Nico POV

"... I mean it does get hot with her, but she isn't that bad. Honestly, being stuck with Percy's second adopted mum is better than anyone you guys got." There was a slight chuckle as everyone stretched their legs. For a few moments, we all sat in silence, staring at the stupid grins on everyone's face.

"Pass the 'mallow's will you," Percy muttered to Jason from the side. He obliged, grabbing the already half-empty packet of marshmallows and passing them around. We all took two each except for Leo who, well, was being Leo. Taking turns, we each roasted them on the campfire before savouring every bite.

"What about you Valdez," Frank asked, smirking. "Has the wisdom goddess become fed up with your sense of humour yet?" Leo, who had absent mindedly been eating, looked up and shuddered. His eyes went dark.

"I'm telling you guys, I've never seen anything like it. Even Zeus has a better taste in humour then her. I've whipped out my best jokes and she doesn't even crack a grin. It's scary.. "All she does is roll her eyes and talk about how dumb her father is by assigning such a 'scrawny little weasel' to assist her. Talk about being rude, man. She's so full of herself." Everyone began giggling again. Leo never spoke with such seriousness, and it was a funny sight to see. The way he stared all of us into the eyes and talked about his time with Athena could make Zeus crack in laughter.

It had been Percy's idea to meet up in the first place. One week after being guardians, our leader wanted to see how we were coping, so he told us all to meet in the forest. During one of our trips back while everyone was still looking for Percy, our base had been burned to the ground. In a flurry, we all ran, following our leader for what seemed to be hours. Somehow, we managed to find a small, abandoned house in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I wasn't even surprised Percy wanted to meet here again. Even I was feeling sentimental.

The roof of this abandoned hut was cobblestone. It wasn't spacious, but we could all fit in snugly. In the centre was a campfire, built on twigs and logs. It gave off a dim light that let us all see each other's faces. Percy was leaning back, resting against the weak wooden logs that were meant to stop people from jumping off the roof. If we didn't have celestial bronze weapons and greek armour, one might even say we were just a bunch of campers.

"And you Caly?" Perseus asked. She too rolled her eyes. "The good news is that she hasn't asked me about you yet." Percy smirked.

"The bad news?" Piper asked almost sympathetically. I guess it was her mum.

"She's always with me wherever I go!" Most of us began to snicker again.

"I could be training or reading a book and she's right next to me, constantly pestering me. Damn Zeus! He couldn't've thought of someone else. Anyone but her!"

"I guess you're all having a blast," the god laughed, savouring every moment of everyone else's annoyance.

"What about you then, Percy," I asked him curiously. The god looked up after hearing his name, giving me a curious smile.

"Yeah Percy!" Hazel yelled, snuggling into Frank. "What's the hunt like? Have you exiled anyone yet?" Calypso turned and looked at him, a curious and strange, almost scared look in her eyes.

"I got into a fight with them on the first day, I think about three or so hours in," he said, looking down at the floor and smiling. Every other person stared at him, mouths open. It looked for a moment like Percy had frozen time.

"Umm… context?" Jason asked and time seemed to resume once again with everyone laughing out. Percy gave a light chuckle before swallowing another marshmallow and washing it down with water.

"Seriously though, what the hell did you do in four hours that made them want to kill you?" Leo asked with an exasperated sigh. "If I didn't know you, I'd think you're trying to hold a record for the fastest time to fight the hunt."

"If I didn't know, I'd say he already holds the record for that," I added. Percy smiled.

"First, second and third," he smirked and once again we all burst into laughter.

"When I walked into that camp, every hunter looked at me, with pure hatred in their eyes," The god began, stretching and leaning back. "It was almost-"

"Scary," piped Frank from the side. "Oh… sorry… um…" the boy began talking to himself as Percy fixed him with a hard look. As far as it went, overall, Percy was a brilliant leader: Authoritative, fair and powerful. Percy also knew when it was time for jokes, and when it was time to be serious. After being interrupted three times in the last minute, it was obvious that he was irritated. At least he did it in a much nicer way than Hades. Internally I shuddered at what my father enjoyed doing to, as he said, put us in our place.

"It was almost… scary," the god continued. "The way they looked at me. The way they were saying how much they would love to shoot me, even if it would get them killed. I never would've thought a person could have that much unjustifiable hatred for another. I decided to make a bet. If they could beat me and Charlotte in a fight, I would become their slave. Otherwise, they must respect and treat me equally."

"But you're a god," Hazel giggled. "That alone is suicide, you can just freeze time…" Percy grinned.

"Well at least someone understands me," Percy exclaimed, to which most of us protested.

"So then what?" Calypso asked. She wasn't giggling, but had a rather serious expression on her face, most likely because Percy and Artemis had done some… interesting things.

"Well, we went into battle, and I froze time. I basically did some sophisticated biology stuff and they lost in less than a minute."

"I guess breaking into that medical college had some benefits then," Jason snickered.

"So you won like that?" Hazel asked curiously. I stayed quiet, because I knew Percy was going to tell us the rest of his story.

"There was another hunter who wanted a rematch." Everyone let out a loud sigh. Percy had a habit of doing rematches, and often didn't make the smartest wagers.

"What were the stakes," Hazel growled. Percy smirked. He liked doing that a lot now.

"Same as before, only they would have to respect every man." The Revenant got a bit annoyed at this.

"Why Percy man?" Jason said.

"Seriously, you got a gambling issue or something?" Leo yelled.

"Relax, I still managed to win," he said, putting a smile on. "Am I a God or what?"

"You're the god," Piper muttered. "But you're also a stupid god." He grinned like it was a compliment.

"So how has the week been then, after the whole battle stuff?" I asked him. It's funny to hear how poorly the hunt react to things, and this is one of them where I just have to know.

"Well, Sophie hasn't spoken to me since I buried her twelve feet underground." I let out a laugh, but Percy didn't, looking at me curiously.

"You're joking right…?" He gave me a mischievous wink.

"Some of the others give me awkward hello's, which always makes me internally laugh. Most of them just talk behind my back. At least they keep their word…"

"Why did you choose her?" Piper interrupted. "What do you see in Sophie that made you want to give her a chance?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Percy said with a light but uncertain laugh. "I fought them to gain my respect-"

"No, you didn't," Hazel added, clicking her fingers like she was remembering something. She leapt to her feet. "You want to teach her yourself. You want to single handedly train her and make her the warrior by your side, even though Charlotte is a much better fit."

"Look, lets stop jumping to rash conclusions-"

"Rash conclusions my backside. Tell me now to my face that you don't want her to try out for the role." Percy looked at her for a moment, before sighing and looking down at the floor again.

"I see so much of myself in her," he said quietly. "Ambitious, cunning, over her head thinking she can beat a god, cocky, and defiant. If I did a little fine tuning, armies would tremble before her. Charlotte is great, but she's too obedient and too easily swayed. I need someone who can make their own decisions, like An-" the god paused, holding himself back, and a sombre, almost ghostly mood fell over the campfire. It seemed like the flames could feel this, no longer dancing, but hiding in the black charcoal.

The god stood up. In respect, we all began to move to our feet, but he waived his hand.

"I think right now, I just need some alone time," he smiled, stretching his back. "I hope you're all going to be ready for tomorrow. We have to be at camp by 8AM." Everyone nodded. Percy sighed.

"Goodnight everyone," he murmured, before suddenly disappearing, no doubt back to the hunt, leaving the rest of us stuck in the dark.

Jason kicked the pile of logs on the side, while everyone else sat back. Everyone looked miserable, sitting by themselves and not wanting to talk about what had just happened. No one wanted to admit to themself what had just happened.

"Percy needs help," Piper confirmed quietly after a while. I sighed.

"Pipes, he just needs more-" Jason was quickly cut off.

"Time?" she asked sarcastically, her nostrils flaring. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but he's had five years."

"Well therapy isn't going to help someone like Percy. You know it, I know it, the freaking chimpanzee that stole chicken curry from us knows it." Piper hesitated, as if this was something she shouldn't be thinking.

"I wasn't talking about therapy…" Jason's eyes narrowed as the gears in his head slowly clicked.

"No way, Piper, are you INSANE!?" Jason asked, standing up abruptly.

"Just think about it, he'll stop remembering any of his previous betrayals."

"Yeah, well he'll stop remembering anything." Slowly I understood what they were fighting over and stood up abruptly.

"Lethe, Piper, you are insane!" I yelled. She looked at me, defeated. All around, the rest of the Revenant nodded.

"Lethe is not the way to help Percy," Calypso finalised, ending the whole discussion. Piper pleaded, but it was over. Once Calypso had given her verdict, there wasn't anything else anyone could do. She had the say on what we could do to help Percy, even if in five years it had done nothing but make him more cocky and risky.

"You know what, fine, you do what you want," Piper said. "But when Percy's feelings get the better of him in a fight and something happens, that's on you." Angrily, she stormed off the roof, probably walking back to Apollo's palace.

"That's enough for a day," I muttered, clearly not happy with how south this meeting had gone. "Make sure you're all at camp by 8, or Percy's not gonna be happy. We have to make a good first impression."

Gradually, everyone broke up, jumping off the roof and trekking back to their god. As I melted into the shadows, I caught a glimpse of Frank and Hazel laughing with each other, walking hand in hand. I didn't love any of them that way, and it was meant to make me happy that they had found some scarce love in the world…

So why was I so sad?

Percy POV
Last night was very restless. After abruptly leaving the rest of my team at that house, I had flashed back to the hunt. It was well after midnight, so I slipped through the guards, which I still needed to complain to Artemis about, and went to bed. At least I tried to. In six hours, I barely slept at all, and whatever patches of sleep I did get were always interrupted by thoughts that still haunted me, even though they shouldn't have. In the morning, I was groggy.

The hunt were already waiting for me at the pavilion at 9AM.

"Morning," I said to them as brightly as I could.

"Good morning," a few of them said. About half replied to me. Inside, I smiled. From last week, it was a major improvement. An infinite percentage increase.

"How are you Sophie?" I asked the naïve hunter. She was still angry with me, giving me something that was a mix of a glare and a forced smile. I sighed. Sometimes, no matter what you did, you just couldn't make everyone happy.

"Charlotte," I nodded to the most loyal hunter here. Obviously giddy with excitement, she gave me a little nod as well. The girl must be ready to show off her fighting skills to the rest of the hunt.

Once everyone was ready, I raised my hand. Time control is something that's difficult to explain. Think of it like this. We live in a 4 dimensional world. Everyone is familiar with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd dimensions. What they don't know is that time is the 4th dimension. Time gives everything a position at a given time. Without it, our world would not move, and nothing would change. When I try to control time, I can actually see it. Like I said, it's really confusing. Every object has these golden strings attached to it. Hundreds of them, non stop moving everywhere. That's time. The golden strings are controlled by… well that's a something for another day, but basically, I can manipulate these golden strings, to an extent. What if I were to suddenly grab all of these strings and just hold them still? What if I broke them? What if I urged them to move faster? Or slower? That is time control, and that's what I did to the hunt. It takes an incredible amount of energy. Each string must be moved, and there are millions of them. At first, I urged time to stop, before realising there was no way I could move the entire hunt without some serious help. Sighing in frustration, I resorted to the old method of travel. Letting time flow again, I focused hard, and suddenly, the entire hunt flashed to Camp Half Blood.

Everyone else was already there, and it seems that they had been waiting a while. Most of the gods looked at me, irritated, while the Revenant didn't care. I felt prideful of my soldiers and how well they had turned out.

"Finally, you have arrived," Zeus muttered.

"You're right, I have arrived!" I replied. "And I hope everyone here is prepared to train for however long it takes."

"However long it takes to do what?" Ares spat. Clearly, none of the gods understood why they were here, and I understood that. When you are a god, you begin to feel like you are undefeatable, and that you control everything. That's how much pride a god would have. They were either born like that or just didn't have as much experience as the rest of us, being regular mortals. The only issue with that, aside from arrogance and pride, is that when a real fight comes along, reality hits you hard, and suddenly, you're stuck in a deadly fight with no way out. Unfortunately, these gods can't see that, which is why I'm going to start training with the biggest, "baddest" god in the camp.

"You're little group of meek soldiers have nothing on me," Ares growled. Behind him, he dragged his sword through the ground, churning the earth.

"You can think what you want Ares," I told him. "But the only way I will excuse you from training is if you can beat my soldiers. That way, you can also see why I should be training you." The war god faltered a bit.

"Well, a seven versus one isn't exactly what I call fair, especially without powers," the god muttered.

"Great!" I said, clapping my hands. "That means, you'll be training with me, right?" After the gears clicked in this brain, Ares glared at me, before storming off to the arena. My soldiers were already there, lined up and ready to go.

"I'm not trying to be nosy, but shouldn't you give them some speech, ya know, to boost their spirits," Charlotte said, coming up from behind me.

"If my soldiers really need someone to baby them, and hold their hands to the arena, and shower them in praise, and pep talk them every time they have a fight, then my soldiers aren't ready for anything other than babysitting." She nodded.

"Deep words," she said after a while. I snickered, thinking about how boring and irritating I had found all the other pep talks I had been forced to witness. Now, it was me giving them. Plus, I had just said I didn't want to give pep talks. How ironic…

"Ares versus the Revenant," I announced from the viewing area. "Three, two, one, go!"

My soldiers moved quickly, like I had taught them. In a few seconds, they were already surrounding Ares. Brandishing his sword, the war god pounced. First, he swung with force at Nico. Calmly, he raised his own sword to block, but not before underestimating the god's strength. Nico was thrown backwards, his feet skidding along the floor, before tumbling down. I felt a pang of annoyance that my second in command and just fell that easily, but it was replaced with joy very quickly. Hazel jumped onto Ares' back. He maneuvered to dodge her, which was exactly what Leo had been waiting for. Him and Jason barged into the god, sending him stumbling back a few steps, where a fierce Calypso raised her sword, putting it under his throat. Looking down, Ares saw that not only was his throat at risk of injury, but all of his other limbs were as well. Two people were resting their swords against each hand. The god growled, kicking his legs and flailing his arms, but Calypso only buried her sword further into his throat, until a thin streak of blood appeared.

"You can try and do whatever you want, but seeing as you're the one on the ground, with a sword to his throat, I'm gonna say that you've lost, as I knew, and you're going through training with me, everyday for as long as it takes. There is more to war than brute force."

Glaring murderously at me, he reluctantly raised his hands, and Calypso smugly removed her sword.

"Who's next?" I asked. Proudly, Zeus raised his hands, walking into the arena. I sighed inside.

"Zeus versus the Revenant. Three, two, one, go!" This fight was even shorter than the other one. First, Zeus threw this thunderbolt. Nico and Leo dived to the side, throwing knives at Zeus. I was actually surprised when I saw how well Zeus dodged them, thinking that he might be easier to train than the others. Calypso then threw her knife from the side, as did Hazel and Piper. Frank, having turned into an eagle, slashed the god's face, who had been too busy diving from knives. Roaring, he threw his bolt, hitting Frank square in the chest. Letting out a yelp, the eagle fell from the floor, quickly being catched by Hazel. This would've been good for Zeus, only the real damage was from behind. Spinning his spear, Jason jabbed it into Zeus' throat, not enough to do any damage, but enough to show him that he had lost. All around, the Revenant had knives back in their hands, ready to impale Zeus if he didn't surrender. I smirked. This was going to be a good day.

After Zeus, all the other gods tried to fight the Revenant. Some, like Aphrodite, surrendered within a few seconds. Other's, like Athena and my father, put up a very good fight, even getting somewhat close to victory at some points, and having me on the edge of my seat the entire time. There was one point where Athena had Jason, Piper, Calypso, Frank and Hazel on the ground, too tired and hurt to continue. Leo and Nico were single handedly fighting off the wisdom goddess. That had been a very clutch victory. They only won because the goddess made one wrong move. One move in the five or however many minutes they battled for, and that cost her the entire battle.

"You gods may think that you're strong and powerful, but the second they strip you of your powers, you become nothing. You couldn't even beat my soldiers, what do you think you'll do against an army of thousands?"

"But we'll have our powers then, so what's the point of all this powerless business?" Zeus snapped not realising the point

"Because you need to be able to fight alongside your powers, not just relying on them the entire time. In the end, every battle comes down to skill over power. I suppose brains as well. As soon as you can win against the Revenant and have proved that you can fight without powers, we will move on to mastering powers, and learning how to use them in harmony with your skill."

"And why should we have to prove anything to you?" Athena asked, clearly still angry about the outcome of her fight." I raised my hands.

"Maybe it's because I saved every single one of you, even though you were on the verge of dying?" She glared at me.

"Now, given that there are no more questions, we can start with the first lesson, which is basic attack structures-"

"You know what, Percy Jackson, you're a hypocrite," Ares hissed. "Even though we are all forced to fight these pointless excuses for soldiers without our powers, you still haven't fought them, and what's more is that you can't fight them without your powers and expect to win." I sighed. I knew where this was going, the question was, is it worth it for me to fight my soldiers just to prove I am right and waste time that ironically we don't have a lot of. Looking around, each god was giving me a look. Ares had done what he wanted to. He'd made me look bad in front of the council, and now, I had two choices. Either I could back out now, and have the entire council doubt me forever, or I could fight the Revenant. Angrily, I sighed, storming towards the arena.

"Give me a countdown," I muttered. Ares was surprised. He certainly hadn't expected me to agree, but I had more pressing issues, such as making sure that I actually won this.

"Three, two, one, go!"

Both sides were incredibly fast. Naturally, I had a little bit more speed. Rushing towards my soldiers, I brandished my staff, getting ready to fight. On the other side, everyone looked eager. We hadn't had a good training fight in… forever actually. We've never done one, probably why everyone was so eager and anxious.

"Boys, show me what you got," I smirked. "And girls of course." Then I swung.

Naturally, Nico was the first to come at me. For the time being, I didn't focus on the others. Most likely, they were planning a group attack. My best option was to at least get rid of one person, and that just happened to be Nico. As he approached me, I waited for him to attack first. One should never be the first to attack in a fight even if the odds are one hundred to one. Of course, Nico didn't know this. Naive, he swung his Stygian Iron sword at my legs. Quickly, I jumped, before hitting him with the but of my staff. He ducked under and dodged it, but he wasn't prepared for my leg, just itching to kick him. Nico went rolling across the floor, and I reared up to strike him. However, as I did, I heard noises coming from behind me. Instinctively, I turned around and raised my sword just in time to block the incoming blow from Piper. Fiercely, she kept throwing blow after blow at me, pushing me backwards. Not only that, but Jason was slashing wildly at me from behind. I was suddenly battling two people from either side at once, with a staff. Elegantly, it swooped again and again. The slapping sound of wood against metal rang across the arena.

I had been so occupied and concentrated in this battle that I had completely disregarded the other soldiers. Leo ran into my side, and for a moment, the breath was knocked out of me. Stumbling backwards, I nearly missed Frank and Hazel charging at me. My brain automatically caused me to duck. Harmlessly, the blade soared above me. My vision still spinning, I blindly pushed forwards, and luckily enough, Hazel fell to the ground. Then, I tried to elbow Frank, but he was quick. Leaping into the air, he transformed into a robin, flapping wildly. Ignoring him, I began fighting again, this time it was a 4v1. When the odds are against you, like right now, the best thing to do is to move around, and to move fast. It's a much easier fight if the other side is out of breath. Then again, you've got to be careful and make sure you're not out of breath either, and win the fight fast. Otherwise, ah well here the rest of them come.

Amidst a tense standoff, Frank came running back in, turning into a gorilla. Honestly, if I'm being real, no powers for me should at least mean no transforming for Frank, but it's way too late to fix that now. He tried ramming into me and knocking me down. Already tired, I was forced to quickly half-sidestep, half-roll, and swung my staff at his head. Unluckily he turned back to his human form almost instantaneously, ducked and attempted a sweep from below with his legs which almost got me. Nico came back at me with full force and I parried a couple of strikes from his sword. With each clash of blades, a new line of sweat dripped down his face. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one becoming exhausted, and my body was beginning to ache as my breaths became more quick. Sensing this, Piper and Hazel then charged at me along with Frank who had turned into an eagle. I continued playing defence and started dodging attacks from Nico instead of fighting him as my staff to block all the other hits from the rest of them. During these intense fights, my fighting style was hard to define. My mind was fully concentrated, and I was basically 'in the zone'. Every second mattered, and my body used its instincts to dodge, block and attack.

Seeing an opening in between Nico and Piper, I dived, rolling across the floor and standing upright immediately. To defend myself, I twirled my staff in a circular motion deflecting a hit from Piper's knives and Hazel. I needed less people on me or I would make no progress. On top of that I would soon get tired. God or no god, lactic acid is no joke. Plus, I skipped breakfast, so my energy levels were already critically low. I quickly swung my staff at Piper, with enough force to send her to space. She managed to block it (otherwise what kind of soldier of mine is she) but could only block so much of the force. She went stumbling back, and fell flat on the floor. Hopefully that would buy me a minute or so without her. Right before I was gonna sweep hazel's legs from below when pain shot up my back. Flip, I should've realised that Jason was up to something. I hadn't really seen him the entire fight. Guess he was looking for an opening. I instantly turned with partial difficulty and started striking him with maximum power, moving quickly and twisting around so that no one was behind me. I almost messed up in the first few seconds due to the pain flaring in me, but as usual, ignored and persevered.

My plan was going according to plan with Jason. I just needed a- bingo! I saw that when he tried to deflect this time, his spear was at the bottom and my staff at top. I pressed down harder onto the spear and before Jason could pull away I elbowed him in the ribs not too hard but enough to make him wince and followed up with a blow from my staff onto the back of his knees making him buckle. He tripped, and fell onto the floor. Inside, I smiled. At least now I had some breathing room.

Now, it was much easier. Leaping, I knocked a very surprised Nico to the ground. He tried to resist, but I had adrenaline surging through me now, and this was much easier with less people to worry about. Sidestepping, I brought my staff down quickly, and it smacked him.

"Ouch!" Nico said, whining loudly, enough to get a little laugh out of everyone.

I rolled out of the way of Frank and Hazel. The two of them had tried to sneak up on me, but I'd seen them this time. Frank dived in again and again while Hazel kept striking at me. I decided to target Frank first as he would be more fragile since he was in bird form. While sparring against Hazel, I kept watching the bird. Then, exactly before he dived, I spun around like an ice skater, hitting Frank, and causing him to fall down. Hazel, noticing she was the last one fighting, and began to retaliate, with even more force, and dare I say, desperation?

Hazel decided to go on the offence. She gave me everything she got, slashing wildly at me. Calmly, I stepped back and focused. Some of my soldiers still do not understand that you've already lost the battle the second you begin attacking wildly like an animal (with the exception of Frank). I just gleefully parried her strikes and waited for the perfect opening. Finally, an opportunity revealed itself as she leaned in a little too much during a strike. Like a viper I pounced, with strength and agility. Leaping forward, I pushed her back, lifting my leg to avoid the falling spear, and lightly kicking her back, not hard, but with enough power to make her groan.

The battlefield was silent. I could hear a ladybird's wings flap across the wind. Everywhere, people were groaning, some too tired to get up. Out of breath, I looked up at the council.

"It's finished," I said between loud gasps of breath. Everyone looked at me unimpressed, which irritated me. After the battle, I deserved actual respect and congratulations. Eventually, Ares pointed out to me the one thing I had paid no attention to

"You forgot about your girlfriend," he said, pointing behind me. My mind broke. I just realised that the entire fight, Calypso had been nowhere to be seen. Heart frozen, I turned around, seeing Calypso, completely unscathed, a knife in her hand and a wicked smile painted on her face.

The battlefield was silent as for the millionth time, I charged. My body was aching and I was already breathing raspily. Calypso was looking at me with determination. I would've loved to think that I was staring confidently, with power and authority, but to be honest, I think I might've been looking at her with my eyes half-closed. The battle with the others had already exhausted me beyond my usual limit and now that I had one more person to fight, and I was getting worried.

I didn't know how I would pull it off, but at this point, I didn't really have a choice. Not only were my legs shaking with sleep, but I was quite nervous as well. I had never really had an actual battle with calypso. Come to think of it, I've never really fought most of the Revenant in an actual battle other than casual training.

We stopped, a few feet from each other. Calypso was watching me with fierce eyes, intent on winning. Taking a deep breath, a slight smile crept onto my mouth as I remembered Leo's favorite line. It was from a movie I had never watched, but it was ironic and suited so many scenarios, this being one of them.

"This is where the fun begins," I snickered, before propelling myself into battle.

Jumping up and using all my momentum, I swung downwards with force I didn't even know I could achieve. She was as agile as a cheetah and easily flipped out of the way, kicking my staff in mid air. I rushed again and thrusted my staff at her stomach. She side-stepped and I swept her legs from behind. Before I could hit her she rolled out of the way and threw a rock she picked up at me. I paused for a second, smirking A rock. Out of knives, staffs, spears and all the weapons on gods green earth, she went for a rock. Sighing, I quickly dodged her deadly weapon as she got up and started attacking more viciously. Swipe. Block. Sidestep. Swing. Duck. Thrust. Block. Kick. Sweep. Punch. Block. Eventually, the two of us were having the most intense duel ever. No one was backing out. The force of our strikes were only becoming more and more powerful. I could feel my staff practically shaking as I persevered.

As the duel progressed, just like she wanted, my movements became more and more sluggish, and I was breathing heavily. God or no god, you start to get tired after fighting your own soldiers for more than around six minutes straight.

Somewhere near the end, when I realised that my body was not responding to my brain anymore, I made a split second gamble. It's a gamble because… well I could've lost… badly. Amidst a strike, I quickly spun around, letting go and hurtling my staff towards my girlfriend. Obviously not expecting this, she ducked, and in that moment, I ran straight into her. The momentum threw the two of us onto the floor. This is where the risk I took began to strike back, because as we grappled with each other, Calypso's knife creeped its way towards my neck.

Jerking my neck back, I flipped the two of us, so that I was on top of her. One hand was pushing against her knife, while the other was pulling her hair. Despite the tension, Calypso obviously decided it was a good idea to make it more weird.

"Well all you wanted is to be on top of me, you should've just said so," she whispered into my ear. Face red, and praying on one else heard that, I wretched the knife from her iron-grip, cutting myself thrice in the process making it bleed immensely.

"How?" Was all she could ask before I leapt back onto my feet, pulling her up with me. I slashed at her, but she quickly ducked… just as I expected. Sweeping her legs out from behind her, I then spent no extra time pushing the knife towards her throat.

The battlefield was quiet. Very quiet. Throwing the knife to the floor, I stood up, staring with my eyes wide open at the mess I had made. Everywhere, my soldiers were on the floor, too tired and too weak to get back up. The council was looking at me, mouths gaping and eyes wide.

From somewhere, I heard clapping. It was Apollo. The sun-god was smiling widely at me, and clapping his hands together. After a while, Nico joined in, along with Jason, Hazel and Piper. Eventually, the entire battlefield was full of people clapping for me. Shakily, Leo stood up, wobbling towards me and giving me a massive, gorilla sized hug. I grinned, happy to know that my friends weren't mad mad at me for getting a bit violent. I helped Calypso to her feet as well, embracing her with wide arms. She buried her face into my shoulders and I smirked.

"You were amazing!" I told her, "But I can tell you all about that after I do my speech." Whatever members of the Revenant were with me groaned.

"It's the dad's speech!" Leo yelled, in mock horror. Rolling my eyes, I said, "You guys go to Apollo and fix yourselves up. I've seen bloodbaths that look better than you all" As they made their way to the sun god, I turned to face the rest of the council who were still not over their shock.

"If you think even for a second that I can't train you, I beg you to leave, because I am DONE wasting everyone's time and hurting my friends to prove that I can train everyone well. Leave NOW if you do not have faith in me." I wasn't angry, rather annoyed at how little the council thought of me just because I had only recently turned into a god.

Not a single person moved an inch. I nodded my head at the council, before turning around. Nico slung his arm around my shoulder and the two of us, along with my fellow soldiers, walked into the sunset, hopefully to someplace that can sell a good American cheeseburger.

"So what exactly did Calypso say that made you go so red in the face?" Leo asked with a puzzled look on his face.

Sorry for the wait guys. Hope this was an interesting chapter. I'll post again in a week. Going to try updating more often now. Also, what would everyone think about me making a discord server for this book?