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Jason made a heroic little whimpering sound but Alex couldn't blame him. She was very sure no demigod could solo this guy. Porphyrion could lift mountains. He could crush Jason and Alex with one finger.
"Leo," Jason said.
"Huh?" Leo's mouth was wide open. Even Piper seemed dazed.
"You guys keep working," Jason said. "Get Hera free!"
"What are you going to do?" Piper asked. "You can't seriously-"
"Entertain a giant? We've got no choice" Jason said and then turned to Alex. "You in, Jackson?"
"You know I am, Grace" Alex tried for an arrogant smile.
"Excellent!" the giant roared as Jason approached. "An appetiser! Who are you two- Ares? Athena? Artemis and Apollo?"
Alex thought about going with that idea, but something told her not to.
"I'm Jason Grace," Jason said. "Son of Jupiter."
"And I am Alex Jackson, Daughter of Poseidon" Alex stood straighter.
Those white eyes bored into them. Behind them, Leo's circular saw whirred, and Piper talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. "Outstanding!" He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus and Poseidon, you sacrifice two children to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."
The sky didn't even rumble. No help from above. Jason and Alex were on their own.
Jason dropped his makeshift club. Alex did the same, her hands were covered in splinters, but that didn't matter now. They had to buy Leo and Piper some time, and they couldn't do that without a proper weapon.
"If you knew who I was," Jason yelled up at the giant, "you'd be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus."
Alex was unsure ow boasting was going to help but she shrugged.
The giant's eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponent. "So.. we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigods. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tatarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen." He grinned at the goddess's cage. "Hello, Hera."
"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" Hera said. "He'll do it again!"
"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth-and we will destroy you at the roots."
"You wouldn't dare," Hera said, but she was weakening. Alex could hear it in her voice. Piper kept whispering to the cage, and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera's prison, covering her up to her waist.
"Oh, yes," the giant said. "The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees-your eldest roots torn out and burned."
The giant frowned at Piper and Leo, as if he'd just noticed them working at the cage. Alex stepped forward and yelled to get back Porphyrion's attention.
"You said a demigod killed you," she shouted. "How, if we're so puny?"
"Ha! You think I would explain it to you? I was created to be Zeus's replacement, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife-or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, child, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of smashing you to a grease spot!"
He rose to his full height and held out his hand. A twenty-foot spear shot from the earth. He grasped it, then stomped the ground with his dragon's feet. The ruins shook. All around the courtyard, monsters started to regather-storm spirits, wolves, and Earthborn, all answering the giant king's call.
"Great," Leo muttered. "We needed more enemies."
"Hurry," Hera said.
"I know!" Leo snapped.
"Go to sleep, cage," Piper said. "Nice, sleepy cage. Yes, I'm talking to a bunch of earthen tendrils. This isn't weird at all."
Porphyrion raked his spear across the top of the ruins, destroying a chimney and spraying wood and stone across the courtyard. "So, child of Poseidon! I have finished my boasting. Now it's your turn. What were you saying about destroying me?"
Alex looked at the ring of monsters, waiting impatiently for their master's order to tear them to shreds. Leo's circular saw kept whirring, and Piper kept talking, but it seemed hopeless. Hera's cage was almost completely filled with earth.
"I am the daughter of Poseidon and Sally freaking Jackson. If you think you need to look out for my dad, you clearly haven't met my mom." Alex smirked, she may not know how to fight a giant, but talk she could. "And together with Jason Grace, I am going to destroy you"
"I'm the son of Jupiter!" Jason shouted, and just for effect, he summoned the winds, rising a few feet off the ground. "I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion." Jason lookd like he didn't know quite what he was saying, but he rattled off the words like he'd said them many times before. He held out his arms, showing the tattoo of the eagle and SPQR, and to Alex's surprise the giant seemed to recognize it.
For a moment, Porphyrion actually looked uneasy.
"I slew the Trojan sea monster," Jason continued. "I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now we're going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves."
"Wow, dude," Leo muttered. "You been eating red meat?"
There had always been a thing that Alex hated about herself. In the face of danger she never backed down, which resulted in many black eyes and fights. And now staring at Porphyrion, Alex cursed herself and channelling the storm winds around her, launched herself at the giant, unsure what she was going to do when she actually slammed into him.
The idea of fighting a forty-foot-tall immortal bare handed was so ridiculous, even the giant seemed surprised. Half flying, half leaping, Alex landed on the giant's scaly reptilian knee and climbed up the giant's arm before Porphyrion even realised what had happened.
"You dare?" the giant bellowed.
Alex reached her shoulders and ripped a sword out of the giant's weapon-filled braids.
"Mother fu-" She yelled, and drove the sword into the nearest convenient target-the giant's massive ear.
Lightning streaked out of the sky and blasted the sword, throwing her free. Alex rolled when she hit the ground. When she looked up, the giant was staggering. His hair was on fire, and the side of his face was blackened from lightning. The sword had splintered in his ear. Golden ichor ran down his jaw. The other weapons were sparking and smoldering in his braids.
Porphyrion almost fell. The circle of monsters let out a collective growl and moved forward-wolves and ogres fixing their eyes on Alex.
"No!" Porphyrion yelled. He regained his balance and glared at the demigod. "I will kill her myself."
At that Alex gulped and turned to Jason with a lopsided grin. "Nice fighting with you dude"
"That- how did you?" Jason stared at her open mouthed before giving her a fist bump.
Jason chose that moment to step in. The winds began to move faster, the storm began to pickup. The ground rumbled unwillingly under Alex's control. Jason and Alex shared a look, they nodded and Jason raised his hands.
The storm picked up faster with the two of them. Overhead thunder boomed and the ground shook. Together, the two were a fearsome duo and they knew it, Alex saw the fear in Porphyrion's eyes.
The giant raised his spear and it began to glow. "You want to play with lightning? You forget. I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy the boy's father, which means I know exactly what will kill you."
"Well fuck" Alex sighed.
"Got it!" Leo yelled.
"Sleep!" Piper said, so forcefully, that Jason fell to the ground sleepily. Alex ran to him and shook him awake.
The stone and wood cage crumbled. Leo had sawed through the base of the thickest tendril and apparently cut off the cage's connection to Gaea. The tendrils turned to dust. The mud around Hera disintegrated. The goddess grew in size, glowing with power.
"Yes!" the goddess said. She threw off her black robes to reveal a white gown, her arms bedecked with golden jewellery. Her face was both terrible and beautiful, and a golden crown glowed in her long black hair. "Now I shall have my revenge!"
The giant Porphyrion backed away. He said nothing, but he gave Jason and Alex one last look of hatred. His message was clear: Another time. Then he slammed his spear against the earth, and the giant disappeared into the ground like he'd dropped down a chute.
Around the courtyard, monsters began to panic and retreat, but there was no escape for them.
Hera glowed brighter. She shouted, "Cover your eyes, my heroes!"
But Alex was too much in shock. She understood too late.
She watched as Hera turned into a supernova, exploding in a ring of force that vaporised every monster instantly. Alex fell, light searing into her mind, and her last thought was that her body was burning.