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The Son of Storms 11
🕑 Added 2022-12-18 15:55:56 +0000 UTCAn explosion of dirt and rocks happened right below him, and at the same time, a gigantic bolt of lightning dropped from the skies above him. Using every ounce of agility in his body, he pushed against the large chunk of stone beneath his feet, heaving up from the force of the giant creatures exit, barely avoiding the large mandibles that came up to snap at him. However, he was not quick enough to avoid the lightning that came from the stormbird, the pure unadulterated electrical energy striking him on his head and driving him into the ground. It was…strange, a part of his mind reflected even as he screamed. It had been years since electricity had made any negative impact on his body.
But this? This felt worse than a dozen of Ares’ kids punching him at the same time. His veins burned, and his blood boiled as he was roasted by the somehow dangerous lightning. An angry shriek echoed throughout the cliffs as his vision blacked out for a second, his body being roasted from the inside even as he felt the lightning dissipate into the ground. Shuddering and gasping for breath as he trembled and shook from the aftershocks, Harry used his own abilities over electricity to make muscles stop seizing—which was still difficult with how the birds lightning seemed to be different than the normal one.
A stone dropped on his head as the ground rumbled violently, and Harry winced as the whole cliff shook as whatever the fuck had crawled out of the ground once again dove down. Groaning as he moved out of the shallow hole his body had carved into the rock, he glanced up just in time to see another spark of white appear in the air. Swearing mentally, he kicked off the ground and jumped back, barely avoiding the pillar of lightning that the bird once again shot at him.
’What in the name of Father is that?’ He raged in his mind, summoning his xiphos to his hand as his eyes zoomed in on the strange, four-winged avian. Bronze and gold feathers covered it from head to two, with shades of blue and grey shimmering in between as it hovered in its place. A crest of gold adorned its head, and its neon blue eyes stared at him from across the gap between them as sparks danced across its body. ‘A giant eagle with control over lightning?! One of Fathers creations?!’
Dark clouds gathered around the stormbird, and at the same time, Harry felt something humongous move inside the cliff below his feet. ‘The worm thing’ he realised, shocked at the ease the thing displayed as it swam in the rocks, ‘Have to take that out first. The bird can’t possibly kill me in one hit, but can’t say the same about those mandibles.’
Looking around himself, Harry bent his knees and jumped up, the ground cratering beneath his feet as he shot towards the next cliff. Behind him, he felt the underground monster erupt out of the ground, its roar shaking the whole canyon below them as stones and boulders once again flew into the air. The bird shrieked in what Harry assumed was anger, and he watched it swoop down towards the monster behind him right as his feet touched the surface once again. Rolling forwards and turning around, his jaw dropped open as he saw the full size of the worm for the first time.
Black mandibles thrice as long as himself greeted him first as they snapped at the thunder-bird, and he followed them back to the cavernous maw that was filled with hundreds of teeth. Above the circular mouth, six pale green eyes sat in a single row, black pupils glaring out at the avian in anger as its brown-white body writhed and slithered with the help of its numerous pointed legs. Segmented plates covered it completely, and if his past experience with myrmekes was anything to go by, then it was definitely going to be a hassle to cut through them. Breathing in deeply, Harry concentrated on the sky above him, and grasped the residual…energy from the bird. Grunting with the anger and excitement both that flowed through him, he roared loudly and jumped up, a bolt of lightning falling down upon him as a miniature storm formed in the skies.
The worm and the bird both turned towards him at that, and his eyes glowed neon blue as electricity arced off his body onto the red stone below. The avian shrieked as it instantly flew up, its own body lighting up with sparks and currents, while the creature roared in anger and reared up, raising its body like a snake as its legs clicked together rapidly. He neared its pale white underside, bringing up his xiphos and screaming wildly as he slammed into its midsection.
A terrible screeching filled his ears as the insect chittered and suddenly shifted to its right, and Harry floundered for a moment. He concentrated on the air around him, intent on diverting his momentum just enough to somehow reach the exoskeleton covering the centipede. However before he could do anything, the insect hit him with a swing of its head, swatting him away with what felt like a battering ram made of celestial bronze—and wielded by the strongest of Hephaestus’ and Ares’ kids. It all happened so fast that Harry didn’t even have the time to process anything before he slammed face first into the rocks ahead.
The lightning around him dissipated, and he groaned in deja vu as he felt his head ring slightly from the two feet of stone it had dug through. The shroud of electricity over his body disappeared, and so did the cloud created by him as he lost his focus for a moment. He felt something huge move through the air rapidly, and just as he managed to somewhat bring himself out as the centipedes tail slapped down on his head. It was only thanks to his demigod physiology and the fact as he was a freak even by Half-Blood standards that his head wasn’t turned to a pulp, or at least, grievously wounded. However, it wasn’t to say that it didn’t harm him. The ground shattered beneath him as he was pounded into the rock, the segmented plates that made up the centipedes armor scraping along his clothes and tearing them as dust rose up around them. Beneath them, the ground shook terribly, and Harry felt some kind of…energy pass from the giant monster into the ground, shaking and cracking the very foundations of the cliff they were on.
Growling in anger as he heard the centipede chitter and its weight shift, he reached inside him, searching for the power that he had avoided using as much as he could. The ground rumbled beneath him strongly, and he felt the earth on a level he never had before. His eyes glowed a faint sea green as the Earthshakers blood within him sang with power, and he felt the centipedes actions more keenly now that he was a part of the earth itself. He felt how each of its pointed, sharp legs was touching the round in rapid succession as it slithered from side to side, its body swaying through the air as the monster hissed and clicked its mandibles.
A part of its body lost contact with the ground, and Harry grunted as he realized what it was going to do. Bringing his hand up, he formed a fist and struck the earth with it, using as much power as he could in such a short distance. Cracks spiderwebbed out from the point of impact, and the cliff shook for a moment from the force of his punch as the loose rocks fell to the ground with a heavy rumble. Behind him, the monster lost its balance for just a moment, the tail that was heading for his body instead slamming a few feet away from him, further adding to the destruction of the mountain.
The centipede shrieked with what Harry assumed to be irritation, and he once again felt its weird magic act up as it slammed its head into the ground…and simply sank into it? He rose to his feet, summoning his xiphos back to his hand, and turned around, watching the at least hundred foot long centipede disappear into the earth as if it was swimming into a portal.
For a moment, all he could do was gape at the sight of the humongous thing vanishing into hard rock, able to sense just how fast the large insect was moving through solid stone below his feet. It was as if he was sensing a fish cut through water, the centipedes magic somehow molding and reshaping the stone around it, before it reformed around it. Growling in irritation, he raised his foot, intent on shaking the whole cliff apart to expose it…but right then, the electric eagle decided to remind him of its presence.
His senses flashed red, and he looked up just in time to watch the bird spread its four wings wide, every spark on its feather converging on its chest. Even through the hundreds of feet separating them, he could see the fury in its glowing eyes, the angry neon blue within promising to burn everything away with its power. Its beak opened as the ball of power in front of it grew to the size of its head, and with a scream that nearly made his ears bleed, dozens of bolts of lightning shot toward him. His eyes widened momentarily, before his mind raced to find a way to avoid the multiple lances of soul-searing pain arcing towards him.
He couldn’t ground it like he could normal electric bolts, he knew that from the stiffness and numbness lingering in his muscles—and neither could he absorb it, the bird’s magic somehow opposing his father’s blood with an ease and power he never could have expected. In the end, he decided to just run and hope that his divine heritage granted him enough agility to evade literal lightning. Using the technique that he had used for the first time he had accessed his fathers power, he let the electricity in his blood emerge to the surface…and he watched the lightning slow down by a fraction as his body reached a new state of physical awareness.
Dashing to his right, he threw his xiphos behind him, feeling the hair on his neck and head rise up slightly. He felt one of the bolts divert midway to his xiphos, the divine metal so attuned to electricity after years in his hands that it was far more conductive than the first time he had channeled lightning through it. He stumbled on a loose rock, and reflexively pushed against the ground, but with the augmented state of his body, it was enough to send him into the air. He turned around just as his feet left the surface, alarm on his features as he watched the glowing electricity reach out towards him—the ends branching out into hundreds of strands as if to cover every chance of him escaping.
He had messed up badly, Harry realised. Since the Hydra incident, he had only grown stronger, and at the same time, he hadn’t augmented his body even once. He had mistakenly used too much power, and now he was in the air, with no time or chance to avoid the thousands of volts of magical electricity coming at him. However in the final second that was left before contact, a single thought dominated his entire mind, stemming from his past experience with the birds electricity, as well as an instinctive need to avoid pain.
To somehow block the lightning.
Just like it had answered his desires all those years ago in the cave with the chimera, his mixed heritage once again did so—the magic of wizards and the power of the God of Thunder, as well as the Stormbringer merging together to protect him from the magical lightning. A shield formed around him, its pale blue surface crackling with tiny, deep blue trails of electric energy as it covered him on all sides. A moment later, the lightning hit it with an ear-deafening boom, an explosion of white and blue launching him backward at breakneck speeds as the shield evaporated from the sheer power behind those bolts.
He fell through the gap between the rocky hills, the wind rushing through his ears as his whole body went numb. His right hand was burnt, and so was half of his face along with his right eye being nothing but a ruptured, dried socket…but he was alive. Vision slowly returned to his left eye, and Harry bit his lip at the stinging sensation that began to come from his hand and face, each inch feeling as if someone was stabbing him with needles. In the back of his mind, he was aware of the sandy ground he was about to meet, and with an effort born from desperation as well as familiarity with pain, he slowed his free fall to a somewhat controlled descent. He fell on a few shrubs, and numbness in his body disappeared with a world of pain as the branches rubbed off the blisters and burnt skin on his head and arms. His back arched reflexively as he writhed for a moment, his head feeling as if it had been split apart and then smashed back together.
However, he knew he didn’t have more than a few moments of peace— agonizing as it was, at least it was without lightning bolts or large mandibles— and with a heavy, rasping groan, he slowly rose to a seated position. Black spots danced in front of his lone eye, and he almost lost his balance as pain flared up across his whole body. While the hastily, instinctively created shield had saved him from the majority of the lightning, it hadn't been enough to protect him completely. Stumbling and trembling like a leaf in a storm, he somehow stood on his feet, swaying for a moment as he felt the world spin around him. Something gnawed at the edges of his senses, a constant buzz in his already frayed mind, and Harry winced as the stormbird’s victorious cry echoed through the area.
He brought his right hand to his chest, and opened his left fist, mentally summoning his sword back to his hand as he glared at the darkening skies above. Against the small smattering of stars now visible, he watched a blur cut through the air, the bird leaving behind a streak of lightning as it once again started glowing. With his depth perception gone, Harry was left with only about a few minutes in which he had to somehow defeat both of the monsters who had decided to make a snack out of him, and given the large shape of the centipede moving towards him from his right…it was probably going to be a battle royale.
The large insect crawled out of the mountain on his right, its numerous eyes even more menacing in the shadows they were standing in as it rapidly moved and coiled upon its long body. Its mandibles clacked together, and Harry grunted as his xiphos materialised in his palm, his single emerald eye glaring with rage and hate at the montrous face of the creature. Above them, dark clouds formed in the skies as he slowly but surely lost control of his emotions, all the pain and and the ever present fury within his heart boiling to the surface in a maelstrom of power and wrath. Adrenaline flowed in his veins, dulling the throbbing pain in his body and the sting in his ruined eye and hand. Thunder roared overhead, and he dimly heard the bird cry out as fierce winds began to swirl throught the rocky landscape. The centipede chittered as lightning once again flickered over his body, and it shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. With the lack of depth perception, Harry relied on pure instinct as he jumped into the air, summoning lightning from the clouds above as he swung his sword.
The crackle of thunder echoed amidst the rocks as bolts of pure annihilating power dropped from the heavens above. His sword glowed white as lightning struck its edge, and he felt his aches disappear as electricity traveled through his body, rejuvenating and healing some of the damage he had taken. Time seemed to slow down for him as he neared the centipedes head, his mouth open in a savage scream as his singular eye glowed neon, and his fingers tensed upon his swords hilt. However, he had forgotten about two crucial things. First, that he had made the jump without a proper judgement of distance between him and his target—and second…that they weren’t alone. His eye widened a little as he realised that he had once again overshot, and Harry bent his legs, intent on using the wall behind the insect to rebound at its head, but before he could do so, its tail came whipping at his airborne form.
He bent his body backwards and swung his arm with all the power he could muster, its edge glowing white hot as electricity sparked all over it. He screamed madly as he felt the centipedes tail connect with his sword, and it cut through the hard, chitinous exoskeleton like a hot knife through butter. The monster chittered and shrieked horrifyingly as as its insides were fried due to the lightning infused in his body and sword both, and Harry grinned as pungent, pale yellow blood splashed upon his chest and face. Completing the spin, he landed feet first on the cliff, and shot back towards the twisting and writhing insect…but a fierce wind blew from the right, and sent him hurtling away like a leaf in a storm.
‘Fucking piece of electric turkey’ he snarled mentally as he slammed into a boulder, crumbling it to pieces and dust instantly as he struck it with a fist, his lone eye glaring at the silhouette of the large bird. Its four wings flapped once more, and this time, he felt the magic in those wings enhance the winds produced by the motion…turning a simple breeze into a stormwind. Raising his sword hand, he pointed his blade at the bird, and a grunt of exertion, brought down another bolt upon it and the centipede rapidly burrowing into the ground.
Two down, one more left in the tank.
The bird and the insect both screamed as lightning touched their bodies, but a part of him should have realised that it wouldn’t affect the bird much. With a burst of its own power, it disappeared from the spot and appeared a few feet away, smoke rising from its body as it jittered and shook, wings flapping unsteadily in the aftermath of the foreign lightning it had experienced for the first time. However, in the time he had watched the bird teleport and fly low to the ground, the centipede had completely vanished from his sight, its grounded body and its chitinous armor protecting it from the worst of electricity.
“Fuck!” he rasped, stretching out his senses into the ground, only to blink in shock when he realised where it had decided to head first. He watched with shock and a little awe as it erupted out of the stone right next to the shivering, panting eagle, its mandibles spread wide and its cavernous mouth open in a nightmarish scream. The eagle cried out in shock and alarm, and it tried to fly away, the aftershocks of Harrys attack prevented it from doing so…and thus, the powerful stormbird was reduced to a sitting duck in front of a centipede that was more than a hundred feet long. It rapidly coiled around the bird, its thick body constricting powerfully as the eagle squawked in surprise, stumbling back and falling to the ground. A bright flash of light came from the bird as it teleported in a flash of lightning, and Harry looked up as it appeared a few dozen feet above the ground—only, the centipede was still attached to it, and now it had the room to move its head.
It was all over in a second. The centipedes head shot forwards like a bullet, its mandibles sinking into the chest of the bird with an audible, wet sound as electricity and glowing blue blood came pouring out, while its large mouth closed on on the helpless things head even as its beak opened to let out a cry of pain. Even as they fell through the air to the ground, the insect closed its mouth and snapped its mandibles once, finishing the stormbird in a single bite as its struggling body went limp. They crashed onto the ground in front of him, dust and stones blowing away in all directions…and Harry clenched his eyelid shut as some got into his eye.
Deciding to avoid a grounded fight with the deadly creature, he flew up into the air, mapping out the surrounding area with his control over the winds and earth both as he avoided a hanging tree and reached the apex of the mountain. Returning his sword to its bracelet form, he rubbed his left eye, cursing his luck for having now water at hand. Just as he got the last vestiges of the dust out, he felt the centipede enter his range once more, the insect rapidly ascending the mountain’s insides. On his last legs as he was after all the damage he ahd taken in the last few minutes, Harry knew that he wasn’t in a position to drag this out for much. He only had the strength for one more lightning bolt left inside him, and based on the last one, he knew it wouldn’t work on the centipede. He could try cutting its head off, but it was a gamble he didn’t have the luxury of taking at the moment.
But, as he felt the centipede crawl out into the open…an idea struck him like out of nowhere. Distasteful as it was, the Earthshaker’s powers had saved his life before when he had first awoken them against the chimera, and against this creature too…it seemed like he would need to actively use them. He remembered that anger, that loathing, that sheer hate which had flowed through him when he had grabbed the jaws of the chimera…and when he looked at the sea each day in the camp—and he glared down at the six-eyes insect, its body rapidly moving over the cliff as the monster stared up at him.
The ground rumbled beneath him, and he heard the centipede screech in alarm for a moment a section of the cliff next to it cracked. His eye glowed green, and Harry snarled as he dived down. A strange urge came from within his mind, his instincts guiding him along as he felt something emerge out from within him. Something travelled up his arm, a shiverrring feeling that left his hair standing on the end as the clouds above him rumbled with fury. Time slowed for him as he brought his fist back, his half ruined mouth settling in a gruesome smile as lightning flashed behind him.
His final thunderbolt of the night came roaring from above him, silhoutting his falling body against the bright flash as his single eye glowed bright. The centipede opened its maw, its mandibles poised to snap his body in half as it too rose to its full height. It screeched loudly, hundreds of teeth in its circular mouth staring Harry back as its six eyes focused upon him, and he roared back in return. Every fiber in his body tensed up, every bone and muscles pushed to the limit as he tightened his fist to the maximum. The mandibles started to close in as the distance between them reduced to single digits, and Harry grunted as the lightning bolt finally reached them, slamming into him, and through him, striking the open mouth of the centipede. Shocked by thousands of volts travelling directly inside its body, the centipede screamed and started to recoil wildly, two of its popping into bloody messes as one of its mandibles shattered away.
However, it was too late.
Before it could move more than a foot, Harry reached its head. His glowing green eyes stared into the centipede’s eye as his left fist came down sharply…and struck its head right in the middle. Something happened as he did it, the strange power, the weird feeling in his arm travelling through his fist into the centipede…and its head simply burst apart into chunks of meat, chitton and blood like a watermelon. He crached into the headless body of the insect, tearing through the dying, wriggling corpse as his fist too shattered in the next moment. He slammed into a boulder, breaking it open as his body rolled to a stop, covered in centipede gore and dust. Besides him, one of the mandibles landed with a dull thud, followed by the rest of the body of the centipede, its numerous legs somehow still moving a little, its yellow blood gushing out in gouts from its underside and where its head had been.
Blackness started to close in on his vision as a wave of exhaustion hit his body like a semi, and he groaned pitifully as every single muscle in his body screamed in tiredness. A shuddering gasp left his mouth as his head rested back against the sand, staring at the outcropping on his left. His eye closed for a moment, and he barely managed to open it as he took a deep breath, feeling numbness spread through his body as his head began to throb from the inside. As his eye once again closed, the last sight he saw was a brief flash of light, which illuminated the rock and bushes upon the cliff’s edge, where a bronze egg rested undisturbed.
Comments
I am lord dems
Cool cool can't wait for Harry to find out the actual truth of his parentsge
