Betrayal

12

Percy dodged multiple jets of poison as he approached Polybotes. While the later was far larger and stronger than he, the former was smaller and more nimble. Especially with his ability to fly, Percy made for a very difficult target to hit, and this frustrated Polybotes to no end.

Forgoing shooting poison at his enemy, Polybotes switched to a more physical route and attempted to spear Percy with his trident. Percy lightly stepped on air and skated by the first two thrusts, but the third caught him off guard when the Giant didn't pull his weapon back after the initial attack, and just flicked it in the direction Percy had dodged. It caught Percy in the leg and threw him off balance, sending him crashing to the arena floor.

Polybotes grinned evilly and raised a foot to crush the cursed demigod. The girls watched on, stony faced from the stands while Tartarus just sighed and shook his head before turning away, unable to watch the outcome. Just as his son was about to bring his foot down on Percy, said person shot up from the sand and carved an arc of reddish black light straight through Polybotes' chest. The Giant looked down to see a gapping hole where his heart would be. Viscous blood poured from the wound in torrents as he collapsed to the ground. The arena rumbled as the son of Tartarus smashed into the sands and failed to rise again. The monsters in the stands were stunned into silence at the spectacle they had just witnessed.

It was no secret that the Giante were nearly impossible to kill normally with their extreme healing abilities and that they required a god and demigod together to kill them. But Polybotes was right in front of  them, bleeding out. And it did not seem to be healing at all. Not to mention, to add insult to injury, Tartarus stood up and raised his son into the air while producing a bin beneath him to catch his leaking blood. All for the one he had his eyes on to be Champion of the Pit. This too, was no secret, that Tartarus had high hopes for the former son of Poseidon. But the monsters were unsure of exactly why.

Of course they had heard the rumors that before he came down here, that he had wiped out the Roman camp. But that did not explain much. Some of the lesser monsters that lacked intelligence believed him to be fully converted into a monster. The other, more intelligent ones, could not fathom why, a demigod that had slaughtered their kind for years would suddenly turn to their side and fight in the the Pit. But none questioned his ability or his raw power, especially not where he could hear it.

Percy stepped out of the arena, done fighting for the day. He proceeded to the baths and slowly sank into the scalding hot waters, letting them wash away the blood and grime of the fights while slowly soothing his sore muscles. He looked at the wall across from him, that was one giant mirror. The man staring back at him was one he didn't recognize. At least not one he would have recognized a few months prior. In Earth time, it'd only been a month. But down here, it'd already been several. And nearly everything had changed.

Not only had how things started, changed. But his looks, his abilities, and his demeanor had all changed as well. His hair was an even darker black than it had been before. His formerly sea green iris' were dark red, like pooled blood. His entire body build was no longer the swimmer build it had once been. Now he had well and defined muscles and some even stood out. He was taller and gave off a dark aura. He hardly laughed except with the girls and occasionally Tartarus, otherwise all the monsters of the Pit saw was the same stony faced man, or more accurately, monster.

He no longer bled red blood either. As monsters had a sickly gold and green tinted blood, so did he. When he'd first noticed it prior to his entire demeanor change, he'd asked Tartarus about it. Tartarus explained that while monsters were considered immortal for the most part, they still were not the same as the Gods or Titans. Even the Giante didn't all have golden ichor running through their veins.

Shaking his head, Perseus cleared his musings from his head and quickly finished washing up before heading back to his room. As he entered, he realized he'd be facing a night with little sleep as four beautiful women were patiently waiting on his bed. Slightly irritated looks adorned all their faces and he knew he'd be getting an earful for that last fight. Sighing he shut the door and walked towards them.