After our group hug, We all went to go have breakfast and I officially met the Hecatoncheires. They were named Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges. The only way I could tell the difference between them was they now each wore a colored belt. Cottus wore brown, Brareus blue, and Gyges black. Under Hades' request, we resumed training.
Incorporating Poseidon's earthquakes into our team fighting was going to be a problem. I've lost my footing on multiple occasions while Poseidon was training. Steropes was trying to teach him that the trident wasn't all for large scale earthquakes. Poseidon stopped.
"Why didn't you say that before!"
"We had to make the weapon sound cool first. Also you're using it too wildly as a weapon."
Arges and Metis were trying to teach Hades knife techniques and to use invisibility in small increments to confuse the enemy and be able to have enough energy to run if necessary.
Brontes was showing me how to use the Lightning Bolt.
"You seemed to have a completely different connection with the lightning bolt." He said as I twirled the spear over my head and redirected lightning in all directions.
"Hey, be careful with that stuff!" Hades yelled at me.
"Yeah, sorry." I replied and sat down for a cup of water.
"Anyway, your body seems to have completely accepted it. Almost as if it were expecting it." The Cyclops rubbed his chin. "I was going to wait until later, but there is another way to use lightning." I raised my eyebrow at him. He cleared his throat and continued. "The bolt can store lightning to be summoned at a later time but it will be weaker than pure, brand new lightning. And with how your body reacted to the bolt, I'd say in time, you won't need the bolt to call upon lightning."
I nodded. I expected it to be that way. Even hoped for it. I stood up and called another storm but this time I had the lightning circulate inside the bolt instead of just firing it out. All the silver on the gold spear turned a light purple and glowed softly. Then I pointed the spear towards a tree and shot out an arc of the lightning. The pine instantly exploded and lit aflame.
Brontes took one of the many buckets of water he had and doused the flames. I looked over at Poseidon who seemed to be getting the hang of the trident's powers.
"Hey Poseidon. Wanna have a spar?"
Poseidon smiled. "Yeah, I need to hit someone anyway," he said and got into a wide stance with his right shoulder facing me and the trident in both hands and pointed at my chest.
I stood four meters from him and held my spear in one hand, pointed at the floor. The others present came over to watch. The Lightning Bolt was engulfed in purple sparks and I opened my eyes and launched it at Poseidon's chest. We didn't have to worry about fatal wounds as we were immortal and had passively strong regeneration coupled with Hestia's arua. It didn't mean we'd actively try to kill each other or cause wounds that would take time to heal. We still had things to do after all.
Poseidon rushed forward and slid on one knee and slid under the spear. He dragged the trident on the ground before flinging up a thick spike of earth. I vaulted over it and caught my spear which always returned itself to me. I slashed in an arc sending out more lightning. Poseidon stabbed the trident in the ground and pulled it and a wall of rock up to block the lightning as he hid behind the wall.
I could feel the ground shake for a fraction of a second before a fracture ran through the floor from under the wall and completely destroyed the ground under me. With my footing ruined, Poseidon rushed me. He did a quick spin and stabbed at my head but I fell backwards and did a handspring away. Just as I landed, the trident was already inches from my chest. I caught it in my left hand and pulled it down, bringing Poseidon off balance and stumbling forward. I dropped both weapons and grabbed him on the sides of his head and kneed him in the nose, sending him reeling back.
Before he could recover I rushed forward and decided to try something. I clutched my spear and leaped up and did a spin and kicked Poseidon in the head, sending him flying into a tree. I had used some of the lightning in the spear and sent it through my body and into my leg. When I kicked Poseidon, it was transferred to him and he was electrocuted.
"Ugh, I yield." Poseidon groaned before pulling himself out of the bent tree. He reached out his hand and the trident flew to him. His movements were jerky and his left eye twitched. "I guess I still have a long way to go before I beat the master." He laughed.
"You did great. Actually almost got me with the ground trick you pulled."
"You're so flexible it doesn't make sense. You can do all these flips and twists." I shrugged and looked at Hades.
"You want to have a spar?"
He shrugged and stood up. "If I beat you I can finally get Poseidon off my ass." He put on his helm and readied his Kopides. He had five different daggers and another two kopides strapped to his belt. He spread his legs and put his left foot forward. He held a kopis out to the right and had the other infront of him and pointed to his right.
He vanished but thanks to my eyes I could still see him. He was now just a black silhouette of himself that emitted a dark fog. He circled around me and I followed, smiling. He reappeared.
"You're joking."
I shrugged and charged. Encasing my spear in lightning, I stabbed at him, he turned "invisible" again and ducked to the side before pulling his sword up at my extended arm. I smiled and sent out a pulse of electricity but Hades completely vanished and reappeared under the shade of a tree.
Before he could recover, I threw my spear at him. He crossed his sword and caught the spear between them and, as if they were scissors, tried to break my spear only for his swords to snap in half. I dashed in front of him and threw a punch at his nose. He caught my wrist and flipped me over his shoulder and smashed me into the grass. He pulled out a bronze dagger with a triangle blade and stabbed down at my neck.
I quickly rolled to the side and onto my feet. The Lightning Bolt came back to me. I twirled it and encased the spear with the last bit of lightning it had left. Hades threw his dagger and appeared behind me. Sensing danger I used Absolute Evasion on instinct and flickered out of the way and electrocuted what was behind me , but was still blasted away by the shockwave from the attack.
Hades, now a blue whale, was laying where I just was. He returned to normal and dashed at me as I got up. Using a spear in close quarters was impossible and I didn't have time to call more lightning, so I stabbed the Lightning Bolt into the ground and drew my xiphos.
Hades reached me but I kept him at bay with my longer ranged weapon. We circled each other and looked for an opening. If I still had my spear, Hades could rush me and get inside my guard with ease. But now that I had my sword, he couldn't do much against the versatile weapon with just a dagger. This dagger was silver and had a longer, slightly curved blade. He held it in a reverse grip and stared me down with the void hiding his face.
I flinched left and he moved to block and I smiled before kicking his exposed leg, causing him to drop to his knee. I then did a forward kick into his chest and sent him sprawling.
"Oof!" Hades landed on his back. Before he could stand, I stepped on his chest and put my spear at his neck. "Ugh. I yield." I smirked and got off him before reaching my hand down to him.
Hades took it and got up. He took off his helmet and frowned at me. "Your abilities are such bullshit."
"I know right! How do you hit him!" Poseidon yelled. I laughed. I was glad Hades was feeling better and they were right. The abilities were kinda bullshit.
Metis got off her rock and clapped. "Okay you muscle heads had your fun. It's time for dinner and our first official war meeting." Everyone present immediately grew serious. Now that we understood our powers, it was time to make a proper plan. We couldn't sit and train for ten years. We had to prepare the battlefield.
We climbed up the mountain, and after a quick dinner, I cleared my throat. Instantly, all conversations stopped and everyone put their full attention to me at the head of the table.
"Here is my plan for the ten years we have this safe haven. As you know, there are certain titans out there that need to go before we can challenge Cronus. These are Hyperion, Atlas, Oceanus, and Hecate." The others nodded.
Those four would definitely be a problem. Atlas was Cronus' right hand and would create strategies and was also a formidable opponent. If Cronus and he fought side by side, the Olympians would lose. The same went for Hyperion. His attacks would be too powerful and distracting.
Oceanus has always been a problem for us, and Cronus' throne was right near the west sea.
Hecate was obviously going to be a problem. We didn't know how many spells she had, but if she could slowly burn away Gaea's barrier with a single spell, Cronus would be unbeatable with her at his side.
"I have a way to defeat Oceanus," Metis said. "As of right now, I'm slowly dying because I can't reach the Ocean without him trying to kill me."
"So we use you as bait to draw in the Titan." Hera smiled. "It's perfect."
I glared at her and Metis rolled her eyes. The others looked between the three of us and started to question our relationship.
"That was exactly the plan. When Oceanus gets angry, he stays like that until he completely drowned his problem. Or in my case, cut me into pieces and send me to a desert, where I'd quickly die."
"Uh, the hell," I said. "Then we can't use you as bait. It's too dangerous."
She flicked me on the forehead. "Idiot, that's why you guys will be there."
Hestia frowned. "Wouldn't he sense your presence. Especially since you're stronger than before."
Demeter raised her hand and I nodded for her to speak. "We still have those cloaks from earlier. You three can just layer those on yourselves." Hestia beamed at Demeter.
"See Demeter. Nothing to be afraid of. You're the most important of all of us. Well maybe behind Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Oh and there are also the Cyclopes. And maybe the Hecatoncheires-"
Hades put his hand over her mouth and nodded for me to continue.
"Fine, but I want you to run the second he tries anything." Metis nodded and gave me a reassuring smile.
"No, this wont work," Cottus the Hecatoncheir said. "Hyperion and Oceanus have always had each other's backs. You won't be able to fight him alone under the sun or moon. That's why us three will go and distract Hyperion."
Hades shook his head. "Then I'll go with you. You guys are not expendable. Poseidon and Zeus, you two go with Metis to go defeat Oceanus. The Hundred Handed Ones and I will distract Hyperion and who knows. Maybe even defeat him too?"
"But there is still one problem. The titans are immortal." Poseidon said.
"I have a plan for Oceanus." Metis said. "My sisters used to talk about siding with you, but were too afraid as they didn't trust your strength. If you can subdue him, I can convince them to take care of him."
"If we defeat Hyperion, we can put him in Tartarus." Steropes suggested.
Arges nodded. "Yeah, there are chains down there that can hold them down."
"Well then, why don't we just throw all of them in there?" Hera asked.
"Well the problem with that is that Gaea would most definitely get angry if we start throwing all of the Titans down there." Metis explained. "That's why she's against Cronus in the first place."
"Ok then it's settled." I stood out my chair and looked at the others. It wasn't the grand council that I wanted to see in the future, but I was still pleased with our little group. "Poseidon, Metis and I will go and draw out Oceanus and defeat him while the Hecatoncheires and Hades get Hyperion. Any objections?" Everyone shook their heads. "Gida?"
"Maaaaaaaaa!"
I smiled. "Good."