The Last Olympian

Laistrygonian giant to ashes, and I knew Thalia must be doing her daugh ter of Zeus thing.
    Grover raised his pipes and played a quick tune. A roar went up from the woods on both sides as every tree, rock, and bush seemed to sprout a spirit. Dryads and satyrs raised their clubs and charged. The trees wrapped around the monsters, strangling them. Grass grew around the feet of the enemy archers. Stones flew up and hit dracaenae in the faces.
    The enemy slogged forward. Giants smashed through the trees, and naiads faded as their life sources were destroyed. Hellhounds lunged at the timber wolves, knocking them aside. Enemy archers returned fire, and a Hunter fell from a high branch.
    “Percy!” Annabeth grabbed my arm and pointed at the reservoir. The Titan in the gold armor wasn’t waiting for his forces to advance around the sides. He was charging toward us, walking straight over the top of the lake.
    A Greek firebomb exploded right on top of him, but he raised his palm and sucked the flames out of the air.
    “Hyperion,” Annabeth said in awe. “The lord of light. Titan of the east.”
    “Bad?” I guessed.
    “Next to Atlas, he’s the greatest Titan warrior. In the old days, four Titans controlled the four corners of the world. Hyperion was the east—the most powerful. He was the father of Helios, the first sun god.”
    “I’ll keep him busy,” I promised.
    “Percy, even you can’t—”
    “Just keep our forces together.”
    We’d set up at the reservoir for good reason. I concentrated on the water and felt its power surging through me.
    I advanced toward Hyperion, running over the top of the water. Yeah, buddy. Two can play that game.
    Twenty feet away, Hyperion raised his sword. His eyes were just like I’d seen in my dream—as gold as Kronos’s but brighter, like miniature suns.
    “The sea god’s brat,” he mused. “You’re the one who trapped Atlas beneath the sky again?”
    “It wasn’t hard,” I said. “You Titans are about as bright as my gym socks.”
    Hyperion snarled. “You want bright?”
    His body ignited in a column of light and heat. I looked away, but I was still blinded.
    Instinctively I raised Riptide—just in time. Hyperion’s blade slammed against mine. The shock wave sent a ten-foot ring of water across the surface of the lake.
    My eyes still burned. I had to shut off his light.
    I concentrated on the tidal wave and forced it to reverse. Just before impact, I jumped upward on a jet of water.
    “AHHHHH!” The waves smashed into Hyperion and he went under, his light extinguished.
    I landed on the lake’s surface just as Hyperion struggled to his feet. His golden armor was dripping wet. His eyes no longer blazed, but they still looked murderous.
    “You will burn, Jackson!” he roared.
    Our swords met again and the air charged with ozone.
    The battle still raged around us. On the right flank, Annabeth was leading an assault with her siblings. On the left flank, Grover and his nature spirits were regrouping, entangling the enemies with bushes and weeds.
    “Enough games,” Hyperion told me. “We fight on land.”
    I was about to make some clever comment, like “No,” when the Titan yelled. A wall of force slammed me through the air—just like the trick Kronos had pulled on the bridge. I sailed backward about three hundred yards and smashed into the ground. If it hadn’t been for my new invulnerability, I would’ve broken every bone in my body.
    I got to my feet, groaning. “I really hate it when you Titans do that.”
    Hyperion closed on me with blinding speed.
    I concentrated on the water, drawing strength from it.
    Hyperion attacked. He was powerful and fast, but he couldn’t seem to land a blow. The ground around his feet kept erupting in flames, but I kept dousing it just as quickly.
    “Stop it!” the Titan roared. “Stop that wind!”
    I wasn’t sure what he meant. I was too busy fighting.
    Hyperion stumbled like he was being pushed away. Water sprayed his face, stinging his eyes. The wind picked up, and Hyperion staggered backward.
    “Percy!” Grover called in amazement. “How are you doing that?”
    Doing what? I thought.
    Then I looked down, and I realized I was standing in the middle of my own personal hurricane. Clouds of water vapor swirled around me, winds so powerful they buffeted Hyperion and flattened the grass in a twenty-yard radius. Enemy warriors threw javelins at me, but the storm knocked them aside.
    “Sweet,” I muttered.