Chapter 3: The Underdogs

3 months felt like 3 weeks in Camp Half-Blood, I've known most of the campers here and befriend at least half of them. Gary, Will, and Juliet are among my best friends. By now I've learned a lot of things about the Greek myths (which of course turned out to be a fact), some are different than what I've read, and some are the same with a little twist. It's really weird how 3 months is enough to change your definition of "normal".

We were having breakfast when I heard Percy, a son of Poseidon exclaimed "Guys! Look who's here!"

And from behind him, came a pack of girls wearing silver hunting armor and weaponry. Those are the girls that came to me on the night that turned my life upside down. Well, along with other new faces I don't know. But of course I particularly remembered one of them.

"What's the Hunter of Artemis doing here?" I asked Gary.

"They visit here from time to time, usually here just to kick our asses in capture the flag" answered Gary.

Capture the flag also has been one of my favorite things in the camp, it's really just a normal capture the flag game with some magic added into it, but I look at is as a fun game that we got to do every week.

"Oh hey, look at that! The first guy that got kicked in the nut today!" I thought to myself when I see a son of Apollo get kicked by one of the Hunter in his Johnson. I guess that's what you get for trying to flirt with the man-hating group.

"It's my honor to welcome you to our camp Hunter of Artemis!" greeted Chiron. "If I may ask, why am I not seeing Lady Artemis?" he asked.

"It's actually her order for us to go to this place alone, she's going for a business that she insisted to do alone" answered Thalia. Huh, that's odd, I wonder what kind of stuff Artemis has to deal with without telling her Hunters.

"Is that so? That's alright, so will you girls participate in capture the flag like always?" asked Chiron again.

Thalia grinned, "You bet we will kick camp half-blood ass again!" she exclaimed, followed by the Hunters roar, and the campers groan.

"What's with the groan? What's the deal with the Hunters joining the capture the flag?" I asked Gary again.

"Didn't you hear me? They kicked our asses in capture the flag every time they're here!" Gary answered again, slightly annoyed.

"Well, the camp doesn't have me before." I said jokingly. Well, it was a half-joke though, every time I joined capture the flag, I always give an input to my team. And I'm not boasting, but the team I'm in, always win.

"Aiden, you might be great at strategy, I give you that. But hunters of Artemis are on another level, any strategy won't work with them" said Gary to me.

Are the hunters really that tough? I guess I'll see what they're made of tomorrow.

Later that night, a meeting consisted of representatives from each cabin was held. I'm there with the head counselor of the Hermes cabin as the representative, mainly because none of the other Hermes cabin members are good with strategy. Annabeth Chase, the head counselor of the Athena cabin led the meeting.

"So as you all know, we're going to have another go with the hunters of Artemis. If we lose this time, it's going to be their 60th win. But that's not going to happen! We've went through a lot in this past few years, of course we can defeat some Hunters!" those cheesy motivational lines were followed by some of the campers groan, and half-assed "yay".

"As you all know, not every campers going to participate tomorrow because we need to make it even with the hunters which consist of 17 people" Annabeth continued.

"I've decided that the campers that going to joins capture the flag tomorrow are Percy from Poseidon cabin, at least 7 of the best archers from Apollo cabin, 5 best fighters from Ares cabin, Nico from Hades Cabin, Connor and Travis from Hermes Cabin, and lastly me.

"Hmm, bringing the big guns are you?"

Since no one else has anything to say about the plan, I decided to speak up.

"Well, it's pretty obvious that you're only going to bring out the big guns to the arena, which is understandable. But is it going to work though? I mean I do not doubt your planning skill being the daughter of Athena and all, but I feel like that set up is lacking in strategy." This surprised everyone for some reason.

Annabeth seemed to be taken aback by my remark for a second, but quickly gathered herself and forced a smile.

"Ok then Aiden, what's your plan?" asked Annabeth sounds slightly offended.

"First of all, I think instead of bringing too much Ares's child, we need to only bring 2 of them at most" I started.

"WHAT?! That's nonsense, we need a tank to defeat the hunters" Clarisse, the head counselor of Ares cabin snapped at me.

"Let me continue please. Ok, sure the Ares Childs could work as a tank for us, but tank wouldn't work on them. Hades, they can defeat enemies two times the size of Ares's child. Secondly, I think we need to cut down the Apollo archers to 5, and add a healer from the same cabin. I recommend Will Solace, he can heal us faster than any centaurs. And unless we fight to kill, I think using Nico is pointless" I finished.

Annabeth expression shows that she's weighting my opinion before she said, "I think Aiden got a point there". "But we need at least 6 Archers if we want to stand a chance against them" She continued.

"You're right, and that's why I'm also going to join the capture the flag" I said proudly, some of the campers in the room rolled their eyes. "Next, I think we only need 1 thief from Hermes cabin, so I think we should replace the Stool brother with Gary Dexter, I believe he's a better thief than them" I paused for a second.

"And finally, to cover the last 5 members, I think we should include the campers from Hecate, Hypnos, and Demeter cabin". Now this took everyone by a big surprise.

"Are you serious?" asked Annabeth.

"Aiden, I agree with your plan for the most part. But the children of Hecate, Hypnos, and Demeter are not much of a fighter…" Will said to me.

I smirked, "Then you need to hear my plan first…" I said as I proceed to tell them my plans.


Everything is set, the flag has been placed, everyone has prepared on their respective spot. And now, all we need to do is waiting for… *BOOOONNGGG!* And with that loud horn, the game was on.

It's a capture the flag game between the camp half-blood against the Hunters of Artemis. And well, I'll say I've constructed a pretty good plan to bring the first ever victory for camp half-blood against the hunters. So here's how it goes: We have 5 of the Apollo cabin's archers hiding in trees and inside of the bushes, COMPLETELY covered with vines and plants by 2 of Demeter's children. I know what you're thinking 'hunters of Artemis can sense their presence' and that's where 2 children of Hecate come to work. With their ability to control the mist, they can make something or someone becomes invisible or unnoticeable. With that same technique, we put them in 2 on the hot spot and help the archer's arrow become invisible too, so the hunters can't see where it came from.

And of course we have Clarisse and Mark as the tank to hold and push the hunters, with Will nearby should a quick healer is needed.

Annabeth uses her Yankee hat to sneak her ways to the enemy's flag, and of course Gary just does what he does best, steal the flag.

Percy? Well, there's really no tactic for him, he just does what he felt right and things usually turn out okay, that dude is a special case.

And lastly, we have Clint, a son of Hypnos guarding the flag. Now before you think I'm crazy, I know that children of Hypnos are no good at all in fighting and probably will just sleep on the job (which is why I'm also there with him to make sure he's awake). But they also have a very handy ability, which is to make people sleep.

"Stay cautious Clint, we don't want them to sneak up on us." I said as I turned my head toward him. And there he was, sleeping like a log. I shook his body "HEY! WAKE UP!" I screamed, but to no response.

He finally woke up after I turned his body upside down, making his face facing the ground, disallowing him to breath.

"What the fuck man?! Are you trying to kill me?!" He woke up gasping for air.

"We're supposed to guard the flag dude…" I said to him.

"Man, I didn't ask for this-" I quickly cut his sentence when I see a hunter leap down from a tree.

"Quick, put her to sleep" as I said that, Clint quickly stretch out his arm, and just like that, the girl fell into a deep sleep. "And that's exactly why you're here" I patted his back.

But wow, I really mustn't underestimate these hunters. It has only been 4 minutes, but they already went past our line of defenses.

The game has been going for about 15 minutes and by the look of it, my tactics seem to be working, as not many hunters have been able to get to us since the first one. The collaboration of campers from Apollo, Demeter, and Hecate cabins is working almost perfectly. Will has been a great medical support, and Annabeth or Gary should've got the enemy's flag by now. But alas, I was smiling too soon.

Just as I was thinking about the easy victory, I saw a glimpse of black and silver flash running past me, and what I saw in her hand, was a blue flag.

"Thalia!" I exclaimed as I turned my head toward Clint, who is in a deep sleep as if there is no tomorrow. I cursed to myself, there's no way I can catch up to her, these Hunters run like a wind!

But I know who's fast enough to catch up with her, arrow. Arrows can travel up to 300 ft. per second, with the right accuracy, I can definitely hit her before she crossed the river.

I draw my arrow, calculating the angle and the strength and course of wind in my mind. And as I release my breath, I let go of the string. Letting the arrow flies into the distance.

I don't even know if the arrow going to hit her or not. But I hope Lady Luck is on my side today.

*BOOOONNGGG!* The second horn was heard, which means that the game is over. I automatically think that my arrow missed her and we've lost.

"Huh, I guess we lost…" I said to no one in particular, glancing at the still sleeping Clint.

"No we're not!" I heard Percy's voice walks toward me, followed by the rest of the campers, holding a red flag in his hand.

"Yo Aiden! WE WON!" Gary yelled from the distance followed by all the camper's roar of victory.

"Congratulation Percy, you did it" I said to the son of Poseidon when we arrived back at the camp site.

"No Man, there's no way I can do this alone" he said to me. "Thanks to your plan, we're able to neutralize a lot of Hunters easily" he continued.

"That's right, you might even be a son of Athena" Annabeth said to me. I blushed at the comment, I never was the smartest kid in class before, these demigod things really turned my life for the better.

But then I saw Thalia arrived with all of the Hunters, and they all are looking really pissed. Getting their first lost against us must hit them pretty hard huh?

I also noticed that Thalia's left foot is injured and her clothes are covered in dirt. Oh, and she was giving me a death glare, there's that.

''I guess my arrow did hit her" I thought to myself as I smirked in victory

The smirk on my face disappeared when she approaches me, "oh shit, I'm about to get hit" I thought to myself again.

At that moment I was prepared to run as soon as she is going to attack me. But instead she just stopped in front of me, staring at me sharply.

"Hey…" she was about to say something when a bright light and a voice echoed from behind me. I turned around to see a red haired girl stood there, her eyes were white and emitting light, I didn't quite understand what happened next, but she said:

"On the last night of nine, the moon shall die,

Unless she is saved by a boy with similar eye

2 arrows shall go to the west,

To fight a man, they'll never guess,

On the last night of nine, the moon shall die,

Unless one pays, an eye for an eye."

Second after saying that, her eyes turned back to normal. Not quite sure of what just happened, I glanced to the rest of the people, but all of them seem to be as surprised as I am. For some reason, Thalia, was especially looks in terror.

And so, I looked back to face the redhead and said "I'm sorry I didn't quite get that, can you please repeat it?"


And that was chapter three folks, please tell me what you think about it. Sorry for the crappy prophecy by the way, rhyming is hard XD.

Bye for now.