Indigo Eyes

Chapter 121

The army was coming, and it was massive. A small group of them would take them on while the rest of them guarded the entrances to Manhattan.

They heard the army before they saw them.

The noise was like a cannon barrage combined with a football stadium crowd.

At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods – a warrior in golden armour leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge bronze axes. Hundreds of other monsters poured out behind them. "Positions!" Annabeth yelled. Her cabin mates scrambled. The idea was to make the enemy army break around the reservoir.

At first, the plan seemed to work. The enemy divided and streamed towards them along the shore. When they were halfway across, their defences 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 courtesy of Thalia.

Cressida and Grover worked together. 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 face. Cressida then raised her good arm as grapevines rose from the earth and began crushing monsters into dust, knocking down weapons and even lobbing certain monsters blocks away.

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 as they began cutting down Cressida's vines from the roots. 

"Percy! Cress!" Annabeth shouted as she pointed at the reservoir. The Titan in the gold armour wasn't waiting for his forces to advance around the sides. He was charging towards them, 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.

"You've really learned nothing from Greek History Class, have you?" Cressida said impatiently. "After Atlas, he's the greatest Titan warrior. He has three brothers that control the other four corners of the world, and he was the father of Helios, the first sun god."

"Ok, how do you keep all of that in your head?" Percy asked and she was floored.
"How do you not? They're your enemies!"

"Gods, can you argue later?!" Annabeth said.

"I'll keep him busy," Percy promised.

"Percy even you can't-"

"Just keep our forces together," he said before he went walking across the water, a power none of them had.

Cressida had picked up the sword from a fallen demigod as she began fighting one-handed, trying to keep her injured arm still until it healed properly. It was good that she was fighting because it kept her mind off all the stupid things Percy could be doing as he fought a Titan on his own.

But he was actually doing pretty well as he created his own personal hurricane.

Clouds of water vapour swirled around him, winds so powerful they buffeted Hyperion and flattened the grass in a twenty-metre radius. Enemy warriors threw javelins at him, but the storm knocked them aside.