All rights belong to Rick Riordan

Chapter 4

Clash of the Titans

(Percy)

"Come now Perseus, we both know that is not my real name. Lord Hades told me of my real identity and past." The armoured titan deadpanned.

"Yeah, but Bob is so much easier to say than Iapetus isn't it." I quipped back at the scowling figure.

"And what is up with calling me Lord Perseus, you're the Titan I am just a demigod." I asked remembering his introduction just as Annabeth finally caught up with me. Gods she needed to work out more, it was only a half mile sprint after all, not that I was going to tell her that. After all she knew my weak point.

"So, Percy who is this? You didn't tell me before you ran off and punched the bull in the nose." She asked panting before straightening up and studying the heavily armoured figure next to me.

"Iapetus meet Annabeth, Annabeth meet Iapetus, Titan of the Underworld and Lord of the West or as I prefer to call him Bob" I joked smiling as she looked shocked at first and then confused at why I was calling him Bob. However, I didn't feel like we had time to explain as I felt a presence approaching from between the enemy horde.

As we looked down the channel in the enemy ranks, we could see a harsh light approaching silhouetted by two armoured figures the size of Iapetus. As the figures approached, I recognized them: one I had directly fought before and the other I had dreamt about back during the Titan War.

"My brothers approach." Iapetus stated grimly looking as the two finally cleared the monsters' front ranks and we found ourselves facing off against them. The first was Hyperion, Titan Lord of Light and Lord of the East, his body was once again as if he were a living flame except for his bronze armour and weapon, personally if I could control fire that spear would have been wreathed in flames, but I was not about to give him any more ideas. Down here in the pit there was no way I would be able to summon a Hurricane again to help me beat him.

The other figure was clad in black armour that seemed to be encrusted with distant stars and seemed to have a ram's horns that could only be Krios, Lord of the South and Titan of Constellations, last I heard Jason had defeated him in the Romans invasion of Mount Orthrys not that I knew how he had defeated him then. We probably should have exchanged stories more after we had our memories returned, however there simply had been no time back on the Argo II.

"Well, well, well if it isn't our traitor brother and the 'Heroes of Olympus' really Iapetus, mother is disappointed with you for allying with those foolish gods. You could still join us, Gaia shall forgive you if you help us capture these two and help her rise again, then we and Giants shall rule the world again." Krios declared towards his younger sibling. For a second, I was worried that he would agree with his brother and turn against us as well. However, after a few seconds he took a deep breath and shook his head.

"I see that you are still as naïve now as we were in the past when we would listen to Kronos and follow his orders without question. Gaia does not want to rule the world, she wants to destroy everything up there. To wipe the slate clean of everything we have accomplished over the millennia, there would be nothing worth ruling you fool, just an endless forest covering the globe, populated by unintelligent life forms. You don't strike me as one in tune with nature Krios unless those horns are not just for show." Iapetus snapped back at the Titan who looked indignant in response.

"Fool you have sealed your fate; you will fade along with those foolish gods when mother destroys Olympus. At least I now see that Atlas got his stupidity from you, only a fool would willingly serve on the losing side of a war." Hyperion replied outraged before levelling his spear point at his brother's chest causing us to point our own weapons back at them. I decided to stick with Riptide, I felt more comfortable with the bronze blade as Maelstrom still felt large and unruly compared to the smaller sword. I had not had any practice with it yet and it would likely be one hades of a surprise to my opponent if I did decide to use it. Annabeth drew her knives in each hand and held them in a standard reverse grip or ice pick stance.

"Perseus, you and Annabeth deal with Krios. I will keep Hyperion busy in the meantime. However, I may require you help as I am still somewhat wounded for the time being." I looked at him and remembered his fighting against an entire army before we arrived and nodded in affirmation before looking back at the ram horned Titan in front of us. After watching him take a step forward I charged towards him as the other two followed my lead.

As soon as the fight started, Annabeth had put on her magical Yankees hat and turned invisible. Her sudden disappearance confusing the titan before he shrugged and focused on the more immediate threat, me.

As soon as I got within range, he lunged with his spear which I deftly sidestepped causing it to great a great rend in the floor, however this gave me a chance to launch an attack of my own at the generally weaker armour on his left hip. However as soon as Riptide made contact with the black metal it bounced off without so much as scratch, confusing me momentarily and costing me momentum. This allowed Krios to take a swing at me with the shaft of his spear, striking me like it was an enormous baseball bat, the blow throwing me backwards into a boulder. The force of the blow may not have done any damage to me physically, but it was still enough to knock the wind out of me. The Titan appeared to find this highly amusing beginning to laugh as he began stalking back towards me talking.

"So, this is the great Percy Jackson? I must say I am greatly disappointed in you; I had heard so many stories of your exploits and yet you are weaker than that Jason kid. I see that you are confused about my armour. It is made from Adamantium, a metal only found on the Lost Island of Atlantis before it was destroyed in the first war. No normal blade of Olympus can so much as scratch it, so you never stood a chance against me." He said as he raised his spear to try and impale me, curse or not that blow would still hurt from the sheer power behind it if he hit me. Leaving me incapacitated and an easy target, he would find my weak point eventually in that case.

Just as the spear began to descend towards me, he suddenly tilted to the left as Annabeth drove her blades into the back of his knee where there was no armour covering him. Golden ichor flowed from the wound but there was little chance the wound was critical. Outraged at the wound he roared into the air before swatting behind him in a circle possibly he hoped of hitting her but received no such luck. I thanked the gods for my luck and promised to thank Annabeth when we done.

However, I noticed the Titan once again rising to his feet once again giving up on finding the daughter of Athena, who was again hiding in the shadows ready to strike. I could not help but notice Riptide several meters away, however the blade was wedged firmly underneath his foot and he clearly knew it as I sinisterly smirked back at me empty-handed. Leaving me with no choice but to try Maelstrom.

As soon as I drew the sword it felt natural in my hands like riptide had all those years ago, being a hand and half sword, it was designed to be used in either two handed or one handed with a shield. Lacking the latter, I decided to grasp it in both hands for the extra power the stance would provide. If I ever got through this crisis would need to ask Tyson to make me a new shield. As I levelled the blade towards the Titan Lord, he seemingly paused for a few seconds and looked down at the blade with uncertainty. As if in great thought, perhaps he recognized it for what it had been before, I was unsure if he had ever seen backbiter in its sword form when Luke/Kronos had wielded it.

Secretly I hoped it was the case, as something he had said came back to me. When he said no blade of Olympus could pierce his Armour 'what about a blade of Titan origin?' That was my hopeful feeling. As we stared at each other Annabeth had tried again to strike him from behind, but the titan had been ready for her as soon as the blades contacted the flesh of his ankle. He unleashed a blast of intense force, blowing her off her feet and propelling the now visible girl back amongst the monster horde behind.

As I saw this, I began to panic for a second before turning that feeling to anger and focusing it towards Krios. Unbeknownst to me my eyes took on a full golden colour as I charged towards him. It seemed to me like the Titan seemed to be slower than before, as this time I easily avoided his flurry of stabs with the spear. Sensing an opportunity when he overextended a lunge, piercing the ground in front of me and getting it momentarily stuck. I placed a foot on the thick shaft and then began running along the length of the spear towards his face and taking a swing. I felt momentary negligible resistance before I too was blown back by another wall of force. Landing on my hands and knees I listened to Krios emit a titanic cry of pain. Looking back at him I noticed he was now lacking his horns, a deep cut had slice through them as well as the Adamantine on his helmet. Ichor was clearly visible flowing from the shallow cut on his forehead that had got through. Tearing the useless helmet off, and wiping the golden fluid from his face, he focused back on me with utter hatred in his eyes.

"How did you manage to do that? You were never that fast and your blade could not possibly cut my Armour. This is impossible, TELL ME!" He bellowed with pained rage.

I felt almost sorry for the fool, he had just gone from arrogant to fearful in the space of 30 seconds.

"Easy, Perseus Titan of Time at your service and your time is now up" I replied cheekily, before charging him once again.

This time I wasted little time as I repeatedly slashed at the Titan. He was forced on the defensive from the start. However, it was of little use, each minor cut and stab wound that got through seemed to weaken the Titan far more than it should have. Making the follow up attack even easier, any weak counterattack he made simply bounced of me any increasingly weaker concussive blasts simply pushed me back for a few seconds.

This reminded me of that one time I had been a victim of the blade in my hands, back on the Princess Andromeda. Where it had felt like the blade was severing my soul from my body, that had only been a scratch. After several minutes of this onslaught the Titan fell to his knees. By this point the Titans armour was little more than black metal scrap lying around the immediate area of our battle. His body was not much better, his lower body from the chest down was a complete mess. Golden ichor flowing out of dozens of wounds creating a pool of the gold liquid around the struggling figure.

"I see that Iapetus was not the only one who betrayed us. However, I never would have thought Kronos would have sided with his slayer. You are much greater than that foolish son of Jupiter. He had an army supporting him and could summon lightning when he narrowly defeated me. You had nothing but a sword and your now dead friend, I should think that the monsters will have torn her to pieces by now." Krios said with a sinister laugh however the sounds of combat belied that someone was still fighting nearby. The two other Titan Lords clashing was unmistakeably different as the sounds of their combat echoed loudly across the area. I suspected he wanted me to turn to try one last desperate attack, instead I simply watched as he realised, I would not take the bait.

"However, no matter how strong you may think you are, you may have even defeated me. Mother will crush you and all the foolish Olympians even if you were to escape Tartarus she will crush and cast you back down. By the end of that day you will know true despair" He cursed spitefully before he began to rapidly crumble into golden dust. Leaving nothing but scraps of his armour amongst the Ichor-stained rocks. Before long, the wrecked armour pieces around me however began to glow and move towards one another. Finally coalescing into a single Adamantine shield on the ground.

I did not even think twice before I decided to take it for spoils. Because although I did not necessarily need one due to bearing the Curse of Achilles. I was sure I could find a use for a semi-indestructible shield.

The shield itself was a Kite shield bearing the image of the stars on its surface. The glowing points on its surface framed against the Adamantium acting as the nights sky.

As I retrieved the shield and Riptide which strangely had not returned to me, this was probably an effect of Tartarus. If that was the case, I needed to be more careful, magic seemed to be unstable down here.

Looking around for my companions, I was easily able to see Iapetus and Hyperion were still locked in deadly combat, with both now sporting large wounds from the others spear but seemingly deadlocked for the time being.

So instead, I searched for any sign of Annabeth in the direction in which she been thrown by Krios. However, all I could find was her Yankees hat and a large mass of golden dust surrounding it. It was at this point that I finally noticed the obvious there was a distinct lack of monsters. Where there had been an army before was nothing but a collection of trophies, magical body parts and discarded weaponry. I continued to follow the trail of golden dust until I saw her.

To a monster she looked like something they would see in their nightmares. She was completely coated in the golden dust, squaring up towards the last monster who seemed to be desperately trying to escape. Geryon seemed to be terrified of the golden blond figure who was slowly walking towards him like an avenging Valkyrie.

(Annabeth)

I had thought to keep attacking Krios whenever he focused on Percy, but he seemed to have learned from my first successful attack, when I had saved Seaweed Brain. As I had started to thrust into his other ankle this time, he released a wall of force like I had seen Kronos and Hyperion do during the war. Thankfully, I was unhurt but unfortunately for me, I had also landed in the middle of the Giants army.

Looking around me at dozens of blood thirsty monsters. I had secretly thought there was no way I could escape this. So instead, I thought to take down as many as I could before they overwhelmed me in an effort to buy Percy a chance afterwards. It was a depressing thought about how it would end but it was logical pragmatic one. Fighting the Titan alone there was little chance Percy would be able to rescue me even if he managed to win on his own.

So, when the monsters had charged my body when on autopilot, my ADHD and reflexes guiding my blades in the most efficient manner possible. I lost sense of everything but my knives and my targets when one was dealt with, I moved on to the next. I would occasionally feel the force of a blow to my arms or legs, but nothing hurt so I carried on, I decapitated Empousai, gutted Hellhounds. Even the legendary Minotaur had turned fearful as I approached before hefting his axe in both hands and swinging at my torso. I sidestepped quickly enough but too late to realize it had been a feint as instead he changed the blow to strike at my head. Fortunately, instead of splitting my head open like a melon, the blow had instead knocked me to the ground five meters away.

As I slowly picked myself up, I could feel a ringing in my ears but that was it, just the sensation from the concussive force of the blow. However, the remaining monsters upon seeing me rise, went from celebrating to looks of abject fear. I had taken what should have been a lethal blow with nothing but pissed off look on my face. Looking about I began to make out how many of them were left and realized I had travelled several hundred meters from where we had begun and there was only a dozen or so left. Behind me was a sea of carnage, whilst in front of me remained the Minotaur who if his eyes were any indicator looked terrified, a few rag tag remaining Empousai, Dracanae and Hellhounds as well as the three torso Rancher Geryon. The last of whom seemed desperate to escape hiding behind the others and was backing away slowly.

Perhaps out of desperation the remaining monsters charged. I stepped between two diving Hellhounds, holding Chasing Wisdom on both sides, slicing the flanks of both, they were dust before they hit the floor. Next was a quartet of Empousai with a pair of Dracanae archers supporting, the Empousai attacked with their knives to which I riposted and cut the throats of two before using both blades to slash the next from shoulder to hip in two long parallel cuts that caused the creature to scream as she crumbled.

This caused the two Dracanae to panic and fire desperately without aiming I sidestepped one which then accidentally hit the last Empousai in the face. Using the flat of my knives I blocked the other. Pushing forward I threw the knives at the pair before they could fire again hitting them both in the gut causing them to scream. Continuing to run I arrived at the pair of collapsing dust figures just in time to rip my blades clear of them. Finally looking up at the Minotaur and the retreating figure of Geryon who waddled strangely due to his unique frame.

"Ok then ground beef, time for Round two."' I declared arrogantly, my own survival in the face of the odds making me perhaps overly confident. Perhaps Percy felt similarly during the Battle of New York?

The Minotaur snorted before charging me head down and horns forward, his arms stretched out to the sides. Clearly, he had the hope of goring me or catching me if I tried to evade however I knew how to avoid this.

Instead, I ran towards the charging figure before sliding under his legs baseball style. Taking a leaf out of his book my own hands flashed outwards cutting the tendons in his ankles. Quickly rising to my feet, I grabbed the haft of the axe strapped to his back and gave it a yank. The force of me doing so before the strap gave way throwing him off balance, The Minotaur fell onto his side before rolling onto his back whilst I was now left hefting an enormous omega shaped blade.

The bull-headed monster in front of me looked terrified as I decided to end him with his own weapon. Holding the large blade across the line where his neck was, I lifted it as high as I easily could.

"This is how you use an axe idiot" I said with a feral grin as I dropped the axe, watching with satisfaction as it cut straight through the monster's thick neck flesh only feeling resistance as it severed its spine. For a few seconds I looked at the truncated body thrash and twitch before its death seemed to finally register and it began to dissolve.

Tossing the axe aside I then sprinted after the distant figure that turned towards me fearfully knowing he was the last one left.

"Please don't kill me, I had no choice, honestly" Geryon begged pathetically as I closed to within a few meters.

"Like you had no choice to sell Nico to the Titans? No, you saw an opportunity for profit, and you took it but now that it is going wrong you want out. Well guess what you are not getting a second chance to betray us again". I told him firmly as I stalked the last few meters between us.

He remained looking terrified before suddenly drawing two blades in either arm from behind him. However, I had already realized that because he only had an arm on his outside torsos, this meant he had a massive blind spot in front of the central body which I was quick to capitalize on. Leaping forward I darted between both of his blades as they futilely swung inwards, before thrusting one mixed metal blade into each of his hearts on the side two torsos.

"Ha looks like you forgot you have to strike all three fool!" Geryon laughed brazenly despite the pair of blades impaled within him. However, his expression soon turned to panic when he saw the look on my face as I grew a smile as I drew my old celestial bronze blade. That had been strapped to the inside of my forearm before I thrust it into his central body, however rather than collapse into dust like I was expecting his essence seemed to be drawn into the Stygian Iron of the outside blades and absorbed into the black metal part of the pair.

Moving quickly, I retrieved my blades before they could fall and watched as all sign of the monster were absorbed by the blades. I knew that was the last we had seen of him for a while.

I turned to find Percy looking at me fearfully and I realized that I was coated in golden dust and had just slaughtered an entire army, I saw that he was holding Maelstrom in his right hand and a strange new shield in his left that seemed to shine like the stars.

"I thought you had died." He declared tearfully as he ran towards me dropping the shield. Using the now free left arm to grab me in a hug before kissing me after a few intimate seconds we separated, and he helped in wiping the dust from my hair and face.

"You know what I think I have to agree the curse of Achilles is pretty awesome. There is no way in hades I could have survived without it… What happened to the Titans?' I asked feeling relieved he was now back with me.

"Krios is dead, and last I saw Iapetus and Hyperion were still going at it but neither seemed to be winning." He answered nonchalantly, not drawing attention to the fact he had basically just slaughtered a Titan with very minimal help.

"Well then let us go help him, so we can get the hades out of here. After all he's the only one who knows the way." I replied running towards the distant sound of heavy conflict with him following after quickly picking the shield back up and throwing it onto his back.

(Percy)

After I had reached Annabeth, I was so happy to see she was alive, especially after Krios words. It was obvious he apparently had never expected her to survive his army, let alone slaughter it to the last monster. The look she had upon her face when she killed Geryon had truly made me glad she was on our side. However it also showed a side of wild almost divine beauty as her blond hair was matched by the sprinkling of gold covering her body. I as a mortal had logically never seen an immortal's divine form, but I think I had just seen the closest a mortal could come to that sight.

As we ran back towards the duelling Titans, I could make out one of the figures fall onto their back whilst the other roared with victory and closed in on them. I knew the figure on the ground was Iapetus due to the harsh light ejected from Hyperion's skin which caused me to panic and speed up.

As I ran, I easily overtook Annabeth who barely seemed to be moving as I ran past her as I continued to focus on the approaching Titans. Hyperion was slowly advancing spear held beside his head ready for a final thrust. With one final burst of speed, I launched myself into a shoulder tackle against his waist that knocked us both to the floor and time seemed to return to normal.

We both quickly rose to our feet and I saw that he was heavily wounded. He was now wielding his spear in his left hand now as his right shoulder had the point of Iapetus's spear embedded deep within the sinew making it useless. As well as this numerous other cuts and gouges littering the rest of his body and armour. He had lost his helm in the tussle and I was instead looking at a face seemingly composed entirely of fire. However only one of the eyes that shone with hate was now open the other closed courtesy of a right hook from the other Titan behind me.

"So, my foolish brother was defeated, and our army destroyed? You think you have won but our forces will see you again and we will destroy everything you hold dear. You may think you can use Kronos's power, but your inexperience will see us to victory in the long run, we shall have the last laugh foolish pretender." Hyperion mocked and I realised that I was starting to get really annoyed about all these monologues.

"You will never touch anything I hold dear again Hyperion. Did you forget I already defeated you last year and I shall do so again now if you force me. Your mother has already lost many of her sons I intend to finish the rest of you Titans and your Giant brothers if you stand in my way. Besides, I preferred you when you were still a tree, at least then you provided some shade and were actually useful, now you can't even defeat a weakened Titan on your own."

Hyperion continued to look murderous as I drew the shield of Krios and Maelstrom recognition striking him as he observed both the items of belonging to his siblings.

"So what you may bear the tools of the children of Gaia but only a Titan can use them to their full potential, now let me see what you can do pretender." He exclaimed as he charged towards me spear point forward ready to impale me, I decided to do the same thing as I had to Krios and held my ground before darting back at the last moment before the blade struck the floor. Once he had done so I charged forward again and running up the shaft of the spear again.

He struggled to keep an eye on me I ran towards him due to his blinded eye, next thing he knew I had run up his arm and shoulder and bashed the side of his head in with my new shield knocking him onto his back and with me landing on his chest sword point aimed at his heart. I had no idea how the blow had managed to knock him down so easy but I was not complaining with the result.

"Who is the fool now idiot, I am a Titan!" I exclaimed as I drove the point of the sword through Titan's chest and watched as the flames slowly dulled and faded revealing a blackened husk of a body that collapsed beneath me, golden dust quickly blowing away in a slight breeze. Leaving nothing but a spear still embedded in the ground. I looked back towards Iapetus who was sitting up looking at what had happened.

I was thankful to see that he had not been hurt severely but was just weary from all the fighting and caught unaware by one of Hyperion's counterattacks. As I walked back, I saw Annabeth approaching the fallen Titan and offering him some nectar and ambrosia to which I was glad as we were unlikely to now need to heal wounds. The meagre amount we had would not have helped for food much in Tartarus to which I was thankful.

As I passed the fallen spear it began to glow with a golden light so harsh, I was forced to avert my eyes. When the glow faded in its place was a 3m Imperial Gold hunting spear glowing from the small flames that around along the shaft, Iapetus and Annabeth appeared alongside me looking at the weapon.

'Take it Perseus, like Krios's Armour it has chosen a new master. Perhaps the time of the Titans truly is ending? We must either stand alongside you and the gods or be lost to time." He chuckled at the unwitting pun in that last statement.

As I grasped the handle of the Spear, I expected it to burn my hands but strangely it felt cool to the touch and comfortable. It was just the right length to be used as a throwing weapon or could still be used in one hand alongside my new shield. And I began to realize I was beginning to develop my own small arsenal yet had nowhere to store everything, I would soon be forced to drop stuff every time I got into combat.

"If you are thinking of what you are going to do with it, concentrate on making it something else, like your other swords pen form and it will change to your demand." Iapetus said as if reading my mind.

Following his instruction, I decided to give it a go and focused on making it a collapsible baton like those used by some police. When I opened my eyes, I was holding a golden cylinder about 20cm in length with flame patterns engraved in it. I experimentally swung the baton to make it extent and next thing I knew I was holding a full-length spear again, I concentrated on the spear again and it shrunk again, and I tucked the baton into my jeans.

"So can I do this with all my weapons then?" I asked the Titan.

"Yes, they are now symbols of your power and will act similarly to the other gods items. As such can be manipulated by their master and will always return to you like Riptide." He explained leaving me confused at how I was able to have symbols of power. I was only a partly immortal Demigod/Titan but decided to save that question for later.

I took out Maelstrom and focused on turning it into a watch as it seemed appropriate, the new watch on my right wrist was steel like the blade had been but the buttons and dials were Celestial Bronze, and the hands were gold. however, what caught my attention was the face of the watch itself it was made of gold and silver caught in a whirlpool like motion and interweaving however they were moving constantly, giving the illusion you were not so much reading the time as staring into the heart of a real maelstrom.

I decided to leave the shield slung over my back as it provided protection to my weak spot and did not impair my movement like Maelstrom had done. It provided total protection from my shoulder blades down to my butt completely covering my lower back against any lucky strikes that would hit that area.

"We need to hurry if we are to be any help to your friends. They will reach the doors tomorrow if the information I received from Thanatos was correct when he helped me enter the pit to look for you two. The young son of Lord Hades should be entering the House of Hades tonight with the others, we must be ready to meet them when they arrive. They will not last long against most of the combined forces of Gaia." Iapetus explained which answered my questions of what he was doing here in the first place. Turns out rescuing the Grim Reaper does make him want to help you in return.

"Well then what are we waiting for?" I responded as we began to follow the Titan further around the great walls of the Pit.