I've made some pretty big changes to the first three chapters, so please read them if you can!
Artemis POV
Even squeezing my eyes shut, and then opening them wide again had no effect on my dizzy mind. I shouldn't've stayed awake for that long last night. Each year, I stay awake on that night, forcing myself to remember what I did. What I almost did. What I didn't do…
Thalia says that I need to stop punishing myself for what has already happened. If anything, that's probably the most hypocritical thing I have ever heard. She's always beating herself for losing Riptide, something I definitely haven't confessed to her yet, and don't know if I ever will. It's one of the last things I have left from Perseus. Assuming he does come back soon, and doesn't kill me, I'll return it to him, as a gesture of kindness and apology.
"My legs ache," one of my hunters complained, her legs wobbling. I sighed.
"We're only a few miles away," I encouraged. "Can't you walk a bit more?" She shook her head.
"And fight this hunt we're meant to be on the lookout for? Pfff, forget it." The hunter, Charlotte, waved it without even giving it proper thought. Out of all the hunters, Charlotte was the nicest to males, along with Thalia, especially to Perseus, and made one of her best hunters. Despite being body age 16, and hunting age 4, she was much better than about three quarters of all my hunters at battling, and to this day hasn't lost a battle with melee. That probably had something to do with her unusually large age for a hunter. Unfortunately, that also had a down effect on her attitude, and made her think she could stop walking whenever she felt even minutely tired.
"Fine," I snapped, motioning for all the hunters to stop. "Maybe if you had actually ate something for breakfast you wouldn't be so lazy all the time," I mumbled while gently resting my back against a solid oak tree. I could feel the soft bark gently grazing my back with every breath I took in.
"Yeah, and risk Thalia's food poisoning. Not gonna lie, but I would rather eat raw fish… or Percy's pancakes, if he still had a home here with us."
"I've told you before, Perseus will always have a home here."
Opening one eye, Charlotte stared at me, looking as if she was thinking just how far to go., and how much disobedience I would tolerate.
"So you say," She finally murmured, closing her eyes once again, falling asleep despite the bright light that shone from Apollo's carriage.
Watching Charlotte rest, I didn't understand how she could feel that tired. Unlike most of us, she had taken a good rest last night. Only a few hours ago we had left our camp to track this notorious hunt I had heard so much about. Practically every scout who had gone and came back had reported this new breed of monsters sauntering around. When I had asked whether we should go, it had been a very quick vote. We'll have some fun hunting, and hopefully take a monster to Olympus for a live dissection, just to make sure that these new monsters didn't have some insane abilities that would be nice to know about. Last night's annual remembrance had taken time, so we were behind schedule, which had meant a nine miles walk to these monsters. As of this morning, the plan had been a five hour walk, followed by a two hour rest, and then walking the last half a mile to where our scout had said to meet them, somewhere north-east of Philadelfia, apparently near a forest. The problem with this was that this area was largely forest anyways, we had been walking in a forest for the last two or so hours, so we were still trying to pinpoint the exact location. For now, we would continue walking north, towards New York.
"Alright, times up," I yawned, stretching my arms half an hour later. Forcing myself to stand up, I began to rouse all the hunters up. It took many pleads, begs, threats, and fifteen minutes to make everyone get up. Even then, after a long nap, they looked like walking zombies. What had they been doing last night? Ah well, they had two miles to wake up, I thought as we slowly began to make the final trek.
It hadn't been me who had seen the bloody figure. That had been Thalia and Charlotte. Full of energy, the two had been running all around the forest, amongst other hunters, trying to hit each other with toilet plungers, something I'm still trying to wrap my head around. How they found the toilet plungers will remain a mystery to me.
"Oh my days, what the hell is that!" Charlotte suddenly screamed after dodging a close plunger from Thalia. She stopped to a halt and, panting hard, pointing towards a small red figure. From this distance, it was hard to make out who, or what it was.
"Thalia…" I started, but she was already on her way to the bloody mess, returning a few minutes later. The crimson figure was unrecognizable, their face painted scarlett. Coming to their senses, one of my hunters splashed some cold water onto their face. They then proceeded to help the figure clean their face, wiping all their what I now realized as blood away. Once their face was 'squeaky clean', the person grabbed the bottle of water, before slurping it like it was oxygen, which I suppose it kinda was.
Before long, my most skilled scout lay on the ground, guzzling water as Charlotte ran to find bandages. To avoid the hundreds of questions about to be blasted at her, I raised my hand up, a motion my hunters understood as silence.
"I take it that you did not fall over and stab yourself four times with a tree branch."
The scout couldn't even laugh, her hands clasped tightly over a crimson knot in her parka. She breathed hard, her pale limbs and face in contrast to the ever growing red splodges that made her look like an overused tampon.
Minutes later, Charlotte returned with two bandages, abrossia in a see through package, and a flask filled to the brim with nectar, something that caused me to raise an eyebrow. Our nectar supply had been used up two days ago, after we ran into that Cyclops party. Unless she found a nectar shop somewhere in this forest, I would say that Charlotte hadn't been the best hunter and had probably jacked it from someone. I could worry about that later.
"Millady, we need to leave now," she whispered after drinking the nectar flask and munching on the square packet of ambrosia. I looked at her confused. Seeing as she wasn't eager to elaborate, I cut in, asking, "We can't leave now. We're almost at the hunt." The hunter shook her head, taking another swig of nectar, draining the flask.
"This is no ordinary hunt. You're gonna need the whole of bloody Olympus to finish this!" She started talking with a barely audible mumble, and somehow managed to end with an urgent yell. Flexing her fingers, my scout, stood up, wobbling, before falling down groaning in the process.
"Whoa, you can't just 'get up' girl!" Charlotte reacted quickly, helping the hunter sit down comfortably, and making sure she stayed that way.
"Can you explain this to me properly," I frowned. "It looks as if there is a big hunt and we need a couple more Gods to finish this-"
"Not a 'couple more Gods'," the hunter hissed. "THE WHOLE. OF. BLOODY. OLYMPUS!" She was screeching now, almost as if she was mad. "They nearly killed me, your best scout! You are all finished. I swear, I've never seen such an army. WE ARE DEAD! I swear it on the River St-"
"Okay, I can't have you making false oaths like that," One of my hunters, Amber said, stuffing what looked like a ragged cloth into her mouth. "An oath on the Styx is unbreakable. I thought you'd know?" Shrugging, Amber 'ambled' back to her rucksack, from which she produced two lethal knives, as well as a wooden bow and a couple of dozen arrows.
This isn't actually the first time one of my hunters has gone mental. A while back, during one of Thalia's first hunts, a hunter got smacked badly on the head with a baseball bat from some drunk mortals. We hadn't actually known about this, seeing as she had been scouting ahead. Then, later on, when we met up with her, she had started spouting random nonsense and garbage. At least Apollo had been nearby handily. The few perks of having the God of Healing as your brother.
"Alright hunters," I quietly yelled to be heard over the non-stop chittering. "Assuming Lilly hasn't lost her mind, our prize is nearby. From the information I have gathered, I think we should go, but be quiet and careful. I don't want to attract any monsters before getting at least a few arrows in. If we see what Lilly… saw, too many monsters, then we'll turn around and get 'the whole of bloody Olympus'. Sound good?"
I directed that last comment especially at Lilly, and any other hunters who had got a fright from her message. Most of my hunters nodded, with the exception of our Lilly, who shook her head, muttering about death. My mind was conflicted on what to believe as we all walked forwards. A mad hunter isn't too unusual, but a mad hunter who was also suffering from severe wounds was enough to make anyone raise their heads. That's why I had decided to be extremely cautious as we began the hunt. What's the worst that happens? Perhaps we have to call Apollo for help or do a tactical retreat. Believe me, I've seen much worse.
About thirty dracaenae, seventeen Hyperborean giants, twenty-five empousa, fourty or so Cyclops and a couple of dozen black hellhounds leap out from the trees as soon as we turned a corner, circling us, all armed to the teeth. Most of the Cyclops' were wearing bronze armour, and the hyperborean giants seemed to be holding ice… cubes in their hands. I saw a couple of bows here and there in the army, but knew that the 'innocent' hunters would shoot them. The 'innocent' hunters were a small group of our hunters whose primary role in battle was to take out any enemy archers. They'd gained the name 'innocent' back when they'd finished a whole group of monster archers, without anyone realizing.
As I analyzed the flank, I had to stop myself from giggling, instead fixating each monster with a death glare. Was this seriously the army which we would need the whole of bloody Olympus for. This wasn't even a good ambush, let alone an army. I have seen much worse in my life. Compared to how Thalia described the second Titan war, this looked like good quality target practice, with hopefully no deaths. Doing the maths, I estimated no more than two hundred mobs at max. Dividing that by fifty hunters, individually each of us should only need to deal with. Now that's quick maths! Oh, and next time you try to ambush a group of hunters, try not to do it where the hunters train, and in the domain of their mistress.
"Alright boys," I started, absentmindedly arming my bow and pointing it down, my body running on autopilot. "Unless there are any volunteers, I say we get this party started, eh?" Seeing no hands up, I sighed, kinda frustrated that I didn't get any volunteers. I never did. Then, without warning, feeling a surge of goldy adrenaline, I lifted my arm up, the arrows rocketing into the sky. It felt so satisfying, loading an arrow, and feeling it rush past your fingers, knowing that it will find its mark. It didn't take long for my hunters to follow my lead, and the next thing I knew, our arrows painted the sky. It looked beautiful, like a painting rivalling Mozzarella's… until they started falling onto the monsters. One after another, my ears could hear the sweet sound of an arrow sinking into flesh. The dropped dead, slowly crumbling like tissue paper into golden dust which littered the floor. That itself killed about half the total monsters, the rest going wide eyed. Well what else did you expect from a monster starved gang of hunters?
As soon as all our arrows were dug firmly into the earth, Charlotte whipped out her lethargic, lethal daggers, before running into the monsters like a comet, devouring monsters in a frenzy of cuts and slashes. Taking that as encouragement to continue, the hunt suddenly divided up, each hunter seeking their own, unique monster, before making the kill. All were fighting like genocidal weapons, crazy grins plastered on their faces, as if they had missed this. I could hear the wild laughs coming from all around me as my knives plunged into skin after skin, bone after bone. Only Lilly was walking around with a small knife, looking around her, like a paranoid girl.
It didn't take long for the monsters to slowly fade. Arrows were lodged everywhere, about a couple of hundred of them. As the last of the battles slowly ended in victory, I patrolled the area, often prodding at half decayed things, just to ensure that they were all truly dead. We couldn't have any backstabbings now.
It wasn't until the point when one lone male walked out of the bushes where I began to feel the plans of a plan within this plan. He wore a mask, blue jeans, and a black shirt which said 'Death To All Scums'. Flicking on his hood, the male sauntered up towards up, his hands casually placed in his pocket, despite every hunter's bows trained at his heart. As he came closer, I noticed how he walked and acted, almost normal. He even smiled, even though no one from my party was showing any signs of enjoyment. Had I seen him walking back from Olympus one day, I probably would've given it no thought, aside from his eyes. Those were what put me off. He walked as a regular human, but his casualty couldn't mask the different eyes he had, each reflecting a different colour.
"Freeze, male," I commanded. When the man continued to walk closer towards us, putting me off, I let an arrow loose that skimmed his ear. Looking at me, the male finally stopped, tentatively touching his ear, feeling his sticky blood.
"We have arrows trained all around you," the male said in an authoritative deep voice, still acting all casual. He stared deep into my eyes, making me feel extremely uncomfortable, like attention always did to me. Could this male be part of that stupid group of theives who always visit us, and now wanted to get into a fight. Besides, I thought that we had arrows trained at him. That was fifty or so bows aiming right at him, and he was directing death threats at us?
"That's very funny and everything, but please state your purpose and get out of here, unless the idea of being used as target practice appetizes you," Charlotte snarled. The man put his head down, before letting out a deep rumble that made birds meters aways flutter away.
"That's cute," he smirked, and before I could even slap him for calling me cute, two arrows were fired from somewhere in the trees. One hit Charlotte in the left arm, rewarding the male with a low groan, and the sound people make when they try to suppress their pain. The other one skimmed my ear, and I could feel golden ichor dripping onto my neck.
"I'd think that the female who caused the God of Time's 'Disappearance' would've learned her lesson about treating males like scum by now," he snarked while reaching behind his back, producing a night black sword, the edge serrated. Reflecting the light, the male swung his sword around in a circle, my mind getting dizzier. It was clear that he had practised with this type of weapon before, from the way he swung it like a pro, savouring his moment.
"Who's in the bushes?" I demanded, my hand reloading the bow, holding it at idle. It rested at my feet, ready for an attack.
The male gave me a shallow smile with deep piercing eyes that betrayed all innocence.
"I was kinda hoping you'd ask me that. It gives me more time to get to know you, eh."
"I can cut straight to the blood if you'd prefer?" I innocently asked, raising my bow to demonstrate. He waved it off with a sharp smile.
"It's cool. And behind these bushes rests some of my warriors."
"Some?" Thalia asked. Her bow was loaded, aiming at the male, but curiosity always got the better out of everyone.
"Well I can't have all my forces in one place. That would be stupid. Some are defending my palace, and others, the majority actually are on their way to an important place I can't tell you, and you won't even see."
"And why's that?" I spat, my bow now ready to fire. I was getting sick of this chit chat. The male seemed to have a malicious glint in his eyes, as he flicked his sword up and down, the solution of blood and ichor spitting everywhere.
"Let my soldiers explain that to you," he insisted, before throwing something into the air.
The spherical structure fell back to the ground, a hissing sound following it. Leaping behind a rock, I took cover, having seen the true damage grenades could do. There was a dull thud, as the grenade rolled along the grass. Temporarily, the hissing stopped, and all I could hear was a terrible ghastly silence. Then, a sound of hundreds crying as the canister wailed open. Rocks achieved lift off before I could stand up. My mind was slow, trying to understand how a miniature device would have achieved that. Gaia was for sure in Tartarus, and I knew Posiedon had isolated himself from the godly world. Returning to the ground, quite literally, my body felt like it had already lost all the wars. Eyes opened, I stood up, shaking on my legs. Around me, there was no support, so I wobbled forwards, surveying casualties. Everywhere, the earth looked churned, fresh soil exposed.. Next, all the trees surrounding us fell crashing down as monsters I had never seen before charged. My hunters were all on the floor, disorientated and unarmed. I had lost my bow from the heavy fall. Snapping my fingers, it appeared in my hands, the arrow still loaded, but snapped. Cursing silently, I pulled another out, and attempted to reload as fast as I could manage, my fingers a fumbling mess. After, the only thing I managed to do was shoot a couple of arrows while my hunt recovered before a fully armoured monster charged at me, weaponized with a golden plated knife.
The monster looked like a failed laboratory crossbreed between a cheetah and hellhound. It was large, and painted black, with muscular legs that could pass for springs. It's teeth snarled, as it ran towards me on four legs, but moments later, as it came closer, it jumped up on its hind legs, removing the knife from its mouth and making a wild slash. It's cheetah face came closer, snapping at my side. Reacting fast on instinct, I smacked it with the butt of my bow, burying my dagger into it's thigh. I waited for it to drop dead or begin disintegrating, but instead, it just raised its knife again and plunged it down. All my muscles tensed as I thrust my bow upwards, it's celestial bronze alloy sparing the monster of its dagger. Unarmed, it attempted to chew my arm off. I rolled sideways before grabbing a spare knife and throwing it into the thing's face. The knife lodged itself into one of the eyes, making a squelching sound. Yelling, I kicked its face again, before removing the dagger and repeatedly thrusting it back into its head. Black brains were all over my parka as I threw my weapon one last time, the monster already deforming. One monster had cost me that much effort, and I could see at least fifty different breeds of monsters, each one having its own battle. Blood gushed along the floor, into the nearby river as hunters lay on the floor, some motionless. The blood of my sisters. I could see one monster eating a hunter. Amber, the girl who could've saved us so much trouble lay on the floor, her body missing an arm.
Fighting my own weariness, I stood up, aiming my bow at various monsters before shooting. Some began deforming after one arrow, while others were still attacking after seven arrows. Each one showed no signs of pain as they bled a black liquid. One type of monster, a tecnol, I think their leader referred to them as, had short horns like a goat, and a long body. It coiled around my hunters before proceeding to squeeze out their blood. Another looked like a black blob, but don't that let you laugh. It would disintegrate anything that touched it's jelly like fluid, making it invincible until a hunter managed to blow themselves up, committing suicide while killing it. At first, I had believed Amber to an extent. We had been cautious, but after reaching the first ambush, I had lost it. From what I had thought, the first ambush had been the ambush Amber was talking about. Only now do I realize. An ambush in an ambush was such an old trick, too old for my Godly mind. Another arrow of mine struck one of the tecnol's, their body unreactive to pain stimulants. As I reloaded again, doing a quick inventory, I could see the male, their leader, walking up to me faster than possible, his black sword armed in attack position.
There was no time to react. Instead, I managed to raise my bow up just as he brought his weapon down. My bones vibrated as I pulled back my bow. The string was de-attached. The leader hadn't been expecting such a strong bow either, because he too stepped back, looking disorientated. I wanted to restring my bow, but the male wasn't having it. Quickly, I swept his legs down. He fell, but managed to land a kick on my head. I'm not sure whether he prefers Nike or Adidas, but whichever one it was had hard soles. I could tell ichor was bleeding from my ear again. Reaction time delayed, I fumbled around for my knife, holding it by its sharp edge before plunging the hilt into the males stomach. He coughed, but I think it did more damage to me. I dropped the dagger, staring at the inch deep cut that ran from my index finger to my wrist. I shaked it off, before grabbing my bow and restringing it. shooting two more arrows at the large mass of male in front of me. One he dodged, and the other he caught, smirking under his mask. Using it as a throwing knife, he launched the arrow at me. Unexpected, I tried to avoid it, but was too lost. It hit my leg, and a dull moan escaped my mouth. Stumbling back, my eyes were seeing two identical males. He feinted left, and I fell for it, earning a slash on my hip. The next thing I could tell, his blade rested under my chin, the tip of it prodding my now golden throat.
"Alright, everyone stop," he panted, a glint still in his eyes. "I said STOP!" His voice boomed across the field. All around me, battles stopped, mainly with the monsters stopping their attacks. Some foolish hunters saw this as an opportunity to kill their opponents, dying while doing so. For each body that fell to the earth lifeless, I could feel another arrow being wedged into my heart. It made me cry, sobbing all over the sword which could end me any second.
"Well, I think your little battle is over," he gloated. Looking around, I could see how these monsters outnumbered us 3 to 2. My hunters had never fought these monsters before, so the dead bodies shouldn't have shocked me, but they did."Now, I need some answers, and you will give them to me. Otherwise, your hunters go…" He made the gesture of cutting his head off, with the sound effects.
"Are you 'The Revenant'," I choked. He stared at me confused, before giggling.
"What, those rubbish 'warriors'. I'm not that bad, thankfully. However, it is interesting that you bring them up. I want to talk to you about them." Waving his hand, another cheetah-hellhound hybrid crawled up to us.
"I didn't give you a proper introduction, did I?" the male sniggered, kissing his teeth. "Artemis, meet itegra, itegra, meet food." The monster nodded its head in understandment to the word 'food', and I stared at its watering mouth, shuffling back against a rock, the male's sword still against me.
"Who are you then?" I asked, my breath held. I couldn't risk death now. Not before answers.
"Just call me Gone." He popped a ball off his belt, sticking it onto the nearest hunters arm, who just so happened to be Charlotte. Her arm already contained an arrow from earlier, and was mangled. Frowning, the man yanked the arrow, stabbing it into my arm instead. I gritted my teeth, bearing my time.
"Tell me who 'The Revenant' are," he commanded. My mouth was spouting words without any hesitation. I didn't like anything on Gone's belt, especially when it was pushed up against one of my hunters.
"A group of fighters who do as they wish, good or bad. They steal from us and help us in our quests. They also salute Hermes, but that's irrelevant. I've never spoken to them. They hate us. Is that it!" Gone smirked, looking at how fast he had turned the leader of the Hunt into a slave. Leaning in closer, he looked at me hard.
"Now, what did you do to the God of Time," he asked. As far as I am aware, only me and Aphrodite knew about this. No one could be allowed to know this, and judging by his hard stares, I think the male knew whatever Aphrodite had spread was wrong. I refused to answer. Giving a fake sigh, he pushed the ball closer to Charlotte. The ball grew spikes, and began spinning in circles. Charlotte screamed, blood trickling down her arm after only one second of contact, her breath raspy and fast. I could see a massive chunk of flesh missing from her left arm.
"I call it Sphingomyelin," he gleed after seeing my gaped mouth. "It spins and destroys the arteries, before slowly separating the flesh from the bone, and eventually destroying that too. Don't worry about her dying. If I don't get an answer soon, I can always try to peel the skin off with a potato peeler, and we can test how many layers of skin your hunter has. And, if all else fails, well, there are at least thirty hunters still alive, and I can do so much with them. Finally, if you still won't speak, I can try and see what you have between your legs." Gone's eyes were lit as he saw my devastated face of fear and anger. Demonstrating, he pushed Sphingomyelin closer to Charlotte, for a full ten seconds. Flesh was spat everywhere, and Charlotte was reduced to tears, screaming and pleading with Gone. He just smirked, looking as if he was enjoying this. A masochist lay in front of me, slowly killing my hunter. Charlotte had a red arm now, with a massive hole. No doubt it stretched down to the bone. In my experience, she should have died from blood loss in the next minute or so, but she didn't. She just kept infinitely bleeding and screaming. All that was left was a bloody mess sobbing my Gone's feet.
"Fine fine!" I too was crying now. The pain was affecting me. "I kept swearing at Perseus Jackson, and making him do chores until he popped and left." Gone raised an eyebrow. Itegra came into Gone's place and held Sphingomyelin, while Gone walked to another monster. They had a discussion, before Gone returned with some other weapon. It consisted of a metal blade with a slot with a sharp edge attached to a wooden handle. Not even asking this time, he placed it against Charlotte's neck, before pulling it down.
Her screams filled the air as she arched her back. Itegra held her back, and Gone took his time, slowly tracing it down her back, before going back to the top, and peeling the second layer of skin. Charlotte was unrecognizable now. Her body wasn't white anymore, and her clothes were in tatters, so much that she lay near enough nude on the floor.
"Please!" she screamed, choking on her own blood. Itegra pushed Sphingomyelin onto her leg this time, and she began convulsing, losing all ability to scream. I waited for her to pass out or die, but she wouldn't.
"Do we need a round three?" he asked, looking tired. I assumed Charlotte must have tough skin. Clenching my sweaty hands, I desperately shook my head.
"I can tell when someone's lying," Gone jabbed.
"So were you lying to me?" he asked. The nod of my head confirmed his thought.
"What happened was Aphrodite had told me to try and-"
"Oh I can tell you she was lying," came a voice from far back. My body was too scared to turn around, but it was fine. The male came towards us. He had a mask on, and it concealed everything apart from his eyes. Once again, I was seeing a man with two different irises. Unlike Gone, however, this man was wearing what came off as ancient clothes. His trousers were black, and stretched down to just above his shoes. For a shirt, the man had a black shirt, topped with a golden robe, with black stripes around the edges, that stretched to his ankles. His mask was black, but had golden glitter on it. What was it with everyone and masks? It's not like we have a virus or something. Next thing you know, they'll be socially distancing!
Gone was looking extremely uncomfortable and nervous as he dropped Charlotte down.
"You're him, aren't you?"
"That depends on what you describe him as," the other male frowned. "But I am him, yes, if you want to play the pronoun game." Gone brandished his sword, holding it at rest, his knuckles white. His shoes clicked as he brought them up and down, while pacing across.
"I wasn't expecting to meet you for another decade or so." The man looked baffled.
"I didn't intend to meet you for another year or so, but as I said to my closest friends, November and Juliet, so long sentiment. It doesn't matter anymore." Was that 'Juliet' as in that rubbish play someone had written a couple of centuries ago. If so, then who was the 'Romeo'?
"If you're here for the goddess, we can split her," Gone offered. "I'll take everything below the waist, and you can have everything above. The figure thought about it, before walking closer to us. All our hunters watched him, knowing that he held our fate. I prayed to Apollo, Poseidon, Zeus, even Hestia and Perseus out of my desperate state that this was a friend.
"Hmmmm, does above the waist include the mouth?" he asked, hands in his robe. Gone nodded. "Because I know for a fact that most virgin goddesses are quite good with their mouths!" Gone laughed, an evil sound. At once, it clicked to me that they were talking about rape. They wanted to reduce my title to nothing, and judging from my position, I could do nothing to stop this. All I could do was use my jacket to keep in Charlotte's blood. Even since Gone had left her, Charlotte's skin had been getting even paler. Perhaps things might've been different if Percy had still been our guardian, but no such luck. He had disappeared years ago, and wasn't appearing anytime soon, regardless of what Aphrodite said.
"I can even give you a go on below the waist!"
"Please no," I begged, swallowing my spit. My throat was raw, and ichor coated the left side of my face. "I swear I'll do anything, but let my hunters go. I'll even willingly let-let you have s-s-sex with me." I was choking on my own saliva and crying on the floor, kneeling at both the male's feet.
"You're in no state to be making any demands," Gone flicked his sword, cutting my face once again. "For now, you're a slave." However, it was obvious that Gone was considering.
"Tempting, I must admit, but I've-" the second male froze for a moment, noticing the naked mass of blood and dislocated bone on the floor. "Who is that," he hissed, pointing at Charlotte. Every soul shushed, and listened to the change of tone of voice. "Well!" the male roared, looking at me.
"Charlotte, a hunter of mine," I stammered. I don't know what this meant to him, but anyone could sense the change in mood as he staggered forwards, taking a spi from a purple flask. Shuddering, the man threw the flask onto the floor, before making a hissing sound.
"So how about that deal," Gone's voice sounded so small compared to the booming roar the other man had made seconds ago. He glared at Gone, as if he was struggling to comprehend how evil you had to be to torture someone that bad. Charlotte's breath was short and fast. One touch to her neck showed me just how slow her pulse was. It was clear that she didn't have much time left.
"Perhaps a few years ago, I might've agreed, but now I've wasted two years planning against a war, only to realize that Lima had made a cryptographic error, and now I'm starting this war a year earlier than I had prepared, with no prior knowledge on anything other than who you are!"
"I'm Gone," he said defensively, lifting his sword up. The man stared at him. And I could see a smirk forming under the black mask.
"Perhaps soon," the other male agreed, before whipping out his wood.
That was an extremely long chapter, with 5,791 words. It would mean a lot to me if anyone who read this could leave an honest review!