Hey guys I hope you had a good holiday. Sorry for the late update. This chapter was supposed to be done the week of New Years, but life happened. A quick shout out to all those who favorite, follow, review, and even read this story. You guys are great encouragement for me and I thank you. So without further ado, here is the next chapter of The Venator.
Arthur crept silently out of the Roman camp. He made a mental note that if he survived this war he would train the sentries to perform their duties more efficiently. He should not be able to sneak in and out of a camp without raising any kind of suspicion. The archers at least should know better.
Arthur plodded away towards the Greek camp. He moved closer to a large pine tree until he noticed what was on it. On one of the low hanging branches was the Golden Fleece, and around the base of the tree was a dragon. Arthur bit into his hand to keep from crying out in surprise and rolled across the boundary line without going near the beast. He would have to ask Thalia about that later.
Once inside the camp, Arthur took in his surroundings. Reyna was supposed to arrive around here, but he was not sure where. Thanks to his mother's essence, Arthur could see perfectly in moonlight. He saw a group of cabins forming an Omega shape. One was glowing silver and seemed to call out to him. glancing across the grounds he saw a large barn, training equipment which included a lava covered rock wall, and an amphitheater. Overall, the camp looked more disorganized than Camp Jupiter. In the distance, Arthur noticed water and a small yacht sitting on it.
"I thought I saw something over here," a female voice called out.
Arthur made sure his hood was up and silently moved away from the voice.
"Well, what did it look like Clarisse?" a male voice replied.
"Honestly Butch, it seemed like a flash of silver, like what the Hunters wear," the female, Clarisse, told him.
Butch grunted, "I know you trained yourself to spot them and follow their movements to win at capture the flag, but I thought they were helping the Amazons with something down south though?"
Arthur managed to climb up a tree to stay out of their line of sight. The two figures made their way into his view shortly afterwards. The girl, Clarisse, was muscled and carried a spear that sparked with electricity. Her armor was blood red and had the symbol of the boar on it. Arthur guessed she was a daughter of Ares. The guy, Butch, was wearing a sleeveless shirt covered by a leather jerkin. On one of his arms he had a rainbow tattoo, and he carried a bronze sword. It took Arthur a moment, but he recognized Butch as the son of Iris he had saved a while ago. Maybe this was his ticket into the camp, he thought.
"Maybe they finished early," Clarisse growled.
Butch held his hands up, "Don't get so upset Clarisse. For all we know it could be some Roman trying to sneak into our camp and wreck havoc."
Arthur decided to take a risk at this point and dropped from his position, "Well I am a Roman, but my intentions are not hostile I promise."
Butch and Clarisse turned around faster than Arthur could blink, both of their weapons at the ready. Butch immediately recognized the armor of the son of Artemis, but Clarisse considered him an enemy and attacked. She lunged with her spear, causing Arthur to flip backwards, further into Camp Half-Blood.
"Clarisse! Wait!" Butch cried, but it was too late. The daughter of Ares had entered into a battle trance, she would not stop until her enemy was destroyed.
As Arthur landed in the open of the camp, signals went off all around him. Three people surrounded Arthur, weapons at the ready. Arthur smirked and prepared to draw his knife when Clarisse leapt out of the trees and caught him off guard with a kick to the chest. Arthur stumbled backwards and nearly fell over. He drew his blade and met Clarisse's spear as the point came towards him again. He parried the point away and moved closer to Clarisse. He was trying to eliminate the spears distance advantage, but Clarisse was wise to his ploy. Everytime he stepped forward she moved back. The two continued their dance for a moment before one of the three sentries stepped in to help.
A child of Hermes, at least that was Arthur's guess, slashed at him with a sword. Arthur rolled away from the attack and jumped to gain some distance from both of his attackers. However, a blast of magic came flying towards his chest as he was in midair. Luckily, his reflexes allowed him to twist his body to avoid being hit.
"Watch it Lou, this guy has some moves," the son of Hermes said.
"Well keep him busy while I prepare another spell," the girl named Lou said.
Arthur knew he had to end this now, but without killing anyone. He heard horse hooves in the distance and knew that meant reinforcements. He drew his bow and launched arrows out of his Hunter quiver. Each arrow hit its mark, pinning the three assailants to the ground. The last remaining demigod seemed to shake a little before drawing his own bow.
"Will! Don't do it! This guy is a friend," Butch called out, finally catching up to everyone.
The last demigod turned, "What are you talking about? He attack us."
"Trust me," Butch started to say. He was cut off by the sound of galloping getting closer. Arthur turned and aimed his bow at the charging reinforcements only to see a centaur aiming a bow at him.
"Chiron, wait!" Butch yelled.
Arthur and Chiron both froze. Arthur thought the name Chiron sounded familiar. He began to search his memory for when he had heard that name before. He felt it had something to do with the Hunt, but he could not place it.
"Who are you and why are you attacking my students?" Chiron demanded.
Arthur lowered his bow a little, "I'm not here to hurt anyone. Your students attacked me first. I was told by my sisters that my help would be needed here. A friend of mine is on her way to this place and she is being hunted."
"Well that answers one of my questions and a question unasked, but you still failed to tell us who you are," Chiron pointed out.
Arthur shook his head, keeping his hood up, "I cannot tell you that. My being here could cause trouble."
"Why?" Butch asked, "You are a friend and helped me make it to camp. What kind of trouble could you cause?"
Before Arthur could answer Clarisse was behind him. When had she gotten free from the arrows, Arthur thought.
"Enough of this, show us your face," she said as she ripped Arthur's hood off.
Lou cast a spell to produce better light in the area and everyone gasped. Arthur's silver eyes glittered with moonlight, and his auburn hair on top of his head swayed a little in the breeze. He knew hung his head, trying to hide the features that would condemn him.
"How is this possible? Are you truly her child?" Chiron asked, breathlessly.
Arthur glanced up at him, "It's a long story, but yes I am her son. Now please, I have to find where my praetor will be appearing. She is traveling with the Athena Parthenos and she might be able to stop the rift between the Romans and Greeks."
Everyone's eyes widened at that.
"I guess Prissy and Annabeth actually got it," Clarisse muttered.
Arthur shrugged, "I don't know about that, but in case she does not make it, you have to prepare. The Romans have received siege weapons that will tip this battle more into their favor. If you can, I would suggest scouting their lines and sabotaging anything."
"How can we trust you Roman?" Clarisse demanded.
"Based on what's happening, I would say you can't. You should know, I was raised with the Hunt and Orion has killed many of my sisters. I want revenge on him and Gaea for sending him against the Hunt. I will do whatever it takes to bring her down," Arthur said, the silver flames starting to fill his eyes.
Clarisse grunted, "Well if you can still promise me a good fight, I guess I can trust you. Will, Cecil, Lou Ellen, go see what you can do to stop these siege engines."
The three nodded and headed off towards the Roman lines. Arthur hoped they could be stealthy. He did not want the archers to cause a bigger mess of things.
"The Legion is splintered. There will be at least two cohorts who will help in the fight against Gaea and not fight you Greeks," Arthur told Clarisse.
"How can you be sure of this?" she asked.
"I'm the Venator," Arthur said. Butch's eyes bulged a little at that.
"I've heard that name in the chatter I've picked up," Butch muttered, "I did not understand why people would ask about a hunter. Now it makes sense."
Chiron eyed Arthur warily, "I know you want to help someone, but could you fight with us when the time comes. Your presence with us may secure the Roman help you mention."
"I came only to help Reyna, if not for that I would not even be here. Mom is afraid of what Zeus may do when he finds out I'm her child," Arthur said. He would rather not fight if he could avoid it. He wanted to keep his secret a while longer.
"Look runt, we will do what we can to help, if she is truly coming to help us win this war. For now, we need all the help we can get to fight those monsters your leader called in. We realized that they will turn on him as soon as the battle is over, even if you idiotic Romans don't," Clarisse said.
Arthur felt his anger grow and the Curse seep into his blood. How dare this girl insult his family in front of him? He would teach her a lesson she would never forget. Arthur realized that his line of thought would lead to more problems and began his breathing exercises to stop his anger from growing.
"Watch who you insult girl," he told her, "I will help in the fight, if only to save my family from pigheaded morons like you."
Clarisse glared at Arthur for a moment before she started laughing. Arthur was confused at this and glanced at Butch and Chiron. Both of them just shrugged and stared at Clarisse.
After several seconds of laughing, Clarisse wiped her eyes, "I like you Roman. Any one that will fight for those he cares about is good in my book."
"Took Percy to get her that way," Butch muttered.
"What was that Rainbow Dash?" Clarisse exclaimed.
Before they could argue anymore, Arthur spoke up, "Is there somewhere I can rest for a moment. I've been traveling all day and if I'm about to fight a war, some sleep would be good. Even if it's an hour."
Chiron nodded and led Arthur towards the large building in the camp. Clarisse and Butch started to alert the campers so they could prepare for the upcoming battle. Arthur could not believe he was giving up his hunt for Reyna. Her mission needed to succeed for the demigods to even have a chance at defeating Gaea.
Chiron told Arthur to use the couch in the main room for now, and cantered off to assist with the preparation of the camp. Arthur laid on the couch and drifted off to sleep. He kept his armor on as usual, so when he woke up he could head straight to the fight. As he slept he dreamt of the three demigods who went to sabotage the Romans siege engines. They met up with some pale kid in a hawaiian shirt and had started working with him to slow the Romans down.
He awoke when he heard shouting outside of the room he was in. He got off the couch and went out of the door to see all of the Greeks running towards their boundary. Octavian was making his move early. Arthur ran towards the boundary with the Greeks and leapt into the trees above them.
Clarisse yelled, "Romans, you have fired on our camp! Withdraw or be destroyed!"
Arthur knew it was now or never. His cohort was surrounded by monsters, and Octavian was about to destroy the Legion. He jumped in front of Clarisse and the Greeks.
"Romans, listen to your Venator. I know I have no power in the Legion, but listen now. Our enemies want us divided into Greeks and Romans to destroy us. We must unite now to fight off the treats that are at our door!"
Octavian stepped forward, "I knew you were an abomination! There can be no male champion of Diana."
Arthur threw back his hood, revealing his eye and hair color, the time for secrets was over, "You may be right Augur, but there is an adopted Roman son of Artemis! Now stand down before you commit treason."
"The only treasonous ones, are the praetors, including Percy Jackson, the ambassador to Pluto, and you," Octavian sneered, "Legion, cuneum formate! CHARGE!"
Arthur pulled out his bow, hoping the division in the Legion was truly there. Suddenly a loud whistle rang across the battlefield. Arthur fell to the ground clutching his ears. His extra sensitive hearing made the whistle worse. When his hearing returned he saw Will pointing and shouting, "LOOK!"
A large statue was flying through the air, courtesy of several winged horses. On one of the pegasi was Reyna. Arthur marveled at the sight as the sun rose behind her making her seem to glow in the morning light. Arthur was suddenly distracted by a warning from his mother. He looked towards the moon, which was setting, a received a vision that scared him.
The vision was of the seven of the prophecy and the gods fighting the Giants. Everything seemed to be going great until one demigod with black hair and sea-green eyes was hit in the face. Arthur watched in horror as a drop of blood pooled in the demigod's nose and dropped upon the ancient stones. The earth trembled and shook as the last of the Giant's were finished off. It did not matter though, the blood of Olympus had been shed. Gaea was on her way.
At that moment all Hades broke loose as Gaea's words brought Arthur out of his vision, BUT IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY, YOU MAY DIE TOGETHER.
Reyna took charge of the Legion immediately. Those that were together formed ranks and began to attack the monsters army, trying to link with the rest of the Legion. The Greeks joined the fray as well and the battle became an all out fight for the future of Olympus. Arthur drew his bow and an arrow. He was not sure what the outcome of this battle would be, but he would go down seeking revenge for his sisters, and defending those he cared about.
Well I hope you guys enjoyed it. I have some ideas for future stories that I am currently trying to flesh out. Maybe some AU stuff or even some different universes. I did manage to put out a Christmas one-shot that had some Dr Suess flavor to it. If you are interested it was called How Death Breath Saved Christmas. Anyway thanks for reading and the next chapter will be up soon.