Chapter 22

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Training with Annabeth, resting, and repeating the cycle, over and over again, I was ashamed to admit my routine had become somewhat predictable, turning my days to a quite monotonic tone of repetition, but it was not as if I had anything better to do, I had to learn how to fight without magic. Besides my magic book had not changed at all since that time during the quest, which led me to believe that it would only change in moments of utmost urgency, or in a sideline crazier theory when the current chapter was mastered, aka the chapter of Mnemonic incantation.

If my theory was true, I would see a change in the book very soon, since I considered I was close to reaching the point where I could be considered a master of the first chapter, but I really didn't know what kind of requirements the book would have to consider me as such or to let me advance on its contents.

But until that happened, here I was training like a bastard, which is technically correct, I am a bastard in a way.

"You're getting pretty good at it," Annabeth chimed in from the stands as I fought.. .or rather struggled against the future traitor, the son of Hermes, Luke, "It's admirable to see you have such a resolve, but training so much will only get you into trouble later on, you are overworking your body,"

Dodging the edge of Luke's sword by a few inches, I looked at Annabeth and said, "Not a particularly good time, Goldy." It was hard enough to fight Luke who was way better than me with the sword, but to do so while having a conversation? nope, so I resolved to ignore the most annoying demigoddess in camp, well.. second most annoying in camp.

Unfortunately, it was too late for my resolve to ignore her, because the second I looked at Annabeth to reply, everything went downhill, Luke being more seasoned than me at the art of fighting took this opportunity and hit me with the blunt side of his blade, knocking me flat to the ground, thus winning the duel. With his sword on my throat, there was nothing else to do but to admit defeat, for the... huh, I lost count, "I surrender,"

"Never take your eyes off the enemy," Luke advised me as he extended a helping hand to help me stand from the ground.

"Yes," I replied as I looked at Annabeth with annoyance, to which she simply shrugged. God I wanted to be mad at her, but I just couldn't, I knew very well that even without her interference, I would have lost, she simply accelerated the process.

"You should use your magic in our duels," Luke offered with a smile, "With your magic, I have no doubt you would win every duel,"

"That would defeat the purpose of what I am doing," I replied, as I shook the dirt off my pants, I didn't want to win... well, I did. But not with magic, this wasn't a death battle or something along those lines, so I was in no obligation of using my magic, and I wanted to become a better fighter, a well-rounded one, and these beatings I was taking, were giving me results.

Luke smiled one last time, before he left the training yard, "You're right,"

"Did you want something? Goldy?" I asked Annabeth, who was walking towards me.

"Just here to remind you, that you have to rest," Annabeth rolled her eyes at me, "you have been training for thirteen hours today, and just by looking over you I can see the wounds, you need to stop overworking yourself..."

"Hey, chicks dig men with scars, I'm just here making myself more beautiful," I joked, getting a playful punch as a response on her part.

"As if," Annabeth snorted in amusement, "Let's go and have lunch, Lee wants to challenge you to an eating contest again,"

"When will he learn I am unmatched when it comes to eating free food?" I chuckled, oh poor Lee, soon he would once again... unironically taste defeat, you know what? scratch that, he will ironically be tasting his defeat! 

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[Apollo POV]

Mom didn't know when Artemis and I went to asked her if she could tell us who Adam's father was and if he was a god, she answered with total honesty that she didn't know, that she was certain he was a human because she had known him for a while because they had dated for a few months, all she knew now is that he disappeared the moment she became pregnant.

She told us how for months she looked for him in hopes so she could give Adam a paternal figure, but she didn't find him anywhere.

When Artemis heard this she exploded with anger. But that rage was quickly replaced by doubt, when we started to investigate the man with the information that Mom had given us and to sum it up, there was nothing. Nothing at all, it is as if the guy never existed, to begin with.

"Do you think Father killed the man?" Artemis said bringing out a good point, there was a very high chance father killed Adam's father is a fit of jealousy, even though Father and mother are not together, it was a possibility.

"It's possible but highly unlikely," While such actions were not out of his normal reactions to things he didn't like, I doubted he was behind this event because if he wanted a hurt mother for sleeping with a mortal, he would've also killed Adam, Father was not known for his subtlety. 

"Then what a human disappeared into thin air?" Artemis scoffed and then turned to me, "What if the man wasn't a human like mom confirmed, there had been some shapeshifters able to fool the gods before,"

"Is a possibility, but if that were the case, Adam would've inherited shapeshifting skills not magic, and certainly not magic on this level," I sighed, our little bro was turning to be more and more puzzling than I first imagined.