All right, I've finally uploaded, as promised, on June 17th! This was 4 pages long on M. Word, and took quite a few lazy days to complete, but it's done! :) I hope all of you that are enjoying your summer vacation (or crying over the start of a new school year, depending on where you live) will still have time to follow my updates! My schedule- I think- will be one chapter in two days. Feedback, please, on my new, TENTATIVE schedule, as well as chapter 36!

36

Part I: Hazel

Hazel was felt calmer than a sloth. Octavian on the other hand, was a whole different story. He was sweating like a female dog in heat. His mouth was constantly filling with unneeded saliva and his tongue occasionally lolled out, like he would lick himself clean as well. Even his butt was held slightly aloft, and it looked- unfortunately- twice its usual size. Hazel didn't know if Octavian was constipated, or just nervous.

Whatever it was, it sure was fun to watch! The girl had to hide her face behind a curtain of hair to stop herself from showing her laughing expression. It turned more passive though, as she began the tedious climb up the steep hillside. Luckily for Frank and her, Arion was there to take them uphill. Though it took much encouragement, the horse had slowed down the pace of a normal horse, which must have been unbelievably boring compared to the usual supersonic speeds it was used to. Looking back at the army- Hazel and Frank were part of the vanguard- she saw Percy on his stunning black Pegasus, which seemed to be leaving behind an obvious trial of- was that pee? No, no, a horse couldn't let out that much at once could it? It was a Hannibal-sized trail of liquid. It was, well- a well's worth of water- trailing all the way back to the sea.

For someone who was heading into an army of blood-thirsty giants, Hazel sure was in a good humor. She asked Frank and told him what she thought of it he laughed till he was bent over on Arion. He straightened promptly after Arion started shaking his butt like a rodeo horse.

"That's his connection to the sea, Hazel. Can't believe you thought it was pee…"

"Alright, alright, it was a stupid question." The rest of the climb was left silent and for the better as Hazel's nerves were beginning to buzz with the excitement of action. She might not be as crazy ADHD as some of the other demigods, but she still had that "need for speed", or something of the sort.

Reyna, mounted elegantly on Scipio, rose above the vanguard, barely below the mountain's shelter and had the Pegasus claw his hoof in the air, like he was trying to kick up dust. The army came to an immediate standstill. The Greeks weren't accustomed to the sign, but caught on quickly- the whole of the army raised their weapons at the ready and reset their feet. Reyna nodded approvingly then swiftly turned herself around.

The Pegasus's peanut-butter wings flapped impatiently before they slapped the air with a thudding force and burst itself and its master clear into the sky. The vanguard slowly crept higher up the precipice and peered at the scene: The black dot that once was their commander was disappearing into the mist, toward another ring of hills. In the valley between them, innumerable amount of beasts lay in wait- some of them seeping, some of them patrolling, but most of them eating. The black dot was now a blurry speck. A few minutes passed, then in one big commotion the giants all rose, even the sleeping ones, and picked up rocks and began throwing them toward the distant hills. All their backs faced the demigods.

Frank dismounted Arion and made a waving motion. The army split into three and an old war was being fought again.

Reyna's motto was simple- learn from the past. Obviously, when it came to battles, using a plan that had been played out before was not the best of ideas, as it could be expected. But for this first war at least, Reyna was confident that it would work. If Gaea doesn't decide to read our minds. If the gods show up. If the giants are stupid enough. That's a lot of ifs.

But giants are stupid, the gods would show up, and Gaea wouldn't bother with them for the time being- this was Annabeth's consolation. She had drawn the last conclusion from a hunter's report, which assured the Romans and Greeks that all of Gaea's eath-moving powers were being used to deter the seekers of the Doors of Death. Artemis's hunting guard hadn't come with the army. They'd found a shortcut to the underworld, a "Highway to Hell", you could say. Frank imagined the serious bunch of girls, all dressed up in silver uniforms, humming the song.

"I'm on the highway to hell. Highway to hell," Frank started to mutter. Hazel looked at him and said, grinning, "And we're going down, all the way down…"

Part II: Frank

"We sure are," he replied, and he motioned for his troops to move ahead, over the narrow peak, and down the steep slope. He toughened his nerves with encouraging thoughts. This tactic has won many battles. Alexander the Great used it, Scipio used it, and they both emerged victorious. We have a superior cavalry thanks to the Greeks, and our most powerful warriors command it. We will succeed.

Ahead, not giant laid his eyes on towards the coast. Transfixed on hitting a speck-like target, they didn't notice the demigods creeping behind them like determined worker ants. Frank watched the vanguard move soundlessly down the slope, and took a minute to say goodbye to Hazel.

He'd meant for a curt, straightforward farewell and good luck, but apparently, Hazel had other plans.

"I'm surprised Reyna let me take this position. Good thing I came up with that 'I need to get a view of the landscape first' excuse. But this might be the last time I see your chubby little face, so I think I owe you something." Hazel leaned forward, and Frank did the same, closing his eyes.

Now, he wasn't quite sure what happened next as his eyes were closed and his sense of touch was numbed, as were his nerves. But he could put a good bet on this: it wasn't Hazel that had kissed him. Because instead of withdrawing with an exciting beat to his heart, red cheeks, and warm lips, he retreated with a sputtering mind, cold skin, and a slobber-coated face.

The horse and its rider though, had sped off long before he'd even grimaced. Wiping a wet face on his sweater, he moved down the slope, keeping a keen eye on the left and right flanks. His vanguard had taken position directly in front of a powerful infantry armed with even more powerful weapons, made of mostly Roman soldiers, and the Greek Ares cabin. Even farther behind that was the Camp Half-Blood made cavalry.

He felt tempted to glance in Hazel's direction, but his common sense and instincts differed in opinion; Arion would have taken her far off by now, leading the rear section of the army in Reyna's direction, and being a son of Mars, he knew that distractions of that sort were something to avoid. Aphrodite might have said otherwise, but…

It's quiet amazing that they haven't heard us, Frank thought to himself. Despite having ordered complete silence, the occasional clink of armor against weapon rang throughout the valley. Of course, the giants themselves were making a loud, unruly ruckus, and Frank figured that such noises struggled to penetrate their thick skulls.

Frank signaled the left and right flanks to position themselves for attack. The giants were still occupied with throwing stones toward the rugged mountains. Their ammunition sailed gracefully over many like-wise occupied earth-borns and clashed with the slopes. Frank hoped to the gods that Fortuna was by his praetor's side.

Then, like an odd man out, a text-book sized rock sailed toward the giants. Everyone member of the flanks, vanguard, and infantry saw it, and charged toward the unsuspecting mob of giants. Despite their utterly grotesque appearance, the demigods only grimaced as they assailed their enemies with pilai, gladia, pugiones, plumbata, Hastae, kopides, xiphoi, hoplons, and countless other weapons.

They found resistance; the giants were much stronger than they were, and their numbers, though inferior, were still impressive. The demigods made seven meters (8 yards) of progress and then were locked to the ground by the full force of the brutes. Frank pushed his vanguard on, tearing up the monsters from the feet up, forcing them to the ground. Their humongous feet though, were an ever-present threat, and the demigods didn't need an augur to know the damage that would come by them.

By now, the giants had ceased their relentless throw of debris toward the mountains. The plan was shaping into reality. The demigods' infantry had placed their attack on a moment where their cavalry benefitted and the giants were unaware of their position. The next makeshift signal from the infantry would mark the beginning of the cavalry's advance. Then the hammer and the anvil maneuver would be complete.

Over the cavalry, now by Reyna's side, a reddish-gold glow developed. Ares, in the form of a very tall, buff, and intimidating soldier, appeared. He was grinning, his lips slightly parted in the mad rush of violence and adrenalin. His eyes burned fiercely underneath the futile protection of Ray Bens wraparound sunglasses. His combat boots and bulletproof vest gleamed like polished jet. In his head, he imagined the battle playing out:

The giants, unsuspecting, turn their corpulent backs toward the demigods. A sailing rock flies toward Gaea's enemies from the eastern side of the clearing, a sign to advance. The infantry in the west, near the coast, move forward, make remarkable progress in chopping down the befuddled giants. Blood, like sand carried on wind, splays out, tainting the faces of the demigods. They spit out the gunk, ignorant of its addictiveness, its attractiveness. Still they move forward, but they falter as the giants retaliate. Without the rage of the god of war, their motivation is one grade too weak. A rock moves elegantly across the clearing from the bowl of a catapult, another signal, and the cavalry beside the god races ahead, golden balls of light dissipating beside them as his divine family arrives. The giants spot the army's blend of divine and mortal, but not before huge chunks of their flanks are compromised. Finally gaining their senses, the giants closest to the cavalry retreat, pushing the rest of their numbers right into a now well-rested demigod infantry.