Right, next chapter like I promised. Thanks for reading so far. I know this isn't the typical type of fanfic, it's more like a fanfic book, you know what I mean? Anyways, thanks and read on. :D

RYLAN's POV

I jogged behind a few of the Hermes guys. We were part of Clarisse's half of the raiding party for capture the flag. I squirmed around in my armor. It probably weighed more than I did. Clarisse held a hand up. We stopped.

"A bunch of those damn girls ahead," she grunted. "We're gonna charge." She hefted up her spear and yelled a battle cry. I yelled too, and all of our raiding party crashed out from the undergrowth.

The Hunters near us dropped their bows and pulled out their hunting knives. The others stood a bit farther, shooting with their bows. One of them jumped on me with her knife and I pulled out my own sword clumsily. She lashed out at me with amazing speed. I jumped backwards and swung with my sword. The girl snickered at my skill and it made me angry. I feigned to her legs with my sword, hoping she would fall for it, but she didn't. She leaped over me gracefully and slashed at the uncovered bit of my legs. Pain seared through me and my legs wobbled. I could feel warm blood from the gash and I struggled to stay standing up. I didn't want to lose to some random Hunter girl, especially since she seemed to be having the time of her life.

I stumbled a bit and she got in close. I gritted my teeth and tried to jab her with my sword. Tried to. But it didn't happen, because she used the hilt of her knife to bash into my helmet. Dots appeared in my eyes and my helmet flew off. Then just as fast, she kneed me in the private part and I fell over. I think there's no need to describe what it felt like when she kneed me in the…you know. The girl gave small laugh, but that made me extremely angry. I could feel the heat from my anger, when someone yelped. I looked around and realized that my armor was sizzling, and suddenly I was on fire. My head hurt. I screamed. I closed my eyes, expecting to feel the pain. Nothing happened. I opened my eyes again. When I did, I saw a strand of my own hair on my nose. The red ones were glowing.

The fighting was still going on, but some people stopped to stare at me, like is that a human torch? The girl I was fighting backed away from me. The flames burned brighter and my head hurt even more. I concentrated on trying to get rid of the flames and the flames disappeared, along with my headache.

"Right, I have…fire powers," I panted. I scrambled up and picked up my sword. I wasn't exactly very excited to rejoin the fight, so I stood around on defense. An arrow sailed towards me and I ducked. It barely missed me. These girls have good aim, I thought. That's when another girl jumped on me. I got annoyed. They were endless. I spun around and swung my sword at her when a ball of fire shot out from my other hand. It blasted into a tree and a dryad melted out of it. She had a wild look in her eyes.

"My tree!" she screeched, even though her tree wasn't on fire. There was just a tiny crater on the trunk.

The girl I was fighting parried my strike with her short blade and I thrust out my hand at her feet. I meant to shoot another fireball out, but instead vines grew and snagged her left foot. She let out a strangled cry and fell. Whoa, whoa. Okay, back up. So I have fire powers and plant thingy powers? I thought about the gods' symbols that appeared over my head. Of course, I thought, I'm so dumb. I had received Demeter, Hermes, Hephaestus and Hera. I didn't expect any powers of Hera, and I don't have any. Does she even have any? Joking, joking, don't blast me to bits please.

Anyway, back to capture the flag. I wasn't really capturing any flag, ha-ha, but whatever. I concentrated and another vine grew out from the ground, when a silvery arrow shaft appeared in my calf. I cried out and fell. The girl managed to break free from the vines after I lost my concentration, when I heard someone yell "No!" I turned my head and saw Percy racing towards the river, Sam behind him, wearing the archer armor. I almost cheered when I realized that Percy was the one that yelled "No!" That got me confused. You're yelling "No!" 'cause you're winning? Then I saw the Hunters racing towards the border from our side, holding our flag. The girl with our flag was way closer to the border than Percy.

"Oh dammit," I muttered under my breath, "The Hunters win for the sixtieth time in a row." I mimicked Chiron quietly. That's when I saw Sam stop. She drew an arrow and shot it so fast that I didn't what happened until the Hunters coming to our side cried out and fell right next to the border. A few Hunters shot arrows at Percy too, but he thundered across the river. We cheered. The game was over. We won.

"Rylan!"

I turned and saw Drew. I waved at her. She picked up her pace and caught up with me.

"You're out of the infirmary?" I asked. She nodded.

"So," she said, "How was capture the flag?"

"We won," I said, suddenly tired.

"That's nice. And Rylan," she said, "I was thinking maybe we could meet up tonight again at…let's say, eight at the beach. Is that fine with you?"

I nodded. Drew smiled at me. "Okay then, see you there." Drew left to her cabin and I headed to mine. I changed into a new set of clothes and waited for eight o'clock to arrive. Around seven fifty, I got up and headed for the door.

It was amazing how useful the Hermes' powers were. Nobody noticed me sneak out of the door. I walked down to the beach, the whole time thinking about Sam's warning a few days ago. If it's true…then at least I won't let Drew complete the rite of passage that involves me. She can complete the one involving Mikhail, I don't really care, I thought. I walked along the sand until I saw Drew. And sure enough, there was Mikhail. They were sitting side by side with their hands entwined, Drew's head on Mikhail's shoulder. I crept up on them from behind. Because of Hermes' thieving powers, they didn't notice me at all, until I tapped them both on the shoulder. They turned. Drew's eyes widened in alarm. Keep on acting like you didn't plan this out, I thought grimly.

"Hey guys," I said casually. Drew stared at me in disbelief, like hey I'm cheating on you and you don't care? I took a deep breath.

"Don't pretend like you didn't arrange this," I said to Drew. "I knew about your damn plan. So sorry, but you're not completing the rite of passage twice. Once maybe, if you can break his heart—" I pointed to Mikhail who looked extremely confused "—but not with me. I'm breaking up with you, Drew," I finished.

"Hold up!" Mikhail held his hand up. "What's going on?" I smiled at Drew and said exactly what Sam had told me a few nights ago. Drew was silent the whole time.

Mikhail stared at me. "All of this was for a stupid plan?"

I didn't answer, because he could probably figure out that the answer was yes. "Drew, you didn't break my heart," I said in a voice of disgust. "This isn't how you break someone's heart." I turned and walked away when I heard someone call my name.

"Rylan! Rylan!"

I turned around. Drew ran up to me. "Rylan, don't," she said. Tears glittered in her eyes. I rolled my eyes. "Go away. Go beg Mikhail to forgive you or something."

"No please," Drew begged, "I love you. You know that, right?" For a moment, I believed her. Then my anger took over and her charmspeak melted off.

"I don't. And leave me alone. I don't want to be involved in this business." I gritted my teeth. Drew's attempts were pretty useless. I turned to leave, but Drew clung to my shoulder. She probably didn't complete any of her rite of passages, so she probably needed to snag me again to do it again. I pushed her off violently.

"I said, go away," I repeated menacingly. Drew shook her head, tears flying from her eyes.

I sighed exasperatedly. "Look Drew, how long will it take you to realized that I don't and never had loved you?" I turned and marched away to my own cabin. And this time, she didn't call after me.

Next chapter...more serious action.

-mi5hao