The Arrogance of Man Personified

by SimplyMk

Aiden is a demigod who has seen many things, having lived in an orphanage his whole life had left him exposed to the dark side of the world. One day on his way to his usual spot of solitude, he witnesses a battle between people just like him and a beast he's only ever heard of. Read how Aiden ventures throughout this unknown yet known territory of demigods, gods and monsters.

5. Strategies in the Shadows

"The most potent wars are fought not in the open, but in the minds and hearts of strategists"

I yawned as I placed the book I was reading on the window still.

Leaning back onto the front of my bunkbed, I gazed at the ceiling of the Athena cabin, which was devoid of campers, I was the only one here after all. What this cabin was full of instead, was knowledge. It housed a multitude of books, a literal library even about various topics under the Greek Mythology, maps, warfare, strategy, philosophy, and various crafts.

The cabin was made out of marble mirroring what I assumed to be a classic Greek look with columns, a carved marble exterior and an owl carved above the door, surely because of my mother's sacred animal.

The books gave me a bit of insight into magic and its weaknesses.

For example magic is weaker during the day than it is in the night, although this was something I already knew and noticed a long time ago while I experimented with magic, but it wasn't really that much of a weakness as one would think, I just had to focus more to conjure magic properly, maybe chant as well and there was a high but not extremely high chance that the attack would have a smaller output than its original.

I didn't know whether children of Hecate had it worse than me, but I assumed their ties to magic were much more intricate than mine coupled with the fact that their parent was Hecate, it wouldn't be farfetched to say they were useless during the day.

Of course that's exaggerating it, no one is truly useless.

They may just have the wrong skillset or sometimes in the case of weakening scenarios like this, they're in the wrong situation.

It also mentioned an increase in magical energy output, efficiency, and usage when in places that are surrounded by a lot of mist, an example? Camp Half Blood.

Regardless, I had spent the entire night reading, of course this wasn't a good thing but I felt like I didn't have time to play around—no I knew I didn't have time to play around.

My conversation with Chiron was a serious eye opener for me, I found out things that I wasn't supposed to find out according to him, but he couldn't refute me because I had deduced most of it by reading's Chiron's subtle yet visible responses. This ended up causing him to reveal the rest lest I caused more harm than good with my deductions.

Chiron had underestimated me since I was a new demigod.

And that cost him.

But I won't act as if it was easy no, I had to play the clueless and with Chiron's instinctive understanding of hardships and rather caring outlook towards half-bloods, I was able to trick him fast enough to have him reveal more than he let on.

Unfortunately that would never work again since he would now be wary of me.

Had it not been for my ability to increase my processing speed using magical energy and Chiron's underestimation, I doubted I'd succeed, I'd probably not only fail but be considered dangerous which would make things worse for me when it came to information gathering.

Inside this cabin, all the beds were obviously empty, well all aside from two. One was mine and the other had a multitude of books stacked neatly and properly around their window.

Most of the books had the person's nametag on it.

They belonged to Annabeth Chase.

I assumed that was the full name of the girl known as Annabeth who had fallen off a cliff while attacking Dr. Thorn.

I read a few books from her stash by her window of course, hopefully they didn't harbor any curses of some kind.

Although, to say I was impressed would be an incredible understatement.

She seemed to focus more on knowledge and architecture, I took the time to look and analyze some of her diagrams, designs and much more.

She was talented, very much so.

I didn't struggle much, but I did raise a few eyebrows as I read through what she had written down as theoretical monuments and buildings with the construction plans all laid out.

It was taxing though, to keep up with the multitude of infrastructures in her notebooks.

I was confident that I could keep up with her and understand the infrastructures of several constructs, but I was not confident that I had her level of creativity when it came to creating these constructs.

Maybe it was because I lacked intricate knowledge of physics and math, but it didn't change the fact that she was superior now did it?

My mind was heavily focused on analysis on humans and the supernatural and ways to keep myself alive in the long run. If I had to die and come back to life to live a longer life then you best be sure I would, my foresight in my opinion is unmatched but not omniscient.

Yes, our minds were geared similarly but in different directions it seemed, my focus was completely different from hers yet I was sure she was highly intelligent regardless, even if she made a stupid move during the battle against Thorn.

Best to chalk it up to an emotional outburst.

Regardless, Annabeth Chase was an amazing person.

And she was also my half-sister of course.

There as still no confirmation that she was alive, but after my conversation with Chiron it became more likely that she was indeed alive.

Luke Castellan, Annabeth, and Thalia's childhood friend who is also the person who works under the main enemy, the "Crooked one" known as Kronos, parent of the big three, several other Olympians and Chiron himself, and also the one who rallied over half of the campers on his side for a rebellion against the gods.

Chiron didn't delve deep into their history which I understood due to how sensitive such information was, but that wouldn't stop me from theorizing of course. While Chiron spoke I was able to make several scenarios in my mind although I had to stop at certain moments to listen to what he was saying, but for now I'll just hold off, there was nothing to gain from the theories I was making in my mind.

Not yet.

What I could certainly use now was the knowledge I had gotten form the books I read which taught me more about Greek Mythology than what Sister Griselda had taught me, a lot more.

Of course I haven't read all of the books yet, but I made sure to read the ones pertaining especially to the Titanomachy since it seemed like that was the direction the current state of events were leading to.

Of course there was a chance that it could be stopped before it could occur, but I wasn't an optimist, I was more of a pessimist or perhaps maybe a realist? No, I focused more on the worst case scenarios in order to avoid things like death.

And the worse case scenario here was definitely the Titanomachy.

Perhaps the gods would get a win once again without us demigods interfering, but the issue here is that there was no way Kronos would be stupid enough not to change tactics, that was just incredibly unrealistic and stupid. He's already gathered a plethora of demigods according to Chiron's words, each with their own modern day experiences and knowledge of the gods that they could've acquired while he slept.

If anything I could see Kronos having the advantage.

As long as he played his cards properly and unpredictably but effectively, I couldn't see him losing a second time, that would be extremely embarrassing.

The question now was, would I join his side?

The answer wasn't one that I needed to contemplate much on.

It was a rather obvious no.

I was quite alright with the current state of affairs, I would rather things remained the same than be forced to work under the guy who ate his kids to avoid a prophecy and still lost to them.

Luke Castellan must be blinded by his rage to confidently follow such a guy, but what do I know?

Regardless, I would read more books later tonight hopefully.

For now, I had a lot thinking to do.

Why?

Because there was a good chance that there was a prophecy on the way.

And I had a good reason to believe so.

From Chiron's explanation on the previous prophecy induced quests, they had always appeared when something intricate in the rather silent and uncovered war between Kronos's band of misfits and Zeus's squad of morality abstract deities.

But they were also always caused by the enemy.

Had Luke Castellan not stolen the master bolt, its prophecy wouldn't have occurred, and had Percy not uncovered it after it was stolen, perhaps the world would've been destroyed by Poseidon and Zeus's battles. Had Luke Castellan not poisoned Thalia's tree, there wouldn't have been the prophesised quest for the Golden Fleece which if it wasn't acquired would've led to Thalia's death and a reduction in the camp's defenses.

Had that happened there was a great chance Luke who was a veteran when it came to camp half blood's structure and schedules would've exploited this weakness and launched a proper attack which would reduce the number of enemies significantly.

Now, why was I thinking that there was a chance for a prophecy to occur soon?

Well because I surmised that the past events were all one big trap.

And no I didn't mean Percy's previous quests.

I meant the skirmish with Dr. Thorn.

I'm a little too tired to go into details to be honest but despite my belief of a high chance of a prophecy being generated, I wasn't 100% sure it would be generated since I could indeed be wrong about the skirmish with Thorn being a trap.

I wasn't omniscient after all.

That and even if there was one, I had no idea when the prophecy would be spoken.

Perhaps in a few seconds, tomorrow, or even next week.

I had no idea how to predict the time a prophecy would be given.

I sighed and thought back to my half-sister Annabeth who according to Chiron was the Athena Cabin's counsellor.

I didn't want to be one, but her status as a cabin counsellor clearly dictated that she was a cut above the rest of Athena's children.

And from what it seemed these people met with gods frequently or perhaps that was just Percy and his group.

I had a plan I was conjuring, one that should help me develop not only myself but the powers I wielded.

Which begged the question, why do I have powers?

I had asked Chiron if the children of Athena had any special powers aside from things like the mind and perhaps physical prowess but I was met with a straight no like there was no other alternatives.

This meant that although Athena was my mother, I had a different heritage I had to take note off, surely from my father's side.

What was that heritage exactly? I had no idea but it surely had to do with magic.

This was something both Chiron and I had agreed on.

The reason being that I had explained to him my ability to manipulate what I thought was magical energy in addition to being able to see and feel some sort of power in the air which I could tell was a result of magical energy which surrounded the area around me everywhere I went and that the camp was especially surrounded by an extreme amount of it.

Chiron had thought about it for a while before he explained the existence of the mist and its properties and without a doubt, that was what I was seeing.

I also learned that I was able to manipulate the mist, rather easily too.

So, what this all meant was that I was definitely related to Hecate.

Regardless, I needed to stand out for the plan I had in mind to work properly.

While Annabeth Chase seemed to excel at architecture and knowledge, I had to show that my analysis and understanding could match or even surpass the results that her talent in architecture and knowledge would produce in certain helpful scenarios that couldn't be ignored.

That would probably allow my plan to work.

Probably.

I yawned once again and sighed before I decided to concede and wrap myself in my blanket, snuggling into the warmth it provided me.

Have to thank Chiron for this once again.

It was really warm after all.

Regardless, think more tomorrow, sleep more now.

After breakfast, I noticed Percy and Grover walking towards the meadow.

Curious, I decided to join them since I hadn't actually spoken to those two as much as I did the others.

To my surprise, I haven't seen Zoe until now. With how serious this girl was about the mission Artemis gave her, I half expected her to shoot an arrow into my window to wake me up so I could get out of the cabin.

But ever since I woke up until now I hadn't even seen a single glimpse of her, she had even missed breakfast.

I had no idea what was happening, but it meant I was free for now and away from her watching gaze.

"Percy, Grover." I called out to them causing them to stop before they turned to me.

"Oh Aiden what's up?" Percy greeted, he looked even more frantic than yesterday if that was possible.

Grover looked at me with jealousy.

"I'm alright… what's up with you?" I raised an eyebrow as I turned to Grover.

"I can't believe you get to spend the whole day with a Hunter of Artemis." Grover whined.

What? He was jealous because of that?

I would be glad to switch places if he wants.

"We can switch places if you want." I said.

Grover's eyes shimmered.

"Really?!" He looked ecstatic.

"Yeah, but I don't think Zoe would agree to it though." I told him but it seemed he was already lost in his fantasies.

"Oh well, Percy I'd like to talk to you." I shrugged and turned to him.

Percy raised an eyebrow before giving me nod.

"Sure, let's go to the meadow." He said before he began to walk away, pulling Grover with him.

We walked side by side, discussing about nothing for a bit, getting to know each other slowly but surely.

I learnt that Percy really loved blue food.

Something I didn't get.

Like blue cream or just food colored in blue?

I didn't ask.

Either way once we reached the meadow, we sat down and Percy turned to me.

"So yeah, what did you want to talk about?" He asked me as I noticed a bunch of satyrs were chasing wood nymphs through the snow. They seemed to have promised them a kiss if they caught them but it seems the satyrs were hard pressed as they hardly ever did.

"I just wanted to ask how you were doing, you seemed down lately." I pointed out.

Percy sighed and looked down before nodding.

"Yeah… the whole thing with Annabeth and there was also something last night." Percy said.

"I think Annabeth's alive." I said to him.

Percy raised an eyebrow at me, but he didn't seem shocked or anything meaning he was more curious as to why I thought so but he seemed to already be assured that she was alive.

Why was that?

"I used my head, made a bunch of theories using information Chiron gave me. She has a high chance of being alive, in my opinion." I said to him.

Not only did I think she was alive, but I also had an idea of where she could be.

Percy chuckled a bit.

"Guess you really are a son of Athena… yeah Annabeth's alive." Percy said.

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

"How… are you sure?" I questioned.

"I'll tell you in a bit." Percy said before he turned to Grover and tapped him, breaking him out of his daydream.

"H-huh? What?' Grover stammered.

"G-man, I had a dream last night." Percy said before he turned to me and I nodded showing I was listening.

Percy then told us about his dream which he actually thought was more of a nightmare but still.

Once he spoke, I felt even more confident that I knew where Annabeth was.

The place but not the location.

When he was done, Grover started twirling his finger in his shaggy leg fur.

"A cave ceiling collapsed on her?" Grover asked for clarification.

"Yeah. What the heck does that mean?" Percy wondered.

Grover shook his head.

"I don't know. But after what Zoe dreamed—"

"Whoa. What do you mean? Zoe had a dream like that?" Percy cut Grover off.

It seemed my theories were just getting proved left and right in rapid succession.

If both Zoe and Percy had a dream pertaining to Annabeth's fate, then it seemed I truly was right about a quest approaching.

Although I hadn't guessed that it would have to do with both campers and hunters.

Regardless, this told me why exactly I hadn't seen Zoe this morning.

While she may have had a dream similar to Percy, it didn't mean it was the exact same one.

Percy's dream was about Annabeth, Chiron hadn't explained the dream thing much to me, but he did say that demigods at times receive premonitions in the form of dreams.

Perhaps due to Percy's worry for Annabeth he received a premonition of her fate.

Whereas for someone like Zoe, it would be—

Artemis.

But then did Thalia not receive the dream? There was no doubt she cared about Artemis, or what about the other Hunters of Artemis? Did they receive the same dream as Zoe?

I didn't know the conditions to these dreams but there was no way they were meaningless.

There had to be a reason for it, a pattern of some kind.

"I… I don't know exactly. About three in the morning she came into the Big House and demanded to talk to Chiron. She looked really panicked." Grover explained.

I could faintly remember leaving the Big House as a result of Chiron's words because someone was screaming at his front door.

That was Zoe?

I avoided going through that door because why would I want to deal with whoever was screaming?

I dislike trouble which is more than necessary.

"Wait, how do you know this?" Percy questioned.

"I sort of camped outside the Artemis cabin." Grover blushed.

"Huh?" Now it was my turn to be confused.

That is extremely off putting behaviour.

Why were all these mystical beings so weird?

"What for?" Percy looked at him skeptically.

"Just to be, you know, near them." Grover said.

If I could be disgusted I would, but his actions were really weirding me out somehow.

"You're a stalker with hooves." Percy accused.

"I'm not! Anyway, I followed her to he Big House and hid in a bush and watched the whole thing. She got real upset when Argus wouldn't let her in. It was kind of a dangerous scene." Grover explained.

Argus was the guy with eyes all over his body if I recalled properly.

Hmm, now I'm curious who would win between him and Zoe, but there was no need to ponder than now.

"What did Zoe say?" I asked him.

Grover grimaced.

"Well, she starts talking really old-fashioned when she gets upset, so it was kind of hard to understand. But something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the Hunters. And then she called Argus a boil-brained lout… I think that's a bad thing. And then he called her—"

"Whoa, wait. How could Artemis be in trouble?" Percy questioned.

"I… well, finally Chiron came out in his pajamas and his horse tail in curlers and—"

"He wears curlers in his tail?" Percy raised an eyebrow at Grover's words.

Grover covered his mouth.

"Can we maybe focus? This sounds quite serious." I sighed.

"Sorry, go on." Percy said.

"Well, Zoe said she needed permission to leave the camp immediately. Chiron refused. He reminded Zoe that the Hunters were supposed to stay here until they received orders from Artemis. And she said…" Grover gulped as his face suddenly turned pale.

"She said 'How are we to get orders from Artemis if Artemis is lost?" Grover finished.

"What do you mean lost? Like she needs directions?" Percy questioned.

I looked at him wondering how he came to that conclusion.

"Either kidnapped or dead." I stated.

The two immediately flinched, I guess it was a little creepy to hear such words in a monotone voice.

Sorry.

"W-well she's immortal no? So she can't die. But even so kidnapped? How would you kidnap an immortal goddess? Is that even possible?" Percy questioned.

Couldn't anyone be kidnapped as long as you had a good enough trap?

"Well, yeah. I mean, it happened to Persephone." Grover stated.

"But she was like, the goddess of flowers." Percy shrugged.

"Springtime." Grover corrected while looking and sounding offended.

"Whatever. Artemis is a lot more powerful than that. Who could kidnap her? And why?" Percy wondered.

"I don't know. Kronos?" Grover shook his head as he spoke.

"He can't be that powerful already. Can he?" Percy looked worried.

I decided to add my input.

"While he's involved, I can't be 100% certain it was him and him alone. Also, with a well placed trap it doesn't matter how strong you were as long as the trap worked, then you're bound to lose." I explained.

Percy looked at me confused.

"But what kind of trap would work on an immortal goddess who hunts for a living?" Percy questioned.

This guy… I wonder how Artemis would react if she heard how he described her.

"One that doesn't have to do with hunting." I explained.

"Huh?" Percy looked even more confused.

Grover shook his head.

"I don't know guys. I think at least somebody would know if Kronos had re-formed. The gods would be nervous. But still, it's weird, you having a nightmare the same night as Zoe. It's almost like—"

"They're connected." Percy stated.

I thought that was rather obvious?

"Hey Percy." I called out to him.

Percy turned to me.

"Yeah?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Whenever you get dreams like that tell me about them, It'll help us strategize for the future." I said. These dreams were clearly a valuable source of information. Since one couldn't be aware of what the enemies were doing unless having seen them, these dreams were rather valuable and there was no guarantee or explained method in order to force them to happen.

According to Chiron they just did.

So Percy was a perfect source of information on the enemy's whereabouts and plans.

"That is true, damn you really are a son of Athena." Percy grinned and nodded.

Good, that took care of things.

I turned my gaze over in the frozen meadow, a satyr skidded on his hooves as he chased after a redheaded tree nymph.

Did their hair color match their leaves or something?

The tree nymph giggled and held out her arms as he ran toward her but before he could touch her suddenly turned into a scotch pine and he kissed her trunk at top speed.

So it does depend on their leaves huh.

"Ah, love." Grover said dreamily.

More like desperation.

What did the other orphans like to say whenever I did something and was scrutinized for it?

Couldn't be me?

"I've got to talk to Zoe." Percy said determined.

It seemed he had gathered his thoughts.

"Um, before you do…" Grover's voice trailed off as he took something out of his coat pocket. I regarded it with curiosity, it was a three-fold display like the travel brochure one of the orphans who had been recently adopted showed me before they left with their rich parents.

I had no idea what it was initially when I was much younger, but sister Griselda explained it to me.

"You remember what you said about how it was weird the Hunters just happened to show up at Westover Hall? I think they might've been scouting us." Grover explained.

I raised an eyebrow, had Artemis not stated that she had sensed the manticore's presence?

I mean, there was no need to take her word as absolute truth, goddess or not I wouldn't put it past her to lie, but what would even be the point of lying about this?

Of course there was a chance Grover was just speculating.

"Scouting us? What do you mean?" Percy questioned.

And how exactly would the Hunters scout them? I mean surely they could only scout Thalia, Bianca, and Annabeth due to them being girls but Thalia hates them, Bianca's already with them and Annabeth is gone.

Although right now she has the most potential to join them due to still being alive, but there was a chance that Thalia could change her mind in the future.

Grover handed the brochure to Percy, and I leaned in to read it as well. It was about the Hunters of Artemis.

They had brochures for advertisement?

I wish I could laugh right now.

This actually has the potential to be extremely amusing if it already isn't.

The front of the brochure read, A WISE CHOICE FOR YOUR FUTURE! Inside of it were pictures of young maidens doing hunter stuff, chasing monsters, and shooting bows.

I guess even millennia old hunters had to keep up with the times.

I continued reading, noticing captions like: HEALTH BENEFITS: IMMORTALITY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU! And A BOY-FREE TOMORROW!

What was this a scam?

Granted since I was part of this world it clearly wasn't.

But any mortal who had no idea what this was, would clearly think it was a scam.

It reminded me of several people who I saw tricking others in alleyways when sister Griselda used to force me outside to go on a walk.

"I found that in Annabeth's backpack." Grover added.

Wait… oh, oh? She planned on joining?

People only took these things if they had at least the least bit interest after all.

"I don't understand." Percy said as he stared at Grover.

Percy wasn't stupid, although not as smart as me he was at least above average I believe.

Was he in denial?

"Well, it seems to me…. Annabeth was thinking of joining." As Grover spoke Percy paled.

So he wasn't in denial?

"I-I see…. Well I'll go take a walk for a bit. See you guys later." Percy stood up and walked away before Grover and I could say anything, his emotional turmoil was evident.

This is getting out of hand, this guy seemed to be getting worse and worse by the day and it was all because of Annabeth.

Did he like her or something?

That was most likely it, if not then I couldn't understand what was wrong with him.

"What's wrong with him?" Grover asked.

I shrugged.

"No idea. But I'll be headed to Zoe now lest she goes out looking for me and shoots me or something." I said as I stood up.

"Yeah, see you later. Lucky guy…" Grover muttered.

This guy…

"See you."

I just walked away.

I took some time to return back to my thoughts as I walked across the snowy meadow.

Should I go talk to Zoe now or do I go start my plan.

Well I had several plans in mind, talking to Zoe would fall under my 'gain her trust' plan while my other contemplation would fall under my most recently made plan.

The one I made overnight.

After much thought, I turned away and began to walk away from Cabin Eight.

My destination?

Ares Cabin.

I exhaled, watching how my breath showed itself in the cold. The snow crunched under my feet as I made my way towards the Ares Cabin.

Magical energy pumped through my body, it was slightly more than usual.

I always pumped magical energy through my body in order to always be at my best.

Although I wasn't sure how well I would do, but for the sake of my plan I would have to go through with this, it was the fastest way from all the others I had seen.

As I approached the cabin, I couldn't help but notice how imposing it was, the building was crafted with red-painted walls and its front door was decorated with a large, menacing boar's head. It also had wooden spiked fences neatly arranged in front of the cabin as if it were ready for a war.

I felt a few stares on my person as I approached the cabin, turning to see who exactly were those staring at me, I noticed a group of extremely beautiful girls.

They had to be children of Aphrodite with the way they were huddled together seemingly gossiping and staring at me with eyes that I felt as if I would lose myself in if I stared any longer.

But why were they looking at me? Was it because I was new?

Regardless, I had a job to do.

I stopped at the front door and lifted my leg, before I swiftly kicked her door open revealing the inside of the cabin which seemed full of weapons and armor. The aura from this place was rather competitive and aggressive, probably due to Ares being a bloodthirsty god who kept getting beat in the mythology for some reason.

Perhaps he won in some of the books I hadn't read yet.

Regardless, I spotted two Ares children who immediately glared at me as they noticed me.

"Who the hell are you?" A large, burly boy with a scar across his cheek asked gruffly, he was not amused in the slightest.

I ignored him and began to look around.

Their bunk beds were surprisingly neatly arranged for a bunch of people who only thought of fighting.

Or perhaps was Ares the god of discipline? Because he definitely didn't seem smart in the myth.

Not as smart as my mom anyways.

"Hey! He's talking to you." The second Ares kid that was here spoke, it was a girl with short-cropped hair and a piercing gaze.

She stepped forward.

Why the hell were even the women so built?

These people really were Ares' kids, they seemed ready for war at any possible moment.

But their presence here meant that the other two Ares kids were out right now.

I remembered seeing exactly 4 of them yesterday at dinner, and according to the orientation film, campers were not allowed to skip meals.

"Hmm? Sorry. I didn't think you were capable of speech." I said in my usual tone.

I wish I could at least modify my voice to sound mocking.

Hmm, maybe I could with magic?

An experiment for later.

"The hell did you say?" The boy's eye twitched.

"Alright meatheads, I heard the Ares cabin was the strongest here or something. As the son of the goddess of warfare I've come to reveal to you that you're worth about as much as foot soldiers." I said.

The two seemingly froze at my words before the girl began to chuckle.

"You… you don't want this fight." She said as she picked a weapon from her side, a longsword.

"Using weapons? Of course you'd attack me who has no experience with one using a weapon. I heard that Ares always used cheap tricks, couldn't expect any more from his kids I guess." I shrugged.

"You fucking shit! Let's take this outside! I'll show you your damn place Athena kid." The burly man said.

"Outside you say? I'd be happy to put you in your place in front of an audience." I said as I walked outside without turning my back to them.

As I reached the stairs, I jumped back and landed a few ways away from the Cabin's door.

Not even a second later, the burly kid came out but the girl didn't come out.

I raised an eyebrow, I had expected both of them to come at me at the same time but I guess not.

Or were they planning something else?

"Your sister isn't coming? I always heard that it was rather embarrassing for brothers to lose in front of their sisters so I can't blame you for having her out of this." I taunted.

"You're one crazy fucker you know that. See if I won't shatter that back of yours and leave you bedridden for insulting my father." The boy sneered.

"I insulted him? I merely stated facts. Would you get mad as well if I revealed his millennia old losses to mortals?" I taunted more.

Slowly but surely we continued to argue, his voice getting louder and louder while mine remained calm.

This caused several campers to come see what was happening, among them were Nico, the Stoll brothers, Grover, and Thalia.

The Hunters and Percy weren't here.

Well there wasn't any reason for them to be here in the first place, they weren't campers so they actually had nothing to do with this.

Percy on the other hand was probably still dealing with his emotional turmoil.

I had to finish this before Chiron showed himself though.

"Have you stalled enough, you muscle brained embarrassment." I insulted.

The boy was already red, and yet he didn't make a move, further showing me that they had something planned.

His sister hadn't come out yet either, so that meant either she was getting ready, or she was—

Communicating.

"Aiden! Behind you!" I heard Thalia's voice.

I reacted adequately, I turned and caught a punch before quickly subduing my attacker by pushing them down and holding their shoulder.

"Ack!" The boy struggled to free himself to no avail but in this particular position, I was capable of overpowering him, which I did.

"Tch." The burly boy clicked his tongue and quickly moved forward.

I glanced at the boy I had just caught, he was one of the Ares campers I saw yesterday, I blonde haired man with several battle scars and a lean but muscular figure.

He wasn't bad, his swing was fast and had power behind them.

I should probably thank Thalia after this.

I slammed my knee into my assailant's stomach causing him to double down in pain before I moved quickly, dodging two hooks aimed at my face before I punched the burly boy's right side twice.

His skin was tough, a testament to his well defined muscles. and I'd rather not admit it, but my knuckles hurt a lot just from hitting him.

I made some distance, flexing my wrist in order to reduce the pain.

The burly boy took a stance, it seemed his stance was more focused on footwork, but that didn't mean his punches were ones to ignore.

He moved forward again, even faster than before but just like our previous encounter, I was ready.

I quickly deflected two punches, ducked under the next before I slapped the following away and took a step back avoiding another.

Each time he swung he grunted, showing that he was not playing around, something that his red face and veiny neck conveyed regardless.

But no matter how many times he swung, he just kept hitting air.

"Yeah! Get him Aiden!" I heard Nico cheer.

"Can you guys not?" I could hear Grover as well in the crowd of cheers, he seemed to be the only voice of reason but I wasn't willing to listen.

At the corner of my left eye I noticed his brother getting up, despite the dodging I had kept my eyes on him to make sure I couldn't be caught by surprise.

I deflected two more blows before I struck the burly boy's solar plexus.

I once saw a street fight beside my orphanage, one of the kids slammed his fist into the area right above the stomach of his opponent and I could've sword he died.

I hadn't stayed to check of course since I didn't care but I was once curious as to whether monsters had this kind of weakness as well so I asked sister Griselda if she could get me books on Biology so I could study more on humans first.

From then on I learnt a fair bit if not a serious lot of the human body.

The burly boy winced but didn't fall, his muscles and resistance were well developed, so much so that a single full powered blow from me at such a weak spot wasn't enough to incapacitate him.

He moved to throw another punch but I kicked the back of his knee sending him on one knee and struck the side of his neck cutting his breath off.

"Gughk!" He struggled to breathe but that was no my problem, I grabbed his head and slammed my knee onto his face before I punched his left jaw.

"You bastard!" His brother shouted as he rushed towards me.

"Next time stay quiet."

The attack he was about to launch would've been much more effective had he shut up, I quite frankly didn't care.

I picked a bunch of snow and chucked it at his face blinding him.

"Ack!" He cried as the snow hit his eye, yet he still swung blindly.

I deflected his blow and slammed my knee into his stomach yet again knocking the wind out of him before I struck his neck and smacked his face backwards knocking him out.

I then quickly turned to the burly boy and kicked his face reaping his consciousness as well.

"Is that it?" I asked out loud.

There were still two other Ares campers out there, beating these two wasn't enough, I had to bait all of them to come out first.

"Guess Ares cabin was really all talk huh?" I shrugged.

"Let's go Aiden!" Thalia cheered.

Despite her reaction, I felt like she'd jump in if I were ever in danger.

No, that wasn't a feeling, it was something I was sure of knowing her personality.

Both her and Percy were similar, but unlike Percy, Thalia seemed much more confident in herself, even though she had moments of vulnerability.

Moments that I was the only one to see recently.

"I underestimated you." Someone walked out from the crowd, his sharp gaze and well defined jaw resembled that of the Ares cabin members, but his face was without any scars.

Despite this, I could tell.

This man was stronger than the ones I had just beaten.

His build was similar to mine, lean but muscular but I couldn't tell whether we had the same level of strength or anything.

Most likely not.

I didn't come here to lose after all.

"Can you guys not fight, please?!" Grover made his presence known, but none of us were willing to listen.

It wouldn't do any good if he busted in here and got hurt although I was unsure whether he was brave enough to do that because despite his words he seemed to be shaking a little.

No, I couldn't call him a coward, he was brave enough to try to intervene as is.

"Just stay there man, don't come here." I said to Grover.

I didn't need him coming here, it'd just complicate things. I needed to beat all of these people and if Grover came in to stop me it might not leave enough of an impact.

An impact is exactly what I needed here, and beating them all would be enough, but I'll go a bit over the top for the last guy.

A lasting impression must be left.

My gaze was still fixated on the guy in front of me who chuckled.

"What are you doing Lily? Will you let him get away with hurting our brothers?" The guy called.

"Of course not!"

My body reacted quickly, I ducked under an overhead kick, the wind from it ruffled my hair.

That kick potentially had the power to literally snap my neck.

"I won't let this slide!" The girl who had stayed in the cabin followed with an onslaught of kicks.

If you wouldn't let it slide then why didn't you all come at me at the same time.

The only reason why they wouldn't do so was because while they had strength, they lacked coordination.

None of them seemed to be the actual cabin counselor after all so they were all simply just powerful fighters and that's it.

I decided to test whether my hypothesis was true and I blocked one.

My whole arm—no even my bones rattled from the force.

It hurt a lot.

I ducked under the next kick, I couldn't allow myself to take more of those else I would lose.

"Stop dodging!" She complained.

These people were clearly more experienced than I was.

I took a step back dodging another kick, Lily rushed in once again but this time instead of stepping back I rushed in as well.

Her eyes widened slightly as I used her force against her and pushed her leg to the side before I struck her neck cutting off her air supply.

I grabbed her head and slammed it into the ground ending our battle as she lost consciousness.

"Ohhhh…." A loud wince was heard from the onlookers.

Did I go too far? I think not, but hopefully she didn't get any brain damage from this.

She wasn't necessary for a lasting impact.

I turned to the last Ares kid in the camp and began to walk towards him.

"Hmm, so you really want to take all of us out huh? Alright, I'll humor you." He grinned manically.

This guy was crazy about fighting.

"You're not scared?" I asked him.

He merely chuckled.

"Scared of what? Losing? This is just an opportunity to learn." He responded.

An opportunity to learn huh? I as well took battles as an opportunity to learn.

Because of that I had no choice but to respect him.

He took a step, matching my pace as we both approached each other.

The cheering had stopped—no, I had simply drowned out all the sounds from my surroundings, my focus was solely on the guy before me.

Suddenly he sped up and I deflected a kick aside before I grabbed his fist which was aimed at my head.

I slapped his elbow straightening his arm so he couldn't pull it back and aimed a strike at his neck which he grabbed.

He pulled me in and began to turn, clearly trying to disorient me.

I kneed his stomach causing him to double down, following it up with an elbow to his chin and a kick which sent him crashing onto his Cabin door.

He gasped and held his stomach.

It seems he lacked the stamina and endurance of the burly kid but clearly has the technique to beat him.

He was similar to me but without my level of intelligence.

"You're good." I had to admit, I hadn't expected him to block the strike aimed at his neck, but I guess I've been aiming for necks a lot for some time so it was pretty predictable.

Best to change a little.

"Hahaha, I don't need your cheep praise." He spat as he began to stand up.

"I can see why you talk so confidently, but your apathetic face pisses me off!" He grabbed a part of the spiked fence and threw it at me forcing me to dodge.

He quickly rushed me, aiming a kick at my side which I blocked but the force pushed me back a little.

He moved slightly faster than before and quickly slammed me into the wall, using his arm to put pressure on my neck.

"I'm curious Athena kid, why are you doing this? What hidden plan do you have?" He questioned as he put even more pressure.

This guy was completely unlike the other Ares kids, he was quite smart.

His manner of fighting was just like the street fights I watched, through sheer instinct.

He fought just like I did, but unlike him I had more knowledge on the human body and its weaknesses, but perhaps his instincts as a child of war would negate such knowledge.

I grabbed his arms, pushing them back slightly to give myself some room to breathe.

"I have my own reasons." I stated.

"That so?!" He grabbed my neck.

"Mind sharing them?!" He exclaimed as he tightened his grip cutting off my air supply.

"Aiden!" I heard Thalia's voice filled with worry.

I kicked his knee sending him off balance before I struck his stomach twice.

He caved in to reduce the impact but it was enough to free myself and I slammed him into the wall.

He reacted quickly, grabbing another spiked fence, and throwing it at me forcing me to leap away in order to dodge.

Not giving me any room to breathe, he followed with an onslaught of attacks, all of which I meticulously blocked before I pushed him away.

"Do you see yourself winning this?" I asked curiously.

He chuckled and resumed his onslaught, even faster and more vicious then before, like a venomous snake which kept trying to bite and end its prey, going for all possible weak spots.

"Do you think I can't win?!" He questioned as I caught his fist and smacked his face.

"I'll be honest, no." I told him.

He grinned.

"You're a smart kid so I'm sure you know of this, but this won't end here. I don't care what I have to do, one day I'll pay you back in full if you win here." He promised.

"Lose the battle but win the war huh? I can't fault you for that." I said.

"I knew you'd understand!" He rushed in for another blow but I kicked up snow in his face which caused him to strike blindly allowing me to grab his arm and slam my elbow into his face.

"That doesn't mean you'll win though." I said before he quickly turned the tables on me, grabbing my hand and slamming me into an awkward position on the wall.

"Don't be stupid Athena kid. You said my dad used underhanded methods didn't you? You think I won't use any!" He slammed his knee into my stomach but I had blocked it with my only free arm.

He grinned as if elated that I was resisting before he continued with an onslaught of attacks.

He rained punches and kicks, aimed at my face and stomach.

But I blocked all of them.

He slammed me into the wall again, by this point my palm was red and twitching.

"You're not bad, no for a new demigod you're frankly amazing!" He exclaimed.

"Sorry but I don't have time for this, please hurry it up." I still had to go to Zoe after all, I would appreciate if he could hurry and end this battle if he could.

His eyebrows twitched.

"Is that so?!" He sneered as he tried to knee me again but I blocked it.

This time I pushed forward as hard as I could and smacked his face multiple times disorienting him.

He quickly recovered and came at me but I deflected his blows and punched him twice at the side of his head.

"Ugh!" He coughed as he took a few steps before falling to his knees.

"You…. You really are something." He muttered as he wiped the blood trickling from his mouth and stood up.

"I have no idea why you're doing this but beware I already warned you." He said as he began to circle me like prey.

"I don't really care to be honest, just come at me." I said.

I had a read on his personality already, he hated to be ignored or disrespected.

And that's exactly what I was doing by telling him to hurry it up, showing him how bored of this fight I was.

"You little shit." He muttered before he charged at me.

I stood firm, widening my stance as he crashed into me before I quickly pushed him away separating myself from him.

He charged again but I quickly deflected his punches and struck him twice on both sides of his face using my palm and elbow.

"This should be enough."

I grabbed his shirt and swept him off his feet before I straddled him and began to rain blows onto his face.

He struggled under my onslaught, but managed to grab my clothes and pull me down to his level to stop my onslaught.

"I'm not interested in hugs." I muttered.

"Shut up!" He said while panting.

I quickly free myself and caught a punch from him which was aimed at my face before I struck his jaw with my left hand.

He spat blood but kept a sickening and amused grin on his face.

"This won't stop me." He exclaimed.

I continued hitting him.

"I don't know what your plan is."

I continued hitting him.

"But don't you think this is over."

I continued hitting him.

"You should relish in your victory for now!"

I continued hitting him.

"Because it's the last one you'll ever have."

I continued hitting him.

"Now smile Athena kid! Grin and laugh as you claim victory for yourself!"

Smile? Grin? Laugh?

Why would I do that?

This wasn't exciting.

"Come on! Show me! Show me how you feel!"

Show you what?

I knew exactly what expression was on my face at the moment.

I stopped.

The boy paused as I stopped before he turned to me and his swollen eyes widened.

"While I get what you're talking about, how does this apply to me?" I asked in my usual flat tone.

"H-hu—"

I punched him.

"Why would I smile, grin or laugh when doing something like this?" I asked as I punched him again.

"What's there to be happy about? Victory? I'm doing this out of necessity, it's not fun."

I wasn't doing this for some quest for valor or recognition.

I wanted to survive.

I needed to survive.

I continued punching him.

As I continued to punch him, blood splattered from his nose and mouth onto the floor.

I had no idea what the campers expressions were, but I was sure they were horrified.

Regardless.

I stopped.

"This should be enough."

Yes, this should be enough.

The boy under me was gasping for air, his face bloodied and swollen as a result of my relentless blows.

My hand which I used to beat him was bruised, twitching, and covered in his blood.

"Do not feel bad." I said to him as I lifted my hand one last time.

Do not feel bad because you were at very useful to me.

Maybe one day when you find out my reason for doing this, you'll revel in the joy of being part of this strategy.

I swung one last time—

"STOP!"

My body froze and for a moment my mind blanked.

I was confused, what was happening? My entire body had stopped moving and I felt as if my mind was getting overridden, the only thing I could think off was to stop moving my fist and therefore I stopped.

Magical energy entered my brain.

My mind instantly cleared and I turned my head towards the direction where the voice came from. My priorities switched in a fraction of a second, I had to find whoever stopped me.

The way groups of people worked was that when one thing happened after the other especially in two different areas, most people would look in the area with the greater interest. The fact that someone screamed and stopped me definitely garnered the stares of some if not most people.

So where?

Where are you?

I scanned the area, my eyes moving from one person to another.

And that's when I saw it, a group of people looking straight at one girl.

There you are.

I changed my priority and I swung knocking the Ares camper out.

I exhaled and sat upright, what was that though?

I had no idea what that was, but my mind had been penetrated instantly with ease as if I had little to no defenses against what had just occurred.

This was bad.

I was aware there were surely more complex powers that this mythological world filled with gods, monsters and demigods contained, but a power which could completely strip one of their will instantly?

I had to be careful.

Very careful.

I felt someone approach me, instinctively I decided to look up only to see to see electric blue eyes glaring at me from above.

It was Thalia, and she seemed extremely mad.

"You better explain yourself Aiden." Thalia bit her lip as she glared at me, she was unamused by what had just occurred.

Was she friends with the Ares Camper I beat? No, then she would've stopped me herself, was she familiar with him then? This was a small camp, it wouldn't be out of the question.

Then why did she take so long to step up?

"Aiden." Thalia called again, it was clear she wanted a clear answer from me as to why I did this.

I could infer several dynamics from camp half blood that the orientation video and the conversation with Chiron omitted such as the mentality of the campers around here.

But now was not the time to think about it.

"It'd be better if I told you somewhere else." I said to her, making sure to look straight into her eyes to communicate how important it was.

Thalia narrowed her eyes but nodded showing she understood what I wanted to convey.

"Let's go." She said as she grabbed my arm and dragged me away from prying eyes.

"What the hell was that?" Thalia asked as she finally stopped walking once we were far from prying eyes.

"What was what?" I asked.

Thalia glared at me, she seemed really angry.

"Don't play games with me Aiden. I thought that was just a spar to test yourself or something, I was skeptical when you slammed Lily's head on the ground but when you started beating Jason so badly… I couldn't understand it!" Thalia said, her voice laced with several emotions such as confusion and anger.

"You seemed cold, much colder than usual, as if you were really going to kill him…" Thalia muttered.

It looks like my actions really shook her, perhaps it was fine to kill monsters but when it came to humans she drew the line.

Unfortunately I didn't allow myself to differentiate.

Because I believed that humans could be monsters as well.

The orphanage taught me that.

"Testing myself was part of it, but I wouldn't do something like that for a mere test." I explained.

"Really?" She glared at me.

"Yes, really. I'm sorry if it disturbed you." I said.

I had to keep a good relationship with Thalia, I wouldn't want my effort from the previous day to all be for naught now would I?

"At least sound sincere when you say it…" Thalia muttered clearly frustrated.

I sighed.

"I swear on the river Styx that I had an adequate reason for doing this."

Thunder boomed in the sky as I spoke, and Thalia looked at me horrified.

She grabbed my hood.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! An oath on the Styx isn't some promise between kids! It could kill you!" She glared at me.

"I know, but how else could I convince you that I had a good reason for this?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You…" Thalia sighed, she looked like she had given up.

"You idiot." She muttered before she let me go.

It looks like I really did hurt her somehow.

Or was I interpreting this wrongly?

"Sorry." I apologized, anytime something either went wrong or seemingly did an apology whether sincere or not was the answer. It was the fastest way to just skip through whatever unneeded thing the other party had to say, I was more curious about something else right now.

"Could I pose you a question?" I asked her.

Thalia raised an eyebrow.

"You just did." She pointed out.

I had to hold myself back from sighing, she knew very well what I meant, regardless it'd be best to just go through with it.

"Before I could hit my last blow against that Ares camper, Jason right? Someone shouted stop and I couldn't move anymore, in fact I felt as if I was controlled or something, what was that?" I asked her.

That was a dangerous ability, I had to know who had that power no matter what.

Even though I could already envision a counter for it.

"Oh that? That was Silena, she used charmspeak on you." Thalia answered.

Charmspeak? What the hell was that?

"What's that?" I asked her.

I needed to know if it had more capabilities after all, I needed all the knowledge this girl had before I would confront Silena myself.

"It's a persuasive power that some children of Aphrodite have, lets them control you or something along those lines, or well would persuade be better? Yeah let's go with that." Thalia explained.

Forced persuasion huh, then I guess me being forcefully stopped would make sense.

Silena, daughter of Aphrodite, I definitely need to meet you.

Once I was done speaking with Thalia, I walked straight to the Artemis cabin which seemed to have an extremely somber atmosphere.

On my way there, campers stared at me with a mixture of awe, fear, and concern.

I didn't mind, I ignored them.

But one of them walked towards me.

"Excuse me?" I paused as I recognized the voice, it was the same person that had used Charmspeak against me when I faced the Ares campers.

I turned, my Ruby eyes meeting her bright blue ones.

Certainly she was a daughter of Aphrodite, I felt no attraction but for some reason I felt as if I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

"Yes? How can I help you, uhhh?" I trailed off.

"Silena, Silena Beauregard, cabin counsellor of cabin 10." She introduced.

"Well Silena I'm Aiden, currently the only child in cabin 6." I mirrored her introduction. I wasn't a cabin head and therefore couldn't claim to be one, not like such a lie would work.

All the cabin heads were surely aware of each other.

"Nice to meet you Aiden, I'd like to talk to you about what you did before." Silena said.

Her voice was soft, almost like a melody. I could see it in her eyes that she was merely worried for the other campers, and with the way she looked at me I could tell that worry extended to me as well.

Even after what I did?

Were all children of Aphrodite this kind? Or was there some trick going on here.

If there wasn't a trick then this was bad, genuine kindness was something I struggled to believe in.

Because my mind was always geared to discerning trouble.

"Sure, I'm currently headed to Cabin 8, we can talk on our way there, is that fine?" Despite the difference in our tone of voice, I tried to mirror her politeness because well there was no reason to be impolite was there.

Silena shuddered, glaring at cabin 8 which was in the distance.

She definitely didn't like the Hunters it seemed.

"Okay we can just talk here then, you look like you don't like that cabin." I said.

Silena turned back to me with a raised eyebrow.

"You're pretty observant aren't you? Yeah I hate those guys." She giggled.

"Well I'm a son of Athena after all, what would I be if not observant?" I shrugged.

She smiled at me.

"Yeah I guess the mind is where you guys excel at the most." She commented.

"That's kind of all we have." I sighed.

Silena laughed at what I said, she had a rather cute laugh to be honest and looked very beautiful while doing so.

"You know, if you hadn't been claimed as a child of Athena we would've thought you were a child of Aphrodite." She suddenly said.

I raised an eyebrow, why would she think that?

"Why would you think that?" I asked curiously.

"Well Athena kids always have blonde hair and gray eyes, no idea why but that's how it's always been. You on the other hand have a beautiful blend of red, black, and white hair with beautiful Ruby eyes. Didn't you notice the other Aphrodite girls staring at you? Your features are super unique." She commented.

Unique huh? I definitely was always considered unique be it in the orphanage or even here it seems despite being surrounded by other mythologically involved people.

Yet unlike how it seemed in the orphanage, being unique here was much more appreciated it seemed.

Maybe staying here was really for the best.

"Thanks I guess." I said to her.

"Oh my, are you embarrassed Aiden?" Silena covered her mouth as she held back a giggle.

Was I?

I hoped not.

"Hahahahaha I was joking, why'd you narrow your eyes like that? Don't you know what your face looks like?" Silena laughed.

I sighed, I would shake my head and tell her that I knew I wasn't, after all I didn't feel the rush of blood to my face that would accompany such a feeling.

But I stayed quiet and decided to let her laugh, it was a sight to see and a good thing to listen to after all.

I guess being a child of the goddess of beauty and love certain things you did just seemed a lot better when it had to deal with the potential to influence attractiveness.

But I also had things to do.

"Sorry to stop your laughter, although I like it I kind of have to go to Zoe before she comes out here and shoots me with an arrow." I said.

Silena blushed as she paused and chuckled a bit, twirling her finger in her hair before she nodded at me.

"Sure, good luck with that, Aiden, later then?" She said.

I nodded.

"See you later." With that, I turned to walk away.

"Oh wait! I forgot." Silena grabbed my arm and stopped me, confused I turned to her and once again our eyes met.

Was she trying to make me fall for her?

That won't work but for a moment I certainly couldn't take my gaze off of her.

"Please don't do what you did to the Ares campers again…. The camp is already extremely tense with everything that's going on, I'm sure you don't know yet but as time passes you'll find out so please refrain from doing that." Silena said softly.

I nodded my head, understanding what she meant especially since I knew that war was brewing.

"Sure, I'll be mindful next time, I'll definitely come to you so you can stop me with that weird power you have if I feel like causing mischief." I said.

Silena's cheeks flushed as she let go of me.

"Oh sorry about that, I didn't mean to use Charmspeak on you, but I also had to stop you." She said, her eyes turning resolute as she met mine.

I see, kind, caring, and extremely determined.

That was who Silena Beauregard was.

"It's fine, I won't hold it against you, but I gotta go so see you." I said to her before I turned and walked away towards cabin 8.

I heard her respond to my good bye and merely waved back at her silently before I returned my focus back to cabin 8.

As I arrived, I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

I stood there for a while, receiving neither a word of acknowledgement nor the opening of the door.

I knocked again.

Once again nothing.

"Zoe!" I called out to her.

I received no answer again.

"I'll keep screaming your name you know? Until you come ou—"

The door opened, but it was Bianca instead of Zoe and she looked extremely worried.

"Aiden… now may not be the best ti— Are you okay?!" Bianca's demeanor changed from worried to extremely worried.

I raised an eyebrow before I followed her gaze and looked down to my bloodied knuckle.

"Don't worry about it, it's not mine." I said as I conjured water using magic and cleaned my hands.

"What?" Bianca looked at me confused.

"I was in a fight but that's a story for later. I'm here for Zoe who has neglected her mission of watching over me." I stated.

"You want to be watched?" Bianca raised an eyebrow.

"I mean no but…" Okay that may have not been the best excuse to use.

"Anyways, this might not be the best time Aiden." Bianca said with a solemn look on her face.

"Why? Cause of Artemis?" I asked.

Bianca's eyes widened.

"Y-you know?" She asked me.

"I know a lot more. That's why I wanted to talk to Zoe, it's urgent and has to do with lady Artemis." I stated.

Bianca hesitated a little, looking back into her cabin before facing me again, doing this a few times before she sighed.

"I'll talk to her." She said.

"Thank you." I nodded.

Bianca nodded before she walked back into the cabin and closed the door behind her.

I stayed quiet as I waited and waited, before finally the door opened to reveal Zoe who clearly looked distraught.

"What does thee want?" She was no amused in the slightest to see me, but although she was mad, she lacked the same energy she had from the previous days.

While before she seemed to have a profound hatred, now it was quite dull and lacked emotion.

"To talk, I figured somethings out and think you would like to hear it." I said to her.

"Speak here." She sighed.

I shook my head.

"No can do Zoe, this is serious." I said.

"I do not trust thee—"

"I swear on the river Styx that what I'm about to talk about is urgent and important."

Thunder boomed in the sky once more as a result of my words.

Zoe looked at me in shock and disbelief.

I sincerely hoped that there wasn't a number limit for how may of these one could do in a day or so because if so then I might soon fall under a curse or something for swearing so much.

"Is thee crazy?" Zoe looked appalled, clearly not expecting me to do such a thing at all.

"You wouldn't listen with words only, so an oath to the Styx was the fastest way to make you see reason." I explained.

The fastest and of course the most dangerous way.

Zoe although skeptical finally sighed.

"I see but I still do not trust you." She stated.

"I know, so trust my oath on the Styx instead." I said.

"Bianca!" Zoe called.

Bianca walked out of the cabin looking worried.

"Make an oath that thee wouldn't hurt Bianca and myself." Zoe said.

I blinked confused, was she really going to go this far just because she didn't trust me?

I sighed.

"I swear on the river Styx that I would never willingly harm either Bianca or Zoe."

Thunder boomed once again, I was really pushing it with these promises.

But it was the fastest way to convince these people after all so perhaps it was open to abuse.

The context here is what does it mean to harm and who is considered Bianca or Zoe?

Had I said Bianca di Angelo or Zoe Nightshade then the promise would be on them, but what if I was focusing on another Bianca and Zoe?

For example the one I met years ago who had already lost her life or a Zoe that I saw on television?

As the one who made the oath, it would only make sense that my thoughts and my thoughts alone would define what the oath on the Styx meant.

Meaning I could manipulate and use these promises as long as I wanted to with the right wording and understanding.

"Good, let us go then." Zoe said to Bianca who looked around confused but nodded and waked towards us.

And the three of us walked into the woods.

That night after dinner, it was finally time for capture the flag.

I had a feeling that the hunters would win this.

Of course I could strategize and defeat them if I wanted to, I was fairly confident that I could come up with a good enough strategy to do so.

But I didn't come here to win, in fact winning in such a game meant nothing to me.

Therefore I couldn't care less about the outcome and wouldn't think more than necessary about what was in front of me.

There were only thirteen hunters and about the same number of campers, although equal in numbers, we were not equal in strength or experience.

How many hunters could I successfully take on my own?

Wielding my full arsenal of powers in this place would be detrimental to everyone but me, including those on my team so I couldn't carelessly use magic.

Because of that, the number of hunters I could take on my own and win shortened immensely because that meant I'd have to hold back and focus a lot to shorten the magical energy used but make maximum use of it.

I took my position beside the others who were standing together, on one side were the campers and the other the Hunters with Chiron standing in the middle preparing to announce the game's start.

I looked towards the Hunters, they seemed worse for wear as Zoe looked pretty upset, glaring resentfully at Chiron as if she couldn't believe she was forcing her to be here when her goddess was in danger.

The other hunters were also unlike yesterday where they were laughing loudly and drinking, as if all of their vigor had been siphoned overnight. They whispered amongst themselves nervously as they wore strapped on their armor, some had red eyes, indication of crying.

Perhaps because of the news on Artemis.

Zoe glanced at me, I believe she was reminiscing on our previous conversation that had happened earlier in the day where I revealed to her that I believed that Artemis was entering a trap from the very beginning.

It was one of my thoughts as to why Thorn was so talkative towards Percy, revealing things like the existence of the general himself and amongst others. Of course there was a chance that he was just excessively arrogant, but I sincerely didn't want to believe that a millennia old immortal monster would be so stupid as to reveal his master's plan so easily.

Zoe had gotten angry at me wondering why I didn't warn her goddess if I believed so.

It meant she at least acknowledged my intelligence regardless of the fact that I was male.

Of course I questioned her back as to whether Artemis would've believed me in the first place, and that immediately quieted her down.

She was unlike the previous days, her composure was cracked and her cold self was riddled with worry.

We spoke about more things, but I had ended that particular topic by telling her about Artemis' trap which I fell into, the one where I was forced to reveal all of my thoughts. I told Zoe that I had initially warned her, but of course it was just speculation with little basis at the start.

Now though, it held a lot of possibility.

Not that it mattered since the goddess had already been caught.

Once we met eyes, Zoe turned away, her cold demeanor had returned.

But I could tell it was just to mask her worry.

As the current leader of the Hunters, she was clearly trying to be strong for her fellow hunters below her.

I had no intention to either meddle or help, quite frankly I didn't care at the moment.

There's no benefit in me approaching her at all.

But if I'm right, in the next few hours or a day or so, opportunities will rise.

On our team, we had Beckendorf the counselor of the Hephaestus cabin and two of his siblings, the Ares campers I had defeated were now healed, surely due to the healing agent called Ambrosia which according to Chiron would kill you if eaten too much, the Stoll brothers and Nico from the Hermes Cabin and a few Aphrodite kids.

I wasn't really shocked by it, but I couldn't recall whether Aphrodite had ever joined any battle according to the myths.

If so then I guess her children were just willing combatants since it wasn't in their blood.

"Aiden, please wear your armor." Chiron suddenly said as he turned to me and noticed I was simply wearing my hoodie and winter coat.

"It limits my movement." I retorted.

Chiron sighed.

"It's for protection, please wear it. Even a helmet or shoulder and knee pads is fine." He said.

I sighed.

"Alright." I said and turned away.

"And please do not forget what we spoke about." Chiron said before he left, his hooves leaving prints in the snow.

I sighed, after I had spoken with Zoe and Bianca, Zoe had continued her mission from Artemis to watch over me, perhaps as a way to kill time and distract herself from the thoughts of her kidnapped goddess by using the fact that she was constantly annoyed by my presence.

At some point Chiron had called me to the Big House, something which was relayed to me by Grover.

Of course I went, and I all I received were scoldings, appointments for counselling and extra work around the camp.

It wasn't a big deal to me, but these extra activities were sure to take up time I could use productively.

Regardless, I harbored no regrets.

I moved to the armor which had been placed for the campers to take, coupled with a bunch of weapons.

I took shoulders and knee pads and wore them and added a breast plate to match.

Of course I had to get rid of my winter coat, but it wasn't a bad exchange in my opinion.

Now for weapons.

I had no experience with weapons.

No, I would say I did but I was self taught so I wasn't sure whether that counted.

I'd only ever gone melee with humans and that was hand-to-hand, and I only ever watched videos on swordsmen and tried to replicate it.

I was close but I always believed I wasn't quite there yet.

I was a fast learner, as long as I understood the intricacies of the weapon I knew I'd be fine.

But how would I compare to people who had been using weapons their whole lives?

Well it was time to find out I guess.

As I reached out to pick a sword, my eyes landed on a staff like weapon covered by a few other swords. It seemed to glow under the moonlight, making me feel like it was calling out to me for some reason.

Perhaps it was just my childish instinct to reach out or shiny things.

I reached out to it and grabbed it before I pulled it out.

It wasn't a staff, but a set of Nunchuks.

Instead of the usual two, there were three of them, short batons connected by a chains.

"Are you sure you want to use that?" I glanced up at who spoke, it was the cabin counselor of the Aphrodite Cabin herself.

Silena Beauregard.

"It's not really a serious match, I won't die so it should be okay to experiment a little." I answered her, curious as to whether I could successfully replicate what I saw on TV or maybe come up with my own style.

Suddenly I felt a chill go down my spine.

I glanced at Silena who seemed mildly annoyed.

"Sorry but this is a very serious match. I'll show them whether 'love is worthless' or not." Silena grumbled.

"I'll pulverize them!" She declared.

The Hunters must've insulted her beliefs or something because I didn't see what other reason would warrant such a reaction for a friendly game.

Silena left, leaving on me, Percy, and Thalia.

"How do you feel about your first capture the flag?" Percy asked me.

I shrugged.

"I just want to get it over with." I admitted.

"Same." Percy chuckled.

"Alright guys, I'll take offense, you two defense." Thalia volunteered.

"Oh…" Percy hesitated, I surmised knowing that their personalities were similar that he was about to suggest the same thing.

But in reverse.

"I kindly refuse. I have to fight Zoe." I said.

This was a prime opportunity to learn from battle, wasting my time defending in the rear wouldn't help me in the slightest.

"Come on, Aiden. This is serious. We can't let them win." Thalia said.

'Then why couldn't you be defense then?' Is what I wanted to say but Percy spoke first.

"Don't you think with your shield and all, you'd be better defense?" He argued, and he was right.

Thalia harbored a shield on her arm with the face of Medusa on it. It generated a passive aura which caused fear in people.

Not even I was an exception to this.

"Well, I was thinking it would make better offense. Besides, you've had more practice at defense." Thalia said.

Percy and I both knew that she knew that defending in the rear was boring so she opted to go out into the fire.

I recalled Percy's battle against Thorn where his defense was absolutely shredded with ease as opposed to Thalia's which remained firm.

I wasn't going to say anything anyways so I kept this fact to myself.

"Yeah, no problem." Percy lied.

I had no intention of staying in the back.

"I'll go offense." I repeated.

Thalia looked at me and sighed.

"Aide—"

"I'm strong but not strong enough, I need experience and defending won't give me any. I promise I will not do what I did this afternoon so kindly allow me to go offensive." I said.

Why was I even asking her permission for this? If I wanted to, I could go regardless.

The issue was my relationship with Thalia wasn't at the level where if we lost this match due to my decision to leave the defense, it wouldn't be affected.

I would like to avoid that.

As long as it didn't inconvenience me much, I was willing to listen to her.

"In the morning? What'd you do?" Percy questioned.

I raised an eyebrow slightly surprised he hadn't heard about it, it seemed he spent his whole day trying his hardest to distract himself about Annabeth thinking of joining the Hunters.

So much so that he was lost in his mind.

"He beat the Ares kids pretty badly, really badly." Thalia explained.

"How bad?" Percy asked.

"Unrecognizable bad."

"It was just one guy." I corrected.

I had only beaten one guy to a level that could be described as such and I was still able to recognize him.

"Ohhh…" Percy winced imagining it.

"Sounds like that would leave a mark."

"Not funny Percy." Thalia glared.

"Sorry." Percy raised his hands.

"Anyways… I don't think you should go offensive Aiden… but if you think the opportunity is right go for it… but make sure we don't lose." Thalia warned.

"Right." I lied.

"Good!" She said before she left to help some Aphrodite kids who seemed to be having trouble strapping their armor without breaking their nails.

I turned to Percy to say something, but quickly noticed Nico heading our way.

"Percy! Aiden! This is awesome!" He exclaimed.

He wore a blue-feathered bronze helmet which was falling in his eyes, and his breastplate was about six sizes too big for his size.

He unfortunately looked quite ridiculous.

"Do we get to kill the other team?" He asked innocently as he lifted his sword with effort.

An intriguing question, but if so then Artemis would lose some of her Hunters today since this could be considered a battle.

"Well… no." Percy responded.

"But the Hunters are immortal, right?" Nico questioned.

"That's only out of battle Nico. Plus—" I tried to finish but wasn't allowed to.

"It would be awesome if we just, like, resurrected as soon as we were killed, so we could keep fighting, and—"

"Nico this is serious. Real swords. These can hurt." Percy scolded similarly to the nuns in the orphanage.

Stern and somewhat motherly?

Nico stared at Percy a little disappointed, and Percy patted his shoulder.

"Hey, it's cool. Just follow the team. Stay out of Zoe's way. We'll have a blast." Percy said.

"I'm going straight to Zoe." I said.

Percy turned to me.

"I'll pray for you." He grinned.

Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor.

"Heroes!" He called.

It's not that deep Chiron.

"You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team—Camp Half-Blood—shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis—red team—shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! Magic items are allowed, no overly destructive magic please. To your positions!" Chiron spoke.

I actually don't know the rules unless what he stated was all but meh.

Also "accidental" maiming was allowed?

Interesting.

"Sweet!" Nico whispered.

"What kind of magic items? Do I get one?" He asked.

Percy seemed ready to speak but Thalia's voice thundered.

"Blue team! Follow me!"

Everyone cheered and followed, and I knew I had neglected to ask.

But when did she even become the leader?

Was this something that was collectively agreed upon? Or was this simply her skills as a leader speaking for itself?

Oh well, it didn't matter anyway.

My eye caught Percy who was initially distracted springing up to follow, but he tripped over someone's shield prompting me to catch him before he could make a fool out of himself.

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, thanks." He nodded.

I helped him up and we followed our teammates.

We set up our flag at the top of what was known as Zeus's Fist. It was a cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods that if you looked at it just the right way, it looked like a hug fist sticking out of the ground.

Additional information from Percy stated that if looked at from any other side, it looked like a pile of enormous deer droppings.

Either way, looking at it, although rather obvious and open it was a clear place to set the flag. The top of the boulder was twenty feet tall and seemed hard to climb. Of course for experienced people like Hunters it would probably inconvenience them just a little while for me I could just make a pillar of Earth and carry myself to the top.

Percy set Nico on guard duty with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers, most likely to keep him safely out of the way since he was young and entirely new to fighting.

"We'll send out a decoy to the left, Silena, you lead that." Thalia began ordering.

"Got it." Silena nodded.

"Take Laurel and Jason. They're good runners. Make a wide arc around the Hunters, attract as many as you can. I'll take the main raiding party around to the right and catch them by surprise." Thalia said. Her words carried so much confidence that I felt like we would win.

But wasn't Jason the name of the guy I beat up? Why was he a decoy? He was pretty skilled in my opinion.

Unless the main party carried people more skilled maybe.

"Anything to add Percy?" Thalia said as she turned to him.

"Um, yeah. Keep sharp on defense. We've got five guards, two scouts. That's not much for a big forest. I'll be roving. Yell if you need help." Percy added.

"And don't leave your post!" Thalia said.

"Unless you see a golden opportunity." Percy added.

I could already see the conflict miles away.

"Just don't leave your post" Thalia scowled.

"Right, unless—"

"Percy!" Thalia touched his arm and I could've sworn I saw a spark of lightning as Percy shuddered.

As the daughter of Zeus she wielded lighting….

That's actually really powerful.

She could do a lot with that, confuse nerves, perhaps shut down the body as a whole.

She harbored a lot of potential.

"Sorry." Thalia said, but she didn't really look nor sound sorry.

"Now, everybody clear?" She asked.

Everyone nodded. We all broke into our smaller groups before the horn sounded, signalling the start of the game.

Silena's group disappeared into the woods on the left. Thalia's group waited a few seconds before they darted off towards the right.

I knew we were going to lose but at the very least I internally hoped that it wouldn't be quick.

I had a lot to learn after all.

My goal here was Zoe, she was most likely the strongest of the Hunters and I would like to face her and learn more from her moves.

Perhaps through this I could find counters for her counters and surprise her.

I decided to relent on my thoughts of going on the offensive.

Although there was no guarantee of meeting Zoe in the big forest, I felt there was a much greater chance of her coming here for the flag since she was the leader, than me rushing into the fray and not finding her before getting ambushed by several Hunters.

Percy climbed Zeus's Fists, reaching the top probably in order to give himself a good look at what was happening in the forest. The Fist was big enough that you could see the entirety of the forest below.

Another reason why I relented going on the offensive was because as literal Hunters, these people we were facing 100% had more experience than all of us combined in the woods, aside from Bianca who was relatively new.

That was something I was sure of.

Recalling how disciplined they were when they busted out of the woods to kill the manticore reminded me of this fact.

I decided to spend some time getting used to the Nunchuks.

I swung them around and tried to get used to the weight of the weapon and its flexibility which came as a result of the chains connecting the three batons. I shifted my weight and tried to find proper footwork and hand motions to avoid hitting myself.

From what I could infer, this was a rather good weapon. I could hit with a lot of blunt force using centrifugal force and rotation and due to having three batons I had a rather long enough reach to dish out adequate blows.

This was nice.

I noticed as Nico climbed onto the Big Fist, he and Percy seemed to be talking, I couldn't hear them.

"Can you guys hold the fort?" Percy shouted from above and I knew that he was going to leave.

Perhaps he found the golden opportunity he was so adamant about earlier.

"Of course." Beckendorf snorted.

He better not falter first if we get attacked.

Percy jumped down and landed with a roll.

"I'm going in." He said as he dashed towards the boundary line.

The Stoll brothers and Nico cheered as he ran.

Percy was fast, really fast.

I could tell he was running around my top speed, was this the difference between being trained and not?

I wonder who would win if we had to face each other. While I was confident in my ability, I wasn't really sure of what Percy could do.

As the son of Poseidon he had control over water for sure since Thalia as a daughter of Zeus could control lightning.

But at the same time she harbored a fear of heights so I wasn't sure whether she had something like a small dominion over the sky. Percy was quite addicted to blue food, or well he loved them very much.

I have no idea whether he drew power from only one of Poseidon's domains or all of them.

Regardless, these are things I can look into later, for now I should focus on what's in front of me.

I released some of my magical energy and spread it our around me in an attempt to survey my surroundings.

Although the moon was shining, the forest was a little dense which reduced my sight, but that was meaningless before my ability to sense magical energy.

Not all demigods had magical energy, so while spreading my magical energy would help me detect other wielders of magic easily, I had to mentally discern whether it touched a living being or not in the case that my magical particles ended up touching someone without magical energy.

And in a forest where literally every tree was a dryad, things weren't going to be easy for me.

But it didn't mean it couldn't help.

While I spread my magical energy, I enhanced my eyes.

Immediately I felt something—no somethings.

Four…. No five of them.

I turned to Beckendorf.

"Becken—"

Arrows suddenly shot from the forest, raining down on us before I could finish.

I swung my Nunchuks in an arc, deflecting several arrows.

I glanced towards the others for a moment, the Stoll brothers had been too slow to react and had gotten hit but their armor protected them while Beckendorf had protected Nico.

Things were still okay.

Suddenly the arrows shot exploded releasing some sort of gas.

"Agh! Smells so bad!" I heard Connor scream.

"Argh!" Travor screamed as well, struggling to hold his nose.

"Damnit!" Beckendorf cursed as he backed away from it.

"Woah… ugh smells bad." Nico convulsed.

Having had enough of this and having no intention to smell whatever that was, I decided to go on the offensive and swung my Nunchuks using magic to generate an arc of wind which blasted all the gas away.

I wasn't done yet, I slammed my hands onto the ground, using magic to command the trees around and forcefully grow their roots, trapping one—no two Hunters, the rest dodged.

I could hear a few groans from the forest but I didn't care.

There were only three left, one of them contained magical energy.

"Watch the flag Beckendorf." I said to him.

"Right!" He listened intently and took a step back with Nico.

"Huh? Why are we retreating? Let's take them down!" Nico whined.

"Not now Nico." Beckendorf sighed as he pulled him back.

I kept my focus towards where the three people were, one of them was trying to circle in back while the others remained still as if planning their next move.

The forest was eerily quiet aside from the footsteps of Beckendorf, Nico's protests and the Stoll brothers coughing.

The Hunters I hadn't managed to catch were quiet, had I not been able to sense them then there would've been no way for me to defend myself against a surprise attack.

They really were Hunters, I couldn't help but feel like prey here.

I could try using magic again, but there was no guarantee that it would catch them, one of them has magical power as well and could very well overpower my magic so I had to keep as much magical energy in me as possible.

Even though I currently had a lot of it.

Connor and Travor were still recuperating, but I was sure that Beckendorf and the two of them could at least handle one Hunter, leaving only these two for me to face.

Who were they?

What were they planning?

I only knew one objective which was the flag.

But how do they want to get it?

Regardless, I have to warn Beckendorf.

"From behin—"

Huh? Is that fluctuating magi—

My body moved before I could think, deflecting a blow from a hunting knife.

The girl before me seemed to be around my age, with purple hair and matching eyes.

She had suddenly appeared in front of me.

Then, I felt someone on my right, quickly augmenting my mind and body using magic, I dodged a swipe from a Hunting knife from the one on my right.

It was Zoe.

I was given no time to think, the purple haired girl rushed me with an onslaught of attacks forcing me to dodge.

I deflected her strikes and counterattacked but my attack was deflected with ease.

The girl tried to attack me again and I jumped back only to be kicked onto the ground by Zoe. I crashed onto the ground and kicked off to regain my posture but was immediately met with a rush of attacks from the purple haired girl.

They were overwhelming me.

We moved, each of our weapons blurring as they met in a furry of attacks. I moved my legs, similarly to Zoe's footwork, using my memory to try and match what she did.

Zoe's eyes momentarily widened but all she did in the end was speed up in order to try and overwhelm me. I was slowly getting pushed to defending only, as each of us moved fluidly but while theirs seemed as natural as breathing, mine was artificial and unperfect as all I was doing was copying from them.

Zoe rushed to my blind spot on my right and swung at me, I ducked and tried to sweep her legs but she jumped back, quickly switching her knives out for a bow and arrow in the most natural move I've ever seen, as if she had done this over a hundred times.

She notched three arrows and shot them at the same time, my mind raced, calculating the angles before I jumped and swung at the two I knew had the highest chance of hitting me.

My Nunchuks clashed with the arrows, deflecting them before I was kicked in the face by the purple haired girl.

I crashed and rolled into the ground before I used wind to shoot myself off the ground, dodging a swing from Zoe.

The purple haired girl met me midair and swung at me but I used the wind to redirect her attack and dodge before kicking her away.

The moment I landed I was forced to block a swing from Zoe who began to push me back.

Her physical strength was currently superior to mine.

I slammed my foot into the ground causing it to cave into it as I stopped Zoe's push.

We met eyes, she seemed amused at my struggles.

I pushed away from her, but she quickly rushed towards me, not giving me any room to breathe.

In her eyes I saw her purple haired teammate coming from behind me and I quickly jumped into the air before she could hit me. In a two versus one, being in the middle of your two opponents was incredibly detrimental.

I swung downwards but the purple haired girl swiftly blocked my attack, I landed beside her and twirled my Nunchuks, aiming to hit her.

She dodged by a hair's breadth, but I had anticipated such.

I swung even faster and caught her right wrist in one of the chains and threw her towards a tree before I rushed after her. She slammed into it, gasping for air at due to the impact.

I quickly followed and swung at her, but she recovered fairly quickly dodging my strike and flipping into the air before attacking me with her knives.

I blocked a swing before I ducked under a swing from Zoe, I was immediately forced to block another swing from Zoe before I used wind to flip over her.

The purple haired girl appeared behind me and swung, I moved to intercept her but at the same time Zoe had rushed towards me.

My mind raced and my body moved, grabbing the baton at each end before simultaneously blocking their attacks from in front and behind.

The sound of our clash was loud, and the ground cracked and rose due to the weight of their blows.

I was sweating, I had never once done something so taxing before in my entire life.

Fighting two veterans who didn't seem to hold back from trying to kill you wasn't easy, especially when you weren't on their level.

But I was learning.

The longer the fight went, although I grew tired, I was getting used to the Nunchuks I wielded.

"Not bad." I groaned.

"Silence male." The purple haired girl spat.

"I have a name." I sighed, my arms were shaking and I was struggling to hold both back, especially since Zoe was slightly stronger than me physically.

"Quiet, just lose quietly." Zoe said.

I glanced at her, the way her eyes looked at me and the sadistic smile on her face sent shivers down my spine.

She was definitely using me in order to release her stress.

"Focus!" The purple haired girl shouted, most likely to startle me as she drew one of her arms back and swung.

"I am."

I conjured vines from below using magic, they sprung from below my feet and grabbed onto the purple haired girl who struggled to cut them.

I had shot the vines at Zoe as well, but she quickly jumped back and began to defend herself quickly.

The moment the purple haired girl cut the last vine, I slammed one of the Nunchuks onto her face, sending her crashing into a tree.

I quickly followed after and swung as hard as I could.

My blow made contact.

With the tree.

The purple haired girl was already gone, my blow broke the trunk of the tree causing it to fall.

I'll apologize to the dryad if she comes to me.

I had no reason to actively seek her out myself after all.

"I wonder how you disappear." I spoke out loud as I turned to her, she stood a few ways away from Zoe who had finished cutting the vines.

But for some reason they weren't moving.

"ZOE!" Someone shouted.

I glanced towards the voice only to see our camp flag falling from the top of Zeus' fist and towards Zoe who caught it with ease.

"Thank you Rose!" She said to the girl at the top of Zeus' fist.

"You're welcome!" The girl said before she dodged a rock which was thrown at her by Travis using a slingshot.

I took a moment to look at my teammates, Travis and Connor seemed worse for wear, I wasn't sure what was inside that gas but they struggled to take on a single Hunter.

Beckendorf was fighting another Hunter as well, but he seemed close to winning.

It seemed the Hunters had freed themselves from the roots I trapped them in.

If so, where was the fifth one?

You know what, that didn't matter, Zoe had the flag.

I couldn't let her leave with that, not yet.

I still had much to learn.

"Lilianna." Zoe turned to the purple haired girl.

"Don't worry Zoe, I'll handle him." She said, wiping the blood from her nose which flowed as a result of my blow.

"I trust you." Zoe said before she turned to leave.

No.

I couldn't let her.

My mind raced, I sent an influx of magical energy into my brain accelerating my thoughts.

I needed to get to her fast, how? I had no idea.

No, I had an idea.

Lilianna was my idea, somehow she was capable of teleporting around.

No, it wasn't teleportation, she simply moved really quickly and appeared at my blind spots so I struggled to see her.

Regardless, I would use her as a blueprint for this.

That move she used, I noticed it the most at the start.

She had magical energy, and there was a certain fluctuation before she almost blitzed me.

She had focused magical energy on her feet, which I understood was the reason for her explosive burst, but the issue was that it was extremely little.

I've used bursts before, but they were usually too small and useless or too big and tore my muscles.

Her control was perfect.

It was like she took my plan to make the most use with as little magical energy possible and literally embodied that idea.

I had to learn.

Analyze.

Understand.

Simulate.

My mind raced, I recalled what I saw and felt and guided the magical energy which circulated around my body towards my legs.

Imagine.

Focus.

Imitate.

I used as little as possible.

I took a step, my world blurred.

And then, I was in front of Zoe.

I had crossed over 10m in an instant with a single step.

Zoe's eyes slightly widened, but her arm was already moving to block my attack.

I couldn't even blink before Zoe was suddenly gone, now replaced by Lilianna who swung at me as fast as she could.

This time, it was clearly some form of teleportation she was using.

My body reacted, imitating the feeling from before and my world blurred again.

I was now behind her.

I didn't wait for a reaction, I quickly swung as fast as I could.

SHATTER!

The chains connecting my Nunchuk batons suddenly shattered.

I could've sworn I saw arrows whiz past and shatter them, but it didn't matter.

Lilianna was grinning at me.

I wanted to wipe it off her face.

I slammed my fist into her jaw and a rush of magical energy enveloped me.

Purple magical energy burst out of my hand dancing wildly like lightning as my punch sent Lilianna through multiple trees, the rampaging magical energy cracked the ground and left dents on the surrounding trees it touched.

What… was that?

My heart was racing, while I was initially tired, I was now full of energy.

It was akin to an adrenaline rush.

But somehow I felt more concentrated than ever.

I felt even more connected to my magical energy than I'd ever before.

My surroundings, my mind, everything was clear and open for me to see.

I felt ready to take on anything.

I glanced at where Zoe was, but she was already gone.

I heard a whiz and turned, an arrow was coming right at me but it was moving so slowly.

I dodged it, throwing the remaining baton I had in my hand away and dashed after Zoe.

Arrows shot at me from behind with frightening precision but I dodged and kept running, maneuvering around the woods as I had yesterday when I went looking for Thalia.

My memory played a great part as I maneuvered with relative ease.

It didn't take over a second until I spotted Beckendorf, and Nico who seemed to be chasing after Zoe who was ways in front of them.

Zoe dodged the campers with ease, as if having practiced countless times.

With my enhanced vision I couldn't help but notice Percy who was running with the Hunters flag, it seemed the opportunity he found was truly a golden one.

Regardless I had to catch Zoe.

I didn't even want to win, winning here meant nothing to me, but catching Zoe right at this point, this moment was nothing but a test.

A test I would do my best to succeed.

Recalling the feeling from before, I watched as Zoe neared the creek, slamming into Percy as she was about to cross.

My feet tingled and my world once again blurred.

I was right behind Zoe.

I reached out to her but spotted a now familiar purple head by my side.

No way.

I turned, meeting eyes with Lilianna who gave me a crazed bloodied smile.

Her cheek was heavily bruised from where I had hit her and blood trickled down her nose.

Her gaze held a single message.

You won't win.

My body reacted instinctively, determined to get rid of whatever annoyances that would stop me from reaching my goal.

My fist clenched, my target quickly changed from Zoe to her.

Lilianna as well had her fist clenched, and we both swung at each other.

Our blows connected, my fist slammed into the same jaw I punched before while hers slammed into mine.

I felt the same rush of magical energy, and purple lightning shot out of my fist.

But suddenly pain flared in my face, so much so that I momentarily blacked out.

Red lightning cackled out of Lilianna's fist at the exact moment that purple lightning cackled out of mine.

She had reached a similar state to my current one, she was in some sort of Zone.

Before I could think any more, we were both launched in opposite directions with a loud thunderous boom which seemed to shake the area around us.

I rolled onto the ground, crashing relentlessly before I crashed into something hard, probably leaving a massive dent in it.

It hurt, it hurt a lot.

I had no idea where Lilianna had flown too, but she was definitely in just as much if not more pain than I was going through.

For now… I just wanted to sleep.

Sorry for the late chapter, I wrote this a long time ago actually but kept having new ideas and stuff to add so I kept editing and editing it until I came with this result. I hope y'all enjoy and please feel free to point out any mistakes, I haven't really gone through the entire thing.