Chapter 21: Final Valley… JK That's Copyrighted
Camp Amache. 3rd Person POV
The two Shinto demigods charged one another with chakra pumping into their legs and wind at Percy's back to increase their speed. Had any normal demigod seen the speed they were moving at, they would have been green with envy, let alone what the mortals would think.
50 meters. 25 meters. 10 meters. Just as they neared contact, Percy's muscles tensed as if he were going to leap at his opponent. Nichibotsu-san responded in kind and leapt herself, but Percy's was a feint and he instead slid on the ground, trying to slash at her ankles with Kurouzu as she passed overhead. As expected, his attack didn't find any purchase as Nichibotsu-san twisted and flipped in midair, but Percy anticipated such a maneuver.
Percy popped up quickly from his slide, spun, and hurled several kunai at bullet speeds as she was landing, only for her to deflect all of them with the blade of her katana. Percy didn't remain idle however, and charged her again, covering most of the distance between the two warriors, and their swords met in a violent clash and accompanying shower of sparks.
The two pushed their weight against one another, not nearly fighting their hardest, as their swords remained locked in a stalemate. "Hmm. Hachiman-sama blessed your blade. That'll be an issue," Nichibotsu-san said before she disengaged and leapt back from the abomination.
Percy maintained his offensive and charged again, trying to score any hits either against Nichibotsu-san, or her blade to weaken it in hopes to break it. It proved rather fruitless, without adding his wind slices and chakra to the pattern.
Nichibotsu-san knew that she couldn't keep dodging his strikes forever though, so she pulsed her chakra into her own blade, giving it a red hue like a sunset and the exchange began again. The added chakra didn't negate Hachiman-sama's blessing on the blade, but it allowed for her to clash with it longer before she was in trouble.
Percy was relentless however, and the constant clang of metal on metal and spray of sparks from the friction was the only way any lesser being, had they been watching, would have been able to have somewhat of an idea what was going on.
'I have to find a way to disarm him before my blade gives out,' Nichibotsu-san thought as she spun to avoid another slash, parried the subsequent three, and returned two of her own that made Percy parry and duck himself.
Percy, on the other hand, had his own thoughts racing as he continued his assault. 'She'll be stronger while the sun is up and she's wary about Kurouzu.' *CLANG* 'I'm going to have to make this a war of attrition. The more the sun goes down, the more power she loses, but I don't know how much with her larger chakra reserves.' *CLANG* *WHOOSH*.
Both combatants retreated several meters and observed one another warily. Neither of them were breathing any heavier or showed any indication that the rapid 10 minute exchange exhausted them at all.
Apollo POV [AN: I know it's kinda weird.]
I watched from my chariot as my nephew duked it out to the death with another Sun Deity's daughter. I didn't hate Amaterasu-san or any of her kids by extension or anything of that, but there was always a certain… challenge present when it came to other Pantheons and deities that had the same domain. An almost instinctual need to prove ourselves better.
She was also having her kid try to kill my nephew, so maybe there was a slight resentment present as I watched the two battle with speeds and accuracy that would make my demigod children and Arty's hunters jealous.
The worst part was that none of us could interfere. Ancient Laws aside, Inter-Pantheonic Laws were even more harsh. I could only settle into my chariot and watch on with hope that my nephew would make it out alive. I couldn't even speed up my journey across the skies, as that would be interference.
3rd Person POV
The two charged one another for what had already felt like the 50th time as the small shockwaves from their blows dominated the clearing again. But that time, Percy had a plan. He started to purposely pull some of his strikes up short with the winds added to score a few slashes here and there. Percy was certainly not unscathed either as they both had several small bleeding cuts that neither noticed being too engrossed and overcome with battle-lust. The intent behind the strategy, besides trying to kill her before she could kill him, was to keep her guessing about which strikes were purposely short and which would strike true.
Luckily, it worked like a charm for a little bit. Unluckily, Nichibotsu-san caught on and began to get a better read on them. She couldn't guess them all correctly, mind you, but she was taking less damage the more they exchanged.
Unfortunately for Percy, she had a plan as well.
'The abomination is clever. That damn sword is going to be a problem. Unless…' Nichibotsu-san thought and gave a feral grin internally. Percy sent another strike toward her left hip with intent to pull up short and slash her with the winds, but that wasn't what happened.
Instead, Nichibotsu-san canceled the chakra flow into her blade and intercepted the strike which resulted in her blade shattering. 'It's just a sword. Mother can give me another one after I take his head,' she chided herself. Percy was so surprised that her blade shattered that he hesitated for a second.
A second was all she needed and Nichibotsu-san lashed out with a series of quick jabs to his sword-arm at the joints, loosening his grip on the blade, and a roundhouse kick to his jaw that sent him flying a couple dozen meters away from the blade.
Not one to let her advantage go to waste, she tossed the blade in the opposite direction where it embedded itself into the trunk of a tree as she charged after the abomination. Slightly dazed, Percy gave the stars in his vision a quick shake and looked over just in time to leap away from the ax kick that Nichibotsu-san brought down and cratered the ground where he was a moment before.
In his hasty retreat, Percy grabbed another handful of kunai and whipped his arms back to launch another volley, larger than the first, that Nichibotsu-san met with her own assortment of kunai and shuriken. More sparks filled the air and the two opponents' projectiles hung there for a second as they engaged again, banging together forearm to forearm resulting in a larger shockwave than their swords but still small enough to only give off a sharp gust of wind, before the kunai and shuriken fell to the ground.
Not that the two of them noticed as they were busy engaging in a rapid flurry of punches and kicks - taijutsu - neither of them even exhausting their chakra by a noticeable amount after fighting for nearly 45 minutes already. Without their blades, their speeds increased substantially and they looked like blurs across the clearing to anyone short of an immortal.
The cracks of fist on flesh, the thuds of kicks on bodies, the slaps of redirecting strikes, and the occasional grunts and hisses of pain all rang consistently throughout the clearing. Neither Percy, nor Nichibotsu-san knew how long they had been fighting. The only thing on their minds was to kill the person in front of them before they die themselves.
Artemis POV
I watched on from outside the clearing as my son fought for his life. I was immensely proud of just how strong he had become and how he used that strength to protect his sisters, but I was worried. Neither of them had used any of their techniques yet and he was adamant about how much more chakra she would have compared to him.
I also saw how Thalia, my lieutenant, had kissed him before she left and that brought up even more conflicting feelings. I know my son didn't take the oath and he isn't immortal either, but Thalia did. But because he's my son, I know that he would never lead her on or lead her astray.
He just needs to come back alive first. Then I can worry about that.
3rd Person POV
Another boom resounded in the clearing and the two Shinto had their hands locked together in the center of it, trying to take the advantage over the other. "Not bad for an abomination," Nichibotsu-san said with a condescending smirk. "I trained with Yama-no-kami-sama and my mother. Not bad for a bitch with no soul," Percy snarked back and Nichibotsu-san adopted a minor look of confusion, though not enough to distract her.
The two were still locked hand in hand when Percy smirked. "It's a redhead joke. You wouldn't understand," he told her and as she was about to retort, Percy used her hand like he did against his mother his first night back with the Hunt and flashed through the seals. He brought a quick knee up and slammed it into her gut, followed by "Fuuton: Reppushou!" and drove his palm hard into her hunched over chest.
Some spittle flew from her mouth as she was launched into the air and Percy acted quickly, flashing through his hand signs again. "Suiton: Teppoudama!" Percy yelled as he spat half a dozen water bullets the size of basketballs at his airborne opponent. Nichibotsu-san was certainly no pushover as she flipped to correct her flight and flashed through the seals just as fast, if not faster, than Percy.
"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" Nichibotsu-san yelled back and a dozen fireballs bigger than Percy's water bullets flew from her own mouth, half of them intercepting Percy's technique and the other half forcing Percy to dodge on the ground.
Nichibotsu-san cancelled her chakra flow and the fires sputtered out. 'I have no idea how much chakra she has, only that it's more than my own,' Percy thought as she fell from the sky and landed silently back in the clearing. 'I need to buy time for the sun to go down so I have the advantage, but that's still a dangerous strategy. Not to mention, those two techniques took about a tenth of my reserves. Not much, but I can't afford to waste chakra either.'
His strategizing was rudely interrupted by Nichibotsu-san as she flashed through another series of hand signs and yelled, "Raiton: Raikou Kousen no Jutsu!" A beam of lightning the size of a shack sped toward Percy with blinding speed, but Nichibotsu-san must have been either arrogant enough to think her technique was too powerful for Percy to take from, or she forgot who his father was.
Either way, Percy narrowly dodged the attack as he charged toward her and brushed his right hand against the beam, not quite touching the surface, but close enough to let the electricity jump to his hand. It stung a little bit, being as it was a foreign chakra source, but his heritage allowed him to overcome that without any major repercussions and the chirping of birds demanded the attention of all ears nearby.
Using the winds to speed his movements, Percy closed the distance to his target in just longer than the blink of an eye. "Raiton: Chidori!" he yelled and even managed to extend the blade of the attack enough to graze the outside of Nichibotsu-san's left arm as she dodged, leaving a deep gash that ripped her jacket and ran red with her blood.
He had learned quickly that he could extend the lightning chakra by about half a foot through training his demigod abilities with Thalia and it certainly proved useful then. Nichibotsu-san hissed in pain as the scent of burning flesh and metallic blood permeated their nostrils. She leapt back while running through more signs, using "Fuuton: Daitoppa!" to simultaneously blast the two of them back from each other and create space.
By that point in the fight, the sun was nearly set and Percy, despite his singed hair, skin, and clothes, and various bleeding cuts and bruises had a plan. It would be tricky and likely use the rest of his chakra, but it was the only one he had. So he baited her.
"Come on Nichibotsu-san! You're the Daughter of the Sun Goddess! Your flames are pathetic!" he bellowed at her and she bought it hook, line, and sinker. "You want heat?! Fine, Abomination!" she screamed back, but failed to notice that Percy was gathering as much water from the air and forest behind him, causing the trees to wither. He left in the air for the time being, but it would be ready as a moment's notice.
"Katon: Karyuu Endan!" Nichibotsu-san yelled and a giant fire dragon spewed from her mouth. The entire technique stood at nearly 75 feet tall and as wide as a shack. 'Huh. How ironic to my plan,' Percy mused and went through his seals as well. "Doton: Doryuuheki!" Percy yelled and slammed his palms on the dirt, resulting in a large earthen wall that sprung up to intercept the attack.
Percy knew that it wouldn't hold, but that wasn't its true purpose. Its true purpose was to buy time and simultaneously knock Nichibotsu-san off balance with the resulting earthquake. It accomplished both of those things. With Nichibotsu-san stumbling slightly, her control wavered enough for the size of the technique to shrink. Not much, but enough.
Percy made all of those observations in a split second and pulled the water he had laying in wait to him and flashed through the long chain of over 3 dozen seals in just over 4 seconds. "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" he yelled and, similarly to his opponent, a large water dragon came charging over the ruins of the earthen wall. It wasn't as big as Nichibotsu-san's technique, being 10-15 feet smaller, but with water as fire's nature opposite, it snuffed the majority of the flames out.
But again, its purpose wasn't to extinguish the technique entirely. Instead, Percy traveled inside of his own technique through the flames and just as the water was about to evaporate completely, he vapor traveled behind Nichibotsu-san and molded his seals with the rest of the chakra he could spare. "Ranton: Kami no Reza," Percy whispered and the bright blue laser blasted from his fingertips, completely puncturing and cauterizing the hole in Nichibotsu-san's lower right abdomen.
She dropped to her knees on the ground and clutched the wound as she coughed up blood. The hole in her torso was about the size of Percy's fist, but he knew that it wouldn't kill her. Not unless she completely neglected it and ran out of chakra. So he walked over to her and drew a kunai, holding it to her throat as they looked into each other's eyes.
"What are you waiting for? Do it. Kill me," she rasped through labored breathing. Percy just stared into her eyes as he thought about what to do. Wondering what his mother would think of him killing a maiden, even if he was her son and Nichibotsu-san had attacked him first.
"Why? Why did you come to kill me?" Percy asked her and she chuckled weakly. "Mother told me to. You and I both know I couldn't refuse," she told him and he only frowned slightly. It was true. He had told Thalia as much that if his father asked him the same, he would do it without question.
But after living with his mother, he didn't want to kill a maiden, even if she tried to kill him first. So he thought of a solution. "Swear on your mother that you won't try to kill me or my sisters again," he told her and her eyes narrowed. "You know what will happen to me when I go back and report my failure to my mother. Why are you trying to spare me?" Nichibotsu-san asked and Percy's eyes softened slightly, but the kunai never left its steady position at her neck.
"My mother is the Goddess of Maidens. I don't wish to kill one of the beings that reside in her domain. Regardless of the Pantheon," Percy told her, but she didn't reply. She didn't know what to say to that, but before she could even begin to talk, Percy looked at the sun just before it disappeared over the horizon completely.
"Amaterasu-sama, I swear on the River Styx and my father, Susano'o, Shinto God of Storms and the Seas, that I will spare your daughter, but if you want me dead, come and do it yourself," Percy said and thunder rumbled deafeningly overhead. Nichibotsu-san's eyes widened drastically before eventually they softened and she chuckled lightly.
"You really are an abomination. I swear on my mother I will not try to kill you or your sisters again," Nichibotsu-san said in a whisper with a small smile. Percy grinned tiredly at her in return. "Good. If you're ever in the States again and want to spar, come find me. Sweet dreams, Nichibotsu-chan," Percy said with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
Before she could even question him, he drove the kunai's hilt into her temple and sent her into unconsciousness. He began to walk back toward the direction of camp, only for the numerous bleeding cuts to finally catch up with him. On top of the bruises, likely fractured ribs, and chakra exhaustion.
He got half a dozen stumbling steps before he collapsed onto his back and stared directly overhead with a small smile as his eyelids drooped.
"I did it, Zo," he whispered and his consciousness faded.
He didn't see the brightening of the moon, nor the twinkling of the Huntress Constellation after he whispered that.
AN: Chapter 21! Whew! That was a long one and a long time coming at that! That might have been the hardest fighting sequence scene I have ever written and I apologize if it was really bad. I also apologize for the lack of updates, but life got in the way for a little.
Coming next, I still need to know if I should send Percy on the bombing mission alone? With Charles? With Annabeth? Do Annabeth and Charles go instead? Let me know please as the Titan War Arc will be wrapping up fairly soon ish.
Until next time!