BY fates design

Deadly sheep

"Failed!" Polyphemus yelled gleefully. "Nobody failed!" Annabeth tried to change him, but the monster just swatted her aside like a fly.

Percy could feel his anger swell. He couldn't believe he had come this far, lost Tyson, suffered through so much, only to fail - stopped by a by a big stupid monster in a baby blue tuxedo kilt.

Strength courser through him. He raised his sword and attacked, forgetting that he was hopelessly outmatched. He jabbed the cyclops in the belly. When he doubled over he smacked him in the nose with the hilt of Riptide. He slashed and kicked and bashed until the next thing he knew, Polyphemus was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning, and he was standing over him with the tip of his sword hovering over his eye.

"Brilliant form." Kira complimented, studying the boy's moves with a critical eye.

"Uhhhhh!" Polyphemus moaned in pain.

"Percy!" Annabeth gasped. "How did you-"

"Please, noooo!" The cyclops moaned, pitifully staring up at Percy. His nose was bleeding. A tear welled in the corner of his half blind eye. "M-m-my sheepies need me. Only trying to protect my sheep!" He began to sob.

"Y-y-your sheepies?" Cassiopeia's voice was thick with mockery. "Percy, kill him." She urged, propping Annabeth up against a tree and giving her a pouch of nectar.

Alex straight out cackled as he listened to Cassiopeia mock the cyclops, his brothers, Nino and Thalia laughing with him.

The cyclops sounded so heartbroken. Polyphemus sobbed, and for the first time it sank that he was a son of Poseidon, too.

"We only want the Fleece," Percy told the monster. "Will you agree to let us take it?"

"No." Cassiopeia said. "Kill him, Percy, or you won't get to live to regret it."

The monster sniffled. "My beautiful Fleece. Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in peace."

"I'm going to step back slowly," Percy told the beast. "One false move..."

Polyphemus nodded like he understood. Percy stepped back... and as fast as a cobra, Polyphemus smacked him to the edge of the cliff.

Poseidon cringed at the sight of his two sons, while technically he wasn't supposed to have favourites, as all parents aren't, he definitely preferred Percy.

"Foolish mortal!" He bellowed, rising to his knees. "Take my Fleece! Ha-"

Before he could finish, Cassiopeia was there, her sword came down heavy on his neck, blood gushing from the wound before she ripped her  blade out, twirling it in her hand and embedding it in his milky eye.

For the first time since meeting her, Percy finally understood why the people at camp seemed to both respect and fear her. She was brutally strong, her attacks were harsh and swift, she did not hesitate, like he had, going straight for the kill. Suddenly, he found himself thinking back to when they were in the Princess Andromeda, the fight he had interrupted between her and Luke, and he came to a realisation: she would have killed him.

Ares chortled, leaning forward in his thrown to watch the fight more closely. Athena, however, sat back, her head high as she watched Cassiopeia do what Odysseus could not.

She dislodged her sword just as something flew over Percy's head. It crashed into the cyclops's head, sending his corpse tipping over the edge of the cliff, tumbling into the chasm.

Percy turned. Halfway down the path to the beach, standing completely unharmed in the midst of a flock of killer sheep, was an old friend.

"Bad Polyphemus," Tyson said. "Not all cyclops as nice as we look." Cassiopeia smiled in relief as her knees buckled bellow her. Percy catching her just in time before she followed Polyphemus off the cliff.