Orsk

Lisa opened one of the bags that held the food supplies and passed some snack bars round, one for each person and also a bottle of water.

After they had wolfed down their snack, Levi permitted them a little rest as they could do close to nothing after their strenuous hike.

They had rested for about twenty minutes when they stood up to set up the tents.

They reasoned that while they had no plans to sleep in the woods, it'll be quite easier to take the tents down than set them up.

As they brought the tents out of the bag, Levi motioned for Jake and Percy to come closer.

"Both of you, try to get us some wood, the weather is cold and we don't know yet of we might spend the night here"

"Yeah, you're right" Percy nodded

"Just make sure you guys don't stray too far and be sure to be back in a few minutes, we have to fan out the area"

Jake was already digging into the bag, he brought out a machete, Levi after picking his sword had also picked a machete insisting that they might need it.

Percy and Jake went off in the direction of the denser bushes.

"You didn't come with any weapons" Jake asked

"Don't need any of those, my fire is sufficient" Percy said, bringing a little flicker to his index finger "of you were to use magic, what do you hope it'll be?" Percy asked, bringing Jake's attention back to him. Jake was quiet for a few seconds "I guess I never really thought about it, I might have to think that one through"

They had not gone far from the clearing where the others gathered, when they saw a stump of wood, it was large enough to last for at least three nights, if they decided to stay that long.

Jake began hacking at the wood with the machete, splinters of wood flew around as Jake's machete hacked at the wood, the machete hitting the wood was the main source of sound in the almost quiet forest.

He had done this a few times before, so it didn't take him long to chop the wood into smaller pieces.

Percy unhooked the rope he brought from around his neck and tied the wood into a bundle. He heaved it to his shoulders and headed back to their tent.

The others had already set up the tent, they dropped the firewood in front of the tents and joined the others.

"So what do we do from here?" Lisa asked no one in particular

"What? We find the demons, slaughter them and head back to school. That's what" Percy replied

"Easier said than done" Tony quoted under his breath.

"Do you think we can still make it back today" Anna said silently staring straight at Levi.

Everyone seemed to go quiet after her question.

"It doesn't seem likely, but we will try.

First we will divide ourselves into groups and spread out, we will comb the entire section around us for a distance of 1km and return back here, if we don't encounter anything"

"What if we encounter something?" Percy asked

'Then working as a group we will terminate it"

Levi answers levelling his gaze at Percy

"So how do we group ourselves" Anna asked

"Yes, to that. Tony and Lisa will pair up, Annabeth and I then Jake, Percy and Kayla.

The school is to the west from here, Tony and Lisa will go North, Tony and Lisa will go North, Jake Percy and Kayla to the east and while Anna and I, south.

We must try to cover as much grounds as possible and rendezvous back here in an two hours. If any team is not back in time, we will send a search party toward their direction"

With that, they took off in different directions. Levi and Anna trailed the path that headed south further into the woods.

They tried to walk in silence in order to hear the slightest of sounds a wise decision which soon became worth it when they heard rustling in the surrounding bushes.

Anna immediately nocked her arrow not wasting a second, levelling it at the exact spot where the sound of rustling had come from.

Levi's hand gripped the hilt of his sword so hard his palms became white, and sudden movement and he was ready to fly into a slashing frenzy.

"Rustle" the group of ferns underneath the banana tree whose leave we're dangling low enough to conceal whatever was hiding shook again.

Anna drew her arrow to it's full length, keeping her arms close to her face for precise accuracy, ready to release. Then a furry of white feathers bounded out of the trees into the center of the path, it was a little bunny.

"Whew" Levi wheezed in relief, Anna immediately withdrew her arrow not wanting to hurt the cute little creature.

The bunny standing right in the middle of the path stared up at them, blinking it's wide brown eyes.

Annabeth was tempted to scoop it up and put it to it's satisfaction but she knew that if whatever awaited them in that forest found them first, it certainly wouldn't pet her.

Swinging her bow to her back she took the lead, motioning for Levi to keep moving.

They left the environs of the bunny, keeping to both edges of the path, observing every movement from the flap of wings in the air above to the rustle of feathers and leaves in the nooks below.

They were drunk on alert. They had walked for almost one hour and had seen nothing, Levi suggested they circle round the trees and head back to the camp.

Tony and Lisa who headed north were still struggling to comb through the forest, it was a dense thicket all around unlike the other path they had seen Levi take this was more difficult, there was hardly a path to follow.

It was mostly a web of branches, leaves and cobwebs intertwined together in crazy confusion inside the forest, they had to have Dow creeping, climbing and clinging plants out of the way to get through.

The little stalks were not spared, as they were also slashed at the roots to make way for passage.

Tony and Lisa had to leave through trees and shrubs as they combed through the dense forest.

Their faces were ridden with cobwebs and they teared them off as they struggled to keep up with time.

They had walked for almost an hour but it didn't seem like much, they hadn't covered much distance.

Without warning a large figure suddenly growled jumping out of the trees and ramming into an unlucky Tony who was in the lead.

Tony flew across the forest floor like a rag doll, hitting his head on the large oak tree little distance to their left. Lisa immediately jumped back

"Tony?!! Are you alright?" her voice was laden with concern.

Tony grunted, dragging himself with much effort into a sitting position, trying to gather his thoughts, his vision had faded, he looked at the two beasts in his front making his way toward him, slowly become one.

He stared at it's gray neck and body, the face a slightly different shade of gray and blue, the weight of it's huge body rested on equally gray legs. It's body was a bulk of muscle, the demon had a mouth large enough to chomp off ones head and two young yellow fangs sticking out of it's messy mouth.

"Crap" Tony cursed, reaching for his arrows that had fallen a few feet away.

"It's an Orsk" he called to Lisa, trying his best to shout as much as his throbbing head would allow.

"A what? Husk" Lisa shouted back "It doesn't seem at all edible"

"Hey you dumb beast" Lisa screamed at the demon, trying to get it's attention. But it seemed like the demon was only interested in an injured Tony against the tree.

The demon was almost at Tony, meaning to bash him into the tree, Lisa threw her baton, using the wind to propel it faster.

"Thunk" it was almost as if a skull had cracked. The demon now more annoyed than ever growled even louder and turned to Lisa covering the space between them in it's long strides.