Chapter 26:
Everyone on board the CSS Birmingham took a few steps back as the giant sea monster's head roared, heading towards the side of the ship, biting into it. The monster's sharp teeth passed through the material easily and chomped down onto it, destroying a large piece of the hull.
"It took out a piece of the ship!" Annabeth yelled, alarmed.
"As if Charybdis and Scylla weren't enough," Percy said, annoyed. Though Markus saw him shake a little in fear.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Clarisse asked, looking a little fearful. Okay, scratch that. Very fearful.
No one answered her. Tyson whimpered a little as his weapon shook in his hands and tried to keep a good grip on it but Percy who was next to him quickly began to calm him down along with Annabeth who looked like she was putting her problems with cyclops aside for the time being.
The giant sea monster roared again, the sound reverberating off the ship and rattling the demigods and cyclops where they stood.
Clarisse, though afraid, didn't let her fear stop her from her duty. "Get the cannons ready!" Clarisse roared out shaking the dead Confederate soldiers out of their stupor and running back over to the cannons.
"Clarisse we don't know what we are dealing with," Annabeth said to the daughter of Ares. "Attacking it might just piss it off even more. We need to know what we are dealing with."
"Not sure we're going to get enough time for that, Annie," Markus said, seeing the monster heading towards the mast, hoping to bite it off.
"Aim for its head! Destroy it!" Clarisse yelled out.
Having a sense of dread fill him and seeing Clarisse's temper was acting up Markus grabbed hold of the others. "Everyone get down and hit the deck!"
They complied quickly with the order and they quickly understood why and were glad that they did with what happened next.
"FIRE!" Clarisse shouted as the cannons on the ship fired the cannon shells towards the head of the monster, with many of the cannons managing to hit it in its teeth and face. When they hit small chunks of the monster blasted away, making small pieces fly all over the place before they disappeared into bits of golden dust.
The monster roared in agony, flailing its head around in pain. The attack did exactly what Annabeth said it would and the monster began to writhe around before it went hostile and began swinging in every direction. It's angry, serpent-like eyes glared down upon the residents of the ship.
The monster swung upwards and towards one the mast of the ship and quickly destroyed it, sending it to the ground and spiralling of into the ocean.
Seeing this, Markus decided to take action. There was no point in trying to stand by since Clarisse already pissed it off. "Ionioi Hetairoi: Girisha Kaze!" he chanted, dozens of weapons made from the Mist sailing towards the monster, specifically its eyes.
But the monster moved so much that the attack missed its eyes completely. On the plus side, it nicked a piece of its neck off. Which managed to make it even more angrier because of that. Great going, Markus.
At Clarisse command, the cannons fired again. This time, the monster recovered from its pain and dodged the cannons immediately. Its scaly hands rose up from the sea, and tried raking at the ship instead of biting it. The ship wobbled because of the motions created under the sea by the monster, causing the demigods and cyclops to almost slip. Because of the ship being off balance, it was saved from being destroyed completely from the monster's claws. Unfortunately, it still suffered damage. The claws raked through the hull of the ship, tearing through the material and showcasing the inside of the ship.
Seeing it do damage, the monster raised its hands into fists and tried smashing through the ship.
"If this keeps going, the ship will be destroyed before we can even attack it!" Annabeth stated.
"You think we don't know that?" Markus responded. He looked to his brother. "Percy. Help me control the ice so we can kill it." But Percy didn't respond. He looked upon the thing, shaking a little in fear.
Markus flicked his brother on the forehead, snapping him out of his fear. "Wha-" Percy responded, looking as if he woke up from a dream. He looked at Markus, who was glaring at him.
"Focus! I know that you're scared, and that's fine. I am too! But we need to kill this thing or we're going to die!" Markus snapped, getting his brother's attention.
"R-right," Percy nodded, following his brother near the edge of the ship to look at the monster. It was still smashing the ship, making everyone stumble and also making the ship shake. But the brothers didn't focus on that. Both mentally connected with the ocean around them, and commanded two water pillars to erupt from the bottom. They fashioned them into two ice spears that were sent hurtling towards the monster.
Seeing the danger, the monster was surprisingly intelligent enough to dodge one of the spears. The other one, however, got lodged into the its neck. Not deep enough to kill it, but definitely enough to cause it serious pain.
The monster roared in pain, forgoing destroying the ship to retreating into the ocean to clutch its wound. Markus and Percy had a few moments to celebrate their success when the monster roared, throwing large amounts of water around it. Rearing back, it swiped at the top of the deck, specifically at the two sons of Poseidon.
"Move!" Percy yelled, Markus following him in dodging, just in time to narrowly miss the claw that was aiming to swipe them off and kill them. Unfortunately, the claws scraped through the top of the ship, sending the demigods and Tyson flying across the deck.
Markus had time to glimpse the others fall as he fell to the side of the deck that wasn't destroyed. While the others landed somewhat safely, Markus saw that Annabeth was sailing over the deck and heading towards the sea beneath her. She screamed as she fell, useless gripping for something to hold onto.
"Annabeth!" Markus screamed, zipping to the edge of the destroyed deck and jumping over, trying to catch her. While he didn't worry about himself since the water wouldn't hurt him, the same couldn't be said for Annabeth.
She screamed, trying to reach for his hand, but they were too far apart. She had but only a couple of seconds until she reached the water and got killed from the impact. He could harden the water under her to cushion her fall, but he was worried that the same result would happen. So he improvised.
"Ionioi Hetairoi: Ten no Kusari!" he yelled, his chain forming and sailed towards the falling demigoddess, snaking around her wrist. Quickly bringing out Wavebreaker, he struck it into the remaining hull of the ship, cutting into it and using it to catch himself. This worked, as the blade cut into the metal but managed to hold firm. However, this had the effect of almost yanking Markus' arm out of his socket and making him yelp in pain.
The same thing happened to Annabeth. Because of her fall and the chain snaked onto her hand, her arm snapped back, experiencing whiplash. She screamed in pain, as her arm was dislocated. The same thing almost happened to Markus but because his arm was slightly stronger, he managed. Mentally commanding the chain to hold onto Annabeth while also holding onto Wavebreaker, he grabbed onto the chain made of Mist. Placing it in his mouth (he was surprised it was still holding but he wasn't complaining) and also summoning another sword out of Mistform, he climbed up the ship using the two swords while also using his mouth to hold onto Annabeth with his chain.
When he reached the top, he pulled himself over and grabbed onto the chain with his hands now, pulling the girl up. When she was level with him, he grabbed her by her waist, since her was dislocated, and hauled her up. The two dropped onto the still shaking deck, panting for different reasons: Annabeth due to panic and Markus from exertion. The chain and extra sword faded, dispersing into white Mist.
After a moment, Annabeth turned to Markus. "T-thanks," she stuttered, still high on adrenaline.
"No problem," Markus said, panting. He took a look at her arm. It was bent slightly at an awkward angle, making Markus feel a little guilty at how he caught her but still didn't regret it. "Here..." he said, putting his hand on her bent arm, trying to put it back in place.
"No, don't-" Annabeth shook her head, not wanting to feel the pain, but Markus interrupted her. "Look, you're hurt and you can't fight with a dislocated arm," Markus pointed out. "Let me help."
Annabeth nodded, looking a bit shocked. Guess she wasn't used to others pointing out stuff to her.
Breathing in slightly, and wanting to make it quick so it didn't hurt as much, Markus moved his hand quickly, snapping the arm back into place. Annabeth yelped in pain, tears almost coming from her eyes. Markus gave her a half-hug, rubbing her back soothingly, helping her ease the pain.
Markus knew that they should focus on the monster attacking, but he had to tend to Annabeth first. When she calmed down slightly, Markus released the hug to look at her. "You okay?" he asked gently. Annabeth nodded, using her other hand to quickly wipe her approaching tears.
"Thanks for that," she whispered, making Markus smile. "It's okay."
The two stared at each other, having a moment - not a romantic one, mind you, but others would disagree - and staring into each others eyes. That moment was interrupted by Annabeth having a look of recognition. "The Cetus..." she muttered to herself.
"What?" Markus asked.
"The Cetus!" Annabeth said. "The monster we're facing is the Cetus!"
"A little too late, Annie. What, your little dive give you inspiration?" Markus joked, but Annabeth slapped his arm. "Do you know anything about it, specifically how to kill it?" Markus asked seriously.
"Perseus killed it," Annabeth explained, scrunching her face in thought. "In the myths, Perseus was said to have stabbed his sword into the back of the Cetus. Another version says that he used Medusa's head to turn it to stone."
"Well, we don't have Medusa's head," Markus said, standing up. "But I do have a sword. At least I know what we're fighting."
Markus looked around to see the others. They were alright, albeit a little shaken up. The ship, however, was a mess. The hull was destroyed, as well as the mast. The deck had claw marks that showed the bottom of the ocean, and the top half of the ship looked like it was cleaved off. Markus could feel that the ship was going to sink, and he didn't need his demigod powers to know that.
He sighed. He was about to do something stupid. But stupid ideas were sometimes the best ideas. Plus, he could save his friends and brother while he was at it, so there was that.
"Clarisse," he called over getting the girl's attention and as she shakily made her way over. He pulled her towards him and spoke into her ear.
"Are there lifeboats on the ship?" he asked and got a strange look from Clarisse.
"Yes, but why do you want to know? We aren't sinking."
"Yes we are. The Cetus already destroyed the middle section of the ship and it'll destroy the rest. The skeleton crew would want to go down with their ship, being dead."
"The Cetus? How do you-" Clarisse asked, but was interrupted by Markus. "We don't have time. How many people can fit on those boats?"
Clarisse quickly racked her brain around a little trying to make sense of it all. "The boats are not big but we could get about seven or eight people in one alone."
"Good. That's more than enough. Take two lifeboats. Get out of here. Keep the others safe." Clarisse looked like she was about to argue, but Markus gripped her shoulders tightly. "Clarisse, please," he pleaded.
Clarisse looked sad, but eventually nodded. "Okay."
Markus smiled at her. "Thank you." With that, he looked at the others. "Follow Clarisse. She is going to take you to the lifeboats. This ship is going to come down with the holes in the side and the Cetus is going to continue destroying it."
"Is there nothing we can do?" Percy asked even though he knew himself that the ship was going to go down. That last hit from the Cetus had sealed the ships fate.
"The ship is going down. Get to the lifeboats. While they might not be strong, they may be small enough for the boats to pass monsters unnoticed and get you to safety."
Markus gave Percy and Tyson a hug and gave a peace sign to Annabeth, who's eyes widened in realisation. He gave a wink to all of them. "Be safe," he said to all of them.
With that, he began to run towards the Cetus. The others started understanding what what he was about to do.
"No! Come back!" Annabeth yelled, but Clarisse wrapped an arm around her, dragging her away to the lifeboats. "Clarisse, let me go!"
"I can't," she said sadly. Annabeth tried pushing with all her strength, but Clarisse was stronger. She held the girl firm in her grip as she continued moving.
"Brother, don't go!" Tyson shouted sadly, reaching to Markus, but Markus moved away, still running. Percy wanted to say something, but Markus looked back and gave him a smile and a wink. "I'll be back," he mouthed to his brother, before using his super speed to dash towards the edge.
Markus ran along the back of the ship before he stopped just as the edge of it and stared straight up at the Cetus whose attention had now focused on him.
He grinned, trying to hide his nervousness. And I kept telling myself that I wasn't deemed a hero till I did something noteworthy, Markus thought to himself.
With that, he yelled towards the Cetus. "Oi! You're scaly ass isn't going anywhere! I don't know if your pint-sized brain can understand anything, but you're not getting past this ship!"
The Cetus roared down at him as if telling him that it was useless to fight it, but Markus ignored it.
Mentally summoning the water, large amounts of it started rising up towards Markus. Putting his water control to the test, he shaped the water to form a giant bridge, leading straight to the neck of the Cetus. And then he turned it into ice.
Touching his key chain, he equipped Beowulf to his arms and legs (A.N. - The design looks like the same from DMC 3). Using kinetic energy, he dashed across the ice bridge that he had created. Due to the added boost and the fact that he was on an ice platform, he nearly reached the Cetus in no time. Gathering enough momentum and strength from his weapon, he jumped, being level with the Cetus' head.
Before the monster could so much as roar, Markus cocked his fist back and nailed the Cetus right in its jaw, sending its head back and causing Markus to fall to the water below. The Cetus spat something out that looked like a tooth.
During his fall, Markus realised something: he was the son of Poseidon. He was sailing towards the ocean. And he was fighting this monster... on his home turf. Markus grinned. He was practically invincible here. And he was going to prove that.
As he hit the water, his stamina, strength, speed, everything increased tenfold. This was such a broken ability. And he was going to milk it for its worth.
As he connected with the water surrounding him, Markus felt like a god, and he wasn't being arrogant. He felt like he could do anything. Which was exactly what was needed next.
A giant water dragon sped past the surface, its eyes colourless but still glaring at the Cetus. Markus held onto one of its fins, hardening the water around those areas so that he could hold on.
The Cetus roared at the water construct, its mouth dripping dark red blood and gold dust. It tried biting into it, but Markus instructed the dragon to swerve, dodging. The dragon bit into the Cetus' neck, right where one of the ice spears got lodge in.
The Cetus howled in pain. To add more injury, Markus turned the teeth of the water dragon into ice, freezing the wound as well as its insides.
The Cetus shook, trying to dislodge the dragon, howling and scratching. Abandoning ship, Markus leaped into the air towards the Cetus. He performed an axe kick on the top of its head, cracking its skull and further injuring the Cetus.
He didn't usually fight like this, but he could be a little reckless. He could heal any injury he suffered with water, so it was no problem. Markus started grinning at the whimpers of pain the Cetus gave. While he wasn't particularly bloodthirsty, fighting in a battle in where he never suffered major damage was fun.
The water dragon fell apart as scaly claws scratched the Cetus' head, trying to scrape him off. But Markus wouldn't have that. He punched one claw away while slashing with Wavebreaker, that he summoned a few seconds ago, at any claws that came his way. It was a chore, but he managed.
Putting away Wavebreaker, Markus jumped high in the air and performed a ground slam on top of the monster's head (A.N. - Like the one you perform in games).
The Cetus' head dropped straight into the ocean, Markus following after it. As soon as he hit the water, his everything increased again. The Cetus roared, having enough of being a punching bag. Markus noticed that its injuries healed remarkably fast. Guess it was able to breath in water too.
The Cetus tried punching him with its fists, and Markus responded back. The monster and demigod clashed, punching and ducking under each strike. The Cetus' movements were precise and much more fast than it was above water. But then so was Markus.
Both ducked and dived and swerved and delivered blow after blow. Beowulf was perfectly fine, while the Cetus' hands broke and then healed. Their fists colliding sent shockwaves across the ocean.
After a few minutes, both were at a stalemate. Their identical element was doing its job, keeping them going, making them stronger. Markus decided to break that stalemate.
Dodging one of the Cetus' fists, he quickly concentrated on the water around him. He focused on the water molecules. Instead of sticking them together to form ice, he commanded them to hit off each other, heating up slightly. So instead of freezing it, he started boiling it to very high temperatures.
The Cetus roared, about to continue its attack, but paused as it sensed the change in water temperature. Markus took this chance and boiled the water around him. He was fine, as the water temperature had no effect on him as a son of Poseidon, but the Cetus screeched as it was boiled alive.
Above the surface, the others got on the lifeboats and abandoned the now destroyed ship. They looked at the place where Markus previously was with concern. But then they saw the water boil and steam a little, as if it was being boiled.
A few seconds later, the Cetus emerged from the surface. They were worried about Markus' position, until they saw the Cetus screech in agony, being boiled alive. Markus rose from the surface as well, hardening the water so that he could stand on the water. He suddenly had the thought that he was pulling a Jesus.
"Aw, was that too much for you?" Markus taunted, smirking. "Such a shame. I like my fish cooked and boiled."
The Cetus smirked in response to his taunt and headed towards Markus to devour him. The demigod jumped, dodging the rows of teeth ready to skewer him and landed on its head.
Markus gagged smelling the stench of the Cetus' mouth. "Goddamn, when was the last time you brushed your teeth? News flash: mouthwash."
The Cetus tried to shake him off, but Markus just punched it in its head again. Taking out Wavebreaker, Markus steadied himself on the monster's head while it was dazed. Holding it in both hands, Markus carefully walked towards where the back of the Cetus was. At least, he hoped it was there.
With a sigh of anticipation, he stabbed the Cetus in its, at least he hoped, back.
The monster roared in pain, again. To finish the job, Markus quickly ran to the neck of the Cetus. Before it can gain its bearings, Markus gave a roar and slash down at the monster's neck. Because of the added strength from Beowulf, Markus was able to cut through its neck no problem.
The head of the Cetus was severed, landing in the ocean. The now lifeless eyes were white and blank, the head bobbing in the sea. The rest of its body fell into the water turning into gold dust.
Markus landed in the water, feeling pretty damn awesome about himself. He didn't know if the Cetus was famous in the myths or not, but slaying a big ass sea monster was a pretty awesome achievement.
Swimming towards the severed head, he grinned. He was so going to take this as a spoil of war. Except it was huge, and couldn't carry it with him to his cabin at camp. What to do, what to do... oh!
Getting out his charm book from his bag, he opened it, keeping himself afloat. It wasn't wet, since anything he held was instantly dry in water. "Let's see, let's see... Ah hah! Got it." Holding his hand toward the Cetus' severed head, he chanted his charm. "Subtraxerim Utilium! (Shrink!)"
Immediately, the severed head slowly shrinked, until it was the size of his thumb. Swimming quickly so that he could catch it, he placed it in his jacket pocket, zipping it up.
With that, Markus swam to the others on their lifeboats. When he reached them, he grinned. "Whoo! I just went God of War on that thing!"
Percy and Tyson looked relieved that he was alright. Annabeth looked cross, but he could see that she was also glad to see him. Honestly, she worried too much. Clarisse had her usual sneer on her face, but she was ultimately looked pleased to see him too.
However, before they could say anything, there was a loud roar. The roar of another monster. Markus wondered what else was coming when he recognised that roar. It was familiar. Like it was-
Suddenly, a familiar black maw erupted from the sea near them. It inhaled, and suddenly the lifeboats, Markus and the debris from the ship started to get sucked in, heading towards the giant mouth.
"Charybdis!" Annabeth yelled out. "It came back. It must've sensed that the Cetus was killed. It has nothing to be afraid of now."
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Markus yelled, controlling the current so that they wouldn't drift towards the mouth. "Just when you finish one task, you deal with another!" Controlling the current got harder as Charybdis kept on sucking everything around it in its mouth. The remains of the ship drifted past them into the mouth, entering the black maw that was Charybdis. It's teeth pierced and crushed the broken ship. A small whirlpool started forming again.
"Damn it!" Percy yelled. "We're not going to make it! We're too close!"
"The hell we aren't" Markus roared. Concentrating, his connection to the ocean strengthened because he was in it, the ocean acted against the current taking them towards the giant open mouth. But it was futile. Even if he did change the current, they would still get sucked in by another current into Charybdis' mouth.
Breathing in heavily, Markus came up with another idea. He used the water to push the lifeboats and himself in opposite directions, just as they were inches away from Charybdis' mouth. The amount of power that he used helped a lot, since the lifeboats shot forward like a bullet in the other direction.
Meanwhile, Markus was sailing in the opposite direction like a rocket, his back hitting the water. The water opened up before him just as he was about to hit it. He could see the others in the distance on the lifeboat. He could briefly see a figure standing on one of the lifeboats, waving their hands towards him. "Markus!" he heard Percy's voice yell, before he couldn't see them anymore.
Markus was left sailing in the ocean, pushed by his own power of the sea.
XXX
As Markus was sailing through the water, he tried to calm his nerves. He was worried about the others. How could he not be?! They were separated and it was all Markus' fault!
No! He couldn't think like that. He had to separate, otherwise they would've been swallowed by Charybdis. Just when they were safe from the Cetus, the monster literally had to open its big ass mouth!
Markus sighed. He could probably swim back to the others, except he didn't know where they were. They could literally be anywhere! And while they were separated, they were no where close to finding the Golden Fleece. Their luck was turning really shitty right now.
Well, he wasn't going to do any good as he was now. Markus was thinking of heading the other way to look for the others when he saw something in the distance. Land? He wasn't sure. He didn't have time to check it out. He had to go check on the others.
... Except he didn't know where they were. As he said before, they could be anywhere.
So what were his options? Check out an unknown island and hopefully get useful supplies, or go search for the others aimlessly, with no clue where they were? It was a no brainer.
Standing upon the hardened water, Markus used kinetic energy to run across the surface of the water. He could've just turned the water into ice and just walked across it, but where was the fun in that? He put in enough speed to run across the water easily, turning the water that he ran across into mist as his legs blurred with crazy speeds.
When he reached the island, he saw a couple of volcanoes in the distance. What the hell were volcanoes doing in the Sea of Monsters? He didn't know. This place was confusing as hell.
"I know I'm probably walking into a trap," Markus muttered. It was blatantly obvious. But what was he supposed to do? He wasn't eager to go running across the ocean to look for his friends, despite him facing no trouble. However, he could get more resources from an area of land. They weren't exactly going to face Polyphemus and get the Golden Fleece in lifeboats, after all. Hopefully, he could salvage a boat for them.
Markus hiked up the long path and ended up in front of a large celestial bronze door marked with Eta, H in Ancient Greek, and the forge god's symbol.
One of Hephaestus' workplaces. Markus wasn't eager to open the door. The last time he deal with the god's inventions, him, Percy, Annabeth and Grover had to face robotic spiders at a water park. Oh, and they were live to Olympus on multiple cameras. Fun times.
Before Markus could even contemplate knocking on the door, the door just opened, very ominously.
The demigod sighed. "I'm probably going to regret doing this." Backing away from the open door, he peered around the island, looking for any signs of entrance elsewhere, or for a mode of transport. A ship, signs of life, anything. Seeing nothing, Markus knew that he had no other choice. "Yep. Definitely going to regret this."
Wanting to be cautious, Markus made a Mist clone in his place to check the place out. As the clone walked through the door, Markus waited for something to happen. Anything.
He waited for what felt like hours, and he was getting impatient. Come on, trap. Spring!
He knew that if anything dangerous happened to his clone, it would disperse in Mist and come back to him, since he cast it.
Markus waited a few minutes for something to happen. Just when he was about to disperse his clone, the sound of lights flashing on came from the dark corridor. After that, the sound of doors closing followed soon after.
"So... some kind of spotlights came on, and my clone is trapped," Markus deduced. Partly because of the fact that the same trick could work twice, from last time, and because it was a trap. It was almost certain the one who sprung it was trapped.
He waited for a few moments for the bad guy to monologue or brag about how they were better than him, or how they were superior than him. He gave a couple of more minutes if there were minions attacking.
Done waiting, he equipped Beowulf to his arms and legs and dashed forward using his super speed. Heading straight for where his clone was. When he reached the end of the corridor, he saw a metal door blocking an entrance.
Rearing his fist back, he smashed the door down with ease, knocking it off its hinges and landing on it as he took in the scene before him.
A giant bronze automaton, almost forty feet tall, held a massive warhammer that was glowing hot in heat. It was in the shape of a man with Greek-style armour.
Around it were racks of weapons that were laden with deadly looking toys, trapdoors and obstacle courses of different kinds.
Markus winced. Okay, he knew that this was a trap, but this was messed up.
"What's this? Another contender? Lovely!" a cheery voice called out from all around him.
He looked at his clone, who was now faded into Mist and faded away towards him. He honestly didn't know what his clone had to face to disperse.
Not wasting any time, he decided to take out the cameras first. "Ionioi Hetairoi: Girisha Kaze!" he yelled, his Mistform weapons forming and heading towards about thirty or so cameras. The cameras were pierced and destroyed by the weapons, eliminating any chance of being broadcasted to Olympus.
"That's not very nice!" the cheerful voice said. "Now it looks like you'll have no one to witness your demise! Such a shame, Markus Henderson. Kill him!"
"At times like this, I really wish Zeus was not such a huge ass, and I learnt a spell to fly," Markus muttered, looking at the various deadly traps and the giant automaton in his front.
Seeing the automaton swing its burning hammer, Markus decided to use his new weapon. He dodged the swing and ran towards the automaton's legs. Before the robot - he knew it wasn't actually a robot but still - could move, Markus struck it in the leg. It wobbled a little, heading towards one of the traps behind it.
Markus was going to hit it again, but ducked as a blade whizzed where his head was. It struck the wall opposite him. "Goddamn, it's like a sadist's fun house," he said, breathing in relief.
"I know, right?!" the annoying voice responded happily.
Markus felt like snapping at the voice, but stopped that to avoid getting hit by the warhammer again.
"And, standing at the height of forty feet, The Blazing Talos! It kills, it burns, it keeps you safe from pesky heroes coming to steal your stuff or beg for favours. It's the latest model in Lord Hephaestus' best-selling Elemental Talos series of security automatons! Call in the next two minutes for our two for one sale!"
"Well, I don't like your sales!" Markus shouted, shooting a Stella Inspiratione towards the robot, the spell being much larger for some reason. Must be because of the light charms on Beowulf, and since Stella Inspiratione was a light spell, it made sense that it would be stronger.
The spell hit the robot in its lower half, disintegrating it and causing it to fall down, right on top of the deadly traps behind it. It took a few seconds for the automaton to be reduced to metal pieces as it met its death.
"Yes!" Markus cheered, pumping his fist in the air.
A few seconds later, several doors opened on the walls. More Blazing Talos' appeared, each as big as the one he defeated.
"... You've got to be shitting me!" Markus yelled in frustration. Could he not catch a break?!
"Oh, no. No no no! It's too soon to be alive! So I got you more friends to play with!" the voice continued to comment. Was it male or female? Either way, it didn't matter, since he was annoyed with it.
"Will you shut up?!" Markus yelled as he saw the remaining Talos copies jump high into the air. Markus looked up, following their movements. What did they plan on doing?
It quickly became clear to Markus as he saw them raise their hammers to smash it down unto the ground.
"Shit!" Markus cussed as he looked around the room, hoping for an idea to pop up. Then he looked at the wall, and an idea came forth.
As the Talos' were going to smash their fiery warhammers on top of him, Markus used his super speed to dash towards the wall. He built a lot of kinetic energy into his legs before he ran up the wall using his speed, giving the finger to gravity.
As he ran up the wall, Markus took a moment to appreciate the surroundings that he was experiencing. He'd only seen this kind of stuff in cartoons. And now he was performing the same thing. He hoped that he wasn't going to fall off. He grinned, before he was interrupted from his thoughts from the resounding BOOM from the combined strike of the Talos', their warhammers striking the ground and cracking the floor beneath them. Reaching near the top of the wall, Markus decided to take a leap of faith. Literally.
Reaching the top of the wall, he jumped, acting like Spider-Man as he wall-crawled from surface to surface. He spread his arms like a bird, appreciating the height that he was at, almost floating briefly. Then, gravity kicked in, and he dropped towards the floor, right where the traps and Talos' were.
"Oooh! Are you going to fall to your death? That would be so exciting! the voice said gleefully.
Markus ignored it as he brought his fists back for a haymaker, specifically for one of the Talos' near the side. His two Beowulf-cladded fists crushed the head of the Talos that he landed on, turning into a deformed looking version of Mr. Potato. It crumpled as the other automatons turned upon him.
Markus quickly jumped to one of the other Talos'. The rest turned their gazes onto one of their brethren, seeing the demigod they wanted to kill. They swung their warhammers together towards Markus, the demigod dodging and letting the automaton head he was on take the blows for him. It crumpled like the other one did.
Markus continued playing his deadly version of tag with the Talos', dodging each swing and letting them suffer for their misses.
"No, you fools! Don't destroy yourselves!" the voice yelled, its happy voice replaced by a furious one.
"Guess robots being stupid are true!" Markus yelled in response, ducking and dodging as he moved around each hammer, feeling the heat from each swing that they made. He was starting to love his new weapon.
There was a hiss of a hatch opening, signaling that a new rack of weapons had appeared.
What set this rack apart from the others before it however was that it was stocked with guns. Lots and lots of guns.
"Oi! Who hit that button?" The announcer asked angrily. "The shooting gallery isn't for another ten minutes!"
Markus took a moment to admire the display of guns. Hell, he didn't think guns were even used in the Greek world. "Mine, mine, mine, mine!" he chanted like someone possessed. He landed on the piece of floor that wasn't cracked, and zipped towards the display of weapons. His mouth watered at seeing all kinds of guns: pistols, snipers, shotguns, rocket launchers, all kinds. "Beck is so going to be jealous if he saw this," Markus said, grinning.
"Lower it, lower it!" The announcer panicked. "It'll give the him an unfair advantage."
The rack was lowering, about to disappear, but Markus was fast enough to grab a rocket launcher, several pistols, and a shotgun. Partly as a gift to Beckendorf, and partly because he wanted one as well. Magic was awesome and all, but these were guns! Real life guns!
Markus put the remaining stuff into his bag and cast a shrinking spell onto the shotgun, so it could fit. He kept the rocket launcher close to him, however. He had a diabolical grin on his face as he aimed at the remaining automatons. "Say hell to my little friend!" Markus yelled, accent and everything.
He pulled the trigger.
The Talos' turned from each other to look at several blazing cannon balls of celestial bronze heading towards them. The projectiles collided right into the centre of the Blazing Talos' helmet. This caused them to explode simultaneously, causing a string of explosions to occur and damaging the exterior of the room.
"No! You've ruined everything you fool!" the voice yelled, truly angry this time.
"That was the plan!" Markus yelled back. "Bye!" With that, he zoomed out of the place, punching the wall nearest to him down and heading. Smoke and sparks trailed after him through the hole he created. He just had time to celebrate his victory and catches when he realized that he was falling from a high place.
"Shit!" he yelled, falling down while holding onto his rocket launcher. The hole that he'd made was somewhere in the centre of one of the volcanoes. How he got there, he didn't know. But right now, he had much more important things to deal with. Like his landing strategy.
Seeing the sea surrounding this place, Markus mentally commanded the water to heed his command, ignoring the sharp tug in his gut that he felt from using his powers that much. The water responded to him, rising up from the sea bed that it was on previously. It headed towards Markus, slowly solidifying into ice by his control.
As his feet were about to hit the volcano, and possibly break, the water now turned ice came from below. Markus willed it to turn into a giant ice slide. The slide quickly finished before his feet skidded onto it and went down, slightly surprising him at the speed he was going.
When he got used to the speed, he grinned. "Whooo!" he yelled out in joy as he was ice skating down a volcano. How many people could actually say that with a straight face? None, I tell you!
As he slid down his newly made slide, he quickly cast a shrinking charm onto his new rocket launcher, which was now empty. He could bring it to camp and get Beckendorf to refill it.
He was enjoying the thrill that came with the act, until his fun ended when he reached the bottom. He kept on sliding until he reached the banks of the sea, in which he splashed and landed on his ass. "Damn, what a rush," he breathed out in excitement. He usually wasn't a thrill seeker, but he planned on doing that again. That was awesome.
He was contemplating on what to do now until he saw - more like felt, with his connection to the sea - the waves rippling, signifying that something was coming his way. Markus looked up and peered down the coast, trying to spot what was coming. Hopefully, it wasn't another sea monster.
What he saw was an incoming ship that was heading his way. Markus was about to jump in joy when he spotted the details in the ship. It looked similar to the CSS Birmingham, with its cannons at the deck, but the deck was plated with wood, not iron. That probably wasn't good for the ship, since it would destroy easily. Upon its flag was the symbol of a skull and crossbones, with an eyepatch in the place of one of the skull's eyes.
Markus' eyes widened as he looked upon the flag. It couldn't be... But as he looked at the ship, the flag, the now visible crew dressed in a couple of rags, leather armour and wielding swords, he knew that what he saw was true. Those were pirates.
Markus wanted to think about the fact that pirates were real, but then told himself that this was mythology. He wasn't really surprised by all that he had seen. So with that, Markus formulated a plan. By the time the ship was banking the shore, Markus' plan was complete.
"Hey, brat!" an elderly voice yelled to him. "We saw ya coming from that little volcano there. So ya must have some goods. Pass 'em over, and maybe we might not kill ya!" (A.N. - Sorry if this sounds like broken English. I just assume that's how most classic pirates talk).
Huh. Markus was hoping that they would go something like "Arrgh!" He wasn't expecting them to say that, but it would be pretty funny.
"Yeah, no," Markus replied. He mentally commanded the water to form a pillar under him, raising him upwards and bringing him level with the deck and the crew on it. Now that Markus got a better look at them. They didn't seem like badass pirates. They seemed more like old man in rags.
Most of the crew wore T-shirts with multiple stains on it, cotton trousers and flip-flops. Some even had bottles of beer and swords in their hands. These swords weren't like classic Greek swords, either. They looked more like scimitars. They didn't even seem to have any flintlock pistols with them. Or even a parrot on the ship! Now that was just sad.
An old man stepped up when the crew stepped back in fright and awe at what they were witnessing. Markus assumed that this was the captain of the ship. He had the classic pirate captain hat, with a grey bushy moustache on his face. He held a sword in his hand as well. Though he could tell that he was scared as well from seeing the wobbling in his sword hand.
"W-what are you?" the captain stuttered in fear. Markus smirked. All talk, huh?
"Well, if you must know, I'm the son of Poseidon," Markus introduced himself. He specifically added the 'son of Poseidon' bit because he knew that was a big thing fro sailors and, apparently, pirates.
"P-Poseidon?" one of the crew mates stuttered in fear. With that, the pirates started running around like headless chickens, screaming how they were going go die, and how they tried to rob his kid, making Markus laugh his ass off. Seriously, these guys were too funny without even trying.
Markus gave his best taxi-whistle to get their attention, which did the job. All of the men stood there, staring at him in rapt attention. "Listen, I'm in a bit of a rush. I need a ship. And you just happen to have one. So can I steal your ship, please?"
"O-of course! Take our ship! Matter of fact, take everything we have!" the captain offered fearfully. Of course, he was scared about being rude to the son of the god who monitored the very oceans they sailed on. It'd be foolish to disrespect him.
Markus grinned at him cheerfully. "Charmed. But first, I'm going to need you to do a few things. Firstly," Markus said, the crew listening closely, "I want your hat."
"What, why?" the captain asked.
"To give as an offering to my father for a safe journey," Markus lied. He really wanted the pirate hat that he was wearing.
"Y-yes, of course," the captain said, removing his hat and tossing it to Markus, who caught it and inspected it. Markus grimaced as the hat smelt, badly. He'd have to wash it completely before he could actually wear it.
"Thank you," Markus said. "Next, I'll need your ship. As a token of goodwill for myself to Poseidon." Okay, now he was just bullshitting. A normal person would be able to call his bluff and accuse him. Good thing that these pirates were both gullible and fearful.
"Of course, milord," one of the crew mates said. Milord? Markus had to bite the inside of his cheek not to laugh at that. "But what about us? Where do we fit into all of this?"
Markus grinned sheepishly. "Well, you see..."
XXX A few minutes later XXX
"Full steam ahead!" Markus announced, having the ship all to himself. He was at the front of the ship, directly in front of the steering wheel. He wasn't worried about sailing the vessel. As soon as he put his hand on the wheel, knowledge of how to sail it, how to operate it, how to maintain it flowed into his mind. It was a handy power to have in this situation. And as for the pirates...
"Good luck, milord!" the captain shouted, waving his hand to the ship sailing in the distance. Him and his crew were stranded on the island that Markus was previously on, having been convinced to stay here so that he would put in a good word to Poseidon. Like sheep, they instantly listened to him.
"Hope ya have a safe trip!" another crew member yelled, the others wishing him in similar ways, waving happily towards him. Those poor, mislead fools...
XXX
"I'm bored," Markus muttered, pouting as he steered the wheel.
It'd been two days since he'd left that Hephaestus hideout and hitched a ride on the pirate ship. Since then, it had been smooth sailing for him. Must've been Poseidon watching over him. Or maybe it was one of his abilities as a son of the sea. Either way, he was grateful.
But that was the problem at the moment. Because of the calm sailing, he was bored. Like, seriously bored. So bored that he had assumed that boredom literally was bored of him. He'd been standing here for almost the past two days, only taking breaks to eat the food that the pirates had left for him, which was actually good, and also resting a little. There was a lot of beer and rum, however. And since Markus wasn't old enough to drink, or interested in alcohol, he didn't touch it. He could probably use it for something else later.
Markus could probably leave the ship as it is and just wander around the ship again, but he didn't want a case like the Cetus to happen again. Sure, he was practically invincible in water, but still.
So he just hung out at the wheel, humming pirate songs (because he was bored), wearing the pirate captain hat on his head after scrubbing it, like, twenty times. Seriously, that thing smelled like shit.
Not only that, but he was no where close to finding the location of Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse and Tyson. He could've been going around in circles for all he knew.
He knew Percy and Tyson would be okay since they had Annabeth with them. She knew how to get out of tough situation and could quickly come up with plans or escapes in small amounts of time if needed. Plus she could work well under pressure. And he wasn't too worried about Clarisse since he knew that she was one of the strongest fighters at camp.
Closing his eyes, he decided to pray to Poseidon, which he almost never did. "Dad, please," he begged silently. "If you're listening, please let me find the others. Please."
After his prayer, he opened his eyes. And immediately after that, he knew that Poseidon wouldn't listen. Even after making up with his dad last summer, he didn't hold his breath that he would answer again.
Markus sighed, looking up at the sky in boredom. The sky looked so peaceful. He usually wasn't one for cloud-watching, but he decided that he could try. Huh, wonder what that trail of black smoke was-
Immediately Markus blinked in confusion. Black smoke. What the hell?
Markus looked into the near distance following the origin of the black smoke. Black smoke came from fire. If there's a fire, there must be an island close by. And if there's a fire with that much smoke that meant trouble.
But should he really be spending time trying to look for trouble? Much less help with it? No way. He had to look for the others.
But what if the others were on that island? Could he really ignore the signs of trouble and possible leave them there? But he didn't really want to waste valuable time and effort just to check the island, only to see that they're not there.
Markus clicked his teeth. What to do, what to do?
Wanting to leave his decision to chance, Markus took out a quarter that he had on him. He didn't know where he got it from, or how he had it all this time, but he didn't complain. "Heads, I go check on the island and find out. Tails, I ignore it and move on." Flipping his coin and catching it, he saw that he got heads. "Well, guess I'm checking on the island," he muttered to himself.
He could quickly feel the shift in the boats direction as he followed the smoke trail. It was a little thin at first but slowly it began to get a little bigger and thicker indicating that he were getting closer.
Going towards the front of the boat, he narrowed his eyes and used his relatively sharp eyesight to focus on the smoke trail.
It took a few moments before he could see a speck just in the distance that could only really be an island.
"Hopefully I won't regret this. I just hope if any of my friends are there then they are okay," Markus muttered to himself. He hoped that if he met any of his friends that they'd be alright.
When he got closer, he saw that he was staring at what looked like a large spa resort. The place looked beautiful and he thought it would have been a great place for a holiday visit. There were palm trees, white sandy beaches, beach tables with half drank drinks sitting on side tables, an outside bar with all the works. It kind of looked like a paradise.
Well he knew it would have been paradise. The only problem was that the docks and buildings were on fire along with what he believed look liked pirates, which weren't as wimpy as the other ones, chasing women around and pillaging anything they could find and get their hands on.
Markus ignored the scenes for a moment and looked at each person running. Trying to see if they looked like any one of his friends. But no such luck.
This was a waste of my time, Markus thought to himself. They're not even here.
But he couldn't talk like that. He hadn't scoured the whole island, yet. Markus figured that if he could help the women who were running from the men, they could possibly give him answers as to where the others were. And if not, then he could find some more supplies for himself and the group when they reunited.
"Well, time to play 'hero'," Markus muttered sarcastically. He could probably put out the fires with the surrounding water around them.
Anchoring the ship to the side and jumping off of it, Markus began making his way through the spa resort. When he saw a small archway he found the name of the resort:
C.C.'s Spa and Resort.
Interesting name.
He made his way through and saw a young girl about his age with black hair and light brown eyes and had nymph-like features was trying to keep one of the pirates away with a chair but it quickly got swatted away by the man. He was a big man with a large potbelly and a red bandana over his head.
Markus used his super speed to suddenly appear in front of the woman. Both the man and woman appeared to be shocked.
"No means no," Markus said to the pirate as he performed a powerful side-turning kick to the man's gut making his eyes bulge out of their sockets before Markus performed a backhand fist towards the man's face, knocking him out.
He then turned around to look at the woman who looked off guard and her dress was in tatters. Seeing that her dress would fall off at any moment, he pitied her and grabbed a nearby blanket and draped it over her.
"Here this should keep you covered," Markus said to her. Sure, he was only doing this to find information on his friends, but he still felt sympathy for the woman.
"T-Thank you," she muttered back to him. "W-Who are you?"
"I'm Markus. I was just passing by when I saw the smoke coming from the island, so I came to check it out. What's going on?"
"I-I don't know," the woman stammered. "One minute, everything was peaceful, and then the next, we're attacked by pirates! They were locked up with no way of coming out. Circe said that-"
"Wait!" Markus stopped her. "Did you say Circe?" Was she talking about the same Circe from the myths? What was an immortal sorceress doing here?
"I did."
"We talking about Circe, the immortal daughter of Hecate and the woman Odysseus met during his long trip home? The sorceress that turns men into pigs?" he asked with his eyes quickly looking around. He did not want to be turned into a pig.
"Yes that is her. This resort and this island is hers and is a haven of sorts to women. Any man that comes here is turned into a guinea pig to her amusement while the women are given a life of luxury as well as binding themselves to the island."
Markus looked around nervously. "She isn't here, is she?" Markus asked. He did not like getting turned into a porker today. He sighed in relief when she shook her head.
"No she disappeared yesterday after this invasion began. We have not seen her since and I somehow doubt she will be coming back." She looked like she was about to say more when she saw the pirate hat on his head. She stepped back in fear as she looked at the symbol that was identical to the man that attacked her.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Markus asked, seeing her fear. He followed her gaze to his head, and immediately realised what she was frightened about. "No no no no no!" he said quickly. He took off his hat, kicking himself mentally for not removing it sooner. "I'm not a pirate! I'm a demigod. I'm here to help you. See?" He put his hat into his backpack and held up his hands in a calming gesture. "I'm not going to hurt you, I swear. I'm here to help."
The woman visibly calmed down seeing his gesture. She took a few long breathes to get herself back to normal. "I-It's fine. I believe you. You wouldn't have helped me if you were a pirate."
"Oh well I guess that's good for me then." he said to himself while the girl looked at him in amusement. "Then do you think you could tell me just what is going on here? Plus I never got your name." He said as he picked up a fruit bowl and threw it towards a pirate that was running towards them and promptly knocked him out. This got the girl to chuckle a bit.
"I apologise being rude. My name is Maya."
"It's okay, Maya. Do you mind telling me what happened?"
"Not at all. It all started yesterday. Three demigods arrived on our island, two boys and one girl. The girl was of course given a place to stay here while the two boys were given a choice to make and made the wrong one. They were both turned into guinea pigs. When the girl found out she threw some weird vitamins into the cage with the guinea pigs and made them turn human again. However it also turned the other guinea pigs which happened to be a band of pirates. They left on the pirate's ship, 'The Queen Anne's Revenge'."
"Wait," Markus said, hoping to keep the excitement out of his voice. "Was the girl blond with grey eyes, and one of the boys look similar like me?"
Maya looked confused as to why he was asking, but still nodded. "Yes. Why?"
"No reason," Markus said with a giant smile on his face. Percy and Annabeth were here before! And if he had to guess, then the other boy was Tyson! This was great! "Please, continue."
"As I was saying they took Blackbeard's ship and-"
"Wait, hold up," Markus interrupted, annoying Maya at being constantly interrupted. "Did you say Blackbeard's ship?"
"Yes it is," she said looking at him as if she was stating the obvious.
"Are you telling me that Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, the most notorious pirate to have ever existed is on this island right now because he was turned into a guinea pig and is now raising all kinds of hell on this place?" Markus asked incredulously. First, actual pirates. Next, Blackbeard? That was actually really cool at the moment, but Markus didn't voice his thoughts.
"Yes that is what I said is it not? Blackbeard is a son of Ares and has begun burning this place to the ground."
"His dad is Ar...you know what, that doesn't really surprise me," Markus said. Seeing how destructive Ares was, he was not that surprised the infamous Blackbeard happened to be one of his children.
"As I was saying, this enraged him to the point where he has swore to destroy our home." she said looking a little tear eyed. "This place is where I was born and where I was raised. Now it is being destroyed and I will have to find somewhere new to live."
"Looking at her sad expression, Markus wanted to comfort her. He initially came here to find information on the others. Now that he'd found his lead, he technically didn't need to be here. But he couldn't just ditch the women without helping. He could admit he was an ass, but he wasn't heartless. Damn, why did he have to grow a bleeding heart now?!
"Hey now it will be okay," Markus said patting her shoulder. "Everything is going to be okay. I'll help rally as many survivors as I can find and take them to the docks where it is safe. None of the pirates will be able to hurt any of you again. I promise."
"Really?" she asked hopefully.
"Really," Markus nodded, before Maya jumped him and wrapped him in a hug.
"Thank you." she said as she broke the hug and played with the blanket that was wrapped around her.
"No problem," Markus said, blushing a bit. He then looked towards the girl. "You know for someone who lives on an island where no boys are aloud, you certainly do not mind hugging one and giving him compliments," Markus said as he looked at her strangely while she shrugged.
"We don't hate boys. We have just been taught that it best to show men that it is the women that are in charge and that we call the shorts. There are many groups out there that do not have any boys in them, but that doesn't mean the all women hate boys. Well, except the Hunters of Artemis."
"Who?" Markus asked with a raised eyebrow, never hearing of them before.
"Never mind," Maya said, shaking her head.
And with that, the two began walking. He looked around and saw most of the fires had been put out though the buildings looked like they were not going to be used any time soon. The support beams and the walls were a mess and the roofs looked like they were barely holding together as it was. Markus used his super speed to zoom around the island, knocking out the pirates and bringing any women he saw to the place where Maya was. When Maya was able to explain who he was, the women gave him many hugs as thanks for his actions, making Markus blush like a tomato. How cute. He put out any fires he saw with water from the shore, displaying his demigod heritage to those watching. They were shocked at the powers that he displayed.
When he gathered about roughly thirty women, he was about to head into the main entrance. Maya looked like she was about to say something a scream rang out through the air catching their attention and it was not far away.
Markus told the women to stay together and remain safe as he went inside to see what was happening.
Markus ran though the destroyed halls jumping over the broken chairs and tables that littered its way and the destroyed vases and plant pots that were shattered beyond fixing.
He could hear a loud commotion coming from a large hall a little in front of him and could hear a girl screaming along with men laughing and steels hitting each other.
It did not take long to get there and when he did and saw what was happening, Markus' blood began to bold tremendously and his anger was quickly rising to downright furious.
XXX Warning - attempted rape and murder scenes below this point. If you aren't comfortable reading this, then skip until the bold text. XXX
In the middle of the hall were seven people. Five were men and two were girls. The men were all large and slightly overweight wearing scruffy shirts and pants that had rips all over them. They all had big grins on their faces.
However, one was different and Markus recognised him immediately. He was a large figured at six foot five and had a long black beard that was braided in some area's but scruffy and let lose in to hers. He had semi long hair that went just passed his shoulders and a dirty grubby looking face with two of his teeth being made of gold. He wore white shirt over long black pants with a faded red long jacket over his shoulder and a sword strapped to his side. He was Blackbeard the Pirate.
It was when he saw the two girls that he felt sick and disgusted, because one girl who looked to be the older of two was being pinned to the ground screaming at Blackbeard to get away from her sister while the other girl who was the younger of two and looked to be around his age was bent over a wooden table doing her best not to cry while Blackbeard grinned from behind her playing with the hem of her dress.
"You two wenches have been causing us a lot of trouble on this island. I lost some of my best men because of you two," he said motioning to all the dead bodies of pirates that littered the ground. There must have been around a dozen in total. "Now you two will have to pay some repercussions because of it."
"Being a guinea pig for so long has left certain needs that need to be taken care of and we will start with the youngest." He said while began to lift up the young girl's skirt. The other girl on the floor was screaming at him to get away from her but before he could even begin to unbuckle his pants belt, the cries of his men came from behind him. He looked behind him to see his men pierced with dozens upon dozens of weapons. They were still screaming with agony as their deaths weren't quick or merciful. Their screaming was of that of suffering men. Their blood was pooling the ground that they stood on.
Both girls and Blackbeard looked managed to look past the gruesome scene to see a boy. But the boy didn't look like a boy. With his glowing emerald eyes, furious expression similar to an enraged dragon and the powerful aura surrounding him, he looked like a wrathful god.
And Blackbeard was the source of all that wrath.
"W-who're you, bo-" But Blackbeard didn't get to finish his sentence as the boy suddenly disappeared. No, not disappeared. Blackbeard knew that because the next second later, he felt an enormous amount of pain in his jaw.
"Aaah!" he screamed as he held his broken jaw, a couple of loose teeth falling from it. "Wha-"
Blackbeard didn't get the chance to say anything as his hand was cut off, straight from the wrist. The pirate didn't register the pain until a second later. "Fu-"
And the next second, he was lying on his back, his neck held by the vengeful god. Because that was all that this... this being was in front of him.
The two girls continued to watch the terrifying scene with rapt attention. The older girl held the younger one protectively.
"You..." the voice echoed, voice laden with a mix of power and rage. "Scum like you... deserve death. And I will happily deliver it to you."
"Wh- what the f-fuck are you?!" Blackbeard yelled in panic and fear. Just what was this demon?!
The being that was Markus didn't answer. He was so filled with rage, with hatred, with so much destructive anger that he accessed his divine powers. Connecting with the liquid, the blood, the water inside the filthy pirate, he pulled. He directed all the water that he felt towards him, all the contained water in him, he pulled it all in. Water was his element, meaning that all Blackbeard had... was his.
"No, stop!" Blackbeard yelled, feeling weakened. But it was too late. As the two girls watched, Blackbeard slowly turned from the pirate that they knew, to the dried, leathery corpse that they saw right now. He was slowly drained dry, robbed of all liquid, all blood, all the water by this... this demon.
The demon who had saved them from a fate worse than death.
XXX Scene ended. Safe to read now XXX
And that is all done.
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. This was the longest one that I'd ever written. So enjoy.
Hoped you liked all the scenes in this one. If any of you thought the fight with the Cetus was too quick, or easy, or Markus was overpowered, well... you're right, it was. That was the point. If you want to complain, picture this: a son of Poseidon is fighting a sea monster. In. The. Ocean. Plus, with the way Beowulf was made, it was an obvious and easy win. End of story.
The scene with the Hephaestus forge was a little add-on that I wanted to put in so that I could put in the idea of using guns for the story. Which will be a big thing later on.
As for the scene with the pirates before... I wanted to add that.
Oh, and the scene at the end. Well, I wanted to add mature content, and there you go. Lemme know what you thought about it. Pretty dark, if I do say so myself, but that's just me. The two girls at the end were Hylla and Reyna respectively, with Reyna the one who was almost raped. Yeah.
And the thing that happened with Blackbeard is the same thing that happened to Luffy when he went up against Crocodile the second time in One Piece, only Blackbeard died. Painfully. Looks like Markus gained a new power.
Thanks to all those who followed, favourited, read and reviewed the story. Thank you all and love you so much.
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