[David's Pov]
"I'll give you a one free shot."
That sentence may go down as one of the most boldest(or dumbest) lines that I've spoken to date. And that's saying a lot under my terms.
Atlas wasn't the first deity I had to face off in a combat, and the mortal part of myself desperately prayed that he would be the last.
My other half, on the other hand, was more than eager for the challenge. And strangely enough, each breath I took in this arena seemed to tip the scale over to it than my rational side.
The Titan slowly rose to full height—way over 10ft, and if you counted the intimidation factor, he made Ladon look like a cluster of earthworms.
He narrowed his silver grey eyes, noticeably baffled at my claim.
"A free shot?" His voice was low and heavy, rumbling across the air like a giant boulder thundering off the hill.
The Hesperdies whimpered and huddled behind my back. Erytheia's hand grip my shoulders; to gain some moral support, or to prevent me from provoking the Titan any further; I had no idea.
"Get Zoë and the other two out of harm's way." I whispered out of the corner of my lips.
"Out of harm's way?" Erytheia hissed back, "David, if Atlas wants to, he could flatten the entire mountain with a single strike!"
"Impressive."
The Hesperid glanced at me with a concerned look, nonverbally warning me that her words were not a figure of speach. I gave her a reassuring smile and brushed her hand off.
It's hard to explain the foundation came from, but I felt confidence surge through my body as Atlas lumbered forward.
So what if he was the biggest(in terms of vigor), strongest enemy I had faced? This quest was saturated with monsters with escalating strengths, and I was still here.
I can do this.
I will do this.
Arlas and I stopped at the middle of the arena. As we did, my frenzic brain started picking up all the minor details of the area.
There was a huge crevasse on my side, which made it slighlty difficult on the footing front.
Thalia and Reyna was on the far right, behind the Titan. I could feel their faintest breaths through the air.
Zoë, not to far, presumably too fatigue to move, looked at me with a mixture of relief and rage. The Hesperdies were quickly shuffling their way to the three heroines.
Atlas glanced at them for a fraction of a second before setting them back to me. He slammed rhe butt of his weapon down to the ground, riling up a cloud of dust around my face.
"I must admit, boy. You are one of the most audacious human I've ever seen. Even Heracles came to me with a low head."
I remembered the tale with vivid memory. And as much as I wasn't fond of Heracles, I wasn't going to let this baffon have one over me.
"Because he needed a favor done. Though I did enjoy the part where you lost your freedom because you were outsmarted—"
I saw the attack before it happened. As soon as Atlas's right shoulder tensed, the trainings from my Dad kicked in.
Atlas was far agile for someone his size. If you try to read the attack itself, you'd be too late. But I learned how to perceive action before it happened.
I saw how Atlas's muscles tightened, where it lossened, and my brain drew the trajectory of the swinging weapon before it ever began moving foward.
Dodging a forseen attack is a piece of cake. Even if it came from the embodiment of the force holding the sky.
The javilen swung over my head as I leaned back. I saw Atlas's eyes widen in shock, only for it to narrow with more rage.
His left arm aimed to impale my body to the ground. I used the swaying momentum to flip backwards as the second javelin crashed into the ground.
Credit where credit is due, Atlas's strength was leagues above the rest. Even though I cleanly dodged the direct hit, the impact of the strike was like a meteor; sending me flying back additional feets.
Still, I managed to skid to a hault on my feet.
My body was lighter and stronger than ever. Something about the air was different—it strengthed my entire being. It was hard to explain, but I was too excited to dwell on it too much.
"Did I just touch a nerve?" I looked up at Atlas seething with rage and smirked. "I thought the General of the Titan would have a longer temper!"
Atlas had the utmost livid expression on his face as he regained his posture. But then, he let out a deep breath, then coldly grinned.
"An admirable effort to get under my skin, brat."
Over his massive shoulders, I could see the Hesperdies dragging Zoë, Reyna and Thalia over the stadium. I hoped they'd figure out a way to secure their safety.
Atlas continued. "But you're the one with a ticking time. You're here to save the goddess trapped under the Sky, but that is impossible."
"We'll see about that."
I flicked my sword, but he had a point. We still had to figure out a way to get Artemis out from under the Sky.
In hindsight, this was something we should've discussed earlier. I...haven't even considered it until now.
I doubt Annabeth and Zoë would've glossed over the problem, though. My best bet was to hope that Zoë had something up her sleeve. Thinking up a clever strategy wasn't my strong point; my strong point was combat.
And I am looking forward to it, immensely.
Atlas chuckled and hefted his weapons over his shoulders. "The gods are foolish beings, demigod. They won't decided anything without one of their pantheons, and by the time of their next annual meeting, the Titans shall rise once again!"
I thrust my sword at his wide open mouth. Atlas deflected the spinning blade easily. My sword spun into the far side of the arena and clattered against the one if the pillars.
"A juvenile trick," The Titan jeered. "Anything else up your sleeve?"
"Actually, yes." I slipped my secert weapon from under my sleeve. Atlas squinted at the small object before barking out laughing.
"An Eucalyptus leaf?! What are you going to do with that? I've had enough with this nonsense!"
He put his javilens up front like a boar's tusks and charged forward. I heard the Zoë and the Hesperdies either crying out my name or to be careful, but I was ready.
I pictured the Calydonian Boar charging at me. Then, I had no choice but to dodge under it's belly, but Atlas was much smaller in terms of size.
I waited until the last moment and leaped up as high as possible and soared overhead.
The Titan was, however, much smarter than the boar. Instead of sticking to his charge he stopped immediately and swiped up in a wide arc.
The spear came close to my side. I recalled how I copied Zoë's flexable movements during the fight with Ladon. I swerved around the tip, barely avoiding it as the tip scraped across my shirt.
I landed on my feet and rolled on my back to avoid the extra swipe that came right after. As I did, I put the Eucalyptus leaf up to my lips.
[3rd Person's Pov]
Zoë watched in utter bewilderment as David started playing one of the worst sounding grass flute she'd ever heard.
"What are you doing!?" She shouted, though her voice didn't reach either combatants in the arena.
Was his plan to distract Atlas with the aweful tune? If it was, it didn't seem to do any good. Contrarily, it seemed to anger the Titan even more.
David was doing well dodging the stirkes from the javilens, sidestepping and weaving around at the brink of time, but he couldn't keep that up forever, could he?
Then, a black sword suddenly came spinng around to slash at Atlas's face.
"What the!?"
The Titan yelled in surprise and quickly swatted it away. The sword spun off corse, but a quick tweat from David's grass flute made it dive back.
"Sorcery!" Atlas bellowed in fury. He hated tricks and magic. It was such a cowardly way to fight compared to brute strength and combat skills, which he prized.
He swung the javelin wildly in the hopes of silcing David into pieces, but he dodged every slash with certain elegance that was familiar.
"Artemis," Atlas growled. The boy was immitating his daught's movement, which was taught to her by the goddess of the hunt.
Artemis recognized David's moment as well.
Even though her eyes were scrunched up in pain, her visions blurry from the sweat pouring down, she saw the boy impersonate her trusted hunters.
For whatever reason, Zoë's scolding voice rang within her head. She'd never talk back to her like that before—never, in the thousands of years as a lieutenant.
The goddes had a fleeting suspicion on what made Zoë change in a span of a mere week.
"It's...always the men..." She grunted through the pain. "...Always..." A water drop trickled down her cheeks from her eyes.
The Sky over her shoulders rumbled. Out of the corner of her eyes, she made out the Orion constellation sparkling brightly.
Atlas snarled in frustration as the black sword slashed against his armor. The blade was yet to cut through his armor, but it was pesky nonetheless. Not to mention David darting in and out of striking zone.
Finally, he had enough.
Atlas dug both his javilens to the ground and yelled. Titantic energy blew up from the tip, erupting the ground in a wide parameter.
David was flung off his feet. The Eucalyptus leaf fluttered into the air, and Atlas tore it to shreds.
With the magic supporting it gone, the black sword cluttered on to the floor.
Without hesitation, Atlas stomped on the blade with all his might; a sparkling blue energy surging over his foot.
Boom!
The floor of the arena caved in deeply into a crater as the strength of the General Titan crushed the earth below.
When he removed the foot, David was horrified to find his sword crushed into bits, the impacted area scorched as if a dragon blew flames into it.
"No more tricks from you," Atlas said. But even the Titan didn't know the real reason why David was devastated.
His string of destiny was nowhere to be found.
Judging from the circumstance, it was very possible that it got burnt up by the Titanic energy from Atlas.
For a moment, David frantically searched himself, half expecting for him to suddenly burst into flames or something.
But nothing happened. Instead, Atlas took advantage of the situation and stabbed at his head.
David looked up just in time. He leaped sideways, barely scathing the javilen and rolled into a heap 6-7 feet away.
He looked up to see Zoë getting pulled back by her four sisters as she tried to leap over the edge of the stadium to enter the fight again.
"I'm fine!" He shouted. Zoë faltered, shrugged off her sister's hands and looked down.
David stared at the coffee brown eyes filled with concern.
[David's Pov]
"David..." Zoë muttered, more softly this time. She looked like she had thousands of words to say, and couldn't decide on what to say first.
Atlas wasn't going to give us any time for pep talk, much less a heart-felt conversation. He was alreadly pulling his weapons free from the ground.
But her look of concern was enough to give me a reminder. I almost lost track on why I was fighting.
I showed her my best confident grin and sprang back up to my feet. I couldn't see her expresion, but I knew, I had her convinced.
The whereabouts of my string of Fate could wait for later. As crazy as it sounded, if it wasn't going to affect me now, I could care less about it than the pebble currently on the battlefield.
Atlas sneered as I took stance. He didn't even level his weapon as he stepped closer.
"Do you honestly think that you can take me bare-handed?" The Titan jeered, "You could barely avoid death with your magic trick."
His choice of words made me pause; I thought the controling sword was more intertwined with the weapon, not my abilities on magic.
And besides, children of Ares were supposed to be bad at everything else except combat. I doubted I could pull off some delicate magic like that.
But speaking of, as much as I favored sword over any other weapons, I was more confident with my hands.
Unlike most assumptions, of all the trainings I've went through in Camp Half-Blood, the Ares cabin spent most of them on wrestling and boxing—or Pankration.
Besdies, javilen was a long-ranged weapon. If I wanted to take any chance of victory, it was went I go up close to him.
"Let's see what happenes."
Atlas roared as he thrust his first javelin. I jumped over the tip, let the force of impact fling me into the air and I landed on the Titan's shoulder.
I fastend my arms around his thick neck and used my whole weight to pin him down on the ground with me.
Atlas growled in frustration as I tried to choke on his windpipe. My arms were much stronger than back at the seashore with the Manticore, but Atlas far outweight Manticore in terms of strength.
He cast aside his useless javilens and grabbed my entire body. He would've crushed me to death if I hadn't quickly wriggled out, but that made me completely open.
Atlas's foot connected with my stomach in a full swinging kick. I nearly coughed up my entire oragns as my body went airborne, only to crash into a pillar within seconds.
My vision was all messed up, switching from hazy vision of the arena to pitch black to red in seconds. My limbs felt like jelly, and I'm pretty sure my nise was bleeding.
"Th...this..."
I gasped for air. A warm lump climbed up my throat. I spat a glob of blood on the floor and wiped my mouth.
I can't go down, no matter what.
"This is nothing...!"
I clenched my fists. The sigil started to crackle in my palm. The throbing pain around my body started to fade.
My sight cleared to reveal Atlas wriggling his fingers, anticipating on how to crush me like a bug.
"You are nothing, young mortal." The Titan said. "Nothing but another spec of blood in my hands."
The Titan sprinted forward with much more speed than I would've prefered.
As the giant shadow came closer by each seconds, however, my eyes involuntarily flickered up; over Atlas's shoulder and to the stadium, where five Hesperdies were clustered over.
It was all the way over the other side of the room, but I could make out their desperate expressions, their mouths in sinc—yelling out the same exact words.
"David!"
Atlas barreled toward me, his arms outstretched wide to squash me from either side like a mosquito.
The sigil gave me courage to face the monstrosity.
I rasied my right arm.
Atlas bellowed loudly as he lunged forward, and I yelled at the top of my lungs as I ran forward as well.
I ducked under the swooshing arms, and slammed my own right in the middle of the Titan's breastplate.
[3rd Person's Pov]
For a split moment, Atlas smirked. The demigod couldn't even aim properly; there was no way his feeble, mortal arm could leave so much as a mark over his armor.
Then, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He gasped and heaved, his eyes bulging out and mouth opening wide at the sudden wave of agony.
He looked down to see the boy's arm, embedded deep inside the breastplate, crumpling the Celestial Bronze as if they were cheep aluminum foils.
With a tremendous yell, David thrust forward.
Atlas felt his body get uplifted. Before he could rap his head around this insane situation, the General Titan was sent flying across the arena and crashed into the pillars of the Titan.
The Hesperdies stared in amazement. Even Artemis had her eyes wide open despite her situation, all of them in utter shock at what just happened.
David was surprised the most surprised of them all. He still had his right arm outstretched, staring at the Titan crumpled on the other side of the room.
...Did he just do that? But how?
His right arm was gently humming with golden energy. He could also feel the same energy flowing from his sigil to the right arm.
It couldn't be simply that the sigil gave him a boost. The sigil wasn't suppose to grant him extra power.
Then, David turned to the Hesperdies. And he remembered how he had gotten the arm in the first place, and what it represented.
Atlas coughed as he struggled to his feet. A splatter of ichor spilled from his mouth to the ground.
The Titan swiped across his mouth and looked down. His chest was caved in a shape of an arm. He looked at the wound in disbelief.
He had shed blood by mortals before, sure. But those were nothing over few scratches; it wasn't anything this severe, much less from a single strike.
However, Atlas's shock got quickly replaced with pure rage. He ripped off the crumpled breastplate and roared in fury and pain.
"How?!" He demanded. His silver eyes bloodshot with rage, glaring at David. "How is this possible!?"
"Becasue," David answered.
"This arm is given to me with hope by your daughter.
Hope, that you're rein of terror over them would be over.
This arm bears that hope. And I am the one who will make it a reality!
That's what a hero does!"
He shouted, pointing his forefinger at Atlas.
Erytheia let out a small whimper. She appreciated his commitment to his words, not to mention that her heart may have skipped a beat or two at his claims(earning a rather odd glance from Zoë), but she could also easily picture how her father would react.
Atlas barely contained his growl of rage. His eyes were fixated on the blasted demigod.
He was going to cast him down to the deepest point of Tartarus, even if it meant tearing this place down. Castles can be rebuilt any time; who cares.
"Die, mortal!"
The Titan General Atlas advanced with anger in toe. He was much faster than before, but David was ready for it.
With hus right hand, he met the mighty punch from the Titan with his own. Their fists collided in mid air with an explosive "Bang!".
David quickly grabbed Atlas's fists and yanked backward, toppling his balance. He grabbed the back of Atlas's neck and rammed his knee into his nose.
"ARRRGH!!" Atlas howled as his nose broke, ichor gushing out from both nostrils.
However, David grit his teeth in pain as well—his knees buckled under the rebounded force of the impact.
The small hesitation gave Atlas the opening to grab the demigod by his leg. He plunded him into the ground, splattering blood everywhere as his daughters screamed in terror.
David held back several cries of pain and kicked the Titan in the broken nose, making him stumble backwards and got back to his feet.
His entire backside was dead; he couldn't even feel the pain. Atlas also got of quickly, getting more and more angry by the second.
The two lanched themslves at each other. Their arms locked in with each other, and they strained on the spot.
"You're strength is nothing...compared to a Titan!" Atlas grunted, trying to break David's shoulder off. By every logical standpoint, it should be an easy task, but somehow the demigod didn't budge.
David growled in pain as his bones creaked under the force of Atlas trying to rip them off. But at the same time, he felt the surge of inner strength from the sigil, the hearts of the Hesperdies and more from his right arm.
"Mine alone may be, but I am not fighting alone!" David wrapped his arm around Atlas's and locked them upwards, trying to break his arms. But he'd rather have better luck trying to snap a 500 year old tree in half.
Atlas cackled at the vained attempt of the demigod. He grabbed David's shoulder and slammed his knee into his chest as payback.
For a split second, David's eyes rolled back as his body went limp. He regained consciousness quickly after, but his chest was already smashed to bits.
David crumpled to the floor. Thick, sticky red blood spilling out from his mouth like a small waterfall. Even still, his hands scraped the floor in an attempt to stand back up.
"Don't bother getting up," Atlas snorted out the last specs of ichor out of his nose. "You'll die in next 10 seconds."
"David!" Zoë cried out.
This time, she acted faster than any of her sisters could. She leaped down from the podium and ran straight to him, not with a single plan on what to do.
Atlas snarled and smashed his foot to the ground. A huge chunk of boulder flew up, and he sent it flying to his daughter with a smack from his fist.
Zoë tucked and rolled under the boulder sailing over head and kept running. However, Atlas was far from done.
"You fool!" He gloated and smashed his foot once more.
The impact shook the earth vertically in a wave motion and flung Zoë off her feet, straight into his swiping palm.
SMACK!
Zoë sprawled on to the floor. Defeated yet again by a single blow.
The huntress couldn't even groan in pain. It was painful to breath. Her vision was near pitch black. She could hardly feel her body apart from the immense throbbing pain that inhabited it.
Her titantic bloodline combined with Aither was the sole reason she wasn't killed on the spot, which ironically would've been far less painful.
"Zoë!" Lipara leaned over the ledge. "We have to help her!" She desperately shouted at her sisters.
But as heartbroken and sorrowful as they looked, the Hesperdies couldn't move. Their arms ans legs trembled in unbearable fear as Atlas strolled over to Zoë with a sneer.
Lipara tried to jump off the stadium as well, but Erytheia grabbed Lipara's arm and yanked her back.
"Erytheia!" The youngest Hesperid protested. She tried to yank herself free, but Erytheia fastened her grip on her younger sister.
She couldn't lose two sisters today.
"We were an idiot." Erytheia whispered quickly in a strained voice, a line of tear streaking down her cheek. "No one can defeat Atlas. No one."
Zoë tried to force herself up to her feet, but Atlas stepped over her back to keep her on the ground. He reached out to one of his javilens which flew into his hand.
The tip scraped across Zoë's cheek, cutting it open before Atlas held the weapon aloft.
"Be ready for your sisters in Tartarus."
Zoë looked up at the Titan, blinking tears out of her eyes, determined to stare him valiantly until she died.
Atlas sneered at the feeble attempt of resistance and raised his arm.
The javilen struck.
A splash of blood coated the ground.
Zoë gasped.
"...David!"
In a parallel to their first meeting, David had moved in at the brink of time. Instead of getting showered by bullets, David held the edge of the javelin on his right hand.
David coughed up more blood. Just like Zoë, the godly air was the only thing keeping him apart from death.
Still, he managed to speak.
"Zoë..." He coughed.
Atlas snarled in frustration and pushed forward, but David kept a firm ground, pushing back with equal force.
"Zoë...I am, fighting for this..." He pointed a shaking finger on bis right arm. "What...what are you fighting for...?"
Zoë blinked. She was about to answer that, she came down for him—to save him, admittedly without any idea on how to.
But then she realized that wasn't what he was talking about. They didn't come here to defeat Atlas. That was never their goal at the beginning.
With all of her willpowers, she tore her eyes away from David. Artemis was half buried to the ground from the weight of the Sky.
The goddess's eyes widened when her lieutenant picked herself up and wobbled to her.
"What, are you—"
Instead of explaining herself, Zoë slipped under the Sky and raised her arms over her head.
The huntress let out a grunt as half of the weight slammed over her shoulders. At the same time, Artemis felt her shoulder get considerably lighter, even if still burdened.
"Zoë, I—" Artemis started to say, but Zoë shook her head.
"Please, Artrmis..." She said through strained grunts. "...fight Atlas...and save David."
Artemis's eyes turned to the Titan and demigod.
"I..."
Her lips trembled as she opened. Her heart was heavier than her shoulders had ever been.
"...I, can't..."
I am deeply sorry for being late yet again, but I really did struggle with this chapter for a unique reason, and it threw me off completely.
Some of you might have noticed that this chapter is different from my usual writing habits. I usually stick to one Pov for at least 2000 or more words, either observing the situation in 3rd Person or experiencing through in the eyes of a character(mostly David, since his growth as a protagonist is most important)
I've tried over the course of two weeks to find a way to both carry out the fight scenes and explain what's going on.
Sadly, it was neigh impossible to achieve both of them with my normal writing habits. Either the fight scenes got too monology, thereby become redundant, or things happened without little to no explanation.
So what I've settled on is switching between the two povs more rapidly than usual; explaining things when needed and monologong through David when needed.
What I'm concerned is that this might've been executed poorly; I've never done this type of writing before, and I certainly didn't forsee the problem until it came up to my face.
So any feedback on how the chapter felt(it doesn't have to be specifically about the issue I addressed; a lot of changes happened in this chapter) is welcomed with open arms. Please do review.
It'll help immensely on how I decide to write the next chapter—which would probably make it come out faster.
Not that I would intentionally be late for a lack of reviews, I'm just not sure if my writings will be good as I hope to be.
Anyway, thank you all for reading this chapter, I hope to see you all at the next one.
Ta ta~
