Consequences of hatred

"Aghh!" exclaimed Annabeth as she felt the claws of the harpy cut through her arm.

"Annabeth!" exclaimed Christina while moving in her direction, cutting the harpy's leg of with a single move of her dagger. "Are you okey?" she asked, looking at Annabeth's wound with concern.

"Ugh, yes I am, I can still fight." replied Annabeth with a determined expression while tightening the hold on her dagger.

"No, it's too much already." said Christina. "Stay behind me until we finish dealing with them alright?"

"B-But-" tried to reply Annabeth, however her words were interrupted by Thalia who just killed the harpy she was fighting and rushed over.

"No buts." said Thalia. "Stay behind Christina and I, Luke is already taking care of most of them so don't worry." continued Thalia, her eyes narrowing a bit on Luke's figure, who was fighting two harpies simultaneously while a third one laid dead on the ground next to him, slowly turning to ashes.

Christina had noticed it as well, Luke's change. Ever since they went to his house, Luke had been acting... wilder, monster fights which could be avoided ended up with them covered in superficial wounds because Luke wanted to fight them. The change was both subtle and clear, Luke always wanted to improve, to get stronger to protect them, but now... now it felt like he wanted to get stronger for something more.

Two harpies rushed at the trio, trying to cut or stab them with their sharp claws. Christina got on guard and raised her dagger, preparing herself for the incoming attack while keeping Annabeth, who was currently covering her wound with a part of her broken shirt, behind her.

"Aegis!" exclaimed Thalia while activating the shield from her bracelet. She was glad they went to Halcyon's house, not only did they learn a lot, they also got objects that saved their lives. Thalia got a bracelet that deployed a shield when the command word - Aegis - was said. Luke got the dagger he gifted Christina as well as Halcyon's diary, which he kept on himself at all times, and knowledge on how to make Greek Fire, which unfortunately they hadn't been useful since they left the mansion due to lack of materials.

The sharp claws of the first harpy landed on Thalia's shield, causing a loud sound to reverberate across their small battlefield, which was the cold streets of Delaware. After leaving Luke's house, they decided to head south and get out of Connecticut entirely.

While Thalia was trying to stab the harpy with her spear, which was nothing more than the tip of an actual spear they found attached to the stick of a broom by Christina, Christina was trying to cut the harpy that was attacking her, which was proving to be a hard job. She managed to land some cuts on the monster, but she also got many wounds herself.

After a long battle, four kids could be seen sitting next to each other while breathing heavily, indicating how tired they were.

"Not bad." said a voice with a heavy accent coming out from an alley, making the four of them immediately stand up while grabbing their weapons.

"I am not thou enemy so thy concern is unnecessary." said once again the same woman, this time however her figure had fully emerged form the shadows of the small alley. A beautiful woman, with copper-coloured skin and a bow stood in front of them, focusing her eyes on Thalia.

The group tightened the hold on their weapons while assuming a small formation, with Thalia and Luke in the front and Christina covering the back, Annabeth who was the most wounded out of the four remained in the middle. Slowly more and more women appeared from the shadows, all dressed in the same white coloured camouflage outfits.

Noticing they were completely surrounded, this time by what were either people or very well disguised monsters, the group became much more tense. They had just gotten out of fight, a fight that pushed them too hard, they were in no condition to fight more enemies, especially enemies capable of strategy like this ones, who also held long range weapons they couldn't really counter.

"I wish to invite thy group to our camp." continued the woman. "Thou shall be fed and healed properly in exchange for a simple... conversation."

The group of four nervously looked at each other. Luke especially felt something was wrong here, after all the woman never took her eyes away from Thalia through the entire speech.

"I suppose thou wishes for us to introduce ourselves." said the woman. "I am Zöe Nightshade, lieutenant of the hunter's of Artemis, and this women are hunters as myself."

The group looked at each other once again, before Thalia nodded her head. "Very well, we shall take your offer." replied Thalia while deactivating the shield she had called forth before.

While making their way towards the camp of the hunter's neither one of the four dropped their guards. It was true that these hunter's had no actual reason to lie to them, they outnumbered and outgunned them after all, but that didn't mean things could go wrong.

Arriving at the camp located in the outskirts of the town they had been at, they were welcomed by the sight of several tents, each placed around a bonfire in the middle.