Hunter The Hungry 0 (Percy Jackson/Toriko/Cultivation)

It was not easy raising a demigod.

Sally Estelle Jackson knew it more than almost anything else.

Even still, she wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

That said, sometimes she wished it was at least a little less dangerous. 

Rain pounded hard against the windshield, angry fists of water beating against the car. White knuckles gripped the steering wheel of her husband’s Camaro, as she tried her best to drive through the storm that had come out of nowhere. It was violent, unnatural almost, and it would be so much easier to keep her focus if her son’s friend Grover would stop making strange bleating noises in the backseat. She kept glancing in the rearview mirror, not at the road behind them but at Percy, his sea-green eyes stormy as the weather outside.

“Almost there,” Sally muttered the words, trying to keep her voice as steady as she did her hands. “Another mile. Please, please, please.”

She wasn’t sure who she was pleading with – the car, the storm, or whatever divine forces had finally caught up to them after twelve years. She knew who she was praying to, though.

All she could hope for was that he listened this time. 

The headlights cut through sheets of rain as she drove as fast as she could manage. Something was chasing them, something that made the pit in her stomach grow every time she stared into the rear view mirror.

A blinding flash of lightning illuminated the interior of the car, and Sally caught a glimpse of Grover’s face. The other boy’s eyes were wide, panicked; clear terror pouring off him and it couldn’t just be from the storm. Her eyes flicked downwards and something else caught her eyes as they went just as wide. His legs…

Grover’s legs… his entire lower half… they’re not human.

“Mom,” Percy’s voice was tight, something nervous in it, but she could hear a focus that her often-distracted boy rarely had at the same time. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Sally opened her mouth to answer when another flash of lightning cracked across the sky. In that instant, she saw a massive figure standing in the middle of the road – impossibly large, impossibly shaped.

No! Her eyes went wide as she wrenched the wheel hard to the right, the Camaro swerving violently.

“What was—” Whatever Percy had to say went unheard as Sally’s body shook, head whipping around as something massive slammed into the driver’s side.

The impact sent the Camaro airborne, spinning like a top. Sally’s world turned upside down, metal screaming as the car rolled. Her head struck something hard, and pain exploded behind her eyes. When the world stopped spinning, the car lay on its side in a ditch, rain pouring in through the shattered windows.

“Percy?” Sally gasped, copper and red filling her mouth. “Are you all right?”

“I’m okay, Mom,” his voice came from somewhere to her right. She turned her head, wincing at the pain, to see Percy already unbuckling his seatbelt, a small cut on his forehead.

Grover moaned from the backseat. “Food,” he mumbled deliriously.

The ground shook beneath them. Heavy footsteps approached, each one vibrating through the wreckage of the car. Sally felt cold terror grip her heart.

“Percy,” she whispered urgently, “you have to run. Do you see that big tree on the hill? That’s the property line. Get over that hill and you’ll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don’t look back. Go!”

Percy’s face hardened in the dim light. “Mom, I’m not leaving you.”

“You have to,” Sally insisted. “I can’t cross the property line.”

A shadow fell over the car, blotting out what little light remained. Something massive bent down, oversized hands gripping the edge of the car roof, metal already giving way under monstrous strength.

“H-he… he doesn’t want us,” Sally said, her voice breaking. “He wants you. It’s because of who you are.”

The roof of the car peeled away with a screech of tortured steel. 

Sally’s hands went to her ears as she screamed back, fear and panic overriding it all. In a second, the Camaro was suddenly a convertible, rain pouring down on them as she stared up at the stormy sky. No… 

Brown eyes stared straight at a creature straight from myth and nightmares, Sally’s breath shuddering painfully against her bruised chest. The body of a man, impossibly muscled and impossibly tall, loomed above them all, gleaming, cruel horns curving wickedly forward on the head of an angry violent bull.

Hot steam billowed from its flared nostrils, standing out in the cold rain.

“That’s-” Percy began.

“P-P-Pasiphae’s son,” The words came out in a whisper, Sally barely able to keep her voice steady. “The M-Minotaur.”

“Ughhh…” Grover poked his head up, half-bleating with both fear and confusion. “I mean… technically.”

The creature bellowed — Sally trembling as her bones shook with the sound — and reached toward the car with hands the size of trash can lids.

“Go, Percy!” Sally screamed as she struggled with her door, her hands shaking as it refused to give. “Remember what I told you!”

But Percy was already moving, his movements fluid and assured in a way that startled Sally. He pushed himself up through the opening where the roof had been and balanced on the edge of the car, facing the monster in the exact opposite direction she needed him to go.

“Percy, what are you doing?” Sally cried, terror flooding her veins. Her son didn’t always listen, but he had never been suicidal before.

The Minotaur roared again, lunging for her son. 

But her eyes only widened as Percy leapt aside almost casually, landing on solid ground outside the car. The car shuddered and Sally fell from the Camaro as her door finally came loose not a moment too soon as the monster slammed into it. Oh n-! Her breath caught in her chest as a sharp horn tore through the space where her son had just been sitting.

“Mom,” Percy called as he kept his eyes on the thing, twelve-year old voice steady and commanding in a way she’d never heard before. “Don’t worry. Grover, get my mom to safety.”

“Percy, no!” Sally screamed, as her son turned to face the monster alone.

Grover, suddenly no longer dazed or confused, pulled at her arm, yanking her from the ground with strength she didn’t know he had. “Ms. Jackson, we have to move!”

“I’m not leaving him!” She fought against Grover’s grip, failing as the boy kept her moving the opposite way. “PERCY!”

The Minotaur tore itself free from the car, upholstering and metal ripped apart with frightening ease. With a roar that shook the air and forced her heart to beat faster, it reared on Percy, her son wearing a smile as he stood in the pouring rain. Inhuman muscles bunched as it charged, each thundering step leaving small craters in the soft earth.

“PERCY!” Sally screamed as her son faced down the charging behemoth.

Her son stood tall, feet planted firmly on the ground, and as the Minotaur closed in, Sally could swear she saw something – a faint green glow surrounding her son’s limbs, like water catching moonlight.

Lightning flashed as the Minotaur swung a massive fist, powerful enough to tear metal like paper. Percy didn’t dodge – “PERCYYYYYY!”

Instead, her son brought his own arm up, the strange green light flaring bright.

“Water Wall!” Percy shouted, screaming over her voice and the storm both. The air seemed to thicken and the rain suddenly did the opposite.

The beast’s inhuman fist slammed into Percy’s forearm, as Sally screamed at the top of her lungs, wordless and panicked. Nooooooo! The thought of seeing her son crushed and broken too much and she almost closed her eyes, hands flying to her ears.

Instead, there was a sound like crashing waves when they had long left the ocean behind.

Wh-what? Sally’s eyes fluttered open, heavy rain beating away the thick tears running down her face. Percy?

Her son stood in a shallow ditch several feet away from the minotaur, but he was fine, laughing even, with both hands still glowing.

Sally stared, mouth open, as she tried to make sense of what she just saw. The… The Mist, maybe? She knew it could protect the minds of regular people, hiding the truth but… What did it hide? 

The Minotaur seemed as surprised as Sally was, the beast snorting in confusion before roaring in rage.

“Ms. Jackson, we have to move!” Grover urged again, pulling her from the wreckage of the car.

This time she allowed herself to be guided away, her eyes never leaving her son as he faced the monster. The beast charged again, and this time Percy sidestepped, the green light surrounding his legs as he moved with impossible speed.

Sally held her breath as the green light around her son’s hands extended outwards, moving like a riptide as it tore into the Minotaur’s thick hide. “Wave Cutter!” The scream left her son’s mouth as he burst forward in a blur of green her eyes could barely catch.

With a wordless shout to match the monster’s roar, Percy appeared in front of the minotaur and ripped a knife-hand across its chest.

The Minotaur howled in pain and fury, fists a blur.

Percy dove and ducked, half-vanishing as Sally’s eyes barely managed to track the light trailing behind him. Her son fought with ferocity, power and speed she never expected… not from him, not this early… 

It was all the beast could do to hit where Percy used to be as those glowing hands tore apart monstrous flesh with every strike.

With another monstrous howl, the thing drove its fist down and the massive blow connected with the ground where Percy was, leaving a crater three feet wide to add to several others. 

He… he’s always been able to do this? It didn’t make sense to her… it didn’t seem like her son, but she could only accept it.

The Minotaur was slowing, blood flowing from a dozen wounds where Percy’s glowing strikes had landed. But Sally could see it wasn’t the only one. Percy! Her son’s breath came out in harsh gasps, his movements faster than she could imagine but she could tell it was bad… because now… I can see him.

Then it happened – exactly what she feared.

Percy slipped on the mud, and before her son could recover, the Minotaur’s hand screamed his way. With no way to move or dive for safety, a massive backhand caught him square in the chest. 

The impact hit like a cannonball and Sally felt her heart drop into her stomach as her boy went flying twenty feet through the air. A second later, he crashed against a massive pine tree at the crest of the hill and slid down the trunk, emerald aura flickering like a dying lightbulb.

The Minotaur bellowed in triumph, charging toward the fallen boy.

“NO!” Sally screamed, almost breaking free from Grover’s too-strong grip. It wouldn’t have mattered if she could anyway. Nononono! Not when the monster was already there, raising a massive fist to crush the life from her child.

Sally’s scream died in her throat as the Minotaur’s descending fist suddenly stopped mid-air.

“Oi!”

The world seemed to still and Sally blinked.

A figure had appeared between Percy and the monster – a shirtless young man with long curly red hair down his back, his brown skin glistening with rain. Despite looking no older than a high schooler in the face, his body was corded with muscle that made him seem much older. One hand was raised above his head, casually holding back the Minotaur’s massive fist as though it weighed nothing.

“Hey there, Perce,” the newcomer called over his shoulder, grinning down at Percy even as the Minotaur struggled against his grip. “You been training?”

Percy, slumped against the tree, looked up at the young man with a clear mix of pain and relief all over his face. “Not enough, big bro,” he replied, his voice weak but growing stronger as he pushed himself up.

Big bro? Sally was even more confused.

“You’re still calling me bro, huh?” the older boy grinned. “Didn’t I tell you not to get attached?”

“Aww, come on, Big H.”

The young man shook his head, raindrops flying from his long red hair. “I told you, gotta stay hungry if you don’t wanna get eaten.”

He turned his attention to the Minotaur, which was now frantically trying to pull its fist free. The young man’s grip visibly tightened, and Sally winced at the sound of a sickening crack.

A half-second later, the monster howled in pain.

“Speaking of eatin’…” the young man said, a dark hunger entering his voice that sent chills down Sally’s spine. 

He held up his other hand, palm flat with all fingers pressed tightly together. “I’m in the mood for some… steak tartare.” His palm came to life with dark red energy, somehow sharp and dangerous even from where Sally stood dozens of feet away as it flared bright with power.

“Let’s eat.“

New story I’m planning to drop starting in August.

Title comes from this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?vOQ8McpidnA&abchannel=TheLonelyIsland-Topic

Chapter 1’s gonna go to Squad-tier tomorrow.