It was odd. Percy never knew what exactly to call what happened to him when he fought. It was like the entire world around him had just faded into the background, any noise or sound was muffled, there was nothing else in the world besides him, and his target.
Currently, that target was Polybotes.
And he was no normal target. Oh no. Not just because he was a giant. No Percy had gotten used to overwhelmingly large odds such as the ones he now faced. No, this was no normal target because of what was coming out of that filthy, rotten-fish-smelling mouth of his.
Now Percy could take a lot. He didn't have the explosive temper that his uncles and their children were famous for. It was another quality that he shared with his father. But just like his father, when that anger was focused on you, when the easy-going laid-back sea god and his children finally did snap. Only the Fates could truly help you then.
"Mother Gaea has promised us many things, you know, little half-breed!", Polybotes boomed as he caught Poseidon unawares and hit him half-way across the battlefield with one mighty swing of his trident.
The constantly off-task, ADHD half of his mind noticed how the unlucky shot reminded him slightly of the way the major league baseball players hit home-runs. Imagining his father as a baseball brought a small grin to his face. But that grin soon disappeared as he let out a surprised yelp and narrowly avoided being caught in the net the giant had thrown at him.
"Just as my brother, Porphyrion shall take Zeus' queen as his, I too shall take Poseidon's!", he boasted. Percy took advantage of the small distraction to lunge in and score a hit across the back of his right knee, drawing ichor and making the great giant stumble slightly.
If he was being honest, no matter how callus it may seem to others, Percy couldn't care less about what Polybotes wanted to do with his father's wife, Amphitrite. They didn't have the best of relationships bordering on openly hostile. Besides, if all went as it should, Polybotes wouldn't have the opportunity to do any of that anyway. Because… you know, he'd be dead.
"But I do not speak of the daughter of Oceanus as you might think I do. Tell me little bastard son, who was it your father called the 'queen among women'? Who is it that he values above all others?".
A sinking feeling of dread settled in the pit of Percy's stomach.
His mother. That monster was talking about his mother!
In no time at all, that dread had transformed into ugly hatred. No one touched his mother. No one.
But before he could act, his father's bane, and now, his bane, began speaking again.
"If nothing else, I can see that your father does have very good taste. The woman is very beautiful. But no, perhaps after I have torn your body apart, I shall take your lover as my reward, hmm? Yes, she will become my queen".
He let out a scream of outrage and charged forward, but Polybotes just laughed.
"What is it, little half-breed. Has the bastard-son finally decided to fight?", he taunted, throwing his head back and laughing again. Perhaps that was why he failed to notice just how big of a mistake he had truly made.
Percy's eyes were glowing with power, the sea-green colour darkening and swirling, truly resembling the hurricanes he could control so well. A storm began to gather overhead, the clouds darkening and ominous thunder rumbling. Harsh winds blew across the battlefields, making everybody momentarily look up and around in their confusion before turning back to their own fights.
It was at that moment that Percy's father decided to show up, but it did not matter. At least, not to Percy anyways.
"Percy, what—", Poseidon started, only to be roughly cut off by Percy's enraged yell.
"No! He's MINE!", he was forced to yell over the winds of his own creation, and when his father still didn't listen, he directed one of his hands towards him, pushing him up and completely off of his feet with the force of the winds so suddenly directed onto him. Poseidon was slightly dazed by the force of it, but was quickly back on his feet, ready to help his son defeat his bane. Only to find, when he stood up, that apparently, no help was needed or wanted for that matter.
Since Percy had discovered his heritage and powers he had been afraid of them; always holding back in fear that he might accidentally hurt one of his friends or family.
But no longer.
Percy was done holding back. He was done struggling to hold up that barrier in his mind: that barrier, that only got heavier to lift after his little detour to Tartarus. No, this monster was going to receive his full attention. Because that's all he was: just another monster. And by Percy's reckoning, he was long overdue for a visit to his father.
Percy took one large step forwards, channeling all the powers over the earth shaker part of his father's domains that he had ever learned through himself and into the ground. The earth seemed to heave beneath him: raising up to six feet above its normal level before just as suddenly slamming back down again, sending a massive shockwave out in all directions.
Demigods screamed as they were thrown from their feet and the remaining monsters roared and screamed in outrage and confusion, but Percy didn't care. No, his sole focus at the moment was the giant beast in front of him. In fact, Percy hadn't truly registered what was happening around him since the beginning of his battle with Polybotes. If he had, perhaps he would have noticed how Annabeth's plan seemed to be working; the large monster army was all but gone, leaving both demigod armies to tend to their wounded and pick their way through the dead. Maybe he would have realised the quite obvious lack of most of the other giants. In fact, the only ones left were Porphyrion and Enceladus, the latter of which was finally killed by twin blows from Athena and Annabeth due to the distraction caused by the sudden earthquake.
Only Porphyrion and Polybotes remained. And as lightning flashed across the sky in the distant other side of the battlefield, a whole other kind of storm was brewing above the enemies of the sea.
Percy ducked and slashed and fought, using all the skills he had ever been taught in his entire short, miserable life as a demigod.
Percy revelled in the feeling of freedom he felt in this fight. He was finally free of his burdens, free of his fear.
The building storm around him reached its climax, winds howling with clouds so dark they were almost black. In the distance, the sea heaved and crashed, reacting to its prince's emotions and commands. Winds began to gather beneath his feet, swirling and howling- a force of pure destruction. They lifted him into the air in the eye of his own hurricane. But this hurricane was not the miniature one he had created and used to defeat Hyperion in Central Park during the Battle of Manhattan. No, this one was a fully-grown, howling cyclone.
His black hair, dark as midnight, whipped around his face in the winds, and the only feature of his face visible from the ground at his height were his glowing sea-green eyes. Orbs which were pinned directly on the giant in front of him.
Despite the intimidating display of power, though, Polybotes just laughed.
"Oh little godling! When will you ever learn? I am the bane of Poseidon… for a reason", he said, having to yell over the roar of the winds.
With that, he lifted a singular hand up into the sky above him, directly into the swirling waters of the hurricane. Immediately the change was apparent. The water turned a sickly, distractingly bright shade of green, signifying its transformation from water into poison.
Polybotes expected that to be the end of the little half-blood's power display. As impressive as it was, there was a reason the earth mother had gifted him that particular power. The sea god and his children were powerful, but without the use of their water, they were defenceless.
Or so he thought.
Instead of the poison dropping from the circulation of the hurricane, causing it to lose power and momentum like he had expected it to, the poison simply joined the hurricane, not affecting it in the slightest.
Percy floated, his arms lifted up on either side of him as the storm, if anything, only increased in intensity and power. The boy's raven hair floated almost weightlessly around his head, the glowing green of the poison now swirling around him in his storm only serving to bask his form in an eerie light. A cruel smirk adorned his lips, and at that moment, Polybotes realised just how truly dangerous this boy was.
"Now who's to say that this reason will work on me?", he taunted in a mocking tone that did not at all resemble the Percy they all knew and loved.
Even as he spoke, tendrils of poison separated themselves from the rest of the storm and reached out towards him. They climbed up his waiting arms, slowly creeping up like vicious snakes that knew exactly what they were doing.
Percy threw his head back and screamed, the poison coating his body being violently flung towards its creator in the form of a javelin. Before Polybotes could even comprehend what was happening, he was being hit in the chest by something with such power that it knocked him completely from his feet.
Ichor poured from his chest from the wound the large spear made of solidified liquid had inflicted. He gasped for breath, but found he was unable to find it due to the massive pain and pressure in his chest. Roughly, he tore the weapon out, only serving to make the already fatal wound worse, and rolled onto his side in an effort to retain aether.
With a large boom and a crack, Percy fell straight from the sky where he had been suspended, and landed on the ground right next to his felled enemy, making the earth around him crack and form a small crater. He allowed the hurricane to gradually disperse as he walked. His enemy had fallen, it was no longer needed.
Percy stalked towards the fallen giant like a predator stalks its wounded prey.
Now. Now this idiotic waste of celestial energy could be destroyed once and for all.
"Half-breed—", Polybotes started in a warning tone, but Percy cut him off.
"Shut up!", he hissed lowly, holding one hand out and making a choking gesture.
The giant's eyes went wide with panic as he felt his airway close off. Ichor gushed from his wound which for some reason, still hadn't healed. Polybotes clawed at his throat in a panic, desperately trying to relieve himself of whatever invisible force was holding him.
He tried to speak, but all that would come out were strangled gasps.
Percy closed his fist even tighter still, and he felt his face begin to turn golden as whatever ichor was still remaining in his body was trapped in his head.
"You threatened my family", Percy said in a deceivingly calm voice. Low and rough, it rang out over the now silent battle field.
Polybotes looked into his torturer's eyes, searching desperately for any sign of mercy.
He found none.
The normally bright sea-green eyes were now glowing like poison. Swirling and mesmerising, they pulled you in before you even realised what was happening.
As the boy's hand tightening even further still and Polybotes felt ichor dribbled out of his mouth from his crushed throat, he understood.
Perseus Jackson truly was the son of darkness. Because as he looked deep into those eyes in his final moments and watched as the pure black of his pupil ran through the sea-green of his irises creating spider-web-like cracks…
…he was afraid.