Perseus the Conqueror

39

Percy POV

I quickly found a place to land a few miles from the giant's camp so they wouldn't see us. It was a small forest that was just dense enough to hide us. I had to be extra careful to avoid the trees as I came into a landing. I didn't want an angry group of nymphs giving our position away.

As soon as I landed, the others hopped off and unloaded the bags, allowing me to dissolve the saddle and return to human form.

As soon as I was back to human form and turned to the others.

"Alright, so here is the plan." I then waited for the others to chime in and help me out. Although I had faced an army this size by myself in Tartarus, I knew with our current numbers that it would be too risky to just desolate them by myself, I would easily lose track of my friends.

I watched as the others stared at me, stubbornly refusing to chime in and help me out.

I groaned, "Oh come on! I came up with the last plan to destroy an army! Reyna, aren't you the daughter of Bellona and the praetor? You are great at this stuff!"

Reyna just started at me with a blank expression. "While that's true, I've never had to deal with anything like this before, unlike you. I am eager to see how you handle it."

I groaned loudly again but knew she was right. I had the most experience from leading the Battle of Manhattan and the previous battle in Tartarus. But it didn't make it any easier.

I sighed again, "Alright fine. I'm thinking that since I used my fire and shadow powers on Clytius, he probably reported that I have some form of fire and shadow powers to his mother in Tartarus or something, so I shouldn't use them right away. Although if we are lucky, they don't know the full extent of what I can do."

I took a breath as my mind raced, "In hopes of not giving away anything else, I'm thinking that we should start out with a ground assault. We should target the monster army first, and do our best to avoid the giants for as long as possible. If we are efficient, we could probably take out over half their army before the giants even see us."

The others nodded thoughtfully. It wouldn't be easy, but we could probably do it, despite only being a small group of five going up against an army of five thousand. But the addition of the giants really made a big difference, and not in our favor.

As I considered it, I looked at the others and noticed that they seemed to be keeping their mouths shut. I wondered why for a second before I realized what it was: they know just how reckless and risky my plan actually is, but they are trusting it anyway because it came from me. As I realized this, I mentally face palmed myself at how stupid I was. I need to start actually thinking and strategizing, not just going reckless like I always do. It may work for me but likely wouldn't work out for my friends, and I wasn't going to take that chance. I took a moment to think.

"Actually," I spoke up, "I think I have a better idea."

They all looked up surprised. I couldn't blame them; I was fairly surprised myself.,

"Really?" they asked unanimously, each feeling as surprised as me.

I nodded, "We could take down the army a little bit at a time."

Reyna raised an eyebrow, looking intrigued, "How do you mean?"

As I continued to think about it, the more I realized how great a plan it was. "if we could lure away a couple hundred monsters from the main group, and take care of them quickly without having to face the entire army at once, it should be much easier and safer to boot."

I watched the others to see what they thought. Damasen nodded as if it were a good idea, Jackie was wagging her tail excitedly at the idea, Zoe looked deep in thought, as if running the plan through her head to see if it would work, but Reyna was staring straight at me. She had a glint in her eye that I had never seen before. I had gotten so used to her stoic look that every time I saw something new I became excited, and a little worried.