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Ch. 3

Calling them "bears" and "wolves" didn't really do justice to the sheer size of the monstrosities. The ones with longer snouts stood on hind legs, fitting better the term "Werewolf", and towered over both the goddess and demigod. The other type did act as they appeared, yet they moved more like sentient boulders than actual animals. Both varieties wore fur of an unnatural shade, darker than pitch black of shadow under stormy night, along with several bone-like protrusions along their spinal regions, shoulder blades and elbows. Still nothing disturbed her more than the masking on their heads; a single plate moulded to the shape of their skulls, resembling a crude exoskeletal helmet decorated with streaks of red connecting yellow spots.

The beasts shared no instinctual traits with their visual counterparts, their savagery born without a sense of self-preservation. They flung themselves wildly at their targets, regardless of past injury or potential infliction of it. None of them seemed to experience pain or fear.

"Honestly, not as bad as the ones back home. I make three." The demigod in her company did not seem at all unsettled by the abominations before them. Then again, he held no dominion, and thus no care, for the wild. She ducked a mindless swing from yet another bear pretender.

"Twenty-seven." Each had cried the same sentiment before she'd gone for a killing blow: Death. Yet another disturbing oddity that, upon first occurence, cost a stray arrow and a thin scratch along her arm. She did not falter again. Artemis dodged with feline grace the downward strike of her assailant, who inconveniently found its arm pinned to the forest floor via a serrated silver blade, and then she buried an arctic bolt into its chest. Frost blossomed from the entry wound, fully encasing her victim in a matter of seconds. Perseus finished the beast, swinging Anaklusmos once to shatter the impromptu ice sculpture.

Her bow slung over her shoulder, she could not quite hide the shaken tone in her voice: "That was not necessary."

"I dunno. You burned another and it still kept coming after me. I'd rather err on the side of safety." Poseidon's son stooped to retrieve one of the shards, only to huff sharply and toss it back over his shoulder. "Disintegrated, even when frozen - fucking Hades."

"Why do you feel the need to keep saying that?" Artemis regarded him with an irritated expression. "I do not need that image of my uncle in my head and you most certainly don't either."

"Sorry. I'll stop."

"See that you do." As he snickered, a pebble struck the back of his head. "We had best leave now; my reserves dwindle, your blade dulls, we have no known food around us safe to eat, and I cannot teleport us to a haven."

"Why not just camp here?"

"The beach leads up the slope of a mountain and I don't believe we've seen the last of those creatures. If more come, they will force a literal uphill battle. I suggest we find shelter, preferably a cave that shields us from both the rain and a damp forest floor. Assuming that only animals of the wolf and ursal variety-"

Almost as if by fate, an enormous avian nightmare pierced the clouds and let loose an ear-splitting screech. Even from such a height, both warriors could make out the gleaming beads of red glaring a promise of excruciating pain and ruthless execution.

"Only the bear and wolf types, huh?" Percy turned to Artemis when his sarcasm received no reply, only to realize that she no longer stood beside him. Upon further examination, he couldn't see her anywhere and, since the monster apparently didn't know where she was either, it swooped low, fully locked onto his position. "I'm a moron."

Assuming that the enemy would attack using either talons or beak, the demigod tensed his legs and prepared to dive-roll out of the way. He did not expect the giant bird to abruptly pull up just before touching the ground and launch a barrage of spear-length feathers at his face. The f*ck kinda bird can do this?! Fired at point-blank range, the first of the onslaught hit him long before he could bring his arms up for cover. The feathers struck unevenly, the majority focusing on his right side, and sent him spinning like a top. Collapsing onto the ground as the hailstorm scythed through the trees and dirt around him, a feminine outcry told him the former goddess had not escaped unscathed.

Though she fell after he did, she rose first and darted off. Spotting another target weaving in and out of cover, the monster chased the bait. Artemis didn't bother checking her first shot, absent-mindedly slinging an arrow over her shoulder before immediately turning 180 degrees and dashing back the way she came. Thoroughly confused and unable to maneuver properly to pursue, the Roc-sized foe failed to evade the arrow that lodged between its wing and main body. Flames burst forth from the point of impact, tongues of fire licking up the right array of feathers. The oversized crow screeched, its panic allowing yet another silver shaft purchase, this time aimed towards its opposite side. Though the attack merely brushed the feather-tips, the full torrential force of a tornado erupted from miniscule space of an arrowhead, instantly mangling the left wing and sending the bird plummeting straight down to "Earth 2".

The archer approached the writhing, burning, grounded form of the great beast. Over and over, it shrieked the same word to her. Die. Die. Die. Die Die Die. DieDieDie. An arrow already sat notched on the bowstring, though not drawn. Her hands trembled. A monstrosity. An absolute abomination of my domain. So why can I still hear you? The raging blaze set the creature's eyes to boil and burst. Even without them, it still turned to her, staring with empty pits of agony. Die now!

She hadn't found her answer when Percy finally joined her side. "That was quick. Nice shot." Her lip shivered lightly. "We should finish this before it draws more attention." She chose not to watch him plunge his blade into its skull, not to move as a wave blanketed the charred corpse, and not to acknowledge the deafening silence in the peace that followed. "Alright, that's taken care of. Think you can do it again?"

Her eyes snapped on him so abruptly that he took a step back. "Excuse you?" Silver eyes glowed red under the moonlight, damp and bloodshot as a lunar eclipse.

The demigod recovered quickly and pointed to a light flickering sporadically farther up the mountain. The goddess shook her head and looked again. No, not flickering. Something keeps obscuring a beam of consistent radiance.

A dark shape rose above the treetops, carrying the light with it, and fully coming into view under the moonlight: a hovercraft. Annabeth's father had a model look-alike in his collection, labeled The Osprey if Percy remembered correctly, although this version supported itself using rockets rather than propellers. Illuminated alongside the vessel, dozens of much smaller devil birds swarmed the cabin and cockpit in earnest. The chaotic mess veered wildly to no effect of disengaging the threat, the pilot's view clearly obstructed.

Given her performance in the last twelve hours, the son of Poseidon no longer found himself surprised that the huntress had already covered more than half the distance between him and the aircraft. Left with one option from range, he extended his hand towards the ocean. The waves exploded, climbing twenty meters in two seconds, and fanning outward. The fluid fly-swatter soared down, dragging the ship and its assailants into a waiting enormous pool on the forest floor. Fiery streaks rained down, boiled the liquid in microseconds, and detonated the molecular structure with the force of a grenade.

Percy caught up to the former Olympian at the edge of the blast just as the mist thinned. One key feature immediately stood out to both of them: each occupant wore a mask, moulded in the shape of an animalistic skull, resembling a crude exoskeletal helmet with one hosting decorative red lines.

Artemis physically held back a snarl. "Those are very interesting masks you wear, though obviously not trophies of the monsters you've bested." They didn't respond and instead began to whisper among themselves.

~Huntsmen.~

The one with the painted face plate, clearly the leader, silenced the chatter with a raised hand. "Thank you for coming to our aid, humans." He almost spat the last word, trying his best to growl viciously. The attempt failed to intimidate either of the foreign duo. "Though to be perfectly clear, we did not require your assistance. We had the situation completely under control."

"Our bad, then. We were mistaken to lend a hand."

A pair of ashen knuckles creaked, crackling in the deafening silence that filled the air between the two parties. Those wearing masks slowly began fanning out, stooping to grab fallen blades and even a few of them retrieving rifles from the ship.

Their leader took a step forward. "Say, that's some nice-looking stuff you've got there."

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"Damn men."

"I'm pretty sure I knocked out at least one woman back there."

"The one exception. Thus, d*mn men."

Like the bright-minded individual he so appeared, their captive decided that speaking was a good idea. "Um, we're faunus."

The huntress's glare practically bore a hole through the back of the pilot's skull. "Do I look like I care?"

The fully-grown adult squealed like a little… well, Artemis wouldn't appreciate that insult. "Hey, dumb*ss. Just fly the ship."

"R-right."

Percy rolled his eyes at the cowardly nature of the "faunus". He, along with his lunar companion, eventually realized that they needed at least one of their rescuees-turned-combatants alive since neither of them could actually fly the hovercraft. Finding one proved more of a challenge than first anticipated, considering the rampage left in the goddess's wake. Their candidate turned up eventually, stuck in a tree after a silver sandal launched him ten meters into the air.

"How is it?" Broken out of his daze, the demigod followed her eyes to a large gash cut horizontally over his chest. Not even Styx could maintain her curse in another dimension.

"Fine. I didn't have the power for very long so you won't have to worry about a 'combative crutch' situation."

"I meant the injury, Perseus."

Oh. "Uh, not very deep. Honestly, I probably could have healed it back at the beach, but I didn't want to risk more nightmare attacks if I took too long."

Teeth clicking, her critical gaze softened ever so slightly. "Don't be stupid." She drew out two arrows, before snapping the heads off the shafts and tossing them to him. "Crush those. It should help a little."

He complied and an intense pain flared between his fingers, searing and freezing his palm in equal measure. Water flowed freely, drawn by will to the cut, and slowly began mending the damage. Blood vanished instantly while torn flesh turned to scar tissue, then a tender pink, and finally a full restoration. Even still, he pushed beyond, gradually rejuvenating himself.

~"Vale Tower 4 to GCSB61A, you are re-entering Vale Airspace at restricted speeds. Please slow your approach and submit entry codes."~ A lack of reply drew their eyes to their pilot, who shrank into his seat.

"Our organization acquired this vehicle illegally." He wilted under their continued glare.

~"GCSB61A, please submit entry codes."~

The faunus pressed a button on the dashboard. "Um… Just a sec, please." Artemis rolled her eyes and made her way to the cockpit.

~"Copy? GCSB61A has requested 'Just a second.'?"~ The former goddess snatched the receiver between eye blinks, leaving their captive to do a little blinking of his own.

"Oh gods, please help us! Monsters attacked us and the ship picked us up but then they attacked the ship!" The other two passengers stared at her with varying degrees of disbelief, to which she shrugged before again playing the damsel. "I'm not sure how much longer this thing will stay in the air!" Percy sighed. Well, if we're really playing it that way... Riptide transformed, sunk into the wall by his hand. He dragged the blade across, tearing a rift along the outer hull. "What was that?!"

~"Stand by."~

"Hurry up and help us!" She put down the receiver and turned to him, gesturing to the damage with a confused expression.

"Evidence helps to prove our case."

…

"Fair point." She nodded as she dragged open the side door. The faunus watched slack-jawed as the huntress loosed an arrow into the engine, setting the wing ablaze.

"Are you crazy, woman?!"

~"All aircraft in Sector C, be advised. GCSB61A is making re-entry to Port 2. Craft has sustained Grimm damage, divert all flight paths. Alerting proper authorities and medical teams. Stand by."~

Finding a complete absence of panic in either of his captors, the pilot snapped. "Oh, f*ck this!" Neither of them reacted as he dove out the aircraft.

~"GCSB61A, you are granted amnesty to touchdown at LZ3 Port 2 where recovery services are waiting."~

Artemis, teeth grinding, growled into the receiver. "We're almost there…" She snapped off another arrowhead and rammed it into the floor plating. "This is our stop."

"Huh?" Poseidon's son did not have enough time to react as the archer shoulder-checked his stomach, tackling them both into freefall as the ship burst into flames. The burning wreck sailed into a warehouse, exploding with shockwaves that rippled out over the bay. Far beneath the surface, a couple sat in an air pocket, one glaring at the other. "If anyone died up there, I'm blaming you."

"I doubt anyone missed the catastrophe that was our entry. If they were absent-minded enough to stay where it would land, I couldn't have helped them anyway. Now, while everyone else is watching the spectacle, how about we get out unnoticed?"

The demigod did not drop his frown, but did as instructed. "There had better not be casualties." They climbed out on the other side of the port, him the noticeably dryer of the pair. Her glower told him she knew he was responsible for that little detail but she said nothing.

"You could have made the impact a little softer."

"You could have warned me before tackling me out the door." Her glower darkened. "Don't give me that look."

…

She turned away and huffed quietly. "Fine. We should find some place where we can stay temporarily."

Percy took in her damp silver tunic, breastplate, gauntlets, grieves, his own orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, and the stares from every other person in their near vicinity. "Uh, yeah, how about a change of clothes first?"

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I will not be reading reviews. If you have a comment you would like me to read, please contact me directly using PM and I can respond to you privately.