ANTONI

The fifth cohort was a mess in Antoni's opinion. They never put in the effort in training and it reflected on the battlefield, from the sloppy way they held themselves, to the droop in their shoulders. Maybe a win for the fifth would ease the tension, add some flair to them. As they began to prepare for their charge Antoni dismounted his pegasus, Adrik, and favoured storming the fort by foot. He joined the end of the front line.

A horn blew in the distance and Antoni sprinted towards the fort, adrenaline making him even faster. He left his fellows in the dust and like the one man army he was charged through the defences. Making it to the walls in record time the grandson of nyx gathered the shadows from ground below and launched himself up the towering wall.

Scaling the wall in record time, he made it to the platform above. Smashing his sword's hilt into the face of his first victim he heard his 'enemies' begin firing down on his 'allies'. Smirking, he raked his way through romans like a hot knife through butter. Cleaving through shields and armour, slashing and stab at the perfect balance.

He was a monster, a demon on the field. Grabbing one guy's armour, and punching him in the face the guy tumbled back falling over the edge. The Praetor's heart leapt, jumping over the wall he grabbed the falling soldier by the scruff of the neck and hauled him over the barrier before climbing back himself and continuing his conquest, leaving the boy he'd saved shaken.

Antoni heard an unfamiliar bang and saw shrapnel from the water cannons raining down from the now destroyed cannons. The eastern wall shook and a rush that sounded like a roaring waterfall echoed through the field of Mars.

"What the fuck?" He uttered in confusion, before shaking his head and continuing to hack his way through soldiers.

FRANK

Launching himself over the wall Frank instantly knocked down the guards. Looking around Frank couldn't see anymore people coming so he pulled up Percy and they jogged around, looking for the stair entrance or more romans. Finding none, the boys turned a corner to see at least fifteen of the fortress guards lying either unconscious or wounded and unable to fight groaning on the ground.

Percy wandered over to one of them as Frank wondered who could have done this, unknowingly thinking the exact same thing as Percy.

The son of Poseidon lent down to one of the injured soldiers, her arm was covered in blood and had a nasty purple bruise forming on her face. "What happened?? Who did this?" He questioned.

"Antoni." She grunted. Percy stood up glancing at Frank who shrugged and they saw the staircase just ten metres to their left.

ANTONI

Jumping down the interior stairs, kicking and pushing romans left and right down them. He could hear crashing from above on the defending walls but ignored it.

Crashing into the essentially unguarded court, he noticed a few kids from the first and even some from the second cohort playing cards, obviously the lazy guards. Sneaking up behind the two, Antoni rammed the but of his sword in the boy on the left's helmet and he crumpled forward on the table, the boy on the right barely had the time to react before the flat of a sword to the nose. His head snapped back and he fell backwards with the chair, falling unconscious on the ground. Waltzing up to the Banners standing carelessly against the wall, Antoni grabbed both.

Before the black haired teen could exit, the daughter of Pluto entered riding Hannibal, followed by Zhang and Jackson plus the fifth, fourth, and third cohorts. They glanced around looking for the Banners before noticing the two collapsed guards and Antoni leaning idly against the emblems. A Collective groan was let out at the sight of the Praetor.

"My my, you actually made it here. I'm shocked." He snarled at the fifth. Before glancing at the centurion, "Well well Gwen, I guess I owe you that muffin now." He chuckled, giving the girl a wink.

"I like blueberries, by the way." Gwen called back, giggling slightly. He gave the group a small smile.

"Well done fifth, this is your victory not mine. Even though I contributed, you managed to break into the under the leadership of your centurions, and almost all of your cohort followed orders. Those that didn't, may have been successful like the rest of you, but they tried to do it themselves. They separated themselves from the group and charged ahead, not analysing any other potential routes. This may look like a jump of 'leadership', but it's not. It simply shows that they are willing to abandon their fellows for a goal. I myself am extremely ambitious, but even I will sacrifice my goals for the legion's sake, and if any of you want to be leaders, then you should consider that the legion will always come before personal wants. With power comes sacrifice, don't forget that." with that, Antoni turned and strutted towards his pegasus.

"Dramatic much." Muttered a few members of the fifth.


As Antoni walked back from dropping Adrik off at the stables he felt someone's gaze follow him like a hawk. Continuing his walk until he had reached a deserted street, not a person in sight.

"Come out. I know you're there." He called calmly. The soft sound of fast footfall rang in his ears. He stood perfectly still. The cold touch of metal rested upon the side of his neck. The tip of a dagger resting by his throat.

"Hello nephew." An icy feminine voice rasped.

"Lady Nemesis. As to what I owe the pleasure of your unexpected visit?" Antoni said, attempting to continue holding his near impenetrable wall of composure.

I will not give in, I will not give in, I will not give in. He chanted in his thoughts. Nemesis' cold, merciless cackle rang throughout the abandoned street. Pushing the blade in a millimetre more, a droplet of blood fell.

"I cannot allow you to harm the son of Neptune." She hissed, leaning up into his ear. A chill of ice cold fear trickled down Antoni's spine and he couldn't contain the sparks of joy he felt at the growing doom surrounding him.

He felt sick with himself, he hated that feeling this horrifying feeling brought him such joy. He despised his father for this, for creating him to feel such joy in such sickening moments.

He wanted to cry with joy with the blade of his jugular. The awful, but pleasurable feeling of Doom returned.

Antoni let out a shaky breath, replying, "Please, don't. I-I can't."

The knife pushed further into his throat and Antoni felt bile rise up in his chest at the excitement he felt. The balance goddess dragged the weapon down his neck, leaving a reasonably deep but thin cut from his jugular to his collarbone.

The wound dripped scarlet, a steady stream of blood trickled down his front, Nemesis laughed. "I knew you suffered from my brother's curse of Doom, but this, this is something else." She spun him around, dropping the dagger and grasping his chin. "I can see it in your eyes, Antoni Ortez. The pleasure you feel from your potential doom being so near. This is payment enough, you shall have your revenge upon the gods and demi-gods alike, and maybe I shall release your curse for bringing the mother to her knees. Good luck, son of Moros."

Nemesis vanished and Antoni collapsed to his knees, grasping his bleeding wound only to feel smooth, freshly scarred skin.

Stumbling his way towards a wooden fence, Antoni pulled himself upright, glancing around for witnesses. Straightening up, he wobbled a bit before making his way back to the barricades.


LOOK, I KNOW, IT'S SHORT!!! But, it's a filler, the next one is 15k (I'm rewriting it cos I didn't like the first one), and I don't have a beta reader right now so I thought why not give a short chapter which mind you, is only for 2 reasons, 1. It's a filler. 2. I don't have access to a pc or HOO books currently. Anyway, again, I'm sorry it's short, the next one is MUCH longer so don't worry.

And to the reviewers asking about Reyna and Antoni, I have something planned, I did accidentally leak it on discord to a few readers so I'm thinking of changing it slightly and if you go into the children of Moros page on fandom wiki, you will find that they do suffer from the doom thing, it's not called that and is meant to be apart of their personality but I thought I better to just… you know, curse him…

Anyway, till next time, bye!

Ps. I MADE A DISCORD SERVER!! Link on my profile, if you do choose to join, it's a great opportunity to see what shit I get up to. Luv y'all, bye!