Chapter 31:
Markus was currently practicing on using and training with magic in his cabin. He was the only one inside at the moment.
Thing at the camp over the last week had been in every sense of the word hectic. With Thalia, daughter of Zeus being brought back to life in whatever strange way that the Fleece managed to do so, the campers all acted like headless chickens and did not know how to act around her.
Some feared for obvious reason since they believed that Zeus would probably strike them down if they made fun of her. One of the Aphrodite girls made the stupid move of making fun of her clothes. The girl got electrocuted afterwards. Markus still snickered at that memory.
Thalia had spent two days in the med wing regaining her strength and Annabeth had stayed with her the entire time. The two had caught up with one another and Annabeth told Thalia all about her adventures during the last two years and all the enemies they had faced.
Thalia was impressed and looked genuinely happy that Annabeth had grown up so well and was becoming her own woman.
When she asked Thalia what she remembered about that night, all she said she could recall was lying on the ground with her eyes slowly closing and shouting as thunder rumbled above. Then everything went dark and it felt as if she was just floating in mid-air for a few minutes before she opened her eyes and found an older Annabeth and Markus looking down at her. Years passing when to her it only felt minutes.
Markus and Percy visited to say hello and introduced themselves to her which Thalia quickly responded in kind. At first, she was surprised that Poseidon had broken the oath twice, but chalked it up to the gods not being able to keep it in their pants. Markus figured that he was going to like her.
Though Markus was there Annabeth had to break the news to Thalia about Luke.
Thalia refused to believe it at first and shouted at them, telling them they were lying to her. But after Chiron back up the story and told her that Luke had changed after her supposed death, she accepted it though everyone could see the hurt on her face.
Since then, she'd been acting sad and moody most of the time. Markus couldn't blame her. Luke was her friend, probably best friend. To find out that he had betrayed her, even poisoned what was left of her, must've hurt. Markus could sort of relate. That was why he kind of comforted her when the news reached her. He said 'kind of' because when he did try to comfort her, she shocked him with electricity. When asked about why she did that, Thalia replied that a) she didn't need anyone comforting her, and b) it was payback for carrying her to the med bay like a princess.
Markus teasingly replied that she was a princess since her dad was the king of the gods. Markus had to use Speculum Alice to reflect Thalia's lightning back at her for that remark.
Anyway, Thalia had managed to handle camp life well. Minus the fact that everyone seemed to be on pins and needles when around her. Markus was a little resentful to the camp for that. Not necessarily how they treated Thalia, though that was annoying, but the way they acted before. When Markus and Percy were revealed to be sons of Poseidon, everyone treated them as if they were a disease. Like they were a plague. Many campers feared them, but others were resentful. But when Thalia comes around, everyone almost seems to want to either worship the ground that she walks on, are too scared to be around or talk to her due to being the daughter of Zeus, etc. Almost no one was resentful or jealous of her. What was the difference between her and him and his brother? They were children of the Big Three too. And the way they acted towards Tyson.
Markus calmed himself down. That was in the past. He shouldn't be thinking like that. Though part of him was angry at the camp for how they acted.
He managed to block those thoughts out and decided to up his training. Despite the load of being the prophecy child being taken off of him, he still wanted to get more powerful. Though Hestia's words from before were ringing in his head as he thought about them. He wanted to listen to those words, but at the same time, his fatal flaw kept acting up when he thought about the idea of stopping. He knew that greed was a dangerous thing, especially as a fatal flaw. But he couldn't help it. It was a part of him, a part of who he was. He could understand the need to control it. That was necessary. But to go against it? It was almost physically impossible. Markus could only somewhat manage it, but he didn't really want to go against it. After all, if he was stronger, then he could deal with Kronos' forces and any opponent in his way in the future.
Satisfied with his decision, Markus made up his mind. Concentrating heavily, he managed to leave the spell books on his bed and leave his cabin, heading towards the Hephaestus cabin for the weights that he had requested.
The idea of weights came to him when he thought about ways of improving his physical prowess. So he thought about how to go about it, and the suggestion came to light after a couple of minutes. They would weigh on his body as he trained, so that when he removed them, he would be much stronger and much faster.
With a grin, Markus set off to work.
XXX
Thalia crossed her arms as she and a few other campers gathered around the canoe lake dressed in swimsuits. They were having a swimming lesson of all things. Like she needed to learn how to swim. She wasn't five.
She glanced at Percy, who was helping other campers in learning how to swim.
The reason Thalia was acting grumpy was because of the person sitting cross-legged in the middle of the lake with his eyes closed. That being Markus Henderson.
She wasn't grumpy at him for any particular reason. If anything, she was grumpy because, mainly, she was jealous. Jealous of Markus. Of how he was so damn powerful.
Since her awakening from her 'power nap' in her tree, she tried to get her bearings. Being stuck in a tree for almost six years and seeing your friends either grown up or go traitor - Thalia's heart sank at the thought of Luke - was a surreal experience. Hell, the last thing she remembered fighting and dying against the army of the Underworld, and the next thing is that she wakes up with Markus and Annabeth as the first people that she saw.
And then Markus carried her to the med bay like a damsel in distress. Like a princess. She loathed the word. She was a warrior. Not a damn princess. And she was going to shock anyone who said otherwise.
Since she'd recovered, she was getting used to camp life. And that would've been fine, except everyone was so fucking scared of her. Like she was going to call down a lightning bolt and kill all of them. Well, maybe she would if they continued gawking at her. Even though it was due to the fact that she was the daughter of Zeus - a title that she both took pride in and loathed for obvious reasons - that didn't mean she was something to gawk at. Like an endangered animal or something.
The only people who acted normal towards her were Markus, Percy, Annabeth, Grover (whenever he could visit, as he was busy with satyr duties) and Chiron. Though Chiron looked at her with looks of expectation, like she was special. Thalia liked that. Even if it did get overbearing at times, it was nice to know that she was something special.
Though only Markus and Percy were the exceptions. They both treated her the same as everyone else. And she was glad about that. It was a good thing that not everyone placed her on a pedestal and being treated like a regular person. Though she did admit that at some points she did get angry that she was treated normally when she was the daughter of the king of the gods. Call it arrogance or pride, but she believed that she deserved a little attention once in a while. But that was her thoughts.
Maybe it was the Zeus in her, but she hated being treated as a second in command. She was used to being the one in charge. After all, that was how things were when she, Luke and Annabeth were on the streets. Even though Luke was the oldest out of them, he looked to her like she was the leader. And she took pride in that. Despite the task being daunting, she was able to keep strong.
But that wasn't how things were now. Whenever she walked around camp, she could hear people whisper behind her back. Not bad things. Just how they were scared that Zeus would smite them where they stood if they insulted her. Another thing was how strong she was. That was usually welcomed with full support from her. As a child of the Big Three, she was naturally stronger than the average demigod. Even stronger than many of the demigods here. But the one thing that burnt her badly was how she was usually compared to Markus, who was considered as possibly the strongest demigod in Camp Half-Blood.
She wanted to snap at them, but refrained. She was obviously stronger than some son of Poseidon. She was the daughter of Zeus, who was stronger than Poseidon. So by that logic, she was stronger than Markus. Right?
But when she heard the campers whisper about his feats, about how there were rumours that he and Percy battled Ares, how he defeated Lamia, Echidna, the Chimera, Medusa and the Cetus; all legendary and dangerous monsters, she started feeling inferior. And being who she was, she didn't like that. She was used to being the strongest and the one in charge.
Her inferiority reared its ugly head whenever she saw Markus train. Or as she deemed it, 'showing off'. How he always used super speed to run around the camp multiple times, how he could use magic, how he could use water in ways not thought possible, how he was always training in the arena using his sword and some sort of metal gloves. Thalia was so sick of hearing about Markus this, Markus that. Combined with his constant 'showing off', she was extremely jealous of him.
Though that wasn't fair to him, since he hadn't done anything wrong. He even helped her when she felt like she was practically displaced and distraught about Luke. It sounded like he went through the same thing. And she unfairly snapped at him for helping her. Plus, he wasn't that bad of a guy. Extremely annoying, though. Him and his brother. Always calling her a princess and annoying her.
But the one thing she was truly jealous about was the way he treated Percy. Whenever she passed them, she saw how they interacted. They played about, they trained, they argued, etc. And Markus always stated that Percy was his 'baby brother'. That brought a burst of pain to her heart as she thought about her younger brother Jason. And how he died...
It wasn't fair! Both sons of Poseidon had each other! While she was left all alone. First, losing Jason. Then turning into a tree. And that didn't even touch the fact on her mother. It just wasn't fair! Was Zeus so much of a terrible dad that his kids had shitty luck?!
All of these thoughts swirled in Thalia's head as she glared at Markus, who was now forming constructs of water without even looking. And he barely looked like he was trying. All of the kids swimming looked in awe as Markus controlled the water to his bidding. Even the kid who Percy was helping learn how to swim.
Unknown to her, Percy looked at his brother with an annoyed and jealous look on his face as well.
Her arms were crossed, her finger tapping her bicep as Thalia's frustration built. In fact, it built to the point that she released a static charge. It was a moderate shock, making everyone feel the shock and complained loudly. Thalia could see the electricity travel through the water to Markus. She could admit that she felt slightly gleeful at getting shocked and embarrassed.
Though her glee turned to anger when the water that he was sitting on froze quickly into ice, halting the flow of electricity slightly. It travelled further slightly, almost reaching Markus. But the ice turned more bluer, more compact, halting the flow of electricity instantly.
Markus opened his eyes and glared towards Thalia. "What the hell was that for?" he asked, annoyed.
She just narrowed her eyes right back and turned around, stalking off. "This is a waste of my time."
"Wonder if you're on your period, princess. Maybe that's why you're acting so moody today," Markus quipped. Thalia turned to glare at him.
"Say that again. I dare you," Thalia threatened, electric blue eyes crackling.
Markus smirked. "Sure, princess. I said-" Markus quickly stood up and performed a Sonido on his block of ice (he mentally cheered that he was finally able to get the sound correct due to the timing) and appeared instantly in front of her. This shocked her, and the others watching, so much that she fell onto her ass in surprise. "- you must be on your pe-ri-od." He said the word slowly as possible, looking down at her mockingly.
Getting over her surprise, Thalia quickly stood up and, with a growl, turned and walked away, crackling with electricity as she went.
This isn't over, Henderson, Thalia thought to herself.
XXX
Markus was running with a stopwatch in his hand, huffing and puffing from his daily laps around the whole of Camp Half-Blood.
He'd been doing this a lot lately. Attaching leg and arm weights to his limbs, he'd been hoping to increase his physical stats. They were definitely doing their job. It took a little longer for him to complete his laps than normal. He could complete ten laps around the camp in under thirty seconds pre-weight training if he really pushed it. Now it took him almost a minute and thirty seconds to do it with weights. Plus, they were a pain to wear everywhere.
Even so, he could feel the results. His body was getting much stronger. His build, which was usually like a runner, was now in between a body builder and a swimmer. Which he was damn proud of. Not many fourteen year olds had an almost solid six pack. And he guessed that the girls of the Aphrodite cabin (hell, girls in almost every cabin) appreciated his body as well. Since he started training, Markus had taken to mainly wearing shorts and vests. And at the end of his training, he almost always removed his vest, displaying his body covered in sweat and showing muscles in the right places and legs that were seriously buff.
Markus didn't mind the attention of the opposite sex. In fact, he appreciated it. He even found himself winking at several at the girls caught staring at him, which was usually not like him. But whatever.
But running laps weren't the only thing that he did. He also did 200 push-ups, 200 squats, 200 sit-ups and his daily laps. And that was only one rep. The reason he was even able to do all of these reps several times in a day and not collapse in a heap was due to his broken healing factor with water. Even Markus thought that his water healing ability was broken. Whenever he felt exhausted or worn out, he just splashed water on himself and he was ready to go. This was particularly useful whenever he tore a muscle from overexerting himself.
Was he pushing his body to the limit? Possibly. Was he going to stop? Hell no! He just wasn't going to keep at it every day. He spent most of his time hanging out with Katie, Percy, Beckendorf, etc. He was also working on the future Hestia cabin. Which he had the building blocks ready. He could've asked Annabeth, who was aspiring to be an architect, but he still felt uneasy talking to her about her not telling him and Percy the prophecy. Even though he wasn't the prophecy child anymore, he still felt betrayed. He lost most of his anger towards her, but he was still uneasy about forgiving her.
Besides, he could always get someone else to help him design the Hestia cabin. Though his talk about it with Chiron and, unfortunately, Mr. D wasn't how he wanted it to go.
Flashback
"The Hestia cabin?" Chiron said skeptically, looking at the notebook that had the designs of it.
"Yeah," Markus nodded. "I figured that we could place the unclaimed in there, making more space for the Hermes cabin and a cabin to the unclaimed. Plus, it'll be nice for Hestia herself. It's a win-win."
"And how would you know if Hestia will be pleased with this, Mary?" Mr. D asked in his lazy and annoying drawl.
Markus glared at the god for getting his name wrong for the billionth time. "Because, Diyonos, I spoke to Hestia herself," he said back, purposefully messing up the god's name.
Mr. D glared at Markus. "It's Dionysus, you brat."
Markus shrugged. "Don't care. You get my name wrong, I get yours wrong. I'm sick of you being a bratty child."
Mr. D's eyes burned with a purple light, showing that he was furious. But Markus didn't flinch as he looked the god in the eye, not taking anymore of his shit.
"Maybe I should follow through with turning you into a dolphin and sending you to your father. Maybe it'll do you some good," Mr. D snarled at him, an insane gleam in his eyes, which represented his domain. He was nearly frothing at the mouth in fury.
Markus smirked, not backing down from the god's small display of power. "You sure your fat ass can get itself out of your chair to do that?" he insulted directly, not even hiding his words.
Before the god could do anything, Chiron stepped forward between the two. "Mr. D, please, that's enough! And Markus, you should know better than to insult a god!"
"Move, Chiron! I'll send this boy to his father as ashes if need be!" Dionysus growled, grape vines suddenly sprouting from the ground and wrapping around Markus slowly.
Markus smirked. He vibrated his body fast enough to phase through the plants and escape them, shocking Dionysus and Chiron at the sight. Vibrating his hand, he chopped at the plants like a knife, slicing them in two.
Markus turned to Chiron, who was still looking shocked. "Chiron, I insulted him because I was sick of the god acting like a brat and getting my name wrong h and ann simply because he has a chip on his shoulder. But I'm not here to discuss that. I'm here to discuss the building of the Hestia cabin."
"My boy, I'm not sure if that is possible," Chiron said with a careful look to Mr. D, who glared at Markus before turning back to his cards, giving up on killing him for now. "Lady Hestia is not an Olympian. Lord Zeus would-"
"But why?" Markus asked, frowning. "She is the eldest of the first generation of Olympians. She is a goddess, and she deserves respect. Hell, he wouldn't even have a throne on Olympus if it weren't for her!" he said while pointing at Dionysus, who glared, but didn't say anything else.
"I agree with your sentiment, Markus. I truthfully do," Chiron said carefully. "But Lord Zeus may go against the decision. I'm not saying no," he said as Markus was about to interrupt, "as doing so would be an insult to the goddess. But we have to-"
"So, it's a yes?" Markus said with a smile. "Thanks, Chiron. I'll get the Hephaestus and possibly dad to help. Thanks!" And with that, Markus vanished with a Sonido.
End Flashback
Markus was at least glad that he got Chiron's permission, screw what Mr. D said.
Markus ran off to get himself cooled off.
XXX
Percy was busy practising in the sword arena, hacking and slashing and stabbing at the training dummies with Riptide.
With each attack, his annoyance and anger grew, little by little.
The reason he was annoyed was because, like Thalia, he was a little jealous of Markus. Okay, very jealous.
While Percy did love his brother, he didn't want to be coddled. He was sick and tired of Markus practically carrying him along as they went on quests. During the fight in the Arch, then the battle against Ares. And then in the Sea of Monsters, fighting the Cetus and Polyphemus. In all of those cases, Markus either did all of it on his own or was the main reason why the battle was won.
He wanted to be strong like him. Be more powerful than him. Ever since both of them heard the prophecy, he could see the change in Markus. He was more determined, more driven. He knew that it was because he wanted to escape the prophecy.
He too felt distraught at the prophecy. To hear that Markus was going to possibly die in the future scared him. Despite their differences, Percy loved his brother dearly, and didn't want to see him die. That despair was taken off when Thalia was introduced, though he didn't wish the same fate on her.
Percy chopped and hacked until, eventually, the head of the training dummy was lopped off.
Percy was breathing in heavily. His requests in training requests with Chiron and his own self-training was paying off. He was leagues better than he was before. But he didn't think he could win in a sword fight against Luke. Or Markus.
Sighing, he went to training again when he heard Annabeth's voice behind him. "Percy?"
He turned, seeing Annabeth standing at the entrance of the arena.
"O-oh, hey Annabeth," he said nervously. He tried to act cool, though he found that he was quickly failing. "W-what's up?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. Despite looking and acting bossy and a little annoying, Percy still found her cute. "Nothing much, Seaweed Brain. You?"
"Oh, nothing. J-just, uh..." Percy tried coming up with an excuse, but none came to him. He was about to finally say something when Annabeth said knowingly. "You're training because you feel jealous of Markus, aren't you?"
Percy was about to deny it, but knew that it was futile. Annabeth could read him like a book. "Yeah," he said, shoulders drooping.
Annabeth sighed. "Percy. You can't keep comparing yourself to Markus. That's not going to work."
"Don't you think I know that?!" Percy snapped at her. "I know that! I know that no matter how hard I train, I'll never be as good as him. But I'm tired. Tired of being carried about like a burden when I can do something. We're both children of Poseidon. And yet it seems like he's so far ahead of me. Always ahead. Always strong. Well, guess what? I'm tired of Markus being the only strong one! I don't want to be a useless burden!"
After his speech, Percy panted, his face red. Annabeth looked at him, shocked. Her mouth was open slightly. She looked at him in sadness. "I-I didn't know that it was that bad," she whispered. "At the Sea of Monsters, I thought you were only slightly jealous of your brother. I didn't know that it meant so much to you."
Breathing in deeply, Percy was able to regain his composure. Albeit, barely. "I-I'm sorry for unloading on you like that. It's just - I just want to be able to stand beside Markus. Not behind him."
Annabeth sighed. Then she looked at him knowingly. "You're not the only one who feels like that, Percy."
"W-what?" Percy's eyes went wide at that.
"Despite on your level, I do feel like I don't want to be left behind. You and Markus and other children of the gods have amazing powers. While I can only sprout facts from a textbook. And before you say something to make me feel better," Annabeth held up her hand to stop Percy from saying anything else, "I know it's true. That's why I'm also training. So that I won't get left behind by you guys. And not just us, but Katie, too."
"Katie?" Percy enquired, puzzled.
"There you are, Annabeth," a voice said behind them. Both Annabeth and Percy turned to see Katie, who was sitting on a large flower head. The flower head was able to guide her to the two, connected to a very long thorny vine. Percy's jaw dropped at seeing her display of power. He'd never seen her do that before.
Meanwhile, Annabeth sighed, annoyed. "Couldn't you wait a little bit, Katie?"
"Nope," she said with a smile. She jumped off her flower head, patting the plant head. The plant seemed to purr a little, before heading out of the arena. "I couldn't wait. Not while I was kicking your ass."
"You still can't beat me in knife-fighting," Annabeth retorted back, smirking. This caused Katie to scowl.
"That doesn't count," Katie growled.
"Woah, woah. Time out," Percy said, waving his hands. Both girls looked at him questioningly. "H-how could you do that? W-when could you do that?"
"Training," Katie shrugged. "Turns out, most people forget that Demeter is one of the elder gods, more older than Zeus, despite being a peaceful goddess. Meaning that she's a very powerful goddess. Though I do admit that Markus helped me a lot."
"He did?" Percy asked. "How?"
Katie huffed. "Did you guys know that he was big on comic books and anime?"
"Uh, yeah," Percy nodded while Annabeth looked puzzled.
"Well, he kept on comparing my powers to some characters called Poison Ivy from DC and Hashirama Senju from Naruto. And when he showed me those characters, after I slapped him for comparing me to Poison Ivy because I do not nor will I ever dress like that, I was inspired. A little bit of training and presto!" Katie held up her hand and a thorny vine burst from the ground in a flash. "Neat, huh?"
Annabeth turned to Percy. "You see? We're all training. I plan to work on knife-throwing - something Travis and Connor showed me a while ago - and hopefully get stronger. So does Katie. We all want to grow stronger and not get left behind."
"Yeah," Katie nodded. "And I plan to prove that the Demeter cabin isn't just a cabin full of gardeners, but fighters."
Percy slowly smiled seeing the determined looks on the girls' faces. Maybe, if they worked together, they could all get stronger. "Thanks, guys." Lifting up Riptide and hefting it upon his shoulder, he smirked. "Let's get stronger together."
XXX
A few days after Markus' got permission from Chiron about the Hestia cabin, it was time for weapons training in the arena. Usually, the classes Markus had included cabins four, twelve and three. But today it was just three and twelve.
Clarisse had taken over the class this summer as the instructor and clearly relished it.
Markus was glad because he wanted to practise in another weapon today. Specifically the spear. It was more of a back-up weapon in case he ever lost Wavebreaker. Sure, he had Beowulf and his knives, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
That was why he had Clarisse personally fight him and teach him spear-fighting the hard way. That being her attacking him and him defending and dodging while learning to attack with a practise spear in his hands.
Markus thought that Clarisse would show more enthusiasm in trying to beat him up. But she had a serious expression on her face. Which puzzled him. Usually, Clarisse was happy trying to fight him, but she seemed more focused.
"Henderson, I want to ask you something," Clarisse said seriously, thrusting forward with her spear Maimer and connecting with his spear. Markus quickly disengaged as he didn't want to be electrocuted by her spear.
"What is it?" Markus asked, flipping his spear around and holding it steady. He was steadily getting better at wielding a spear, but he wasn't on Clarisse's level yet.
"Why is it that every time Silena is around you, she bursts into tears? What did you do to her?" Clarisse growled, aiming her spear at his midsection, only for Markus to step sideways briefly as he tried to stab her. But Clarisse paused in her strides, trying to aim for the side of his head. Markus managed to duck and roll, holding his spear to one side. Clarisse seemed really pissed.
Markus' face became like stone. "That's none of your business."
"It is when you've made my best friend cry! Now answer me!" Clarisse said, trying to skewer him again.
But before she could continue her charge, she was interrupted by a voice. "Hey. Do you mind if I join?"
Everyone stopped to see Thalia stepping forward into the arena, sparking with excitement. Literally.
Clarisse growled. "Did you have to butt in now, girlie?"
"Sorry about that," Thalia said, looking towards Markus intently. "Just wanted to blow off some steam. That cool with you?"
"Fine," Clarisse huffed. She turned to Markus. "Hope you lose."
"Don't bet on it," Markus scoffed. Clarisse stepped away as Thalia stepped forward.
She nudged her chin towards him. "I'll take Barnacle Brain."
"You mad because I called you princess, princess?" Markus taunted, getting Thalia to scowl. Markus smirked. "Yeah, sure. Why not?"
The two demigods stood in the center of the arena. Both brandishing their chosen weapons. To make things fair and to prevent fatal injuries, they were banned from using magical weapons and were using issued practice weapons. Thalia had chosen to go for a spear while Markus elected to go with a sword.
"Okay, make it clean. Got it?" Clarisse ordered as she eyed each combatant in turn.
"Whatever." Thalia answered flippantly. Markus just smirked.
"Right then, fight!"
Thalia flashed her palm forward, a blue static bolt shooting down her arm and through the air to strike Markus.
He just casted Speculum Alice, returning the bolt back towards Thalia, who looked unimpressed.
"That old trick? It won't work, Barnacle Brain," Thalia taunted with a smirk.
Markus just raised an eyebrow. He turned to Clarisse, who didn't say anything. Then he turned to Thalia. "So we're using powers, now? Well then."
Markus blitzed towards Thalia, who looked surprised but ready as she met his charge with her spear. She tried shocking him by running electricity through her spear, but Markus disengaged, slipping out of the lock and kicking her in the stomach. This caused her to stumble as Markus slashed at her main spear arm while she was distracted. She managed to dodge, but still ended up with a slight cut.
Thalia inspected her injury before glaring at him. "What?" he asked. "You're the one who used your powers. I'm not allowed to use mine?"
Thalia scowled. "Trust me. You're not getting that chance."
She raised her spear in the air. With a yell, she called forth lightning from the sky. The demigods watching were slightly blinded, but managed to continue watching. Aiming her spear directly at him, she shot forward a bolt of lightning, much stronger than before.
Expecting this, Markus sidestepped the attack using his super speed, a move that he dubbed Quick Step (A.N. - The same move Sonic does in Sonic Unleashed). He smirked cockily. "You missed."
Yelling, Thalia continued to call forth lightning bolts, trying to fry him where he stood or continuing aiming bolts at him. He continued dodging at super speed, still having his cocky smirk. She tried aiming at the ground, trying to predict where he was going to go, but Markus countered this by activating Speculum Alice, sending the bolts back at her. "Give up, yet?" he asked, still smirking.
Thalia roared in frustration, causing a bolt to strike near the demigods, startling them and making them back away. Channelling lightning through her spear, she charged forward, fed up with ranged attacks.
Smirking, Markus used the water vapour in the air to summon enough water, and then wrapped it around his sword. Then he transformed the water into ice, coating it onto his sword. He read somewhere that, while ice could conduct electricity, it was also a very bad conductor. So he was using ice to take care of Thalia's lightning.
He charged forward, meeting her strike and clashing with their respective weapons. As Thalia tried to pierce him, Markus deflected, the ice doing its job of not conducting lightning. They continued clashing, neither side yielding. Until Thalia left an opening. At her legs.
Disengaging from their lock, he bent low and swept her legs from under her. Stomping on her wrist, she cried out as she was forced to let her spear go. With that, he held the ice-coated sword to Thalia's neck, signalling the end of the match.
Thalia glared at him, but couldn't do anything as he held her at sword-point. "Yield?" he asked, smirking. "And if I see so much as a flicker of static, I'll freeze you."
Thalia growled, but couldn't do anything. "Fine," she bit out. "I yield."
Seeing that Clarisse signalled the end of the match, Markus removed the ice from his sword and moved the water elsewhere. He removed the sword from Thalia's neck and held out his hand to help her up. But Thalia just slapped it away. Then she stood up, stomping towards the exit. But not before throwing her practice spear at the stand, knocking the other weapons down.
Pollux, from cabin twelve, shook his head. "Suddenly, she doesn't seem so scary. She just seems like a bitch."
"Right?" Markus said, nodding in agreement. "What is up with her? Before, she was fine. But now she just seems so bitchy. My money's on her period."
The class snickered as Markus turned to Clarisse. "Oh, and if you want to know what's going on between me and Silena, ask her. And tell her to answer honestly."
With that, Markus zipped away, leaving Clarisse conflicted.
XXX
Markus was in the Poseidon cabin, contemplating something.
It was only a few hours since his fight with Thalia. Since then, he's been making trips outside camp to get certain items. Namely his game consoles, anime DVDs and manga and comic books and set them in a pile of his own in the cabin. He planned to bargain with the Hephaestus cabin to see if they could help install it into the cabin, seeing as they were the most tech-savvy cabin. But his mind wasn't on that. His mind was on the runes that he collected.
He made a quick dash to Spellhaven during his run as he wanted to go through with what he had in mind. And that was to perform a ritual upon himself.
He knew that this was serious business. Like, life-and-death seriousness. Namely because performing a ritual upon oneself was extremely deadly and risky. It was also a one-way ticket to suicide, because applying runes upon oneself was never actually done. Those who tried died in the end.
The reason that he was even attempting to try this was because that the idea was a backup plan when he assumed that he was the prophecy child. He... planned to perform rituals on himself to boost his magic, demigod and physical potential. This... this was the highlight of his greed. He was so eager for power that he was willing to mutilate himself and perform rituals that could possibly kill himself.
And yet, he didn't find himself caring about the risks. All he wanted was more power. So why was he attempting to perform the rituals when he wasn't the prophecy child? The burden was lifted off of him. He wasn't going to die when he turned sixteen.
The answer was because of Thalia. Markus didn't know how strong she was, previous spar aside, but he could tell that he was stronger than her. In terms of power, of course. Plus, he didn't know how old she was. Fourteen? Fifteen? She was turned into a tree when she was twelve, yet she looked like she was fourteen or fifteen. She must've aged much than normal while in tree form.
He didn't exactly know when she was going to turn sixteen. Meaning that the prophecy could commence any time. Meaning that he needed to prepare for Kronos' forces.
Markus had ran to Spellhaven to collect a knife used in rituals, and several runes. Not just Greek runes, though. He had Norse, several Chinese ones, etc. Though he wasn't going to use all of them. He was greedy, not stupid. He planned to use four to five runes max on his body. The reason was because if he used more, he would disrupt the flow of his magic and power. Meaning that he could lose his magic if possible, and he didn't want that.
He had drawn a containment circle across his whole cabin, while putting a silencing and locking rune on his door to keep others from coming in. The runes that he planned to use in his ritual were drawn on several scrolls:
Κράτος: the Greek word and rune for Kratos, Greek god of strength, might, power and sovereign rule. Around the rune were the words 'Δύναμη' and 'Εξουσία', meaning 'strength' and 'power' respectively. The words had ties to the god and were traits that he wanted. The two words circled the Κράτος rune in a protective triangle.
Fehu: Norse rune for Frey, Norse god of fertility, growth, virility and sunshine. Markus didn't know much on Norse runes, so the words he put forward in particular were 'growth' and 'virility'. This was going to give him more energy and vitality to help him. Though his Old Norse was pathetic.
Uruz: Norse rune for 'ox'. Markus wanted this rune due to its meaning. Endurance, raw power, freedom and emotional and physical strength.
The symbol of 'Yin': this wasn't a rune, more of a magic tattoo that had the effects. This represented the earth, cold and dark. It was a Chinese philosophy that Markus became interested in after reading about it. He mainly wanted the earth affinity, but welcomed the others.
The symbol of 'Yang': another magic tattoo that was a Chinese philosophy. It represented heaven, heat and light. The light and heat affinity were very useful. And the meaning of 'Yang' sort of translated to physical strength or life in some cases.
Markus sighed. He knew that what he was performing was dangerous, stupid, suicidal, all of these things. But he had to do this. For himself and those he cared about. That was why he fought.
Bolstered by this, Markus created two speed clones to help him set up what he needed. He applied what he dubbed 'magic batteries' runes to his clones. What they did was take out a chunk of his magic and convert that into energy for his clones, since they were made out of kinetic energy. This allowed them to last for much longer. Though the runes were a bit draining to make.
One clone made a basin of water for him that was almost full. While the other one helped him apply each rune or tattoo on his body with the ritual knife. Markus had a piece of metal to bite onto in case the pain got to much. As soon as the clone used the knife to make contact with his skin, he immediately bit into it so that he wouldn't scream in pain.
The pain was agonising. It was hot. And it was slowly driving him mad as the knife dug into his skin, but he endured. The clone put the Κράτος rune on his right bicep, the Fehu rune on his left pectoral, the Uruz rune on his stomach and the Yin and Yang symbol on his back. The process was long and painful. This hurt more than any injury he suffered. And he hadn't even activated them yet.
The whole thing took an hour to do. And Markus wasn't exaggerating. The clone had to get the symbols and tattoos and runes exactly on his skin with no errors. It was almost impossible, but the clone managed. After the process was done, Markus felt like passing out from the pain. But he held on. The metal in his mouth was slowly bending due to how hard he was biting into it.
Then one of the clones practically carried him to the water basin, since he was too weak to move. The water wasn't part of the ritual. It was to help him heal any injury or pain that he suffered except the runes, and was meant to speed the process up for him. While normal rituals usually took days to be completed, thanks to his healing factor from the water, it should take roughly an hour or two.
With a deep breath as the speed clones held him above the basin, Markus used his magic to activate the runes, spreading his magic across his body. He just managed to register the pain and magic power swirling around the room and quickly chanted each rune in their native language before the clones dropped him in the basin. He had time to see the cabin light up due to the containment circle lighting up before he passed out from the pain that he experienced.
Done. Got this chapter done pretty quickly in one day.
Hope you all liked it. I included POVs for Thalia and Percy, showing their thoughts of the situation they're in. For Thalia, she feels jealous of Markus mainly due to to her attitude and fatal flaw: power lust. I just realised something as I wrote this chapter: both of them lived on the streets early in their lives, they have similar fatal flaws. Both would do anything to protect their friends, both children of the Big Three and know the burden of that, etc. ... I kind of made it easier for her to fall for him without me even knowing it. And the reason that she acts... well, bitchy, is because she feels out of place. Being a tree for so long and suddenly waking up in the world today is a real shock to her. Not to mention the revelation of Luke being a traitor, along with her fatal flaw acting up... yeah.
As for Percy, this is sort of how he felt in the Sea of Monsters, only more expressive. But he's not the only one feeling like that. Like I said before, the others will be stronger than their canon counterparts.
The Hestia cabin is coming into plan and will start being built soon. And the end of the chapter showed how far Markus' greed will go. The ritual part was an idea that I had in my mind with Markus' fatal flaw in place. And it makes sense for him to do this. The specific runes/tattoos that I picked would play into the story: Κράτος for strength and power, this will increase his physical prowess to actual demigodish level to sort of god-level as the story goes on, as well as let him use his power - demigod and magic - with more ease. The Fehu rune is for growth in everything and vitality. The Uruz is for endurance and mental and spiritual strengths. Yin and Yang... that'll come into play later.
The next couple of chapters for this story will be more development chapters before the Titan's Curse book. Probably three or four more chapters for every other character, not just Markus.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to all those who support the story. Makes me want to write more.
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