Chapter 21

Percy POV

Jason started to speak but was drowned out by the thunderous noise of the legion beginning to march down the hill to where they were going to meet Tartarus's army. The each step the legion made was perfectly in time, there wasn't a single legionnaire out of step. Even the clanking of armour was perfectly synchronised, it was an impressive sight and sound. The fifth cohort came into view, proudly carrying the eagle standard. I scanned the cohort looking for anyone I remembered from my brief time with them. Apart from Dakota leading the cohort with his partner centurion who I didn't know I couldn't see anyone I recognised.

Following the fifth was the new sixth cohort made up of retired legionnaires that were living in New Rome. I smiled when I saw who was leading the cohort: Gwen. You couldn't tell that she had once suffered a fatal injury by the way she carried herself, she was walking proudly with her head held high underneath her centurion's helm. Next to her was the cohort's other centurion. A short, stocky man around twenty-four who looked like somewhere in his family tree was a gorilla. The sixth cohort was around the same size as the other five, approximately forty legionaries. They followed the rest of the legion down the hill and away from where we were standing.

"Guys, look!" Piper called. She had wandered a few feet away and was pointing towards the will-be battlefield. The opposing army had started to inch forwards.

"Right, we need to go. We're no use here." Reyna said immediately slipping into her military leader persona. "You two," she said pointing at Jason and Piper. "Go help wherever you can to help, I don't care what you do just help."

"We'll do what we can," Jason said before flashing off with his girlfriend.

"Lady Artemis, Thalia, whoever's leading the hunt. I trust you to position yourselves most effectively." Reyna continued. "And you-" She said turning to me. "You're coming with me."

"Aye Aye captain!" I called while saluting the immortal praetor.

"Oh shut up Jackson," she sighed exasperatedly before turning around and marching down the hill.

Linebreak

"ROMANS!" Reyna shouted from atop Guido who had adopted the praetor after she lost Scipio and was named horse friend by the original Pegasus. Although it had taken the promise of all the doughnuts he could eat to get him to take part in the fight. "TODAY WE ARE FIGHTING TO PROTECT CAMP JUPITER, NEW ROME AND IT CITIZENS!" She continued while trotting back and forth in front of her troops. "WE ARE LUCKY TO HAVE NOT ONLY A NEW TEMPORARY SIXTH COHORT BUT WE ARE AIDED BY THE HUNTERS OF ARTEMIS. TOGETHER WE WILL PROTECT NEW ROME AND ROMES LEGECY FROM THOSE WHO WISH TO BRING HARM TO OUR CITY."

The romans all cheered in agreement at their leader's speech. While Reyna was giving her speech I was just standing awkwardly in front of the legion. Each cohort were in lines, from the first cohort on the west side to the sixth cohort on the east. The hunt had left to position themselves somewhere to the side so they could flank around and ambush when the time was right.

I turned around so I was no longer facing the romans but was looking towards the oncoming army. They were moving at a steady pace towards us and were maybe half a mile away. I could see the two giants who were leading the battle more clearly now. One of the giants I had never seen before but from the stories Annabeth and Piper told be of the Temple of Fear in Sparta I could tell it was Mimas. He was short (for a giant) sanding around 25 feet tall, he had charcoal black skin and scales. Resting up against his right shoulder was a sledgehammer which was taller than a man yet he didn't seem aware of its weight.

Next to him walked a female giant, Peri- something or other. I couldn't remember her name but I recognised her from the battle at Athens. She was taller than Mimas by about five feet, her dragon legs were a murky green. She carried a knife larger than the romans swords. My first instinct was that she was the bane of Aphrodite but I wouldn't have bet anything on it.

I was brought back to the moment by Reyna shouting something to the legion in Latin. Latin doesn't come naturally to me like ancient Greek so I wasn't sure what she had said. Unlike me however the romans had no difficulty understanding Reyna's command and each solider lowered their pilums

to in between the gaps of their shields.

"Priorem!" My co-praetor shouted before turning Guido around towards the enemy. While I stood still trying to translate the Latin, the romans started to march forwards. Still keeping their spears low and shields high they moved to meet their foe. Reyna started to pick up speed on Guido who soon launched into the air.

"Well… guess I'm leading solo from the ground." I muttered to myself before uncapping riptide and setting of at a jog ahead of my roman allies. As I ran I tried to keep my mind clear. It was harder than you'd expect, I was being bombarded by flashbacks from the Athens battle. You're not losing anyone today. I told myself. Memories of Paul, my mom and Annabeth flashed through my mind. I felt a few tears escape my eyes and begin to roll down my cheeks. "For Paul… for Mom…. for Annabeth," I whispered to myself. I wasn't far from the first monsters, directly ahead of me there were a dozen or so earthborn. I raised riptide up to around head height and as I reached the first monster I brought my sword down in a cross slash immediately following up with a stab to the creatures chest. The earthborn crumbled to dust.

The dust had barely started to fall when I heard the legion engage with the monstrous army. A mixture of shouts and the sound of metal hitting metal filled the air. I had no time to check to see how the romans were doing because I knew that I needed to get to the giants as soon as I could. I couldn't risk leaving them to do as they pleased, I had to get their attention focused on me. I slashed at another earthborn before spinning around and stabbing a second straight through the gut. I kept moving forwards to where I could see the giants towering over their troops. Surprisingly most of the monsters let me past without attacking me, maybe they were under orders to let me get to their bosses? An empousa tried to slash me with her claws but I managed to drop to the floor and roll under her attack before decapitating her and moving on. I found myself in a clearing free of monsters the only thing in the ten foot radius was a pair of giant (literally) scaly black legs.

"Well if it isn't Percy Jackson himself," the giant boomed at me. He had a deep but also scratchy voice. He still had his hammer propped against his shoulder with its head just behind his mess of long black oily hair. "I will spill your blood in the name of my father." After he finished speaking he shrugged the hammer from his shoulder and let it swing like a pendulum. The head of the hammer was made from the same dark metal as his breastplate, most likely stygian iron.

"Well that sure sounds like a fun plan," I replied sarcastically.

"Plan!" Mimas scoffed. "Plans mean nothing to me. Strategic minds turn to mush, maps mean nothing logic crumbles in my presence," he boasted. I remember Annabeth telling me about how she and Piper had to fight him using instinct and emotion rather than logic and planning. Annabeth struggled with that style of fighting, yet it was my speciality.

I glanced to my side where I could see Reyna flying around the female giants head just evading her knife. She seemed to be doing well but I knew Guido wouldn't be able to keep it up forever. I turned back to face my own giant only to find him swinging his hammer at me. I just had time to step back as it swept past my face in a dark blur. I took my chance to step inside is guard and slashed at his calf. Mimas let out a roar of pain as ichor seeped from the wound I inflicted. I had to doge through his legs and avoid being stood on.

"You know you cannot defeat me without a god helping you," he said while swinging his hammer again. His attack missed me and collided with a small cyclops sending it into a crowd of empousai knocking them down like bowling pins, even turning a few to dust. What he said was true, I couldn't kill him without the help of a god, or goddess. Mimas didn't know about the ace that I had up my sleeve but my problem was I wasn't I control of when that ace was played. I just had to keep the giant's attention until the hunt executed their ambush and Artemis came to aid me.

I went on the offensive once again, this time going to the other leg from the one I slashed earlier. I got behind the giant and stabbed into his Achilles tendon, twisting my blade as I pulled it out. Mimas let out a roar and fell to one knee, I felt the ground tremble as he fell. I stabbed riptide into the ground and called on my father's powers, I felt the familiar tug in my gut and water spurted from the dirt. I willed it to wrap around the giant's thick black ankle tethering him to the floor. Mimas struggled against the restraint, but I managed to hold on to the water tether keeping him trapped. Now that he was somewhat immobilized, he decided to drop his hammer as he couldn't swing it to its full extent. He started to make attempts to grab me, so I had to keep moving. I didn't bother trying to attack him anymore, it wouldn't achieve anything as Artemis still hadn't shown up. All my concentration was being used on maintaining the water shackle and evading his fists.

After maybe a minute of weaving and dodging I realised that as long as he was still restrained I could go help Reyna with the female giant. I ran towards where the giantess was trying to swat the praetor and pegasus out of the air. As I ran I met one of the 'evil centaurs' that had been in the army Polybotes lead previously against Camp Jupiter at the end of my Alaska quest. He looked similar to any other centaur but had horns protruding from his head and a look of manic insanity across his face. He was armed with a bow and soon had an arrow ready to fire at me. I stopped running, closed my eyes and focused on my powers, this time my new ones from Hestia. Unlike the tug in my gut I get when I use my father's powers, when I use Hestia's I get a warm glowing feeling in my chest. A bit like someone softly blowing on embers inside my chest. I opened my eyes was saw the centaur drop his bow which was now engulfed in flames. I ran forward, I couldn't face killing him so just slashed at his leg causing him to tumble to the floor.

I continued towards the giantess. I looked up and I could see Guido was exhausted, pegasi could fly for long distances easily but evasive flying tired them out much faster. Hang in there buddy. I said to him.

Yo care to lend a hand? Guido panted in my head as a reply.

That's why I'm here. I answered. We're not going to be able to kill her until Artemis gets here. I told him as he just managed to avoid the huge knife that was trying to cut him out the air.

Artemis is around? He asked.

No that's the problem. I answered sarcastically. I was still trying to fight my way towards where my friends were fighting the giant. Two laistrygonian giants were currently trying to kill me so I had to fight them off while continuing my telepathic communications with the pegasus.

Hey you know what I meant. The horse replied in my mind. If there's no gods around what did you do with the other giant?

I managed to incapacitate him. Was my reply as I decapitated one of the giants.

Oh rig- Guido didn't finish his sentence instead spouted numerous curse words that showed he had been spending too much time with Arion. Obviously, something was seriously wrong. I managed to kill the second laistrygonian and rushed over just in time to see a pegasus-preator meteor hit the ground.

"Finally, now time for you to die," the giantess said looming over the Reyna and Guido. I knew I didn't have much time so I did the first thing that came to mind; I threw riptide straight at her back. Honestly it was anticlimactic, riptide cut her skin then bounced off, not sticking in like I had hoped. It managed to get her attention off Reyna, only now it was on me and I no longer had a weapon. "Well who do we have here, Percy Jackson and now unarmed and alone."

I wasn't sure what I was going to do but was bailed out when a silver arrow embedded itself in the giantess's neck.

"Unarmed yes, alone not so much," a certain auburn-haired girl said walking into the clearing around the giantess.

"One more demigod, you're still all going to die." Spat the giantess. Artemis said nothing but let her eyes flash their true color. A look of shock spread over the giantess's face. "Still he has no weapon, both of you need lethal blows to kill me, and that sword caused no more than a scratch."

"But I bet that'll hurt a lot more," Artemis said casually. Reyna had managed to disentangle herself from Guido and had thrust her spear straight into the giantess.

"You may have managed to send me back to my grandfather's realm but the battles far from over, the war even further." The giantess wheezed before crumbling.

"Where's Mimas?" Artemis said, completely ignoring the giantess's last words.

"This way," I answered, before picking up riptide and turning towards where I had left the giant.

"Reyna come on," Artemis said to the immortal praetor.

"You two go, you'll be more than enough for him. I have to check on Guido then help the legion," Reyna responded.

Neither me nor Artemis replied, merely nodding then heading off in the direction of Mimas.

"What did she mean her grandfather's realm?" I questioned Artemis, thinking of the giantess's least words. "I thought Tartarus was the father of all giants."

"That was Periboia, she is Porphyrion's daughter, Tartarus's granddaughter." Artemis answered.

"Damn you Jackson!" Mimas roared when he saw me approach. He was still struggling against the water shackle.

"Clever," Artemis said, I might have been imagining it but I thought she was almost impressed. "You get the honours." She said gesturing me forward.

I stabbed riptide down to the hilt in Mimas's chest and Artemis put an arrow six inches to the right. Immediately the giant stiffened before heading down to his father's realm to reform. Artemis and I turned around to face what remained of the army. The legion was faring well but were also tiring much faster than their enemies.

"Let's split up, we'll be more useful that way." The goddess said before dashing off into the battle.

I set of into the fight carving through enemies mostly; telkhines, hellhounds, cyclopes and dracanae. I was coming from behind most of them so the majority didn't' put up that tough a fight. These low-level grunt monsters were no longer challenging fights for me so I breezed through them without any incidents.

There was a terrible roar from about 100 feet from my right, it was familiar to me but I couldn't remember what creature made such a foul sound. I rushed towards where the noise came from, when I got there I found Thalia face to face with a drakon. The serpentine monster had a number of scales missing and seemed to be having muscle spasms as if it had recently suffered a large amount of high voltage electrical shocks. Thalia was covered in a fine layer of golden dust that stuck to her thanks to the amount of sweat on her skin. She looked tired but I stayed back because she would get pissed if I stepped in and stole her kill. I skirted around the edge of their battle fighting those who got a bit too close to Thalia, allowing her to focus on the drakon. I had just finished duelling with a telkhine when I heard Thalia let out a yell and the drakon make a sort of squealing noise and was then silent. I spun around to check what had happened and saw Thalia leaning on her spear which was embedded in the drakons left eye socket.

"Hey seaweed brain, nice of you to drop by."

"Hey Thals, good job."

"What this, it was nothing," she said cockily, gesturing at the dead drakon below her. Counter to what she said I knew fighting a drakon was hard work.

"Yeah sure it was ..."

"Anyway, are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna help you subjects, praetor," she said putting emphasis on my temporary title.

I looked around at the battle, the enemy had reformed ranks and was making a renewed attempt at attacking. The legion had also reformed their ranks around the legions eagle standard, which was periodically spurting out lightning. We were standing off the left and slightly behind the enemy once again. The little Tiber wasn't far behind us. This gave me an idea, which I admit wasn't a strong point of mine but this seemed to be an outlier.

"Hey Thals, how much energy you got?"

"I've still got some fight in me, seaweed brain. Why, got a plan?"

"Yeah and it might actually be a good one," I answered.

"Care to share this plan of yours?" she asked. "And I'll judge if it's a good one or not."

"You know how water conducts electricity, right?"

"Yeah that's basic elementary school science." She answered. "Spit it out already, what's your plan? Wait… I think I know what your planning, and it just might work."

I put one hand on riptides pommel and one on the grip, so that the tip was pointing to the floor. I plunged my sword into the ground and felt the usual pull on my gut. I pulled back against the feeling in my gut and focused on the waters of the little Tiber. The water resisted me at first but eventually bent to my will. A tidal wave washed over me and Thalia and hit full force into the back of the remaining enemy army, stopping just short of the roman's front line. Thalia let out a yell while thrusting her spear into the air, grey clouds gathered and a large lightning bolt hit the tip. For a second the head of the spear crackled and sparked with as much voltage as Thalia could muster in her tired state. She thrust her spear at the monsters and the stored electricity shot out. Thanks to the monsters being drenched the electricity shot between them turning about 70% of the remaining enemy to dust.

"Wow seaweed brain, your plan actually worked!" Thalia said obviously shocked.

"What this, it was nothing," I said mocking her words from earlier.

AN/: Chapter 21 done! I hope this was better than the other battle chapters, especially chap 2 (which I still haven't got around to rewriting). Not sure when the next chap will be out, possibly this month but more likely march sometime.

As always please let me know any and all thoughts.