[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

Chapter 41: Ignition Part 2

"Percy..." Hestia said, voice a whisper only slightly above mine. As I dragged my eyes away from the sight of the Goliath, now so far below, I took two slow breaths and tried to regain myself.

"Hestia," I said, backing away from the edge of the cliff before the Goliath got any ideas and setting her down gently. "Thank you. With this, I might be able to stop that thing."

I honestly had no idea if that was true or not, though I was somewhat more confident now than I'd been a minute ago. But...whether it was true or not didn't matter, because Hestia was looking up at me with wide, amazed eyes, like she believed it and I decided to hope it was right.

"Your Status...it's..."

Her words made me reach over my shoulder instinctively, touching my back as if that would somehow let me see what was written on it. I had no idea how much my Status had just improved, though given the sudden and ridiculous increase, I assumed it had been rather large. It didn't seem like Hestia had brought any paper to transcribe it onto, so I'd just have to live without knowing and figure out the details later.

I can do this, I told myself, trying to believe it. It wasn't that I didn't think it was possible or anything, because I really had no idea—it's just that the shift was too sudden, even more me. One moment, I was struggling and failing against the Goliath, slowly giving up and giving in. The next, I was in terror at the sight of what happened to my friends, more scared than I'd been since the last time my life had gone particularly to shit. And now...

Now I was strong, apparently. Strong and fast and a whole bunch of other things I knew to be true, but couldn't feel. I just felt weak and tired and exhausted, like I was about to collapse and only my will to fight was keeping me on my feet. As sudden transitions into a superhero went, it was kind of jarring how different I didn't feel.

But that also didn't matter.

"Tell me later, unless it's something major," I interrupted, suddenly turning my head to look into the town. "We have more important things to worry about right now. My friend Welf, he's working on something he thinks can kill this thing if I can't, but I don't know how long it takes to make magic swords—"

Or how long it'd been for that matter. Maybe some people could keep mental track of time in the middle of battle, but I wasn't one of them. I'd probably been fighting for something between five minutes and five hours, but I couldn't for the life of me guess which.

"Go find him and do what you can to help," I continue, growing more confident in my words as I spoke them. Have you ever started to ramble on about something and realized it actually made a certain kind of sense? "If you're here, I assume that Lili made it up top okay?"

"Lili...oh, your supporter?" Hestia said after blinking, seeming a bit dazed still, like she was all but dead on her feet. That might have been the forces my unconventional mountain climbing had put on her at work or something else; I abruptly remembered I still had no idea where she'd been all this time and that there was a pretty big gap between her leaving home and appearing in the middle of the Dungeon with a super shield in one hand and superpowers in the other. "She...yes, she found us. Hephaestus and I, us—we—were looking for you and Welf and we were talking to Loki and Freya."

That...was pretty goddamn good luck, as these things went. While I wasn't sold on Freya given what I'd seen and heard about her through her Familia, I thought I could trust the Loki Familia to help with something like this, even if I did seem to be dragging them into trouble lately. If someone like Aiz came down here, she could probably take care of this thing alone."

"Good," I said, sighing slightly in relief. "Then...I'll buy time. Either Welf will finish things up or reinforcements should arrive, but one way or another, it shouldn't take long. Can you...watch over Mrs. O'Leary for me?"

I held Mrs. O'Leary's frayed and formless shadow out to Hestia as I spoke and the goddess nodded hesitantly and took her gently from my hands. At the moment, she had a consistency more on par with tissue paper than her usual self, so I appreciated that.

"I'm sorry, girl," I said, lowering my voice mournfully. "I came down here to try and help you today, but in the end, all I did was make things worse. But...just wait. I'll figure something out to fix this, I promise. If I have to, I'll make a deal or come up with a plan or...or tear out that thing's magic stone for you to eat. Just hold on for a little longer."

No longer having anything like eyes or a mouth, all Mrs. O'Leary's shadow could do was quiver, leaving me uncertain if she even heard me. Exhaling, I took several steps back, shutting my eyes for a moment and shaking my head.

"Percy, are you actually going to—ah!" Hestia cut off whatever she was about to ask me as I stepped off the edge of the cliff, diving backwards off the ledge. Because of that, however, my eyes were facing outwards, over the water, and I saw the Goliath reacting as I fell. It appeared as though it had been waiting expectantly for me to come back down, or perhaps had been conversing its energy; whatever the case, it focused on me the moment I came into sight, and it's massive hands rose from its side, ready to crush me between them like I was a fly. I watched them as they came, coming closer and closer every moment, but—

Had it always been this slow?

The water beneath me abruptly exploded, a geyser rising to consume me in an instant. It flowed over me a moment before the attack connected, two mighty hands slamming closed on the space I'd occupied with force enough to echo—but I was already long gone. The moment I was in the water, I felt power surge through me once again and I pushed myself even harder, willing myself to pierce through the water with all the speed I could muster, and I was beneath the surface of the lake a moment, swimming down to the massive pile of rubble the Goliath was using as a perch. The simple size of its feet emphasized the size difference between us by making it clear that it could have turned my entire body into a smear under its foot. At a glance, it was clearly at least six or seven times my size.

Although another way of putting that was that it was only six or seven times my size and as I settled my feet on the rubble and braced myself as best I could, I spread my arms wide as if trying to hug a tree. Instead, I grabbed underneath the ankle and began to lift, mustering all the strength I hand in my body, all the power the water was feeding me, and the sheer unexpectedness of the attack—and it began to rise. The Goliath began to unbalance, the rubble began to shift, and a moment later we were crashing into the water.

I followed after, releasing the Goliath's leg as it shook and kicked randomly, creating my own personal current to carrying me away and then follow it down into the water. Predictably, the Goliath opened its mouth to unleash its breath weapon, intending to turn the blast on us both—and I let it happen, gritting my teeth and bracing myself a moment before the shockwave hit. Even so, it went through me as easily as it did the water, striking somewhere deep beneath the skin in a way that made me feel like something inside me was exploding, but I managed to endure. A moment later, the pain that accompanied it began to lessen, my insides fixing themselves with tremendous speed, faster than even I was used to.

While that happened, I didn't so much as hesitate, pushing myself through the water while the blast went off nearby, shield between me and the worst of it. I rode my current, tensed my shoulders, and then swung my sword with all my might at its neck. I hacked at it once, twice, three times, each blow like I intended to chop down a redwood, and each blow made my sword sink deeper. Where beneath, breaking through its skin had taken the power of a miniature river, this time I swung with just my enhanced strength and felt something give way. It was a small wound, relative to the creature's size, but I cut through what would have been the jugular on a human, blade sinking in several feet with each swing, and blood began to pour from the wound, mixing with the water.

The Goliath's hand came up, reaction time slowed by the water, but I let myself be carried away on the displaced water, flowing as if I were on with the tides. Its hand clamped down over its neck for an instant before reaching towards me, and I took that change to sink invisible hands into the closing wound, tearing it wider with my strength. The Goliath went berserk at that, thrashing in the water as it tried to lash out at me or get away, but as its arms at legs struck the surface of the water, there was an odd sound—something dull and heavy, like someone knocking on a door or striking against glass.

And its hands and feet bounced away.