The Sword.

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Disclaimer: No monetary gain is made from this venture.

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Prologue:

"Brother… I worried." Tyson entered our Cabin, and I was surprised by how serious the look on his face was while he spoke. I tried to think of something that might have bothered my cyclopean half-brother, but I came up blank on every turn. I sincerely hoped it had nothing to do with the campers, I had thought they just started warming up to him after our quest.

"Is anyone bothering you, big guy?" I asked, standing from my bed grabbing the shield watch and Riptide off my bedside table. I was more than a bit relieved when he shook his head in disagreement, glad to see that the interactions between my fellow campers and him that led me to believe that he was being accepted was not fake in the slightest.

"Fight with Scar, worried me." Tyson stated, his big brown eye turning watery. Scar… he probably meant Luke. "Hurt you bad."

I tried to reassure him, but the attempt was halfhearted, Luke had driven me off the ship without even trying. My old teacher was still quite the swordsman, and fighting him felt like trying to hit the wind. He didn't use have the camp's title of champion swordsman for nothing after all. Luke knew every single I was about to make, every single slash of mine could be blocked with ease, or even parried. Luke was beyond me in every way.

"Me no like worrying." Tyson muttered, he caught me in a gigantic bear hug. I felt a big tear leak from his eye and land on my head, or at least I hoped it was a tear, considering Tyson, the drop could easily have been some peanut-butter flavored drool. He pulled me off and grasped my hand, before pressing something against it. "So me made this for, Big Brother, so me no need to worry for him."

Energy washed through me as if I had just stepped into the saltwater fountain three feet away, I opened my hand and I was surprised to see a shard of rock that seemed to be chipped into shape surrounded by leather like a wrist band.

"Got lava from volcano, cooled with sea, not pretty though." Tyson seemed disappointed in admitting, I couldn't lie about it either. The shield was a lot better even with the half-finished etchings on it… but I appreciated the gift a lot since he made it with lava. "But strong enough to keep you safe!" He declared proudly.

"I really appreciate it Tyson," I mussed with his brown locks, making him chuckle, I wasn't surprised about how I had to tip-toe to do it either. He had grown during the quest, before I only had to reach to muss with my half-brothers hair. "If this keeps me as strong as I am in the sea, I'll handle Luke no problem."

I figured if I managed to draw blood from the God of Battle while I was within my father's realm, I could most certainly tire Luke out and force him to come back with use and explain himself.

Tyson shook his head, he reached out with his large hands and strapped the bracelet to my right hand, since the shield watch was on my left. I didn't even feel his skin, all that metalworking with Beckendorf must have done him a lot of good.

"Big Brother fight too fair with Scar." Tyson stated firmly, his face settling near to serious but with his chubby face I doubted anyone else would have noticed it besides me. "Scar keep beating brother so long as he try to fight fair too."

He touched the rock and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as the bracelet turned into something that clearly wasn't only two inches long.

There was fire in my brothers eye as he met my shocked eyes, I was pretty sure I was grinning just as crazily as he was though.

"Fighting fair," Tyson stated gravely, I was amazed I was even able to lift the weapon, let alone swing it. "Is no good."

…

"Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth yelled and I winced as my earphone delivered the scream from my best friend at point blank range. "Thalia and I have the Di Angelos but a monster is after us!"

I straightened my back against the snow at that, I would have gotten up but the plan stated I was here to ambush whatever came out. The snow matched my clothes pretty well, but I left my white cap inside my mom's car. The white earmuffs that Grover had lent me kept my ears from falling off, but didn't do much to hide my black hair against the pure-white snow.

"What kind is it?" I question, making sure my shield was on my left arm, Riptide inside the shoulder holder Chiron had given me for my birthday so I could bring it out easier, and Tyson's gift strapped to the same spot the Cyclops had attached it months ago.

The doors of the school burst open and Annabeth ran out with Thalia and some really under-dressed kids with black hair and olive skin. Grover must not have been kidding about that dance he mentioned before I exited stage right, even Thalia and Annabeth didn't have their jackets while the two were dressed for some sort of fancy party.

Annabeth caught my eye and yelled. "Manticore!" Moments before the monster burst through the doors in an explosion of wood. Thalia was the least fazed since she already had her shield and spear pointed at the door the moment they left, Annabeth and the kids were blow away like ragdolls though and I was tempted to check on them.

Then the Manticore used its tail to sideswipe Thalia, sending her flying, and my options ran out as sharp objects flew from the tail and almost turned Annabeth into a Shish-Kebab.

I took a sprinting start, jumping down the school's snow-covered roof and becoming a one hundred and forty pound demigod missile as I planted my snow boots right into the monster's face. The spikes from its tail stopped firing the moment my boots landed on my target, the last spike almost going through Annabeth's eye socket barely flying an inch over her prone form.

The beat roared and thrashed its head against me, sending me flying up with monstrous strength. The monster's tail swiveled around to fire at me while I couldn't dodge, but I solved that problem by pressing the fourth button on my watch and allowing the shower of dangerous objects to catch the spikes at an angle that deflected them and forced me higher into the air. Thank the gods Tyson had taught me how to sue the shield properly alongside the weapon he gave me, otherwise a segment of my shield would've broken and poison would have been gathering into my veins already.

I was about ten feet above the Manticore when the last spike hit, and I was already at nine feet with the Manticore leaping towards me mouth wide open when I sealed the shield away and brought both my hands behind my back. The manticore's teeth were inches away from my jugular, its paws about to tear into my shoulders when I swung the sword that Tyson made just for me over my head and into the very surprised Manticore.

My very own Fully-Grown, Cyclops sword, was ten feet and two wide'Don't Fuck with Me', sea obsidian chipped into an edge, lined with plain old iron on the back with leather wrappings on the handle, made by my Cyclopean brother Tyson with the express reason of kicking anything's ass. The weapon made by a giant for giants, weighed around a thousand and a half pounds for everyone else while being as light as a feather for me, thanks to the power of the ocean flowing through it.

Needless to say the sword twice my body length sliced through the monster like a crowd of Yankees fans in an all you can eat buffet.

My feet didn't even reach the ground after the monster dissolved, the sword burying itself into the ground and staying there before I sealed it away, back into its regular shape as a rather ugly looking obsidian shard strapped onto my right arm.

Thalia punched me in the shoulder in greeting, Annabeth already on her back with the younger brother supporting his sister right behind them.

"Nice job, man." She set up a fist pump, which I gladly returned. Her eyes got misty as she eyed the giant slash on the ground that was steadily filling with snow. "Did it really need to be that complicated, Percy?" She smirked, leveling her eyes to me in good humor. "You could've just dropped the thing on him like that hellhound a few weeks back."

I stuck my tongue out at her.

"If you have a problem with me breaking the badass scale on a daily basis you should wait in the snow for thirty minutes." I snarked, more than a bit affronted at how she easily called out my masterful plan to kill monsters. "Try and find something to do while freezing your toes off."

"Well excuse me, Mr. I Got Snow Up My Pants," Thalia fired back with a smirk crossing her arms and showing off her own magical weapons that looked like punk-rocker bracelets of all things. "Maybe you could spend thirty minutes dancing with I-Have-Two-Left-Hooves Grover instead of lazing around and turning snow yellow out here."

"Well Miss I Can't dance So I Have To Blame A Poor Satyr-"

"Ummm…" The girl raised her hand weakly as her brother struggled to keep them both up. "Sorry to interrupt your flirting." I swear my cheeks turned into two underwater volcanoes, and Thalia wasn't doing much better as she coughed aside with a red blush on her usually pale face. "But is that helicopter our way out of here?"

Even the unconscious Annabeth seemed to say "Helicopter?" as confusedly as me and Thalia as we turned toward the helicopter with at least sic men armed with military gear hanging off it with its searchlights right on us.

Grover decided to appear at that moment, took one look at the Helicopter with enough firepower to level a block, and decided to faint right away in a daze.

I swear I heard him say "Justin Timberlake is fine." At least once, whilst directing his voice at Thalia before the concrete underneath his hooves knocked him clear out.

That was a story that I needed to hear later, so I had to keep these idiots from killing us.

I grasped the pen on my shoulder and flung it towards the helicopter jumping over Thalia as she brought out Aegis. Chiron had been quite pragmatic when he was teaching me how to correctly use a blade that always returned to its scabbard and was perfectly balanced, thoroughly showing me how to throw the sword perfectly within the span of seconds. The sword flew through the air, my augmented strength sending it faster than a spear thrown by Beckendorf. The Celestial Bronze wouldn't kill the humans, they were too unimportant, but I hoped to take out the control mechanism and make it crash.

Still, I released my giant blade once more, manifesting a solid wall ten feet long and two feet wide to protect us, the girl swiftly aligning her body against my back with her brother pressed against her own. Thalia came up to my side and knelt down, adding her round shield to the defense while static and ozone crackled at her right side as lighting gathered on the tip of her spear.

I sincerely hoped my sword would just make these guys crash, getting friend alive by lighting was not a good way to die.

My sword touched the cockpit of the helicopter and…

Turned it into a murder of crows?

"Is that supposed to happen?" The female Di Angelo stated idly behind me, curiosity seemingly overcoming seeing a helicopter and men turn to a murder of crows. Thalia's glance stated the exact same question.

I opened my mouth.

"Mortals should not interfere with the actions of the gods." An auburn haired girl of extraordinary beauty stepped out of the forest. Beside her clad in silver parkas and other winter gear, as she was, a gaggle of girls suddenly appeared, all wielding silver bows arrows notched and ready to fly. It didn't take a genius to figure out who it was, especially with the full moon behind the group. She caught my eye and inclined her head the tiniest bit.

I bowed my head and sealed my blade.

"Lady Artemis." I greeted the goddess.

…