Chapter 17

In 5 minutes all of my newly acquired friends were washed up and ready, the grime and mud removed from their now clear faces.

I had to almost do a double take when I looked at Thalia. Without all that crap covering her, Thalia looked incredibly pretty. With electric blue eyes that seemed to lighten her face up, she looked the kind of pretty only imagined when describing a delicate princess.

The princess look however, was ruined by the gothic black jacket, matching black clothes, and punk type spikey hairstyle.

Still, she cut a very striking figure.

"Let's move on." I said, once they all gathered. "We've a few guests waiting for us outside the door, so be prepared."

"Can't wait." Luke stated with a smirk, swinging his sword experimentally.

"Not again, Luke. Don't be stupid. Your over eagerness got us tangled with a Cyclopes remember?" Thalia scolded lightly, though she had trouble suppressing her own eager grin as she twirled her spear.

"Yeah yeah, don't worry. It won't happen again, especially with a new member in our family." Luke replied, shooting me a smile.

I snorted, shaking my head even as the grip upon my own spear tightened.

I was honestly stumped on how easily they accepted me in group, but I wasn't complaining.

"Don't forget me, I'll fight too!" Annabeth chimed in with a small bronze knife clutched tightly in her hands.

"No." All three of us replied before looking at each other in incredulous surprise.

"Why not!? I can fight! Luke, you know that right? I saved you two in that cave, remember?" Little Annie whined angrily, making teary puppy eyes towards luke who seemed about to melt on spot soon.

"Of course you can, I never said otherwise." He said with an indulgent smile. "But you've already saved our lives haven't you? So let us do our job now."

Masterfully done. I had to give it to him.

I moved towards the door while holding back a snicker, one hand clutching my dear spear while I created another holy spear in the other.

"What's that?" Thalia asked curiously as she moved to stand beside me.

"Something from my mother's side." I replied. "You all ready?"

I waited till they nodded before opening the door and ran straight towards the huge hellhound sniffing the front of the lawn.

It gave a might roar, it's massive bulk jiggling as it pounced towards me. I threw my holy spear at its throat before rolling aside to let it's body pass by. Thalia finished off the injured monster with a swing of her spear, electricity dancing around it's edges.

"Goods, now let's maintain our for–" I silenced myself when I took a look around me, my eyes easily picking up the figures in darkness.

I could see dozens of hellhounds melting in the shadows while different types of skeletons bumbled their way towards us. I could even make out a couple of giant skeletons that cracked the ground underneath as they struck their clubs in challenge.

We were completely surrounded with a horde of monsters that seemed to have no end.

"Run! Run for the car!" I bellowed, tearing off any plans of slowly making our way in a formation, and took my own advice in running for it. I could hear Annabeth whining again as Luke picked her up but I didn't turn. I had to get to the car before getting swarmed by monsters.

I saw a couple of Hellhounds emerge from the shadows on my left. Without turning I sent a bolt of electricity coursing through my spear directly between the hellhounds. The bolt splashed like liquid, covering all of them in electricity, making them start twitching in shock and fall on their bellies.

[Electric Discharge] (Lvl 5)

-200 Divine Energy

I kept running even as I saw Thalia, who'd been running much faster, slowing down to take care of some skeletons. Reaching the car, I jerked open the door, not wasting time with any locks. I started the engine while unlocking the other doors from the driver seat.

"C'mon, get in!" I screamed out as the three approached the vehicle while Thalia held back the monsters.

She was an incredible fighter, I realised. Her speed and strength was ridiculous, even for someone as experienced as me. Her every strike was a skillful art, striking the enemies hard and fast. Her every spear thrust and swing was packed with electric discharge and large gust of wind. She looked like an angry goddess of lightning.

If I had to guess, I'd say she was around my level in Spear-wielding, expert Lvl 2 or 3.

She also clutched a shield on her other hand that made monsters hesitate to even face her. While her spear was definitely made of some different metal because a single slash from it was transforming monsters into dust, which appeared to be even more effective than my holy light.

[Aegis's Clone] (Legendary): Made of Celestial Bronze and embedded with the Image and Aura of Medusa. The shield acts like an inferior copy of the original Aegis.

[Lightning Spear] (Unique): Made of Celestial Bronze, and able to conduct and enhance electricity.

Celestial bronze huh...I needed to replace my spear's tip with Celestial Bronze. I would never give up the spear gifted to me by my mother, but I can definitely use my own demonic power to replace it's tip with that of celestial bronze.

Thalia's bellow broke me off of my line of thought as she decimated the monsters.

Still, the enemies were too many for even her to hold back any longer.

"Thalia, get in!" I called out to her as luke, Annabeth and grover got inside the Bentley.

She didn't answer, instead raising her spear to the sky as monsters started to encircle her.

"Shit. Luke take the wheel!" I screamed over the sound of thunder, just before a massive bolt of huge energy slammed into the herd of monsters. I had to cover my eyes and ears as the lightning bolt struck the ground, shaking the entire car from its shockwave as it destroyed it's surrounding.

Atleast half of the monster army was instantly vaporised, while the other half were thrown back with various degrees of burns and injuries.

But it still wasn't enough. I could literally see an even larger horde starting to gather. More hellhounds, more skeletons, mixed in with some spiders and weird looking skeleton dogs.

There didn't seem to be an end to them. The scene was shocking, even to me who'd spent 6 years of his life running from monsters.

I needed to get Thalia out of there. Now.

I quickly got down from the driver seat to let Luke take it and ran towards Thalia, continuously launching weapons of Holy light to keep the enemies from swarming the dizzy girl.

In such a large group, the holy weapons were even more effective than I'd thought. They took very little of my holy power, barely 20 per spear, and did an awesome amount of damage to dark creatures.

As soon as I reached Thalia, I launched a huge gust of wind, blowing away most of the monsters in my immediate surroundings.

The ones who didn't back off were quickly targeted by my holy spears. I couldn't go and cut through the monsters in melee like Thalia, because my weapon will probably start creating problems. Still, it got the job done.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I clutched Thalia's hands, who was blindly stumbling around.

"I got you, sis. Just hold on." I mutterered in her ears, dragging both of us to the car.

"..Jace? Brother?" She mumbled out.

I squeezed her hands lightly before glancing back and almost felt my heart sink. The monsters were rapidly closing in again. And they were closing in fast.

I closed my eyes to drown out any nervousness as they came for us. The Gamer's mind helped a lot in that regard.

I might have been facing monsters for years but there was just something different in watching the massive 4 legged beasts and giant skeletons with glowing eyes chasing after you, knowing you'd die the moment they caught you.

Opening my eyes I gathered my will and with a powerful howl, raised my spear high in the air. The next moment, sky met the earth, turning my world white.

---------------------------

Luke had no idea why he followed the boy's lead when he was commanded to take the wheels and stay put. He also had no idea why he let the boy risk his own life to save Thalia.

The boy looked just a couple of years older than Annabeth at most afterall.

A part of Luke still wanted to go after Thalia and rip those monsters apart, not caring about any consequences. But there was just something about the boy that demanded respect, forcing Luke to put his trust in him.

Just something that made the boy seem older and wiser. An air of authority that commanded obedience seemed to revolve around him. At any other times, Luke would've simply written it off as his own cowardice, but not today. No, today he felt his trust was well placed.

And the proof was right in front of his eyes. The boy cut through monsters like they were made of paper, launching blades of white light from his hands that shredded the monsters apart. It wasn't lightning, Luke was sure. Fighting beside Thalia for years was bound to teach him something. No, it was something else, and by the looks of it, it was indeed very effective.

It wasn't enough though. For every 1 monster he cut down, 2 more took its place. Luke was deciding if he should join in, but then the boy launched a storm of wind, blasting away the monsters.

Luke sighed in relief and envy as he watched the boy grab Thalia.

It should've been me down there', a part of his traitorous mind whispered. 'It should've been me that saved Thalia; me who should've risked his life to save someone so precious. But I just didn't have the power, did I?

Since that...blasted day that luke had met his father, he had realised that the gods truly didn't care for their children, and depending on them was the height of folly.

So he'd tried to prove that he didn't need them. He'd faught monsters only whispered in legends, defeated beings that no mortal should face.

But watching someone almost half a decade younger than him decimate an army of monsters made him realise that it didn't matter. It didn't matter how much he tried to prove his worth, he'd never be as good as the ones born of the big three.

But more than that, he realised that even if he was as strong as them, it wouldn't change the way things were.

Afterall, both of them were still stuck in the same situation as him. The gods were assholes yes, but they were assholes to everyone equally.

And then he saw the boy...No.

He saw Mikael.

He saw him raise his spear up to the sky, a fair maiden in his hands, and a land of slain monsters at his feets. He saw him bring down the power of God on earth, saw him absolutely decimate the legions of monsters send by the gods, summoning thick bolt of lightning like a judgement from God.

And he realised— Why should they need to prove anything to the gods? Why must they fight for their acceptance? Why pray to gods, he wondered, when they can be one themselves.

And then his world flashed white as the Bolt brought down its fury and power.