Annabeth: The first assault on the Camp begins and my first duel
It was a normal day besides the fact that our armies were soon ready to march out to the defense of Camp Half-Blood. I had just barely finished seeing to the residents of the minor gods' cabins when it happened. One of our watchtowers got blown away by a fireball launched from in front of the Camp walls. Immediately, I instructed the kids of the minor gods to head outside while I had the alarm sounded by the children of Hermes and Chiron notified of attack.
As for the rest of the demigods, I had Malcolm ready them immediately whilst Nico took a secret passage out of Camp to attack the enemy from the flank. With Malcolm's help, I managed to immediately rally the Ares, Hephaestus, Demeter, and the Apollo cabins before issuing orders like a jabbering monkey and moving as chaotically as a decapitated chicken. Then I readied my Pegasus and flew it to places where heavy artillery had been installed and made sure the gunmen and women there were ready should the enemy come their way. From the front, I could easily see fireballs increasing in the number launched per minute from one to three and then five.
I watched as that number increased and I also saw how someone on the front side of the wall was almost ready to scale it. Before I could intercept though, I was stopped by the appearance of a leopard. I knew these were the creatures of Dionysus but asked if it had come under the service of him anyway. "Yes Annabeth, I did and I come with a message from Olympus: fight well or die disgracefully," it said before leaping off.
Then that soldier who was reaching the walls finally reached them and scaled them with just a harpooned length of rope that had been latched on before. He ascended rapidly and I arrived at the fortifications on top of the wall just in time to see him stand up on the harpoon and jump to complete the rest of his trip. I was quick to intercept and kick him in the face hard enough to almost send him back over the wall. He recovered quickly and the helmet fell off his head so I saw that instead of being a living soldier he was, in fact, a soul from the Underworld.
"Oh, hello there child of Athena, how rude of me to go without introducing myself," he said. And that's when I noticed that his eyes were gouged out and that he couldn't see anything out of them. Before he even said his name I guessed it to be Oedipus Rex, former king of Thebes and the victim of a prophecy where he killed his father and married his mother. "Though I prefer to keep that in the past, yes I am Oedipus and I am your doom, Annabeth Chase!" Oedipus said.
I pulled out a shield I had borrowed from one of the fallen demigods near me and placed it in front of me in case he tried to use his sword or any magic. Instead, he simply used his fist and punched a perfect impression of it deep into the shield. "Yes Ms. Chase, when I returned to this world Prometheus gave me a power great enough to lead our armies without weapons. This power is a great physical strength that even Hercules would have found trouble bringing down," he mocked with a loud, deep laughter.
I kept up my defense as he continuously punched deep dents into my shield and I found that I was in a hopeless situation. He was too physically powerful for me to wrestle down and he had already knocked one of the cannons over the wall when it got in the way. Twelve times, I rose my shield in defense and in twelve different spots were permanent and severe dents that would soon render it useless. "You know, I really wished to execute a child of Apollo for what he brought upon me but if I can't do that then an child of Athena might just be the next best thing," he said, lamenting the story of his life before.
"You know Oedipus, you were just a mortal when you first lived so tell me how you came by this strength. I'm always fascinated to hear the victim's side of a story and that one has been a big confusion on me for a long time," I said just when I saw a watchtower and immediately thought of something that just might work. "I have always been stronger than the average man for not being a demigod. How else did you think I was able to kill up to a dozen men, including my father Laius, with just my bare hands?" Oedipus explained.
"Go on, what got you even stronger than before?" I inquired. "When Prometheus was in need of someone to lead his armies that had the vengeance, he found me in Tartarus and decided I would be the best candidate out of the senile Sisyphus and that pathetic father of centaurs called Ixion," Oedipus continued. I held my shield up in case he made a move on me again since it was the only thing I could do and kept him talking until I had my back facing the watchtower. Then I threw my shield at him the same way I'd seen Captain America throw his shield at his enemy and while Oedipus caught it, I ran and talked to Connor in the watchtower.
"Listen Connor, I need you to evacuate your soldiers there. The enemy pursuing me is Oedipus Rex and his already abnormal strength has been magnified by Prometheus," I told him in the walkie talkie. "So what does that have to do with leaving the watchtower?" he asked back to me. "There's no time to argue, do as I said and make sure to destroy the pillars on the upper floors on your way out; he's stronger than any of us and I need to know just how much stronger," I answered in the tone of a commander.
"You got it boss, I'll have my soldiers on the job immediately. Oh and one more thing, do you want us to evacuate to the door opposite of where you're about to enter?" he asked. "I do and make it quick," I snapped. "Roger that and I hope to see you after this," he replied.
"You wish to test my strength, do you? Very well, I shall play your game and I shall win," Oedipus declared just before I entered into the watchtower. Luckily, Connor wasn't there nor were any of his soldiers and that speed surprised even me. My only hope was that they had done as I had asked and destroyed all the pillars on the floors above so that when Oedipus destroyed these last ones, the whole thing came down on him.
Then I started some taunting of my own just to get him a little excited. "Oh Oedipus, sure you can punch through my shield but you see that's very thin compared to these pillars. Let's see if you can punch through them and if you punch through all four of them, I'll let you kill me on the condition that it be quick," I told him. "Then consider it done and I will have my way with you before you depart from this earth into Hades!" Oedipus boomed with excitement.
It took about seven or eight punches but he blasted through the pillar as though it were nothing. Then I kept encouraging him to take down the last three pillars since I already had him blinded with rage as much as he was blind in sight. But then I had to wonder how he knew me and where to find me when I was in the watchtower. In a matter of minutes, I was behind the last pillar and he was coming for me and at the final moment before he started punching through the doors, I bolted for the wooden pillar at the middle of the ground.
With a quick little punch to it, I destroyed it using a simple trick that Chiron taught me when I was beginning training back at Camp. I made it to the door just in time to see Oedipus destroy the last pillar and bring down the entire tower upon himself. "You little bitch, you tricked me!" Oedipus shouted back to me. "Let's see if you get out of it and in the meantime, I will be repelling your forces off my walls," I replied.
I waved goodbye as the tower caved in on him and considering that he never popped up again, it was reasonable to believe I had succeeded in at least immobilizing him if not killing him. Now I felt proud of myself for that accomplishment and I had the feeling that Hercules and his father would have admired it too. But most important was that my mother would admire it more than anyone else and that's what counted for me. I continued to bark orders and run like a chicken with its head cut off after that duel but I made sure that Chiron wrote it down as something to celebrate when this was over.
When I realized that the fireballs were going to make the difference as to whether the enemy scaled these walls and conquered the camp, I made sure to have my most skilled archers aim for the men at the catapults on the opposite side. All of them were successful in hitting their targets and making the catapults destroy each other with only a couple fireballs running off into the enemy camp. It was then that I saw Prometheus fuming as he should at the loss of his greatest form of artillery and he knew we stood a better chance now than we did before. Now we only had to stall the soldiers until Nico signaled me that his part would soon be done for the camp via the walkie talkie I had given him before he left to do his chore.
"Thank the gods we had that spy to make Prometheus bold enough to venture into the narrow interior of Half-Blood Hill before this happened. Oh hey, since your boyfriend's gone you got another idea about reducing his numbers?" the Apollo leader asked. "Let me put it this way: Nico's initiating the backup plan and if anybody can make what we have in mind work, he can," I answered. "Oh boy, I'm gonna love this," the kid said.
I couldn't agree more with him and I really wish that Percy hadn't left and to my delight, Nico soon gave me the signal that he was clear to go. After that I gave him the signal right back to launch the attack whenever he wanted to. "Hey, pull everyone out, we got a little job from Hades that doesn't need our interference," I said to the leader of the Apollo cabin as well as the Hermes cabin. "Thank the gods my spy made this possible, huh?" Connor asked rhetorically.
"Yeah, we'll have time to celebrate when this assault is over and we have won. That is, hopefully we'll have time to celebrate when this ends," I answered him patiently. And that was when I noticed another soul of the dead coming towards the wall and this time, I knew he'd be a little more of a warrior from his armor than Oedipus had been. "Bow before Alexander, son of Zeus!" the soul said and I knew I was in a world of trouble at that point.
If I didn't deal with this guy quickly, he was going to bring the Camp to its knees. Luckily, the bow of a fallen Apollo kid was available and an arrow lied near it for my immediate use. I was not the best shot but I was pretty sure I could hit Alexander the Great from on top of the Camp's walls. My shot was a surprising success, hitting the Macedonian general square in the throat and sending him back to the Underworld but not before he vowed retribution from his supposed father; I snorted and laughed as he left