Crossroads of Two Worlds

44- A Hundred Lightning Bolts and A Thousand Liters of Water

They came from the trees that lined the beach.

Creatures that I'd never seen before, creatures that I'd heard of in legends, and monsters that belonged in Tartarus.

But I didn't see the being that Chiron, Zeus, and Kaley had described to me as Typhon. The coward must be waiting to see if his minions could finish us so he didn't have to do any of the work. Sure, there were hundreds of monsters walking on the beach towards us, but we were sixty of the best trained demigods in the world. I had confidence that we'd put of a heck of a fight, more so than these monsters ever would expect.
I stepped forward, towards the front of the group.

I knew only the people nearest to me, the leaders of the group, would hear me as I unsheathed my swords and spoke lowly, "I guess... let's begin."

..........

The battle with these grunts of monsters lasted way longer than I would have liked. It also felt much longer than the minutes that had actually passed. Only a few of my campers were injured, so at the very least we were fighting smart. I didn't know what to do besides defeat all of his cronies to get Typhon here and defeat him.

But we were winning so far. Piles of bodies would have littered the beach, if monsters weren't rigged to explode like glitter bombs.

As we were right in the midst of fighting, all of the sudden, every monster we were fighting went still and backed away. The one I was fighting walked right into my sword and promptly exploded, just like all the rest. The hundred or so monsters that we had yet to slay backed away from our ranks and just stood there, staring at us, as if they knew something we didn't. I didn't understand why they had stopped. Typhon was nowhere in sight, though I strained to see past the crowd of monsters to try and spot him.

Some of the campers went to go forward to fight the monsters again but I yelled to them, "Stop! Wait!"

They did stop. But they all looked at me like I was insane, holding them back from taking out the rest of the monsters that were under Typhon's rule.

Someone walked up behind me to stop at my side, and a flash of golden hair made me recognize Maya without even turning towards her, "What are they doing? What are they waiting for?"

I shook my head, eyes narrowing on the monsters now thirty feet away, "I don't know."

Before the last word had left my mouth, a roar shattered through the air. It was unlike any sound I'd ever heard. The palm trees's leaves quivered even though there was no wind. The hair on my arms raised. The stones beneath my feet shifted slightly and I could've sworn that even the particles of sand started swirling around.

I sighed, "Fun's over, team. Looks like the head honcho has arrived."

I wanted to act casual about the arrival of Typhon. I wanted to put on a brave face for the many campers who were looking to me and my friends for guidance. But in all truth, there was little else but fear in my mind and on my face as I watched the head of a dragon emerge from the trees. Then two more. Then ten more. Soon, I realized that the research I'd done on this horrible being hadn't been faulty. He truly was a monster with a hundred dragon heads.

I could see why Zeus had banished him to the Underworld all those years ago. I wished I could do the same with a snap of my fingers. Eventually, he stopped advancing towards us and stood in the sand to look down at our group.

Though it was not a good moment for humor, I felt my lips curl at his appearance, "Dude, you're ugly."

Adrian snorted from my left side and Maya whisper-yelled my name in an accusatory way.

"Well, he's not pretty."

Why couldn't I keep my mouth shut?

In a deep, booming voice, Typhon spoke, though I couldn't tell which mouth the voice was coming from, "Laugh as you will, daughter of Zeus, for you will soon fall. As shall everyone of your pathetic half-mortal friends."

I didn't turn my head away from him as he spoke but I could feel the tension in my group grow with every second. I didn't know if it would do anything to confuse or even irritate him, but I'd give it a shot.

As cocky as i could possibly pretend to be, I shrugged and grinned at the monster, "Well, daddy dearest put you in the big pit last time around, didn't he? What makes you think I can't do the same?"

"You are half-mortal. And you are a child. I cannot be beaten like I was before, and even if I could," each of the heads looked left, and then right, and then back to center on me, "I do not see Zeus anywhere on this beach."

Before he could talk anymore, I sent a punch of wind towards his feet and began advancing. The rest of the demigods were behind me but Adrian and Maya were on my either side. Neither of them made eye contact with me when Adrian spoke, "So how are we going to do this?"

I shrugged, "If he can't be taken down by a lightning bolt, maybe he can be taken down by a tropical storm."

"You got it, princess," Adrian was gone from my side and heading towards Typhon's feet before he'd even finished his sentence. Maya was going in the opposite direction, and caused enough of a distraction that I was able to jump into the air and fly around his many heads to land behind him.

I summoned a lightning bolt and struck the ten heads closest to me. When the light faded, only charred stumps remained. Adrian and Maya were busy choking the other heads with asps of water they summoned from the ocean. It was clear that the beach wasn't a good location if one wanted to fight children of Poseidon.

We'd spent a long time on that ship waiting for Typhon, long enough to discuss several strategies. While the rest of our friends fought off Typhon's remaining cronies, the two children of Poseidon and I darted around his feet, too quick for him to catch. Then Brenden Indigo appeared next to me and began lopping off the heads with his broadsword. Then Marin Grace appeared next to Adrian and while she sliced daggers through their necks, she used Charmspeak to get each individual head to stop fighting. Typhon was doing his best, and was swiping his hands and weapons at the demigods as fast as he could. Some of the demigods who were still fighting other monsters did get slammed into the trees or tossed out to the ocean. I didn't have time to watch to see if anyone was killed yet.

Before he could cause our forces any more losses, I yelled at the top of my lungs, over the clamor of clashing weapons, "NOW!"

I summoned as much power as I could withstand from the sky and held it back from striking as Adrian and Maya pulled waves of water from the ocean that began spiraling around Typhon like a tornado.

I pushed all the power that I had into their tornado of water. It became wind that pushed the water to dangerous speeds. We could no longer see Typhon, though some of his heads got caught in the tornado and were flung as they got torn off. Summoning even more power from I didn't know where, from Zeus and Apollo and whatever power my ancestry allowed me, I pulled it all down into me.

The lightning that struck the whirling water and wind was not like any lightning that could have been made naturally. It was brilliantly bright, so bright that many of the campers yelled and closed their eyes. When the lightning hit the water, Adrian and Maya pushed the water closer to Typhon, and a monstrous roar unlike anything I'd ever heard filled the air. He'd been struck with not just lightning, but wind and fire and water that was then shoved down his many throats.

I poured everything I had into that lightning blast and knew that if this didn't do it, then nothing would.

But as I watched, realizing that I no longer had control of the wind and lightning, I knew that it had been enough. The bellow that was let loose from the monster of all monsters was as deafening as my lightning was blinding. And then it died off. Adrian and Maya slowly let the wall of water fall, and it rushed back to the ocean. To my surprise, Typhon was still standing. I was ready to go down fighting again when I saw his massive form list to the right, then the left, and then he fell into the ocean.