Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟮𝟳. meeting with a god

gone girl.
━━━ chapter twenty seven

❀

They heard the army before they saw it.

The noise was like a cannon barrage combined with a football stadium crowd — like every Patriots fan in New England was charging them with bazookas. At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods — a warrior in golden armor leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge bronze axes. Hundreds of other monsters poured out behind them.

"Positions!" Annabeth yelled next to him.

Her cabinmates scrambled. The idea was to make the enemy army break around the reservoir. To get to them, they'd have to follow the trails, which meant they'd be marching in narrow columns on either side of the water.

At first, the plan seemed to work. The enemy divided and streamed toward the demigods along the shore. When they were halfway across, their defenses kicked in. The jogging trail erupted in Greek fire, incinerating many of the monsters instantly. Others flailed around, engulfed in green flames. Athena campers threw grappling hooks around the largest giants and pulled them to the ground.

In the woods on the right, the Hunters sent a volley of silver arrows into the enemy line, destroying twenty or thirty dracaenae, but more marched behind them. A bolt of lightning crackled out of the sky and fried a Laistrygonian giant to ashes, and Percy knew Thalia must be doing her daughter of Zeus thing.

Grover raised his pipes and played a quick tune. A roar went up from the woods on both sides as every tree, rock, and bush seemed to sprout a spirit. Dryads and satyrs raised their clubs and charged. The trees wrapped around the monsters, strangling them. Grass grew around the feet of the enemy archers. Stones flew up and hit dracaenae in the faces.

Amaryllis had been summoning her powers so she could strangle the monsters with their own shadows. Percy stared at her, amazed at how powerful she was. She suffocated two giants and a few dracaenae, barely breaking a sweat and with a small smirk on the corner of her lips.

Not that Percy was looking at her lips.

It was amazing to see her so confident during a battle. Last year, when she thought she had no powers, she seemed a lot more self conscious in the way that she fought. But now she simply looked like a goddess of some sort, ready to kick Kronos' ass. 

The enemy slogged forward. Giants smashed through the trees, and naiads faded as their life sources were destroyed. Hellhounds lunged at the timber wolves, knocking them aside. Enemy archers returned fire, and a Hunter fell from a high branch.

"Percy!" Annabeth grabbed his arm and pointed at the reservoir.

The Titan in the gold armor wasn't waiting for his forces to advance around the sides. He was charging toward us, walking straight over the top of the lake. A Greek firebomb exploded right on top of him, but he raised his palm and sucked the flames out of the air.

"Hyperion," Annabeth said in awe. "The lord of light. Titan of the east."

"Bad?" Percy guessed.

"Next to Atlas, he's the greatest Titan warrior. In the old days, four Titans controlled the four corners of the world. Hyperion was the east — the most powerful. He was the father of Helios, the first sun god."