Teaching Demigods of Camp Half-Blood Part 3
Percy looked at the demigods, all currently sparring with each other. It had been 3 weeks since he began teaching them and the result spoke for itself. Everyone could now use CE and their innate power.
Of course, there is a difference in the level of control for each demigod. The best in both are usually the counsellors, something Percy expected, while the others have no pattern in who is better in what, the counsellors are the oldest of each cabin. While age doesn't mean much compared to potential, dedication and training, it still helps a lot.
As a demigod grows older, their reserve of CE will grow with them, growing rapidly during puberty and only stopping after reaching their twenties. At least that is what he believed. He's not sure yet, but they will learn it through time.
He watched as Kerry spar with Luke, the 14 years old slowly pushing the daughter of Demeter, before said girl grows a tree, nearly hitting the son of Hermes, if not for his godly reflexes. He used the Cloak of Hermes, disappearing from Kerry's sight.
She closed her eyes, using CE sense, before ducking under a swing and trying to kick the teen boy. Keyword: trying. He avoided the kick easy enough before grabbing the extended leg and pulling toward him, causing the girl to fall, before pointing his blade at her neck. She concedes the match afterwards, but not before shaking hands with the victor.
Luke then stepped out of the makeshift sparing ground. After he left, two more people enter and prepare to spar, with Kerry watching over them. Percy nodded. They follow the rule he created for the sparring match.
While the arena is used to hold smaller classes or a more serious spar, the makeshift ones littered in the forest are more commonly used when he created it. It didn't consist of much, just a circle of stones that marked the boundary with the softened ground inside it, so the demigods that were thrown onto the ground will not be greatly hurt by the impact.
They were many similar sparring grounds, though each has some differences. Some have a body of water in it, some have patches of trees, and some are littered with huge boulders. Each is created differently from the others, so the campers can spar at different terrains to build up their skills and adaptability.
Of course, the number of sparring grounds 'opened', for a lack of a better term, at a single time is 8, the same as the number of counsellors. For a good reason. The counsellors will act as the referee, stopping the match if necessary, and as a trainer, giving advice on how to improve themselves. This, in a way, is training for them, when new demigods come to the camp.
While he could give the same privilege to the trio, he decided against it. They have no experience doing something like supervising a spar, so the chances of something disastrous happening is high. Besides, Annabeth is still too young to even have a serious spar. Most of her weapon training is handled by him, similar to what he learned from Lelantos, with more emphasis on the knife.
He willed himself to vapour travel to the best vantage point, one he found a week earlier, allowing him to see every part of the forest, allowing him to witness the sparring done between his students. He let out a smile filled with pride. His students have improved and grown so much in just 3 short weeks.
As he watched, he saw a red aura emanating from a son of Ares, while a daughter of Hermes avoided the attack coming from the boy so fast, that an afterimage appeared in her wake. The spar is an all-out spar, where CE and innate power are allowed. He ordered it for 3 days of all-out sparring during the evening so his students can get used to using it both in a fight.
So far, the result is promising. The demigods show decent enough control in both CE and innate power. The way they used it, both creatively and straightforward is acceptable in his eyes. After all, they only started using both a week before, so their showing is promising.
(Of course, Percy's decent, to no one knowledge even himself, enough to handle almost 3 dozen monsters in a single battle. His high standard would prove vital during the Second Titanomachy and Gigantomachy)
He looked at the chain watch. It was almost 2 hours before dinner. Time to put the training to a stop. He snapped his finger, the sound amplified by CE and electricity. "Alright, the exercise is over. Time to clean up and ready for dinner."
At the word 'dinner', every single demigod looked delighted, probably already burning up the lunch due to the intense training session. He couldn't really feel sorry for them, mostly because he didn't feel sorry for them, but also the training will help them in the future.
As every demigod leave the forest area, he walked to an area next to the creek, at what could be considered the middlemost of the forest. He placed his hand on the ground, willing the sparring ground to clear itself.
In a brief moment, every sparring ground was either swallowed or changed back to its original look. He let out a tired sigh. While using it doesn't really take much of his energy, it's mentally draining as he had to control multiple places at the exact same time. He didn't really mind though. He sees it as a form of training.
He turned his head, his sea-green eyes staring at Chiron's brown orbs. He watched as the trainer gestured for him to walk with him, something Percy did. While he was never trained by the old centaur, he still respected him. To have the patience of teaching demigods, each having a plethora of trouble, while pushed through the death of so many of his students, is more than enough for the strongest demigod to respect him.
They walked for some time, no conversation happening yet, not because they both feel awkward having one, but letting the one invited begin it. After a few minutes, Chiron started talking, "I couldn't really tell you how grateful I am for what you have done."
Unsure of what the centaur talked about, Percy decided to ask, "For what?" the question caused the old centaur to laugh.
"For teaching my students how to use Celestial energy, and how to use their godly power. With this new power, the survival rate of the campers will be greater," he explained, something Percy nodded absentmindedly.
"I'm just doing what I wanted to do," Percy replied humbly, something the trainer noted.
"You still help increase the chances of the campers coming out alive after a fight, that deserves gratitude, whether you planned for it or not," Chiron countered.
"Ok," Percy said, accepting the gratitude. If he tried to deny how important his teaching really is, the old centaur was likely to counter back, turning it into an equivalent of a tennis match, just with words. Better accept it and move on.
They continued walking side by side. At this point, it clearly Chiron wanted to discuss something with him, the way that he purposely takes a longer route to the Big House. Percy decided to humour him and walked the longer route.
When they walked at the beachside, Chiron asked a question, one Percy didn't expect but somehow knew will be asked sooner or later. "What will you do after you are done teaching them?" the make the demigod stopped for a moment before he answered truthfully.
"I will leave the camp for some time, doing stuff I need to do," the vague answer caused the centaur to be more curious, making him ask more questions. "What do you mean by 'doing stuff you need to do?".
The son of Poseidon looked at the centaur, seeming to complement something before he pulled a scroll from … somewhere. He opened it, gesturing for Chiron to look at it, something the Centaur did, the interest shown towards the content of the scroll.
He sees a map, or more precise a map of the USA, on the scroll, with several drawings showing mountain ranges, forests, bodies of water and cities on it. He also sees symbols, something he couldn't really note of its importance. The symbols are of caves, bunkers and houses, something he didn't think is important.
"Do you see these symbols?" Percy pointed to the symbols that he dismissed earlier. Now that he looked closer, he could see shapes on it. It was so small, that he totally missed it earlier. He didn't understand what the shapes meant, which thankfully, was something the son of Poseidon noticed and explained.
"The shapes represented different types of safe houses. Circles mean supply house, triangles for hideouts and hidden campground while squares and shapes with more than 4 sides are for the 'real' safe house, the more sides, the bigger and better the safe house. While for us it didn't help much, for demigods going to camp …," Percy stopped, not finishing though Chiron clearly sees his train of thought.
"The demigods have a safe place to hide and rest when they going to camp!" the centaur exclaimed, excitement and happiness in his voice. He could now see why the son of Poseidon wanted to leave the camp.
If he planning something like this, he needed to leave the safety of the camp and do the hard work outside. Though, there is still something he wanted to ask.
"Percy, how did you make the safe houses?" a good question, one he answers quickly.
"Dad gives me allowances and I use them to make some companies." The answer only makes the old centaur have more questions, which he didn't ask for now.
"So, in two weeks, you going to leave the camp to do what you need to do," it was not a question, something the son of Poseidon caught.
"Yes, that's what I will do," he confirmed, before leaving to his cabin to prepare for the night lecture, leaving the centaur at the beach.
Percy looked at the gathered demigods ready for the night's lecture. He already had a topic he wished to talk about, something that probably excites the mass of demigods in front of him.
He walked to the front of the campfire, waiting for the campers to stop talking and paying full attention to him. After they focused on him, he began his talk, "Tonight, we going to talk about an ability that everyone can do, though it will need a great control of Celestial energy,
Tonight, we talk about familiar making,"
The demigods perk up. Something they don't know. Which means the lesson will be both exciting and boring. Exciting because they will learn a new skill. Boring because the new skill will likely come with a long explanation, more specifically to feed the children of Athena.
"Familiar is essentially a being you created yourself. It can move and will do your bidding. How it will look depends on what you wanted it to look like,"
Percy willed for a water orb to form then performed a small cut on his palm, letting out blood. He controls the blood, willing it to fuse with the water. Then he changed the form of the water into a wolf, before dropping it to the ground. The wolf shook its head, before doing its equivalent of a bark, which sounded more like water slamming to water.
The demigods had their mouths opened, too shocked to even ask a question. Percy just watched expectantly, waiting for it to happen. "How did you do that, teach?!" someone ask-yelled, prompting the others to do the same. Which is what he expects.
After a chaotic and loud moment, he fake coughing, causing his students to stop asking questions, knowing that he will explain it to them. And if they continue being loud, their teacher might beat them with the 'Huge Stick', so there's that.
When the surrounding noises drop to zero, Percy continued, "Familiar is created by giving anything you which to turn into a familiar a constant supply of Celestial energy. Of course, trying to supply Celestial energy constantly is very draining. So, we use another way.
Blood," as he said that, blood flows from the cut he made earlier, doing something similar to a somersault, as he snapped his finger and the blood stopped, forming a sphere.
"Blood contains the most Celestial energy to anywhere else with the exception of the important organs. And one that you can stand to lose a few pints. If you properly infused blood with the object you want to turn into a familiar, you will not need to replace the blood used by the familiar for a long time."
"Of course, there will be a time when you need to replace the blood of the familiar. Kind of like a battery, except with blood. That is something you will learn after you learn how to make familiar."
"There is something you need to know. While blood may not be a part of your godly parent's domain, you can still control yours" he received a mass 'huh?' from the campers. He ignored the confused look, something that is common for the campers to show whenever he tells them new stuff and motioned for Luke to come.
Luke, knowing what Percy wanted him to do, cut his palm and let blood come out from it. Surprisingly, the blood flowed upward and gathered into a ball. Before they could point out that Percy could control it, he said, "Used Celestial energy sense on the blood,"
Obeying him, they did just that, and behold to their surprise, only Luke's CE surrounded the ball. Percy continued, "As I said earlier, blood has the most Celestial energy, so Luke's Celestial energy can be said condensed in his blood. If blood contained a lot of Celestial energy …" he stopped, something a daughter of Athena who is not Annabeth caught.
"He can theoretically control it like Celestial energy!" the girl exclaimed. He nodded at the girl, showing that what she said is correct. It's something that Luke discovered, with it started when he asked that if blood, contained a high level of CE, then what stopping others from controlling it. It then led to the son of Hermes being able to control his blood at the level of a son of Poseidon controlling water.
The others merely nodded, showing that they understand him. In his mind, he thanked the gods. He's not sure if he's doing a good job teaching but the way the campers progress, he at least did decent enough.
"If you have any questions ask now. If not, we will begin your training." The children of Athena seemed to complement something while others looked at them pleadingly as if asking them to not ask any more questions. Of course, they didn't listen to others.
"Teacher, will all of us learn how to make familiar today?" the youngest child of Athena, after Annabeth, asked.
"No, for today, only the one that I think is ready will learn how to make familiar. The rest will learn how to control Celestial energy." His answer seemed to surprise the demigods.
"Really, I thought all of us will learn it today," said a son of Hermes, either intentionally or not, loudly.
"Even if I teach everyone how to do it if you don't learn how to control your Celestial energy, it won't do much good," Percy replied, getting a bunch of agreeing sounds from the group.
"Now, I'm going to call out the name that will learn from me today. When I call out your name, I want you to stand behind me. The rest will continue their Celestial energy training with Chiron watching over you," he tells them, before grabbing a list and saying the name of the demigods that will learn from him.
After he was done, there are 30 people standing behind the son of Poseidon. The most notable is the cabin counsellors, who all get picked by Percy. The rest is an assortment of demigods, with the children of Athena having the highest number, while the rest is spread more equally.
He looked at the people behind him and said, "Follow me," before walking toward a part of the forest, the one lucky enough, kept a paced jog behind him. The others only looked at the chosen ones enviously before the old trainer ushered them to the training ground Percy made before, ready to assist in his students' growth.
The ones that were picked by Percy to learn how to make familiar were excited but a bit wary. While creating some sentient beings is amazing, they wonder how tedious and hard the process will be.
They sighed quite loudly. Apparently making familiar is easy enough if you have good control of Celestial energy. The only hard part is making the familiar's body, which is taken care of by their teacher, who created statues of small dogs for them to practice.
He first gave them knives, to cut their palm with. After cutting their palms open and letting the blood flow, he told them to concentrate on the Celestial energy from the blood and control it. It's one of the easier ones as their blood lets out the same Celestial energy signature as theirs and all of the demigods with Percy can control the surrounding CE with great precision.
The truly hard part is controlling the blood and CE inside the statues. They can't break the statues into pieces as even if they somehow piece them back together, the statues' strength will be weakened and prone to breaking. Only by controlling the blood into the statues with precision will they be able to maintain their toughness.
They first have to control the blood and created a 'heart' for the familiar. It's one of the hardest processes as the concentration required is scary. Then, they have to channel the blood to create a poor version of the human circulatory system, so the familiar can actually move. Then they were done, two easy steps (that's a lie, it's two very, very hard steps).
And boy does it test their control over CE, and patience. Their patience is seriously tested during the familiar making. The need to move around to destress while they were required to remain still and focus nearly broke their mind. Only with their teacher's encouragement did they actually able to hold on.
It takes a long time, but eventually, even the ones with the weakest control among them can create a familiar. The last person to create a familiar is currently having his familiar checked by their teacher who merely nodded at the demigod, who slumped in relief.
"Alright, all of you show that you can create a familiar, or at less, make the familiar move. For tomorrow, you all will try to make a familiar in the shape you wanted. They can be your last defence against monsters or your trump card. That all depends on you. Now, go join the others and go take some rest. There will be no night lecture, only a campfire. Dismissed," as he said that, the demigods ran towards the cabin.
He didn't have any idea of what they going to do. Most likely something that required moving around. He has seen the way they act. He is pretty sure that if the class last a minute longer, there will be attempted murder.
Nevertheless, his more able students (the ones that learn quicker) can teach the others, making his job easier. Of course, he wouldn't depend on them much. If they need his tutelage, he will give it to them.
He wonders how he's going to tell them he's leaving the camp for some time though.
It had been a week since their teacher introduced them to familiars, and now every camper started to learn the way of making the sentient beings. Currently, the demigods that were sent to Chiron to train their control of CE are now learning how to make familiars.
Percy looked at the gathered demigods, the first ones that already learned how to make familiars showing the ropes to the ones that started learning it today. He already gave them a demonstration on how to make them, now they just trying to make one. As one would say, practice make perfect.
He looked at one of his students and couldn't help but stifle a laugh. He somehow turned his dog statue into a pug. Percy has no idea how that brat did it, but he is so going to ask him. He decided to look at the students that learned it early and couldn't help but laugh at them.
Somehow, the familiar-making class turned to sculpture class. He already had some foresight that it would happen, but seeing it is way funnier than he could have imagined. The demigods all have different trouble though it stems from one main issue, they all don't know how to make a proper sculpture.
Some tried to make a human, but either turning it into some kind of weird disproportionate being with either a small limb or big head, and that is one of the better ones. The worst is usually some kind of monster that should only appear in the worst nightmares. Less talk about that one person the better.
The groups that tried to make animal sculptures fared better compared to their human making compatriot. Unfortunately, being better than others doesn't mean good. At best, their sculpture looked similar to what they wanted to make. At worst, well, even the Chimera looked less bizarre.
The son of Poseidon couldn't help but remembered something he already taught them. Now that he thought about it, they forgot one thing he told them. Deciding to get their attention, he clapped his hands, making a huge sound akin to thunder, causing some to yelp in surprise, with some even falling to the ground.
When the campers turned their attention to their small teacher, he looked at them with deadpan eyes. "Have any of you used Celestial energy to shape the rocks?" the question was asked as deadpan as possible but the campers couldn't help but felt like Thanatos himself is asking the question.
"No," numerous voices said, all not looking at the son of Poseidon who merely looked at them with annoyance.
"Right," he trailed off, causing the demigods to feel at unease. "Well, now you all know you can use Celestial energy to help make your familiars, something I told you earlier." The campers thought hard about it and remembered that yes, he already told them.
"Before you went back to making familiars, I want everyone that learned it earlier to come forward," he didn't yell but it still brings the fear of gods, something that they thought rather accurate considering Percy is a god in their opinions.
(The son of Poseidon couldn't help but felt annoyed at the campers for some inexplicable reasons. Oh well, he could torture – trained them harder)
"You guys will have a 'training' session with me. I hope all of you are ready because you going to need to be," he said with a smile. The campers couldn't help but swallowed their saliva in terror, they all thought one thing when they looked at his face, 'the smile of a devil'.
The unlucky campers could only shake like a leaf as Percy gave them a predatory smile. "Let's get started then," Hydro Tendril grabbed the campers, causing them to shriek in terror, some even clawing into the ground to escape their impending doom.
The others could only watch as the early-taught campers were dragged to their torture ground, sighing in relief that they didn't have to suffer the terror. They jumped when they heard louder screams coming from the direction their teacher dragged the other demigods.
They couldn't help but shiver when the screams suddenly stopped. Deciding to be safe, they focused on their training, banishing the thought of their siblings' doom while busy making – well, giving life to their familiars, this time guided by the trio and Chiron.
The campers currently having dinner, the evening spent with training how to make a familiar, of course with the exception of the ones that learned earlier, who undergo 'training from hell' or they say. This is not far from the truth as they are currently either dozing off on the table or trying to lift their arms to eat and failed, the strain of the training a bit much.
Percy looked at the demigods smiling at them, proud of their achievement. All of them are able to 'give' life to their familiar. His smile, however, caused the demigods to straighten their bodies, fear coursing through their veins, especially the ones that undergo the 'training'. No doubt they felt an extra amount of fear.
The son of Poseidon merely shook his head, focusing on his dinner, already eating his 12th plate. How on Gaia did he remain small and cute is still a question among the campers. When he continued digging through his food, the campers let out a collective sigh before continuing to eat.
The campers are currently at the Amphitheatre, per Percy's order. They were unsure why he summoned them but they knew it has to be important. All of them arrived early, though it's definitely not because they are scared of him. No, it's because they are terrified of him.
The campers already started to take a seat when Percy arrived looking at them with … something they were not sure of. Unbeknownst to the campers, he looked at them with pride, pride of his students who were already able to make familiar, no matter how loosely he meant it.
He moved his head, looking at the gathered campers before finally starting talking. "I wanted to congratulate all of you, you already can give life to your familiar by the end of the day, and I'm proud of you.
Now to the second announcement. I will be leaving the camp for a while," before he could finish talking, a cacophony of sounds stopped him, every single demigod asking their own questions and begging him to not leave. Ironic considering that some of the begging came from the ones who begged earlier for him to leave during their 'training'.
He snapped his finger, releasing a sound akin to exploding water. He looked at them before continuing, "As I'm going to say, I left the camp because I have things to do. That does not mean that I'm leaving forever, just leaving for a week and then coming back."
After he explained his term of leaving, a son of Hermes raised his hand. Percy raised an eyebrow at that but decided to go with it. The boy asked, "Teacher, when are you leaving?" the question was a bit surprising considering some actually asked him to not leave but he answered it.
"In a week or so, I'm going to watch all of your training first then leave. But because I'm leaving you can slack off your training! If I found any of you slacking off, what I did to some of your siblings will look like a mere warmup! Do you understand me?!" his question/order caused them to nod off so fast, that Percy thought some of their heads will fell off.
After getting his point across, he looked at his students, some in deep thought. What they are thinking, he's not sure but he hoped for their sake it is something helpful for their future growth. He was proven right when the counsellors seemed to have their own discussion before James stood up and spoke.
"Teacher, would you mind being the referee for the capture the flag game?"