"Oh Gods," Cole muttered as a large group of monsters charged from the depths of the woods and into the open. They were green-skinned women with dark green hair, scales, and twin snake tails that took the place of human legs. Their armor and weapons gleamed menacingly as they filled the air with cold hisses. Cole had never seen them before, but he could guess what they were from past descriptions: Scythian Dracanae.

"Nike Cabin!" Tyler Ford, the Nike Counselor shouted out towards his siblings. The Creole accent really stuck out, even more when he spoke in Ancient Greek to give commands. "To arms! Bows down and form up on me!"

Cole watched as Dante and his siblings sprang into action. This was not the first time that he'd seen them prepare for battle, but it was always fun to watch. Over a dozen fit and fired children and teenagers dropped their bows and reached into their pockets or to their wrists. Typical items such as pens, multitools, highlighters, hair ties, and a couple chapsticks would soon become full on swords and spears. Cabin 17 was soon forming up onto their counselor, charging towards the incoming group of dracanae. Tyler was leading his siblings into the crowd of monsters, acting as the tip of wedge formation, clashing with the enemy with notable intensity.

"Hermes Cabin! Give them some support!" Brittany ordered loudly as she strung her bow, aiming for the horde. "Just don't aim for the Nike cabin!"

"Oh shit…" a voice muttered from the line as an arrow was already going through the air when she said it. "Damn it, Carl!" She shouted as she nocked an arrow.

Cole blinked before realizing that he needed to take part in this too. This might have been his chance to do something heroic, to garner such amazing skill in battle that his parent would finally claim him. He took an arrow out from the quiver on his back and nocked it, feeling a breeze coming from the west. He had never had trouble shooting even as a novice, not when he could feel the air flowing. He started shooting, feeling the wind guide the arrows along the path that he needed them to. The result was not simply him shooting into the fray and hitting anyone at random, he was the monsters in the chinks of their armor, inhibiting them and only barely getting any kills. He frowned as felt the temptation to just run in there and fight up close.

As more campers started to move in, Brittany called for them to set their bows down and move in to flank the dracanae. Cole was the first to move, feeling more eager to fight than he usually would. He was glad she finally let them move in, he'd been growing frustrated with staying back and knew that he needed this chance to step up and show the gods what he can do. Strange this is, this made him more eager to participate than it likely should. Suddenly he saw a shorter figure dart past him, and his nostrils caught a whiff of shea butter. His eyes widened as he saw Regina Barrett run towards the monsters before cutting left while nocking an arrow. Cole almost wanted to tell her not to be stupid. Nobody is about to shoot arrows while moving, not when they would not have a steady shot. And yet, he saw her aim and shoot a dracanae in the chest before she even slowed down. By the time she had gotten her footing, she was already nocking another arrow and with her current distance from the main battle it looked like she was going to hit any monster she wanted. However, she seemed fine with hitting whatever snake lady that happened to be getting clear of the fight.

Meanwhile in the thick of the battle, Dante was creating a clearing all for himself. Cole was finally able to identify his friend and took a moment to stare in wonder. Cole knew that demigods had natural reflexes suited for battle which showed themselves through ADHD. This was typically paired along with dyslexia since their brains are hardwired to read and understand Ancient Greek. Plenty of kids around here knew how to handle their own but Dante… Cole had a feeling that Dante was special. Today it was showing when the young son of Nike started to cleave his way through the crowd of snake women. Dante looked focused and strangely comfortable in the chaotic action. There was an uncanny intensity in his eyes, one that was both admirable and intimidating.

The unclaimed 12-year-old probably would have kept staring if he had not felt something through the wind coming towards him from his left. Cole leapt back, his own reflexes kicking in, as he glanced down to see a javelin sticking out of the ground. One of the dracanae must have thrown it to take him out before he could help his fellow campers. Something about the fact that a random spear could have wounded and even killed him just did not sit right with him. This was not like those small monster encounters he had in the past. This felt different, bigger. He could not figure out how just yet though and so he put the thought out of his head, grabbing the shaft and pulling it out of the dirt.

Cole rushed into the thick of battle with most of the Hermes cabin close by him as they collectively flanked the dracanae. He was nervous, sure, but there was something about the experience of charging into his certain doom that he found to be very thrilling. He stared at the menacing scaly faces, the disdain and disgust in their eyes fueled him somehow to keep fighting. They came to kill them, mere children, in cold blood. He cannot let that happen, even if he is scared. Failure is not an option; running is not either. Thankfully, they could not do too much when they were bunched together while he had his javelin.

One of the first lessons he learned when he came to camp as a ten-year-old was that spears are easy, but swords are cooler. Using a spear was largely summed up to staying back far enough and poking one's target really hard. He remembered his training: dodge, parry, step, thrust, parry, feint high, thrust low. Cole's fundamentals were working to keep him alive as he took down his first dracana, sticking his pointed javelin past the metal of her Corinthian helmet and getting her in the neck. He pulled it out to find her crumbling to dust only to work on another, then another, then another. There was so much to process: loud clashes of metal, war cries, roars of pain, Apollo kids rushing to get the wounded away from the fight, dust flying into the air from to the deaths of the monsters. Cole had not seen many demigod bodies go down yet; did this mean that they were winning? Why did this feel so easy?

He would have to figure that out later, he wacked a snake lay out of the way to find a small demigod girl fall to the ground, covered in dust and some noticeable injuries. She had dropped her weapon, an oversized sword with a curved blade. One of the dracanae was slithering over towards her, picking up the blade and was ready to slice the girl open. Unlike before, he did not pause to watch. Cole needed to get there and help somehow but they were both too far away. He would not be able to reach… but the javelin could! On pure instinct, Cole felt himself try to channel as much energy as he could. He was not well-practiced with throwing spears, but he figured they'd be like shooting arrows: feel the path through the wind and let it fly. This time it was different, he needed to finish this dracana off, not only must he not miss, but he also needed her to be dust.

The boy would not be able to describe what happened very easily, he just knew that he needed to save the small girl. Something flew through him, a strange and tingling surge channeling through his back and following through his arm. Then came the light, surrounding the javelin as it seemed to come from his right hand. It covered the small spear, somehow modifying it and causing it to fly faster than almost anything Cole had seen before. It all happened in the same second, the javelin covered in light flew so fast that he thought he heard a loud crack in the sound barrier which freaked him out and caught the attention from just about everyone on the battlefield. The demigods were surprised but the remaining were covering their heads and hissing loudly in frustration. As for the monster that he had targeted, she was nothing but dust and amazingly a few other dracanae that were behind her had also been vaporized. It was almost like they were all caught in a blast zone of sorts.

The girl that Cole was trying to save looked over at him. Cole felt her eyes as well as the eyes of several other people on him as he stood there, his legs starting to tremble. Something about that little event had worn him out like he had had a long week at school with a crappy sleep schedule. He looked around, seeing more and more people starting to cease the fighting and simply watch him. No, they were not looking right at him, there were looking at something above him. He looked up, his eyes weary and he could only make out a large blue zigzag that seemed to crackle with electricity. His weary eyes widened as he realized just what was happening. Then, he felt something through the wind: another javelin and this time it hit him. He heard a soft squishy schluck and then felt an intense and unbearable pain in his left side.

Oh right… he thought, I'm not wearing any armor… shit.

Everything went black as he fell to the ground, the blue symbol of Zeus shimmering over his head.