Chapter 21
A.N. I recommend listening to Counterattack from the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 soundtrack for this fight. Trust me, it's worth it
Gohan was staring down his enemy with newfound vigor as he could feel the power emanating from Aegis exploding. It was incredible, it was different from anything else before it.
'Do not drop your guard Gohan. This is only a temporary link. As such our powers are uneven, unperfected, we don't have much time,' Aegis said warning Gohan. He agreed, this power was very unstable, if he powered up from here he could break the link on accident.
"No Super Saiyan it is then, we won't need it with this power," Gohan replied as he readied himself to strike.
"Talking to yourself now? Ha! I must have hit your head pretty hard! Here, let me hit it harder!" He said now flying towards Gohan, not caring one bit for his newfound power.
'Get ready Gohan,' Aegis warned him.
"I am ready" Gohan replied swiftly as he anticipated his next attack.
'I'm not talking about Polyphemus. I'm talking about this,' Aegis said in an instant everything in the world looked different. Almost unsaturated. But Polyphemus was still moving towards them.
"What the, what's happening?" Gohan asked his blade for an answer.
'It is my ability. As the ultimate weapon, I can manipulate time and space for a multitude of different abilities for you to find. For now, I can activate this one on my own,' Aegis said as Gohan looked from Aegis back to Polyphemus who was still advancing but something was different. He was leaving a trail of doppelgangers behind him. They weren't moving but stood still in time, frozen.
'With time and space in my grasp I can manipulate the space around an enemy and look in different timelines to predict his next attack in the future,' Aegis said as he explained his ability.
"Now I get it, let's call it foresight," Gohan replied as he stood still and watch Polyphemus run-up to his face. He was getting ready for a right hook but then opened his palm and flashed a blinding light in his face for a temporary stun. He followed it up with a kick to his stomach and the foresight ended.
"I can see it, the same patterns," Gohan prepared himself. Polyphemus was now right in his face with his right hook.
"Made you look!" He screamed as he unleashed the blinding light. Gohan simply closed his eyes before it arrived and dodged his next attack by leaping over it. He jumped over his left fist and slashes at his cutting multiple wounds all over it. To anyone else, it seemed effortless. Gohan now landed on the ground and swung to his back with one horizontal swing. It pushed Polyphemus back but not enough to lose his balance. He turned around with pure rage in his eyes.
"You little shit! GET BACK HERE!" He screamed as he rushed Gohan down once again. But Aegis was all over it as he activated foresight once again. He predicted his every move once again and stopped the foresight as fast as he activated it. He tucked underneath his right hook, sidestepped his left, backed away from his headbutt and backflipped away from his knee. He then noticed how much Polyphemus was wearing down. He landed and started his counterattack. He began with an elbow to his stomach followed by a front flip kick to his head. He continued his onslaught with more slashes to his back and then dropped his sword to render him immobile.
"Grr. Hmph! Get this damn thing off me!" He screamed as he struggled to get out. Gohan was now ready to deliver the final blow as he cupped his hands. With Aegis stuck on top of Polyphemus all he could do is but watch as Gohan charged his attack.
'Now's our chance finish this before our link disappears!' Aegis said demanding Gohan to finish this fight.
"This is the end! KAMEHAME-" Gohan screamed as he charged up his attack to full power.
"HA!" He screamed as he fired a massive Kamehameha blast right in his face with Aegis holding him down. He was being completely disintegrated as Gohan never stopped firing. A few moments later all that was left was dust and Aegis on the ground. Gohan was now feeling extremely tired as he could now feel a severe drop of adrenaline. His wounds were still pretty severe, his armor disappeared and Aegis returned to its black and blue shape. Gohan was about to fall but someone caught him. He turned around and saw Percy and Tyson catch him.
"Tyson? I thought you were dead?" He asked as he looked at him.
"And I thought you were small. Like us!" He replied innocently.
"So? How did things go on your end?" Gohan asked as he summoned his blade back to his hand and transformed it back into a ring with Tyson staring at it.
"We were able to get it back. Annabeth and Clarisse went ahead to the Queen Anne's revenge to get it ready while we help you out but…" Percy said as he looked down at the craters and the massive lack of anything in the area.
"It seems you had it all under wraps," He said still amazed at his massive power.
"Well, I didn't do it alone this time," He said looking at his ring hoping to hear his voice.
"What do you mean by that? Did Zeus help? I did see a lot of thunder clouds earlier. But why would he help? Polyphemus should be a cakewalk for someone like you right?" Percy asked as they each took one of Gohan's arms and helped him walk.
"Zeus didn't help, I'll explain it later. Right now, we need to get back to camp," Gohan suggested as they walked the long way down to the Queen Anne's Revenge. They made it back to the beach to see Annabeth and Clarisse readying the sails so they can leave the Sea of Monsters
"I think I'm going to take a very long nap when we set sail," Gohan said as he yawned from exhaustion.
"The way you're beat up I believe it," Percy said as he looked at Gohan. He was much older than the last time he saw him for certain, but not by much.
"Gohan, have you not noticed how you're like, in your twenties again?" Percy asked as Gohan didn't give it much attention.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Gohan responded not even listening, he was far too tired and hungry.
"Oh, is that so?" Percy muttered under his breath. As he remembered Gohan's fight with Polyphemus. He wasn't there for the full fight but he arrived when Gohan was on the ground battered and defeated. He was in utter shock and panic. If Gohan, who could wield Blackstar and lift Charybdis. What could he do? How could he possibly help in any way? He felt so useless, like a deer in headlights, he was the son of the god Poseidon and yet he felt like a spectator. Before Percy could say anything they arrived at the ship for Gohan to go treat his wounds and rest. By looking over to his left he could see Annabeth wanted an explanation.
"You know as much as I do," Was all Percy said as he helped Clarisse finish preparing the boat to leave. Back with Gohan, he had found some spare cloth to use as bandages to temporarily cover his wounds. His stomach was now growling as it had been forever since Gohan ate anything. Gohan then reached into his pockets to find that he still had his capsules. Gohan thanked the gods he didn't lose them as he opened the one he packed food with. He opened it up to see that maybe he packed a bit too much, more than enough to feed him for weeks. So he walked up the stairs to tell the others.
"Hey, guys! If you're hungry let's all eat! I packed enough food for all of us and then some!" Gohan said as Annabeth sarcastic put on a sarcastic tone.
"Seriously? Is food the only thing to think about? How can you be hungry right now?" Annabeth said obviously frustrated.
"Well Saiyans have to eat a lot more food then you guys, and I'm half Saiyan," Gohan responded as Annabeth sighed.
"Well you stay up here then but I'm going to go eat with the others while it's still hot," Gohan said pointing back to the stairs.
"I'll have you know everyone is too focused on the mission at hand to worry about that right now thank you very much," Annabeth said feeling satisfied until her stomach started growling. Everyone walking past her gave a little chuckle at that as they made their way downstairs.
"Somehow I doubt that now come on," Gohan said as he picked Annabeth over his shoulder;
"Hey! What are you doing let me go!" She said as she struggled to break free.
"You're not going anywhere until you eat all your vegetables young lady do you understand me!" Gohan said teasing her as he walked down the stairs.
"Gohan let me go right now!" She said until she caught a scent of the food on the table. It was a full feast of different kinds of food. There was a fully cooked turkey, along with mashed potatoes. There were at least seven cuts of three different kinds of steak from looking at it. He had set up plates for everyone to go around this buffet of food like some kind of pirate-themed restaurant.
"G-Gohan? Where did you get all this?" Tyson said already reaching for one of the tongs and his plate watering from the mouth.
"Excuse me? I'll you know that was insulting," He said sarcastically.
"Of course I cooked it all! My room has a kitchen back at camp so I took the liberty of cooking up some stuff before I left. I stored it all in this capsule," He said reaching for his pocket as he set down Annabeth.
"Gohan this smells amazing! I never knew you could cook dude!" Percy said in awe.
"Well, when you live in a desolate future where anything can be food you can pick up a few tricks. And Bulma taught me everything I know. Spoiler alert; Bulma's not a good cook so I had to improvise," Gohan said cautiously as if she could still hear him.
"Don't know, don't care! Let's just dig in!" Clarisse said as she grabbed tongs and a plate to not let Tyson grab all the good stuff first. Gohan then put on a sarcastic face,
"You could at least say thank you," He said to himself as he looked behind him to see everyone with a plate in hand. They thanked the gods instead of him but he didn't care, as long as they were all smiling, in the end, he was happy.
"Hey, I was going to save that! Don't you dare take it! Save some for me!" Gohan said as he saw Tyson already reaching for his third piece of prime rib. After everyone settled down they began to really dig in as they ate almost half of the entire buffet. Everyone was starving as they hadn't eaten in a good while. They finally thanked Gohan for the wonderful food as everyone was left feeling stuffed. Gohan then put the food away in his capsuled and they began to start having conversations on the deck about what's Gohan been doing.
"Well for starters this little bugger here is a capsule. I thought I would have shown it to you all by now sorry about that. But it's basically Bulma's biggest invention. It shrinks down anything non-living to fit inside it. Like the buffet. And also I found so something pretty huge in regards to my sword," Gohan said as he transformed his ring into the black and blue Aegis blade.
"You mean Blackstar? What about it?" Annabeth asked as she wondered a couple of things. Gohan shook his head and answered.
"First of all that's not, it's real name. He's actually called Aegis," Gohan answered as he looked back at his sword.
"Aegis? You mean like with lord Zeus' shield?" Clarisse asked?
"First time I'm hearing of it. Either way. That's what he told me. It's alive and he told me his name was Aegis," Gohan replied only hearing of the Shield Aegis for the first time himself.
"Wait a minute, It's alive? Can it talk?" Tyson said with awe as Gohan put on a confused smile.
"I don't completely understand it myself but for now that's all I know," Gohan said as he looked at his blade. He was almost expecting a response but all he got was silence. It was starting to get late as nighttime loomed over the group once again. Gohan was still as tired as ever as he got up and prepared to go take a nap.
"But we can figure all that stuff out later. Right now I want to catch some shuteye," Gohan said stretching his body. He waved to the others and went down in the ship to the hammocks. He basically jumped on the closest one there and closed his eyes. It was not long after that where he fell asleep. His body was unmoving as he peacefully rocked back and forth to the movement of the waves hitting the boat.