Disclaimer: Honestly, who cares about these at this point? I know I do! Oh shush. This is the legal property of Mr. Riordan and various other parties with better lawyers than you could ever dream of having. ...Shut up. We do so appreciate the opportunity Seriously, just shut up and provide me with some inspiration, yeah?

...

Thought as much.

A/N

Reupload, since I'm giving this story a complete reboot. Further details in ending author's note. Hopefully you'll like the new version!

/A/N

The Cyclops' face contorted in a rather comical way when the blade severed his spine. Of course, I couldn't see it at the time, since I was holding the knife that was currently lodged in several inches of monster-meat. But I imagine I'd be quite surprised as well if I was suddenly blasted in the face with a fireball, and while stumbling back to put out the flames, got stabbed in the back with twelve inches of razor-sharp imperial gold.

I straightened from my hunkered down position and brushed the golden dust off my shoulders. One less monster in the world. Also, one less sentry to warn the others of my arrival.

I picked up some of the fine powder from the ground and threw it in the air.

It seemed like the wind was blowing from the east. Brilliant. That meant they wouldn't catch my scent. A cold smirk tugged at the corners of my mouth while I started walking towards the camp at a brisk pace, planning how best to make my entry.

It was a freezing, harsh night. I'd glimpsed the moon between the clouds a few times, but the clouds blocked out most of the silvery light. Artemis had seemed to be in a rather foul mood lately. I drew my cape closer around my neck and felt the chill in my bones subside. Once again I marvelled at the piece of apparel. The cloth was thick but flowed freely in the air because of its asymmetrical cut. It was a nice charcoal black, matching my hair and eyes, with embroidery of metallic orange running across the fabric. A strip of hellhound-leather lined its edges as well, giving it a bit of protection from the everyday wear and tear. It was unnaturally warm, no matter what. I sent up another silent thanks to my mum, together with a teasing reminder not to spoil me too much. But the whole keeping warm-thing really does help a lot, since it lets me wear my usual combat gear no matter the temperature. Now, it isn't as fancy as the cape, but it's yet to let me down in a fight. The boiled leather pieces squeaked silently in the dark as I slowly crept between the trees. I did lack a helmet, simply because I prefer my field of vision to be as wide as possible when fighting. There's also the fact that my long, messy hair just looks ridiculous when put into a helmet, but I'd never admit that to anyone. Everything I actually did wear was tinted as black as possible to go with the theme, of course.

I slowed my steps as the smell of smoke reached my nose. I was getting close. This was going to be fun.

I stood from my personal little crater. Seems I knocked a couple of monsters over with my little light show. Me slamming into the ground after a fifty-foot drop has that effect on some. To be fair, it's partly their fault for setting up camp in a redwood forest. I mean, it wasn't even a challenge to sneak up on them by jumping from treetop to treetop and do a fiery version of a cannonball right down in their midst. (Don't worry, I am fully aware the redwood is endangered, so not a single one of my

flames made as much as a burn mark on the trees. Well, not an obvious one at least.)

My hand rested gently on the polished grip of the revolver I had strapped to my hip, while I took in the scene around me. Some of the mismatched tents that made up the camp had caught on fire, with a couple already fully ablaze. Monsters were scrambling for their weapons, and I felt my eyes heat up in their sockets. The whole scene before me slowed down, tinged a very slight reddish hue. Everything looked as if it was running in slow-mo, with the flames lazily waving at me from where they had taken hold, and the monsters looking at me with wide-eyed terror. I drew my gun, firing a round aimed at the closest cyclops that was reaching for his club. Recoil lifted the barrel nearly a full foot. The bullet tore through its skull, making its head whip back violently before it exploded into dust. The Empousa that was sitting on the ground next to it scrambled away as the fine gold mist covered her body. I cocked the hammer once more and shot the monster before she recovered, making her join the cyclops on the forest floor.

'Two down, about ten left. Let's get going I guess.' I thought as the next monster found itself in my sights.

Two more cyclops fell after receiving shots to the abdomen and chest respectively, and one hellhound exploded into mist when a bullet went clean through its lungs. Now several monsters were running in panic, and I had to kill another hellhound with my hunting knife as it regained consciousness and rose from the ground behind me. I buried the blade in its ribs and twisted with grim satisfaction until it shivered and started dissolving. As I straightened up, I felt a brief dizziness wash over me, and took a couple of quick breaths. The intense burning in my muscles and eyes dimmed to a more steady sensation of warmth, and the world returned to a more reasonable speed and colour.

As I was looking for a new target that wasn't already on fire or knocked out cold, I suddenly heard a roar from one of the collapsed tents. The canvas tore open, revealing one huge, lightly charred, and incredibly pissed of Laistrygonian giant.

"Shit." That was the only word that popped into my head when his eyes found my cloaked figure and looked at me with unfiltered rage in his black, piggish eyes. His stare was a bit more intelligent than your average giant, so I guessed that this would be the leader of the merry little band of beasties. They might not be the smartest monsters, these guys, but for a bloke with fire powers, fireproof monsters aren't the most amusing of things. However, I had no plans to die at the giant hand of some tattooed chunk of muscle. I dropped into a lower combat-stance before unloading my sixth and last round into his heart. At least, that was where it was supposed to go. Instead, a metallic clank was heard, and the giant grunted loudly.

'Damn. Chestplate.'

I mentally reprimanded myself for not thinking of that instead of wasting my last shot, before returning my attention to the battle. The giant had stumbled backwards from the force of the bullet, catching his foot on the torn tent behind him and pulling it with him. I returned my revolver to its holster and exchanged it for my short scimitar. In my left hand I kept the hunting knife because honestly, I've just never been a shield-type kind of guy. My attention was completely focused on my massive opponent and the equally massive iron-banded club he had hanging from his belt. This hopefully explains why I didn't notice the tied up girl, who was revealed when the tent's canvas was pulled away, until she whined against her gag while desperately struggling against her restraints. My eyes widened in surprise. This wasn't supposed to be a rescue mission. I was just supposed to disperse this little gang of monsters, and take down as many of them as possible while doing it. Oh well, changing the primary objective for this one. Luckily she seemed fully clothed. I tend to somewhat lose judgement when monsters go overboard with the evil and disgusting behaviour they're generally up to, so that was a good thing on more levels than one.

While the situation was a bit on the stressful side, I couldn't stop myself from inspecting her sort of tough "I take no shit from no one"-look. She really pulled it off. Tall leather boots, a pair of black denim tights, and a classic leather jacket over a band shirt with some aggressive looking logo on it. Her short black hair was almost as messy as mine, which is quite a feat, and her eyes…

'Oh shit.' She totally noticed I was staring at her. She had stopped wiggling about, apparently beaten by the ropes she was bound with, and was now looking at me instead with more than a little bit of curiosity. When I met her bright blue eyes her curiosity was replaced by pleading desperation, and I noticed for the first time just how worn out she looked. She had a gash running down her leg, her bottom lip was split, and her messy hair was matted by blood. I realised that I had been tracking this gang for several days through total wilderness, so she must have been captured quite some time ago. They must have kept her around just to taunt and hurt. The sadistic bastards. My eyes felt like small furnaces, smouldering brightly, as my anger grew and pulsed through my body.

I turned back towards my opponent, ready to kick some serious ass. Unfortunately, the laistrygonian giant seemed to have the same idea. When I looked away from the girl and towards the monster, I was met with a burning log being hurled in my direction. I barely had time to dodge the flaming piece of wood, even being clipped in the shoulder as it flew past. The pain numbed my left arm completely, making me grit my teeth at the smug-looking giant. I quickly sheathed my hunting knife and looked

at my opponent with contempt, returning to my combat stance and waiting for him to make the first move.

His beady eyes looked at me calculatingly before they quickly darted to the girl on the ground in between us. There was no way I could get to her before him, and he knew it. He looked at the wicked sword in my hand that gleamed in the firelight and I could almost see the decision being made in his head. He bellowed loudly and ran with heavy steps towards the girl. I barreled forwards as well, whipping my gun out as I went. When he saw the barrel being pointed at him and my finger squeezing

the trigger he instinctively jerked backwards and slowed down for less than a moment. The short second was all I needed. I leapt over the remains of the campfire and landed in a baseball-slide that made me end up by the strange girl's side. The giant had resumed his charge, and with a mere handful of meters left I could see he was focused on the new closest target. Me.

The club came down in a violent over-the-head swing, aiming to make me one with the dirt beneath me. Blocking the strike was definitely not an option. My sword wouldn't last thirty seconds under that kind of strain. Instead, I rolled back over my own shoulder and parried the redirected blow as I got up. As the club hit the dirt I quickly dove forwards and drew my blade along the giant's arm, damaging the tendons and hopefully lessening the force of the future strikes. He struck out with his damaged arm, flailing around wildly with an angry roar. Despite sidestepping the actual strike, I still got a face full of monster blood, which temporarily distorted my vision and made me stumble back slightly. The giant wasn't slow to take advantage of the situation and brought his club up in a thrusting motion. The blow caught me in the stomach with quite a bit of force, knocking the wind out of me. I whipped my sword in a sideways arch, trying to get some space. He simply rocked back when the sword flew past and continued his onslaught. The next blow hit me in the side, and pain tore its way through

my body. 'One, potentially two ribs broken, with slight internal bleeding.´I thought. This really wasn't sustainable.

I responded to the assault by cupping my free hand in front of my mouth and sending out a massive cone of fire in front of me. As the torrent of flames cut off, I stumbled, struggling to stay on my feet. I had to make this look good if I would have any chance to survive. I spat out some more, rather pathetic, flames and dropped heavily to one knee, seemingly from exhaustion.

The giant shrugged off the charred remains of the tunic he wore, completely unaffected by the heat. The metal in his chest plate glowed a dull red against his barrel-like chest. He smirked when he saw me on my knees, and decided some taunting was in place.

"Little demigod realised he's in over his head, did he?" the monster jeered. "You know what? Once I beat you, I'll strip you down and strap you to my standard. Then I'll use your beaten body and tormented screams to gather back all of the weaklings you scattered with your little firework show. Then we might let you join your little girlfriend as my personal little playthings. Considering how much of a pain in the ass you've been, you should consider it a mercy." he growled at me with bared teeth.

I had a really hard time sticking to the plan after that one. It was studiously cruel, and I've never been good at being belittled or mocked. But I managed to slowly get up and stand on unstable legs. The giant just laughed loudly, shaking his head as if he was scolding a child. He then swung his club from the side, knocking my scimitar out of my hand and sent it flying into the darkness. I just followed it tiredly with my eyes. The giant looked at me with sadistic joy. A closed fist to the gut made me drop to my knees yet again, and a heavy boot-clad foot followed close after. My whole body ached, and my ribs caused my breathing to be shallow and painful. I looked to the side to see the young girl a couple of yards away. She looked at me with sadness and pity. She had completely lost hope that I'd walk victorious out of this. Or hobble, at this rate. Hopefully, she was wrong about that.

The giant grabbed me by the throat and hauled me up close to his face. His warm breath stank of rotten meat and his yellowing teeth were uncomfortably close to my neck.

He leaned in close and growled in my face. "You're mine now, puny demigod."

My eyes sprung open, now with complete alertness. "Wrong." I said simply.

The fire in my eyes went red hot, burning like two kilns. Time yet again seemed to slow down drastically. I saw the giant's eyebrows go up in at a comically slow speed as I drew my hunting knife from beneath my cloak, and plunging it into the soft flesh under his jaw, I drove the blade through his skull and deep into his brain. He didn't even have time to realise what was happening before he exploded into a golden cloud. My head hit the ground with a thud, and the darkness of unconsciousness swallowed my vision in moments.

A/N

Hey peeps. Alright, so I started writing this story a couple of years ago. Then a lot of stuff happened, primarily school (Where my IB-people at?), and it kinda fell by the roadside. Now, I'm bringing it back, because I really liked the ideas I had for this fic. I'll be editing the few chapters I already have out, just so it's not too much of a contrast between writing styles, and so I can get back into it before writing the rest. It might be a long journey, but I'll try my best to get through it this time. Go ahead and leave a review if there's something on your mind, and I'll read them all when I have time. See ya in the next chapter!

/A/N