Things kept getting worse. ANOTHER one of them things was released, Pela hated me, and so did a bunch of people who heard what happened with the throwing knife, Cole filled my pillow with spiders, and a hundred other things. I considered becoming an emo, but I decided against it. The slitting wrists thing was a little extreme, and dying wasn't exactly on top of my priority list. At least me and Amber were still together, but other than that I was struggling to find positives with my life. Hades, I was struggling to find positives with the world at the moement. Mortals were being slaughtered, goods not being produced, famines spreading as farms were razed, middle eastern countries were rising up and seizing power, the UN unable to stop them, and that's just the mortal side of things. On the immortal side of things, Minor Gods were being 'killed', Olympians defeated, some Minor Gods are turning traitor. Rumours were spreading of an entire panthenon of the, things that were rampaging over America, and we had been curb-stomped by one. I snapped out of my thought chain and tried to decide what to do, but couldn't think of anything, so I just drew plans for a battle in a destroyed city between us and the army. None of them ended up with us winning. I sighed and put the pad of paper and pencil down.

I walked down to the armory and took a bag full of fake Greek Fire Bomb, and tossed them at target dummys, getting used to the weight. I pulled out the notepad inside and looked at the schematics for the range. The usual training style of going around in our cabins was abbandoned due to very few cabins havig more than two people. The kids who had scared the shit out of me during Capture The Flag had been claimed by Phobos and Deimos, the sons of Ares, gods of Horror and Fear. That made sense. I tossed a Greek Fire Bomb, and it landed next to the target. I set the targets up to move along a track and resumed throwing Greek Fire Bombs, working on my accuracy. Within an hour, I was able to hit the targets form 50 meters away while they moved at five miles per hour. It wouldn;t do in combat, but I was getting better, and by the time Olympus was seiged, which I was sure would happen, I was sure I would be a marksman with the things. Pela walked in, so I quickly left, looking down at the sand. I moved on to the Archery Range, and shot a few arrows. Amber entered, holding her personalised bow. It was gold, with smooth white stones embedded in it, and her arrows were all tipped with celestial bronze, but had smooth yellows crystals embedded in them. I hadn't see in before, so I asked about it. Kind of.

"Nice bow." I said.

"Yeah, I got it from my dad yesterday." she said.

"Cool." I replied, firing a shot.

I saw her wince out of the corner of my eye as I missed.

"Am I really that bad a shot?" I asked.

"Yeah." she laughed; "But you're a good kisser."

I proved her point for her.

"Mmm. Tasty!" she licked her lips as we pulled away from each other.

She showed me how to shoot a bit better, and I managed to decrease my average range-finding shots from three to two. She still said I was a terrible archer, but she had an unfair advantage, being a daughter of an Archery God. She seemed even more accurate than before, with her new bow. I asked if I could have a go, and she passed it over to me. This time it only took me one range-finding waste of a shot before I started hitting the target. I passed it back to her with a smile, remarking on how good it was.

"You bet it's good." she said, hitting bullseye with her eyes closed.

"I better go practice footracing." I said after a while.

"Bye." she said, giving me a kiss.

Gods, her kisses were good. I headed over to the track and ran around it as many times I could before running out of breath. And then I heard the Dragons. I glanced up and saw Golden Dragons swooping down towards the camp, being ridden by Silver Warriors, glowing blood red. One pointed at me and I dodged, knowing something bad was about to happen. The ground I was near exploded and I knew what the bad thing was. A arrow sailed up from near the Archery Range, the tip glowing. One of Amber's arrows. It hit the hilt of the Silver Warrior's sword and sent it flying away. The Silver Warriors Dragon raced after it, and I drew my sword. It was simple, non-magical, but I kept it with me all the time. I raced towards the Silver Warrior's Sword, and the Silver Warrior pointed at me. I grabbed the sword and threw it into the air. It exploded into dust. The Silver Warrior jumped 5 meters to the ground and pulled a dagger from his side. He lunged at me, trying to get over my guard. I raised my sword to block and he pointed at it. Boom. Sword=Gone.

"You are going to die." I snarled, drawing a throwing knife.

He swung at me and I blocked, then stabbed at his chest. He rolled backwards and the Dragon leapt at me. An arrow thudded into it's Silver eye, which started leaking fire. By that, I meant fire burst out of it. I hit the ground as the Dragon clashed his teeth above me, and stabbed into the bottom of it's neck, then I grabbed the arrow. It was silver and had 'The Hunt' engraved on it's shaft in Greek. Yeah, the Huntresses are still here. I slipped it roughly between two scales and then darted out from under the dragon as the ground under it burst into flames. I sprinted away from it, throwing a dagger backwards. I heard a thunk, followed by another. I pieced the two pieces of the puzzle together and worked out that - I dodged a stream of fire - worked out that my dagger had bounced off it's scales. I turned to face it, and saw Thalia and the other Huntress pelting it with arrows. A bolt of lightning hit an arrow, and it went into the Dragon's mouth. I saw it shudder, start sparking, and finally slam to the ground, disabled. I heard combat in the Armory and ran over there, picking a sword from a dead Silver Warrior.