Percy grimaced as he scanned the shifting, chaotic battle of Manhattan. This was war, ugly, loud, and smelling of blood war.
Monsters flooded the streets in endless, chittering waves. Hellhounds the size of garbage trucks lunged at campers, their teeth snapping through bronze armor, while dracaenae in heavy plate hissed battle cries that rattled the windows.
But the worst part wasn't the monsters, it was the familiar faces mixed among the enemy ranks. Percy's jaw tightened as he watched a son of Hermes hesitate, his sword trembling for a split second before he was forced to parry a lethal blow from a girl who had shared his table just last summer.
Some of these kids had grown up together. They had played capture the flag, complained about the cleaning duties, and called each other family. Now, they were trying to kill one another in the middle of a city.
'They shouldn't be doing this,' Percy thought, his gut twisting with a sour, burning bitterness. 'It shouldn't have reached this point.'
If the gods had been just a little bit better, if they had cared even half as much about their children as they did about their own sacred statues, the world wouldn't be tearing itself apart. He let out a ragged, angry sigh, cutting down a telekhine that tried to sneak up on his flank. It was not wise to be thinking of something like this in this particular situation.
Suddenly, a massive lightning bolt tore through the heavy smog, crashing into a phalanx of giants with a deafening, bone-shaking crack. Percy glanced sideways to see Thalia standing atop a parked city bus, doing her daughter of Zeus thing, her spear raised high like a lightning rod. Electricity crackled around her in violet arcs, her Aegis shield radiating a primal terror that made the monsters stumble over their own feet in their rush to get away from her.
Nearby, Annabeth and the Athena cabin were a whirlwind of coordinated attacks, holding the line. Behind them were the Hunters of Artemis, firing volley after volley of silver arrows that turned charging monsters into golden dust faster than Percy could keep track of.
Then, a roar went up from the Central Park woods on both sides. Every tree, rock, and bush seemed to sprout a spirit of the wild. Grover was leading the charge, playing his reed pipes with a frantic, wild energy that made the very grass beneath the monsters' feet grow into strangling vines.
Dryads and satyrs raised gnarled wooden clubs, charging into the fray with animalistic fury. Massive oaks wrapped their roots around the legs of charging Keres, strangling them where they stood, while stones flew up as if thrown by invisible hands, striking the faces of the enemy archers.
"Percy!" Annabeth's voice cut through to him. She was pointing toward the reservoir, her face pale.
Percy turned and froze. There he was, the figure from his dreams, looking far more terrifying in person. A titan was charging at them, not even bothering to wait for his vanguard to clear a path. The Titan rushed towards them as the ground beneath his feet scorching and turning to molten glass with every step.
Arrows were launched at him in a silver rain, but they simply vaporized inches from his skin or bounced off his radiant form like toothpicks. A group of campers dropped Greek fire bombs from a nearby rooftop, and the emerald flames exploded directly on top of him. The titan merely raised a hand as he literally sucked the fire out of the air, absorbing the heat into his own golden essence as if it were nothing.
"Hyperion," Annabeth whispered, her voice a mix of awe and dread. "The Titan of the East. The Lord of Light."
"Bad?" Percy asked, his hand tightening on Riptide until his knuckles turned white.
Annabeth shook her head, her grey eyes wide. "After Atlas, Hyperion is the greatest warrior of the Titan army. Back in the days of old, four Titans controlled the corners of the world, and he was the most powerful of them. He is the father of the sun itself, Percy. This is very, very bad."
Percy looked at the Titan, who was now close enough that the radiant heat was blistering his skin and drying his throat. "I'll keep him busy," he said, bracing himself to charge. He had to make sure that the titan didn't get too close to the others.
"Percy, I don't think—"
Annabeth's warning was cut off by a sound that came from above. Percy quickly looked up as he saw what looked like a meteor slam into the ground.
It slammed into the ground directly on top of Hyperion's head.
BOOM.
The shockwave was so violent that it blew the water out of the reservoir in a massive, circular wall that stood thirty feet high for a second before crashing back down. A crater fifty feet wide formed instantly, and the concrete shattered into fine dust. As the mist cleared, Percy's mouth dropped open.
Standing on top of Hyperion's back, pinning the Titan into the dirt like a common bug, was Harry. He was laughing, a sharp, manic sound that made Percy's hair stand on end.
The Titan growled, a sound olike grinding stone, and surged upward with a roar of pure solar fire. Harry was flung back, but he flipped in the air and landed lightly on the scorched earth, his green eyes dancing with a terrifying sort of glee that just made Percy want to stay as far away from the man as possible.
"Good, good," Harry said, cracking his knuckles. "You're not dead. That would have been boring if you'd broken on the first hit."
Percy rushed over, his sword held low. "What are you doing here? You just vanished during the truce talk!"
Harry had just ran out during the talks with Prometheus, and even if he didn't know the man well, that had still been an odd thing to do.
At the time, Percy had been relieved to see the strange man leave, his presence really was not helping Percy and the other demigods. Annabeth had said that whenever she was close to him, it was like an irritating pin in her head, and for Percy, it was like something crawling under his skin. Other demigods said that he just scared them by being close, so Percy didn't really mind when he left, but now, seeing him stand against a Titan, he wasn't about to complain about the backup.
Still, every instinct Percy possessed were screaming at him that Harry was more dangerous than anything else on this field.
Hyperion rose to his full height, his golden eyes blazing like miniature, angry stars. He sneered at Harry, his lip curling in contempt.
"You must be the one Prometheus spoke of," the Titan scoffed, just the power in his voice vibrating in Percy's chest. "The so-called son of Pandora. That wretched creation of the gods." Hyperion spat on the ground, the saliva hissing as it turned to steam instantly. "Prometheus said the thing died ages ago. Lord Kronos didn't even recognize your presence. You are but a pest that should be removed. A bug to be crushed beneath the heel of the East."
Harry just smiled wider, his teeth looking just a bit too sharp and far too numerous in the twilight for Percy.
Hyperion's expression twisted. Despite his arrogant words, something deep inside his divine ichor was screaming. It was a primal alarm, one he hadn't felt since the first war when the world was young. It was warning him that this 'thing' should be removed first.
With a roar that shook the surrounding buildings and shattered the windows of nearby shops, he charged.
Hyperion's blade, Chrysafenios, was a sword of pure, solidified solar flare. It pulsed with a violent, white-hot energy that made the air shimmer. Every step he took left the ground smoking and melting. He blasted a beam of pure solar energy toward them, a lance of light meant to incinerate anything in its path.
Percy dove aside, the heat singing his hair and drying the water around them, but Harry didn't move an inch. He stood his ground, raised a hand, and as the beam hit him, he opened his mouth and… inhaled?.
The solar fire was pulled into Harry's mouth like a summer breeze.
'What in Hades?' Percy thought.
The battlefield went silent for a heartbeat. Percy and Hyperion both stared in sheer, unadulterated confusion. Then, Harry's nails sharpened into white talons, and he moved.
He was so fast he was a blur of emerald and black. One second, he was a few feet away from Percy, the next, Hyperion was being launched into the sky by a brutal, bone-crunching uppercut to the jaw. The Titan flipped in the air, righting himself, roaring in fury before slamming his blade down toward the earth.
The impact set half the entire park on fire. Percy summoned a massive wave from the reservoir water, as he doused the flames before he redirected the torrent at the Titan, blasting him back into a row of trees.
Hyperion's body suddenly ignited in a column of blinding, white-hot light. "Insolent whelp!" he thundered, his voice reaching a fever pitch that made Percy's ears bleed. "I am the light! I am eternal! You are nothing but a fleeting shadow in the wake of my glory!"
He swung Chrysafenios, and the heat was so intense it dried the sweat on Percy's brow in an instant and made the grass beneath him catch fire. Percy parried with Riptide, but the force of the blow was like being hit by a freight train. He was sent flying backward, his boots skidding across the cracked pavement until he slammed into a stone wall.
Before Hyperion could follow up on the dazed demigod, a fist slammed into the right side of his face, sending him tumbling sideways. Harry followed up with a slash that tore through the Titan's golden armor as if it were paper, leaving deep gashes that bled golden ichor. Hyperion screamed in genuine pain.
Harry just gave the titan an amused look." Eternal, you say," he spoke, amused.
Percy regrouped, water swirling around him like a protective cocoon, but he paused. Harry was cracking his neck, his eyes locked on Hyperion with a look of intense interest.
"I finally get where you stand," Harry muttered. To Harry, this wasn't a desperate struggle fight like all the other times he fought gods, honestly, this so far has been his easiest god battles, but this was a test. He wanted to see how these "Titans" compared to the gods of his world. So far, he understood where they stood in their 'mortal' forms in power as he used Hyperion as a benchmark, so what of their true forms now.
He turned to Percy, his expression unreadable. "It's time for you to go."
"What?" Percy blinked, wiping sweat from his face. "I'm not leaving you to fight this guy alone! We can take him together!"
"Look," Harry said bluntly, pointing back toward the city where the main army of Kronos was pushing toward the Empire State Building. "Your friends are dying. You want to spend your time here playing with the lightbulb when the Titan King is matching on Olympus right now? Go. I've got this under control."
Percy hesitated. He looked at the Titan, who was currently regenerating his wounds with light, then at Harry, then back toward the smoke rising over the heart of Manhattan. He still didn't know if he could trust Harry, but he knew he couldn't be in two places at once, and Harry seemed… beyond whatever Percy was, and he was fighting to win against the titans he could feel that for sure.
"Don't die," Percy muttered, giving Harry a final, searching look before turning and sprinting toward the sounds of the main battle.
Hyperion watched the son of Poseidon go, his fury boiling over into a supernova of rage. "You dare ignore me?! You think you alone are enough to defeat me, boy?!"
Harry stepped forward, his shadow lengthening and twisting into something monstrous, his eyes glowing an intense green as his power seemed to start rising. He gave a smirk.
"Of course," Harry whispered. His voice was low. "Because compared to the other things I've actually killed… you're so weak." he gave the titan a smile.
Hyperion roared, his entire form started to crack and expand until he was a twenty-foot giant of pure, screaming fire and light, and Harry's eyes began to glow with a terrifying, emerald hunger.
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