The fog began to still, almost looking like it was solid. Then the first strike came.
From below the fog, hidden away from Ares cautious eyes, a beast appeared. It was long, with a narrow head and large, sharp teeth. It's entire body was covered in sleek black. Scales that covered it's sides and most vulnerable points. They dissappeared beneath thick and wet fur, no longer visible but still undeniably there. It had limbs, two arms and legs. Both elongated, covered in the same natural armor as the rest of its body. It had long, sharp claws. Both made for slashing and piercing. It had serrated blades running along its spine and tail, which ended in a long reinforced but hollow blade. One that was meant to pierce and inject venom into those unfortunate enough to encounter it.
That beast was me. As I broke through the fog, I first tried to claw at Ares but he managed to block but the sheer force of my attack knocked his sword arm away from his body, allowing me to suddenly dive back below, making my serrated spine rip towards his torso. Ares didn't have time to doge and was forced to block again with his sword.
My spine sparked against the flat side of his blade as small fragments of said weapon were sent flying away. Ares couldn't even risk backing of since I was pushing into his defense with enough force to make him stumble if he weakened his position even for a second. Meanwhile the majority of my body, excluding the tail as it was still clashing with Ares sword, was already back below the fog and inside the water.
As my tail end came closer and closer to Ares, my own force behind the attack began to dimish as there simply wasn't a reason to continue as before. Another reason was....
*Clang*
A loud sound rang above the hidden waves. Ares had just been attacked my the blade on the end of my tail. But he still blocked it.
As the rest of my body disappeared into the fog, it became still again. Ares was now on guard. His eyes were watching the fog by his feet.
I took my sweet time preparing for another assault on his person.
"Come on! What are you waiting for, Demigod! Do you really think your magic frightens me? It's not even strong enough to scratch me."
If my transformation, achieved through my mastery of my Spirit Domains using the elements of the Deep Sea, Horror and Death with a little spark of magic, was unable to break through his skin, then he must be made out of Proto-Adamantinium, because I tested out the strength and sharpness of it after I had achieved it. And I can confidently say that I casually chewed on normal Adamantinium as if it was chewing gum. Maybe if I had added in the fire aspect of mine, I would have been able to turn it into bubble gum instead. And that's just my biting force. The sharpness of my teeth and claws far exceeded that of my biting force.
I began to utilize the domain of sound, making my voice echo from within the hurricane, as if I wasn't actually the creature below. Which is something I can do since the sea and water in general can amplify sound if it's silent and calm enough. There is a reason why you don't hide near the shore while being hunted by something. It will hear even the slightest whisper of yours, even from the other side of the lake.
"Funny that you should mention it. You can't land a scratch on my either if you don't try and find me, sucker." Ares grew enraged, running towards the wall of mist. Which was a stupid idea. Anyone that ever played a souls like or Elden Ring will know not to run into a wall of mist without either knowing or preparing for what might be on the other side.
In Ares case, it was a giant fist of water with ice on its knuckles roaming straight into his face, launching him back into the "Arena". I was already waiting there, catching him during his short flight by his throat. Within a second I slashed with my tail at Ares sword hand, knocking the weapon out of it. We watched as it sunk below the waves.
Slowly Ares began to turn blue, but that didn't stop him from throwing death threats at my head like they were treats and I just an offensively cute monster.
Once he was almost passed out, I dropped him. He landed on his feet, still stunned and I was going to make him regret it. With a swift movement, followed by a strong stomp on his ankle, I successfully broke it. The pain made Ares wakefrom his stunned mind, only for him to receive a kick to the back of the knee, making him fall down since he couldn't use his other leg, the one with the broken ankle, to stabilize himself. I took the opportunity to stomp and break his other ankle. Now it was save to say that he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. I continued with my bone breaking stomping. From the ankles and the knees to his hands, each finger individually, and elbows. After that, I crouched and grabbed his throat with my left hand, before I dragged the god over my back and right shoulder, right into the serrated blades on my spine, piercing and ripping through his slowly dying body. Then I pushed his head below the fog and into the waves, suffocating him in my father's domain. Letting him bleed the first blood of this battle. Finally I detransformed, grabbed the guy's broken ankle and dismissed the fog and storm before I dragged the throughoutly demolished body of Ares to the shore. From here on out the rest was easy. Ares had left the Helmet on his bike, up for grabs, which Alecto promptly did as soon as she saw me dragging the god behind me.
Grover was staring at me and as soon as we made shore, he broke out into an exited trott before quickly checking me for injuries."Im fine Grover, he didn't even get me once. God of War and what not my ass."
"You do realize that whatever you just did, most importantly the thing with the storm, hasn't been achieved in modern times right? I'm not even sure if anyone, ever, even during ancient Greece managed to pull something on that scale off."
"Doesn't matter right now. We got a McLightning to deliver to an overly ignorant and prideful sparkplug."
"What about Annabeth? We can't really leave her here. Even if she did try to kill us, I still don't want her to die. Not to mention that my seekers license depends on her arriving at camp."
I stared at her unconscious body for a bit, thinking about how we would go on from here. Then I had an idea, one that was entirely original and mine.
" Let's just fly back. I mean, we still have two days left before the deadline and a lot can go wrong, but not if we're in Lord Zeus domain. After all, this quest was issued by him and we are delivering his payload." I know... Totally original and definitely not just me not wanting to bother with more monsters.
"But what about Annabeth? We can't really bring an unconscious girl on board. The TSA will be on our asses if we try that."
"Well, I am not going to bother with a difficult plan. Let's just turn her into an animal and put her in with the luggage."
A slight smile graced Grovers face. "I'm not against that. She does kind of deserve it. But what will we do if she wakes up during the flight? What if the transformation breaks?"
I explained as we were dragging that girls body through the sand. Ares had already disappeared or maybe someone had picked him up. Anyway he wasn't where I had dropped him and I couldn't care less right now.
" Grover, do you still remember what I did during Yancy to sneak out?"
"You mean you put some sleeping spell on me? That could work but how long do those last?"
"Well, the one I used for you would automatically break at dawn. But I don't intend to use the same for her. I could put her to sleep and trap her in a dream. She would be inside of one until I set her free again. Does that sound good?"
"You sure you want it to be a dream? I would be up for giving her a nightmare. Anything you would be able to pull of quickly?"
I thought for a second. Then a wide grin spread on my face. "I have the perfect nightmare for her. Now, what animal should we turn her into? I can offer a wide variety but the eight legged furball sounds particularly enticing."
Grover answered, quickly catching on and answered me in a poor imitation of british high society english.
" Ah yes, dear sir. The eight legged furball sounds like a fantastic idea. We shall have that."
The decisions was made.
"With a swish of my wand and a flick of my dick, one spell will kill you quick. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo."
I said, while waving a imaginary wand around before a magic circle appeared below the downed girl. The magic itself was actually a creative mix between Hell-Magic and Nightmare-Magic as the later didn't allow for mor than merely projecting someone's nightmare and/or fear into reality. It didn't give it a physical form thought. The former allowed to forcefully alter the body of a person into a predestined form, aka the nightmare projection, which had been layered over the body of Annabeth.