Chapter 9

Thalia's POV

I jabbed at one of them and it blocked it. The other circled round trying to get in behind me. I kept an eye on it while I engaged it's companion. I parried a straight thrust and then I pushed his sword to one side and slammed it with Aegis my shield, momentarily forgetting that I was facing two of these things. The one circling behind me gave me a nice gash on my hip to remember him by. I yelled in pain and in anger and a lightning bolt came down and hit it. It collapsed on the floor. The first one got back up and started to engage me again. I drove it backwards. It was good but could not keep up with the onslaught that I was giving it. It tripped over a rock and collapsed to the ground in a heap of bones. I was about to thrust my spear into the skull of the monster and I heard the most infuriating, yet chastening noise from behind me. I heard the sound of bone treading on the earth. I had once again got caught up with one opponent. There was no way I could turn around to face it in time. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.

The next to noises that came from behind me were confusing and surprising at the same time. I heard a swish of an object travelling through the air followed by a snap and a crushing sound. I turned around to see the skeleton with a rock in it's head, which was now looking more like a powder. The skeleton tried to get up but an infuriated looking Percy picked up the bones and through the skeleton off the cliff into his father's domain. I looked around to see no other skeletons and guessed that the same thing had happened to the others. I went to give Percy thanks for helping when I saw the gaping wound on his shoulder.

"Oh my gods Percy what happened?" I said pointing to it.

"Oh nothing, just a flesh wound from an angry dragon. I got worse when I was playing with Nemea in the Talos automaton." He said jokingly.

We all looked at him in shock. He shrugged and then pointed to the summit of Mt Othrys. Zoe nodded at the unspoken question. I looked around to see the other three not injured at all. Percy put out his hand and put it on my wound. This got a look of suspicion from Luke. I felt the wound feel warm and then start to close up.

"Thank you Percy." I said. He nodded smiling and then joined Zoe at the front.

Percy's POV

As I walked closer to the summit I could hear fighting from above me. I sped up and rounded a bend to see the four of them fighting Sparti. I saw one of them had come up behind Thalia so I picked up a rock and faster than the eye could follow I through it at the skull. I then set to work clenching my fist in satisfaction at the noise the sound of the direct hit made. I summoned up a wave of water to sweep them away. I made sure that it did not touch the other four quest members.

I then picked up the remains of the one that was at Thalia's feet. I through it over the cliff trusting my father to keep them occupied and maybe, if we were lucky destroy them.

"Oh my gods Percy, what happened?" Thalia asked pointing at my wound.

I hesitated, considering whether or not to tell the truth. I decided against it. "Oh nothing, just a flesh wound from an angry dragon. I got worse when I was playing with Nemea in the Talos automaton." They looked at me in a little bit of shock. Luke had a bit of admiration in his expression. I gestured to the summit of the mountain and Zoe nodded leading the way. I could tell that she was not convinced I was okay. To say I was would be a lie. My shoulder was in absolute agony. I would not however tell them that. I walked over to Thalia, noticing the gash on her hip, and healed it ignoring the look I got from Luke.

I then walked quickly to catch up with Zoe at the front. When I caught up she said, "Why are you lying to us?" It was more of a curious question than an angry remark.

I looked at her, "I do not want any of you to watch out for me. It will only be a handy cap and fighting your father we will need all of the advantages that we can get."

"Fair enough Perseus. That was brave to fight Ladon on your own." She said.

I smirked, "It was the right decision. I am a child of Athena after all."

She nodded in agreement, "It was brave nevertheless."

We walked a little further until we got to the ruins of the titan palace.

"That is not good." I said slightly alarmed.

"Why what is wrong?" Luke asked.

"The palace is partially rebuilt, that means that the titans are regaining their former power."

"We will just have to be quick about defeating them then, won't we?" Phoebe said thinking practically. I chuckled at the comment.

We walked into the throne room carefully and slowly. I saw Artemis struggling under the weight of the sky. I tried to put my hand out to stop them but Phoebe and Zoe rushed over to help her. They underestimated the pull and now all three of them were trapped under it.

A man in a suit came in. He looked the epitome of the hardened general. "Ah, daughter, you have arrived. Bringing some demigod friends I believe. He thrust a figure forward and they sprawled on the floor in a heap. I looked at them carefully. It was Annabeth. The man looked at us. "A pathetic hunter, a daughter of Zeus, a son of Hermes and… who are you?" I smirked at him.

"I am someone who probably should not be here but decided to visit my aunt and sister."

"Ahh, a son of Athena, you will be of little consequence. Death spawn, attend me." Two kids who looked about twelve came over to him. Their eyes were glazed over. Thalia and Luke gasped.

"These are the two children of Hades that we rescued in the mission that Annabeth was captured." I looked at them. After thinking for a second or two I said,

"They are not in control. They are under a spell of some kind." Luke and Thalia nodded. "Try not to kill them if it is possible not to." They nodded again.

"So Atlas, now that you have had your walk-about why don't you just crawl under the sky like a good little titan and we can forget the whole affair."

He glared at me as Luke and Thalia smirked. "Death spawn, kill them."

The two children came forward drawing a sword and hunting knives, respectively. Luke went to fight Nico and Thalia Bianca. Just as they were about to reach them, they raised their hands and about a hundred undead soldiers crawled up and marched into formation.

As this was taking place I charged at one of the strongest titans. He drew his spear and summoned his shield waiting, probably predicting an easy fight. I drew my two swords. His expression changed slightly when I ran full speed catching him off guard. To explain this I have to tell you that I am a very fast runner. I guess years of running underwater does that.

I struck high and low at the same time. He managed to block one with his shield but the other sliced his ear. He looked at me reappraising me.

"You are not immortal are you?" he said curious while we were circling each other."

"I am indeed immortal."

"Ah, well that changes things a little, not much, but a little." He admitted.

He struck as fast as a cobra when he thought I was distracted. I was anything but distracted as he found out when I blocked his spear with one sword and chopped in half with another.

He smiled. "I finally got out from the sky and I get a nice opponent to fight. Artemis was an easy person to beat once you get her angry. You on the other hand know what you are doing." He summoned another spear into his hand. We fought back and forth through the throne room. The demigods had finished the fight that they were having and they were trying to help me. the problem that they were having was that they were not able to touch him as we were both moving so fast. I heard a noise behind me. I ducked under the fireball that would have hit me on the head.

'Great, now I have to fight an angry spell caster. Hecate could be an issue if I had to fight them both for this long. As the fight that we had raged across the space it occurred to me that I did not think that I had ever fought someone this good. Little did I know but a similar train of thought was running through Atlas' mind as well. I heard the sound of explosions coming from behind me and I knew that Thalia and Luke had engaged Hecate. I tried to reach Artemis' mind.

'Be ready' was all I said. I started to drive Atlas back to towards the sky. As I stuck hard at his chest he barely blocked it. My vision started to flicker. I knew that the poison was starting to take hold and I had to finish this quickly. I roared in pain as I raised both my swords and launched a monumental strike, which sent him flying backwards crashing into the hunters pushing them away. I turned and I saw Hecate standing over Luke. I sighed. I sent a wave of water to knock her off her feet. My last thought was, 'did I have to do everything myself.'