pain, or shared it. The girl passed out as soon as I got to work on Zoe, and Artemis took her down to camp to be looked after." I shifted, careful of my sling, which I hated so far.

"So this girl can share others pain?" I asked. "How is that possible?"

"It's not supposed to be," dad said. "We don't know her parentage. Maybe she does. She hadn't been a talker, according to your Titan-born friend."

"Killian?"

"Yeah, him. Anyways, we don't have the best news about Zoe, though. Physically, she's fine. But she's no longer a hunter of Artemis." Percy and I stared at him.

"What?" We both exclaimed at the same time. "Why?"

"After I had gotten you both situated in my infirmary, Zoe included, we had the Winter Solstice meeting." Dad started. "During which, the Fates appeared. They told us that the prophecy about Artemis had been interfered with. Zoe isn't supposed to be the lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis in the war against Kronos. Thalia is. They commanded Artemis to take away her blessing from Zoe and make Thalia lieutenant. Artemis did what they asked, but she didn't like it. Zoe was supposed to die, you guys. But Lilly kept her from death. She interfered with the prophecy—she changed it. Now fate is different. Percy," he blew out a breath. "Artemis, Hermes, Hestia, and I don't know what's going to happen next. We talked about it, and we have no clue. We even clued Hades in, but he doesn't know either. We're in the dark."

"What do we know?" I asked.

Dad loosed a sigh. "Zoe is going to be at camp with you guys."