The other Grace/HoO fanfiction

(23) Porphyrion

Layla was glad she was good at multitasking. As the monsters charged she had to avoid storm spirits, slash earthborn with her sword and strike Wolves with lightning the same time. Fortunately for her, even though her bronze sword couldn't harm Wolves, lightning could.

Above her, Jason had somehow tamed one of the horse-like storm spirit and was doing a pretty good job fighting with the rest of them.

Piper had defeated a large number of earthborn using only her dagger, her voice and her smile. Yes, her smile had been her biggest. Smiling and speaking softly to monsters, she could convince them not to kill her for while, giving her time to stab them with her blade. The way she fought, she looked beautiful yet terrifying at the same time.

Leo, however, was the most amazing of them all. He had taken down Khione, the goddess of snow, by himself. Layla figured that his power over fire was the reason they hadn't frozen to death yet. The fire magic he did was so powerful that even Thalia's sculpture that was on the other side of the room was slowly beginning to melt.

Layla was relieved to realize that she only had about a dozen Wolves to defeat. Jason had also ran out of enemies while Piper stabbed the last earthborn. Even Khione had started backing away.

"You're late." Khione hissed. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can even stop us." Leo threw fire one more time at her, but she had already disappeared turning into a pile of snow.

The four demigods stood next to each other breathing hard. They had succeeded. Of course, there were a few issues to solve such as the rising giant whose chest was now visible as well as his shoulders.

"Oh, don't mind me! Just the queen of heavens, dying over here!" Hera said. Layla turned to look at her. She looked several inches shorter.

Leo must've noticed it, too, because he frowned. "Uh, Tia Callida, are you shrinking?"

"No, you idiot! The earth is consuming me. Hurry!" Hera warned. "The giant wakes! You only have seconds!"

"On it," Leo said. "Piper, I need your help. Talk to the cage."

"What?" Piper asked.

Talk to it. Use everything you've got. Convince Gaia to sleep. Lull her into a daze. Just slow her down, try to get the tendrils to loosen while I-"

"Right!" Piper cleaned her throat and started talking to the cage. At first she wasn't very confident but the more she talked the more convincing she sounded. Layla tried hard not to focus on her words or else she would have fallen asleep herself.

It seemed to work on Gaia, too. The ground was consuming Hera slower now. The tendrils had also loosen up a little. Leo crunched in front of the cage and started setting the marvelous plan of his into motion. He took out at huge tool from his belt.

"I don't have anywhere to plug it in!" He looked around in dispair. Jason's storm spirit horse stepped forward.

"Really? If that works, I'm out of here." Layla shook her head in disbelief. The horse nodded and huffed at Layla. Do horses even do that?

Leo plugged the tool in the horse's body and pressed a button. Miraculously, it worked. The electricity sparkling in the horse's body, provided the tool enough power to work. The horse looked at Layla and moved its mane arrogantly. What an annoying storm spirit!

"Sweet!" Leo exclaimed. "Your horse comes with AC outlets!"

The excitement didn't last long. They heard a sound coming from behind them like a tree snapping in half. They turned around and saw Porphyrion, now fully grown.

Layla had found Enceladus scary. The king of the giants was ten times worse.

Like his fellow giant, he was terrible looking. He was humanoid from the waist up. From the waist down he had scaly dragon's legs. His hair was green and braided with weapons, probably tokens from his previous battles and his eyes were big, blank-white, like marble.

"Alive." he bellowed taken a deep breath. "Praise to Gaia!"

"Leo." Jason whispered-yelled.

"Huh?" Leo's mouth was wide open from shock.

"You guys keep working," Jason told them. "Get Hera free!"

"What are you going to do?" Piper asked. "You can't seriously-"

"Entertain a giant?" Jason said. "We have no choice. Are you coming, sis?"

"Excellent!" The giant raored as they approached. "An appetizer! Who are you - Hermes? Ares?"

Layla gulped. She didn't want to fight a giant who could eat Hermes or Ares for appetizer.

"I'm Jason. I'm the son of Jupiter." Jason replied.

"Outstanding!" The giant bellowed. "So, Zeus, you sacrifice your son to me? A kind gesture, but it will not save you."

The sky didn't rumble, lightning didn't fell. Zeus wasn't going to help. They were on their own.

"If you knew who I was, Giant." Jason yelled. "You'd be worried about me and not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two minutes and 23 seconds of rebirth, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus."

The giant narrowed his eyes and crouched down to take a better look at Jason. "So... we'll start by boasting, huh? Just like good old times. Very well, demigod. I am Porphyrion, king of tha giants, son of Gaia. I rose form Tartarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen." He turned to grin at the caged goddess. "Hello, Hera."

"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" She shouted. "He'll do it again!"

"But he didn't, my dear. Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on puny demigods to help him, and even then I almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaia is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth- and we will destroy you at the roots. Better surrender now and you will not die that painfully."

"In your dreams, giant." Layla shouted as an attempt to take the giants attention off the cage where Leo and Piper were still working.

"And who might you be?" Porphyrion turned to look at her.

"I'm Layla Grace, daughter of Zeus, and I wiil personally send you back in Tartarus like I did with your brother, Enceladus."

"Such big words, coming from such a small girl like yourself." The giant laughed loudly. "That's why I love heroes. They are always so confident, it's amusing."

"I wasn't joking. Better be careful, monster." She spat.

His expression turned serious. If she didn't know him better, she would say he looked uneasy. He rose to his normal height and put his hand on the air. All around the yard Wolves, earthborn and storm spirits started to regroup answering the giant's call.

"Great." Leo grumbled. "We needed more enemies."

"Srop talking and hurry up." Hera urged him.

"I know!" He snapped.

Porphyrion threw his spear at a wall destroying it and sending pieces of rock and wood all across the place. "So children of Zeus! What were you saying about destroying me?"

Layla glanced anxiously around. The monsters were ready to attack. Leo and Piper worked hard but it did no good. Hera was almost completely swallowed by the earth. She really hoped Jason had something good to say to the giant.

Apparently he did. "I'm the son of Jupiter! I'm a child of Rome, praetor of the First Legion." He raised his arm and showed his SPQR tattoo. The giant once more looked kinda uneasy.

"I slew the Trojan sea monster," Jason continued. "I toppled the black throne of Kronos and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own Wolves."

"Wow, Jason." Layla murmured. "Did you hit your head or something?"