Here is chapter 10! I got two great reviews, and I loved them! Please r&r (I think that means Read and Review, I hope so!). I'll give a preview of the next chapter to anyone who reviews. This chapter is a bit short, but I'll get the next one up ASAP. I couldn't find a good stopping point, so I just ended it fast.

chipettejones10: Glad you liked it! I can't give away too much, but everything comes out eventually. I want to thank you for all the great reviews I've gotten from you. They're soooo nice to see and I love reading them!

Lyria: Thank you for the wonderful review! I don't care what length the review is, I just love getting them! It's so great to hear things like that. This is actually the only story I've written, I'm new here :). But hopefully I'll get some other things up, I'm currently working on a sequel to this!

Disclaimer: I don't own Greek Mythology. Sorry about the heart attack that just gave you.

Hermes

"Where were you last night?"

Good question. Come on, you're the god of lies. Think.

"Remember that Leukrokottas? It got out. And it started attacking our cabin. So we were going to fight it, but we're not allowed to have weapons in the cabins. So we went over to the girls' cabin, and asked if we could stay with them. And of course they didn't want that, so they helped us look for another place to stay for the night. And then...somehow we all ended up at the park," I explain. The others nod behind me.

"That's exactly what happened," Ares says.

"Totally," Persephone confirms.

"Yup," Achilles puts in. Odysseus cocks an eyebrow. He's almost fully convinced. I've got him in my sights, but he's not mine yet.

"And, you're the best camp director ever!" I add. There. My work here is done. He smiles.

"Alright. I see now, you weren't sneaking out. You were merely defending yourselves against a merciless monster. Go on to monster fighting, we've got a fun activity planned," He tells us. We high-five and bolt from his office.

We walk into the arena, which is disturbingly empty. Our footsteps echo off the walls. Weapons are scattered about the arena, as if campers had been here recently and fled.

"This is creepy," Dionysus mutters. Hephaestus puts a comforting arm around his shoulder. Suddenly, we hear low, quiet grunting.

"Did you guys just hear that?" Coral demands. We nod. Ares grabs a sword off the ground. The others follow suit, picking up their respective weapons. I find three knives scattered on the ground, and tuck them into my belt loops. We hear footsteps. I glance around, but none of us are moving.

"Guys, something's in here," I warn nervously.

"No way, Sherlock!" Artemis gasps in mock shock. Ares, always trying to show off, steps forward and around a corner. We hear a loud bang, then running footsteps. Ares bursts forward.

"MINOTAUR!" He screams.

We scatter. Artemis scales a tree, as always. She's right that getting of the ground is our best bet. Minotaurs are heavy, clumsy monsters. They can't climb, fly, or jump very high. But they're strong and merciless. Arrows aren't going to help, and neither are knives. We need axes, maces, hammers, and swords.

I would just like to point out the high level of intelligence that was displayed in the above paragraph. This is a high point for me. Can we just, like, realize this? I'm proud of me.

I fly onto a nearby wall, balancing dangerously on the narrow top. It wobbles for a moment, and I'm sure we're going down. Luckily, I manage to steady it. I glance around and see Athena join Artemis in her favorite tree, then whisper something to her. Athena counts to three on her fingers, and the two of them shout, "HEY, GUYS! GET IN THE TREE!" Normally, shouting and giving away your whereabouts would be a bad idea. But they're safer in the tree than any of us. The minotaur sees them and paws the ground angrily, but it can do nothing. We slowly emerge from our hiding spots, but have no safe way of reaching them. Well, except me. I can fly. Reason number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 why I am the awesomest person ever. However, there's no "I" in "team" (I just recently learned), and me getting into the tree really won't help us. Cause I kinda suck. No offense to me, but it's the truth.

"Hide!" I hiss, "I'll come get you!" They nod and return to their hiding spots. The minotaur turns towards me. "Shit." I bolt for the nearest person, Hestia, grab her by the back of her shirt, and fly her to the tree. The slow minotaur is looking around confusedly, wondering what just happened. From my position on a protruding branch, I spot Dionysus and Hephaestus crouched behind a boulder. I rush forward and grab Dionysus by the arm. As I assumed he would, he grabs Hephaestus and drags him with us. I deposit them with Hestia, Artemis, and Athena, then return for the others. One by one, I drag them successfully into the tree.

"Alright," Athena says once we're all gathered, "we need a strategy."

"Strategy? Run and scream for your lives," Achilles suggests.

"That would be my plan," Jason agrees.

"We're not trained to fight a minotaur!" Aphrodite points out.

"We'll be fine," Athena assures them, "I've already got it all worked out."

"Enlighten us," I groan, "I totally want to spend the last few minutes of my life listening to you tell me what to do." She glares at me.

"Hear me out," She says. No one replies, which she takes as her cue to continue. "Here's the plan: Hermes flies over the minotaur with Hephaestus, who hits it in the head with his hammer. Apollo, Ares, and Dionysus need to be ready with shields in case it isn't stunned enough. If all goes well, Artemis and I come at it from the side and stab it with swords. This should disable it enough for Aphrodite to throw her disc and slay it. Everyone else needs to be ready with heavy weapons- those would be axes and maces- in case the disc doesn't kill it. Got it?" We nod, since no one has a better plan. As the goddess of wisdom and war, Athena is in her element. "Alright," She says, "places!" Hephaestus and I move to a lower branch and wait for Apollo, Ares, and Dionysus to surround the minotaur. Artemis and Athena conceal themselves behind walls and boulders on either side of the minotaur. Aphrodite perches on the wall of the arena, level with the minotaur's head. The rest hide around the arena, ready with axes and maces.

Athena gives me a thumbs up, and the fight begins.

I grab Hephaestus by the back of his shirt, and sail straight for the minotaur. It throws it's head back in a deadly roar, which is cut short by the bang of Hephaestus's hammer hitting it's head. It's roar turns to a howl of pain as it stumbles around, stunned. However, it regains it's bearings quicker than we imagined and moves in on it's closest kill: Apollo. He runs straight at it, shield covering his head. The minotaur lowers it's head so it's horns are pointed straight at Apollo. They make contact with a sickening crash, and it's horns pierces straight through Apollo's shield, leaving a large gash in his cheek. However, it's now stuck in his shield. The minotaur struggles, and Apollo struggles back, trying to keep it in one place so Athena and Artemis can stab it. Ares drops his shield with a clatter, and this distracts the minotaur long enough for Ares to take over for Apollo. This makes a lot of sense, as Ares is stronger. He holds it long enough for Athena and Artemis to burst forward and drive their swords into it's sides. It jerks it's head back in a roar of agony, sending Ares flying backward. Aphrodite let's her disk fly. It sails through the air, closer, closer, closer...and misses.

All hell breaks loose.

Hercules emerges first, swinging his mace and whacking the minotaur in the face. It stumbles backward. Perseus then rushes forth, darting behind it's back and hacking off it's tail with his axe. This is a strategy I've never seen before. Mutilating your opponent until they cannot defend themselves. Wait, I have. This is the strategy my mother uses on me. Nimbly, Hestia scampers along the tops of walls and swings at it's side, leaving a large gash. Persephone throws her dagger. It buries itself in the minotaur's skull, not killing it, but seriously disabling it. Next comes Achilles, wildly swinging his mace. He repeatedly smashes the spiked ball into the minotaur's back. Coral hacks off an ear. By now it's on its knees. Jason hops over the boulder he was behind, sprints up to the minotaur's side, and slices off it's head with his axe.

Slowly, everyone emerges from their hiding spots and walks to the monster's dead body.

"I can't believe we killed that," Ares gasps, rubbing the back of his head, which is bruised from hitting the wall after the minotaur wrenched itself free from Apollo's shield.

"I don't understand," Apollo mutters, "why would Odysseus send us here? He must've known the minotaur was here, the older campers were fighting it two days ago."

"Because he knew I was lying and sent us here as punishment," I suggest.

"That seems like a pretty severe punishment," Aphrodite pouts, retrieving her slightly dented disc from the ground. Artemis shrugs.

"He knew we could take it," She replies. Suddenly, we hear clapping behind us. We whirl around.

"Well done," Odysseus commends us, "and I mean on the minotaur, not that horrible excuse for sneaking to the park last night. I'll admit, you almost tricked me. But I've been fooled too many times by Hermes to believe anything that comes out of his mouth these days. Really, though, that was a marvelous performance. A wonderful display of teamwork and bravery. I think you're ready to move up a level." We glance around at each other, disbelief written all over our faces. At camp, you're ranked on levels of one through fifteen, based on what type of monsters you can fight. We're currently level nine, which is pretty good for fourteen year-olds. Minotaurs are level eleven monsters, but our performance wasn't exactly flawless, which would put us at level ten.

Odysseus takes our Camp Identification Cards and crosses off level nine. CICs are such a joke, the only reason we have them is to show off when you reach level fifteen. Technically you need it to identify your level when being grouped into teams for games, but no one actually looks at them. I was on a team with Echo last year when I was level eight and she was level seven.

You do realize that was the most pointless paragraph ever, right?