DA : Chapter 134: Silence

( Evening, Annabeth )

The blonde goddess panted lightly as her running slowed to a light jog, her sword at the ready to her side. She'd been running none stop for over 24 hours now, making a steady way north and nearing the veritable beacon of divine power coming further ahead.

She knew that was her destination, the home of the Primordials … and the location of her mother. Still, she could feel herself getting closer to the metaphysical border of what was known as the Land of the Gods and would soon start to feel her own power waning.

Thankfully she had been constantly training even after achieving godhood, making her one of the more powerful goddesses of Olympus, only coming short of key warriors like her mother, Artemis, Bellona, and if old books were accurate, Hestia once upon a time.

That being said, once truly passed the borders her ability to recover power would tapper off so she would have to be efficient and limit the use of divine abilities. Luckily with her large stores of power and carrying a hearty amount of nectar and ambrosia should keep her functioning at a godly level long enough to reach the mountain.

Sighing to herself she finally came to a stop, able to hear the water running of a river a slight distance away, lightly wiping away the sweat trailing her brow as she glanced around to see if she had any form of company. Oddly enough she had several run in with monsters, mostly some hellhounds, a few dracaena, and even two frost giants which was especially odd considering it was barely even Fall yet. Shaking her head at the oddity of it, she reached for her pack to get a drink before halting, getting a prickling sensation at the back of her head and tipping her off that she was being watched.

Hearing a twig snap, she crouched lower, sword at the ready as she slowly scanned around her. Her heart slowly sped up as adrenaline started to course through her veins. All seemed silent for a moment and then, all Hades broke loose. With a booming roar nearly a dozen 10 foot cyclops, some sporting armor and banners of Poseidon leapt out from the trees and some covered in water having obviously come from the river.

"So he's a traitor too, figures," Annabeth grumbled as she quickly looked around the cyclops, waiting for them to attack.

She didn't need long as the first two rushed her, their height nearly doubling hers as both swung their clubs down together, intent on crushing the minor goddess quickly. However, if they thought they had easy prey, then they had another thing coming. With practiced grace Annabeth sidestepped the dual attack before twisting on her heel while bringing her sword up in an arc. One of the cyclops screamed as his hand was severed at the wrist, his partner in attack staring dumbly for all of two seconds as sludge like blood squirted out.

Two seconds too slow.

In that time Annabeth leapt like a gazelle, sword flashing before it cleaved through the second cyclops along the eye, making the monster burst into dust before so much as uttering a scream. Not losing any momentum Annabeth barely touched down on the ground before taking a two handed grip and swinging her sword like trying to hit a homerun, slicing through the first cyclops gut, armor and all, in two. As the monster gurgled something intangible and burst into dust, the goddess turned her gaze on the remaining nine monsters, her eyes hardening as she leveled both the pressure of her power and killing intent on them.

Several started to shake before some got the nerve to attack and the goddess rushed forward to meet them. Dropping to her knees and sliding along as one cyclops swung his sword, she simply raised hers as she passed between his legs.

Ignoring the pained scream/squeal before another burst of dust, she jumped up, slammed a foot squarely into the chest of the next cyclops. The force of the blow launched the giant off his feet and into two cyclops behind him before she was forced to roll to the side, narrowly avoiding being crushed under an obscenely large mace.

However another cyclops had managed to get behind her and she looked up with the shout to see another sword coming down on her. Raising her own, she grunted as she blocked the blow even as the ground beneath her feet cracked from the pressure. Growling in annoyance, she pushed back and before the cyclops could try to swing again she spun around and stabbed her sword into the cyclops gut.

Though before she could pull her sword back out another one tried to tackle her off all things, managing to actually land the blow while knocking some of the air out of her. Gritting her teeth at feeling the impact of monstrous muscle and hard earth beneath her, Annabeth quickly shifted her arms to lock around the cyclop's neck as it held onto her waist.

Feeling a secure hold she scoffed before arching back, squeezing, and adding a slight twist all at the same time. A satisfying crunch answered her as she snapped the monster's neck before it burst into fine gold dust, leaving her coated in the stuff. Standing up and spitting out a glob of it, she quickly counted the remaining opponents, six cyclops looking back at her while growling and snarling in anger at having seen their brethren taken out so easily.

She noticed however that her sword was closer to them than her making her sigh in annoyance, however, using the pause in combat, she decided to try and get some information from them.

"You, with the armor bearing Poseidon's coat of arms," she started, pointing to one of the largest and best armed of the cyclops. "Why are you attacking me? Aren't you a member of Poseidon's army? You do realize you're attacking a goddess of Olympus, correct?"

The behemoth scoffed before answering in a gruff voice, even if his speech was far better than a run of the mill cyclops. "Goddess of Olympus," he spat with clear distaste. "King is no longer a fool or lapdog, knows that the end of Olympus is near. Training to get stronger, much stronger. For now, under orders of another, weakening Olympus where we can," he said as he leveled a larger, clearly better made sword at Annabeth.

"Hard to believe someone would send such a large party just for little old me," she retorted even as she tried to plan a way to get her weapon back.

She could summon one to herself but that would act like a beacon to other deities and waste her energy, not to mention aside from her own symbol of power, anything summoned would probably be sub-par to the sword in the clearly experienced cyclop's hands.

Also, there was the fact that her own symbol of power, while a weapon and dangerous in its own right, was something more suited to compliment other weapons or at a stretch, one on one combat. Here she doubted the other cyclops, probably the more experienced of the bunch, would try to pile on her in order to overwhelm her.

Sadly it didn't seem that they were willing to wait for her to think up a scheme as two charged again, both with swords this time around forcing her to backpedal. They worked in unison with stabs and occasional swings as she wove in and out of the attacks, her eyes taking in all movement. Suddenly, spotting a slight pause in attack Annabeth lunged forward, almost feeling the graze of one sword having stabbed where her head used to be.

Having closed in she managed to grab the wrist of one cyclops just as the second recovered after the miss and turned to her, a stab already in motion. However she reacted in tandem and pulled the cyclops she had by his arm right into the path of his partner's sword. Two cries, one of pain, the other of surprise met her ears as the cyclops burst after being impaled on his comrade's sword. Taking advantage of the shock Annabeth leapt up and over the cyclops, her hands grabbing onto his head all the while.

Landing squarely on the cyclop's shoulder's she grunted as she pulled up … violently. Another loud snap rung throughout the forest as the cyclops went limp and feel to his knees before slumping over with a slight twitch before bursting into dust. Annabeth took a quick breath as she turned her attention to the remaining cyclops before muttering, "Four to go."

The lead cyclops grunted as he held his sword. "You good." He then surged forward at a speed she didn't even know cyclops could move and swung. Only her reflexes and instincts trained through hours of blood, sweat, and tears saved her from being cleaved apart but she still suffer a gash to her side just above the hip on her left making her grimace. "But not unbeatable."

Growling in annoyance she leapt back to gain some breathing room as she eyed the clearly more dangerous commanding cyclops. She desperately wanted to conserve energy, as well as stay off the Olympian senses, otherwise her running off with only a few orders to the army would have been pointless. Still, it seemed she would have to get far more serious, at least to the point of channeling some of her power to go above her barest minimums of power use in order to kill the commander. However, when in a bad situation, she always had one fall back. Get the opponent talking while you plan.

"Tell me, you said you're following someone else's orders with Poseidon gone for training." Seeing the slight nod, she continued as she slowly inched around the commander. "Then what about Tyson, the Commander General of the Cyclops Army?"

"Commander doesn't like other leader but obeys for now. Leader tell him that Olympian make him lose brother," the commander answered making Annabeth frown.

'So Tyson isn't completely informed. I wonder if there is any way to reach him?' she wondered as she tried to move closer to her sword that laid behind three other cyclops. However, before she could get another word in, a new voice spoke up.

"I've been wondering about Tyson for a while now. Sad to hear that he's being lied to but hopefully I can get ahold of him soon."

"Wha-"

Annabeth didn't get to finish her statement as she and the cyclops commander both turned to the other three cyclops in time to see a blur of black pass through them. The three didn't even get to scream as they burst into dust, letting Annabeth see someone she's both hoped and dreaded to meet.

Lazily sheathing his black katana, hood pulled back to clearly show his face, and standing over the disposed of monsters was Percy. Only now did she truly register his presence, quite possible thanks to him no longer cloaking himself, and the sheer pressure of it already made her knees weak. She wasn't the only one suffering under it as the cyclops was visibly shaking as those eyes of writhing black fire and ice pinned him to the spot.

Then, before she could even blink, he moved. One moment he stood some meters away, the next he was already barely inches away from the mammoth of a cyclops, however with his back turned to the monster. She could hear the smooth sound of the black katana being re-sheathed at an agonizingly slow pace, seemingly carrying on forever until…

Click.

At the sound, while the commanding cyclops looked on in confusion, several black lines appeared along his body. Across his face, torso, neck, and hips. The noise from flesh rubbing and sliding nearly made Annabeth wretch as the cyclops slowly feel apart, only to burst into dust before he could even hit the ground.

Now all that there was, was silence. Intense grey eyes looked to swirling black, two legends in their own rights, trained and tested warriors, scorned lovers separated at the mechanisms of the gods, and now, enemies of an all new war. At this moment Annabeth couldn't help wonder if her choice to head north had been all that smart, feeling like a blonde bunny being stared down by the most dangerous wolf around…

===================

Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.

...

if you want to support me or just to read ahead of the public release, you can join my p@treon :

p atreon/Moonhorse