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Chapter 11-Part 1-Enrique's Point of View

I checked the clock. It was 4:00 am, and we needed to leave for the raid in a couple hours. Which meant it was time to wake everyone up. I grabbed my scepter and walked out of my room.

The scene in front of me would have been surprising to most people. A constant patrol of various animals roamed the hallways, serving as guardians in case of any more danger. I had had Mentos gather them from the various parts of the pyramid where they were scattered. There were creatures as large as alligators and a hippopotamus to as sleek as a cheetah to as small as a scarab beetle. Mentos himself was flying above them on a buzzard, screeching what I assumed were orders.

I made my way through the throng of animals to the middle of the corridor.

"You are all dismissed," I said loudly. "Thank you once again." The animals made their way out of the hallway. I tightened my grip on the scepter, awakening the magic inside.

"Awake," I breathed. A blue shockwave of energy erupted from the base of the scepter, going throughout the hallway. I heard stirrings inside the rooms as people woke up. Gradually, they stepped out of their chambers, yawning. The Greek campers hung towards the back. They'd made some progress in the past few days. I'd have to hope that it would be enough.

"You know what day today is," I said loudly. "Today we raid the scorpion men, and show them who's boss. Would any of you like to explain to our visitors why we do this?"

A girl my age named Lydia from the Hathor group raised her hand. I nodded at her. She turned and faced the newcomers.

"The scorpion men are a numerous tribe of monsters. They would easily have expanded their territory if we didn't suppress them every week."

"Thanks Lydia," I said. "Now, I need eight volunteers plus all nine of the Greeks. So, who wants to come? Remember, you need to have been here for three years at least." I called. Hands shot up in the air. Those who came back from the raids were heroes. Everyone wanted that.

Once I had selected the eight, I sent the others back to bed. There was no other reason for them to be up so early. The kids I had chosen were some of the very best at the camp. There was Lydia, and Carl from fight class, the son of Sekhmet. There was Johnny, one of my own half-siblings, although not quite as powerful as me, and without the wings. Taylor and Ryan, the twin sons of Nut, a sky goddess. They couldn't exactly fly, but they had immense power over the air. Ashley, the daughter of Sobek, the crocodile god. She was a tough fighter. I had chosen Justin, our best healer, as well. He was a son of Thoth, our god of magic, wisdom, writing, medicine, and a bunch of other stuff. And finally, there was Sandra, a winged daughter of Nepthys, another funerary goddess who was also Anubis' mother. Of the nine total of us Egyptians, only Justin, Sandra, and I had graduated and received a scepter in addition to our other weapon. Justin had the ankh, symbol of life, and Sandra the djed, symbol of stability. The ankh looks something like a cross with a loop at the top. The djed looks most like a backbone or pillar. Along with my was scepter, the three symbols together were a powerful combination.

After a quick breakfast in the mess hall, we assembled ourselves outside the pyramid. Even though I knew the way to the scorpion tribe by heart, I took out a compass and assessed my bearings, pointing myself in the direction of the tribe. I turned around again and looked at the others. While my fellow Egyptian campers were looking eager to get going, the Greeks seemed nervous.

"A quick recap of the plan," I called out. "First, Carl, Ashley, Clarisse, Piper, Lydia, and Nico are going to hit them on the ground by the entrance of their village. Than, me, Sandra, Taylor, Ryan and Jason are going to hit them from the sky when they don't expect it. Percy, Thalia, Annabeth, and Rachel stay by the river, where they usually try and escape or call reinforcements from other tribes. While they are occupied with the rest of us, Leo and Johnny are going to see if theres anything worth stealing and if not, burn down some of the buildings. Justin is going to hang back in case anyone needs healing. Now, I'm going to get us within-" I was interrupted by Rachel raising her hand to speak. Without waiting for a response, she began talking.

"Isn't that kind of cruel, just to destroy a whole village of creatures? Aren't there like, women and children too? Do you just kill them all?"

The Egyptian campers stared at her for a moment, and burst out laughing. I myself gave a slight grin.

"Why do you think we call them scorpion men?" I asked, hushing my group. Her question, although ignorant, was a reasonable one. "They don't breed. The scorpions are born pretty much randomly from sand. And we kill them all because all they do is hunt and kill themselves, and their favorite food is people. But if it makes you feel better, they'll be back-village and all-within a week. Ever since Gaia opened the doors of death they started reforming faster, and we've had to do raids more often." I explained. "Now, as I was saying, I'm going to get us within about fifty yards of the village entrance, in the usual spot. For those who don't know, the usual spot is a shaded cluster of trees by the river. Once there, we proceed with the plan as told. Ready? Good. Now let's go." I finished, bringing my scepter down and teleporting us to the location.

I took a deep breath, looking out upon the same place that my world had ended along with my nephew's life. I was ready to completely wreck havoc. I signaled the first wave to get going. They started creeping toward the village. Then Percy and his group began running across the water-literally on the surface, helped by Percy's abilities. Finally I looked to my group and nodded. Jason, Sandra, and I took to the sky, with the twins running as fast as the wind beneath us.

From above, the village looked like a sandbox. Inside the square walls were numerous square huts, as well as an armory. There were only two entrances to the village, one in front and one by the river. At the very center was a large ring of fire pits where the food was cooked. With a little less than a hundred scorpion men, this was one of the larger tribes.

The first wave had already fought their way into the village, and were going very well. They were holding their own against a group twice as large as them. I nodded at the others as we got to the walls. Once there, the twins jumped at least twenty feet, well over the walls, and withdrew their swords in midair so that they began fighting the moment their feet touched earth. Their swords were regular sword hilts with a thin rod of celestial bronze instead of a blade, around which they formed a miniature whirlwind. They each carried two swords. A second after they landed, me and Sandra folded our wings and dived, while Jason made a clumsy sort of fall from a short height. Jason and I took out our swords, and Sandra her bow. She had her scepter on her back, just like me. Together, we entered the fray from behind.

A scorpion man is not something you want to see up close. They are about three quarters the heart of a centaur, which is still a considerable height. From the waist down they have the body of scorpion, red and black, with six pointed legs and a tail longer than the rest of its body curled above its head. Their torso seems unbalanced, as they have a normal arm with a regular hand as well as another arm with a large scorpion claw instead of a hand. The claw is one of their most potent weapons, right after the tail, strong enough to snap bones and metal like twigs and sharp enough to cut off a head with no effort. Their faces are distorted, with two holes instead of nostrils, and fly-like multifaceted eyes. Their mouths are large and always open, filled with at least three rows of razor teeth, just like a shark. They don't usually use weapons, but theres always the few that go that extra mile.

The first one I killed had no idea what hit him. He barely had time to turn around before I stabbed him through the heart, dissolving him into sand. However, that gave me away to the rest. The next one, which was particularly large and brutish-looking, turned around and sent me flying with a sideways hit from his claw. I hit the ground hard, and he came running up to me. He picked me up by the shirt with his normal hand, and shook me so I dropped my sword. His tail curled up, about to strike, when his eyes went dim and he let go of me. Before he disintegrated I saw about five arrows in his back, courtesy of Sandra, who nodded at me.

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem." She replied. My eyes widened as a scorpion man reared up on its hind legs behind her, in a position that could kill her in one hit.

"Look out!" I yelled, shooting out my arm. A wave of sand erupted at the scorpion's feet, toppling it onto it's back. Unfortunately, being creatures of sand themselves, attacks like that don't do much. However, Sandra was able to shoot it in its underside, where it has no protection.

From the corner of my eye I saw a hut go up in flames, and I knew Leo was doing his job. He had burned his way through a wall, and I was able to keep an eye on Percy through the resulting hole. He was currently fighting a bunch of scorpions trying to get away on a raft.

An axe swung at my side, missing by an inch. A scorpion man readied himself to strike again. Before he could, I stabbed him with my sword. For the next ten minutes, I mindlessly hacked and slashed, entering a state of mind where I have just one aim: destroy.

An exceptionally large column of fire shook me from attack mode, and I heard screams. At that moment, everything started to go wrong.

Part 2-Leo's Point of View

Me and Johnny ran down to the part of the wall Enrique had pointed us to. Man, that guy was cool, once you got past the fact that he wanted to kill less than a week ago. And I wish I could fly too. But hey, can't ask for much more than fire powers. And being able to get energy from the sun would be useful here in the desert too, although that makes me start to think of myself as a plant, which is kinda freaky.

Once we got to the wall, I set my hands on fire and blasted a hole through it. Johnny didn't say a word throughout the whole thing. He's tall and kinda quiet, but I had the feeling that I could trust him. But then again, maybe thats just what he wants me to think.

We skulked around the back of the huts, away from the fighting, which was fine by me. Forget what I said about scorpions not being tough. These guys were total badasses, and I didn't like my chances against one of them too much. I only had my fire powers, a few bottles of emergency gasoline that I'd pulled from my belt so I could make a Molotov cocktail if I had to, and a knife. Johnny had a long curved sword and a shield.

We went into the first hut. Johnny broke in by literally breaking the door with a karate kick.

"Damn," I whispered and followed him inside. Wordlessly, he took out a burlap bag and began stuffing jewelry and gold and priceless things like that from inside. I felt kinda bad about stealing all this stuff, so I told him so.

"All of it was taken from our campers that they killed in the first place," He answered curtly, and I decided not to feel bad anymore.

We stepped outside, and I lit the hut on fire with a single sphere of flame launched from my hand. We skipped the next two huts, and I was about to skip the third, but Johnny lingered.

"Is there something worth taking in there?" I asked. Johnny had told me earlier that since Anubis was Hermes and Hermes the god of thieves, he had some thief powers himself, almost by accident. He could sense if there were things of value in hidden places, things worth stealing.

Johnny shook his head.

"Theres-it's nothing."

"What?" I asked, curious.

"You don't want to know."

"Really?"

"Yeah, unless you like mass graves of human bones. Sound appetizing? I thought so." He said as the color drained from my face. "I can sense death too," He explained. There was a loud creaking noise behind us. It was a scorpion man stepping over the ruins of the house I had burned. He held a silver bow in his mismatched hands that looked almost like-

"Thalia's!" I yelled, panicked. "That's Thalia's bow." I shuddered, just as he lit an arrow on fire in the smoldering ruins and shot it at Johnny. Heroically, I pushed him out the way, forgetting that while fire has no effect on me arrows certainly do.

The arrow made contact at my belt, and time froze. I felt nothing, and silently thanked the gods. Then I realized why I felt nothing.

The flaming arrow hit one of the bottles of gasoline, not killing me, but causing an explosion.

A pillar of flame shot into the sky, and I was completely surrounded. Luckily, I'm not hurt by flames, but Johnny wasn't so fortunate. I hadn't pushed him away far enough, and he was hit by a wave of heat. He screamed and clutched his face.

"I'll get Justin," I yelled at him over the roar of flames, while also trying my hardest to dissipate the pillar. I'm not as good at getting rid of fire as I am at creating it.

While I ran, looking for Justin, I saw the scorpion man with Thalia's bow run away, with something on it's back. Thalia herself, unconscious. My eyes widened. Rachel was slumped on its back as well. I could see Justin by the river helping out what looked like Percy and Annabeth. They were both a sickly shade of purple.

I looked from him to her, silently weighing my options. I couldn't kill the scorpion without possibly injuring Thalia or Rachel. And if I ran after the scorpion, Johnny could die.

I made a decision that would haunt me for weeks to come. I ran towards Justin.

"Hey," He said in a restrained voice. "Just finished these guys, what's your emergency."

"Johnny," I spat out. I had caught him just in time. Maybe if he could get to Johnny I could run and follow Thalia. There was still hope.

We went back through the wall into the village. Suddenly, a massive parade of scorpion men, every one of them that was left, ran to the back of the village. We couldn't get past them without being stampeded worse than a shopper on Black Friday. Once the last one had cleared we went in and saw what was going on.

They had collected themselves at the back wall, completely cornered. However, they didn't seem scared. Quite the opposite. To my horror, I saw a few more bodies on some of their backs in addition to Thalia. One gave me an evil grin, and then they disappeared in a whirlwind of sand.

"No," I said softly, sinking to my knees. All around me, the village disintegrated somehow, melting into sand.

I looked around. Percy and Annabeth were coming into the village as fast as they could, which wasn't that fast. Of the original eighteen, only those two, me, Justin, Johnny, Enrique, Sandra, Piper, and Clarisse were left. Enrique was sitting, holding his head in his hands. He looked defeated. Then again, it was a pretty substantial defeat.

"What happened?" I asked to everyone in general, while Justin ran to attend to Johnny.

Percy started talking first. His voice was gritty, as if someone had slashed his vocal cords.

"A couple scorpion men stung us, than grabbed Thalia and Rachel. I was able to kill one, but the other got away. We would be dead if it wasn't for Justin."

Then Enrique began talking.

"When you made that huge column of fire," He began.

"I didn't make it, it just happened-" I protested. He ignored me.

"And then we heard yelling, and Carl turned around for a moment, distracted, and he got stabbed in the leg by a scorpion man with a sword. He went down. Than Piper almost got smashed by a claw, but Jason took the hit for her and went unconscious. Nico was hit by a scorpion that was sent flying by a tornado the twins made, and another one picked him up. He'll be alright though, I hope. The twins were sneaked up on and stuffed into a bag by a couple other scorpions. Ashley got taken the same way. They were about to get me that way too, but Lydia attacked the scorpion. I managed to kill it, but it was too late. It had thrown her off and she hit a hut. I think she might have broken something, but before I could help, one had taken her. Once they had their prisoners they started running. All this happened at about the same time. It was overwhelming." After the lengthy explanation, Enrique put his head in his hands again.

Suddenly he flinched, and got up, stabilizing himself with his scepter.

"We've got to go get them. We need to find out where they went. I have a feeling that they won't be killed yet. Their the bait."

"So what?" Annabeth asked. "We just do take the bait? Isn't that exactly what they want us to do?"

"Yeah," Enrique said. "But they won't know what hit them."