There was an odd sense of vertigo that encapsulated him. One that carried him and swayed him along eldritch waves of…something.
His mind was overcome in fatigue.
Still, the waves of energy seemed to push him forwards as if he were on a current of…water.
He reached out for it.
The torrential winds ignited as if his hand had been a spark and it the oil. It cascaded across his body in a wave of flame and lightning.
He screamed.
The pain struck him in a sudden and unmerciful fury.
It was too much to bear.
But his mind would not be driven to unconscious. No, every time his vision or mind would begin to shadow or be overwhelmed in its entirety by it, it would stop for but a moment. Enough for him to regain a semblance of awareness.
Only for it to begin anew.
It carried on for what seemed like eternity.
Before it halted almost as soon as it began, however odd that particular thought had sounded.
Splotches and scant visions began flash before his mind's eye.
While he could recall most of it with clarity, there were few fragments missing.
Whatever happened in the penultimate confrontation with Gaea had brought him here.
Was this the journey to the Underworld?
That cold thought filled his mind. There were not many things that spilled fear into him. Death was not among them. It was a long accepted by him that he would die sooner rather than later. But acceptance of that cold embrace was not without the instinct of survival. He would die only if all other options had been exhausted.
But the underbelly of the world. That hellish realm that ran deeper than even the dark caverns of the afterlife. That was one of them.
Another was the River Styx. The pain that the boundary of the Underworld brought with it was something of a memory and one that he was unfortunately unable to rid himself of, seared as it was into his subconscious. That torrent of energy had felt not so dissimilar to that. He couldn't tell if the River Styx was worse or whatever that eldritch energy was.
Of course there were others, horrid monsters and creatures in the Abyss that would creep into mind while he would sleep but that was par for the course. Only sometimes would he wake from night terrors that would feature those.
There was only one thing that usually saw him waking in a cold sweat, that would consistently give him night terrors and leave dark bags under his eyes.
And he took comfort in the fact that this was not that.
The Son of Poseidon awoke. He was sore all over and groaned as he attempted to sit up, rubbing the exhaustion from his eyes.
It was dark, and as far as he could tell he was underground.
Nowhere good for a child of the sea god. After the Labyrinth, Mt. Saint Helens, the Underworld, Tartarus and then the mountains of Greece, being underground had only heightened that fear of being compressed and squished into a confined space.
And he only knew he was underground because of the glowing green rocks that were scattered around him had illuminated enough that he was able to see that he was. Those rocks looked and felt wrong. The glowing green began to subside and it was only then did he notice that around the room, the large…thing that lay strewn across the rough stone, clawing away from the rocks as if it had been blasted away and then subsequently crushed by a large rock, presumably from the ceiling. It's head or rather what remained of it, splattered and flattened in a gory mess on the ground.
The thing, as far as he could see was furry, like a large rat… he was disorientated he hoped. Man-sized rats. The last time he faced man-sized animals underground, he had caused a volcano to erupt, blowing himself up in the process, destroyed his cousin's forge and weakened the prison of the Bane of Olympus enough for it to break free and start its slow march across the country.
A lot happened that day…
The cavern he was in was dimly lit and growing darker by the second. The hued and more than likely irradiated rocks were losing their glow and whatever this rat creature was it didn't appear to have any source of light with it, just a shoddy little rusted knife, that was chipped in several places attached to its thin waistcloth.
It was then that Percy noticed the smell.
And promptly puked whatever was left in his stomach.
By the gods, it was rancid. Sour…acidic…whatever this rat thing was it did not bathe. Percy brought up the collar of his shirt to mask some of his face, pulling it from underneath the golden breastplate he wore.
Or rather, it used to be gold. It was covered in a dark scorch mark and muddled by mud, grime, blood and ash and left little of the gleaming metal to be seen.
Wherever he was now, the final climactic clash on the fields of Greece wasn't a pretty or neat affair and he was adorned in all the signs of still being fresh from a dirty battle.
Besides, the smell of ash and blood was, while terrible, considerably better than whatever decayed rot that permeated the cavern.
That was besides the point. He needed to figure out where he was.
That and get out of this suffocating place.
He heard a spatter of chittering, as if claws are skittering across the stone. The noises were harsh and few guttural growls resounded.
The Son of Poseidon pulled himself up from the dimming green rock and fumbled for Riptide.
Only for him to grouse when he realized its ultimate fate. He didn't think much could survive the death of a Primordial. It seemed it was only a miracle he remained unscathed…relatively. He could've lost his life and instead only lost that weapon that had served him so faithfully all these years.
Despite that, Percy steeled his resolve. The green glow continued to abate, further darkening the cavern. Percy could barely see the dead rat man thing.
Yet that chittering and skittering grew louder and the Son of Poseidon made the decision that perhaps it wouldn't be a wise idea to try to talk his way into buying more time as he doubted that these rat creatures had any semblance of intelligence.
So he decided the next best thing was to fight for his life right from the onset.
He threw himself to the body of the dead rat man thing, fumbling for the rusted shiv, the cavern fell into darkness as the green glow of the rocks faded completely.
And the cacophony of chittering and skittering was loud enough that he felt it right next to him.
Luckily, he was the son of the Earthshaker. Claustrophobic, he may be but St. Helens' eruption was not a coincidence.
His seismic sense was considerably less reliable than his sight and other senses but he could sort of make out the movements of the rat things as they rushed him. Percy lunged forward, the rusted shiv poised to strike.
The first thing he found out about these rat things was that they were strong. Stronger than telekhines that was for sure. Still, he was thankful that his armor had survived Gaea's demise as the lead rat's rusted weapon glanced off the stronger metal of his abdomen and even snapped under the force.
Percy's attack was a lot more deadlier. His time with the Romans had taught him that the stabbing motion despite being less than glorified and flashy than swinging a sword, was more than lethal if not moreso. So Percy brought his forearm up, his vambrace glinting against the red glow of beady and bloodshot eyes where it wasn't dirty or scorched, pushing the head and paws of the creature upwards where sharp teeth and claw attempted to grapple him and stabbed into the midsection of the rat creature. Repeatedly. In the span of that millisecond, Percy had stabbed into that vanguard rat several times in the abdomen and upwards into the armpit of the creature.
These things weren't armored if at all. So the blows elicited shrieks and howls of pain before it fell limply to the floor as it died.
Percy felt something collide with him and throw him to the side. The makeshift shiv of the creature that leapt upon him also luckily broke against his armored torso but the rat man did not let up. It clawed and snapped at him. Only the glow of their eyes told, Percy where they were.
The demigod instinctively brought his vambrace arm up immediately, he could feel the claws of the rat rake across the exposed parts of his arm but he persisted. The maw of the creature clamped on the metal vambrace and Percy leveraged the iron bite it had on him and stabbed upwards, into the floor of its mouth and then repeatedly into its neck.
He could feel the flesh tear and give way to the shiv and felt the blood spatter and coat his arm as he continued stabbing. The rat on top of him screeched in pain and anger as it bit down even harder, breaking its teeth.
Percy may not be able to see well in this darkness but he could feel the rivulets of blood dripping on his face as it fell from the rat man.
Even as the rat died on him, two others still leapt upon him, one with a cudgel and another with a knife. He let his instincts take over, on the ground he couldn't maneuver. He needed to get up. He dragged his head across the stone and felt something impact and shatter where it was previously just moments before. It hurt but it was better than having his head cave in. He continued stabbing and the dying throes of the rat finally ceased but its lifeless body simply collapsed on top of him.
He felt something slash across his exposed arm and Percy hissed and yelped in pain. He felt himself hyperventilating. He couldn't see in the darkness and the rabid screeching and chittering was overwhelming.
Was he going to die?
No…he wasn't going to die to a bunch of rat men. Percy had faced Gods…Titans and Gigantes….and even a Primordial. This wasn't going to be how he ended, at the mercy of darkness and overgrown rats.
Percy screamed and roared his defiance.
Even as he did his best to both push the dead rat from him and blindly evade the two rats that were attempting to kill him, he couldn't see nor did he notice as the cavern trembled.
Pillars of dust cascaded downwards and a rock fell from the ceiling, exposing a dimly glowing and jagged green rock above. It fell beside him. Another rock fell this time crushing the initial rat that he had easily dispatched, leaving it little more than a spatter of red gore and tufts of desiccated fur underneath it.
Even with that green rock acting as a makeshift lamp, it didn't help his vision and only made the seen more erratic as it flickered and dimmed as dust and more rocks continued to fall.
Another rock fell and this time this one crushed one of the rat's attacking him as a startled, pained yelp was cut short by a heavy and crumbling thud.
The last rat seemed to be heedless of his partner's sudden death and continued to attack him, stabbing the body of his dead comrade more than him.
But it was all Percy needed, a forceful shove through the limp body into the air and into the ratman attacking him.
The rat pushed it aside carelessly and rushed him, knife at the ready and Percy could feel the trembling ground around him and his instinct bade him to move.
Which he did, as he dove and scampered into the wall of the cavern and into the darkness, moving just as another boulder fell just where he had been and crushed the last rat into red paste, not even allowing the victim a surprised or pained yelp as sudden as it was.
Percy hyperventilated and held himself against the cold stone as the cavern around him continued to tremble and rocks fell around him. That glowing green rock fell from the roof and than was encased by more rock and dirt, sending the cavern back into darkness.
The son of Poseidon didn't know when the earthquake stopped. His ragged and terrified breathing, the only thing that pierced the darkness where silence otherwise reigned.
Then he heard more chittering and screeching but at least it sounded distant and was more fearful and panicked than the blood-lust and battle-driven he had heard before.
He needed to get out of here. Anywhere but here.
He only hoped that his luck wouldn't run out and he didn't end up killing himself.
"Power resides only where men believe it resides. […] A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow."
-George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
So this has been in the work since the Total War Warhammer 3 was announced. The storyboard went under several revisions since I was simply unsatisfied with it, it went through several phases monster hunter a la Gotrek and Felix and the Ubersreik Five, and even a small Drukhari plan before it turned into this.
I love me some Skaven slaying so that's where we're going to start. No set update schedule for this story so updates will be sporadic!
On that note, (and as always), you can find me on the Emerald Library Discord! It's a fantastic place to interact with other writers and readers where we just chill and chat about ideas, future works and generally just have a good time!
The link to that is on my profile!
