Chapter XI

Hunter and the Hunted and the Predator.

"Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare."

-William Blake.

Safe to say, he didn't get much sleep last night.

Not because of the poor weather that rolled in early this morning, but because of what happened last night. When he encountered those girls, they weren't supposed to be hunters from the daughters of Artemis, and the last time he checked, the hunter cult does not have any hunter cabins on Terra; they weren't supposed to be on earth at all!

Not just that; one of them was speaking like goddamned vampire count.

When he got back to the hotel and informed his coworkers what had happened, they were shocked to learn that he had been attacked by two snake mutants who thought Zhou was easy prey in addition to escaping a cult that worships the Greek goddess of the hunt on Terra.

"Damn it," snapped Zhou as he sat up from his makeshift bed and swung his legs out to the side.

True to his word, the dragonblooded returned to the hotel. Unberogen Industries ensured their standards were met, with a workshop for weapon storage and a living room for cooling or watching TV. The solid table provided protection from bullets, and three rooms provided privacy for each individual.

At the moment, he figured they wouldn't get anything done lying around. So with a huff, Zhou rose off the bed and decided to get back to the mission and find the beastmen they were sent to hunt down.

Zhou, who was only sporting a muscled shirt, reached over to pick up his stitched hoodie from the workbench and quickly put it on. Heading over to the closet, he grabbed his green coat that was hung on the hanger and quickly put it on.

His twin Tang Dao's, the Jade Fangs, was placed next to his bed, while his flying daggers were also placed on the bench with his hoodie. Grabbing both weapons, he tucked the knives inside his coat while he grabbed the guitar case and hid the swords inside. He might be in the safe house, but that still didn't mean he needed to draw unwanted attention.

This left one last thing, which was his Jade compass.

Zhou reached into his coat pocket and took out the Jade compass he had been wearing around his wrist since his eleventh birthday. It was a birthday present from his father. It was made especially to give him more control over his abilities. He slipped the compass on his wrist quickly, being careful to tighten it all the way so it wouldn't slide off. He flexed his fingers, dabbing at his fingertips as if to test the Jade compass. His fingers began to glow green, then he dispelled it and picked up the travel case he'd left on the stool he would use to sit at the bench.

Once he had everything in order, Zhou let out a brief huff as he headed to his room door. Unlocking the door, he opened it up and stepped into the living room. He was greeted by other squad members who had risen from their beds earlier and were currently going through their daily morning procedures.

Sitting on the couch is Anatoly, who was watching "The Romanovs: The History of the Russian Dynasty on Netflix on his smartphone and was sharpening his curved longsword with a sharpening stone he had brought with him. At the far end of the room, Elodie meticulously checked the fletching's of the arrow quills at the table to ensure they were straight, as any imperfection could potentially cause a miss.

The only person who was missing was their leader, Heron.

It was... weird to say, at least.

Sigmar's son was a leader that he would follow. Although Heron would not confess it. The teenager had inherited his father's charisma and leadership. And without it, it was like a hole had just opened in their little group, even though Elodie quickly filled that gap. She wasn't like Heron, but Elodie knows how to lead a hunting party.

He couldn't help but give out a tired sigh as he walked out of his room, wiping his eyes.

It was only during this time that Anatoly saw Zhou from out the corner of his eye and pulled out his earphones to greet his sword brother.

"AH! The dragon finally awakes from his slumber to grace us with his presence."

Zhou rolled his eyes. "Good morning to you too, Anatoly," he said tiredly walking to the food cabinet.

"You look like shit, comrade."

"I feel like shit."

"Well, that's what you get for staying up at night in the woods. It messes with your wake-up time and wears you out the next day."

"Oh, shut up; it didn't wear me out." Zhou pulled a box of froot loops from the pantry and remarked, "Besides, you should all know me well since I was the one who took sentry duty when on missions." He then poured the cereal into the bowel as he continued, "Like that time in the Realm of Ghyran, where we had to stop the minions of the plague, you three were asleep while I was the one who had to deal with a pack of Nurglings who tried to kill us all."

Stopping midway in sharpening his sword, Anatoly gave off a sheepish expression. Remembering that day in the realm of life all too well and one he would never forget.

It was after an exhausting mission that the Kislverian, Heron, and Elodie dozed off after emptying a barrel of dwarven beer they had bought recently, leaving Zhou to battle alone against a group of Nurglings breaking into their camp. It was only after a group of Nurglings storming into their tent did the three of them wake up abruptly and beat the wretched creatures back.

"The doctors and the lord Relictor had to put us in quarantine for almost an entire month to see if we were infected by one of the plague grandfather's gifts."

"No reminder is needed—the bear still recalls the night the Nurglings attacked us like wolves." Elodie replied, not looking up from working on one of her arrows, "Our sword brother could still feel the barrel washing he received like the rest of us."

Anatoly groaned as he continued sharpening his blade. "Yes, I don't need to be reminded of that day," he said.

"Oh, I will keep on reminding you, my friend, because I could still feel the aches in my joints after a full hour of decontamination."

"I said I was sorry!"

"Saying 'sorry' doesn't change the fact that day I was alone battling a horde of lesser demons thanks to you."

"And I swore on that day to watch your back to the day I die in any way I could. Did I not?"

"In which your doing a terrific job, by the way," shot back Zhou plainly. "Leaving me in a forest all alone."

"It wasn't my decision to stay behind when we were ordered to come back. If you had just come back to the hotel earlier than I would have had your back."

"So your now blaming me for negligence then?"

"Enough!" A stern but commanding female voice stopped the argument in its tracks.

Elodie rose up from her chair and stared at them like a griffon. "He didn't mean it, Anatoly." She sighed, taking a brief moment to relax because her voice was now more serene. "Splitting the team to cover more ground was the logical choice at the time. I made the call to head back to the hotel," she admitted, then turned to Zhou. "I didn't know that you would encounter another sect of my sisters on Terra."

"Besides, I doubt Heron would want you two to ruin the hotel room for the third time. I'd hate to have to explain to the hotel owner why two boys with very real and lethal swords are fighting in the corridor."

The Cathyan and Kisleverain looked at each other for a second before turing away from each other.

"Regarding the matter, how did your sisters get here?" Zhou inquired as to how a gang of feminist hunters came to Terra in the first place. "I doubt that a band of Hunters from the Artemis cult came to Terra in some inexplicable manner while hiding from Sigmar's view for so long." He shook his head, not believing it for a moment. "Elodie did know any of this?"

The 14-year-old girl shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure how my sisters got here. I last communicated with either of my sisters three years ago. When we first met." She groaned, "Even when I was merely a candidate, the matriarchs would keep the sites of the hunting cabins hidden from us in case we were spies for the other competing Acheronian cults or covertly seduced by the powers of chaos. A precautionary measure. When I gained the rank of huntress, they revealed a handful of their places to me, but those cabins were already well-known. However, I do know that the majority of the hunting cabins that I am aware of are dispersed across Acheronia, particularly in the religious states, but I am not aware of any outside of Mallus Secundas, much less on Terra."

"So what? We're dealing with a long-lost Artemis cult from their place of birth." Anatoly stated, a bit uncomfortable that a

"That is highly unlikely. And that's coming from me since I know the cult of Artemis more than anyone since I was trained by them."

"Perhaps, but one of them seemed surprised when I spoke in ancient Greek," Zhou said. "And guessing by their modern clothing, they've been here for a very long time. thirty centuries give or take."

"If these bitches were here that long, then who hell do they serve then?!" said Anatoly in exasperation.

"They are still my sisters, rogue or not. Unfortunately, that is something we will have to deal with later. Our mission continues now. Thus, we will continue pursuing that beastmen herd until we hear back from Lord Celestant," she said, her tone suddenly becoming serious. "Talking about the herd, Anatoly."

She motioned for the older teen to close the blinds of the room so no one could see what was about to happen.

"Back to business then," muttered Zhou, finishing the last of his breakfast.

With that said, Elodi set down the arrow she was working on at the workshop, got up from her chair, and approached the table, placing an odd map on its smooth wooden surface. Unlike other maps made using copperplate printing, this map was created using a rare stone collected from the Sidereal Mountains by the Starhammer Guild. Each of the nine strips of stone was charmed with a unique power, providing the user with a complete real-time view of what is occurring in the mortal worlds. Incredibly expensive, costing over 400 Aether-gold ingots to buy such a unique map. At the same time, Anatoly pulled down the window blinds to help darken the entire room.

Rolling the map onto the table, the stone pieces suddenly snapped shut with a synchronized click. A second later, a perfect image of the landscape of Long Island appeared on the table. Showing a full 3D image of the entire island. All thanks to the arcane knowledge of both the Seraphon and the Eldritch Council.

"An hour ago, one of our drones confirmed that there is a herd of beastmen on Long Island."

"So our allies were telling the truth. Beastman are on Terra." Anatoly murmured gravely under his breath.

"Our cyber division did in fact notify Lord Celestant last night, and they presented him with four further sightings of wild goat men in Long Island woodlands that had been reported online. Fortunately, the cyber division was able to delete the videos before they could go viral. But it doesn't stop there, unfortunately. Additional ground teams stationed in New York encountered the beginnings of chaos and corruption in the local vegetation; they've already started to cleanse it before it could get out of control."

"Based on the locations of the sightings, the herd is somewhere in this area." Elodi guided her hand across the map to the area near the end of Long Island, where it was colored dark black to indicate chaos and corruption. It was still small, but knowing the tenations the beasts of chaos are, they will be taking no chances.

"That's not good. The herd is getting dangerous close to Montauk." Zhou pointed out the hamlet at a far corner long island nearing dangerously close to Suffolk County. "It's a major tourist attraction in the summertime. If that herd reaches to East Hampton, then we're going to have a massacre on our hands."

Anatoly nodded. "The dragon has a point. If those monstrosities' reach that town, then they'll tear it all down like a hurricane."

"The Lord Celestant had already taken the procuration of that scenario. Thunderstorm hosts from the mainland will be arriving in two days. In the meantime, the hosts here are standing by, ready to engage at the moment's notice."

"How many war hosts do we have?" Zhou asked.

"Two hosts."

A whistle came out of Anatoly's mouth "Ten thousand stormcasts," he clarified.

Ten thousand. Ten thousand of Sigmar's immortal warriors clad in Sigmarite armor—his Vengeance made manifest. More than enough to handle a warherd. Albeit a bit overkill.

Elodie nodded"More than enough to contain a beastmen incursion for a time." Two hammers with lightning bolt insignia appeared near the dark patches on the map. "They'll set up a preminator around the corrupted areas, making sure nothing comes in or out. They will be supported by human contingents that just arrived from one of our bases in Connecticut." A cross with a human skull on top wearing a green wreath."Once the encirclement is complete, they'll slowly converge to the middle, eliminating the threat once and for all."

"Okay, that's good and all, but where does that leave us then?" Anatoly said, "I doubt we were ordered to stand by and do nothing but watch while they gain all the glory."

"I was getting to that part." Elodie then brought up their team's emblem.

"We were ordered to do force recon, find where they were based, and if possible, assassinate their commanders to disrupt their command structure. We'll then meet up with the main force once we're done."

"Sounds to easy.

Following the conclusion of the briefing by the young huntress, Zhou recalled something crucial to ask her as the group prepared to leave.

"Hey, Elodie, what did forensic say about the bodies I sent them?"

"Strange to say at least," said Elodie, shrugging her shoulders. "Based on the forensic analysis, the creature was once human."

"What do you mean 'once human'?" asked Zhou, emphasizing the word.

"Of course the beastmen were once humans. We already knew that to begin with."

"Not these ones though."

"Elaborate."

Elodie sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "That is what I just said; it looks that the creatures you killed were Lamias or Daimons, a type of ghost that stalks the night. Sea monsters that devour children or daemons who roam at night are particularly nasty examples. This term may also be translated as "host of ghostly vampires" in plural."

"Great, more fucking bloodsuckers," Anatoly said with disdain. The crimes committed in the towns surrounding Timisoara Castle were still fresh in his mind—how the vampire counts murdered entire villages into submission, and now the blood suckers had made their way to Terra. Such wonton butcher brought rage to his heart for just thinking about it. "I assumed the Stormcast had secured the lone realmgate to Terra, locked and carefully guarded. With regular modifications to over several hundred defensive seals, I doubted even the god of the dead's henchmen would dare to strike, let alone breach such a powerful fortress.

"I had the same thought, so I asked the Lord Celestant whether any of Realmgate had been compromised lately. Fortunately, it wasn't. However, based on the bodies we recovered from Terra, the Lama's are not from the Nine Realms."

"If not the nine realms, then where did these things come from?" demanded Anatoly.

"The Mediterranean Sea; the Libyan Sea to be more specific," Elodie pointed out, confusing the two boys even more than usual.

"Bullshit."

"I was amazed when I read it this morning. But it's not a mistake. The two mutants you killed yesterday were not altered by the winds of magic. This was done on purpose. The sorcery that transformed these unfortunate souls into the monsters you witnessed today is divine in nature. Lord Acranum affirms that it was a curse. Whoever did this was a Greek deity or goddess who held a grudge and wanted to unleash their own brand of divine wrath."

The Cathyan sighed, realizing what Elodie was talking about. "You're referring to the legend of Lamia, where Zeus fell in love with a Lyban queen." Zhou sighed deeply and closed his eyes. "Why I'm not surprised that the Greek pantheon is involved in generating these monstrosities," he turned to Elodie as he continued, "Out of all the pantheons we have to deal with, it has to be the monstrosities that the gods damned Greeks left behind when they vanished."

"Agreed, the Scholar States saw the old Olympian gods as the bane of the innocent. That is precisely why they were despised by nearly half of the Acheronian city states. However, city states with radical religious and populist convictions continue to worship the old Olympian gods, either by choice or out of fear."

The kislevite scoffed, "Tisk, the fact that half of your Acheronians still worship such inhumane gods is a mystery."

The half-dragon frowned, knowing the Greek gods: "If Heron were here, he would say there's nothing 'divine' about punishing innocent children who have nothing to do with their parents' crime."

"If you ask me, there was nothing human left in those bitches," said Anatoly, crossing his arms and revealing a glimpse of his icy Kisleverian demeanor to everyone around him. His voice was as frigid as the dead of winter. "Whatever happened to them was over a thousand years ago, more than enough time to lose most of their humanity, so crying about it now won't change the fact except to get us all killed."

Taking a deep breath Zhou nodded his head," You're right. I need to get my head in the game."

"Good now, let's get going. I doubt the herd would wait for us."

Fishing into her pocket, Elodie took out a card key and quickly locked the room. Duardin Runes appeared across the frame. A second later, the door disappeared, leaving only a wall in its place. Satisfied, the hunter turned towards the elevator and pressed the button to the garage.

Upon reaching the underground garage, they spotted a variety of colorful motorcycles from Kawasaki, Honda, and BMW, with some modifications from Uberorgan industries. The mists made it appear that three teenagers were riding bicycles back from school. However, the name plate briefly flashed, and the code name Zhou was given.

Jade.

But the name meant very little to the people who came to the parking lot. Just twenty minutes later, the three teens left the parking lot.

She just missed him.

Somehow, in some way, a boy escaped Artemis and her hunters with no intention of doing so. Her lady had planned to ambush him as soon as they found his place of temporary residence. However, when they arrived, he was not there. It was then Artemis concluded that the boy left earlier than she predicted.

However, it seemed like he wasn't that far ahead of them. But that still didn't excuse the fact that he slipped through their grasp once again.

And he wasn't alone.

"It doesn't seem that he had been here for too long," noted Artemis as she studied the tire tracks of the motorbike the boy drove. "Only arrived here late yesterday afternoon."

"My lady," spoke one of the hunters as she approached Artemis. "We found a license and registration in the seat compartment."

"Good," nodded Artemis as she stood up and took the items.

"The vehicle is registered to a Zhou Cao," continued the girl.

"He must be the one here," stated Zoe.

"I agree," concurred the goddess as she turned to her lieutenant. "He should be that far ahead of us."

"What about the other two?"

"The other two motorbike's are registered to Anatoly Barkov and Elodie le Breton."

When the hunt goddess heard the final name, she paused. "Come again."

"The other tw-"

"Not the first name. The last name. Can you say repeat the last name?"

"Elodie Le Breton."

For a brief moment, Zoe noticed a shift in her mistress's behavior. Emotions that she was all too acquainted with. Surprise. Shock. Disbelief. Before she covered it up with a mask of stoicism.

However, before she could issue any further orders, the sky cracked with thunder. Odd considering there were no clouds in the sky.

"Continue the hunt," ordered Artemis as she let out a deep sigh. "I need to return to Olympus."

She was gone in a flash of silver light, leaving her hunters to hunt the mysterious boy. And hunt him, they did, taking to the forest in search for their quarry. However, little did they know, one other entity was watching them from the shadows.

A low growl rumbled from whatever it was as red, yellow eyes surveyed the area with malicious intent and an insatiable hunger.

"Idite vy na khuy, suki!" Shouted Anatoley in kislevarin as he sliced an extremely large dog in half with his curved great word. The creature let out a short whine as its head was split apart as blood and brain matter splattered everywhere.

"Hey, watch your language, you damn Kislevit pig!" Elodie shouted after nocking another arrow to the grip ad pulled. A strand of lighting materialized between the limbs, crackling in her grasp. Elodie spared only a moment—a fraction of a second—to mark her targets.

When she fired, it was in the blink of an eye. Three arrows, three marks, faster than any mortal eye could track. Slower perhaps than some of her sisters. But none were more accurate.

Each arrow found its mark, slamming into and shattering the skulls of each of the three hounds. During the moment that a flash of light joined the three arrows, all three dogs and their kin were set ablaze a second later. The hounds didn't have time to yell out a death cry.

"I don't need to watch my own language, little deer!" Anatoly, responding instinctively, grabbed a dog's neck and began bludgeoning its brother hound to death. "When! I'm! in! a! fight!" he said. Word for word, he unleashed his organic live mace on a dog, sending it flying ten kilometers away from their location.

"Yes, you do! Your swearing is infectious, so if you continue, then you'll spread it."

Letting steel cut flesh greeted Anatoly with all of its gory grace of his blades edge. "Swearing doesn't work like that!"

"Yes, it does! I saw it happen on the show Castlevania!" Elodie shouted back, spinning around and releasing two arrows at once.

He lunged at a hellhound killing it"It was a TV show!" he shouted in exasperation.

"Guys, this is not the time for you two to argue right now!" Zhou yelled out, stabbing a hound through its eye socket with one of his knives.

Shortly after Zhou and his friends reached the woods, they were assaulted by these dog things. They weren't chaos warhounds since they didn't carry any chaotic taint, but that didn't change the fact that they were dangerous and wanted to make a meal of them. Too bad for the hounds, though, since these meals bite back.

Zhou whirled and stabbed another knife into the head of a dog that attempted to charge him. "First, the renegade hunters, then those snake mutants," he said. The hound, shot between the eyes as well, yelped. "Now the hellhounds are trying to eat us. My granddad must be chuckling in his sleep, for sure."

"Oh your old man must be laughing his scaly ass off right about now."

An irritation waved through the cathayn as he swallowed a disdainful remark meant for his sword brother. He then vented his annoyance upon a hellhound who attempted to attack him from behind, only for the animal to be slashed to pieces by his left fang.

The struggle with hellhounds persisted for another hour until the sun started to set, at which time the hellhounds ceased arriving after the last one was defeated. Panting a little from such prolonged fight Zhou

The kislevite, perched on a nearby log, swung his long sword, cutting the soil. "Well, this was a good workout." Anatoly said, dabbing at his perspiration.

Curious, Elodie knelt down and carefully dipped her finger into the hound's blood as a pool of golden blood collected around one of the bodies.

"These animals are not bound by the natural world but connected to the world behind the mist," said Elodie, examining one of the corpses more closely. "Nor are these creatures tainted by the archenemy." She then used her slacks to wipe the blood off her finger.

"Then what are these things then?" Anatoly exclaimed.

"Well, whatever these abominations are, they sure are persistent." Zhou grumbled.

"Persistent but easy to kill. I fought puppies tougher than these mutts." the Kisleveran spat out at on of the corpses.

Retrieving one of her arrows, Elodie shook her head. "This is getting us nowhere. The deeper we go into this forest, more of these creatures will keep coming." She grunted, retrieving another of her arrows out of the dead hound. "If this keeps up, then we'll never find herd."

Anatoly huffed and puffed, wiping away the sweat off his brow. "You got that right. Hunting down a herd in dense forest is hard enough. Being hunted ourselves by packs of hounds of hell? is not something I would like to experience for a third time." He tuned to Elodie and noticed that she has the 'look'," What are you planning Little deer?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me, little deer. We have been together for a couple of years, and I know that expression anywhere."

Elodie sigh deepened. "You might not like it."

Zhou sheathed his Tang Dao "Try us." he challenged, crossing his arms

"I might have an idea to lure our prey out in the open."

"Okay tell us your plan then?"

"First we need bait."

At the same time, things were getting underway in the Council room of Olympus. The Goddess of the Hunt had just appeared as the remaining Olympian gods seated themselves and waited for the meeting to begin.

"This meeting has begun," announced Zeus, gazing upon all the gods that were gathered. "As you all don't know, my master bolt had been stolen, and I have yet to discover the name of the thief. But I know you have something to do with it."

"I have nothing to do with stealing your symbol of power, Zeus!" defended the sea god angrily as he shot up from his throne. "You of all know that we cannot steal a god's symbol of power."

This was certainly not new to Artemis, as she looked at her uncle with a somewhat impassive gaze. She was still unaware that Master Bolt was still missing.

Typical men, thought the goddess disdainfully.

"How do I know that for sure?! You could have used a demigod to steal it and them to camp half-blood all the while pretending not to know!" accused Zeus as he too rose from his throne.

The argument between the two brothers escalated into childish bickering, with each person throwing uninterpretable accusations. Artemis reflected on the search for a kid, recognizing him as a demigod based on the scent he left behind. She also sensed something powerful and wrong, unlike the Titans and other evil creatures that roamed the world.

This felt immensely different.

While Artemis was reminiscing about her quarry, she didn't notice that Athena caught her deep in thought. Ignoring the argument between her two bickering family members in front of her. Normally she would be rolling her eyes and inwardly sighing at the idiocy of the boys before her, but now her mind was elsewhere and focused on this one subject enough to tune them out.

And this made Athena curious.

"Artemis," addressed Athena, her tone hushed so that it wouldn't interrupt the bickering brothers before them.

Being called to so suddenly jarred the aforementioned goddess out of her thoughts and directed her attention to her older sister. She immediately picked up on the curious expression Athena wore.

"What is it, Athena?" asked Artemis.

"You seem distracted," answered Athena, somewhat smugly as if to flaunt her intelligence. "Your mind is elsewhere."

"It's of little concern," dismissed the younger sister, clearly not in the mood to play her game. However, Athena was nothing if not persistent. If there was a puzzle, she was the one to solve it.

"I just need something to preoccupy my mind while those two argue," requested the Goddess of Wisdom as she gestured to her father and uncle, both of whom were still bickering.

"My lieutenant ran into a demigod," said Artemis, after taking a moment to glance at Zeus and Poseidon still arguing. "His name is Zhou Cao. He was able to evade us twice and disarm several of my hunters during the first encounter."

Athena's eyebrows rose in surprise, as this news was very intriguing. Not many demigods could boast such a feat; escaping the hunters of Artemis was no easy task., but disarming several? That was very intriguing to her. Almost instantly, her mind went to work with the information given to her.

"What's more, the boy knows how to wield magic," added her sister.

Now, that really had her attention as Athena looked at Artemis briefly with a look of surprise.

"He used magic?" repeated Athena, wanting to be certain.

"It was."

Now this was really interesting.

The first piece of information revealed was that this demigod was adept at stealth, which he used to eliminate Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Demeter. All of them weren't known for their quietness. This left just Apollo, Hermes, Hecate, and Hestia. However, she could easily rule out her aunt because she had never had a kid and was unlikely to have one in the future, leaving just Hermes, Hecate and Apollo. She could do the same for Hera and Artemis because they didn't have any demigod offspring, and she seriously doubted Dionysus had any more children.

However, Artemis also told her that the demigod was able to disarm several of her hunters. And only someone with excellent combat sense could do that, so that placed Ares back on the table. However, she still didn't know what kind of weapons the demigod carried. Despite having a name, she wanted to do this her way as it was more fun.

"Did he have any weapons on him?" asked Athena.

"He carried throwing knives and a large traveling case, which only assume carries a weapon inside," answered Artemis.

Now that was odd.

Demigods rarely used throwing knives as they would have to craft the blade from Celestial Bronze, which meant they would require a lot of material. This led her to bring Hephaestus back to the table, as he was the only one who really knew how to make those bullets. However, this also reinforced Apollo as the likely parent if this Demigod was a marksman.

But she did not have the full puzzle to complete it, but all indicators pointed to Apollo. There was still more to uncover.

"How did he act? "asked Athena.

"I have never seen him myself, but my lieutenant said that he was extremely confident in his abilities," responded the goddess. "He said that he was hired for a job but refused to reveal what that was. However, she also reported that the way he walked suggested caution, as if he knew he was going to be attacked at any given moment."

'A warrior no doubt, but is employed,' thought Athena as she analyzed the information. 'Assassin perhaps?'

However, before she could ask any more questions, she was interrupted when Dionysus suddenly spoke up, catching the attention of every god.

"Hate to break up your argument, father, but I think you might want to see this," informed the director of Camp Half-Blood as he lowered his phone. Every god and goddess turned to the god of wine; even the brothers Zeus and Poseidon stopped their bickering and turned to him, "Hephaestus, get your TV and set it up. There's something you'll want to see."

Heeding the request, the smith god snapped his fingers, a small spark appearing where his fingers did a snap. Not soon after, a large plasma screen TV appeared in the center of the council room so that everyone could see. The screen lit up as Dionysus sent a video to the device from his phone.

The screen snapped to life as a somewhat shaky video appeared with a low light, suggesting it was taken late last night. In it was a view of the woods near the camp. If Artemis had to guess, it was just under one-quarter of a mile from the camp. Silence filled the council room for a moment.

"What are we looking at, D?" asked Ares, somewhat bored.

Before Dionysus could respond, a deep, guttural rumble broke through the speaker. The sound was unlike anything the gods had heard of, as they all felt themselves stiffen. From the side of a screen, a dark shadow figure appeared. Due to the low resolution of the camera used to take the video, the gods only received a somewhat blurry image, but that was all that they needed to know this thing was imposing.

The ground in the forest crunched under its immense size, as whoever was recording couldn't get the creature in full view, but from what they could see, it was very large.

"What is that thing?" asked Zeus in a low tone. He would never admit it, but when that creature growled, it was a noise he could do without hearing again.

"I don't know," said Dionysus. "Chiron had some of the campers come to him, saying they saw something in the woods. Said it wasn't like any monster they've ever seen."

"Looks kind of like an ox," noted Hermes, looking at the long tail, muscular arms, and brown-like fur.

Athena looked at Artemis. She mouthed a question, not wanting to draw attention to herself.

'Is this what he's after?' asked the goddess of wisdom.

"I don't know," replied Artemis quietly. However, not quiet enough as Aphrodite caught wind of the response.

"Don't know what?" asked the love goddess, loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the room. Soon all eyes were on Artemis, who was sending a glare at her kin who exposed her.

"What do you know that we don't, daughter?" Zeus asked sternly.

Artemis said reluctantly, "My lieutenant met a boy named Zhou Cao. They met him in the woods, where he claimed to be on his way to do some sort of mission. He not only evaded her by bringing down a portion of the cliff and using the rubble as cover to flee and disguise his trail, but he also disarmed several of my hunters, including my lieutenant."

"That is extremely impressive," commented Demeter.

"Maybe he's one of mine," shrugged Ares.

"I should also point out that this boy used a pair of throwing knives and escaped even despite being outnumbered," added the goddess of the hunt, though she was resistant to do so.

"You're saying that this kid got past all of your hunters, disarmed half of them, and was holding back?" listed Apollo, "I think you might be losing your touch, sis."

Artemis glared at him while Dionysus pointed out one thing: "None of the brats use magic except Hecate's."

"Least someone is updating," Ares added. "It's about time some of them start getting close and personnel's... more fun."

"What does the demigod look like?" asked Hera, expecting characteristics that relate to her cheating husband.

"He is of Asian decent, with cyan-blue eyes and brown hair," described stands well over six feet, and if we get his file, we can have a definite age. But from what my lieutenant had described, he is likely in his early teens, perhaps 14, meaning this boy has been surviving on his own for more than several years now."

"Tall and a survivalist; I bet he's got a nice body too. Me likey," Aphrodite added seductively.

"Impossible, no Demigod has lasted that long by themselves!" Zeus proclaimed, sounding a bit jealous that one of the kids had never accomplished such a feat.

"Probably mine; no demigod could survive that long with being a good fighter," Ares said, leaning back in his throne.

"He must have found a way to hide his scent. I might pay this demigod a visit; whatever he is using, it would definitely help the others as well," Hermes said thoughtfully.

"It does not matter. Daughter, I am ordering you to stop hunting this demigod and find out what that creature is," Zeus ordered. "Then you can track down this demigod if he is of any importance."

Nobody realized that Hera had remained seated in the council room chair, gazing into space, throughout the entire event. The boy's description reminded her of someone she knew. Many years ago...

Zoe had been tracking the boy for a few hours now. She had the hunters backtrack until they picked up a trace of the boy's presence. The hunting wolves they had with them kept their noise to the ground sniffing around for any trace of the boy.

In all the years she has served as Lady Artemis' lieutenant, no one has been able to escape her more easily. She has trained to be the best of Lady Artemis' hunters since she was permitted to join them. A teenager had converted her into a cheap hunter using a knife he had lately acquired from a store. Zoe was so proud to be Lady Artemis' lieutenant that she would never let the boy get away from her again.

Suddenly one of the wolves left up a howl to indicate that it had found something.

Zoe rushed over to the wolf to see what it had found. The ground had been kicked up here like someone had landed here with a lot of momentum. The tracks led to a tree that looked like it had been hit by something as there was a dent in the bark.

"The boy was here spread out and look for any more evidence for his presence!" Zoe ordered the rest of the hunters.

The all nodded in response and started to search the surrounding area. Zoe took to the treetops to see if she could spot any obvious signs of the boy's presence. The morning sun illuminated the forest floor making it easy to spot anything out of the ordinary.

A whistling sound went up from the forest just as Zoe landed on the tree branch. She looked to the direction of the sound and waited for a moment before another whistle went up. Zoe turned and jumped towards the sound.

Zoe's eyes shot wide at what she saw as soon as she landed. Before her were the rotting corpse of at least one hundred and twenty hellhounds, the majority of them were cut to pieces. This was all wrong when a monster was killed it turned to gold dust, this was impossible.

"Report," Zoe ordered the two hunters that came across the sight. The other hunters were just arriving as Zoe gave the order.

"We came across this sight after following a trail of gold dust and more hellhound bodies," one of the two hunters said, still trying to come to terms on what she was seeing.

"There are human tracks over here!" Another Hunter called out.

"There more here too!"

"Found another one!"

Zoe walked over to each of the hunters to see the tracks herself.

They were not new; only an expert eye could have detected them, but they were not far behind, having just been there for a few minutes. The boot print was large—a size 12, if she had to estimate—and it protruded nearly an inch from the ground, indicating that the person who created it was rather hefty.

The second boot print, though, was medium, a size 11, and they were about an inch into the ground like the first one.

The last one, on the other hand, was a shoe print of a smaller size 11'10". You could hardly see the print, which meant the third person wasn't as big as the other two.

"Let us follow the first one, we will catch this boy before our lady returns," Zoe said eyes fixed on the trail. However, as soon as she said that, a flash of light appeared behind her. Turning around, she saw her leady return.

"Lady Artemis." greeted Zoe with a bow, "How did the meeting fare?"

"Another argument between my father and Poseidon, it would appear father is blaming uncle for stealing the master bolt," Artemis sighed thinking back to the meeting.

"So the boy we are hunting is his son," Zoe concluded.

"No the boy we are hunting is not the son of Poseidon, he must be the son of the other gods."

"We will find him, my Lady," Zoe said more determined than normal when on a hunt.

"Come on, where the hell are you dumb beast?" Zhou whispered leaning again one of the pine trees as he tapped his finger tapped his upper arm impatiently. As he continued to wait. After all, he is the bait.

The plan that Elodie put forward was a crazy one. One that might work.

He was far from worried about getting lost, as he and his companions could always backtrack their own trail. However, so far, the only things he's encountered were those hounds.

They were easy enough to kill, but that just made him more curious at each encounter.

The first thing that came to mind was:what the hell are they?

Their not chaos hounds that for sure and their definitely not flesh hounds.

Not to mention, the hound doesn't have the occasional red scale skin of the blood god. He quickly ruled out Norscan warhounds; the black fur was a big give-away. Balewolves the—no, no, definitely a big no on that one.

Zhou hissed, he really didn't have anything to do right now. Other than waiting for a beastman to come out. But he had to be certain of some things. The first one being, who the hell were those girls that attacked him?

Speaking off who...

An arrow suddenly struck the tree next to his head, missing by millimeters. Zhou wasn't even fazed; if anything, he let out a tired sigh as he grabbed the shaft of the arrow and pulled it out of the tree.

"Really?" deadpanned Zhou as he turned to the direction where the arrow came from. "You just can't leave me alone; can ahhhhhh—what the hell?"

Despite how dense the foliage was, Zhou could easily see his assailants approaching him. All thirty of them, ten more than the last group he faced. Just means ten more nuisances for him to face. He's tired and has had no luck so far regarding the beastmen he's looking for. But this takes the cake. Literally.

A 15-year-old girl emerged from the trees with reddish hair and furious silver-gray eyes. She was dressed similarly to other female hunters, with subtle variations like elaborate embroidery. She was holding two daggers, contrasting with the others, who had a common theme. But most of all, she wore the face of one of his best friends.

Apart from the girl radiating an old enchantment, he could also sense that she was not a human girl. In fact she may not be human at all.

"So we meet face to face," she spoke to the cathyan with disdain, as if she were scolding a child for doing something he was not supposed to do.

"So the Matriarch has finally stepped out of the shadows," replied Zou as he inspected the arrow that was shot at him. "But You have me at a disadvantage. I didn't realize I had a meeting. Been kinda busy, trying to do my job."

"Why are you here, Zhou Cao?" demanded the girl, using his name.

This immediately raised red flags in the cathayn's mind as he lost all sense of humor and locked his darker green eyes onto the girl.

"How the hell did you know my name?" demanded Zhou.

"Watch your tongue, boy," snapped the auburn girl. "You are nothing compared to me; I could kill you before you even drew your weapon!"

Zhou scoffed as he shook his head. "Bold statement coming from a witch who isn't even past five 'six, wearing the face of another." He taunted by her, causing the girl to glare at him," But back to the main point, how'd you figure out my name? You've been following me?"

"It does not matter," she said. "Now, boy, you will surrender to us."

"Not Matter!? Truly, your ignorance of what's going on in these woods knows no bounds," responded Zhou, shaking his head as he looked to the side. "Besides, my task is not yet done."

"Your task no longer matters," said the girl grimly, trying to look intimidating, "all that matters is your surrenders."

"Oh, it does matter. More than you truly know," replied the black-haired man sharply as he narrowed his eyes at the girl. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a task to finish."

"You are surrounded," stated the girl. "Surrender."

Zhou looked like he was about to retract, his eyes narrowing even further; however, his expression suddenly changed. The sudden change caught the girls attention, as he looked like something terrible was coming. That's when she sensed it. The corruption.

The power.

The darkness.

And she wasn't alone.

Zhou could feel his senses going haywire. The dark presence was here, and it was close.

Suddenly the ground shook as distant thumps could be heard. The gathered girls all looked around as they felt the earth shake underneath them. What followed was a roar, unlike anything they had ever heard of. It was distant but hardly made it less intimidating. Whatever it was, it was getting closer because the roar was deep and strong.

"Oh, you gotta be fucking me right now."

The girls were horrified by a massive creature emerging from the shadows, resembling a farm-type ox standing on two legs. The smell of rotten blood and perspiration made them sick. Standing between ten and twenty-eight feet tall, it had four massive arms, a muscular torso, and legs as large as tree trunks. As it approached, it snarled quietly, revealing a slobbering maw filled with yellow-brown fangs, two horns, and clusters of spiky fur along its spine. The atmosphere was filled with rotten blood and perspiration, making the girls feel sick.

When the massive creature growled, smoke wafted from its maw as its piercing red eyes locked onto its prey. The beast stopped as it adjusted its stance before letting out an ear-splitting roar that caused all those present, minus Zhou, to flinch. The Caythan just sighed as he dropped the arrow he had been inspecting and pulled out the flare gun from out of his jacket as he moved towards the monster.

"A Ghorgon, it has to be a Ghorgon," quipped Zhou as he stopped a few feet from the beast. The girls looked at him like he was insane.

"What are you doing?" demanded the girl with the auburn hair.

"What I was sent here to do," he replied simply.

"There is no way you'll defeat that beast on your own."

Zhou smirked as he pointed the flair gun into the sky and pulled the trigger. A second later, a red fireball the size of a gold ball illuminated the entire forest for miles.

"Who says that I was alone?"

Just as Zhou was finishing his sentence, the ground sprouted sturdy ice spikes, encasing its hoofed legs. Locking the Ghorgon in place. But it didn't stop there. Three arrows appeared out of nowhere and hit one of the Ghorgon's four arms. Subsequently, all of the arrow ends were linked by electricity, which resulted in an abrupt explosion. Turning vivid green foliage and brown wood blood crimson, the corrupted chaos beast let out a howl so full of misery and anger that it could be heard for miles; even through the mist was surprising it. Then, out of the tree line, another hail of arrows struck the other bladed arm; a second later, the second arm exploded. Letting out another roar of pain so loud that even a person hard of hearing could hear it.

Smiling, he opened the case and took out his twin Tang Dao's, pouring the Lore of Yin and the Lore of Yang into the twin weapons, causing the females to jump and stare in amazement. Magic flowed over the twin swords while the caythan remained impassive.

It was this point the Ghorgon had enough. Its blood-crazed eyes are searching incessantly for the person who fired the shots. The beast grasped one of the trees, brutally ripped it out of the ground, and flung it in the direction of the arrows, compelling the person to emerge from her hiding place.

Initially, Artemis expected the dumb girl to break her legs as she tumbled to the ground. Rather, the girl in question landed safely and without harm using a gymnast's kneeling posture. Slowly standing back up as the light of the moon illuminated her features, but once it did, a sharp gasp came out of Artemis's lips.

From silver eyes to facial characteristics, the girl nearly looks precisely like her. The girl's blonde hair, rather than auburn, is the only thing that made any resemblances apparent. Pulling out a silver-tipped arrow from the arrow holder, the girl nocked another silver-tipped arrow on her bow string. Aim steady.

The sound of breaking ice brought Artemis out of her own stupor. As the monstrosity broke free of its icy prison, falling to its knees. Horrifically, the beast's two deformed arms began to slowly regenerate themselves as the beast stood back up on its own two feet.

Stomping out of his own hiding place from under one of the hollow tree trunks, the second boy stood next to the girl and the first boy. His left arm was covered in frost. Indicating that he is the one who summoned forth the ice. With a blade in hand, ready to taste the beast's flesh.

"Well, your plan worked, little deer," the second boy observed.

Elodie scarcely glanced at the older boy next to her. "What did I just say about calling me that name?" she grumbled. Not taking her silver eyes off of the creature

"Now's not the time." Zhou rasped, keeping his eyes on the beast of chaos.

The creature turned its attention back to Zhou and roared as it shifted to the side, displaying its changes. However, the addition of arms, like its horns, did not detract from the fact that its two limbs had regenerated, and the massive skeletal swords seemed more sharp than ever.

"Well then," stated Zhou as he swung out his blades and held them out to his sides. "Time for us to get to work."

With that, the three of them all charged towards the Ghorgon just as the beast roared and charged as well.

Code Viper: Oh Hestia is not going to have major heart attack. She's going to faint.

Mad Thought: Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

Crazzytony: Oh get too excited.