Chapter 14

Hunter's Camp, Third POV, The Next Morning

Percy had woken up at the crack of dawn, feeling as tired as Clovis; having spent the entirety of last night talking to his father. Poseidon seemed to be okay with his little vanishing act, and they mostly just talked about the past few years. It was probably due to the fact that gods don't really have a sense of time, a decade to him is just a blink of an eye. Percy wanted to talk to his mom, he really did, but he couldn't bring himself to it.

Percy was shaken out of his thoughts by a large black wolf running up to him. "Seriously girl? you're hungry already?" Zoë just gave him her best puppy dog eyes, which for a wolf, is pretty damn good. "Alright, alright you win, just quit doing that," Percy looked up at the sun, seeing it won't be for a while the hunt will be up, "we might as well get the hunters some food too, it'd be a nice first impression." Zoë started bounding off towards to forest, obviously excited to be hunting so many animals. She can kill mostly anything in the forest, including a lot of monsters, but Percy would never let her fight them, he's scared of her being hurt or worse. Besides he was more than capable enough to handle them by himself.

—

The Hunters of Artemis were woken up by a heavenly smell. They followed the scent and what they found is something they wouldn't believe. Perseus was there, cooking at least four different types of animals at once, each one looking as delicious as the last. Percy, who hasn't noticed the hunters was trying to keep Zoë from eating all of the food, "Can you quit giving me that look? If I keep feeding you there won't be any left for the hunters, and I don't want a bunch of immortal, man hating preteens on my ass." Much to Percy's relief, Zoë relented.

Percy seemed to finally notice the hunters' presence and waved at them, "Food should be ready in a bit, hope you guys aren't vegetarians. Hey if you could get wherever you eat set up, that'd be appreciated." The hunters walked off to do just that, setting plates up at the dining tent, only Thalia remained. "Did you seriously go and hunt these?"

"Well yeah, where else would I get it?" Thalia looked at him as if he had grown a second head, "How long have you been up?" Percy gave her a lazy shrug, "I usually get up at first light, gives me a lot more time to be productive. Could you hand me that spice over there?" Thalia obliged, still slightly shocked. Percy Jackson, the man who couldn't wake up if his life depended on it, gets up at the crack of dawn.

"If you want to go get a few plates, food should be done in a minute." Thalia just nodded, still really confused. Percy almost never cooked, he definitely didn't wake up early and he had never hunted in his life. She wondered what else had changed about her cousin.

Ten minutes later the hunters walked out of the dining tent with plates and utensils in hand, opting to eat right at the fire. Percy started handing out the food when one of the hunters, Olivia, spoke up "You do know that we have food in the dining tent right?"

Percy just shrugged, "Yeah I had a few guesses, but Zoë needed to eat. Besides, it's better to get you all on my good side early." He said, only half jokingly.

The hunters chuckled lightly, with a few of them agreeing with him, and started eating. They all relished the taste, enjoying the flavor of their chosen food. "Where did you learn how to cook Perce?" A confused Pheobe asked, "last time I checked, you blew up your oven baking cookies."

"I've had a few years to work on the recipe, it wasn't like I had a huge variety of food." He replied simply. Pheobe accepted his answer and went back to wolfing down her food. The hunters were enjoying their food, many going for seconds, until there was a bright flash of light, indicating the arrival of a god.

Artemis arrived to a strange sight. She had been expecting her hunters to be in the dining tent, where there was the magical plates and cups that conjures whatever food they wished. Instead she found them around the campfire, eating a variety of different meats. "You decided to cook?"

Her lieutenant, Thalia, shook her head and pointed to Perseus, who didn't seem to care. "Well that is unexpected. Anyways, hunters it's time to train, get down to the range."

"Hey, Artemis, what should I do?" A confused Percy asked. Artemis seemed to contemplate this, "I supose you could keep watch around the camp or train, it is really up to you." Percy decided to train and let Zoë patrol the border of the camp - she doesn't like staying still.

Percy walked around the hunter's camp, which was a lot bigger than you would think, trying to find their armory tent. Thalia had told him that they kept some automations, created by Hephaestus, for training. According to Thalia, they were some of the hardest things to fight, each sporting different weapons, techniques, and varying difficulties.

Percy finally found the tent, which was a lot bigger on the inside, probably due to some magic that he wouldn't understand. The walls were lined with bows, quivers and a large assortment of hunting knives. Against the back wall was a shelf packed with small, rectangular packets containing the automations. Percy looked them over, seeing the different pictures and difficulties plastered over the cover. Percy found one that had an assortment of weapons on the front with 'Legendary' in bold letters. He decided to take that one incase the others were too easy, seeing that it was the only of its kind. Percy stayed there for a few more minutes, picking a variety of difficulties ranging from intermediate to expert.

Percy walked into a large clearing a little ways away from the camp, he didn't know how many opponents he would be facing on each training packet, and he would prefer to not be killed for accidentally destroying the hunter's camp.

He picked an intermediate packet and set the rest aside, this hopefully would provide a small challenge for a warmup. He took off his hunting jacket and Nemean Lion pelt, revealing Percy's bulging muscles under a thin t-shirt. He still had the same old cargo pants and military boots, having grown comfortable with their familiarity. Although he would probably need to get new clothes now, the hunters probably won't appreciate him wearing the same clothes all the time -no matter how adept he was at cleaning them.

As he was opening the packet a small speaker blared from somewhere on the wrapping, speaking in a robotic voice, "Please drop the Hephaestus Training Packet and stand 20 feet away from the landing point." Percy listened to the voice and watched in fascination as mechanical spiders crawled out of this opening he created. The spiders all spread out, leaving two or three feet in between each other and started growing. When they finished they had changed into humanoid figures, each sporting a different weapon; ranging from swords to maces.

Percy did a headcount, there was about twenty automations in total, it seemed that with each foot required to step away, an enemy would appear. "The Hephatus Training Program will begin in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." As the voice counted down, the automations had sprung to life. Percy wasted no time in uncapping Riptide and went on the offensive.

Percy cut through the automations with no difficulty. If he was going to be honest, he was a little disappointed, he had hoped it would give him some kind of challenge but it only served to be a waste of time.

—

Percy had just opened the master difficulty packet and was slightly wary. His last fight had been on expert mode, and while the skill of the automations hadn't been anything to get excited about, the numbers were. There had been over a hundred automations in total, and, thankfully, the size to stay back had decreased. It seemed that the easier packets were made with less care and Hephaestus seemed to care less with how the automations were placed about. Percy ripped open the envelope and the same robotic voice blared through the paper, "Please drop the Hephaestus Training Packet and stand 75 feet away from the landing point." This set Perseus on edge, the last one had only asked for him to stay 50 feet.

Percy watched as the spiders skittered across the floor and the now familiar growing process commence. "The Hephaestus Training Program will begin in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." Percy brought out his spear and shield, having used Riptide for the past few programs. He took a second to look back onto the shield once more, reminiscing about better times with Zoë. Percy snapped himself out of his reverie and prepared for the horde of metal about to crash into him.

As the automations were ten feet away, he ran forward and jumped into their lines, thrusting his spear downwards and shish-kabobing two of the training bots. The machines had immediately shrunk back down to their spider size - to stimulate how monsters turn to dust - and skittered away. Percy held his shield up to block a strike from his left while impaling another automation to his right. He had to be constantly changing his direction to block and stab the ever lasting army of automations; using his shield to bash anything that got too close and his spear to kill anything that landed in his sights; his attacks coming out so fast that to anyone watching they would only see a blur where he had moved.

The remaining fifty or so automations seemed to get that they wouldn't be able to get through Percy's impenetrable defense and backed up, forming a circle around the demigod. Two automations stepped out the circle and attacked in sync, trying to kill him from opposite sides. Percy rolled under their attacks, forcing the momentum of one of the automations to drive its spear through the other. Percy came up and slammed his shield so hard into the remaining one that it's head came off. Percy, who was sick of being forced onto the defensive, slashed his spear through two unsuspecting robots and slammed his shield into a third; three more spiders skittered away from the field. He turned and slammed the butt of his spear into another and brought it back forward, knocking one to the ground and 'killing' another.

Percy continued fighting for another ten minutes, running through the last of the automations with unmatched skill. Percy took a minute to catch his breath and took the legendary difficulty packet out of his pocket. He looked up to the sky and realized that he missed lunch, 'oh well,' he thought, 'it wouldn't be the first time' thankfully Zoë knows to go get food by herself if Percy doesn't go hunting with her.

Percy looked over the packet and this one was way larger than the rest, at least double the size of the all of the packets combined. Well at least it's great training. Percy ripped the pack open and was met with the same robotic voice, "Please drop the Hephaestus Training Program and stand 250 feet away from the landing point. Hephaestus TV will be broadcasting this training session to record your inevitable failure." Before Percy could begin to question what that meant, the spiders started pouring out of the packet, this time, a small drone had followed. Percy assumed that is what would be recording his 'inevitable failure'.

As the countdown finished, Percy took a step back and slung his spear like a professional football quarterback; the spear traveling through at least twenty automations before landing in the dirt. Percy uncapped Riptide and let loose a war cry, charging the army awaiting him. Percy fought like a demon, moving through the seemingly thousands of automations with grace. He had to give Hephaestus credit, these were putting up a good fight, some of them being able to hold their own for a few seconds - which was longer than anything he had fought in recent years. Little did Perseus know, he had an audience besides people tuning in to Hephaestus TV watching him.

Percy slashed through one automation and dodged the axe of another; turning around he lobbed two heads off with one swing before turning to his left to block a swing of a great sword with his shield. Percy continued to carve a path in the sea of Celestial Bronze, literally cleaving their robotic ranks in half. Percy never wasted a swing of his sword; each hit being directed to kill efficiently and effectively. As he looked back into the hundreds of remaining automations, Percy let out a laugh, this was going to be fun.

Percy was moving through their robotic ranks, cutting down one automation after another. His mind went on autopilot: stab, dodge, slash, block, bash, parry, cut, roll. Percy's sword and shield were extensions of his own body, moving as if he used them his whole life; which is partially true.

As Percy cut down the last automation, he promptly collapsed on the ground, drenched in sweat. He looked up at sky and was shocked as he realized it was night time; he had been fighting for at least nine hours nonstop. Percy heard clapping, he looked over to his right and saw Thalia and the hunters, "Nice job Kelp Head, nobody has been able to beat that yet, not even Ares. Not all of us would admit it, but we weren't even able to beat it working as a group." Percy looked around and saw some of the hunters reluctantly nodding in agreement with their lieutenant, not wanting to admit out loud that a single man was able to do what they couldn't together. "Well if it makes you guys feel any better, Ares isn't much of a fighter. That lame excuse for a war god couldn't even beat a twelve year old." Percy said with a slight smirk. Thunder boomed over head, "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Keep talking Ares and I'll march up to Olympus myself." Thunder boomed again, this time slightly less aggressive. Even the headstrong and ever prideful god of war was wary of the demigod after the show of strength seen on Hephaestus TV.

"Does anyone want to give me a hand here?" Percy said from his spot on the ground. Thalia and Pheobe rolled their eyes and went to help him up; boys can't even get up by themselves.

"Someone please tell me you guys have food for Zoë, I really don't want to go hunting with her; she always tries to kill everything and it's not the easiest thing in the world to hold back an over 160 pound wolf from chasing a squirrel. I swear she's more dog than wolf..." The hunters all laughed loudly at that, seeing the similarities between the fearsome wolf and common housepet. One of the hunters, Alexandra, pointed towards the tent they kept the food for their wolves in. Percy realized he must smell awful from fighting for so long and extended his senses, looking for a stream of water to wash up. He found one about a mile away and excused himself.

Fifteen minutes later Percy arrived back at the camp, freshly washed and completely dry. Percy walked into the dining tent wordlessly and came out with a plate and cup. Percy appreciated that the hunters at least accepted his presence in their camp but he didn't want to push his limits by eating with them. He doubted they would care that much, but he still wanted to respect their privacy. He walked down to the campfire, magically enchanted to be everlasting, and sat down on a log. Percy used the magical plate to conjure a cheeseburger - oh how he missed thes, and looked at the glass cup with a small smile on his face: blue cherry coke. Percy enjoyed his meal, sitting with Zoë and looking up at the stars thinking 'maybe this won't be so bad' . Soon enough, he returned his plate back to the dining tent and walked into the tent the hunters had set up for him, on the other side of the camp of course. Zoë soon followed and them both fell fast asleep