Chapter Title: I Duel A Greek Son Of Neptune
(A/N: In the wider scheme of things with this part of the story, this will be the last Colton POV chapter for a good long while until after the Battle of Camp Jupiter. So any remaining chapters in the quest for Jupiter's sword from this point forward up until Luke's two chapters further down will be in either Lavinia's or Michael's POV. Just a heads-up.)
I'll be honest here, I had never met Chrysaor before. Sure, I knew that he existed and was a son of Poseidon.. sorry, Neptune since I'm with the Romans currently, which made him both the brother of Pegasus and the half brother of my rival Percy Jackson, but up until now, I have never come face to face with him.
Suffice it to say, even I was a bit stunned when he first appeared from the crowd of dolphin warriors, though I quickly shrugged it off soon enough. Honestly, in my own best opinion, Chrysaor looked both like a knockoff Gorgon and also a Phantom Of The Opera knockoff at the same time, because that golden Gorgon mask on his face with curved tusks, horrible features, and curly golden snake hair made him look absolutely stupid more than anything else. Like, seriously, what was this guy trying to prove with a mask like that? Give me a fucking break.
He looked like he belonged in a museum, rather than in a city in California. Either way, I wasn't going to be one to tread lightly on this guy, that was for sure.
"Well.. well.." I said. "If it isn't Chrysaor.. you're a long way from the Mediterranean, buddy."
"Indeed I am.." Chrysaor said back, his voice filled with overconfidence like he was some sort of arrogant dictator or something. But to be fair, with a rich and velvety kind of a voice with an exotic Middle Eastern accent, perhaps that wasn't unreasonable to assume. "..but closer than ever to striking a great blow among the Olympian ranks."
"That wouldn't happen to involve me in some way, would you..?" I said back, having a gut feeling that it was definitely going to involve me.
"You betcha, my boy.." Chrysaor said. Gods, I thought to myself. Sometimes I fucking hate it when my own gut is correct.
"Nothing more would assure the mythological world of the victory of Gaea over the Olympians than the retrieval of Argonaut for her cause and the news that the Monster King is now her prisoner." The way he said all of that, you could tell that there was something dark about why he was trying to do that, as if the three adults and the male teenager cowering behind us at the moment with abuse written all over them wasn't fucking dark enough already.
Either way, there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen. "You're a twisted piece of shit, you know that..?" I simply shot back at him, and he clenched his fists. Good, I thought to myself. At least I struck a nerve there.
"Why you.." he said angrily, before he got a smirk on his face, which made me even more defensive and perceptive than I already was at the moment. Oh great, I thought to myself. What are you thinking of now, you pathetic son of Neptune?
"I must admit Colton.." Chrysaor said after taking a moment to gather his thoughts, at least that is what it seemed like to me in my own opinion. "You're as fiery as Gaea had warned you would be, so.. I am pleased. Pleased enough that I would like to offer you a choice."
I had a bad feeling about this. I honestly really did not want to know what pleased Chrysaor, nor did I have a feeling that I was going to like whatever kind of choices he put before me.
"You can either surrender yourself and your friends to my crew, or if you want to go free with our escaped.. hostages.." he said, and I hissed in anger. Who the fuck holds a teenager as a hostage..? I thought to myself, before I turned to look at the teen cowering behind me. In that brief moment I took a look at him, I could have sworn that I was hallucinating because I blinked and instead of me looking at the face of the cowering teen, I was looking at the face of.. Beckendorf.
I blinked again, and I was looking at the cowering teen's face again. He wasn't Beckendorf, but it did not matter. Because.. now I knew. Now I knew why he was being held as a hostage. He was a demigod - perhaps a child of Hephaestus himself, just like Leo, Beckendorf, and the others. With that thought came many more, thoughts that only served to fuel my rage and anger.
"..you can duel me. One on one.. the Monster King vs I, the great Chrysaor.." Chrysaor finished, and his crew simply looked him like he was insane. To be fair, even I for a moment thought he had lost his mind too. But either way, while it wasn't the best of choices, it was most likely the best I was going to get, and with everything on the line and my blood boiling now, there was no doubt as to which of the choices I was going to pick.
"Okay, Chrysaor.." I said coldly, handing the Whitworth over to Michael and taking out both of my swords. "..you want a fight, you're about to get one. Let's dance."
"He is beyond crazy.." I heard Lavinia mutter behind me, as I took a step forward. Chrysaor chuckled in laughter, which to my ears sounded.. awfully malicious in nature. But then again, since he was seemingly allied with Gaea, that was to be expected. He drew his sword, which to be fair - out of all the swords I was expecting him to be armed with, I was not expecting a Greek sword made out of fucking Imperial Gold. I heard Lavinia gasp behind me at the sight of the weapon.
"So you recognize the material I see, lady.." Chrysaor said, directing that towards Lavinia.
"She does.." I said before Lavinia could speak up. "It's called Imperial Gold. Why the hell do you, a Greek, even have that..?"
"First of all, it's Enchanted Gold, wiseguy.." Chrysaor shot back, and the more he talked, the more I was ready to disarm him and beat his ass into a pulp right now. Like, what the fuck was he saying by Enchanted Gold? What delusions was this guy even on right now?
"..but if you want to know why, I'll tell you.. for I was the first to use it.. before your Monster King ancestors got a hold of it.." Chrysaor explained, and I just jotted that information down in my head. Even so, I had not expected that, that was for sure. But neither did I let it throw me off my game either. I hopped forward, crossing the canal and made my way up the other side, getting to the top and standing before Chrysaor and his pirate crew, a fierce glare on my face and my fingers clenched around the handles of both of my swords.
My blood was boiling, that was for sure. I gritted my teeth and growled. "Oh.. miffed that those that inherited the Monster King before you weren't the first to use Enchanted Gold..?" Chrysaor mocked, before laughing. God, how I was rapidly hating the sound of that r*****'s voice right now.
"No.." I replied. "..I'm miffed because you are most likely other demigods hostage to help Gaea, now are you..?"
He took a step back, and I heard Lavinia gasp behind me. "Wait.. what..?" she croaked. I heard Michael growl too, letting me know that he had put two and two together too.
"You're also as smart as Gaea had warned too.." Chrysaor admitted after a while. "..I didn't think you would put two after two together. But yeah, I do have demigods hidden away, ones that either don't know their true heritage or hate the Gods with a passion. All to keep the numbers of demigods fighting for the Olympians down so Gaea can win." Just like those in the Titan Army, I thought to myself. "These four just so happened to be the ones we brought here."
"You are one very sick piece of shit.." Michael hissed. "..You HEAR ME?!" He was absolutely livid now.
"Hear you loud and clear.." Chrysaor said sarcastically, before he turned back from Michael to me. "..but don't think you can stop me from helping Gaea to get to her eventual victory."
"Nothing is ever set in stone, something you seem to forget.." I remarked, before sending the power of time granted to me by Kronos into my swords, and held them up in a fighting stance. "..so.. either you can stop being so fucking arrogant and fight me now or admit you're nothing but a fucking weakling who deserved the treatment you got in ancient times and give up."
Chrysaor did say nothing at first. He generally stood still, while his body simply twitched. "What did you.. just say..?" he muttered, without emotion at first.
I didn't move an inch. "You heard me.." I simply said back. Moments passed before he put two and two together, and then he growled, raising his sword. "Why you.. little rat.. YOU WILL PAY!" he roared, charging at me in anger, and so the fight finally began.
In case you are wondering where or when exactly I gained the ability to be able to use two swords at the same time in combat - or what they call "dual-wielding", let's just say.. the training the Heralds gave me and Kayla wasn't only just focused on magic spells, I'll just say that. Either way, I was grateful for all of that training right now given who I was facing. Like Tantalus, Chrysaor was also a skilled sword fighter. Unlike that fucking sack of shit however, Chrysaor hadn't been stuck in the underworld for thousands of years meaning his sword skills became rusty. So compared to Tantalus, Chrysaor was much more of a very skilled opponent - that I wasn't being ignorant of to be honest.
Either way, all bets were off as to what might happen now that this fight had finally gotten underway. We spun and swung at each other, blade meeting blade with sparks flying left and right into the fertile soil. Percy had spoken of how much of a good swordsman my father was, and as I fought Chrysaor, I could almost see what Percy had about Ares in him. Scratch that, they were basically one in the same, with a few differences.
Compared to my fight against Tantalus, the amount of times our swords clanged against each other was even more rapid and numerous than that, so much so it seemed to me every single second of the fight was punctuated by the sound of a clang made by our swords clashing more often than not. I swear, I can see why Sherman had told me he had covered his ears during my fight with Tantalus trying not to go insane from the number of times our swords had met during that fight.
But compared to Sherman, I had no such privilege. Either I won this fight, or Gaea would be one step closer to victory, so I fought on. Neither me nor Chrysaor seemed close to even giving in, even as the number of scratches and small cuts landed on each of us slowly grew.
Parry met thrust. Thrust turned into parry. Dodge turned into slice. Slice turned into thrust. Parry then turned into dodge. This was a cycle that kept repeating lots of times, as it soon became apparent from my perspective that the two of us were more evenly matched opponents than I had first sensed. Neither one of us seemed willing to talk during the fight at the moment, and to be fair, I didn't even blame Chrysaor for not wanting to at all. After all, given how committed both of us were to this fight, it seemed only logical that both of us wouldn't dare to try to give off a few quips at each other as we continued to dance in a lightning fast flurry of swordsmanship.
"Holy smokes.." Lavinia said nearby - I wasn't exactly sure of to which direction she was speaking from at this moment. "..they are moving so fast.. it's hard to keep track!"
"Come on, Colton.." Michael shouted in encouragement. "..make this arrogant bastard eat his own words!"
To be fair, I was honestly glad that I had sent the power of time as gifted to me by Kronos into my swords prior to this, as Chrysaor's moves were laid bare before me so that I could see what he was doing before he made them. Even so, he was moving at such a speed that he might as well have been moving like a normal human being in my vision instead of in slow motion.
With all that said, I realized as we continued to duel - whose knows how many minutes had passed by this point, since I had lost track of time due to the incessant clanging of swords - that with skill alone, he and I were deadlocked - at a stalemate essentially, which given the level of experience I had compared to his, seemed like impossible. But then again, as of now, I - more so than my rival Percy - was the one who made the impossible completely possible.
Either way, it was perfectly clear at this point. To win this duel, I had to think outside the box and gain an advantage. I knew what I had to do now, even while parrying multiple furious strikes by Chrysaor as he grew frustrated by his inability to end this.
At this point, I thought of some magic spells.
Ramped Vortex + Fusion Vortex + Mist World.
Ramped Vortex most likely needs no introduction by now, but Fusion Vortex.. boy was this one a real kick in the jaw. Most magic spells (like Ramped Vortex, Mist World, etc.) usually came in a line (or lineage) of spells, with those like Ramped Vortex being the basic - or ancestral founder - of the line, and most advanced and powerful spells being the generations of magic spells that came after it. As can probably be inferred from this, Fusion Vortex was a more advanced and powerful version of Ramped Vortex.. with not only some of the base effects of Ramped Vortex being increased in duration and scope, such as being now granted temporary strength and power boost of about 20 minutes at twice the level (40%) as opposed to ten minutes with 20% increased power and strength as well as the opponent now suffering a 55% percent loss in perception as opposed to 25%, but with also new buffs entirely - like a 25% percent increase of speed for about 10 minutes for the user that invokes the spell and a 25% decrease in both power, speed, strength, and ability for the opponent that would last for 15 minutes.
Combined with Mist World, which also needs no introduction, I had in effect completely nerfed Chrysaor, as he stopped in mid-swing as I backed away from him, as he like the Serpopard I had used Mist World on the day prior started looking left and right dazed and confused. "WHERE ARE YOU, COWARD?!" he roared. "SHOW YOURSELF AND FACE ME!"
His crew all looked at him like he had just lost his mind, but I knew full well what I had done. I smirked, and prepared to strike. It was time that I ended this. I propelled myself forward, charging right at Chrysaor after strafing around his left flank. It must have been an absolute shock on his end to see me emerge from the fog he was suffering at increased speed, and then suffer some sort of lag in perception.
That was all I needed. With one swing from below, I knocked his sword out of his hands, the weapon flying away from him and over to the other side of the canal, landing near Michael and Lavinia from what I noticed. With quickness, I placed one sword of mine near Chrysaor's throat, being careful enough not to damage his mask, and the other behind his back, and stood there, while I thought of another magic spell.
Clear Waters Chrysaor.
This spell, Clear Waters, was basically a cleansing spell that removes all magical effects on anyone mentioned in it, so it removed the effects Chrysaor had been suffering because of my earlier spells. Even so, while I had half expected for him to try something violent, he lowered his mask when I saw that I was standing next to him, took one look at the sword near his throat, and simply dropped by his knees to the ground, a loud depressed sigh accompanying it.
He clenched his fists, so you could tell he was trying hard to deny the obvious of what had just happened. But with the amount of shocked gasps and cries of disbelief coming from his own crew, as well as from those he had been holding captive plus from Michael and Lavinia on the other side of the canal - as well as the sight of his sword near them - it was rather hopeless in my opinion. Eventually, he muttered the obvious.
"I concede - you win."
Even so, you could tell by the tone of his voice he was not happy at all about it and already rather vengeful too. I probably would have killed him, and disbanded his pirate crew then and there, but I was in no such position to do so - not without my monster army, and for other obvious reasons. For that reason, I withdrew my swords from around him, just as the sound of a car turning onto the dirt road near where Michael and Lavinia were filled the air. I didn't even need to turn around to know that it was Charís who had obviously managed to find gas.
The vehicle stopped right near our location, and seconds later sure enough.. Charís' voice filled the air. "If you want to live.." he said, most likely talking to the four hostages that Chrysaor had been holding. "..get in the vehicle now."
That was my cue to skedaddle, since I had other matters to tend to. Matters that in the grand scheme of things, would be much more important to ensuring the future of those demigods brought out of Chrysaor's clutches when I properly dealt with him and his crew soon enough. "Well since I won this duel.." I said to him, as he still sat there on the ground. "..I guess I'll be leaving."
Chrysaor didn't say anything.. yet.
"Just so you don't go trying to take your revenge on me immediately, however.." I continued, trailing off as I thought of yet another magic spell as I held up my left hand, even with one of my swords still in it, and pointed it towards Chrysaor and his crew.
Arctic Jam.
As with Acacia earlier, the entire lower portions of Chrysaor and his entire crew were suddenly frozen in a large block of ice, preventing them from moving. Screams and cries of discomfort and pain rang from his crew, while their leader himself simply snarled at me. "You insolent punk.. release us from this AT ONCE!" he bellowed, like he was in any position right now to make demands.
I just snorted. "Sayonara, you filthy animals!" I shouted back in response, before I turned - sheathing both of my swords in the process - and ran, leaping back over the canal.
"HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Chrysaor shouted, but I didn't listen. With Michael, Lavinia, and the others already in the van, I simply grabbed Chrysaor's sword out of the ground where it had landed and took it with me, leaping into the van as I did so and getting in the shotgun seat. Due to the increased number of people, it was a little bit cramped in the back, but everyone still fit.
"Floor it.. and get us somewhere safe.." I told Charís even as Chrysaor continued to roar outside as I shut the door.
"I know just the place.." Charís said, as he hit the gas and sped away from the area, turning left down the road and heading back north towards Highway 58 - the road to Tehachapi. As he did so, I could hear Chrysaor's last words as I left him and his crew in the dust for now.
"Mark my words, Colton Reynolds.. YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME YET!"
Little did I realize at the time, that in less than two weeks, he and I would collide for a rematch in his home turf. But for now, I had no idea that it would even happen, and besides, I had much more important matters to tend to for now. Because, with Bakersfield behind us, it was time to get into the Tehachapi Mountains and determine where exactly Argonaut was. As I thought, however, I was suddenly shook back to reality by the gasps of Lavinia. "Colton!" she shouted. "Look above you!"
I took a look back at her, and then took a look at myself.
I was glowing blue.
So I looked up, and what greeted my eyes was one of the most ironic things I have ever been a part of in my entire life. Right above me in the car was a turquoise trident, the symbol of a very familiar sea god.
Putting two and two together, the implications were obvious. The lord of the sea, Neptune aka Poseidon, had just made me an honorary child of his, which in turn, now made an honorary sibling to my rival, Percy Jackson.
You have got to be fucking kidding me.