Operation: Underground and Pound

"Well, isn't this lovely," Phorcys said, his wide smile growing more grotesque with each word.

"Spare me," I snapped. "I'll make this very simple. Free the nymphs, all of them, and I might just let you leave with your head still on your shoulders."

"All of them?!" He burst into laughter and rolled himself forward, leaving his throne. "Chaos above and below, everytime our tides collide, you try to put me out of business." He snarled in return, sidestepping away from me to the end of the dais. "Well, that won't be the case this time. Aeron!"

From behind a heavy iron door stepped a telkhine. Grey muzzled and his hands covered in various scars, he was clearly in his elder years. In said scarred hands was a length of chain, one which brought back unpleasant memories I wished remained buried.

"What did you do to her?" I snarled, turning Riptide's point to him. "If you laid so much as a finger on them—!"

"Silence that damned temper, boy!" Phorcys snapped. "We haven't done much to them… yet."

He snapped his fingers, to which a panel in the ceiling opened. The clanking of chains on sprockets rang throughout the room as a thrashing figure was lowered. Wrapped in a cocoon of barbed chain links, nothing but her face and feet were visible, but what could be seen made my blood boil over.

I faltered, if only briefly. If Phorcys really just considered the nymphs as expendable slaves, there's no telling how he could use them against me. Despite that, my infamous son-of-Poseidon temper got the better of me.

"Dammit, Phorcys! Free them now or I'll strangle you with your own entrails!"

The second she heard my voice, Palírroia locked her eyes on me and cried out. More than anything, I at least wanted to hear that she was okay, but a black cloth gag muffled anything she had to say. Plus… it didn't take much to see the droplets of blue blood trickling from the gouges the barbed chain links dug into her.

"Bah! If you're going to threaten me, you could at least be original about it." He hobbled to Keto and attempted brushing his hand over her cheek, to which she nearly bit his fingers off. "No one knows how to insult you quite like those you love most, eh? You should have heard some of the things my loving wife has threatened me with over the millennia." His horrid grin returned, this time with a level of malice.

Palírroia continued thrashing and trying to call out as she dangled from the ceiling, her chains rattling against one another with every move.

Phorcys growled and held out his hand. "Aeron! Here!"

The telkhine strode forward and handed the length of chain to the crablike god. Once Phorcys had hold of it, he strode over to one of the statues and raised his arm to strike.

Palírroia screamed into her gag, flailing wildly in her chains. If the rapid dripping noise was anything to go by, the barbs were hard at work carving into her as she thrashed. This was evidently not what Phorcys wanted.

"Quiet!"

CRASH!

With a single strike, he cleaved the petrified head and arm of a nymph from her shoulders.

Palírroia froze, all but going catatonic.

"That's better," Phorcys said, tossing the chain back to Aeron, who fastened it to his belt. "Maybe one day, you'll find out why these statues mean so much to her."

Grinning, he hobbled back to the throne and sat down comfortably, his wide open legs giving me far too much to see up his loose tunic.

"What do you want?" Calypso said.

He gritted his teeth. "What I want, sorceress, is for none of you to have gotten involved." His crab-claw of a finger pointed to me. "Had I known that you were Aphrodite's 'special client,' I wouldn't have even considered getting involved." With a resigned sigh, he settled back into his throne. "But it's too late for that now. Now, I have one of her little sluts to send a message, a sorceress the world forgot, a bird with a bit too much bite to its beak, and a so-called hero of Olympus who can't even protect his own little island."

For the first time since we appeared before Phorcys, Cinder squawked indignantly and flared his tail feathers. Drew and Calypso both bristled at their respective remarks.

As for myself, my rage finally boiled over into the trembling earth around us, shivering and shaking the chamber to its roots.

"Shut up!" My nails dug bleeding crescents into my palms. "Shut up or I'll bring this whole damn place crashing down!"

Phorcys snorted. "And risk killing your precious nymphs? I don't think so."

"Better they die quickly than live any longer under you!"

"Ha! You're finally growing a pair! Where was this when your harem was tearing itself apart?!" His yellowed grin stretched across his cheeks. "Even then, it matters not. The Labyrinth will take a fair bit more than a little earthquake to rattle it."

My snarl morphed into a maddened grin.

"Percy…" Calypso warned, clearly not liking the expression on my face.

Nonetheless, I raised my sword. "Then I guess I'll just have to tear you apart the old fashioned way."

I lunged towards him, Riptide thrusting forward in what should have been an easy hit. Unfortunately, in my blind rage, I'd forgotten about the telkhine.

A webbed and clawed hand matched my thrust, grasping my blade. Despite the celestial bronze cutting into his skin, he didn't dissolve into dust. It only bought Phorcys a second, but it was all he needed.

"Fool!" Phorcys cackled, skittering back to his throne. "You had a chance to keep your lives, but now they are all forfeit!"

The telkine, Aeron, lashed out at my face with his spare hand. His grip on Riptide was like iron, leaving me with only two options, let go of my sword or lose my face. I went with the former.

As his swipe passed mere inches from my head, an eight inch celestial bronze blade drove into his back.

"Gah!"

He pivoted and swung his hand back, nearly taking off Drew's jaw.

Calypso joined in, thrusting her open hand forward, releasing a gale of wind, knocking him back a few feet. Despite the current, he merely put on a wolfish grin.

"It's been centuries since I've been able to kill a sorcerer of your merit. Let's see if you last longer than the previous one."

With Aeron now distracted, I snatched up my dropped blade and returned my attention to Phorcys. The scuttling sea god had long since reached his throne, and as I rushed to him, he chugged the radiant orange contents of a potion, one I was almost certain I'd helped create.

Before I could even reach him, a blur of orange and red streaked down across Phorcys' face.

"Gah! What devilry!"

SQUAWK!

Cinder looped around and dove in for another strike, this time aiming for Phorcys' hand, which I realized had a second glowing bottle in it.

"No you don't!"

Phorcys swatted away Cinder. A mistake I can unfortunately speak from personal experience. The moment his free hand touched Cinder's body, he recoiled and hissed in pain.

"Damn you!"

What happened next, I could barely process.

With what I can only assume was a godly level of resilience and freakish anatomy, he stretched open his mouth and tossed his remaining potion down his throat, bottle and all.

In my mixed state of shock and disgust, I froze. I've seen plenty of messed up stuff in my life. Hades, I've seen a mountain range of horse shit piled higher than me stretch over the area of a tennis court. But watching a deformed man unhinge his jaw like a boa constrictor and swallow a glass bottle whole was a new one.

Cinder wasn't quite as phased as me and dove in for a third strike.

SQUA—

This time, it wasn't a hand that caught him, but a bright red crab claw.

Cinder writhed in the grip of Phorcys' claw, glowing brighter and brighter until the chitinous appendage steamed. Once more, the temperature seemed too great for the sea god, forcing him to let Cinder go.

Despite that, my attention was locked on the rest of Phorcys. For the briefest of moments, his back straightened only to ripple and swell with muscle, along with the rest of his torso.

I stumbled back, lost in horror as Phorcys transformed before me.

"Thank you for that potion, Jackson! It may not restore my youth, but even gods need help being restored to their prime every now and then!"

That answered far too many questions than I was comfortable with, and opened up many more. Despite that, I turned my attention away from his transforming legs and directed it to the others.

Calypso and Drew seemed to be locked in a stalemate with Aeron, both sides covered with slash marks. One of the telkhine's ears was missing, and his fur looked like he took a trip through a wind tunnel. Even with his wounds, he was grinning maniacally.

"Cinder! Help them!"

He squawked in protest, his purple head wreathed in flames.

"We'll need everyone to beat Phorcys! I'll keep him distracted. Help them!"

This time, he didn't argue with me. Instead, he dove into Aeron, his golden talons glowing with heat.

By the time my attention returned to Phorcys, he had apparently finished his transformation. Where once he had wide open legs sprouted a pair of massive crablike foreclaws, each capable of snapping the surrounding nymph statues like twigs. Behind him trailed a massive green fish tail. A new pair of proper muscular human arms shot out of his broad shoulders, replacing the now crablike appendages at his hips. Even where he looked most human, his body rippled in a horrid concoction of skin and chintious crab spikes.

Suddenly, I understood how things like the skolopendra could call him dad.

"Much better!" he exclaimed.

"What in Hades…?"

He grinned. "You have no idea how long I've waited to be restored to my prime. Downside of having the world forget about you, but they'll remember soon enough!"

Before I could reply, he held out his hand, in which appeared a torch. It was massive, roughly the size of a small tree trunk, with green flames licking the surrounding air.

"Oh, how I will enjoy this. Taskmasters!"

That was when all Hades broke loose.

A chorus of roars and howls filled the air. From two doors on opposite sides of the chamber flooded a veritable hoard of monsters. Telkhines, cyclopes, dracanae, even the odd empousa; the small army surged forth and surrounded us.

"Percy!" Calypso called, her now raspy voice tinged with fear.

She and Drew were already struggling with Aeron. With the new monsters, they didn't stand a chance.

Unless…

"Cinder," I shouted, jumping away from Phorcys' swinging torch, "circle around Calypso until she says otherwise! Keep them away from her! Drew, get behind that pillar!"

Though Drew took a moment to listen, she plunged her dagger into the eye of a dracanae and bolted for the side of the room. Cinder didn't share her hesitation. Like a small fiery tornado, he circled Calypso. Despite the innate resistance many of the monsters had against the heat, Cinder's talons more than made up for it, shredding the face of any monster who stepped too close. Even Aeron struggled with him this time around, losing two of his fingers in an attempted lunge.

"Calypso! You know what to do!"

Indeed, she did. Despite her heaving breaths, she calmed herself, cupped her hands at her waist, and whispered in ancient Greek. A few seconds is all I needed to buy her.

Phorcys wouldn't let me have them easily.

The monstrous sea god flung himself towards me, swinging his massive conical torch like an oversized sparkler. Learning from my efforts with the Calydonian boar, I dove right underneath him, giving that tree trunk of a weapon only one other target; his own forces.

Those fortunate enough to be standing behind me were vaporized instantly. The monsters around them weren't so lucky. Green flames splashed the horde, licking away at about two dozen monsters as they screamed and writhed in agony. Each only fell silent when their forms dissolved to dust.

Phorcys turned to me, but I already had him where I wanted him.

I dropped to the floor. "Now!"

THOOM!

The blast of Calypso's magic ripped through the air, scattering Cinder's flaming whirlwind in all directions. Those foolish enough to stay close to her were cooked to ashes and found their own weapons blasting back into their faces. From one cause or another, most died. For the few who were a bit further away, they were sent flying away from Calypso. Most landed in small heaps of twisted flailing limbs, one of which was located right under Palírroia's dangling form.

She, along with Cinder, hadn't been spared from Calypso's blast. Though Cinder recovered fairly quickly, poking his head up from the smoldering pile of a former empousa, Palírroia was stuck swinging back and forth like some masochistic piñata.

"Cinder," I called, standing back up, "cut Palírroia down from there! Drew, get her out of here!"

The resident daughter of Aphrodite poked her head from around her hiding pillar, her hair looking quite a bit more windblown than before. She threw me a slightly dazed expression, but nodded before stumbling towards Palírroia.

Cinder reached her long before Drew. Talons glowing at a bajillion degrees, he cut through the black chains like butter. Palírroia cried out as she fell, grunting as she landed on a dazed cyclops. The second she did, he groaned out in agony, his form dissolved away into shadows. The two dracanae beneath him met the same fate, screaming out as they dissolved.

"What the— oof!"

Of everyone relevant who got hit by the blast, Phorcys arguably took it the worst. That sonic blast of wind knocked his torch right out of his hand, sending the burning end right into his face. Blinded, screaming in agony-filled rage, Phorcys flailed about the chamber, doing far more damage to his own troops than us, at least until his massive claw clubbed me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of my lungs.

"There you are!" he cried with maddened glee.

He lunged, claws wide open. In my heaving state, I did the only thing I could do. I fell down.

Missing me completely, he flew over my head and crashed into a pillar, smashing it to rubble. Little did he realize that it happened to be the same pillar that Keto was shackled to. He and his wife flew up and about, tangled in a flurry of limbs, chain, and stone.

While both gods were groaning and trying to stand, I pulled myself to my feet and tried to steady my own breathing. Calypso stumbled toward me, ready to collapse at any moment.

"Too… much…" she gasped, falling into my embrace.

I turned to the back corner, where Drew was dragging Palírroia towards a back corner. Drenched in sweat, she groaned with every tug. As did Palírroia, but more likely from the spikes digging into her flesh. The odd monster tried following them, only to be cut down by Cinder.

All around us, the room fell into chaos. Most of the monsters were dead. Greek fire burned a swath of stone patchwork on the far half of the chamber. What few monsters remained stumbled around, disoriented. Whether from Calypso's burst of magic or Phorcys' rampage, I couldn't tell you.

Taking a full breath, I began shuffling Calypso and myself towards Palírroia, Cinder, and Drew.

The sound of ruffling stone stalled us.

From under a pile of rubble rose Aeron. He stumbled briefly. But despite his hideous injuries, including a missing arm and a broken muzzle, he locked his gaze on Calypso and I, and marched forward.

I growled. "Just die already."

As I motioned to lift my sword, I realized it wasn't on me. I cursed, realizing I must have dropped it when Phorcys sucker punched me. Of course, Aeron took my moment of confusion to start running.

Calypso lifted her arm, trying to use some spell, but she was in no condition to keep fighting. I can't say I was much better without a sword. Then again, celestial bronze didn't seem to have much effect on him.

When he reached us, he made a wide swipe, trying to cleave off both of our faces. I dropped Calypso, and backed away from his claw, but tried to keep his attention focused on me.

"You're a little outmatched, don't you think?"

Despite his broken muzzle, he let out a garbled growl. "After I'm done with you, I'm going to gut that blue bitch like I should have years ago. Orders be damned. She caused me too much— eh?"

In his rambling, he missed Calypso grabbing onto his leg and trying to trip him.

"Get off me, witch!"

While he was distracted, I lunged forward and took hold of the only weapon near us. The chain. The black chain which caused Palírroia so much pain still dangled on his waist. With a last burst of strength, I ripped that damned thing from its leather bindings and flung it around Aeron's throat.

"Wha— grgh!"

The chain wasn't very long, but I took what little slack I had and twisted it ever tighter around his neck. With me behind him, and him only having one arm, he tried and failed to shake me off. Calypso clung to both of his legs, pinning them together as she panted in exhaustion. And still, I twisted.

Tighter.

Ever tighter.

Aeron gurgled some last sounds, eyes bulging out of his deformed head, tongue swelling and bloody through his broken face.

But I wasn't satisfied. Tighter still did I twist that chain, even after it broke through his rubbery skin, blackening every ounce of flesh it touched.

Crack!

He stopped struggling. His arm fell for a moment, swinging like a pendulum on a clock. For only a second or so did it keep swinging before he dissolved into shadows.

Heaving, I glanced down at the chain, realizing something about it that I hadn't before.

Stygian iron. But then that means…

I glanced towards the back corner, where Cinder cut down a final dracanae. Drew was meticulously pulling at Palírroia's chains in an effort to unravel her deathly cocoon.

Cinder flew to us, skittering to a stop at my feet as I scooped Calypso off the ground.

"Come on," I whispered to her. "Let's get you somewhere safe."

We didn't get that chance.

"GAAAH!"

Keto's body flew by us, crashing and tumbling on the stones like a rag doll.

In our distraction with Aeron, we'd completely forgotten about Phorcys and his wife, who apparently weren't resolving their marital disputes with words. Phorcys was covered in a variety of stab and slash wounds, many of which I know I didn't give him.

Keto rolled herself off the ground, her teeth bared. She didn't look much better than Phorcys did. Her cheek was swollen. Her hair was singed. Oh, and she was completely naked. I have to admit, for the mother of all sea monsters, she had a deceptively attractive human body.

She growled. "I don't stand a chance against him without my powers. And I don't have enough time to regrow my foot to try and take this damned shackle off." She looked us over. The second she glanced at my chest, she zeroed in on Cinder with wide eyes. "Unless…"

Cinder tilted his head, chirping nervously as he backed away.

"Um, what are you…?"

"Son of Poseidon," she said. "I can buy you enough time to make the killing strike, but I need you to take her and get as far from here as you can."

Phorcys groaned in the distance, sniffing at the air blindly. Unfortunately, he must have picked up on what he was looking for because his mouth stretched into a sickening grin.

"There you are."

He shuffled forward, missing the tip of his claw, and his tail fin shredded to pieces.

"Go!" Keto said. "Now!"

Before I could begin to form a protest, she lunged forward and snatched Cinder up. He squawked in protest as she hugged him to her chest. For a split second, I could only stare as she rushed to Phorcys as Cinder tried clawing at her arms.

The monstrous god grimaced. "What's that noise…? No! Don't you dare!"

"Percy," Calypso said, breathless, "we need to go."

Her imploring gaze shook me from my stupor. I wrapped my arm around her back and threw her legs forward, catching her bridal style. Not a breath later, my feet slammed against the stone floor, mirroring the breakneck pulse in my chest.

"Get away, woman! Away from me!"

Just two more seconds. Please…

"Drew! Cover her!"

She looked up from Palírroia, only halfway done with unraveling her legs. "But she's not—"

"Just do it!"

She glanced behind me, eyes going wide. "Oh, no." Her hands went straight to Palírroia's legs and shoved her as far into the corner as she could manage. Palírroia whimpered in protest, her eyes locked on me.

The second I made it to them, I laid Calypso across Palírroia's legs and shoved Drew to the ground. Taking a breath, I covered all three of them as much as I could and risked a glance over my shoulder.

Keto was dancing away from Phorcys' claws, Cinder having successfully turned one arm into well cooked minced meat. Despite her injuries, she grimaced and hugged the phoenix tighter.

"This'll teach you to cheat on me!"

She lunged over a wild swing, opening her arms. Her body slammed into Phorcys' chest, sandwiching Cinder right between them.

"Close your eyes!" I shouted, turning my head to the three women beneath me and doing the same.

SQWA— WHOOSH!

Heat.

That's all I could describe it as. Unrelenting, unbridled, unbearable heat. Wave upon wave of flame roared and licked my skin. My back peeled and blistered. My arms roiled and screamed. It was all I could do to cover the three girls.

All three of them cried out as well, but in panic, not pain. They felt the heat, but my flesh served as their shield. I could only pray that it held out.

And like that, the roaring stopped.

I risked peeking an eye open. Though their hair and clothes were a bit singed at the ends, all three girls were relatively unscathed. The same could not be said for my back and arms.

Groaning, I pulled myself off of them. They coughed and blinked away the wavering heat in the air.

"Is everyone okay?"

"I think so," Drew said. "Could definitely do with some moisturizer though."

I rolled my eyes, which stung a bit more than I cared to admit.

Calypso was panting, her eyes heavily lidded and her cheeks pink. Palírroia didn't look much better, though her face took on a deep indigo hue beneath her gag.

"Are you sure? These two don't look too good."

"Um… Hon… If you looked down, I think you'd understand why."

At that moment, I realized there was a bit of a draft between my legs. Risking a downward glance, I took notice of how my pants and boxers had been completely reduced to ashes.

Suddenly, two panting half nymphs made sense, though Drew didn't seem too far behind them, given her hungry stare.

"Not now, girls."

I pulled myself up and rolled my neck, groaning as my back cried out in pain. As I turned to face the gods, Calypso let out a gasp.

"Percy, your—"

"I know," I said. "Trust me, I know."

Despite the pain, I shuffled forward. With each and every step, my body begged for me to stop. Every footfall made my legs scream. Every breath burned my lungs. But there was work to be done.

Cinder had apparently melted the stone in his immediate area. Where two gods once battled, only a fiery crater remained. It was about twenty feet across, filled with flames and rolling molten stone. At the center, a pile of ash, no larger than a tree stump, sat.

A groan pulled my attention to one end of the crater.

Phorcys was still alive.

Barely. He was a charred husk of his former self. His body was half melted. His claws were missing. Despite that, he was still breathing.

Keto laid on the opposite side of the crate, not looking any better. She crawled forward, pulling herself out of the fiery pit.

I glanced around, trying to find Riptide. All of the nearest weapons steamed and hissed, most of them far too warped to be of any use. But off in the distance, at the foot of the dais, Riptide shimmered in the light of the flames.

And so, with an iron resolve, I shuffled forward. With every step I took, I could only dream of how refreshing a nice cold glass of water would be. But despite my stinging back, and desire to be literally anywhere else, I made my way to Riptide and picked it up.

I turned to the crater. Keto had successfully pulled herself out and collapsed on a soft pile of rubble. Phorcys didn't have such luck. His body was still half stuck in the molten rock, frying his fish tail like it was the next item for someone's dinner. Without his claws, the best he could manage was to scrape blindly at the cobbled floor.

It honestly didn't take me too long to march up to him, but it felt like it. By the time I managed to reach him, tears were streaming down the sides of my face. Whether from the pain of my back or the near visible waves of heat in the air, I couldn't tell you.

Phorcys lifted his half melted face to meet my gaze, and coughed.

"You've stopped nothing, boy. I'll be back."

I raised Riptide and plunged its tip through his skull, burying it somewhere in his chest. He let out a final gurgle and dissolved into a steaming pile of kelp and fish guts.

"And I'll be waiting."

I turned to the others. Calypso was resting against the wall, her breaths labored. Drew was almost finished unwrapping Palírroia, apparently only then removing the gag from her mouth.

I gave a tired half smile to the group of them before swaying, the pain in my back finally catching up with me.

"Master!"

But her voice was far away.

All I could muster was a pained groan as the world faded to black.

A/N: After over two years of writing, it's finally been done! The climactic battle is finished! Praise the gods!

Despite that little fact though, this story is still nowhere near complete. Those of you on the server know just a bit of what's around the corner. Much of the overarching tension and mystery will fade away, but don't worry yourself. There'll be no shortage of conflict when you have a group as wonderfully dysfunctional as our current cast. Besides, Percy still has a rescue mission to finish!

Well, it seems like this is where I take my leave. Donate a cookie to Percy. He needs it after such a hard day, and it's only getting started. If you can't offer a cookie, he'll accept a review instead. You know where to put them. This is Ronin signing off.