AN: Well, this certainly is a long one. I really wanted to post earlier, but life got in the way so I made this one extra long to make up for it. I hope you guys have as much fun reading it as my partner and I did writing it.
Eris heard the horn make its resounding peace as it signaled the beginning of the games. When Clif had told Eris she'd be alone, he really meant alone. Eris had only spotted her team members spread out in the forest line in preparation, but as the horn sounded, her small glimpses of them from her outlook had come to an end.
Her palms started growing sweaty as she waited anxiously but kept her eyes fixed on the forest floor. She was ready for whatever the opposing team could throw at her. She just wished she knew what.
The sun was setting and deeper shadows were being cast. The shadows only reminded Eris of her domain. The night is yours, Eris, you're the goddess of it. No one stands a chance. She thought to herself. Her anxiety was building and as it built, a soft rumbling had begun to reverberate through the tower. Weird. Eris thought. It was as if the tower had tapped into her emotions.
Eris looked at the sky and concentrated on the first star she saw. She heard a twig snap and whipped her head around to face the sound. There were no signs of anyone. She let out a held breath. "Fucking dryads." She said under her breath.
Onesimus enjoyed his lone trek through the forest. The peace was nice.
He moved swiftly and, for the most part, silently. He arrived at the tower sooner than he liked. Well, if Hades has predicted my death, then there isn't shit I can do about it. Onesimus thought, resigning himself to his fate. Except go out in style. He grinned at the thought.
First thing he needed to do was see who it was that was in the tower. He was creeping just out of sight of the tower trying to devise a plan to get the occupant to show themselves when he stepped on a twig. Loudly.
Onesimus froze and held his breath. He looked towards the tower as a face appeared at the top. His eyes widened as he recognized the person immediately. Eris, daughter of Hades. But if Eris, one if the most feared campers was up there, then so was the flag. It wouldn't make sense for the Athena cabin to send someone so important on a diversion mission. Which also meant that all of Alex's troops were heading in the wrong direction. And it wasn't like Onesimus could just go back and warn them all. It would take too long.
Onesimus stalked around the tower, careful not to make any noise. There didn't seem to be an entrance anywhere, so he couldn't just speed his way through and up some stairs. Then, Onesimus thought that the tower seemed awfully simplistic. There was no way that the tower the Athena kids designed to hold their flag was this simple. Onesimus picked up a rock and hesitated before throwing it at the tower with all of his strength.
The rock reverberated back at Onesimus with alarming speed. He dodged to his left and heard the rock pass his ear with less than an inch of space. Well . . . I'm not exactly sure what I expected to happen. Onesimus thought. This is the Athena cabin after all.
Onesimus guessed that this impossible task was what Hades had been referring to earlier. Then he thought about the fact that Hades' daughter was up there. No, it didn't end here. He was sure of that. There was some way to get up there. He just had to figure out how, quickly.
The tower grumbled beneath Eris' feet as though it was in discontent. She felt the metal reverberate within her as though she were being struck by something. She focused her eyes back on the ground, scouring the forest floor for any sign of a human being. Then, as if a sixth sense kicked in, the hairs on the back of Eris' neck stood up. Suddenly, she knew for sure that someone was there, hiding in the dark. She froze at the idea.
Eris gripped her sword tighter and mover her bangs from her face. She moved herself into a crouched position. Damn. If only I could have been a daughter of Apollo or something. She thought to herself as she really needed some way to light up her surroundings. Then she figured why would I need light? I am one with the darkness.
Onesimus had an idea. It was crazy, but it was the only one he could come up with, so he ran with it. Onesimus had made it a point to learn as much as he could from the Hephaestus cabin. After all, ingenuity was valuable to a thief. He was able to build a few catapults that could hold a significant amount of weight. He tied the strings to where the catapults would go off at a certain time.
Onesimus quickly but silently made his way to the exact opposite side where he'd built the catapults. He wanted to check to make sure his winged shoes, a gift from his father, were properly tied, but he didn't have time.
Just as he'd made it to the other side, the first catapult went off, launching three medium-sized rocks at the tower. As soon as the catapult released, Onesimus took off toward the tower as the tower guard, Eris, rushed to the other side.
When Onesimus was about halfway to the tower, the second catapult released its' load. The rocks released by the third catapult traveled much higher than those of the first. When Eris saw them coming straight towards her, she ducked behind one of the parapets. She didn't need to, though, because the rocks were a little too short and flew across the forest, landing near the main battle.
The last catapult released just as Onesimus reached the tower. Using his winged shoes, he stepped lightly on the tower and prayed silently to his father that his step would be light enough. Long story short: it was. The tower didn't launch Onesimus backwards when his foot touched it. He ran up the side of the tower, using speed and his shoes to stay out of gravity's reach. Onesimus heard the last of the rocks hit the ground behind him. Or above him, since he was horizontal.
Onesimus finished his tower run and landed hard on the top to make sure Eris heard him. Eris turned quickly toward Onesimus, not looking the least unprepared. She was ready for a fight; and as scared as Onesimus may have been at that moment, so was he.
Eris immediately recognized the new challenger as the Hermes kid from the earlier confrontation with the Athena cabin. Eris didn't pause to consider this, instead opting to go straight for the attack. She swung her sword at Onesimus' head and held out her hand to grab his throat if he dodged. When Onesimus dodged to his left, he was able to easily use his left hand to knock away Eris outstretched hand. Onesimus' speed was unrivaled and his reflexes in battle were better than just about anyone else's. In the same second as he knocked away Eris' hand, Onesimus sent his right elbow into her ribs. She stumbled back but quickly regrouped. Eris searched her opponent for a weapon, but couldn't find one. Onesimus fought with only his fists. His father had inventing boxing so he was a natural at it. His most important skill was dodging since his opponents were usually swinging sharp weapons at him. He was only able to pull off his fighting style because of his reflexes.
Onesimus took Eris' confusion as an opportunity to take the offensive. He moved in quickly and swung towards her ribs again. Eris, however, was more prepared than he thought and she dodged his hit with grace. Onesimus stumbled a bit from the momentum of his swing but caught his footing quickly, ending up with Eris to his back. Eris took a step away from Onesimus and before he could turn to face her, she went for a kick at the back of his knees. She knew it was a low blow, but she didn't care. Onesimus was used to people going for low blows when fighting him and was able to predict what Eris would do. Onesimus jumped over Eris' kick and spun, bringing his knee to meet her cheek while she was still in the middle of her attack. Eris stumbled backwards and rammed her back into the wall of the tower. She wiped the surprise off her face and reclaimed her defensive position. Onesimus moved closer and Eris surprised him by bringing her hilt down on his shoulder, and the second he regained his balance, she brought her elbow down in the exact same spot. Onesimus was able to dodge most of the second blow so it only glanced off his shoulder, but it still hurt. He stumbled back from the pain, but moved right back in, powering through the pain. Eris, believing that Onesimus would be more hurt, wasn't ready for an attack. Onesimus sent a flurry of blows towards Eris' upper body. The hits weren't hard, just plentiful. Eris tried to move her hilt into the path of Onesimus' blows, but she wasn't fast enough.
Until she got a lucky block, and Onesimus hit the hilt of her sword and his blow glanced off to the side, leaving him wide open. Eris wasn't interested in taking the offensive and instead used the time she had to do something crazy. She sheathed her sword and gripped the railing. She moved into a perfect handstand and let herself fall off the edge. The tower responded to her and a platform caught her five feet down. She drew a dagger and looked to the sky waiting for Onesimus.
Onesimus didn't believe that the daughter of Hades would retreat, so he didn't follow. Instead, he backed to the center of the tower, keeping his head on a swivel looking for a sign of Eris. Onesimus tripped over a hatch in the middle of the tower but caught himself before he fell. He grinned. This must lead to the flag. He thought, elated. Just as he opened the hatch, Eris reappeared on the railing. Onesimus shot her a grin and jumped into the hatch feet first. He took off running as soon as he landed, hoping to put some distance between him and Eris.
Onesimus knew exactly where the flag was. He had an ability that few knew about; he could find his way through any maze, trap, or tunnel when his intent was thievery or escape after thievery. When he got to the flag, it sat prettily upon a pedestal. He grabbed it without a second thought. Immediately, the tower began to rumble and a few rocks fell from the ceiling. Onesimus muttered an impressive four expletives in about .9 seconds. Apparently, someone from the Athena cabin was familiar with Indiana Jones. Using his father's gift, he found a tunnel below the pedestal that led underground. Just before he jumped in, he saw Eris enter the flag room. He shot her another quick grin and jumped in. Eris' only two choices were die in the crumbling tower or follow Onesimus. She chose the latter. Eris chased Onesimus into the underground chamber. She had him in sight, but just barely. She turned her speed up as high as it could go until she was close enough to him. Eris jumped at Onesimus and the two went tumbling. After the dust settled, Eris was on top of Onesimus, pinning him and the flag to the ground.
With his face in the dirt, Onesimus acted quickly and pushed up as hard as he could whilst rolling to the side. He ended up on top of Eris, giving her a quick elbow to the ribs and then taking off running again. He hadn't even taken a step when he fell again. He looked back and saw Eris' hand on his ankle. He kicked back as hard as he could without looking and took off again as soon as Eris released his ankle. Eris felt the knot forming on her forehead immediately. She was not going to let this kid get the best of her. She reached out her hand and concentrated. The tunnel began to collapse. Eris had intended to bring down rocks in front of Onesimus but had been unable to correctly account for his speed. When the rocks began to fall, they fell right over Onesimus' head. He tried his hardest to dodge the rocks while moving forward. Had he not been a child of Hermes, he'd have been dead already. He dodged as many as he could, but there were too many. One large rock fell squarely on his shoulder and he began to go down. He leaped forward as a last ditch effort to get out of the way of the rocks. He just barely made it, but didn't take a moment to rest. He got up as quickly as his injured arm would let him and took off once again, taking a second to admire the large rock pile blocking the way back. He ran faster than he ever had and made it to the end of the tunnel in minutes. He climbed a ladder and emerged beside the boundary line for the two teams. Apparently the Athenians didn't know what hubris was.
Onesimus stepped over the line and the flag changed colors in his hand. The horn sounded, signaling the end of the games. The entirety of both of the teams surrounded Onesimus within seconds. Everything was quiet for a second until Onesimus' team got over their confusion and began cheering.
Not long after that, Eris stepped up from the same trapdoor that Onesimus had come through. He looked at her bruised face and realized that they both must look like Hades had walked all over them. That's actually sort of true in my case. Onesimus thought and grinned.
AN: Just a little bit of information about my writing partner and me: I am 18 years old and my name is Malik. I live in Mississippi. She is also 18 years old, her name is Chastity and she lives in Hawaii. We would love some reviews and if you have any questions about us or the story, feel free to private message me and we'll happily answer you.