The Son of Time

Chapter 33

Luke's point of view

I ended up fighting on the 59th street Bridge. Not long after the fight started my dad showed up to help, we fought for quite a while Jason Grace leading the demigods and my dad helping us by taking out some of the more powerful monsters. Gradually we pushed Tartarus's forces back toward the other end of the bridge. We were nearing the center of the bridge when I noticed my dad was gone, I didn't have time to wonder about it though since I was faced with my latest problem.

Two women with snake hair, tusks and clawed feet were approaching me, they were wearing old Bargain Mart uniforms. The one with coral snakes for hair said "Where's Perseus?" I said "Not here." The gorgon spoke again she said "So it seems, but you're the next best thing aren't you Luke" I thought to myself oh great now the monsters know who I am.

The other gorgon said "Euryale what's so special about this boy what does he have to do with Perseus?" The one called Euryale said "Stheno you idiot look at him, isn't it obvious he's his son." The one called Stheno said "Oh I thought his scent seemed different." After the new information sunk in the pair lunged at me.

I froze the gorgons in time mid lunge and took a couple steps back. I unfroze them and said "I don't know what your grudge is against my dad, but I'm not going to be so easy to kill, he taught me a few things. Euryale complained "He killed our sister!" It took a moment but then I realized what she meant I said "Medusa?" She said "Yes, he was the last one to kill her and she still hasn't returned!"

I didn't think that was such a bad thing, and I figured she was just one of many monsters that he had defeated. Euryale said "Enough talk, now we have to kill you." "You already tried, you know how that went" I pointed out. Instead of replying they lunged at me again, but I was ready this time. I sliced my sword through Stheno and knocked Euryale back with my shield while she was getting ready to try again I ran forward and sliced my sword through her, she tried to dodge but wasn't quick enough. After she was gone I thought to myself are all of my dad's old enemies going to come after me now? Knowing my luck probably. Thanks for that Dad.

I saw a figure up ahead that I was sure was a titan no one had taken him on yet, and my dad wasn't here. Someone has to defeat him before he causes too much damage so I fought my way through the crowd of monsters, and headed toward him.

Percy's point of view

This had to be one of the hardest fights I'd ever been in, and that's saying something. Anastasius was my equal if not my better at swordsmanship. I would try and land a hit on him but he would somehow manage to block almost all of them and the few times I had managed to hit him the wounds left behind were minor.

I'd hoped I'd be able to beat him with swordsmanship so I wouldn't have to find out what he could do with my other domains, because based on what I had already seen I almost didn't want to know. It seems that I would have to use them though because I couldn't keep this up forever, well maybe I could but I don't want to. In order to try and knock him off balance I sent a large wave crashing into him from the side.

He lost his balance for a moment and that's when I made another attempt to hit him. Unfortunately he quickly regained his balance and blocked my blow, not only that but the water had changed to poison the moment it hit his skin. I thought to myself. Damn it, he's like Polybotes. He said "Nice try, I see you want to play with water now do you?"

I decided to not use water, but I was almost afraid to find out what he could do with time. We continued to fight and he gradually pushed me back toward the edge of the water after exchanging several more blows I was getting sort of desperate, yes I said it I was getting desperate. Putting aside the fear of what he could do against my time powers I attempted to slow his strikes so I could maybe land a worse hit on him. He had already managed to land a couple hits on me one of which left a cut on my leg that was still bleeding golden ichor.

Unfortunately my time powers seemed to have no effect on him. He wasn't slowed in the least. Just to rub it in my face he said "Oh Perseus you are truly desperate now aren't you? Do I need to remind you that I was created to destroy you where you..." I interrupted him before he could go over his little speech again and said "Yeah yeah we went over this already you were made to defeat me I get it."

As we continued to fight I tried to come up with a plan to defeat this guy. I knew I would need a demigod's help so the smartest thing to do would be to allow him to force me back on land where a demigod can help me. If I continued to fight on the water Like this I would only wear myself out since water wasn't going to be a help to me in this situation, besides if I let him push me back and pretended to be tired, he might become careless and use strikes that I will be able to block easily.

So I put my quickly thought up plan into action I gradually allowed him to push me back toward the edge of the water, as we fought I made it seem like I was getting more and more tired when in reality I was tricking him. After we were back on land I saw my father arrive when he saw what was going on I saw concern for me on his face. He glanced between our forces on the bridge, and me as if to decide whether to help them or me.

Since our forces had defeated most of the monsters on the bridge, and someone must have dealt with the titan, he left that to them and was soon at my side. I'm sure he knew that I would need a demigod's help not that of another god, but nonetheless his concern for me overruled his logic and he was there when Anastasius said "Oh Perseus you might as well give up now I could take you down easily if I felt like it, but I want you to watch your failure."

My first thought was, what the Hades is he talking about? But I soon found out when the remaining monsters began to fight with renewed confidence, and some of the demigods turned on their friends and family and attacked them. As I witnessed this I said "Oh Styx." he said "Yes Perseus I can destroy your forces with barely a thought." at this point I really have to stop him. He could cause a lot more damage than I originally thought.

To explain what just happened I will say, when you think of destructive powers you might think of fire, or water, or natural disasters. You wouldn't normally think of powers related to emotions, or personality traits. You would be surprised how destructive those powers could be. For instance power over loyalty allows you to manipulate the loyalties of others, they could allow you to create an army all loyal to you, or you could force your enemies to support you.

Back when I was first learning my powers I discovered that I had the ability to manipulate people's loyalties, however like I just said by doing so you are manipulating people. Forcing them to do something they wouldn't do otherwise, so I swore to myself I would never again use those powers and I haven't used them since.

And I almost never thought about them. Now that Anastasius has used them against me I will have to inform the council of them, Zeus will probably have a fit and force me to swear on the Styx not to use them I don't think I've ever seen anyone as paranoid as Zeus, so concerned someone will try and steal his position as King of the gods.

Anyway back to the matter at hand I have to stop Anastasius now before he can turn our own forces against us. My dad contacted me mentally and asked "What exactly is going on?" so I explained how I had tried to trick Anastasius into thinking that I was beaten so he might be careless but instead he had turned some of our own forces against us by using powers that I had sworn never to use. I saw slight worry cross his face although he tried to hide it, he asked "Can you turn them back?" I replied "I should be able to, I will try." I looked toward the bridge and tried to turn the manipulated demigods back to our side. Anastasius must have realized what I was doing because his sword swung in my direction to break my concentration if nothing else, but it was stopped by my father's trident. Mentally I said "Dad that might not be such a good idea he might be able to manipulate time." Ignoring my statement he said "You concentrate on the demigods I'll keep him busy." I didn't argue further but warned him that like Polybotes Anastasius turns water to poison.