Chapter 23

Thankfully, I arrived just in time, crashing into it from the side, spear-first.

My spear slid into its neck cleanly, its skin barely resisting the celestial bronze and my momentum pushed us both away from the girl. I removed my spear, leaving behind a massive hole in its neck but failed to decapitate it completely.

As I tumbled down on the ground with the monster below me, I saw from the corner of my eyes it's wound rapidly closing. I was forced to quickly retreat backwards from the screeching and furious hydra as it's other ugly heads tried to take a bite out of me.

"Leave." I commanded the downed Athena girl before focusing back on the hydra.

All of its heads stared straight at me, glaring balefully as it's wound healed completely. It stood still on the ground for a moment, it's dark scales shining beautifully from the evening sun, reflecting the light in multiple waves. Beautiful and dangerous.

For some reason I felt an irresistible urge to take it as a trophy and craft myself some clothes from it.

We charged at each other at the same time, me with my spear spinning, the hydra with its 7 heads roaring. One of its heads snapped at me intimidatingly, and my spear moved on its own accords, slicing through the neck cleanly this time, while I rolled away to avoid any blood or venom. To my surprise, the empty neck started writhing slowly, it's blood boiling as if something wanted to come out.

". ..What." I dumbly stared as two new heads smoothly grew out of a single neck. The hydra was now a 8 headed hydra and it did not look amused.

"It is weak to fire! Cauterize it's wounds!" The Athena girl, who hadn't ran away, screamed at me as I dodged away from the multiple globs of green acid, controlling the air to deflect even the slightest drop.

I absently noted that the acid melted through stone as quickly as wood.

'Cauterize the wounds, huh?' A simple plan formed in my head, and with a tiny smirk I recharge into the fight.

Electricity arced through my spear as I flew up in the air to avoid the charging Hydra. As it passed under me, I sharply turned my flight and went back for the monster. A defensive barrier blocked one of its snapping head, while my spear's glinting blade swiped across its throat, cleanly cutting off another one of its head.

But this time, I burnt it's wound with electricity.

I quickly flew away again as the screeching monster's tail tried to catch me off-guard.

My attention was on the wound, and surprisingly, the hydra was looking at its cut off neck too. For a few seconds the wound stayed fried but then it slowly started writhing again and the hydra turned to shoot me a smug look.

"Oh hell no..." I raised my spear towards the growing neck and put as much divine energy into my electric discharge skill as it could hold.

A bolt of pure crackling electricity leapt out of my spear and stuck the growing neck with such force and power that it not only pushed the hydra back but actually started to melt it's just growing head. I kept up the electric discharge active until the Hydra was displaced 10 meters away.

The monster slowly started to climb to its feets, growling and screeching, both of our attention was toward its decapitated head as we stared at the wound. 10 whole seconds later all of its seven remaining heads turned towards me, pure rage and hatred it them. The neck wasn't growing back

I shot the creature a grin.

It roared it's fury towards me and started a mad charge, all of its head continuously spitting large globs of green acid towards me. Spinning my spear in an arc, I launched a huge wave of wind towards the acid, blowing away every bit back to its owner.

Then, with a leap to the air I threw my Holy spears towards its neck. The raging monster was just as dexterous as before though, even with one head short, and managed to either completely dodge my spears or tank it with its body. But that hadn't been my plan, having already observed it's ridiculous dexterity in action.

Instead, I took cover behind a huge disc of Holy power that I launched towards it, while closing the gap between us again.

The Hydra managed to tank the Holy ball with its chest, resulting in a visibly big hole which was rapidly closing. The monster wasn't ready for me though, and I used this opportunity to slice through another two of its heads in quick successions. I moved faster than 3 times the speed of sound, leaving behind cracks or sonic booms in my wake.

I made sure to cauterize each of the wounds with a quick Holy spear or electrical bolt.

It was an easy fight after that. The monster wasn't weak, hell it was tougher than the Minotaur, but I was simply too fast for it to land a blow without 3 of its head.

Especially cause the thing wasn't a fighter; Its remaining 5 heads didn't fight together, continuously making mistakes and biting each other, its tail wasn't quick or subtle enough to catch me off-guard and it's hands were so tiny that it couldn't use its claws against a flying opponent.

In less than a minute, I cut off each of its head before retreating quickly and pointing my spear to the sky, directly summoning a true divine Lightning bolt down on the monster.

When the dust and wind settled down, the only thing remaining of the monster was a head. I walked towards it and picked it up, noting the still wet teeth that had poison on them.

[You Leveled Up] 361

[You Leveled Up] 362

I waved away the notifs with a satisfied smile. Tier 4 monsters were the bare minimum to gain a full level nowadays. And even then, the monsters needed to be around the peak of Tier 4, above lvl 300 atleast. As for Tier 5s, like this one, the level has to be atleast above 60 for me to gain a full level.

I probably got two levels because I was already close to leveling up before the fight, and maybe some bonus for fighting a monster above my Tier.

I definitely needed to find a new way to level up cause I wasn't anywhere near strong enough for my leveling to slow down like this. I wasn't even peak demigod tier yet for fuck's sake!

My attention was broken by the sound of cheering and metal banging. I turned around and was surprised to note an audience gathered, some cheering and some banging their weapons to their shields.

With a snort, I raised the hydra's head and the cheering increased. Shaking my head I walked towards Thalia and Luke who'd just got there.

"You missed all the fun." I said, shaking the monster's head like a trophy, which it actually was.

"Well you should've waited for us." Luke replied with annoyance as thalia approached me.

"Are you hurt?" She asked neutrally.

I however, knew my sister enough to know by now that she was trying not to sound overly concerned in front of everyone present.

"Not even a little bit." I replied laughingly, putting my free hand around her tense shoulder. "C'mon, this should be enough to convince Chiron and other counselors to hurry up and aprove your plan."

"I hope you're right." She muttered, letting herself be led back to the big house.

"I'm always right."

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

And I was.

"Don't be a coward!" Mark, the ares counselor, yelled at michelle. "A Hydra almost killed one of yours and you still want to wait!?"

"Hush now, child. Michelle raises a good point." Chiron gentle chided.

They were back at the big house, sitting around the table, bickering and arguing.

Only, the subject had shifted from 'if they should attack' to 'when should they attack.'

"I'm only asking for a week!" Michelle said frustrated. "That's the least amount of time we need, to come up with a better plan than just...flying around and attacking, no offense to Thalia."

Thalia shot her second-in-command a half-hearted glare. Now that she knew we will actually be doing something, she wasn't as much on the edge.

I decided to interrupt before it got too out of hand.

"Maybe a middle ground would be better. Mark, I know you are dying to fight but we won't be attacking tonight itself, it's too risky. Michelle, as much as I'd like to say we have a week, the truth is we are much more desperate than I first thought. A Hydra attacked today."

I nodded towards the centre of the table where I kept the monster's head. "While the more powerful monsters are starting to gather together without attacking. My scouts from apollo say the Minotaur and the furies have reborn again, and are already prowling around the barrier. There is also a Manticore bumbling around somewhere, I hope I don't have to say how dangerous that thing is."

A shudder went through the demigods present. Everyone knew what a Manticore was, and what exactly it could do. The stories about the monster, atleast from those lucky few who managed to survive, were always bone chilling to hear.

"If one of them gets inside the camp and takes us by surprise, we will lose demigods. Lots of demigods. But if all five of them co-ordinate their attacks and enter together with a battalion of lesser monsters?" I spread my hands helplessly. "We're goners. We have to take the initiative, clear out the monsters before they can attack us."

I looked at my self-created wrist watch and decided to end the meeting. "I think we should wrap this up as soon as we can, so what do you all say to two days from now, sharp in the morning?"

After a bit of discussion, we all agreed on the time of attack.

Now, we simply needed to plan, prepare, and train. Easy stuff.

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

That night was my squads turn to guard the camp. I didn't go around to collect them as I'd already itched into their brains to always arrive on time.

I passed the big house and walked towards the half-blood hill alone. I could see Thalia staring down the hill with a frown, standing just inside the magical barrier. I wondered if I should sneak behind to give her a jump scare but dismissed it quickly when I realised how tense she looked.

I approached her slowly, making sure to make plenty of noise. She looked around with a start before glancing back to me.

"Kael. Something's not right here." She sounded worried.

I stood beside her, cool wind blowing our hairs wildly as we stared down the steep hill. The night had already grown dark, and the shadows from trees made it impossible for anyone to see clearly. Anyone that didn't have my advantages that is. Thanks to my mother's genes, I had no such problems.

"The Manticore." I stated, pointing down.

There, just behind the shade of a large tree, the ugly thing stood, directly looking at us.

It was unnerving. Very very unnerving. And just as exciting. It bought a sense of danger and adventure back to me, reminding me of the wild times with my mother.

"Yeah, the thing is here since the evening. But that's not what I meant." She pointed to the base of the hill, where it connected to the farm road. "The Minotaur is there somewhere. And the kindly ones flying around here. How can these monsters work together so peacefully? Standing here all day, just waiting for the right moment?"

I knew what she meant. I had been wondering the same for an year now, without any explanation.

"Maybe both of our auras are extra tasty?" I jokingly asked.

She snorted but didn't reply for a moment and I simply stared down the hill, reminiscing.

"What are you thinking?" She asked after a few seconds.

I hesitated for a few seconds. We didn't talk about our mothers usually. She, because she didn't want to remember her mother. Me, because I didn't want to remind her of mothers in general.

"I was thinking about my mother." I replied finally, not wanting to lie.

"Really?" She asked, amused. "A manticore reminds you of your mother. Didn't you say she was beautiful or something?"

"My mother is the most beautiful woman to have ever existed on heaven, hell, or earth." I insisted again.

"Of course, little brother." She laughed teasingly.

"Oh, shut up. You'll see when you meet her. Don't say I didn't warn you when you fall unconscious by just looking at her."

"Speaking from experience, my dear leader?" A teasing voice interrupted my and thalia's family moment, and up came Anastasia.

Thalia's face scrunched up like she just tasted a particularly sour lemon.

"Right, I guess my team's time is up. I'll leave you to guard the camp tonight."

I gave her a parting wave as she climbed down the hill.

"Anna, you are early." I stated as unenthusiastically as I could.

"I know you usually arrive early, so I thought maybe I'll give you some company." She replied easily, coming to stand besides me even as she towered over me in height.

"And also ruin my time with my sister?" I asked harshly.

I usually didn't get angry at the girl but I didn't like anyone disturbing me and Thalia. We didn't spend much time together due to conflicting schedules so any free time we had, we usually spent around each other. Generally with luke and Annabeth mixed in, but sometimes alone.

The girl was silent for some time and I wondered if I was being too harsh.

"I'm sorry, I didnt mean to do that." She replied at last. "I didn't see her in the dark until I could hear your voices and by that time I was already eavesdropping so I just announced myself."

Sighing, I waved my hand. "It's fine. Go tell Markus and Castor to gather their cabin and come here too. We'll start early tonight."

"Oh c'mon, you know I don't talk to markus, mikey. Why do you always find ways to send me away from you anyway?" She whined, clutching her chest as if I hurt her.

A very bountiful chest, a part of my mind whispered. Very bountiful indeed.

I looked away with a frown. "Stop giving me weird nicknames then. And will you finally tell me why does markus hate your guts?"

"Ah, that's..ahh awkward. Kinda." She replied, sounding nervous for the first time. "You'll also hate my guts if you knew."

"I promise you I won't." I replied seriously, turning to look at her again. "And I have to know. We'll be launching another attack in two days, and I have to know if I can trust you two together."

She looked uncharacteristically nervous, and very uncomfortable. I've actually never seen her act this way since...ever.

"Well...you see there's this tradition in Aphrodite cabin. A rite of passage." She took a deep breath as if preparing for battle. "Every daughter of Aphrodite has to go through this rite. Basically we make a boy fall in love with us and then break their heart. Or do...worse. Well...let's just say I did something way worse to Markus."

I caught on quickly.

"You cheated on him?" I asked with a frown.

"Y-yeah." She looked down, probably ready to hear my new born hatred for her or whatever. "Cause of mother and H-hephaestus...you know."

Ah yes. Aphrodite cheats on her husband all the time. So they imitated their mother? Damn, that's hardcore.

"That's stupid." I responded. "Cheating on a guy to gain your mother's attention, I mean. But whatever, it's your business. I don't hate or dislike you for that, so stop acting like a delicate flower."

She shot me a surprised but grateful look before nodding.

"Thanks for that, most people don't take it that way. It's not just our fault, you know. Demigods usually inherit the most predominant trait of their parents. You could say it's almost instinctive for us to break our first love's heart."

"Seriously?" I asked with a frown. "Are you telling me I'll go raping women all around the world or something? That's...even more stupid."

"Give it a few years, you'll see." She promised. "I've been in the camp for a long time, kael. More than three years, and it's always the same. The Ares kids are always brutes and bullies, the Athena kids are always smart, nerdy, and prideful. Aphrodite are always airheads who try to follow their mother. I'm not saying you will actually force yourself on someone for sure, but you'll definitely get some urge."

"I see."

That could actually be a problem. Will gamer's mind stop those kind of things? I didn't know and I wasn't willing to think about it right now.

"We'll talk about this later if you have the time." I said to the girl.

"I always have time for our valiant leader." She replied with a smirk, back in her usual self. "Even if you want to do...more than talking."

"Go and invite markus and castor." I ordered again with a snort.

"Oh c'mon! I just told you why I don't talk to Markus!" She whined again.

I waved her off with a tsk. "Just ask castor to do it, silly."

"Oh." She looked surprised.

Sometimes this girl really shocked me with her perception and experience...

But never with her intelligence.

Some things just never change.