8. We Capture A Flag

The next few days I allowed myself to settle into a routine that felt almost normal for me since it was so similar to my past life. Well, similar if you don't count the fact that we were getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.

Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, who began making sure that I could decode more than just the mythological portion of the language. She had a tendency to put more emphasis on the architectural terms but I shrugged it off and did my best to soak her lessons up like a sponge.

The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something that I could enjoy. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quickly that a bow and arrow weren't really my style so on the first day I switched to getting my accuracy back with my steel kunai and learning how to properly throw my celestial bronze kunai. By the end of the class I was matching the Apollo kids bulls eye for bulls eye impressing most of the students.

Foot racing was alright, but again, it wasn't really my thing. I could keep up with the wood nymph instructors if I used chakra while running full speed, but I wasn't Gai or Lee who were obsessed with training by running over a thousand laps around the Leaf Village so I gave that a pass as well.

Wrestling was actually pretty funny. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would try to pay me back for the toilet water I practically shoved down her throat, and every time I would have her on the floor within ten seconds. That girl just did not know when to give up.

I enjoyed playing volleyball and canoeing was really relaxing. Trying the climbing wall was pretty good training as well.

I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. With all of my past experience as a shinobi, very few of the activities came hard to me, although I absolutely refused to participate in the basket weaving class they had on Tuesday since there was no way I was going to allow myself to be forced to make a basket with flower designs woven into it.

Despite that slight bump in the road, I grew to like the camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and make everybody else laugh with the slightly modified stories I would tell during the campfires. My mom never left my mind though. Sometimes she was right at the front of my mind if I wasn't busy doing something. Other times it was further in the back. But I never forgot that look on her face just before she burst into light particles.

Thursday afternoon, six days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-blood, I had my first sword-fighting 'lesson'. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor. He had me show him my basics against the straw dummies and I did fairly good considering the fact that none of the available blades were balanced right for me. Finally I just said "Screw this." and took one of my celestial bronze kunai and pumped wind chakra through it and used it to rapidly cut all of the dummy's limbs off before I beheaded him earning an approving look from Luke as he complimented my style. After that we moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced that he would be my partner, since this was my first time.

'Heh, he's acting like I've never actually fought before.' I thought although I knew he was interested in my fighting style since I had told him I had been reincarnated. We never did really have the rest of that talk. One kid wished me good luck as he told me that Luke was the best swordsman in the last three hundred years. I had to keep myself from snorting and saying maybe in this realm. Instead I nodded and took out my other bronze kunai and settled into a stance as Luke did the same with his sword.

Our fight was both short and at the same time interesting. As soon as Luke told me to start, I was in his face with my shorter weapons forcing him to constantly block. I was impressed that he was able to attack in between defending himself from the flurry of strikes that I launched at him. He would have made an excellent Kenjutsu specialist back in the Elemental Nations. But my experience trumped his and five minutes in I had him on his back with a kunai that was lengthened into a wind sword at his throat to all of the rest of the cabin's surprise.

The next few fights were a bit more mild allowing the rest to focus more on their own fights. After we took a break for drinks, Luke had us all circle up on him as he said "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you guys a demo of a move that is very useful."

I shrugged showing I didn't mind as Luke told us he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of you own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon. I instantly recognized the description as the move that I had used when I had sparred with my clone on top of the lake.

"This is difficult." Luke stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique." Even though it was said in jest, I knew how hard such a technique could actually be when against an experienced opponent, not to mention risky if you don't do it just right. I had actually been a bit lucky when I had performed the move against my clone. Luke then handed me a 'regular' sword made out of celestial bronze and demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. As expected, the sword clattered out of my hand.

"Now in real time," he said as I retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready Percy?"

I nodded and we both shifted into our stances. We stayed like that for a few seconds sizing up our opponent's stance before Luke rushed at me and sent a sideways swing towards my side which I caught with the flat of my blade and jerked upwards as I turned into an extremely fast spin and sent my own horizontal swing which Luke deflected before he sent a shot at my hilt. I quickly back stepped avoiding the blade and then quickly stepped back forward as I lunged at him. Luke sidestepped the blade and came at me at an angle and I once again blocked with the flat of my blade before I suddenly slid my blade down his creating sparks as it went straight to his hilt and I disarmed him by spinning the sword out of his hand. Our fight had lasted maybe thirty seconds but the rest of the cabin were cheering as Luke picked up his sword and said "Excellent Percy. A little different but still essentially the same move. And with a misbalanced sword as well. Now, who else would like to try?"

I gave a nod of thanks as I stepped into the circle while the others were talking with the usual you do it, no you do it before the next person finally stepped forward and began fighting with Luke.

Friday afternoon came and I found myself sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from using the climbing wall nearly thirty times. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat barely using his hands when he did it. But while I was tempted to follow his example and use chakra I thought that it kind of defeated the purpose so I went at it like a 'normal' half-blood using both hands and feet. I really had to push myself to avoid the lava a few times.

We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket weaving, until I asked Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D almost a full week ago.

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow as he said "Fine, just great."

I gave my friend a pointed look as I said "I've told you before that you really need to learn how to lie better Grover. Now what happened? You weren't demoted or anything were you?"

He looked at me funny before he sighed and looked down into the lake waters at the naiads and said "Mr. D suspended judgment about how I handled watching you. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

I snorted and said "Gee, he doesn't want much does he? According to Luke no one's had a quest in two years. Is he expecting to wait a decade before we do one?"

Grover looked even more depressed as he nodded and said "He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest…and even if you did, why would you want me along?"

I frowned and said "Grover, you are my friend, the one who kept me from going all World War III on the other students at Yancy. Of course I'd take you with me. And not just because of that either. You have buried deep inside you a fire that will burn brighter than a hundred bonfires someday. You just have to find it."

Grover stared glumly into the water as if I had never even spoken and said "Basket-weaving…Must be nice to have a useful skill."

I sighed before I made a few hand signs and to his surprise poked his forehead. Before he had a chance to ask me what I was doing, images of my academy years began entering his brain. Afterwards, my fighting against Negato when he attacked the village appeared.

When the images stopped, I looked at Grover and said "You remind me a lot about myself Grover. And look at how I turned out. So stop being so hard on yourself."

Grover could only nod before we went into silence for a few minutes. Afterwards, we began talking about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. I could see Grover cheering up as the conversations moved away from his problems and I smiled. Afterwards, I asked about the four empty cabins since only one or two made sense to be empty.

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis. She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad." Grover said.

I nodded since that made since. Even if she'd never have kids, nobody wants to be left out of something.

"That makes sense. What about the other three? Everyone keeps talking about the Big Three but I always thought that it was Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades who were called that. Is it actually Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon?"

Grover tensed. It was obvious we were getting close to a touchy subject as he said "No, you are right about who they are. Hera's is also an honorary cabin since as the god of marriage she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job." I chuckled before I gestured for him to continue. "Anyway, as you know, after the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky while Poseidon received the sea. And Hades was stuck with the Underworld." I said.

Grover nodded and I frowned as I said "Why doesn't Hades have a cabin then?"

Grover shuddered and said "He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here…" Grover shuddered again. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."

I nodded not pressing the issue before I changed the topic. "Okay, so we have Artemis and Hera who for obvious reasons don't have any kids so their cabins are empty. What about Zeus and Poseidon? They both had hundreds of kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty now? I doubt they just went and said 'no more kids!'"

Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably as he said "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II was basically a worldwide fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

Thunder suddenly boomed as I whistled and said "That's the most serious oath you can make." I then frowned when I thought about who I believed my father was and said "But something tells me they didn't exactly keep it."

Grover's face darkened as he nodded. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo- he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia…Well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

Grover suddenly felt like he was about to have a heart attack as my Killing Intent suddenly made itself known. Although I think he was more afraid of the extremely furious look on my face as I said "So sins of the father huh?"

Grover nodded at the metaphor and said "Children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. Powers that mimic the abilities your people have in your previous life. They also have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I had watched the valley from on my first night here. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. Their satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others as well. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

I stared at the tree. I had thought it strange that only a single tree was on that hill and now I knew why. It was a monument to a girl who had sacrificed everything to allow three others to get to safety. It was what a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village would have done. I frowned before I stood up and said "I want to check something." Before Grover could open his mouth to ask what I wanted to check out, I began running towards the hill in the distance. Grover's eyes widened before he began running after me.

I blazed a path straight through camp startling most of the campers who saw nothing but the orange blur of my camp T-shirt as I shot past them. Passing the Big House I put even more speed into my run and reached the tree within a minute. I put my hand on the bark of the tree for a moment before I sat down Indian style and began drawing on nature chakra. As soon as I slipped into sage mode I focused on trying to sense the barrier that protected the valley. Someone using someone else's life energy to add to the barriers reminded me of something Orochimaru would have done without blinking an eye and I didn't like the fact that someone had done it in this realm.

In my mind's eye, the valley and the nearby surrounding lands appeared and I tweaked my senses to sense any kind of energy a barrier would give off. I found it as a complete sphere of energy that surrounded the camp with the barrier reaching down into the ground as well as the sky. It reminded me of the barrier surrounding the Leaf Village before I noticed the energy coming from specific points around the rim of the valley that powered the barrier. I then focused on the tree next to me and had to gasp as I allowed myself to focus on the closest focus point that was pumping out energy like crazy keeping the shield up. The energy looked similar to chakra almost in the fact that it was clearly spiritual energy but I couldn't find a trace of physical energy anywhere near it. Then I saw another image in the tree and I said "Holy Shit, she's actually conscious in there. "

Superimposed over the image of the energy shooting through the tree trunk as it headed to power the shield I saw the image of a girl who looked like she was my age. The girl had turned around from where she had been looking towards the road to the camp as if she sensed me spotting her and smiled with a wave before she turned back to her vigil.

My eyes snapped open as my jaw dropped. It seems that Zeus didn't just transfer her energy into the shield, he literally added her mind to the barrier. The girl was now practically an immortal since she would be watching over the camp for as long as the barrier was in place. I was brought out of my thoughts about how complex a sealing array would have to be to be able to do something similar when I heard a gasp. I switched my focus from seeing energy to regular sight and saw Grover staring at me with his jaw hanging down as he pointed to my eyes and said "What's wrong with your eyes?"

I gained a mock hurt look as I said "Don't you like them Grover?" I then turned serious as I said "Remember how I told you back on the bus I sensed you and Chiron weren't human?" When Grover nodded, I said "This was how. I gathered natural energy from the environment around me which expands my senses and allows me to sense human presences. There are a few other advantages it gives me but those are what I mostly use it for now. It changes my eyes like this since it is actually a technique used by the toads that I used to fight with."

"Oh." Grover said before he shook his head and said "You really shouldn't stay here for too long. Your scent could carry out of the valley and attract monsters."

I nodded and allowed the natural chakra to leave my body as I stood up and followed Grover down the hill. I spared one last look at the tree before Grover began running back to the main part of the camp and I took off after him.

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual. At last, it was time for capture the flag. When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise "Those are the flags we're using?"

"Yeah." Luke shouted back.

"Do Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always, but very often considering who their patron god and goddess are."

I nodded since that made since before I said "So if another cabin captures one, what do you do-repaint the flag?"

He grinned and said "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we taking?"

He gave me a sly look as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight and I was reminded of the Leaf's head of T&I Morino Ibiki. He grinned as he said "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help." He then leaned in and whispered the plan to me causing me to laugh before I nodded and told him I was all for it.

The teams were soon announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded-shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities-in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff, but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and do their hair and gossiped. They reminded me of fan-girls but the boys were even worse considering that very fact of what sex they were. No boy should spend at least a whole hour just looking at his reflection in a mirror. I swear I heard one of them singing the "I feel pretty" song as he brushed his hair. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day and I had experience with fighting bulky opponents. They weren't fast, but they could sure pack a punch, which meant a lot more in this realm than in the Elemental Nations. That, of course, left Ares' cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, and downright meanest kids on Long Island. And probably anywhere else on the planet too if the camp took in half-bloods from worldwide like I believed.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble gathering everyone's attention as he said "Heroes! You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets with either blue or red plumes, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal, and armor that looked fit for a roman soldier. I frowned at the weapons and armor that the other campers were putting on. They looked like a bunch of roman centurions preparing to march out to battle. All of that gear was not what a shinobi fought with. We were assassins who moved quickly and efficiently, not part of a war machine that shouted their presence with heavy marching to intimidate their opponents. Sighing I used the transformation jutsu to change my clothes and add a blue stripe in my hair since Athena and her allies were picking up the blue helmets. Everyone saw me erupt in smoke and murmuring broke out when my new cloths were seen. They were the typical Leaf Jounnin outfit consisting of navy blue pants that went down to just above my ankles and a navy blue long sleeved shirt. I had a padded vest on over my shirt and my kunai pouch remained at the back on my hip. The look was finished by a pair of blue ninja sandals and a ninja headband with the symbol of the Leaf village on the metal plate.

I could see Clarisse smirking at me as if I had just made her day. Luke cleared his throat and said "Ah Percy, you may want to wear something that's offers a little more protection."

I gave him a deadpan look as I said "I'm a shinobi Luke, not a centurion. We fight a little bit differently than you guys."

Luke simply shrugged and went back to arming himself. I meanwhile began checking my kunai pouch once again making sure that I had all ten steel kunai and both of my celestial bronze kunai on me. I would have felt comfortable with a few shuriken as well as some ninja wire but for what I had to do tonight just kunai would be fine. It's not like I was going to fight in another war again, just take part in an extreme version of CTF.

As soon as she saw that we were all ready, Annabeth yelled "Blue team, forward!"

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north. I quickly caught up with Annabeth at the head of our group and said "Hey."

She kept marching although she gave me a nod in greeting. I matched her pace and stride and said "Got any advice for me out there? You've obviously done this more than a few times so you probably know a few things that will be handy to know before the fight."

"Just watch Clarisse's spear, you don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry, you shouldn't have a problem with any of those guys. We'll take the banner from Ares tonight without too much trouble with you with us. Has Luke given you your job?"

I nodded as I grinned and said "Yup. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to go prepare." I shot off ahead of the group and melted into the woods as I headed toward my designated area, a little creek that gurgled over some rocks. I looked around making sure I was alone before I formed a twelve man squad of clones and began giving orders to take to the trees and form a line across the woods and make sure no enemies got over the creek in their areas but to not reveal themselves unless they could knock out their opponents before they were spotted. I kept four of the clones with me as the other eight hopped into the trees and began moving to cover the border. I told the clones that stayed to leave Clarisse to me but any other reds who got close were fair game. The clones each gave me a salute before they took to the tree tops as well getting into position. With my secondary job of border patrol taken care of, I walked over to a tree and leaned back waiting for the rest of the campers to enter the forest.

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. It was the perfect battle ground for a shinobi who was fighting against fighters who were more direct when it came to their fighting style. I could hear the other campers as they all entered the woods and began splitting up to take their positions. Two minutes later, the conch horn blew from outside the woods. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, and kids fighting. A blue plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

After the kid passed by, it was silent around me for a few minutes and I enjoyed the sound of the water in the creek making its way without a care in the world before my shinobi senses suddenly put me on high alert as I heard a low canine growl somewhere close by. I pushed off the tree and walked closer to the creek as I instinctively went into a stance. I had seen some of the monsters stocked in the woods the first day but this creature sounded bigger than what I had seen that day. Then the growling stopped and I heard the sounds of a big animal moving away.

I stared at where I had pinpointed the creature was before I heard the heavy foot falls of a group of humans coming my way. I spotted Clarisse and four other Ares warriors charging at me and I had to give Annabeth's strategic mind credit. She had guessed exactly how many of her buddies Clarisse would send after me. It actually reminded me of Shikamaru and the plans he always came up with.

"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed as she and the other four warriors came at me yelling and screaming. I could see her ugly pig eyes glaring through the slits of her helmet. She was holding a five foot long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with some kid of red light. Her siblings had only the standard issue swords making me wonder if Clarisse was daddy's favorite. Not that it mattered to me, all five were nothing but barbaric Neanderthals in my book.

I sighed and said "You know, five vs. one doesn't seem very fair to me."

"Like we care! We'll beat you to dust!" Clarisse shouted as they were five feet from the creek.

I smirked and said "You really shouldn't just charge into a fight like this."

As soon as I was finished talking, four navy blue blurs fell from the trees and slammed into Clarisse's friends causing them to fall to the ground. Clarisse skidded to a stop when she heard the commotion to see four of my clones on top of her comrades with one hand holding their chins up and the other holding kunai to their throats.

Chuckling as I pulled out my bronze kunai, I said "It's pretty obvious you've never fought against a shinobi before. We don't exactly care about fighting fair either. Now come on Miss Piggy, let's dance." My words caused Clarisse's head to snap around at me and she growled at me before she rushed across the stream brandishing her spear at me. I sighed again and said "Younglings, always so impatient."

Then I poured wind chakra into my kunai making them glow a light green as they also began to emit a low whining sound. As soon as Clarisse was in range to run me completely through with her spear she thrust it out at me. I put her plans of shish-kebobbing me on hold indefinitely as I spun around the right side of the spear and slashed at the spear with my left kunai in between where Clarisse was holding it cutting straight through it with no problems thanks to my wind enhanced kunai before I continued the spin and slammed the back of my right elbow into her helmeted head. Clarisse stumbled but caught herself before she stared in horror at the two halves of the spear that were sparking at their broken ends.

'Huh, so that's why Annabeth told me to not let her spear touch me. It's a good thing I used wind chakra or I would have had a bit of a nasty shock going through my system right now.' I thought. I was brought out of said thoughts when Clarisse screamed "Ah! You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!" She turned around with rage in her eyes as she dropped the now useless spear and pulled out a short sword that I recognized from Deadliest Warrior as the sword that the Spartans had used. Clarisse gave a roar of rage and came right at me with nothing but murder on her mind. As she swung her blade at me, I jumped and landed on a low tree branch as I put my left kunai in its pouch and started channeling regular chakra through my other one. The green glow switched to blue as the blade of a ninjato formed over the kunai and the whining switched to a humming sound that reminded me of a light saber from the Star Wars movies.

I gave Clarisse just enough time to look up at me before I launched myself from my branch and slammed my chakra sword down on her hastily raised block before I sent a kick right into her armored chest that sent her stumbling back. I followed right after her and slammed a half fisted palm strike into her armored chest putting a small dent in it due to the chakra that I used which caused Clarisse to stumble even more before my round house kick to the head sent her flying into the nearby creek now without a helmet to protect her head.

Clarisse picked herself out of the water with a growl and immediately charged at me again. I sighed before I easily blocked her overhead swing and spun slamming my left elbow into her back with enough force to send her crashing into a nearby tree ten feet away from us. Turning around to face my opponent again, I saw that Clarisse had broken her nose when she hit the tree and she was now even more mad as she stood up and glared at me. She charged at me once more and I sighed again at her seemingly one track mind that a charge always worked. I diverted the thrust she tried this time before I decided I had enough and quickly disarmed her before I cut the leather straps that held her armored chest plate on causing it to drop revealing her camp T-shirt underneath. Before the girl could realize her armor was gone I put two shallow cuts across her front leaving an x before I swept her legs from underneath her. Clarisse grunted in pain and tried to get up but quickly found the glowing tip of my chakra blade held under her chin.

"Don't even bother getting up. You lost this fight the moment you came here." I said gesturing to her friends who were still on the ground with my clones making sure they wouldn't try anything. They were staring at me in pure rage but I didn't care at the moment as I heard the yelling of elated screams and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids.

Clarisse's eyes widened as she shouted "A trick, it was a trick!"

I smirked as I stepped back as I mentally dispelled my clones and said "Yup. Annabeth knew you guys would come after me due to your pride so she put me on border patrol."

Luke ran across the border into friendly territory and everyone converged on the creek as our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

I watched the celebration for a moment before I heard "Not bad, hero."

I looked over at where Annabeth's voice was even though I couldn't see her and said "Thanks. Your plan wasn't too bad either. Now if you don't mind me asking, what are you using to be invisible? I heard you arrive just before the Ares kids but I didn't see you anywhere."

The air shimmered as Annabeth materialized holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head answering my question. We were about to talk some more when I heard that canine growl again instantly putting me on edge. A howl ripped through the forest instantly drawing everyone else's attention as the campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted in Ancient Greek and I heard "Stand Ready! My bow!" Annabeth drew her sword. We all looked at where the howl came from and a lot of the campers paled at the sight of the creature that had now revealed itself.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers. The thing was looking straight at me like I was its next meal. Annabeth moved towards where I was in hopes to help me fight the thing but I was already gone from where I had been standing. As soon as I saw the creature looking at me with such clear intentions I instantly shot at the thing with chakra boosting my speed planning on getting it before it got me as my regular chakra sword turned into a wind sword. The creature's eyes widened in an instant of surprise of its prey moving that fast at it. That instant was all I needed to jump up the small bank and slice the thing's head off much like I did to the minotaur.

As the decapitated body of the animal began melting into the shadow soaking into the ground, Annabeth said "Di immortales! That was a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't…they're not supposed to…"

"Someone summoned it. Someone inside the camp." Chiron said as he trotted up to where I was standing with my wind blade still in existence. He had a bow in his hand and his face was grim even as he nodded to me as a way of telling me that I did good in dealing with the creature.

Clarisse yelled "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

Chiron was about to berate the child when my killing intent filled the air causing everyone to go wide eyed as I suddenly appeared in front of Clarisse and said "My hearing must be going bad. I could have sworn you said that I actually summoned that thing. Tell me Clarisse, why would I summon something that was obviously thinking about having me for dinner? Better yet, why don't you tell us how I could summon it when I was too busy kicking your sorry ass because you are too prideful to not try and beat the tar out of me. The way I see it, you're the more likely suspect considering how you have been acting around me all week."

"Percy, that's enough." Chiron said from where he was standing over us all and I backed off heading over to Luke who had walked to the creek with the banner in his hand forgotten. "This is not good. Anyone who can summon a hellhound will likely be able to summon almost all of the other monsters as well." He said. Turning to me, he said "Percy, can you create some of those clones of yours and have them search the camp? It's possible that a demigod from outside the camp came without our knowledge and summoned it."

I nodded and created twenty five clones which instantly took to the trees as they began the search. Sighing, I said "Well this is has been an interesting night."

The camper's all suddenly gasped and I looked at them before I followed their gazes to the hologram of green light that was spinning and gleaming. It was a picture of a three tipped spear, a trident.

"Oh Styx, this is not good. I didn't want… I had hoped it would be Zeus." Annabeth muttered.

"It is determined." Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it. I looked back up at the hologram that was now beginning to fade as I thought 'I knew it.'

"Poseidon, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God." Chiron said.

I looked at the rest of the campers kneeling before me and thought 'Definitely an interesting night."