Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I still haven't thought of a new way to tell you guys that I don't own PJO. I know, I know, you're all doubtlessly ashamed of me, but I do hope that I'll make up for it with this new chapter.

2 week later

Percy, Artemis, and the hunt had been on the move for 2 weeks. And surprisingly enough, it had been quite eventful. The same afternoon that they had gone back to their hunt, Artemis had introduced him to the mini-council that was trying to keep him safe from Zeus and his paranoia. There weren't many of them. It was really just Artemis, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, Hestia, and Hades. Percy cursed himself for not knowing Hermes was part of the council earlier. He just had no indication of it, based on Artemis. The two must not have been too close to each other while she had been on her alleged hunt.

They gave him a brief explanation of what had happened during the two weeks that he had been at camp. Apparently, Zeus had called a meeting of the Olympians, to discuss what to do about him. Though, not the entire council. Poseidon had no idea that there had been a meeting like that. Apollo, Aphrodite, Hestia, Hades, and Hephaestus, hadn't been invited either. But Artemis had.

From what he could gather, Zeus had called a meeting of the Olympians, but only the Olympians that didn't like him very much. And he made the mistake of thinking that Artemis hated his guts. In reality, she tolerated him and had a healthy respect for his capability in a fight. Thankfully, that was enough for her to contact the rest of the council and tell them about what had happened. The one God she didn't contact, was Poseidon. And Percy could understand why. If his dad learned of Zeus' plans, then it would mean war. It was for the best that Poseidon didn't know about anything. Besides, Artemis, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hestia, Hades, Hermes, and not to mention Percy himself, were more than equipped to handle anything Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Dionysus, Ares, and Athena could throw at them.

So it seemed that Artemis was working as a spy. She would attend Zeus' meetings and then report back what she had learned. Personally, he was glad for all of the protection he was getting from the Olympians. Or at least, 7 of them. He didn't exactly need it, since he was fairly sure that he could take most of the others on his own, but he was still glad for the reassurance.

There was one aspect that he wasn't entirely clear on though. And that aspect was Aphrodite. She confused him. He didn't expect that to ever be the case, given her reputation, but all the same, here she was. She was turning out to be quite the enigma. During the meetings with the mini-council, she acted like she always had. Ditzy, dumb, and horny. Every now and then, she had a moment of being serious and volunteering suggestions, which were usually pretty good, but then she would go right back to her usual manner. But what he had noticed, was that it felt a lot less sincere than it used to. He picked up on a few hints now and then, that she wasn't being entirely genuine. But it was just a theory. He just couldn't seem to get a feel for her.

Their council, unfortunately, had hit a bit of a wall, however. From what Artemis had said, it seemed that Zeus had some kind of plan in motion. The unfortunate part was that he didn't share it with the rest of his council. Not even Hera knew what he was scheming. Nor did they know when it would happen. But from the way Artemis had described him, he was supremely confident that Percy was going to die sometime around the winter solstice, when he was no longer needed to protect Artemis and her hunt.

So at least he had some kind of time frame. That was something, at least. Personally, he wasn't going to devote too much of his time to worrying about it. There wasn't much that Zeus could throw at him that would seriously worry him. That being said, he had learned it was best not to underestimate any threat, no matter what he thought. He would be cautious, but he wasn't going to spend every waking moment cowering at the thought of what Zeus had in store for him. If Artemis heard anything else about it, then that would give him something more to work with, but he was ok either way.

Aside from that, Percy, Artemis, and the hunt had also made some progress of their own. They'd heard whispers of a large gathering of monsters, and they were currently tracking them down. If the rumors were to be believed, then there were over 1000 of them. If that was the case, then it was going to be a very interesting fight once they found them. If he was being honest, Percy was hoping that there was even more than that. He was getting antsy for a good fight. His little battle with Artemis had actually been quite fun, and it was the only decent one he'd had for a while. He was thinking about asking her to spar with him regularly, just to make sure they both kept their skills sharp. He knew she would be reluctant to admit it, but she had enjoyed herself too. At least, she enjoyed it afterward. In the moment, things had gotten a little bit heated. But with the benefit of hindsight, she'd seen the bright side of it.

Currently, they were tracking through a thick forest in Arizona. From what they had heard, that was where the monster army was. Unfortunately, their sources couldn't be more specific. The particular forest they were searching through, was enormous. They'd already been looking around in there for several days and had come up empty. Even Percy couldn't track them properly. The forest was so thick, that the scent of all the monsters was obscured by everything else. It frustrated him.

After several long hours of searching, and dozens of mosquito bites later, Percy managed to pick up on something. He froze on the spot. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up. Artemis noticed that he had stopped.

"Percy? What's wrong?"

"The boy is probably tired. He might just need a little nap," Phoebe sneered.

She was promptly ignored. Percy couldn't quite pinpoint it. He scanned through the many trees until he finally found it. He hurled a knife into a tree above him, and a shower of golden dust rained down from it. There had been a spy up there. It seemed the rumors held some water.

Just then, another figure moved from another treetop and started running. Once he saw what direction it had been moving in, he embedded a throwing knife in its skull. The hunters blinked at him. It seemed they hadn't sensed them. He gave them a moment to recover from their slight shock and then started walking in the direction that the spy had tried to run to. The hunters got over it, and followed him, watching the trees warily.

It took them another hour of cautious walking before they found the camp. It was in a good position. It was at the base of a steep cliff, so one side of the camp was walled off. The other sides had walls constructed around them. There were even guards patrolling them. They seemed organized. Too organized for monsters like them. They all took a moment to consider before Thalia spoke.

"How should we go about this?" she asked.

Percy and Artemis shared a glance. They both knew that the best course of action was to make their way up the cliff, so they had an eagle-eye view of the camp. Once they knew what they were dealing with, they could form a plan. The only problem was that the cliff was not very climbable. It was extremely steep and very tall. Climbing it wouldn't go well. Percy, Artemis, and a few of the older hunters would make it, but a lot of younger ones wouldn't be able to. Artemis bit her lip and considered her answer.

"Well… the best thing to do, would be to find some way up that cliff. That way we can see what we're dealing with. But I'm not sure how we could get up there safely."

"My lady, couldn't you teleport us there?" one of the hunters asked.

"I'm afraid not. The flash of light would give away our position."

"I would like to mention that we probably don't have an abundance of time here. Once they realize that their spies haven't reported back in a while, they'll know something's up. This would go better for us if they don't know anything's wrong until we're slaughtering them," Percy contributed.

Phoebe snarled at him, "Well then, maybe you should make a suggestion, boy."

He glared back at her, "I would be happy to. Theoretically, I could shadow travel us all up there. It would probably exhaust me, but I'm sure I could make it up there."

Artemis looked a little bit worried.

"You're sure? Have you ever shadow traveled with so many people before?"

"Um… Not quite."

"Well, how many people have you shadow traveled with?" Thalia asked.

"Technically? None."

Thalia and Artemis sighed.

"Well, then that doesn't really help us, does it?" Phoebe sneered.

"I don't hear you announcing any brilliant ideas! Right now, mine is the only one on the table."

They all considered it for a moment.

"I think we should go ahead with Percy's plan," Thalia said.

"Why? So he can get us all killed?" Phoebe countered.

"Well, like he said, I don't hear you suggesting anything better."

"I agree with Thalia," Artemis said, "If Percy says he can do it, then I have faith in him."

Phoebe's eyebrows shot into her hairline, but she didn't dare say anything back. She knew better than to argue with her mistress.

"Hunters, join hands," Artemis said.

They all did as she said.

"Just before we do this, how many of you have shadow traveled before?" Percy said.

No one but Thalia raised any hands.

"Ok, well for those of you who don't know, it's not going to be fun."

"I'm sure we can handle it much better than you, boy, now get on with it," Phoebe snapped.

He sighed quietly, put his hand on Artemis' shoulder, and focused as hard as he could on the top of the cliff. It took him a moment, but he managed to get them there. It was absolutely horrible though. The hunters all looked like they had the same reactions as him, the first time he had done it, but he felt so much worse. Regular shadow travel had become quite easy for him, and he could do it without much discomfort, but shadow traveling with a group of over 2 dozen made him feel like he was being torn open from the inside. He managed to stifle the scream, but only barely.

Once the pain subsided, he noticed how tired he was. He hadn't moved them too far, but the sheer amount of them was enough to exhaust him. A moment went by before he felt a pair of hands around his shoulders. Thalia. She was helping him up to his feet.

With her help, he managed to stand. Immediately, he regretted it. His vision swam with black spots. He was starting to feel a migraine coming on. But he couldn't let himself appear weak. He powered through it. He forced his vision to focus, and his breathing to even.

"Are you ok?" Thalia asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine," he managed to say.

"Are you sure? You certainly don't sound fine," Artemis spoke up.

"I am. I just need a second."

"Percy… It would be nothing to be ashamed of if you needed to rest for a little while. That was a lot of exertion," Artemis sounded almost… worried?

He gave her an odd look, questioning the strange tone. She seemed to realize how she sounded, and blinked, looking mildly surprised.

"I just mean that you shouldn't go into battle if you're not up for it. You might make a - potentially fatal - mistake."

"Well don't worry about me. I've fought in worse conditions than this," he replied.

Though, that wasn't strictly true. He wanted to reassure her that he was going to be ok, and he genuinely believed that he would be, but he had never fought while feeling the way he was currently. He wasn't going to argue that he couldn't benefit from caffeine and a power bar.

Artemis bit her lip, watching him carefully. After a few moments, she seemed to relent.

"Fine. But at least take this," she said, summoning a few squares of Ambrosia and a small bottle of Nectar.

He took the divine nourishment gratefully and devoured them like he had just spent a month in the desert. Instantly, he felt better. His head no longer felt like it was being forced through a tin can. His lungs didn't feel like they were on fire anymore. His eyelids no longer felt like they were going to slam shut. All in all, a massive improvement.

"Thank you."

Artemis watched him for a moment and then nodded in response.

Now that he was feeling better, he moved closer to the edge of the cliff. He wanted to get a look at the monster army that was settled below. He was blown away by what he saw. There certainly weren't 1000 monsters there. The real number was closer to 15,000. And that was just what he could see from the outside. They had erected various structures throughout the camp, so there was no telling how many of them were in there.

He felt his jaw drop without his permission. He knew that all of the hunters who could see what he could see had the same reaction. It was an astounding sight to behold. The sheer number of them. It was almost surreal.

A few moments went by without anyone saying a word. They were all looking down at the monster camp in awe. Percy was the first to recover. He picked up his jaw from the ground and grinned like a madman. He was going to have fun. But he figured it wouldn't be right for him to have all of it.

He turned to Artemis, "Can I borrow a drachma? I don't have any on me."

She tore her gaze away from the monster camp and looked confused.

"A drachma? Sure, I guess," she said, summoning a drachma into existence and tossing it over to him.

He caught it and opened a bottle of water that he had brought with him. He used his powers to bring out a small amount of it and turn it to vapor. The vapor reflected on the beams of sunlight and made a rainbow, which he used to call Jason at Camp Jupiter. A moment later, his face appeared.

"Percy? What's up? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You up for a fight?" he said, grinning.

"What are you talking about?" the poor blonde sounded so confused.

"The hunters and I just found a massive monster camp. There's gotta be 15 thousand of them, if not more. You wanna get everyone together, and I'll bring you all over?"

Jason's eyes widened for a second before he mirrored Percy's grin.

"You got it. Give me a few minutes to find everyone, and then get over here."

"Sure thing. See you in a few."

Percy swiped through the Iris message and turned around to the hunters.

"We've got reinforcements on the way. I'll dip out in a minute and come back a minute after that. Once I'm back, we'll all decide on a plan and then go for it?"

The hunters nodded and sat down together on a few stones, prepping all of their gear. Percy waited another minute and then shadow traveled to Camp Jupiter, into the secret room in Jason and Piper's villa. Everyone was gathered around, waiting for him.

"Hey, Percy. What's the situation?" Leo asked.

"Basically, we've got a camp of over 15 thousand monsters in Arizona. I figured you guys might wanna get in on the action."

They all grinned at him. Without another word, they all went into the other room and started putting on their armor. A few moments later, they were all ready to go. To avoid shadow traveling with so many people, Percy and Nico each took half the group. The journey proved smoother than the last one he had taken, but it still wasn't a walk in the park. He didn't feel nearly as crappy as he had before though. He glanced over at Nico, who looked to be in pretty good shape. He probably had a lot more practice at moving large groups, than he had. There were some brief introductions between Percy's friends and the hunters before they all started to form a plan of attack. Percy was vaguely surprised that the hunters weren't trying to fight against the boys joining the battle, but he figured even they wouldn't be arrogant enough to think that they could handle it without help. And considering the reputation his friends had, they were probably a bit more trusted than others. He was also vaguely surprised at the sight of a massive stockpile of arrows right next to the hunters. Artemis must have summoned them while he'd been gone. There were more than enough to last the hunters all day.

Soon enough, they had decided on a plan. Percy and Nico would sneak through the base, looking for the main building. There had to be one. A group of monsters as well-organized as these would have to have some kind of command structure. And that command structure would surely mean that there was a certain space for the higher-ups. All they had to do, was identify it and infiltrate it. Both of those were astoundingly easy. It took 10 seconds for them to figure out which of the structures they were looking for, and due to their powers, breaking in without being noticed, was a piece of cake.

Once they got in, they managed to sneak through without being noticed by any of the monsters milling around inside. They were looking for some kind of ledger. It was their hope that the monster army would keep some kind of records on their total force, their movements, and perhaps even their plans. Percy doubted that it was a sure thing, but he was reasonably confident that such a thing was feasible. He was also fairly sure that once the monsters realized they were going to lose, they would burn any such documentation, in order to keep it from falling into enemy hands. That was just common sense. So, they needed to find it before the attack started.

As Percy and Nico crept through the decently-sized structure, they killed several monsters along the way. Monsters that would have seen them, or were simply in their way. The excellent thing about monsters was that they left no corpses to dispose of. They just poofed into golden dust, which Percy and Nico swept away with subtle waves of shadows. Easy peasy.

It took them somewhere around 10 minutes to find what they were looking for. There was a pretty big ledger, with everything Percy had hoped to find. He flipped through it while Nico kept a lookout. He had to make sure the ledger was legit. Once he was sure, they grinned at each other and shadow traveled back to the top of the cliff. They dropped off the ledger in a safe place and then prepared for a full-on assault on the camp. But they were going to do it cleverly.

"I think we should go in first," Percy told Artemis, gesturing to himself and his friends, "Our best chance at this, would be to start out quietly, get rid of as many of them as we can before the main fighting starts. We all have a lot more experience with stealth."

As expected, Artemis didn't take that too well.

"You're trying to sideline us?"

"No, absolutely not. I'm just saying, we might be able to take out a good amount of them before we have to start. The more, the better. That way, once they realize we're there, you guys start raining down arrows from up here. You and Thalia can even come down and join the fight if you want. But the fact remains that the hunters' best avenue of attack, is long-range, not close quarters stealth."

Artemis watched him carefully for a few moments. He was ready to counter whatever response she gave him. But she surprised him.

"Ok. Fair enough. Give us the signal, and we'll get started."

He blinked. He'd really been expecting more resistance than that. Then he realized why she wasn't fighting him on it. After his little demonstration of his intellectual prowess in her tent after their fight, maybe she was more willing to hear him out, and trust his judgment. He was glad for it. If she was starting to trust him a little bit more, then maybe they could build up some kind of friendship. Anything to make his time with the hunters somewhat more manageable.

"Ok. When all the sirens start, just start raining down fire. Like I said earlier if you and Thalia wanna join us, feel free."

She nodded at him and he turned back to his friends to discuss where they would start. A few minutes later, they decided that they would start with the same building Percy and Nico had snuck through earlier. Once that room was empty, they would have a foothold in the camp that was theirs. If they were overrun, then they could fall back in there and fortify.

They decided not to shadow travel in. It wasn't too easy with such a large group. They all dropped down the side of the cliff, with Percy and Nico using the shadows to help conceal them on the way down, and just before they were going to slam into the ground, Jason used his control over the air to cushion their landings. As soon as they were on the ground, Percy and Nico covered the entire group in shadows. They were practically invisible as long as they kept low. They moved quickly and quietly through the camp. They also killed several monsters on their way, but not too many since they were out in the open.

A while later, they finally made it into the building they were going for. The same one Percy and Nico had just snuck through. Once they were there, it was even easier. Percy and Nico were sending needles of shadows into monsters' throats. Leo was bludgeoning monsters with his hammers. Clearly, all the years he had spent building and forging, had done wonders for his strength. A single swing of his hammer was enough to instantly kill an unsuspecting monster. Reyna and Hazel were casually cutting them down with their swords. Calypso seemed to favor knives and daggers. Jason was using a handgun, using his powers over the air to silence the bullets he fired. Piper was swinging katoptris with practiced ease. Gone were the days when it was more for appearances than anything else. Frank hadn't turned into some kind of animal, instead choosing to use his bow and arrows as they cleared the building of any monsters.

While most of their journey was stealthy, they got into a few minor battles. Every now and then, they came across a room where there were too many monsters to kill instantly, so they had to engage head-on. In those instances, Jason didn't fight, instead choosing to use his control over the air to ensure that the sounds of the mini-battles didn't travel to the rest of the building. He had total confidence that the rest of them could take care of things without him.

And they did. Percy really liked working with his friends. They all went about their business with a self-assuredness that need not be spoken. They all instinctively knew what they had to do, so they just did. If Percy were to guess, he would say that the rest of them had built up that relationship after so many years of fighting side by side, and Percy was intuitively picking up on it and replicating it since they were so close. They all covered each other's backs, and they moved as one. The entire time they were clearing the building, none of them said a single word to each other. They didn't need to.

It took them roughly half an hour. The building was pretty huge, and there had been a few hundred monsters in there. But they were done. With Percy's powerful senses guiding them, they had cleared the whole thing. After a brief discussion, they decided that Piper and Frank would stay behind, while the rest of them moved on. Piper and Frank were to stay and guard the building. If any monsters went in, looking for something, then they could take care of them. Clearing the entire building wouldn't do anyone any good if a bunch of monsters just strolled back in. Or, worse, if they went looking for some of their fellow monsters. That couldn't be allowed to happen.

While Piper and Frank stayed behind, the rest of them moved on. Still using the shadows to cover them, and Jason using the air to mask the sounds they were making, they snuck to the second building they would need to clear. The barracks. Most of the monsters at the camp didn't really need weapons, but it was still best to make sure they wouldn't get to any of them.

The barracks was pretty easy to clear. They just needed to be careful that none of the monsters inside could set off an alarm. Aside from that, there was nothing troubling about it. Once Percy confirmed that the entire building was clear of monsters, they decided to break all of the weapons that were kept in there. They snapped every spear, cut the string on every bow, and Percy used his strength to bend the blades of every sword into a U shape. Leo used his powers to melt every shield. Reyna stuffed as many arrows as she could into a bag that she found nearby, saying that she was going to bring them to Frank. They decided that they were pretty much done with stealth by that point, so they made a plan on how to proceed.

In the end, they decided that Reyna would join Piper and Frank at the main building, while Leo, Calypso, and Hazel would stay at the barracks and kill any monster that approached. Percy, Jason, and Nico would go outside to the largest clearing in the camp and wreak havoc. As the sons of the big three, they were all exceptionally powerful, and they were all honed with endless hours of training their powers and their skills with blades. The three of them out on the battlefield would be a force to be reckoned with.

With the sons of the big three causing mayhem on the battlefield, there would be a large number of monsters that would run to the barracks, looking for weapons. Leo, Calypso, and Hazel would slaughter them, using the entrance as a bottleneck. Likewise, Piper, Frank, and Reyna would do the same with any monsters that ran to the main building, trying to sound an alarm, or tell one of their superiors that the demigods were attacking, or perhaps call for reinforcements.

And while Percy, Jason, and Nico were on the ground, they would have cover from the hunters raining down arrows on the monsters. Maybe Thalia and Artemis would even join them on the ground. They would certainly be welcome additions. But they weren't going to make or break anything. Whether they were 3 or 5, the monsters were going down.

The 3 demigods decided to make an entrance. Percy shadow traveled with Reyna to the first building they had cleared, and Nico followed soon after with Jason. Reyna gave Frank the bag of arrows and set up with Piper, while Percy, Jason, and Nico made their way to the roof. That's where they were going to get things started.

And what a start it was. First, Jason used his powers to create an enormous lightning strike right in the middle of the camp, killing dozens of monsters right off the bat. Then they all jumped down to the ground and Percy created a humongous earthquake with his impact. To complete the trifecta, Nico sent massive waves of shadows into the monsters that had already been knocked over by Percy's earthquake. Roughly 5 seconds into the fight, and already there were maybe 200 hundred monsters dead. Percy had a good feeling about the rest of the fight.

Instantly, barrages of arrows started raining down upon the monsters from the top of the cliff. The hunters were on good form. Percy noticed that Thalia and Artemis were staying on the cliff, firing arrows into the crowd along with the rest of the hunters. Fair enough. The trio would be fine on their own.

And they were. Jason had his golden gladius and a handgun, Percy had riptide in his right hand and his knife in his left, and Nico was using his Stygian Iron sword along with a shield made of pure shadows. Together, they were doing some serious damage to the enemy forces. The three cousins formed a tight triangle, cutting through the massive number of monsters like a knife through butter. Just like he had done against the 1,000-monster army the first time he met the hunters, Percy shadow traveled a few paces away every time they were about to get surrounded. A split second later, Nico would do the same thing with Jason in tow. They had come to an unspoken agreement that Nico would bring Jason since he had far more experience shadow traveling with another person.

The trio of demigods were constantly using their powers to give themselves more of an advantage than they already had. Every minute or so, Percy would cause another earthquake. Jason was periodically raining down lightning across the battlefield, and so was Thalia up on her cliff with the hunters. Nico would summon skeletal soldiers to fight for them every few minutes, and he was constantly sending waves of shadows through monsters. All three of them were constantly aware of projectiles coming their way too. Whoever noticed it first, dealt with it. Percy and Nico would deflect it with a casual throw of a shadow, or Jason would use the air to make it go sailing right back where it had come from.

While they had destroyed all the weapons in the barracks, it seemed that there had been a lot of dracaena that already had bows with them. Luckily, from what Percy could tell, the hunters were targeting the enemy archers above anything else, which was extremely helpful. It left the sons of the big three to concentrate mostly on hand-to-hand. It was only on rare occasions that an arrow came their way.

The rest of the demigod group were also doing their jobs spectacularly. Frank was standing at a window on the second floor of the building he was in, shooting his bow at the speed of a machine gun. Piper and Reyna were side-by-side in the doorway, mowing down whatever monster got close enough. Every now and then, a few of them would try to get around them and sneak in through a window, but either Piper or Reyna would turn around and deal with them while the other covered the door.

Over at the barracks, Leo had turned his hands into flamethrowers, lighting up anything within range. Calypso was to his left, demolishing anything that got too close to him. Hazel was to his right, doing the same thing by manipulating the Mist to make the monsters think they were tied up and then cutting them down with her spatha.

Throughout the entire fight, Percy was grinning like a lunatic. He was having a lot of fun. Standing side by side with some of his closest friends in the world, hacking and slashing at anything that got too close, fighting like a demon against the monsters that had plagued him all throughout his childhood. It was a phenomenal experience. He had been a bit worried that he would still feel a bit disconnected from them, like he had for a while, but it wasn't much of an issue. Not there. No then. It felt like he had been sent back in time, and nothing had even changed between them. There were no questions about whether or not they were still as close as they once were, or whether it was at all awkward. And he loved it.

Aside from that, it was just fun to work with Jason and Nico like that. The one thing about Chaos' army, was that he didn't get many opportunities for teamwork. There was no one he would want to fight side-by-side with. He didn't exactly mind fighting solo, but it was a lot more fun to do it with friends.

They fought like that for roughly an hour, before the first major component changed. Frank ran out of arrows, so he jumped into the fray and turned into a rhino, charging through the crowd of monsters with his horn impaling dozens of them at a time. Every now and then, when he was about to be overrun, he would simply turn into a snake, slither away, into a large group that hadn't noticed him, and then turn into an elephant or something else massive, making the monsters go flying everywhere every time he did it.

The second major component to change, was when Hazel summoned Arion, climbed on, and went charging through the crowd of monsters at supersonic speeds, decapitating dozens of them at a time with her spatha, and crushing just as many beneath Arion's hooves. Leo and Calypso decided to abandon the barracks, since they were empty anyway, and all of the monsters had figured out that there was nothing for them there. The demigod-Titan couple fought their way to the main building, where they helped Piper and Reyna hold off the hordes over there. Piper was issuing commands to the monsters with her charm speak, while also slicing them to pieces with Katoptris. Reyna, who had no special powers of her own, was swinging and stabbing like a demon, acting like a one-woman-army, holding back a dozen monsters at any given time.

They all fought like that for another 40 minutes. By then, the entire monster army was annihilated. They had all realized their defeat. Now, instead of trying to kill the group of demigods, they were trying to run away from them. Once that happened, Percy shouted up the cliff to Artemis and her hunters.

"Artemis! Bring everyone down here! Time for a hunt!" he joked

Due to his enhanced eyesight, he was able to see the auburn-haired Goddess grin like a maniac at the sight of the fleeing monsters, before she had her hunters gather together and brought them all down. After that, the chase was on. There were roughly 100 monsters running into the woods. Frank transformed into a cheetah and started running them down. Hazel, aboard Arion, dashed towards them. The hunters set off on foot, maneuvering nimbly through the dense jungle. Percy, Jason, and Nico decided to leave it to them. Percy was pretty much fine and would have eagerly joined the hunt, but he noticed his two cousins were panting pretty hard. Their stamina was ridiculously impressive, to have fought so many monsters side by side with him, not to mention how frequently they'd been using their powers throughout the whole thing, but he was still in a league of his own. Chaos' training and blessings made a huge difference. But it had been crazy fun. They were all grinning at each other. Instead of hunting down the fleeing monsters, they just strolled through the camp, looking for anything that might be of interest.

But first, they all checked themselves for wounds. Percy had a couple of minor ones. He had a scratch across his right cheek from an arrow that he had noticed a second too late. It had already mostly healed. His hands were littered with a bunch of shallow cuts. At some point a Laistrygonian Giant had managed to get a lucky hit to his chest, so that was going to leave a decent enough bruise, for about a minute, before it healed. His armor was nothing short of a blessing. Without it, the hit might have been a bit worse. It had done its job beautifully. He hadn't even been hit too many times, but the majority of the times he had been, the armor just soaked it up. And all of the wounds that had actually done anything to him, would heal within 10 minutes.

Jason had mostly the same wounds as him, except he had more of them. He was pretty much covered with cuts and slashes, but none of them were too deep or dangerous. The most serious injury Jason had, had come towards the end of the battle. He had taken an arrow to the knee at some point from a very lucky dracaena. It wasn't too bad, and Jason's pain tolerance was pretty high, so it didn't bother him too much. Nonetheless, Percy used his water powers to heal him as best as he could.

Nico was mostly fine. Since he'd opted for a shield instead of a second weapon, he had managed to stop most of the attacks heading his way, and anything that he didn't block, his own armor absorbed. A few scrapes, and some cuts and bruises, but he was ok.

A few minutes later, everyone else rejoined them. Obviously, the hunt had been a success, and they'd all been gathered together and killed. Looking around the former monster encampment, there were massive piles of golden dust everywhere. It had gathered together to make little hills all over the place.

Now that the thousands of monsters were gone, the massive camp seemed eerie. The demigods decided to make use of all the resources that were there. They went back to the barracks and gathered all of the weapons together. Even though they had decommissioned all of them, a lot could be salvaged. Leo had melted down all of the shields, some of which were made of celestial bronze, and some of which were made of imperial gold. There was a lot of both. He made them into ingots and prepared to transport them back to the camps. They could always use more of the two precious metals. Percy had bent all of the blades of the swords, but Leo could just melt those down too and have the Hephaestus/Vulcan kids at the camps reforge them at camp. The spears just needed new handles, and the bows just needed the string to be replaced. In the end, the monster army was going to arm both demigod camps quite well.

After some negotiating, the hunters took roughly half the bows and knives, since they used those too, and could always use spares. The only thing left to be decided was what to do with the camp itself. It was in a great location, based on its defenses and the terrain. The structures were all very well-built and thoughtfully placed. The fact that a bunch of monsters had put all of it together, was simply unbelievable to Percy. They certainly had someone pulling their strings. It was probably a precursor to the war Chaos had warned him about.

They weren't sure what to do about it. There was talk of dismantling it or just destroying it, but those ideas were shot down. There was no point, and Percy thought it could be useful. He knew that there was a war coming, and as much as he wanted to tell his friends, he couldn't. When the war did come, then the demigods could use that camp as a type of stronghold. Of course, they would make some improvements to it before that. Their first move would be to put up some defenses on the top of that cliff.

In the end, he managed to convince Artemis to put a barrier of Mist around it, to keep mortals away, and the Olympians could discuss potential uses for it. Maybe until the war, they could use it as another training camp, or maybe for storage. Percy didn't really care what they used it for, as long as they didn't abandon it, or have it destroyed. It was far too valuable for that.

The group of demigods, hunters, Titan, and Goddess spent a few hours going through the entire camp, collecting anything that they could take with them. By the time they had salvaged everything there was to salvage, they had collected a small mountain of resources to bring back to camp with them. Far too much for Percy and/or Nico to shadow travel with. After a few moments of discussion, they decided to rent a few U-Haul trucks, load the gear into the back, and drive the trucks back to Camp Jupiter. It was roughly a 13-hour drive, so that sucked, but it was the best option they had available to them.

The group arranged the trucks and went to pick them up when Artemis turned to Percy.

"We should go and tell the council about this."

He nodded, "Probably"

She nodded back at him and shot the silver firework arrow straight into the air. A moment later, she grabbed his shoulder and they flashed to Olympus, just outside the throne room doors. She turned to him before they walked in.

"Before we go inside, I just want to say that you did an excellent job."

He blinked.

"Oh. Uh. Thanks."

He wasn't used to praise. Certainly not from her.

"I'm serious. From the stealth infiltration at the start, to devising the plan, to the main battle. You did really really well."

He was silent for a moment. He most certainly hadn't been expecting that from her.

"Thank you. You and your hunters did really well too."

She watched him for a moment before nodding. After that, they pushed open the doors and Artemis took her seat on her throne. Percy walked onwards until he was roughly in the middle of the room. He sent a warm smile toward his dad, and then all of the other Gods that he liked on the council, before wiping the smile from his face and settling his gaze on Zeus.

"Father, we have something to report to the council," Artemis started.

"Yes, we figured that much out for ourselves, Artemis," Athena said, exasperated.

Percy turned to glare at the irritating Goddess. She noticed and challenged him.

"What? What are you going to do, without your guard dog here to fight your battles for you, as my own daughter once did?" she sneered.

He felt himself stiffen, and he clenched his fist so hard, it went white. He answered her in a deathly cold voice that came from somewhere deep within him.

"I'll beat you into a coma myself," he promised.

Apparently, the tone of his voice told her that he was absolutely serious. And he was. She backed off, and just settled for glaring at him from her throne.

"What is the situation you speak of, daughter?" Zeus asked, ignoring the little exchange that he and Athena had just had.

"My hunters, Percy, and I just encountered another army of monsters."

Zeus went a little bit pale.

"As big as the last one?"

"Much bigger. We counted at least 15 thousand."

The council collectively blinked at him. Aphrodite was the first to recover.

"You didn't engage them, did you?" she asked, turning to Percy.

"We did," Percy answered.

Poseidon looked unwell. His face lost all color, and his eyes darted to his son as if confirming that he was indeed alive and unharmed. The ancient deity looked ready to jump out of his throne and run to him.

"You WHAT?"

"It's ok dad. I'm fine. I called the rest of the seven from Camp Jupiter, and they helped us out. All together, we managed to destroy them all."

The council took a moment to consider that. 7 demigods, a changed-for-the-better Titan, a Goddess, and a bunch of her huntresses managed to take down one of the largest armies that Olympus had ever heard of. It was a big pill to swallow. Eventually, they all recovered and shared a few glances with each other. If Percy were to guess, he would say that there were several mental conversations taking place. Poseidon was the first to speak aloud.

"I see my son has done it yet again," he smugly announced to the rest of the council.

They all rolled their eyes at him, but none of them could say a word about it. It was kind of true. But, naturally, Zeus wasn't one to be shown up.

"Yes, well… It was my daughter who led the assault, as well as my son, Jason!"

"Oh, please," Poseidon gasped incredulously.

Instantly, they all erupted into argumentative chatter. Percy fought to repress the sigh that threatened to burst forth. He loved his father, and he really liked a few certain Olympians, but they were all so bitchy with each other. It got really annoying at times. Eventually, Hestia grew tired of her family's bickering and cleared her throat loudly. They all shut up after that. Hestia was a wonderful person, who was full of light and perpetual positivity. That being said, no one wanted to make her mad. She was wonderful, yes, but she could be utterly terrifying when she chose to be. He kind of loved her all the more for it.

Once they were all settled, Zeus seemed to remember that there were questions that he needed to ask.

"Hm, right, yes. Was there any information that you were able to recover?"

Artemis answered, "Yes, father. Percy and the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo, were able to sneak into the monsters' command building before the fighting began, and they stole a ledger. We haven't had the chance to examine it properly yet, but we believe it holds important information about their plans."

"It does," Percy piped up, "Nico and I checked it before we brought it back. We had to make sure it was the real thing. We didn't have time to go over it properly, but it seems the army we just destroyed was one of many."

They all looked shocked once again, Artemis included. He hadn't told her that. But it was true.

The Gods took a moment to process that information before Athena spoke up.

"Wait a second. Artemis, you said that the bastard of the sea and Nico snuck into the monsters' command building?"

Artemis bristled slightly at the Wisdom Goddess' description of Percy, which he appreciated, but ultimately nodded, "Yes, they did."

"You mean they were organized enough to actually build proper buildings in their camp?"

Percy nodded, "Yes, there were several buildings throughout the camp, each with a clear and distinctive purpose. The buildings themselves appeared to be very well-designed and constructed. There was also a pretty substantial wall that covered 3 of the camp's sides, and it was being regularly patrolled. Personally, I've never seen them like this before."

The Gods looked even more concerned than they had before. Monsters had never shown a level of organization required for anything like that before. The fact that they were doing it now, showed that things were only getting worse. Hades spoke next.

"Nephew, please give us your account of the events as you witnessed them."

Percy nodded.

"Artemis, the hunters, and I had been tracking rumors of a large number of monsters gathering in a forest in Arizona. We originally didn't believe that there was much to be concerned about, but we wanted to make sure anyway. After several days of traveling through one of the thickest forests in the country, we found them. They had assembled a massive camp, encircled by tall, thick walls, which were regularly patrolled. Clearly, they knew what they were doing. They had built their camp against the face of a cliff, to take advantage of the natural terrain. I shadow traveled myself, Artemis, and the hunters to the top of that cliff, where we were able to get a clear headcount of the monster army. From there we estimated that there were no less than 15,000 thousand monsters within the camp. I decided to call my friends at Camp Jupiter, as I felt that the hunters and I would struggle without any assistance. They agreed, and we all managed to take control of the camp. All of the monsters were eliminated. There were no survivors."

Percy was suddenly glad for Chaos' training. She had taught him to summarise missions quickly and succinctly, with no wasted words, without leaving out any important details. It was typically taught to all students of her 'Academy' close to graduation, but she had taught him a little bit earlier. Apparently, Chaos figured it was important for her operatives to be able to give good summaries of their missions whenever they were debriefed. He totally agreed.

The Olympian council went quiet for a few moments, while they thought about the broader implications of what he had said. While they all thought about it, Artemis locked eyes with him. She seemed interested in his interpretation of events. He couldn't really understand why. He had just described what had happened, as it had happened. He hadn't left anything out, nor had he added anything in. Once the rest of the council was ready to address them again, she looked away.

"Right. You have given each of us a lot to think about. You may go, demigod."

Percy was about to leave when he had a thought.

"Sure. I'm just glad I was there. It would be a real shame if something had happened to me before we found that camp, eh Zeus?"

The king of the gods went red. He wanted to snap back at the demigod, but he knew he couldn't. If he did, then he would be admitting that he had plans. Instead of calling him an insolent little brat, he just had to feign ignorance.

"I don't know what you mean, demigod," he ground out.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's not unusual for you," Percy drawled.

Zeus' red coloring deepened, but he kept his mouth shut. Percy liked that. It was nice to feel like he had power over him. It felt good to have leverage over the asshat who had been his King for most of his life. The guy who had tried to have him killed on several occasions.

Percy left the Olympians to their own devices and was offered a rare opportunity. He had nothing that he needed to do. The hunters were fine where they were. There was no imminent danger to them. And Artemis was on Olympus, and likely would be for a while. He was free to do as he wished.

He decided to spend some time working on his case. He was making some serious progress tracking down the Tokyo branch. He already had a few names, and he had managed to trace their communications. He had them all dead to rights. And he would know as soon as they made a move. But they didn't have anything planned, so he didn't need to move on them yet. As soon as they were ready to pose a threat to innocent people, then he would step in and wipe them out of existence. He had even preemptively flown to Tokyo from New York, so he would be able to simply shadow travel there when the time came. No need to waste nearly 14 hours on a plane when every minute counted. He had wanted to get over there earlier, but he hadn't had a choice yet. He had been pretty busy hunting the monster army, but since they were over and done with, maybe he could take care of them sometime soon.

He shadow traveled back to camp, picked up his laptop and charger, and shadow traveled into the city. He found a nice little cafe and sat down to get to work. First, he checked the chatter on the Tokyo branch. It was pretty quiet. They were still trying to make a plan, meaning that they were weeks away from actually hurting anyone, so he had time. He wanted to track a few other cells, to make sure that they weren't any closer to achieving something. Best to deal with the most imminent threat first.

A few hours later, he had everything he needed on a cell in Paris. They had something planned rather soon. Roughly a week away. That was a little bit too close for his liking. He was going to have to wipe them out before they got too close. He was going to have to talk to Artemis when she got back. He was either going to go take care of it that same evening, or the very next morning. He didn't want to leave the hunters totally unguarded, so he couldn't go while they were asleep. His senses stretched extremely far, but not 3600 miles.

Just as he was thinking that, Artemis slid into the booth opposite him. He realized that she looked quite good. Her auburn hair was flowing in waves down her back. She was wearing a bright blue pair of jeans, and a dark green long sleeve T-Shirt. She was wearing open-toe sandals and her toenails were painted silver. That made him chuckle slightly. It was unexpectedly cute. She looked vaguely alien. Out of place. She certainly had a regal quality about her. It probably came with the territory, what with her being a goddess. And she was sitting in a cheesy 70s diner, in a booth that was covered in stains Percy didn't want to think about. There were a few screaming kids in the background. Her setting looked chaotic, while she looked perfectly serene while staring at him.

After a moment of staring at each other, it became clear to Percy that she wasn't going to speak first. He decided to break the ice.

"How'd you find me?" he asked curiously.

She raised an elegant eyebrow.

"I may not have that sense of smell of yours, but I'm still the Goddess of hunting."

And apparently, that was going to be the only explanation she would give on the matter. But that was ok because he could fill in the blanks on his own. One thing she didn't know was that he wasn't actively masking his presence. If he wanted to, he could just as easily make himself invisible to her, and every other deity on the planet. What kind of assassin would he be, if he couldn't? Of course, he wasn't actually an assassin yet, but it wouldn't be long before he was.

"Well, ok then. I guess that answers that question," he said sarcastically.

He kind of liked Artemis, and he had confided in her about his enhanced senses and his actual intellect, but he wasn't quite ready to lay all of his cards on the table. Not yet. He would feel so much more comfortable if he had a little something to himself.

"You told the council what happened," she continued.

He was confused by that.

"Um… Yes?"

"You made it sound like it was a team effort."

He raised an eyebrow. Did she seriously want all of the credit?

"Well, Artemis, it was a team effort."

"Was it? We sat on a cliff firing arrows. There was virtually no danger to any of us the entire time. Meanwhile, you and your friends were on the front lines, taking the biggest possible risks."

He blinked. Ok, that hadn't been expected.

"Ok, sure, but you still helped a lot. You guys chose great targets. You were smart about it. First, you took care of the archers, since they would be pretty tough for us, and then you concentrated on keeping the bigger ones at bay. You really did help."

She sat there. There was no visible expression on her face. She might have turned to stone for all he could tell. After a few moments, she finally spoke again.

"Interesting."

Her answer did nothing to alleviate his confusion.

"Is it?" he asked, confused.

"Yes, actually, it is. I figured most men would have made themselves look better."

He sighed.

"You know, I really wish you would stop with this whole, 'most men are shit' stuff. After a while, it just gets tiring."

"I'm actually rethinking that stance at the moment."

"Is that so?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, it is."

"Well, I'm glad."

They sat in silence for a moment before she broke it.

"Thank you."

He tilted his head, "What for?"

She shrugged, "Just in general. I know things haven't been easy for you since you joined us, and I know I don't express it often enough, but I really am thankful."

He stared at her. It had totally come out of the blue, but he really liked hearing it. Sometimes it was just good to hear from someone that they appreciated your work and effort. A few moments went by and he still hadn't answered her. She started to get a little bit uncomfortable.

"What?" she asked, shifting awkwardly.

"No, nothing, I just… I guess I hadn't been expecting that."

"All those brains and you didn't see that coming?" she joked.

He was even more stunned that she actually joked with him, but he decided to just go with it.

"Yeah, well, you're pretty unpredictable. Don't let it get to your head, or I'll list everything you've eaten in the last 4 months!"

She chuckled. He liked the sound of it. A moment later, she stood up from the booth.

"Take the rest of the night to yourself. We'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded.

"Ok, I guess. I'll see you when you wake up tomorrow."

"Yeah. Thanks again."

She turned on her heel and walked away. He watched her as she left. What a strange encounter that had been. But at the same time, he had liked it. It was interesting to see a kind of softer side to her. She had seemed a lot more relaxed around him than she usually did. He wasn't sure if there was more to it than she had said. He wouldn't really be surprised if there was. She was a Goddess after all, and they tended to be more complex than 'normal' people. But either way, he was interested to see what would happen.

A/N: Ok, that's all for that one. Pretty busy chapter, but yeah. Let me know what you thought about the battle. I'm curious to see what you all think about how the various members of the seven use their powers and abilities during the fight. Once more, this chapter was betaed by Anon516, so thanks to them for any quality of life improvements.