And readers, here it is, the first chapter of the second arc of the story, which will be referred to as the "Demotic Clash" arc. which will pit our heroes against none other than the characters of the Kane chronicles! but that begs the question: will these two "True Myth" societies be able to work together to save the world and protect those they hold dear? or will all be wiped away like the Sahara desert? and where exactly does Lazarus fit in all this? Also if you would like to hear this story be turned into an audiobook, Please go to Hayden Daviau's twitter page: HaybaleVoice
Or her Youtube: channel/UC7j5khYKbDo4HRUt9Rlcq7Q
and suggest she do this as a fanfic reading. she's really good at it.
Chapter 21: Hunters, Egyptian gods and Kanes oh my! Part 1
Me and Reyna stared at the Stag before it ran off. A couple minutes after it had left, Several girls around our age came out of the trees, every one of them were wearing some sort of robes. And there was one I recognized from a picture I saw in the Zeus cabin.
"Thalia Grace." I said as the girl came to the front of the group. She walked up to us and nodded at both of us.
"Yeah, that's me." Thalia nodded. "You must be Nigel, heard a lot about you." She said as she held her hand out.
I shook her hand as I smiled. "All good things I hope." She laughed before she looked at Reyna again seriously.
"Reyna, I got some bad-" she started to say before Reyna cut her off.
"I know." My now girlfriend told the Hunter, while squeezing my hand. "And I'm prepared to face any consequences Lady Artemis has for me."
I looked at her and glared. "Over my dead body!" I yelled. That's when a new girl came walking towards us, and the weird thing was, everyone was moving out of the way of her.
The girl looked to be the same age as the Hunters - with exception to Thalia- around twelve or thirteen. She had a face of such beauty that it made me wanna catch my breath, with cold and bright eyes as silvery yellow as the winter, and auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail.
Reyna then looked like she was when she was around the gods and kneeled to the girl. "Lady Artemis." She said.
My eyes widened for a moment, but then I glared as I crossed my arms. "Well well well, look who the cat dragged in." I said as I stared down at the girl.
Artemis looked at me as she looked up slightly. "And you still have that belligerent attitude, Nigel Jager." She then looked at Reyna. "Reyna, you knew how feel about my Hunters falling in love with men, and what do you do? You do it with no-"
That's when I got in between the two as I made my Darkness surround my hand. "Now hold on." I growled. "Aphrodite, or Venus, whatever, said she'd fall in love with someone eventually. What did you not know that?"
Artemis looked at me disdainfully. "Of course I knew, boy."
"Then you can't just punish her like the rest of your Hunters, it was already preordained." I said, but that just made me even more aggravated. "And although I don't like situations like that, but I can't exactly do anything about it."
Artemis glared at me as she grasped at her knife attached to her waist. I glared at her as the darkness I gathered spread from my hand, my arm and covered the right side of my body. "Go ahead and draw that knife, I dare you." I told her. "I've been Itching to test out my new Assault mode."
The goddess hesitated for a second, probably remembering when my dad (while in my body) gave her a pretty decent thrashing and prevented her from using her powers the whole battle once he got used to my body. She let go of the knife and sighed. "I may not tend to tolerate when my hunter break their vows, or this kind of treatment...but, I know when I'm beat." She said, but then glared at me. "But make no mistake, I will not forget this."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever." That earned me a punch in the shoulder from Reyna who was giving me an angry look. We led the Hunters into camp and everyone gathered around us, apparently this was a pretty big deal, and everyone was talking about a 'rematch' of capture the flag.
The Hunters all agreed, but first Artemis said they needed to set up in the Artemis cabin and that she had some business to discuss with Chiron and Mr. D.
Apparently it was a tradition for the kids at Camp Half Blood and the Hunters to do a game of capture the flag, which apparently the Hunters never lost. I smirked as I remembered that Jason would be coming back to Camp Half Blood pretty soon and so would Hazel and Frank, so it made me think that would change.
We all went to the gate as we saw Jason fly into camp. He landed on the ground smoothly as he walked up to Thalia and Piper, giving the former a hug and the latter a kiss on the cheek. He was also carrying a set of papers, which he brought to the mess hall for Chiron, Mr. D and Artemis to look over.
After that we all went to the playing field. All us Demigods made one team, while the Hunters made another team. Me, Percy and Jason were made the captains, we crouched as we discussed a plan.
"Okay, anyone got a plan?" I asked.
"Well I think our main line of offense should be obvious." Jason stated, gesturing to the Roman kids and the group of Demigods.
I nodded. "So that leaves defense." I gestured for Frank and Reyna to stay by the flag, which was by a small stream. "Percy, think you can use that stream to help those two?"
The son of Poseidon clicked the pin in his hand as it turned into his sword Riptide. "Definitely." He nodded. "And what will you do?"
I pointed at where the other team's flag was, it was guarded by Thalia and another hunter. "Me and Jason'll handle flag retrieval." I said as I pulled out Rebellion from the darkness pocket in my chest. "Besides, like I told Artemis, I've been itching to test my new Assault Mode."
We got up as Percy explained the plan to Annabeth who in turn explained it to the rest, Frank and Reyna staying behind with Percy at the flag. I whistled at Nico who came over to me, he was followed by Will and Hayden."
"Listen up Di Angelo, here's the plan you and Solace are gonna run distraction. Will, you and Hayden draw the Hunters attention and then Nico, you take them out while they're distracted with your shadow travel, got it?" I told the three.
Nico rolled his eyes but nodded, and the other three followed suit. The three along with the remaining Apollo kids lined up with their bows and then fired a volley that almost covered the sun, making plenty of shadow for Nico to disappear using his Shadow travel, Hazel also did the same but had to be extra sneaky.
That meant it was on to phase two of the plan. "Ready Clarisse?" I called to the daughter of Ares. She and the rest of her clan stood at the line of scrimmage, weapons ready and shields up.
"You better cher ass!" She yelled back as she waved her electric spear Maimer and fired a lightning blast at the already disoriented Hunters who were trying to avoid the magic arrows, which were cursed to cause them to only speak in rhymes which made them lose their biggest advantage: their unity. Which gave the Ares cabin the perfect opportunity to charge forward and engage in battle with the Hunters and drive them back.
I smirked as I nodded to Jason, with Nico and Hazel taking out the remaining line of defense, there was an opening. Time to move on to phase three.
Jason rose into the air, imperial gold sword in hand and I ran in sync with him as I activated my Assault Mode, my darkness surrounding my right side as I ran, Rebellion in hand.
That's when I was met by the Hunter who was with Thalia, she had a hunting knife in her hand which she held in a reverse grip, she looked to be a regular human, but with the energy she radiated you wouldn't think it. I smirked as I held my blade in a taunting way, which caused her to lash and slashed at my chest.
As I had theorized from constantly watching Reyna train, even if she was basically human, the Immortality Artemis gifted her was Thanks to the goddess giving her a sliver of her godly essence, which would explain how it was taken away so easily. But unfortunately for her, this meant her attack was susceptible to my trademark attack.
"Full Counter!" I said as I swiped Rebellion to the right, the cut was negated from me and was sent right back to her with double the damage, causing her to scream in pain and fall back.
Thalia, who was trying to fight off Jason, looked back at us and had worry plastered all over her face. "Rista!" She cried in panic as Jason used the opportunity to force her down. I walked over to the two and then made my right arm into a giant clawed arm and raised it.
"No Nigel don't!" Jason said.
I smirked as I swatted my hand to the side and broke the flagpole and caught it. I made it come to me and grabbed it. "Looks like we win."
The game was over, and we won. Everyone cheered as Jason and I grasped the flag as we roared in victory. The Hunters had lost for the first time in a long time, and it was great.
After the game Jason told me that Chiron and Artemis wanted me, him and Reyna to come to his office. I nodded as we went into the office and the Centaur, the moon goddess and Mr. D were sitting there.
"Ah Mr. Grace, Miss RamĂrez, Nigel, please take a seat." Chiron said. We all sat and then turned to all of them. "We have something to speak to you about."
"What is it Chiron?" I asked.
"We have been discussing recent developments regarding some...disturbances in both New York and Phoenix." He explained. "And one of these developments involves your younger brother."
I straightened up at the mention of my brother, Lazarus, I still owed that little punk for crucifying me in that junkyard. "What about him?" I asked.
"It seems to be trying to regain his strength and is traveling all over the place. And as such we still don't know if he's still a threat, so we need you to locate him." Chiron said, looking at me.
I nodded. "Okay, But What about my probation?" Mr. D raised his hand.
"This is more important, besides if you decided to do this, your sentence would of course be shortened for doing us a service." He said. Artemis nodded.
"And Jason, you will be going to Phoenix with two people of your choice to investigate the disturbance down there." Artemis nodded to the blonde and then looked at me and Reyna. "And Reyna, keep an eye on him."
Reyna sighed, looking at me as I shrugged sheepishly. "I understand lady Artemis." She nodded.
"Now that that's done, the disturbance in Brooklyn." Chiron said. "Though take caution, we have a suspicion that the Egyptian gods may be behind it."
I stared at him. "I'm sorry, what?!" I couldn't believe my ears, the Egyptian gods, the Egyptian gods! They were real too?! "Who?!" I sputtering.
"Yes, they are indeed real, as well as the Norse pantheon. We try to stay away from each other but it seems that may not be an option now." Chiron said as he sighed.
I shook my head in disbelief, clutching my head. "This is not happening, this is not happening…" I then looked at Chiron again. "You sure?" I asked.
The centaur nodded, which only made me grown. But we didn't have time for that, after the situation was explained Jason had gone with Leo and Piper to Rachel to get their quest prophecy, then I went to the only person I could think of who could act as my third man.
He was sitting in his cabin outside his cabin sharpening his sword while Hazel was redecorating with the help of Frank.
"Hey." I said as Nico looked up from his weapon. "Don't suppose I could ask a favor of you?" I asked as I sat next to him.
(meanwhile somewhere in Phoenix Arizona, 3rd person POV)
A boy in a tattered purple shirt and black pants walked down the streets of Phoenix Arizona, he had a Mohawk and also some silver square headed nails hanging around his neck. He also had a familiar looking tattoo on his arm, one with SPQR, thirteen bars, and the symbol of Tartarus.
The boy wiped the sweat from his brow as he walked towards a swelling of energy that his powers were leading him to.
"Let's see if the Egyptian god of chaos is all he's cracked up to be." Lazarus said as he slung the duffel bag he had over his shoulder. "And see how they do against the son of Tartarus."