So this time I changed:
• The problem with Ares being big
• Ares' character + abilities + buff
• Annabeth's role
• Percy's role + buff
• Cool shit in the fight
That's it.
The sky cried thunder. Rain trickled only for a moment, before the clouds burst in storm. The two's presence was terraforming the weather.
Gohan's fists balled. "Why can't monsters like you just stay down?"
Ares grinned. "Do you know how strong one must be to claim the title 'God of War'?"
The hybrid Saiyan bared fangs, as the deity approached without haste, as if savoring the moment.
"To claim dominion over combat itself?"
Gohan stomped forward, getting faster and faster.
Do you have the slightest inkling of my true power, and are you so arrogant,"
"..."
"So prideful in your own ability,"
"...!"
"TO BELIEVE THAT YOU, A MORTAL, COULD EVEN DREAM OF MATCHING IT-"
"RYAAAAA—!"
Gohan dashed into Ares with a fist, one caught by the god with a struggle, as the two soared back, engaging in a light-fast exchange of blows. To Gohan's anger, Ares had begun laughing like a madman.
"OF COURSE! OF COURSE YOU DO!" he howled, bashing in Gohan's face with a fist the size of the boy's torso, going in for another before his foe struck out with a punch of his own, blowing back the blow and laying into Ares. He launched a kick into the war god's head, only to be intercepted by a headbutt.
"THAT'S IT…!"
Ares knee'd Gohan in the chest, sending him away and tumbling across the ground, before he erupted in a geyser of golden energy, ki blasts firing like a volley of arrows toward the giant.
"THAT TRICK AGAIN!?" Ares roared. "FINE, I'LL PLAY WITH YOU!" What looked like gates swirled around Ares, before a true arrow-tipped storm fired back, the points actually matching the blasts in a cacophony of sparks like divine fireworks, the two confronting each other in their midst. Ares' mammoth fist came thundering down, Gohan rolling across it and landing a spun fist straight into his jaw, only for Ares to spin a backfist into the half-breed's soul spine and reappear before he could fully plummet to the ground, driving him into his knee. He raised an axe-handle fist and prepared to break the warrior, but Gohan spun around and caught the blow, the two crashing to the ground.
"... Ares is too big."
Grover's head swiveled to the side. "Huh?"
"Gohan's able to compete with his strength and speed, even now, but… when they clash, he's at a disadvantage." Annabeth chewed a nail. "Just one of Ares' arms dwarfs Gohan's entire body. He has to use excess energy to zero in on him, or else his attacks lack the impact they need to really hurt Ares. Especially now…"
"... huh?"
Annabeth groaned. "LONG ARMS GOOD, SHORT ARMS BAD!"
"Oooh. Oh."
Gohan began sinking into the earth under the new force of the strengthened deity, his muscles bulging as if about to tear out of his skin.
"WHAT A THRILL!" Ares cackled. "NO MORTAL SHOULD BE THIS STRONG WITH RAW STRENGTH ALONE! IT'S LUDICROUS! I'M SHAKING ALL OVER!"
"CAN IT!" Gohan shouted, going into an ippon seoi-nage and sending his larger foe soaring forward a colossal crater forming straight after. He supercharged his fist with ki and lifted it to the sky, his eyes full of hatred as he shot after him, suddenly bobbing out of the way of a projectile; he went on to scream out in waves of agony. A spear had shot right by him, Gohan having dodged it at the last minute, yet still being nicked in the shoulder; barbs had shot across his skin like spirals.
"CONGRATS, BOY!" Ares shot up. "YOU'RE THE FIRST IN HISTORY TO SURVIVE GAE BOLG!"
"WHAT!?" Annabeth screamed.
"What?" Grover asked.
"THAT WEAPON… THAT SHOULDN'T EVEN EXIST! IT'S FROM A DIFFERENT PANTHEON'S LEGENDS ALTOGETHER!"
Ares grinned maniacally. "Do you truly believe I've used everything in my war arsenal!? I only save my best for the strongest of adversaries, and you, unfortunately, have proven worthy!" He took aim, pulling back on nothing as the demi-saiyan continued to stagger in mortal pain; soon, a tri-arrow bow of divine origin appeared in his grasp, already pulled back before being unleashed, godly beams of light soon speeding toward Gohan.
"HAAA—!" He shot a beam toward them, finding himself struggling against their power and losing. He relented, narrowly dodging them before doing so again, and again, and again, grabbing and destroying two and "stopping" the third with his foot, crashing into the side of a building in the process. Wincing in pain, he looked back up to see the god thrust his hand into a puddle, tearing out a golden, blinding broadsword.
"Is that…" Annabeth gulped. "it can't be…"
Ares smirked. "THIS ONE'S ON OF MY FAVORITES!" He reared it back to his side, roaring as he slashed the air.
Every structure jumped, their top halves bisected.
Gohan sweat like mad, pushing himself further and further to keep up his current level of strength; anything less, and he'd lose his upper hand. The floating building he was on suddenly went top-side, Ares crashing onto its opposite end, readying his flaming sword as it transformed into a long, bronze-tipped spear, maniacally smiling. Gohan growled, spotting a long rebar rod poking from the corner of the building, several times his height. He stomped down, sending the rod up to his hand, twirling it around his body to adjust to its length. He then pointed it to the god in challenge.
"A support rod? Against a divine weapon?" Ares chuckled. "Such an ingenuity when it comes to sacrilege… I LOVE IT!" He charged. "YOU'RE TOO MUCH!"
"That," Annabeth smiled with hope, "Might be enough to make up the range difference!"
"If that thing holds!" Grover added.
The two blurs dueled across the new, levitating terrain, blow for blow as Gohan learned through death's-edge combat how to fight with a staff; it was oddly natural, like it was made for him. He parried Ares' attacks with his ki-imbued weapon, contesting with the occasional mythic weapon and smacking it out of Ares' hand before whatever instant-kill superweapon of mass destruction could be used against him, though taking scratch after scratch in the process, each scar burning and bleeding more than the last. As they clashed once more, their platform burst, as they flew and leapt from structure to structure with the same continuous result, he found himself on the wrong end of several buildings, swinging his weapon full-power and breaking them into rubble before they could hit, only for the war god to spring from the dark ashes, attempting a decapitation that Gohan only barely stopped, his hands being slashed and his weapon being lost before a boot blasted him into another wall. He watched as an apartment complex rocketed toward him like a bullet, throwing his hand outward to fire a ki wave; Ares bursted through its top, wielding a shield with a heavenly shine that refracted his beam of energy in multiple directions, before crashing into Gohan with an explosion that stretched across the sky.
Covered in wounds, Ares shakily stood back up, chuckling in pain all the way.
"I've never shaken like this before… and I'm doing battle with a mortal child from nowhere…" He threw his head to the sky in chaotic laughter. "WHAT A GLORIOUS BATTLE-HIGH! YES, I DECLARE YOU THE STRONGEST MORTAL TO EVER LIVE! STAND UP, SON GOHAN! LET'S KEEP GOING! GET ANGRIER! AVENGE YOUR FALLEN! MAKE ME SUFFER!"
Gohan stood. And fell. And stood again. And fell onto a knee.
"Hah… hah…"
"... oh, that's right. You're still a mortal."
He knelt down to the Saiyan. "In all your strength, give it enough time and you will wane like any other. You submit to stamina, to old age and ailment, in such meager amounts. I can still make you truly strong, you know. I'll turn you into a god, and we can fight until the last star-"
He received a golden headbutt as a response.
"No." He stood back up, shaking all over as he maintained his ascended state with pure force of will. "I'm fine with getting tired, if it means I'm still nothing like you."
Ares repositioned his head, his nose dripping gold. "... you're ridiculous."
Gohan got into a shaky stance, as Ares pulled out a red-gold staff. "If you're fine with mortality, you're fine with mortality."
The sound of a screeching harpy caught Ares' attention for a moment. "Hm?"
He looked above.
One was flying off with the helm of darkness.
"WHAT!?"
"Huh…?" Gohan looked in his friends' last location.
Neither Annabeth nor Grover had moved. In fact, it looked like they'd seen a ghost.
"No…"
The god of war was slowly piecing together his current situation.
Poseiden's brat.
So close to the sea.
In the middle of a rainstorm.
"No, no no…!"
The rain began falling harder and harder, as if gravity had increased, yet those who weren't Ares were fine.
"HEAD'S UP!"
Ares lifted the staff, blocking a diving attack from above that sent the rain scattering. His feet sank into the solid ground in the process, the war god shoving away the intruder.
Skidding back, in perfect control and with a foreign confidence…
"There's no turning back, now. It's only gonna get worse from here, I just know it."
Gohan's surprise was replaced with overwhelming joy.
"So if this is the life I've gotta live, I'm not gonna spend it crying like a baby."
Percy made a fist, Riptide in the other hand and his bag full of bolt on his back.
"And I'm definitely not letting you get away with hurting anyone else I care about, you jerk!"
The demi-saiyan stood up to full height. "You're alright… I'm… I'm sorry that I left you all alone out there…!"
"..."
Percy sighed. "You're one hopeless guy, Gohan. You don't need to apologize for every little thing, especially when you've just fought a god all by yourself. Hey, that's twice, now! Yeah, on second thought, you stay out of this!"
A distant, enraged Greek curse made both he and his periodically-blonde pal jump.
"I, uh, I was kidding, dude."
Gohan smiled. "I was pretty sure!"
Two large, skull-encrusted blades hit the ground, splitting it.
"Fine. I'll make sure there's a body this time."
Percy and Gohan stared down their shared foe, each's presence giving the other a surge of confidence. They both split a nod, before holding up three fingers each.
"ROUND 3!" They shouted at once, balling one fist.
"STARTING UP!" They shared a stance.
"COME AND GET IT!" They roared, priming themselves for the battle ahead, as the earth quaked and split, throwing Ares off balance as their voices dwarfed the ongoing thunder.
"YOU THINK A COWARD AND A SPENT CORPSE WILL STOP THIS!? I WILL HAVE MY WAR, WITH OR WITHOUT THAT HELMET, AND YOU'LL DIE ALL THE SAME!" Ares snarled, charging forward.
"BRING IT!" Percy and Gohan barked back, charging forward.
"LEFT!"
"GOT IT!"
They combined, a spiral of water and light before colliding with a true deity.
Percy gripped Riptide. "AAAAAAAAA—!"
Gohan formed a sword from his currently-burning spirit. "OOORIYAAA—!"
A spark-laced duel-dance ensued, each boy receiving an equal portion of god's wrath and returning it fivefold if-not sevenfold.
Ares, in his true form, was being pushed back, and badly; every few seconds, a new nick. Every divine construct he tried summoning, smacked out of his hand – the maneuver had become a mere opening.
"ENNN—OUGH!" Ares bellowed, blowing them back with rage, his scarlet eyes expanding like the surface of Mars before a thermobaric flame ruptured the air, surging toward the duo. They let out a war cry of their own, four sets – no, one pair – of sea-green eyes casting forth a focused hurricane empowered by mind, body, and soul's harmony manifest. Expelling the terrific force, Ares burst from it, knocking them both airborne in a dash before a hailstorm worth of javelins fired toward them; undeterred, they blasted through them, directly toward the god.
"DON'T LET UP!"
"ALREADY ON IT!"
TCH…! COME!" Ares cried havoc with outstretched weapons, only for a liquid pillar to slam into his exposed side, knocking the embodiment of Combat off balance before even more smacked him, lifting him into the sky as a wave-like tendril took him for a ride.
"HE'S ALL YOURS!"
"THANK YOU!" shouted Gohan, dashing by Ares again, and again, and again, slashing deeper into each pre-cut area each time before going stationary, cupping his hands over his hands.
"MASENKO!"
A flash of light blasted Ares forward like a comet.
"WIDE OPEN!"
Percy spun Riptide. "ON IT!" He shot forward on the back of a water jet, sword like a pincer and rammed into the war god's back.
He was then grabbed, the god's red dots glaring fiercely as ichor streamed from his mask.
"DON'T GROW TOO BIG A HEAD, DEMIGOD. YOU'LL LOSE IT IN TIME…!"
He gulped a bit.
"Well you definitely won't be the one to take it…!"
Gohan reappeared, checkmark-kicking Ares into a distant building. The two landed on the ground, waiting for his response.
Percy looked over to him. "Gohan, you…"
"I know. I'm hurting him, but I can't do anything that lasts, like you can."
"Wait… Gohan, um… didn't Annabeth give you her dagger."
Gohan suddenly went white. "Er…"
"You almost lost it, you air-head!"
The two's heads darted about in confusion. The dagger in question then appeared in front of Gohan, floating.
"Here!"
"IT CAN TALK!?"
"IS THAT HER DEMIGOD SUPERPOWER!? SHE CAN MAKE HER WEAPONS PEOPLE!?"
Their heads received a wallop from a disembodied force.
"That was a DUMB thing to say." The dagger then smacked itself – no, he could feel it, someone's hand had placed it – into his hand, balling his fist for him. It was only then that the demi-saiyan found the wherewithal to check their ki.
"Annabeth!"
"Annabeth?"
The wise girl in question took off her cap, revealing herself.
"Annabeth!"
"Stupid!" Annabeth mocked Percy's excited tone, before turning. In the distance, two buildings had lifted, altering shape until they'd turned into two colossal blades.
"Look… the god of war's about to throw everything he has at you. Nothing short of another god knows what that'll entail, but seeing as how he clearly has a screw loose, I'm guessing a nuke is gonna show itself very soon, so I'm going to make this pep talk quick and easy."
She smacked a hand on both boys' backs. "Hit him hard, hit him fast, and hit him together." As she spoke, a smile nothing short of demonic crawled up her face. "In any case, you two have made him, made ANY god, work harder than any mortal or demigod ever has… ever. If anyone can put him down for as long as it takes for the bastard to crawl out of Tartarus, it's YOU TWO." She squeezed their shoulders, now grinning innocently. "So just don't forget that I made the both of you, m'kay?"
Gohan and Percy frantically nodded. She was now consistently scarier than a god's wrath.
Speaking of, "RUAAA—!"
Ares shot up, his ridiculous dual harbingers in hands.
"Alright…" she gripped her cap, but not before directing it, and both hands, for that matter, toward Ares.
"LET HIM HAVE IT!"
"HAAA—!" They shot off by both her sides, as if a drag race had begun.
"I AM WAR! I AM CONFLICT! I AM THE GREAT LORD ARES! I WILL NOT BE BEATEN BY CHILDREN, DAMN IT!"
"THERE'S A FIRST FOR EVERYTHING!"
"AND HERE'S YOURS!"
The two actually contested the unreal weapons, the sheer pressure of the clash tearing Percy's backpack clean off. The impact was deafening, winds tearing through solid structures like knives through butter. Both boys' arms were going numb, but their spirits still burned.
"GO MAD! LOSE YOUR MINDS! TEAR YOURSELVES APART IN COMBAT, THEN FIND YOUR ALLIES AND DO THE SAME!" Ares demanded, his eyes flaring red, and Gohan and Percy's following. However, Ares' divine order had the opposite effect;
The two had already lost themselves in a warrior's madness. The extra spell had only made their warring spirits burn brighter.
"KAAAAAAA—!"
The fortified fortresses he'd fashioned as blades actually cracked and fell, exploding altogether from his hands as the mythic duo charged him head-on.
They had done it. They'd struck a genuine fear inside a deathless being.
But his divine vision witnessed a miracle, one fit for a god.
"Yes… YES…!" The weapon needed not be ordered; no it was not its master, but it was a weapon for warfare, and therefore went to its king, zipping past the halfling duo.
"BUT THAT'S…!"
"NO WAY…!"
The Master Bolt of Zeus flew into the hand of Ares, and as such, thunder clapped with such an intensity, it was like the pained roaring of an enraged beast.
"SHUT THE HELL UP, OLD MAN! STAY OUT OF THIS!" Ares had the gall to demand, as he took aim. "YOU WANT THEM DEAD, TOO, RIGHT? THEN SIT BACK AND WATCH, LIKE ALWAYS, YOU PASSIVE FOOL! I AM THE GOD OF WAR, AND LET THAT BE KNOWN TO ALL THAT LIVES!"
Annabeth was right. A nuke had shown up. Rather, something dwarfing it.
"HIT THE DECK!" Grover screamed, taking her down with him behind rubble.
And it smacked into Gohan dead-on.
"GYAAAA—!"
"GOHAN!" Percy's hate-glazed eyes locked back onto Ares, slamming into him and inflicting yet another wound, one that he took with glee.
"YOU BASTARD… YOU BASTARD…! YOU BASTARD!"
"KHH… HAHAHAHA! WHAT A CRYING SHAME, BOY!"
But something was wrong, in the back of his mind.
"(Where was the boom?)"
"(There should've been a boom.)"
And then, he saw it.
Blazing the sky, crackling like a pylon, was Gohan. Blasting off back into the fray,
Master Bolt in-
"Gua…!"
As soon as he'd lost focus, the dagger from Athena's brat had lodged itself into his chest.
"WHY-"
Percy went even deeper with the arc of his Riptide's slash.
"YOU-"
And like a lightning bolt, Gohan entered, no longer holding a new mystic weapon in hand.
"HRAAAA—"
"—AAAAAAA—"
"NUAAA—!"
They shot past the clouds, across the pouring heavens, and straight back down to earth, Ares' skeleton flashing in and out of view all the while as he screamed in extradimensional levels of agony.
"BURN! BURN ABLAAAAZE!"
"REST IN PEEEEACE!"
Ares got a boom.
Just not his boom.
"IT… CAN'T…" He denied every moment of his pain-staking undoing, going up in smoke, sparks, and mist.
"AWESOME!" Grover hooted.
Crossing her arms, Annabeth rapidly nodded. "(I made those boys…)" She shed a single tear.
In the new ground zero the two stood. Not in bravery. Not in terror.
Because they couldn't do much else.
They were, after all, sore all over. The rain had let up, and Gohan's enlarged hair had died down, reverting back to his black, slightly-more modest spikes. Using each other as supports, they slowly slumped to the ground, hissing all the way.
"Did… did we just do that…?" Percy weakly asked, delirious. Gohan slowly nodded.
"Man… I need… something… to eat…"
"..."
"... Pan's not a bad name..."
"... nope..."
The kin of Poseiden and Son Gokū both fell out of consciousness, still gripping the newly forged Master Bolt.
GOOD NIGHT LORDCALDRIN, WHEREVER YOU ARE!