Chapter 5: Son of Rome.

OKAY! After this chapter I'll post it. I promise myself that. As I said last chapter, this one'll be an action/battle chapter with a gamechanger at the end. Hope you enjoy it. P.S. I know what you're thinking, and yes, I did name Senator Julius after Julius Caesar.

Chapter 5: Son of Rome.

I realised Jason couldn't see it, so instead I yelled. "COVER!" And surprisingly, everyone obeyed. People got into traditional Roman blockade formation, but with Demigods at the front and retired Legionnaires at the back. Lupa's wolves simply went for cover underneath the shields, since they were more of close range fighters. Julius, Jason, a few soldiers and I all made a blockade while Lupa took cover underneath it.

When the thuds of the arrows hitting our shields stopped, I looked out. Faintly, in the distance, the sound of thousands of feet could be heard stomping their way through the fields of Mars.

As everybody got out of their blockade formation, a light flickered out in the distance, then another, and another, then they just kept turning on. Soon, there were thousands of them could be seen and we realised what they were. "COVER!" I yelled again and this time everybody did so. The lights suddenly flew up into the air and seemed to stop for a second. Everything was silent, nobody breathed, then they came back down. Hurtling towards us at full speed, we braced for the impact of thousands of flaming arrows all at once, but it never came. Many thuds could still be heard behind us though.

I turned around, and realised their intentions, but it was Reyna who shouted it out loud.

"They're trying to burn the city. COHORT ONE, GRAB SOME BUCKETS OF WATER AND PUT OUT THE FLAMES!" The cohort did just that, and Reyna went with them. Now it was just Jason, Julius, Lupa and I on top of the main gate, no Reyna, and no cohort.

More lights were suddenly switched on, but they weren't arrows, they were torches. With the provided light, we could clearly see what these monsters were. Svartalfar, or Dark Elves if you want the English version. The Dark Elves were marching towards New Rome, and they were chanting something. It definitely sounded like something of Norse language.

"Død til Asgard! Død til Asgard! Død til Asgard!" They kept chanting over and over. Luckily I knew this language myself, having grown up in Asgard and Helheim. The translation was 'Death to Asgard.' and that sent a chill down my spine. I knew what this was, this was stage one of the beginning of Ragnarok, take out any armies on Midgard that could help prevent it.

My eyes widened, Camp Half-Blood was probably being ravaged at this very moment, and there was no one to help them. I had fought many monsters and many of Asgards enemies in my short life, but I had never fought the entire Svartalfar army with only 1000 soldiers at my side.

"How many are there, legionnaire?" I heard Julius ask one of the legionnaires from cohort three to the right of us. "An estimated 10000, sir." Our hearts sunk. "They outnumber us ten to one, Senator." Jason informed him. Julius merely nodded.

As the Dark Elves got closer, we could clearly distinguish many of their features at this point, even though they were a good 500 metres away still. They were black, not racism black, literally black, like they'd been roasted alive. They wore white masks that stood out in the darkness, with menacing tattoos on them. Even though they were a quite nimble and agile race, they looked about ready to conquer Jotunheim. Strapped at their sides were long slender blades, the commanders ones were made out of Uru, the same metal that Kaos and Mjolnir were made out of.

Luckily, they wore light armor, since they depended on free movement and acrobatics to win battles. One good hit to the shoulder or side and they were done. Thank the gods that they had lit torches so that we could see them better, otherwise my next order would've failed completely.

"ARCHERS! AIM FOR THE WHITE MASKS." The archers pulled out their bows. "READY." They readied their arrows. "AIM." They each aimed for a white mask. "FIRE!" About two hundred arrows flew up and hit a target, many of them headshots. All was silent, the Dark Elves had stopped, looking silently upon their fallen comrades before turning towards us and screaming. Not like a child's scream, more like a roar that I never would've expected a Svartalfar to make, let alone 10000 of them.

Jason ordered everybody aside from the archers down and outside the main gates, and everybody got moving. Lupa got her pack to move, and soon there were around eight hundred of us all standing outside that gates, archers ready to cover us if need be. I asked Jason what he was doing and he replied simply with "I'm going to take one of Lupa's wolves out their and negotiate with them, do you think that eight hundred of us can take on almost 10000 of them?" The asked disbelievingly. I nodded and told him to take Romulus, and the thanked me.

The Dark Elf archers were ready to fire, in case Jason was planning on taking the whole army by himself. Instead, he stopped in front of their leader, none other than Prince Fafnir of Svartalfheim. The two talked for a moment, but the 'negotiations' didn't last long as Fafnir spat at Jason's feet, or rather Romulus', as Jason was still mounted.

Jason rode back but didn't make it all the way, as some Dark Elf archer thought would be a good idea to let go of his arrow. The arrow flew, and pierced Jason in the shoulder. Jason fell from Romulus' back and the wolf growled at the army, ready to attack. I ran out there, shouting for Romulus to stop and asking Jason if he was okay. I got out there, and Jason was lying in a pool of his own blood, barely conscious. The last thing the said before passing out was "You… you take charge." then he blacked out.

I called for a medic and they came, taking Jason's unconscious body back to an infirmary tent. I rode back to them, and dismounted Romulus, and only just realised that we had just lost our leader. Jason was supposed to lead this battle, and he had just asked me to do it instead. Reyna and cohort one had returned, but she looked too tired to lead anything. Filled with rage at the harming of my best friend, I turned to the army.

"Demigods! Men! Women! And any others who were brave enough two come fight today, I thank you! But I'm afraid there is little hope for this battle. They outnumber us over 10 to one, which is a lot considering we have 800 soldiers. I know many of you have not seen battle in years, and I know you are nervous about the odds of survival in this one, but I can promise you this. We will not surrender! I know you were all present at my speech a few weeks ago, where I talked about Tyrants, War, Murder and Bloodshed being the things that the old Rome was built and destroyed on! I'm afraid to say, that this Rome might very well share the same fate. I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you, Octavian's a bit of a tyrant, I know that this could very well turn into the biggest war that New Rome has ever faced, they just tried to murder our leader, and the bloodshed to follow will be legendary! Where it will be our blood, or theirs, is for us to decide! I'm not gonna lie, I almost shit myself when I saw them all, but that doesn't mean that I'm gonna get on my knees and beg. I promise you that this night will turn out in one of two ways: Either we'll all be laughing and sharing a few drinks together in Elysium, or we'll be bathing in these freaks' blood! Now, who will follow me, one last time, so that we can fight for the glory of Rome and the gods, as our ancestors once did?"

My speech was met with cheers and roars of approval from the small army that we had. I turned around and faced the Dark Elf army, before turning head back at the Romans and shouting. "FOR ROME!" Before charging off into the battle. My charged was copied, with people behind me shouting "FOR ROME!" And charging off behind me. I felt Lupa's wolves fall in line with me as we got closer to the army, Lupa and Romulus on either sides of me. I heard the footfalls of both the Romans and the now-charging Dark Elves as the armies almost met.

When we were just a few metres away, I swung my sword as I hard as I possibly could and sliced the head off one of the charging commanders. The clashing of swords could be heard as both Roman and Dark Elf soldiers fought. Surprisingly, we got far more kills than the Dark Elves at this point, all of them were surprised that the Romans were actually fighting that they didn't properly have the fight in them yet.

I found Hazel and Reyna fighting back to back against about 15 of the Dark Elves, and actually doing pretty well for themselves. I noticed an Elf coming out of nowhere and swinging for Reyna's back. I jumped in and sliced the damn Elf in half through the waste, before putting my blade through the crawling top half of its body, finally killing the beast. Unlike Greek or Roman monsters, these ones didn't turn to dust once you killed them, because they didn't go to Tartarus and reform. Instead, Norse beings actually died and their souls went to Helheim.

We hadn't lost many Romans so far, which was good, and we had killed roughly 1000 of the Dark Elves, which was good. The problem was, the Dark Elves were starting to regain their focus and the surprise went away, so they instantly became more skilled, and it took about a minute to kill to of them. One thought was running through my head, but it's way too inappropriate to put here, so I'll just give you a hint. It uses the words Dark Elves, Fairies, Acrobatics and I have probably used the F word about 12 times at this point.

"Hey Percy. Come to join the fun?" Reyna said as she threw a Pilum at an Elf charging at me from behind. "What fun?" I asked, stabbing an Elf that had got dangerously close to her. We both started laughing but we were cut off by Hazel shouting at us. "Will you to stop flirting and come help me?!" I nodded and ran to help her with the three elves that had ganged up on her.

We fought back to back like that for a few more minutes until I heard a familiar yelp. I looked over and saw Romulus on his back with an Elf about to plunge his sword into Romulus' heart. "ROMULUS!" I yelled and the Elf looked at me. I pulled a Pilum off of an Elf's corpse before running up to the elf and driving it through its chest. The elf struggled for a minutes, before it bled out and lay still. I looked to Romulus, who lay panting.

"You okay, buddy?" The wolf didn't hesitate to get up and assault me with licks. I laughed, before pushing him off. "Okay, buddy. We can continue that after the battle. For now, we got some elves to kill.' The wolf nodded and we ran off to our spot beside Reyna and Hazel.

The battle raged on for many more hours, and there were devastating casualties on both sides. We had killed an estimated 5000 of them and they had killed around 400 of us. The archers were holding the fort well. Any Elves that had tried to sneak past the battle and assault the city were shot down by archers or ballistas. We were mainly just trying to hold them off on the battlefield. We knew that if too many of them got past us, no amount of archers could hold them off. They'd break the gates and torch the city.

I knew we needed a new plan, and fast. I thought back to everything that Sif and Tyr had taught me about war. 'If all seems lost, Turn the tides' Tyr's haughty voice rang out in my head.

Turn the tides? How the hel was I supposed to do that in the middle of a battle like this. Then I got an idea.

"Reyna, Lupa, I need you to get your soldiers and come with me." They nodded, and called for them before following me. I realised how stupid this looked, it was as if we were ditching the other soldiers. Reyna got mad at me. "Percy, what are we doing?!" I turned around and put my hands on her shoulders. "Do you trust me?" I asked her. "What?" She asked back, confused. "DO YOU TRUST ME?" I asked, not angry, just really loud. She nodded frantically. "Good, then follow me, all of you!"

We made it to a clearing not far from the battlefield, and I ordered the cohort to mount one of Lupa's wolves. Lupa glared at me, and asked what I was doing. I told her to trust me, and she backed down. I noticed that Reyna didn't yet have a mount. I was about to resolve that issue, but Lupa did it for me. "Here child, get on my back." She said to Reyna and Reyna reluctantly did so.

I mounted Romulus and told everyone to follow me, they did so. We travelled for what felt like ages, until we finally reached a hillside. It was about 100 metres down, and everyone was confused as to why we were here until they looked up. Down the hill, the whole battle could be seen. New Rome on the opposite side of the battlefield with the Dark Elf generals closest to us. We had gone behind them.

One of the Roman commanders noticed us, I think it was Jacob, and he pointed it out to Julius. Julius raised his sword, and with a large cry, the said. "Romans, fall back! Fall back to the gates!" The Romans, sensing the imminent defeat, obeyed. Now the Dark Elves were slowly advancing of them, and I knew the archers and Ballista's wouldn't be able to keep them.

I pulled out a horn, not a Roman one, it was one I had received from Thor on my sixth birthday, it was to signal when I was leading a charge or battle. I sounded it, and the Dark Elves, hearing the sound of Asgard, all turned around surprised. Fafnir almost looked fearful, until he saw us. Then he ordered his troops to move so he could be stationed in the middle, they obeyed.

I raised my sword, and so did the rest of the first cohort. I pointed my sword at the Elves, and with a large cry, I yelled. "CHARGE!" All the wolves took off down the hill, their riders' swords still pointed at the Elves. The Romans at the wall, seeing what we were doing, charged too, and so half of the Elves turned to prepare for them.

The last second before we met the Elves was one of the longest in my life. They had their spears and shields out, ready for us. We were one step ahead of them. Almost perfectly in sync, all of us jumped over the blockade and into the crowd of Elves. Hacking and slashing our way through, Romulus and I gained a kill count of about 20 in just one minute.

The Romans soon met and fought with the Elves, and the god's-forsaken creatures felt the full wrath of Rome and Lupa's wolves. Within five minutes, there were only about 2000 of the poor creatures left. We sliced through them all, showing no mercy for the creatures that had dared to invade our home.

The sun was rising at this point, and as I watched the sunrise from my spot on Romulus, I felt a spear pierce my chest as I was knocked off of Romulus. Romulus growled, and I got a good look at my attacker, Prince Fafnir. I put up my hand, signalling for Romulus to stop, and he obeyed. Fafnir held two swords in his hand.

"Well well well, a son of Asgard, fighting for the Romans. Quite unheard of, though you do have the stench of death around you. Who exactly are you?" Fafnir asked. I stood up, and pulled the spear out of my body, wincing as the pain rushed through me. "I… I am Perseus, son of Hel, and I am here now, to kill you."

Fafnir smiled. "Son of Hel, huh? That's where the stench of death is coming from. I'm gonna enjoy killing the son of that bitch." That was the last straw. I swung hard at Fafnir, and he barely had time to block it. "You wanna dance? Let's dance." The Dark Elf prince mocked as he swung both swords at me and I blocked both of them.

The battle continued like that for a few more minutes, blocking and striking, no hits landing. Both of us were getting tired now. I noticed that only a few hundred elves remained. I guess Fafnir noticed this too, because he suddenly got mad and started a volley of strikes. "I… will not… let my army… be defeated… by a bunch… of useless… MORTALS!" He made a huge swing at me, but I blocked it, and pushed him to the ground.

Enraged, he got up and, only having one sword now, started duelling me. Our blades met many times, both of use getting a few good shots on each other, until I sliced his stomach and he fell to his knees. He looked up at me, fear in his eyes, and with one clean swipe, I sliced of his head.

Only 70 or so Elves remained, and when I victoriously held up their leaders head, they tried to run. They didn't get far thought, as they were either shot down by the archers or killed by Roman soldiers. When the Romans saw me holding Fafnir's head, they cheered my name. They became silent when a furious Octavian came stomping towards me, followed by a bandaged Jason and a tired-looking Julius.

Octavian came up to me, shouted in my face and knocked the head out of my hands. The weasel was about to punch me until Hazel came out of nowhere and pushed him to the ground. "And what could you have done Octavian? You didn't even want to fight to begin with! You thought that nothing could challenge 'Your Empire'!" Octavian glared furiously at her.

"Don't you talk to your leader that way you BITCH!" He said before getting up and hitting Hazel, knocking her to the ground. That was the last straw. I tackled him to the ground and started beating his face in. I don't know what it looked like to him, but I can only imagine it was terrifying. A bloody and furious soldier beating your face in while a decapitated head sat nearby.

Reyna came and pulled me off of him. Julius walked over to Octavian and took his purple toga from him. He called for another servant to fetch the other purple toga and the servant did that, arriving back in just to minutes. Octavian lay on the ground, nose bleeding and with a black eye. Hazel spat in his face.

Julius held both of the togas and looked at the crowd of soldiers. "I think we can all agree that New Rome is in need of some new management." That was met with cheers of approval. Julius turned to us. "Centurion Percy Jackson, Commander Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, do you two accept the position of praetor, to serve New Rome and to lead it into a better and brighter future while you are in office?"

Reyna and I looked at each other, and a silent agreement passed between us. "I do." we both said in sync. Julius smiled, and put the togas on both of us. "Then I now pronounce you Praetor Percy and Praetor Reyna, long live the praetors and the twelfth legion." That last part was chorused by the legion as they raised their shields and shouted it.

Reyna and I looked at each other and smiled, before I pulled her into a kiss. Wolf whistles could be heard from the legion and the… uh, wolves. I pulled away at looked at her face. Our moment was cut short by a flash of light before there stood in front of us none other than Mercury, messenger of the gods. Everybody gasped and bowed, including myself. Mercury held up a hand.

"No time for that, I come to inform you of some terrible news. I assume everybody knows of the feud between the Greeks and Romans?" Many confused people nodded their heads. "Well, you're going to have to put that rivalry aside for a while because I have some news. There is a Greek camp halfway across the country in New York. It's just been attacked, much like how yours was, and they weren't so lucky. Many of them died and the survivors… they've been ordered by Zeus, or you would know him as Jupiter, to come and seek refuge here at Camp Jupiter." Many outraged screams could be heard.

Mercury held up a hand. "I know, I know, they aren't exactly happy about that either, but it's the will of the gods, so you will obey." A few reluctant nods could be seen. "Good. They'll be here in a week." And with that, he left, leaving us to ponder the news.

Yay! I can finally publish this! Next chapter the Greeks arrive in Camp Jupiter and Hazel reunites with some old friends. Don't worry, that wasn't Ragnarok, the actual thing is still to come. I'll see you guys in Chapter 6!

Word count: 3745