The Hunter

No! Sadly Rick is still claiming that HE wrote PJO. *snort * it was totally me...

A squad of demigods crouched in the underbrush outside a noisy camp of other demigods. They wore bronze armor over orange t-shirts and carried a variety of gleaming weapons, ranging from bows to swords to one specific spear that crackled with electricity. This spear's owner was a daughter of Ares in red armor decorated with the symbol of Ares, the boar. Behind her was an assembled force of fifteen demigods from many different cabins.

Clarisse peered through a pair of night-vision binoculars towards the target, a large group of Titan following scum, er, demigods. They were in a rough circle assembled in pairs by chariot team, altogether massing to a total of seven chariot teams and at the center, the main prize. A beautifully crafted flying chariot, to be used with a pair of Pegasi. Clarisse whistled softly. That is one nice ride, she thought. The leader of the Apollo cabin crawled up next to her and whispered, "So what's the plan?"

Clarisse whispered back. "Ok, I want you to take all the archers to that stand of trees over there. Take out as many as you can in one volley. That'll get them looking in your direction, and then you can jump in and hack at them swords. I'll take the rest of the unit and charge them then." The Apollo leader wrinkled his ferret-like nose. "I don't like that. To much focus on my cabin in the midst of changing weapons."

Clarisse surveved the camp, trying to think of an alternate plan of action. Soona plan started to form in her head. "Ok, instead position the archers in the trees, forming a circle around the enemy. Since they seem to operate in pairs, assign each archer a target from one of the pairs. If we get lucky, they both go done. If not either one goes down or neither get hit." Clarisse restated. "There will be confusion either way. Now go start getting in position. At eleven'o'clock launch your volley. That's ten minutes from now. Get moving!" He nodded and scurried off. Clarisse sent back word through the ranks to follow her lead. As an answer came the satisfying rustling of swords being drawn. Her second-in-command, a boy named Brian, took Micheal's place next to her.

"The scouts recognize that guy in the center. Son of Ares, named Arron Hunter. He makes them nervous by all accounts, and was supposedly the strongest child of Ares this century." Brian paused to see Clarisse's reaction. Her eyes glinted coldly and she shifted in anticipation. "We'll see..."

With a resounding twang arrows started to soar out of the trees. Some hit others didn't. But Clarisse ignored all others and headed for the tall boy at the center. She rushed through the battle that was already in full sway, and flung herself in the direction of this Arron Hunter. He surged to his feet among the arrows soaring through the air, and noticed her frenzied charge towards him and smirked in contempt. With what seemed to be boredom etched on his face, he twisted his sword in a complex movement around her spear, throwing it out of her hands in the end, the jolt from Maimer being ignored by him. "Is this all that the brave, Cyclops fighting Clarisse Le Rue can give?" he snorted. "Father always did favor his sons. Easy to tell why now isn't it?" He strode off.

Clarisse snarled, punching a nearby enemy and taking his spear. In one fluid motion she gutted him with the spear and let him fall to the grass. She took a warriors glance of the battlefield, quickly surveying the surroundings. The battle was going badly for Camp Half-Blood, mostly because of Arron Hunter. He was sweeping through the battlefield like a fire, his sword mercilessly sweeping into flesh left and right. At the moment Brian was trying to fend him off with quick parrying sword strokes that were meant to try to prolong the inevitable of a fight that ends... with a whistling blade shining red. Then it came. A stab that darted under his sword and and out again. Brian fell to the ground with blood leaking out of his abdomen.

"NOO!" Clarisse screamed in rage. She leaped forward with her newly acquired spear already in full thrust. Arron jumped back in surprise at this new enemy jumping out suddenly, giving Clarisse an easy opportunity and shot to her enemy. However,Arron flicked out his arm, which was protected by a guantlet and was able to deflect the spear away. Now he advanced sword raised. Clarisse atempted to dart away, but a nearby enemy noticed and used his spear shaft to swipe her feet out from under her. The warrior's eyes glinted behind his helm as he raised his spear...

TWANG! A silver flash seared through the air and ripped through the warrior's throat and bounced off Arron's breast plate, landing next to Clarisse. It was a silver arrow, fletching and all. The hunters? Clarisse wondered.

Another arrow flashed through the air that Arron narrowly dodged. "Grr, your little boyfriend is quite annoying." What?

Thrown off by the statement, Clarisse was sorrily unprepared for the next to-be-execution stroke. However her mysterious archer intervened. The arrow and sword thudded to the ground.

Clarisse struggled to a sitting position, bruised from her unsucessful escape from Arron. A boy roughly her age or older, maybe twenty or nineteen,strode into her sight. He had piercing green eyes, reminding her of Percy, a feeling strongly reinforced by his short cut black hair. She scrambled trying to find a weapon, but the stranger just cocked a thin black eyebrow and queried, "Now is that anyway to treat someone who saved you from that brute?" He said, indicating the corpse on the ground. "Hmm, nice sword..." He said scooping up the weapon. As he touched the weapon, it's blade rippled and a slight silvery sheen spread across it.

"Well? Aren't you going to get up? Hmph, heroes these days." And with that he strode off into the surrounding woods. As he walked away Clarisse noticed a gleaming silver longbow slung across his back.

A demigod approached, face half hidden by shadows. Clarisse raised her knife in defense, wishing she had more than this pathetic substitute for a weapon. "Wait! It's just me!" Will Solace emerged, his face etched with concern. "Are you hurt? I saw you fighting that Arron guy but that's him there isn't it?"

"Yes, that's him. And don't worry about me, I'll be ok, Brian got stabbed by that scum." Will nodded and rushed over to Brian. He immediately began bandaging him, trying to staunch the bleeding. Brian groaned in his unconsciousness. Clarisse clenched her jaw in anger that she had let this happen. "Don't worry he'll be alright. The wound missed vital organs, wasn't even that deep and rather clean, too. However...it scratched a bone in the ribcage. He won't be running around for a while." He hefted Brian into his arms. "What's the battle's status?" She asked while grabbing a sword off the ground from a dead enemy.

"Well, it appears to be over, that Arron was one of the last few standing." He said while peering around for fellow campers. "I've got to ask Clarisse... how did you manage to kill both Arron and his friend that quickly? Last glance of you I had was you on the ground at their mercy."

"I wasn't at their mercy! But no I didn't kill them..." Will's face scrunched up into a confused expression and she went on to describe the mysterious archer.

Anastonished expression spread across his face. "No... you must have been mistaken."

"Why? Who was he?"

Will sighed and looked up at the sky. "Well, let's just say he's very old, has a great view, and is one of the most renown hunters in history." They looked up at the stars shining brightly, primarily the string of stars making up Orion, which gleamed brighter than all others...

THE END (for now)