LAST TIME

He was kind, humble, powerful, intelligent, understanding, a great warrior, a great friend, a great teacher, a great leader, and on top of everything, loyal to a fault… Just everything was so great about him. I still couldn't comprehend how a person, let alone a man at that, could be so… perfect. Of course, there was the fact that he was too sassy for his own good and had a penchanance for pissing off immortals before defeating them, but that was a part of his charm, as Athena said.

I had a strong suspicion that my sister, Athena, had a crush on the boy. I couldn't be sure, of course. Athena was just too good at hiding her emotions and choosing her words with utmost care.

I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts but they didn't. They were still stuck on the boy. In my mind, I was analyzing all the interactions I had ever had with him, reliving every moment trying to figure out something more about him.

And all I was finding was a perfect person whose faults even I couldn't figure out.

I closed my eyes and my bow flashed in my hand. Time to get my stupid mind off the boy. Time for my favorite distraction. Archery.

Ch.25 Games with the Hunt

PERCY POV

On my second day with the hunt, my training was much more… unique so to speak than the rather mundane things I had done the previous day.

In the morning, I had summoned breakfast for the whole hunt, having gotten the responsibility from Artemis. Hearing that they could order anything they wanted to be had made them happy enough to endure my company through breakfast. I had ended up summoning a lot of breakfast before I could start my own. It was unbelievable how much they all could eat in the morning. I had ended up summoning food for an equivalent of almost seventy to eighty people to sate their appetite. It was a blessing that they had their magical drink goblets. Because almost every other girl had drunk something different. The most popular were coffee and tea but each had their preference as per how they liked it. Some had drunk fruit juices as well.

I, on the other hand, had two omelets with a vegetable sandwich and a cup of coffee.

After breakfast, Artemis had asked us to gather in the common area before calling me forward.

"Today, you will show me a further demonstration of your skills. I need to know where all I need to improve you." Artemis declared before producing a box by snapping her fingers.

Artemis waved her hand over the box and it was enveloped in silver light. "Your left hand, Percy."

I mentally shrugged before extending my left hand toward her. She held two fingers above my watch's dial before moving it around my wrist in a clockwise direction, leaving a silvery trail behind, which formed a perfect circle around my wrist.

"Now, I am going to snap my fingers and a band will settle on your hand while all the weapons you have will be deposited in this box. As soon as you break the thread, all your weapons will return to you immediately. For this exercise, I need you weaponless."

"Err…"

#That is really not a good idea. Stop her!# Alexander shouted.

Before I could, Artemis snapped her fingers. A moment later, there was an explosion of silver light which threw me and Artemis back several meters.

I winced in pain as my body collided with the unforgiving ground and pushed the air out of my lungs. I gingerly got up after taking a deep breath, immediately feeling a spike of pain from the places that had taken the brunt of the impact. A moment later, they were soothed, as Alexander healed them.

I rapidly blinked my eyes, trying to get the silver spots out of my vision.

'What the hell was that?'

#Your weapons, namely the storm-rider and storm tamer, along with your shield and the dagger Hestia has given you are simply too powerful to be removed by a single spell that too all at a single time. All of them are connected to you through magic and your own power. Also, the armor you have along with my helm are made in such a way that they can resist magic influencing them unless the wielder wants it to.#

I saw the huntress helping Artemis up from where she had been flung, which was much further than I had been. The box that Artemis had brought was nowhere to be seen except for a pile of ashes on the ground several feet away from me with my gun on top of it.

I checked all my weapons and saw that the blades I kept in my boots were also missing. The rest were untouched.

#They might be in the pile of ashes.# Alexander suggested as I dusted off the mud on my clothes.

"You alright?" Thalia asked.

"Yep, I am." I nodded. "How's Artemis?"

"I am also okay," She said, walking forward before bending down to inspect the ashes. A moment later, she removed two blades from the pile of ashes, one made of celestial bronze and the other of stainless steel. She looked at me incredulously.

"The spell failed almost completely… what all do you have on yourself?"

"Well, there was the gun and the blades that you have in your hands. Besides them, my throwing knives, my storm-rider, and storm tamer, the knife Lady Hestia gifted me, my armor, my helm, my shield which I won from Krios, and yes, a spear which I won recently from a sea god who had attacked Atlantis. Of course, I am not carrying my machine gun and Multi grenade rocket launcher today or my greek fire hand grenades."

Artemis and several huntresses gaped like a goldfish, trying to say something but no words came out of her mouth. When she finally found her voice, she said, "Why in the name of Hades do you have so many weapons!"

"Well, err…" I stuttered. What was I supposed to say? I have the weight of the world on my shoulders and I needed to be prepared for every eventuality, didn't I?

"Is it because you are with the hunt and you are afraid you will be attacked?" Artemis questioned with a hurt look.

"What? No! I just keep these with me at all times. They will return to me whenever I will them to. Except, for the guns and those two blades that you have. And I don't exactly use the grenades and stuff. I just keep them because, well, you never know when you might need to blow things up being a demigod."

Artemis tilted her head. "Alright… whatever. But the thing is that even I don't have as many weapons as you do! All I have is a bow and Arrow along with daggers. You have so many different varieties of things."

"Well, you have a variety of arrows. Blast arrows, shock arrows, gas arrows, yadda yadda yadda. If you count them, you have more variety of weapons than me. And you have four sets of daggers on you and a knife in each of your boots along with an extra bow apart from your main godly bow on yourself right now at this moment"

Artemis blinked in shock before blurting, "How the fuck do you know that?"

"I can sense the weapons of course. And these are not to mention the godly weapons you could summon at will. So, what I have technically is nothing compared to what you do."

"You have a room full of hot ass weapons in your tent, kelp-head!" Thalia said. "And don't get me started on the new warship you have. I do not know its features but I am sure as fuck that it is loaded with weapons."

"True. But as I said, you never know when you need to create explosions or face an army of monsters."

"Fair enough. Anyways, now, as the spell is not working, can you just keep your weapons here, Percy? So we start your testing, you know."

"What part of the fact that my weapons always return to me did you miss?" I asked

Artemis sighed. "Alright. Then you are forbidden to use any weapons for the duration of this exercise."

"Alright. But, what is the exercise?"

"Yes, about that. It is a stealth exercise for you and a tracking exercise for my hunters. What you will be doing is very simple. You will run into the woods and hide from the hunt as long as possible. Cover your tracks and stuff the best you can while we try to track you. We will give you a ten-minute head start into the woods. You lose when you get hit by one of these." Artemis said, producing an arrow with a sponge ball on its head out of nowhere.

"The game lasts for one hour. If we fail to catch you by then, you win. The limit is the woods"

"Err… Lady Artemis, Percy will just go into the lake and we will never be able to hit him." Annabeth said, grinning at me. I glared at her as that was the exact plan I had just made. Hide at the bottom of the lake for an hour, talking with the fishes while they all search for me above.

"Yes, no hiding in the lakes," Artemis said and I pouted.

"Lady Artemis!" Zoe called and I started glaring at her immediately but she wasn't dissuaded. "Percy can teleport as well!"

"Oh, right. No usage of powers, Perseus."

"What am I supposed to use?" I asked exasperatedly.

"Your limbs, Perseus, your limbs. And your brain."

"... fair. So, when do I start?"

"3…2…1, GO!"

I ran into the woods as fast as I could (which was a decent 80mph), disappearing out of the sight of the huntresses.

#You can probably outrun them but that won't be proper, would it? You need to hide your tracks. You're already half a mile into the forest. Now, try jumping from tree to tree to not leave tracks. You are making it too obvious#

'That's the plan.'

#Wait, what?#

Instead of straight away jumping onto a tree, I took a sharp left and jogged for a few seconds in that direction, covering a decent distance in that direction. Mid stride, I launched myself into the air, onto a tree, and perched on it before carefully running from tree to tree, back into the way I had just come from.

Deception. One of the best ways to throw someone off your tracks. And I still had almost seven minutes before the hunt started after me.

I went from tree to tree in random directions(which was not as hard as you think for me), leaving a few footsteps here and there to throw off the huntresses. I did this for two minutes all over a mile's stretch before selecting to go in the Northwest direction from where the camp was situated. I could also sense a small lake in that direction, one of the many in the area.

Over the next minute, I covered almost a mile's distance before arriving at a huge clearing where the pond was. It wasn't huge by any means but big enough to swim across. And you couldn't leave tracks in the water. So, even if they brought wolves, they would be thrown off due to the lack of scent.

But the lake wasn't exactly near.

I took a deep breath and channeled energy in my limbs before leaping from the tree I was on, using water to cushion my fall as I fell into the lake. It was a good thing that I did it or I would've banged myself on the rocky floor of the lake. I carefully propelled myself across the lake to the other side.

Once I was at the shallow end, I willed myself to stay completely dry before jumping again onto the nearest tree and swinging myself to the immediate next one.

It was a good thing that being in water had healed my leg and hand muscles of the strain I had just put on them. Channeling divine energy continuously did have an effect on them. I checked my watch and saw that there were still a little more than three minutes for the hunt to begin their search and I was already almost three miles away from them, having left several confusing tracks throughout the way.

I perched myself on a sturdy branch before starting to break the tree branch above me, which could act as a sturdy stick. So, if the huntress shot those ball arrows at me, I could slap them away. Artemis had told me not to use my weapons. So, I had to adjust to an alternative.

With a snap, the branch broke. While it was not a perfect brake, it would do. It had the right size after all. I removed the leaves on it and smoothened it a bit where I would hold it.

It was nowhere near a weapon like a sword or even a baseball bat, but it would do for now.

I saw my watch again. A minute and a half to go. I grinned. Now I had to survive for an hour without being spotted by the huntress.

ARTEMIS POV

As soon as Percy disappeared out of sight into the trees, I turned to my girls.

"Girls, you cannot lose this," I said. "You all need to track him and hit him with one of the arrows by the end of the hour. This is what we do, and he must not evade us."

"Don't worry my lady! The boy doesn't stand a chance!" One of my huntresses said and quite a few cheered.

"Yes, and we have never failed to track someone! And this is just a boy!"

"Do not be overconfident," Zoe told them. "The boy in question has proved to do the impossible."

"I concede your point but being good at fighting and being good at hunting are two different things."

"Uh-huh," Annabeth said. "For that, the arrows have to hit him."

"What do you mean?"

"Kelp-head will just dodge the arrow or slap it away like an annoying bug."

"You are new, Thalia. You do not know how fast some of us can shoot. He would not even see the arrows coming at him."

"We'll see," Thalia said unbelievingly, making me narrow my eyes a tad.

Did she believe more in Percy Jackson than her new family, some of whom were amongst the greatest archers to walk in the mortal world?

But, then again, she hardly had a taste of what we all could do. She didn't know why we were the greatest force Olympus had and its most lethal as well. And, to be really fair, in recent times, Percy Jackson had single-handedly replaced my hunt as the most deadly force of Olympus, as much as I hated to admit it. The boy had slaughtered an army of monsters and two titans a couple of weeks ago.

Had the boy not been Hestia's champion, I had a feeling that my father would've smote him for the sheer threat he posed if he ever went against Olympus. The privileges Hestia had given the boy by blessing him as her champion were enormous. And I was not sure if Percy or even Hestia herself realized it.

I looked at the time and saw that four minutes had passed so far. Six more to go before I could begin. The speed at which Percy had run off was actually what concerned me a bit. At that speed, he could technically be out of the forest by now. But, I didn't think he would go out of the forest. I had specified it after all.

"Girls," I said, breaking out of my thoughts. "Take these arrows. No shooting real arrows at him. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Lady Artemis." They chorused.

"Good. Take five each. If you run out of them, you are out."

They all started passing arrows around and got themselves ready for the hunt.

"My lady, aren't you going to join us?" Annabeth asked.

"I will come with you all if that is what you are asking. But I won't help you. This is your exercise. Zoe will lead you as always."

"Of course, Artemis. Tell us when to start."

In a few seconds… Five, four, three, two, one, go!

And we took off, in the direction Percy had gone, following his footsteps. He had made no effort to hide his tracks and ran in a straight direction. This was already looking too easy. I might have to train him a lot in this sector, it seemed.

Half a mile into the forest, his footsteps had taken a sharp left. My hunt followed the trail closely.

I now had started to get a feeling that this was becoming too easy considering our opponent was Percy Jackson.

My hunch was proven right as only a few meters ahead, his footprints ended all of a sudden. The most obvious footprint trail had suddenly ended as if he had just teleported away from here. But I couldn't sense a trace of magic around the place. I looked at the last few footprints more closely. The last ones were almost right next to each other. And the depression on the front part was greater.

I immediately looked upward and saw a pretty sturdy tree with thick branches. Just below the lowest branch, quite a few berries had fallen. Fresh berries that were still untouched. So, likely it had only been a few minutes since it had happened.

I felt my lips tug upwards. The boy was smart. But I was the goddess of the hunt. Now, to see how long my huntress would take to figure that clue out.

I wasn't going to help them. It would be massively unfair of me to help them. I could just spread my senses and look for a strong source of divine energy. Percy would shine like a beacon, giving away his location if I did that.

I looked at phoebe who had bent down to inspect the footprints closely. Some were roaming around the place, searching for tracks. I saw Annabeth staring at the footprints and up the tree. Exactly how mine had. She was an intelligent one.

And trained by Percy. A part of me was reminded, but I ignored it.

"He jumped onto that tree," Annabeth declared rather bossily. Phoebe turned to her and raised her eyebrows and so did Zoe.

"How do you know that?"

"It is a little obvious. His footprints couldn't just disappear as he can't fly. But, he can jump really high. I have seen him jump fifteen feet high with ease in the camp. The lowest branch on that tree is barely ten. He jumped on the tree and likely went from tree to tree."

"He couldn't go far, could he? Unless he is a monkey, swinging and jumping from tree to tree is pretty tough." One of my huntresses said. "And even if he did, he must have landed somewhere in the middle and left tracks."

"True," Annabeth agreed. "We just need to search for them and try to discern his directions."

"It would be for the best to split up in groups of three and scour the forest from here in all directions. He could've gone anywhere." Zoe said before instructing who should go where.

I closed my eyes and touched the forest floor communicating with it through my domains. In my mind, I could see how Percy had gone through the forest. His tracks, his current position, everything. It was a benefit of being the goddess of the hunt and the wild.

My attention was brought back to the group by a protest. "But his footprints were going forward! Why should we go back to the place where he took a turn?"

I immediately resisted the urge to smirk. That was exactly what he had done. Gone back on the way he had come from for quite a distance before changing direction multiple times purposefully leaving tracks on the way to confuse my huntresses. I had to appreciate the boy's ingenuity. I could say that a random search might yield better results at finding him than following his tracks.

Of course, they would find him by following his tracks but I doubted it would be within an hour. The best bet I could take for my hunt winning would be at the borderline time if they went by the tracks. Even I had to admit that I, Phoebe Artemis, might've been tricked by his tracks had I been a mortal. I technically should've helped my huntresses, but what would be the fun in that? This was a test. For both Percy and my huntresses.

Percy, while having passed, still had room for improvement. And his stealth needed work. Shining like a powerful beacon in the middle of nowhere would give you away to almost anyone hunting you, especially if that anyone was a god. I needed to teach him to mask the power he gave out so he didn't give himself away by just being him.

It was a tough thing to do. Even I had to constantly concentrate on doing it if I was on a hunt. Of course, by now I had almost gotten used to doing it so it wasn't much of an effort compared to what Percy would have to put in. Also, the problem that he would face with this was that his power was from the sea. And the sea didn't like to be restrained.

Training him in this field would be interesting.

"Artemis," Zoe called, snapping my attention back to them. "Whom will you be with?"

I saw that the girls were already standing in teams of three to five people each.

I bit my lip contemplating what to do. "You all continue as you are. I will watch you. It is your and Percy's test. Not mine. And, I would remind you that you only have fifty-one minutes remaining. Go fast and find him or he'll win."

"Alright, Girls! Our reputation is on the line here. Go, go, go!" Zoe ordered and the huntresses scrambled in all the directions from there.

Once they were off, I smirked and flashed away, appearing right beside Percy, who was sitting on a tree branch.

Now, in hindsight, startling Percy Jackson was not a good idea. A very bad idea in fact. As soon as I appeared next to him, my danger senses tingled like crazy and I leaned back, just as Percy's fist missed my face by a hair's breadth. In doing so, I lost my balance and fell back, only to have my arm gripped by Percy's strong one.

Note to self, don't startle Percy Jackson ever again. If it had not been for my centuries honed reflexes, I would've been lying somewhere on the ground right now with a broken jaw.

"Artemis, what are you doing here?" Percy asked, pulling me back up properly.

"I thought that I would just check on you. And my huntresses split up to search for you, thanks to all the deception you've done in there. Good work, I did say, seeing how many tracks you created in ten minutes which are gonna send them for a nice spin around the woods."

"Thank you," He said after a moment. "But you found me, even if you used your godly powers. So, I lost."

"Nah, I was not going to participate in this. It would've been massively unfair to you. And, speaking of which, I should also teach you to mask your aura."

"Mask my aura?"

"Yes, you shine like a beacon of power. Any god or titan would sense you nearing from a mile away. So, any stealth you have, including invisibility will be useless and so will surprise attacks. Hence, masking your aura is on the list that I need to teach you."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Alright. How do we go about doing it?"

"It is much more about finding your power in a sense. Then controlling it is easier. Suppressing it, flaring it, controlling it. Everything. Once you can do it, manipulating your domains is very easy. But mind you, it is not quick or easy. Even gods take quite a few years to master their domains perfectly. And even more to do in their divine form."

"Err… Artemis, I know to flair my aura and stuff and also control my powers."

"Show me," I ordered.

Suddenly, I felt suffocated as if I was in the middle of a hurricane and yet, like I was home. The aura of the destroyer and the champion of the hearth. To be honest, it was an odd feeling. My instincts screamed to hug him and defend myself at the same time. This was not something that happened every day.

The aura dimmed a moment later and returned to as it was a few moments before.

I breathed deeply. That was definitely something.

"Good. Now just pull it in and keep it contained. Just the very opposite of what you did." I instructed. If he could flare his aura already, it wouldn't take long for him to start learning to mask it. Of course, restraining it always took more effort than flexing it, but I doubted it would take him long.

Of course, he wasn't a god. Or it would've been fun to teach him to take his divine form. Very much fun. All the elder gods had theirs, trying to see us master the godly arts of flashing, changing form, and most of all, accessing our divine forms.

It had taken us a decade to master it all. Of course, divine forms were the toughest. Even if we got into the form, it took power and concentration to maintain it. And a very good mental fortitude. Because, as soon as a god took their divine forms, they were the domain they represented. A form of pure power.

Every single bit of information from your domain flooded your mind as the mortal form exploded with power taking the form of pure energy.

As empowering as it felt, it was tiring, and dangerous and left a massive headache and nauseating feeling afterward. Akin to a hangover but much worse.

Also, if a god is killed in their divine form, they fade. Immediately. Of course, it wasn't easy to kill a god in their divine form, but still.

Percy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I felt his aura dimming a little. I was about to encourage him when he visibly began straining before the aura suddenly flared, making winds blow all around.

Percy gasped, "I can't… it is not… allowing me to."

I pursed my lips. I had anticipated this. "You need to try it. It is not easy." I said.

"No, no. My powers are primarily of the sea. The sea cannot be restrained. My power will flare as soon as I try it, struggling against my will."

"Understandable. Even my journey wasn't easy. I took months to just reign it in. And more than a century to get to what I can do today. It is not easy to suppress it especially when you are so powerful, believe me. But it is not impossible either. I do not even expect you to do it completely as I can. Not so soon anyway. Just make yourself seem like a normal demigod who wouldn't be a threat instead of the humongous aura you currently have which will make alarm bells ring around any gods' head even if you're a mile away."

Percy exhaled through his nose and nodded. "I will definitely try. But I don't think that doing it here will be the best idea… you know, among trees, considering storms and fire are my powers."

"True. We'll practice—" I was cut off as Percy perked up and shushed me by placing his hand firmly on my mouth. I felt it a moment later.

"Monsters," Percy whispered softly in my ear, confirming my senses. "Approaching from straight ahead. I can sense almost a dozen. Cyclops, Hellhounds, and dracaenas."

I nodded, making my silver dagger appear in my hand. Percy, on the other hand, took out his gun and rummaged through his bag which appeared out of nowhere before removing what I recognized as a silencer. He fitted it on his gun before waiting for the monsters as I looked at him with a questioning look.

"I ain't rushing there with a sword or doing anything to give my position away. We are in the middle of a game as well, Artemis."

"We are about to be attacked," I stated.

"That's why this," He said, waving his gun. A second later, he took aim on the first approaching cyclops and shot. The dull sound of the rifle was heard in the quiet of the forest as the cyclops turned to dust. Two more shots and two dracaenas had fallen.

Meanwhile, I removed my bow and rapidly shot two arrows, taking two hellhounds out.

"Five more," Percy whispered softly in my ear, making me shiver before taking yet another shot, killing a cyclops.

I shot two more arrows in rapid succession, killing a dracaena and a hellhound.

"There's one cyclops hiding behind the boulder," I whispered to Percy, seeing the cyclops' hair poking out. "And a dracaena right beside him"

"But she is not in sight. I can also feel her position but there is no clear shot for either of us." Percy replied.

I nodded. "I am taking the cyclops out."

"How?"

I smirked. "Watch and learn."

Saying so, I pointed my bow at the sky, taking a very steep angle before releasing it. The arrow soared high before dipping in a projectile motion, embedding itself in the cyclops' head from above like an antenna.

"Whoa, that was awesome," Percy breathed and I felt a surge of pride. Before I could say anything, the dracaena ran out of her cover, trying to get away from us.

As I released my arrow, I heard Percy shoot as well. As my arrow pierced the monster's heart from behind, the bullet blew its brains out, killing our target.

We looked at each other and grinned. Percy held out his fist and we fist-bumped.

"We make a good team," He said.

Well, he wasn't wrong. Every time we had fought together, namely Westover hall, Othyrs, and now, we had dispatched our enemies with little to no effort. Of course, we both were good fighters, great fighters in fact but, I strongly felt that together we would be nearly undefeatable. The world's best archer and the world's best swordsman… the best swordsman since my uncle Alexander at least.

While I didn't want to dishonor his memory, I would have to admit that Percy Jackson would've given my Uncle Alexander a run for his money in sword fighting. Yes, Percy Jackson was that damn good in sword fighting that he would've given the god of sword fighting a tough competition.

Also, there was the little fact that Percy always reminded me of him. A part of me felt that Percy was my uncle's reincarnation. The similarities between Percy and him were staggering.

But nonetheless, despite my wandering thoughts, one thing struck. Percy and I would make a great team.

AND… DONE!

Hope you all liked it, especially with the romance arc slowly beginning. As for the results of the hunt, I will mention it in the next chapter.

A huge thank you to I_amaSWITCHbot for betaing this chapter.

.

Xerzo LotCN; flys36: I understand your feelings bro but I am sorry, this is NOT going to be Perthena or Percy X Artemis X Athena. It is and will remain Pertemis. Sorry.

I am The 13th: Yes, basically tbh. I took the inspiration for this arrow from Mahabharata(an Indian Mythological Epic). In it, Karna was gifted the arrow by Indra. An arrow that would hit its intended target and kill it under any circumstances as long as the shooter had the target in his line of sight. Even if something came in part of the arrow, it would not be stopped.

.

Thank you everyone else for your lovely compliments and all the love for the story.

.

Also, do join my Discord server, House of HPfanfictioner66 where you can directly communicate with me, ask questions, etc. Hope to see you all lovely readers there soon Link: discord . gg / 4qfP3fxdQ4 [Remove the spaces please]

I have my own channel on the discord server known as Emerald Library. I recommend that you join the server and there, you won't only have access to me, but several other big authors who have their channels on the Emerald Library. Link: discord . gg / jtAxRnH6Tk [Remove the spaces please]

.

At the moment, I have four main stories. They are:

1. The Rise of the Last Potter: My Novel length Harry Potter fic which is already 300k+ words long and it is a work in progress. Updated Regularly.

2. The Legend of the Son of Poseidon: A Novel Length Percy Jackson fic which is already 250k+ words long and it is a work in progress. Updated Regularly

3. Loved Ones Skipping Stones and Ice-cream: A fluffy Haphne one-shot. It is completed obviously.

4. SECRETS: Another romantic one-shot I published recently. Complete as well.

(PLEASE READ THEM ALL)

.

Stay Happy! Stay Safe! Keep Smiling! Keep Reading!

HPfanfictioner66