Ocean's True Strength
Thalia's gaze fell towards the cabin from her spot in the dining hall. Even as she tried to think about something else, her mind wanders to what happened the day before yesterday, after Percy told them they won.
Flashback
"What do you mean we won?!" Thalia asked/yelled, her voice can be probably heard by the inhabitants of Manhattan.
"Exactly that, you won," of course, their jerk of a teacher didn't elaborate any further.
"What Thalia mean is why did we win? After all, we didn't beat you," Zoe asked smoothly, while warily watching the frothing daughter of Zeus who looks like she was about to attack and maim their teacher. Well, try to anyway, no doubt their teacher would easily beat her.
"I told you, I'm going to be holding back so you will stand a chance to win. By the time the 14 people pretending to be you guys cast that powerful technique, I by all intent already lose. The only reason I broke free was that I wanted to have a good fight without my opponent being a god." The son of Poseidon explained, his explanation seemed to calm Thalia down, for now.
"Now that we are sure of that, I'm going to teleport us to the camp. We will be having a discussion about how you make me believe others to be you, but that's for another day. In the meantime, you going to spend some time with your godly parents," before they could question what he meant by that, Percy turned their molecular structure into water vapour.
By the time they turned back to a solid and thankfully their true form, their stomach felt watery and their head fell lightheaded, no doubt the effects of vapour travelling. By the time they make sure their balance is alright, their eyes land on the gods, one that is gathering around Chiron, Artemis and Dionysus. So that's what their teacher meant.
Percy nodded at them before he went to the god wearing a Hawaiian shirt, whom they guessed is Poseidon. Looking at each other, they decided to head towards their godly parents, even Luke, who still feel a bit wary of his father. Not that Thalia could blame him.
She looked at Zeus, unsure of what to think about him. He is her father, but he never really acts fatherly towards her, not at the same level as Poseidon did to Percy. She looked at Percy, who nodded at her, causing her to walk towards her father, while warily glancing at Hera.
Surprisingly, no harm came upon her as she approached her father. When she get near him, she wanted to speak but words won't come out of her mouth. Before she could continue to embarrass herself, her father hug her!
The sudden act shock her to the point she tried to shock Zeus, the Greek God of Sky and Lightning. Apparently, that didn't bother him that much considering that he continued to hug her. She wonder what caused him to hug her.
(Meanwhile, Zeus glare at the sea duo, who have a shit-eating grin on their face. He decided to ignore them, even though he dread what are they planning, after all, they hold the title of the strongest god and strongest demigod, though that could change if Poseidon's brat accept godhood)
Before she could question her father, Zeus released her from his hold, instead staring at Percy and Poseidon for unknown reasons. Who just smiled at the gods with zero fear.
"Did you enjoy the show?" he asked cheekily, causing the gods to look at him in surprise, probably by how brazen he is.
"It was fun cousin," Apollo answered, clearly trying to get back to the son of Poseidon by being cheeky too.
"Unfortunately, they just learned about Celestial energy less than a year. Maybe if they knew about it earlier, I could release more of my strength," his words caused the gods to look at him incredulously while the demigods just nod their heads. If their teacher decided to continue the fight, they would have lost.
"Oh, so you think you can fight against a real god, eh brat?" the battle maniac he is, Ares asked.
"Yes," a single word seemed to surprise the other gods, with the exception of Poseidon, Hades, Artemis and Dionysus, all of whom had seen him in action.
"Then let us have a spar," Ares relentlessly pushed, which Percy answered with a nod.
A small arena had been created by the Big Three, for the sake of fairness. It's a distance away from the sea so Percy couldn't just use water or summon it. Percy had issued the rules, power can be used but limited, weapons are allowed, and don't destroy the arena too much. The last one was asked by Chiron.
"Begin!" Chiron announced, being the trainer he is. At that moment, both disappeared, only to appear at one end of the arena before disappearing and appearing on the other side. The song and dance went on for several minutes, both clearly great duelists.
Realising he is having a tied with a demigod, one that is not even a teen yet, Ares increased his strength, slowly overpowering the boy. Surprisingly, Percy didn't look scared or worried, continued to keep his calm look.
"James!" he suddenly yelled, catching the attention of the son of Ares, making Ares stop his attack, clearly wondering what his opponent is up to.
"Good job on creating that aura of your father," Percy praised the teen before continuing. "Let me show what you can do by focusing on your own aura instead of your godly parent," as he talked, a blue aura surrounds him, followed by red, brown, green, purple, white and light blue.
As one, the aura melded together, turning into a chaotic colour, with the dominant colour being blue. The aura formed into the shape of man, not like the image of Poseidon, but someone else. It took several seconds before they realised the man is shaped like Percy, except older.
The figure had messy hair; its eyes looked like the starry sky. It wore armour that covered most of its body, with only the hand not being armoured. In its hand are two swords, ready to be swung at its opponent. It followed Percy's movement, similar to the other aura of the gods can do but the audience and Ares himself could feel the figure is somehow, more powerful than even the avatar of Poseidon himself.
"This a True Avatar, something you can only do when you understand your power better," As he said that, Percy began to move and with him, his avatar. The avatar is clearly as strong, if not stronger than Ares, as the god of war was pushed constantly from the moment the avatar appeared.
Not to mention, the avatar also used the element Percy used. When Ares increased his strength, the avatar coated itself with earth and stone and blocked it before attacking with lightning, electrocuting the war god. When he tried to shield himself, creating a shield a moment before, a powerful burst of water pushed the shield away before he was forced to fend off the blades of the avatar.
The others couldn't say anything, as they were too shocked and mesmerized by the fight, specifically, the familiar Percy created. It was something almost godly, something a demigod shouldn't be able to make but clearly could. The question for the demigods was can they make it while the gods asked themselves if the boy going to accept godhood.
As Ares grew more frustrated, being constantly beaten in what was supposed to be his area of speciality will do that to you, he yelled, "THAT'S ENOUGH BRAT!!" as his aura grew more violent, pushing back the son of Poseidon, who clearly expected something, judging by his bored look.
That makes the god angrier, causing him to attack the boy with far greater ferocity, the son of Poseidon is soon on the defensive, blocking and countering the attack with precision. Soon, however; it wasn't enough as the experienced god sees some opening and took it, leaving a gash on the boy's left arm.
He clearly didn't notice nor cared as he continued to block the attack and retreat, though the demigods soon see that while he looked like he is being pushed back, he clearly lured the god where he wanted him to be. Something the gods except for Poseidon didn't realise, judging by the smile on his face.
The other gods soon noticed the smile on the sea god's face. Before they could question it, Ares stepped on some kind of trap, as vines grow and restrained the god. Before he could break free, Percy snapped his finger and uttered, "Seven Elemental Restraint,".
Artemis had a minor flashback and PTSD as she saw the same technique that captured her, was now used to trap his half-brother, granted a stupid one, but one of Olympus's best fighters himself. The war god could clearly feel something wrong as the element pushed against him, but no matter what he did, even releasing more of his power, its not enough as he was pushed to the ground.
Percy leisurely strolled to the god's position and placed his sword at the neck. "Yield," he domineeringly said. Ares seemed to struggle but with a brief glance at the gods and saw the calm look on Poseidon's face, one that clearly said, "if you make me angry I'm going to ruin it in 100 different ways, starting with a mass bombing from seagulls and last with you being on the ground, begging me to finish you,"
"I yield," he uttered dejectedly, Percy releasing him quickly before he walked towards his father. The other gods still have their mouths on the ground, including both Dionysus and Artemis, two other gods that know some of his strength, though they probably didn't expect this much power.
When he reached his father, Percy was about to say something before his face morphed, from calm to shock, to serious. He turned his head so fast the other demigods afraid he got a whiplash. He glared at something, causing the others to squint their eyes and tried to see what caused that sort of reaction from their teacher but didn't see anything out of order.
They were about to ask their teacher when he opened his mouth, "You don't mind spending time with your children for a while right, because I have something I need to do," and vanished in a burst of seawater, Poseidon looking as confused as they are.
"You heard what he said, you wouldn't mind spending time with your children right?" Hestia questioned/threatened them. Deciding to not fight a losing, and subsequently painful battle, they nodded. The goddess of hearth just smiled at their agreement.
Somehow, the watching demigods' fight turned into a family bonding moment, one that was both awkward and weird, considering the demigods were used to their godly parents not paying attention to them. They couldn't help but be grateful for their teacher, because as awkward as it is, they could spend time with their parent.
Flashback ended
"Have you ever wondered, how powerful Percy will be when he didn't need to worry and just let loose?" Thalia asked the other counsellors, her mind trying and failing to divert her thought from that one question.
"Yes, but I'm kind of scared to see how powerful he is," Zoe's answers were met with a sound of agreement from the others. She couldn't really blame her or the others for thinking that way. After all, even after so many plans and preparation were made, the only reason they won is that he is holding back, and from the look of it, by a lot.
"But Thalia kinda has a point. As scary as Percy is, I want to see what will happen when he stopped restraining himself.," unsurprisingly, Luke has the same thought as her. Then again, they both are his first students, and they are bound to get curious as even though they spend a long time with him, they still didn't scratch the surface of the mystery of Perseus Achilles Jackson.
"If you wanted to know so bad, be careful. Curiosity killed the cat after all," Matt warned, clearly wanting to know but smart enough to not push too far less he got beaten up for it.
"Maybe we could ask him to do something like we do. Like gathering monsters and fighting them. That way, we could see what his true power is," Annabeth suggested, making the other counsellors look at her with wide eyes.
"Annabeth! That's genius. If he does it against monsters, we could see what will happen if he decided to go all out!" Matt, the person that warned them about curiosity, is the one that is most excited about the plan. Thalia wanted to say it was surprising but considering he was a son of Athena when he said about curiosity killing the cat, she almost shouted, 'Who are you and what have you done to Matt?!'. Judging from the way James's hand twitched, she was sure they were on the same wavelength.
Apparently, he is just better at hiding his curiosity, good to know. Alas, they still need one most important thing if they wanted to gauge their teacher's strength. Something that Jessica decided to drop on them.
"We still need Percy to agree with it because if he doesn't, we can't really do anything," the revelation wakened them up. They do need Percy's agreement if they wanted for it to happen. But would he really agree to it?
"Well, one way to find out," Luke said, causing the others to lean forward, eager to hear what he was about to say.
"Ask him, and beg if he didn't agree," the pie thrown to his face is well earned, even if Thalia didn't know where it came from.
"Sure, why not?" The counsellors gapped as their teacher agreed to it in a heartbeat. The shock must be obvious because he could clearly see it from the question he asked.
"What, you expect me to not agree? I mean, if it's for something stupid, yes, but I like to see what level I'm now too, you know," Realising it was that easy, they nodded before moving on autopilot. He shakes his head. Well, at least he had something to do before he leave.
It had been a week since they asked their teacher to show his true strength by destroying monsters. Unfortunately, they have to wait as Percy needed to bait monsters first so his attack will have some meaning. That means the demigods needed to wait before they could see his true strength. An unfortunate sacrifice, but a necessary one.
Thankfully, the preparation had been made, allowing the demigods to finally see their teacher, fully unleashed, a term coined by the Hermes Cabin. A weird name, but probably appropriate. Still, they could sense the monsters gathered by Percy, who probably decided that he needed to attract every single monster living in America! That's how many they could sense, and probably more judging by how far some are.
"Teacher, why must you summon every monster to ever live, here?" Naomi asked/pleaded with their teacher, who clearly didn't see anything wrong with what he was doing.
"It makes things more fun," the only reason no one comes to strangle their teacher is that they knew they couldn't win against him. That didn't stop them from imagining such scenarios.
"Alright, I will go to the centre now. Because we at a plain, that means you can see things easier. Stay at the fort I created and whatever you do, don't stop covering your scent!" Percy clearly stressed the last part. Knowing he is serious, the demigods nodded their heads before Percy vapour travelled them to the fort he created earlier. He might want some challenge but he won't let his students get harmed in the process.
"Well, come at me you bunch of pest," as he said that, he dropped the mist and every single barrier he created to make sure the monsters didn't come early.
As the demigods recovering from nausea, an unfortunate side effect of vapour travelling for a first-timer, the one that already had it done to them by their teacher already recovered and looked at the plain.
Their teacher had the foresight, and Annabeth's idea of rising a mountain and creating a fortress for them to spectate the fight between their teacher and hordes and hordes of monsters. In fact, it will probably be the first time for many of them to see their teacher killing monsters. The only ones that had seen their teacher slaughtering monsters are only the trio. Many of them will see their teacher killing for the first time.
However, the sight that comes next nearly makes the demigods piss off their pants. Why? Oh, just the hordes of monsters that can be aptly called a tsunami of monsters! The monsters are so numerous that they filled the plain as far as the eyes could see.
After seeing such vast hordes, even the trio question their teacher's decision and whether should they help him. Before they could even discuss it, they sensed a massive gathering of CE, clearly coming from the lone demigod in the sea of monsters. They turned their heads to look at their teacher.
Then, the explosion happened.
Percy looked in disdain as the monsters rushed after him, no doubt thinking he is an easy snack. No matter, by the time he's done, they going to fear him and probably think twice before coming after demigods.
He gathered the CE from his body and around him, ready to cast one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful AOE technique he ever created. He inhaled deeply, channelling it to seven different places before he released it.
"Wrath of Seven Elements,"
As their sight slowly returned, the bright light catching all of them off guard, they laid their eyes on the plain, or wasteland to be more accurate after what Percy did to it. 7 areas, each having been turned into a wasteland of different elements.
The first one is a fiery wasteland, burnt into near nothingness and fire raging in it. Second is a submerged, looking like it just undergone a great flood, the water rushing like rapids. The third is a wasteland upturned, devastated by earthquakes. Craters and cracks filled the third wasteland. Fourth is a windy one, tornados appearing and killing monsters along with several powerful gusts of wind, turning anything to shreds. Fifth is the epitome of lightning, electricity flickering the ground, sometimes gathered enough to look like a fountain of lightning. Sixth is a wasteland ruled by trees, as vegetation filled it, with some moving like arms of dying men. Seventh is a frozen wasteland, the cold devastates it to such a state that it is impossible to survive there, even with protective gear.
"Can we all legit agree that if Percy ever fights us seriously, there won't be anything remaining to be buried, right?" Billy stated, the others nodding, fear and awe intertwined in their expression as they watched the horrible devastation of their teacher doing.
Still, from the look their teacher has, he is probably far from done, seeing that monsters stopped rushing towards him … for 5 seconds before they ran again, surprisingly towards the one that caused the 'apocalypse'.
"I think teacher did some kind spell or curse that make the monsters brainless, well, more brainless, so they will attack him even after … 'that'," Layla theorized, one agreed by everyone else because even they don't think monsters will be stupid enough to rush toward the realm of 'apocalypse'.
Percy looked uncaring, just observing the coming monsters wave, before he lifted his right hand, muttering the technique's name while at it, "Earth Whale Fall,"
As the name suggested, a huge whale made out of earth and stones emerged from the ground, doing it best to jump out of it, before falling, on the monsters. The monsters screamed before their voices disappeared, the whale crushing them into oblivion.
He raised his left hand this time, to the 'forest section,' "Fury of Forest," the forest come to life once again, this time the trees take the form of giant man-like creatures. The monsters entering it were forced to fight them and losing badly.
Sensing the coming monsters from the 'wind zone' and 'fire zone', he unleashed two powerful techniques at once. "Inferno Bombardment, Devastation Gust," a massive fireball barrage, each fireball the size of a car fell into the 'fire zone,' while sharp wind blades, each the length of a plane wingspan, turned any monsters into mincemeat.
He of course didn't forget the other area, using a few more powerful techniques to clear it. "Lightning God Spear, Frost Arena," another two areas were cleared, and the monsters almost removed from a mile of his vicinity.
However, he seemed to forget the water area, the monsters sneaking underwater, ready to attack him. One such monster is a cyclops, somehow able to remain undetected even as it gets closer and closer.
Seeing the demigod barely move, it swung its club, already envisioning the splatter of blood and muscles, only to feel like it hit something really hard. It looked to see the demigod covered in some kind of armour made of water.
"You really think I won't sense something like you?" Percy questioned the monster derisively. He is a son of Poseidon, of course, he can detect any being entering the 'water area'. He just wanted to test his Heavy Water: Skin Armour. That's the only reason the cyclops could even get close at all.
"Now that you hit me, I should hit you back," he punched the monsters, water erupting from his fist like a contained explosion of water, the pressure and volume of its disintegrating the giant in seconds.
"Oceanic Burst," he muttered, before looking at the monsters coming once again. He had attracted Graeco-Roman monsters from all around North America. He probably attracted around a few hundred thousand at most.
Oh well, it probably takes some time for him to properly clean up, and he will enjoy every second.
The other demigods just looked in awe. Their teacher strength is just too great. While Thalia could use a technique of such scale, she could only do it once before tiring, while their teacher could do multiple at the same time without breaking a sweat.
"Oh Iris, goddess of rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Artemis in Olympus," without hesitating, Zoe contacted her goddess, the Iris message showing the goddess having a meeting with other Olympians alongside Hades and Hestia.
"Why are you contacting me, Zoe? I'm in the middle of a meeting," the goddess questioned, clearly a bit peeved by the sudden call.
"Percy is doing his thing," is the short and probably weird answer by Zoe, but it seemed to garner the attention of Artemis quickly.
"Where are you?" was the goddess of hunt expected reply.
"at the Great Plain, in Nebraska. I will tell you more when you get here," as she answered, the lieutenant of the hunt swipe the Iris message and waited for the gods to appear. True to her expectation, the Olympians, plus Hades and Hestia flashed into the fortress, clearly intending to witness whatever Percy is doing.
"Where is he?" asked Poseidon, which Thalia helpfully pointed out the place of the apocalypse. As Poseidon saw the devastation to the landscape, he painfully sigh.
"He can be such a handful," he said, not bothering to look back to see the dumbstruck look of the other gods.
"Poseidon, as much as I hate to say this, I'm glad it is one of your sons instead of any other demigods that this powerful," Zeus proclaimed, pretending to not notice the shocked look on the demigod.
The gods could understand why though. As much as Zeus led the mortals to believe him to be the strongest, he is only the third most powerful Olympian. Poseidon could have won during the coup he did, but he let the god of sky go with the promise he will be a better ruler.
The only reason he even make Poseidon served the king of the Trojans is because he needed to establish his strength. Hades, it's not even Poseidon doing the labour but a clone he created. The real one had been in Atlantis, ruling his kingdom.
While during the Age of Heroes in Ancient Greece, while some sons of Poseidon seemed to vaunt and tried to gain both notoriety, prestige and power, most prefer to live in obscurity, never exposing their demigods' lineage and living their lives while on the occasion hunting monsters threatening their communities.
The children of Poseidon never seek fame with the exception of the most famous one, and even then accepted just because it was thrown at them. So the likelihood of Percy usurping the gods is as likely as Hades bowing to his brothers, which will never happen.
As the gods continued to observe (re:watch the show) Hermes asked a question, "You sure he's not a god?" Before Poseidon could answer, the felt a tremendous power erupting from the son of Poseidon's spot.
"Brats! I'm going to show you what a really powerful familiar can do!" he shouted before he threw seven containers, each with its lid on when something burst out of it.
Red-coloured liquid, one the demigods quickly recognized as blood flew into an element storm created prior to its release. The blood seemed to fuse with the element, shaping into giant beastlike forms, releasing auras that will not lose to a minor god.
Soon, it started to take a more recognizable shape, staring down at the monsters that tried and failed to harm it. Percy smiled wilder before he announced their names.
"Rise Salamander, Lizard of Inferno. Burn your enemies to the ground, leaving nothing but cinder." A lizard made out of fire roared in unison to its master speech, ready to do his bidding.
"Emerge Ashi, Phoenix of Deep, flew from your restraint of the bottom of the ocean and drown any being standing in your way." A phoenix made of water screeched, the water rising following its flight path.
"Awaken Behemoth, Monster of Underground, rise from your palace beneath the earth and crush the fool who dared to trouble you," a monster, there is no proper way to describe it, with its huge tusk and lizardlike body, opened its mouth, releasing noises sounding like grating earth.
"Fly Wira, Hawk of Turbolant, blast anything in your path as you ascend to the sky," a hawk made off air and wind flapped its wings, creating a small hurricane in the process, answering its creator's call.
"Rage Tighos, Tiger of Lightning, release your wrath on anything wishing to stop you from roaring to the heavens," a tiger made out of electricity roared, causing lightning to fall from the sky, creating a barrier made of lightning around it.
"Awaken Nahus, Antler of Forest, create a brand new jungle as you make your toward me," a deer made out of barks and leaves appeared, plants growing from around it, clearly following their new master's call.
"Break free Bizaj, Tusk of Iceberg, turn anything stopping you into mere ice sculpture as you stomped your way to the north," a mammoth made of ice bellowed, frost appearing around it as it looked around, seeing a target-rich environment for its stomping.
As the familiars, all around 20 feet tall, began making their way toward the monster and preparing to turn them into a pile of dust, the spectators watch with their mouths wide open, clearly still in disbelief as they watched Familiar vs Monsters, the familiars clearly winning as its stomped, burn, and blast anything attacking them. Plus, Percy blasting them with some of his weaker moves.
"So, he can create minor god-level monsters, good to know," Hermes exclaimed, the gods couldn't help but nod their heads.
"If he even sends one of them to fight against us, we will be dead meat," James uttered, eyes transfixed on the devastation happening in front of him.
Zeus placed his hands on Poseidon's shoulders, looking him in the eyes, "Once again, I thank you that it's your son that is this powerful," the other gods ignored the drama happening there as they watched the son of Poseidon launch powerful attacks as his familiars continued their rampage.
One thing in their mind though, is that Percy Achilles Jackson should not be messed with.