Perseus was in his tent, sitting at his desk, reading reports, as usual, when a very panicked looking legionary charged in, foregoing the usual formalities. He pointed towards the tent entrance and raggedly tried to speak. Percy stood and stopped him, letting him lean on him until he gained his breathe. "What did you see legionary?" The large black haired boy finally had the ability to answer. "They're here."

"Who?"

"The Painted Ones, and there are thousands!" Percy paled, "Get Alexis and Aero to the Main gate." he lightly shoved the legionary out the door and grabbed his Gladius, the Sword of Rome, and marched out the tent, and to the North.

When he arrived, Alexis and Aero were still missing, the legionaries that manned the walls stared grimly at the thousands of giant burly ax-men and swordsmen. As Percy arrived at the wall he could hear one of the Picts in the front speaking loudly to the others, in their guttural tongue. He finished his ovation, raising his hands in the air, hands splayed. The crowd of Picts erupted into a deep chant, sounding a lot like a large group of Axe and Sword wielding owls. "Who who who who who!" They chanted.

As Aero and Alexis were climbing the ramparts, Percy glanced back at them and saw their looks get grimmer and grimmer as the chanting became more defined. Then they all stopped suddenly and they started parting down the middle of their ranks. A man on a white stallion rode through their ranks and to the front, the man who had been speaking had bowed to him, then turned back to the crowd. "Cu-Chullain!" The chant had turned into.

Aero looked at Percy, his words betraying the grin he had. "There's a lot of them..." Alexis, however, showed her fear a bit more, clinging to Aero's arm and easing an arrow out of it's quiver. He whispered into her ear softly, so no one else could hear.

Percy put his hands on his hips. "Yeah, there definitely is. Call up the entire 3rd and 4th cohorts, as well as the 9th Ala." Percy stood there, watching the actions of the men before him.

Aero took Alexis away from the ramparts, they were the only two, not even Percy had been around, when the couple had helped the 15th fight the Picts. They remembered things about those wars that they really really wanted to forget. He held his emotions, she needed him to be strong.

He led her into their tent and sat her on their bed, wrapping her in his arms and whispering comfortingly.

After a few minutes of this, he laid her in the bed, she had cried herself out. She was tough, he knew that of course, but even she needed someone to be vulnerable in front of sometimes. He had admittedly shown his own vulnerable side to her several times in the past.

Percy was already growing tired of the group that stood before him and their preaching about how Rome had wronged them.

Finally after several minutes of preaching, the thin man who had been preaching and, by this point, was obviously some kind of figure of legend within their ranks, noticed the lazy look on Percy's face and grew furious.

"Do NOT ignore me when I talk to you Romanae SCUM!"

This did it for Percy. "I'll talk to you however I like, you've come into my territory, invaded my camp, killed MY legionaries, and you expect me to even give you the time of day? Well screw you!"

With that, Percy turned to walk away, but was interrupted by the man's response. "Then come fight me for your land, Romanae, come fight me and win, my men will walk away and leave you in peace, but if you lose? We kill you all..."

Percy thought about it for a second, he didn't seem like a very big man, not compared to his brethren, but when looked at the way he carried himself, a way that spoke of an experienced warrior, and the fact that he was a revered figure in a warrior race, gave Percy the impression that he would be a fierce opponent.

But in Percy's mind, he had confidence in his own capabilities as a warrior, and figured that, if he could beat the man, he would secure the safety of his Legion, which meant more to him than anything. Risking his life once more for his Legion, his family, wasn't that big of a deal. What scared wasn't the whole dying part, it was the part where his Legion was massacred by giant blue painted people.

"I will fight you, but I want your word on what matters most to you, that your men will hold to their bargain." Percy adjusted his sword belt after saying this, a little conscious of the fact that he had over a thousand lives depending on him.

The Pict looked surprised, he hadn't actually expected the Roman to accept his offer. "I will do this." He turned to his companion and said something in a tone that suggested an order. Then looked back at Percy, gesturing to himself, and struggling to speak complete and proper Latin. Something he hadn't had issues with earlier, which gave Percy the impression that the speeches were practiced and rehearsed. Meant to provoke him and arouse his men.

"I will swear upon our War God, that this will be so."

Percy nodded. "And I will swear to my War God that this will be so." The Picts eye's shone, men like him lived for fighting. "We meet here, any weapon, when the next Sun rises." Percy nodded and made a fair-well gesture. Despite his dislike for the Picts attack on them, he had to respect their honor in combat. They believed that dying with a blade in your chest was better than dying with words hanging on your tongue.

Percy had no doubt this would be a tough fight, but he had other things to worry about right now, like the defense of the camp, and what the Legion was to do if he DID die whilst fighting the Pict.

The Picts continued their rally, chanting like owls again after every brief ovation from their leaders. The sound of these burly men and their owl chanting would become a common sound in the Roman camp over the next few days.

(A/N)- Hey guys, sorry about the wait, I'm going to probably slow down with my chapters in order to get you guys better content, so just be patient! XD Okay, so, if you have any free time when you're done with my story, make sure you check out my girlfriends profile (Links on my profile) and the profile of one of my friends and my favorite author on FanFiction- Anaklusmos14 and his works. If you like my stories, you will love his! Mine are modeled after his with my own Roman flare through and out ;)