Chapter 37

[Third Person's PoV]

Thalia jumped straight into the air and supercharged her spear with electricity. When she landed in the middle of the skeletons she impaled her spear into the ground creating a small wave of electricity. Which ended up destroying the skeletons around her.

Some managed to block it with their shield and went charging towards her with their shield raised and in a formation, as if it was a coordinated attack.

Due to their nature and skeletal figure, the Aegis shield Thalia wielded didn't intimidate them like it was supposed to, and rushed in to attack.

Thalia blocked some of the sword strikes coming her way but not all of them some still managed to invade her defense and strike her but due to her instinct she managed to move on time and only get scratched.

Thalia thrusted her spear in front of her skewering the skull of three skeletons that were back to back. A skeleton try to cut her from the side but Thalia managed to block it with her shield. Thalia charged her spear with electricity again before swinging it and releasing the electricity inside it.

Meanwhile Annabeth used one of the skeletons' shields as a foothold and leaped into the air where she threw her dagger at their skulls.

She landed with a roll and reached for her daggers that reappeared on her side and took off the legs of them. One of them managed to cut her cheek as pass throw them, she would aim for their legs to throw them off and go in for the kill.

As she was going to repeat her action one of them kicked her, throwing her back making her grunt in pain.

Little by little everyone started dwindling their force but not without coming unscathed, they all suffered multiple cuts and bruises, even Grover wasn't the exception.

Instead of just constantly watching his friends get hurt without doing anything, he made the griffin he was riding in advance towards everyone and tried to help, even though he was shaking in his hooves.

'I am their protector!' Grover kept reminding himself as he advanced through the army of skeletons.

…

Lucian who was breathing slightly heavily moved back and started using his tracing magic, where he proceeded to summon multiple knives and swords all made from celestial bronze.

Lucian controlled them and aimed them towards the spirits in front of him; some tried to parry them but Lucian just manipulated them to go around them and stab them in the back or to their side.

Some spirits would have multiple knives and swords inside of them before being killed once again.

Lucian grimaced in pain at the wound in his shoulder, 'That's what I get for using experienced warriors as a training partner' he thought with a weary expression.

Seeing that there were only a few left and that it would be tedious to clean them up Lucian decided to use his shadows.

"Arise!" He demanded, causing the shadows of everyone he and his friends to kill come alive and finish them all.

Skeletons with bones made out of shadows and Mahkai with their weapons made out of shadows in hand rose up and turned towards their once comrades and without hesitation turned on them.

It took a while but when everyone was done they laid next to each breathing heavily,

Annabeth turned towards Lucian and asked, "Why are you so injured?"

"I was fighting Makhai, they are experienced warriors, they have skills so they're harder to fight. Plus I was using them as a way to test myself."

"You're an idiot I hope you know that" Annabeth looked at him with a deadpan look.

Lucian just smirked, "Why thank you"

Which caused Annabeth to roll her eyes. Lucian then turned towards the other and shared his idea, "I think it's best if we stay here for the day and recover before going anywhere else. I'll find a hotel or something, I'm already getting tired of just sleeping outside"

They all nodded their heads in agreement but before they went anywhere Annabeth stood up and went in front of Lucian sticking out her palm.

"What?" Lucian asked in confusion.

"Bandages, for your shoulder. You're still bleeding, let me cover it."

Lucian nodded and summoned his bag from his shadow and gave it to Annabeth as she started doing her thing.

After she was done Lucian summoned more griffins and off they took to find a hotel, and as they went Lucian noticed Luke looked more tired than usual.

"What happened to you?" Lucian asked with a raised brow.

"Used my father's abilities a lot, I didn't know I would get this tired though" Luke said, sounding exhausted.

Lucian nodded in understanding as they made their way through the city looking for any hotel in the area.

…

A few days later…

"🎶 🎵 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.

Take one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall.

98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer.

Take one down and pass it around, 97 bottles of beer on the wall. 🎶 🎵 "

Lucian kept singing while laying on the back of his griffin as it ran through the forest onto their next destination. He had his hand behind his head and one of his legs hanging and swaying to the side.

The others look about done with him already, while Grover was swaying and singing along finding it enjoyable,

"🎶 🎵97 bottles of beer on the wall, 97 bottles of beer.

Take one down and pass it around, 96 bottles of beer on the wall.

96 bottles of beer on the wall, 96 bottles of beer.

Take one down and pass it around, 95 bottles of beer on the wall. 🎶 🎵 "

Lucian then stopped as he detected something following them, due to his constant fighting and training he realized that most creatures and people have some kind of life signature which he started to pick on due to being the son of the lord of the dead.

When he stopped the others to stop as well, they looked at him in confusion as Lucian just got off his griffin and started stretching.

"What's wrong" Annabeth asked as they slowly brought their hands to their weapons, but Lucian just waves them off, "Oh nothing my back just hurts from laying down and needed to get up"

Lucian then disappeared from their view as he shadow blinked and appeared next to a girl on the top of the trees with a dagger next to her throat, "Now what do we have here"

"Don't think I can't detect the rest of you, why have you been following us?" Lucian asked as he pressed the dagger on her throat.

The girl just clicked her tongue displeased at being discovered.

But before she could do or say anything else a young girl with cold and bright eyes as silvery yellow as the winter, and auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail, carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back drop down from one of the trees and looked at Lucian

(Pic)

"Release her" she demanded as more girls and women dropped down as well.

"Permission to shoot him down, Lady Artemis" the woman next to her asked as she took out an arrow from her quiver and put it by her bow. She was tall, graceful, and gorgeously beautiful: she had brown eyes, copper-colored skin, and the silver circlet braided into the top of her long, dark hair gave her the impression of a Persian princess

(Pic)

"Wait a minute. Zoe" Artemis replied.

While Lucian just continued pressing his dagger at the girl, "Not before answering my question, Cousin"

Zoe clicked her tongue, "Don't act close as if you know her" she said as she pulled back on her bow.

Artemis put a hand on her shoulder and sighed, "Stop, he's not wrong, we are technically cousins. He has a hint of aura of death on him the same as Hades"

Artemis then narrowed her eyes in Lucian's direction and asked, "Are you not going to do as I say"

"I'm keeping her as my insurance in case you were sent by your father. after all he wants me dead"