Chapter 11 The Woods

Nico POV

Night loomed over the West Virginian forest as my squad of demigods and I forged through the wilderness. It was the 5th day we had been on the road. I was traveling with a group close to 40 people. By my estimates we were only a 5 hours march away from Artemis' camp.

Artemis was moving to intercept Leo and launch an ambush attack on our army. When Leo found out he gathered a squad and sent me to ambush them before they could confront Leo. Artemis was one of the more intelligent Olympians so catching her off her guard would be tough.

We trekked through forest after forest as the night went on; by the time we were near the camp it was 3 a.m. I held my hand up to stop my troops.

"Stop, prepare yourselves for battle." I spoke; I turned to two sons of Hermes. "Scout ahead and report to me how many there are." The two nodded in sync and sped away towards the enemy camp. I snapped my fingers and a large white tent appeared in an opening of grass.

"David, Mike, and Cassie. Into the tent." They walked in and stood around the circular table inside the tent. On top of the table was a map of the areas surrounding Artemis' camp. They all stood silent in the tent as I walked in. I stopped at the table and looked up at the faces studying the map.

David is a lanky kid who's about 5'11 with short brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing traditional Greek battle armor with a celestial bronze sword at his side. David's mom was the Goddess of the Harvest Demeter.

Mike is a tall bulky guy with ginormous hands and huge muscles. That and his curly black hair made him stand out as a kid of Hephaestus. He was wielding a large war hammer made of celestial bronze.

Cassie is a petite girl but don't let her size fool you, she's one of the best archers in the world. Her flowing blonde hair identifies her as daughter of the sun goddess, that and her fiery temper.

The three of them are very impressive when they can work together and get along. They were the three most experienced Demigods in my squad. Last month the three of them singlehandedly fought off a platoon of Romans in Lawrence, Kansas. Giving Percy and me enough time to get there and finish them off.

"How's the main battalion doing?" David asked nervously. His girlfriend was one of the soldiers who were sent with Chris to Chicago. "Have we heard anything yet?"

"No."

The Chicago mission went down a day ago but Leo can't get in contact with anyone in the mission. He's sent scouts north to check it out to figure out what's going on.

He looked on edge. Everyone did nowadays. No one was sure how this was going to end and everyone was afraid of the unknown. You could see on the soldier's faces that they were scared. They were scared of death. They were scared of losing. They were scared of how the world was going to turn out.

"I can't take this silence!" Yelled Mike. He stood up and started pacing back and forth around the tent. "I can't take waiting. I can't take this shit. I certainly can't take not knowing how our friends, my siblings, our loved ones did in Chicago."

I stood up and looked at him, it was understandable that everyone was on edge but you shouldn't lose your cool.

"What the hades are you doing?" I pointed outside the tent. "Everyone out there is nervous and they sure as fuck don't need you losing your goddamn cool!" He tightened his jaw and sat down.

The tension in the air seemed to cool as one of the Hermes boys stood at the entrance to our tent. His face was covered in blood and he was panting.

"They know we're here…they're coming for us." He managed to utter before he collapsed forward. When he hit the ground I saw 3 arrows sticking out of his back.

We rushed out of the tent as I started screaming. "Prepare for battle immediately. The hunters are coming." As I spoke and arrow flew past my ear and into the heart of one of the Demeter kids.

"Those bastards." David seethed as he drew his sword and shield and charged. As he charged many other soldiers followed. As we charged the hunters fired off another volley of arrows at us. About 25 arrows flew past me and I heard some bodies hit the ground.

I focused my energy and raised the ghosts of the Native Americans from the French and Indian War. Next to me were 30 skilled bowmen. They fired their arrows but as they did the hunters arrows clashed with theirs. I drew my stygian iron blade as moved forward. As I looked ahead I saw that there were about 25 hunters in front of us. I saw that we had 30 demigods and 30 Native Americans moving towards them.

The first line of Demigods hit the first lines of hunters. Most of the hunters were wielding their hunting knives. In front of everybody I saw Thalia with her shield Aegis and her spear. She speared a Hermes boy and then an Ares girl who managed to get a cut on her arm. She twirled around and blocked and incoming arrow with her shield and speared another Demigod.

When I turned to my side I saw Artemis slashing through anything and everything that moved near her. A pile of bodies lay next to her.

A hunter coming at me brandishing two hunting knives snapped me into focus. She slashed at me with her right arm, which I easily dodged; I blocked a strike from her left arm with my sword. I kicked her in the gut and sent my sword towards her gut. She parried it with a blade and sent another one at me but she made the mistake of lunging too far. I grabbed her arm and threw her off her balance and into the ground. I stood over her and plunged my sword into her back.

I looked up and noticed there were only 10 of us left including David, Mike, and Cassie: while there were about 15 hunters left. All the ghosts I had summoned had vanished. We were outnumbered and being overrun. Artemis quickly killed 4 more Demigods. Only six of us remained and I didn't like those odds.

I ran towards a hunter and swung at her midsection. She blocked but she didn't anticipate the force of my blade as it recoiled against hers. While she was momentarily disorientated I slashed my sword across her throat. She crumpled to the ground when I turned in enough time to block a strike from Thalia.

"We meet again Corpse Breath." I grimaced at her using my nickname. When we defected I approached Thalia about joining us but she almost killed me in the resulting fight. I had barely managed to get away with my life. I have a scar running down the side of my leg to prove it.

I pushed her spear to the side again as she pressed me more and more. I swung at her calf only for her to block it with her shield. As she charged at me again I backed into a tree she lunged at me and I rolled to the side. She jammed her spear through the tree as it shattered on impact. I definitely don't want to get hit by that. I was too worried about Thalia to notice the girl coming at my back. Before she could get there an arrow went straight through her head. I'll have to thank Cassie for that later. I took the offensive against Thalia and started slashing every which way and that. After a few of them got deflected Thalia lost her balance and I was able to get a slash on her leg. Her agility was limited as a result. She backed off and took a defensive stance.

"Surrender." She commanded to me.

"Why would I do that." I retorted.

"Turn around." She spoke with confidence. I did as she said and saw David, Mike, and Cassie each having a knife held to their throat. I looked and saw that the three of them were the only Demigods alive while there were 7 hunters left. I dropped my weapon and did as she said. Artemis came up to me looking pleased.

"Send word that we have captured The Ghost King, Nico Di Angelo."

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