Chapter 117: The enemy takes aim

(Percy POV)

After an hour of walking through dark tunnels we finally reached the surface. The tunnel led to a cave which itself led to a valley.

We stepped out of the cave and the first thing I noticed was the red moon hanging in the sky.

Hazel's eyes widened as she stepped out of the dark cave and saw for the first time since decades real trees and grass, stars and a red moon.

"Is that new?" Hazel questioned, pointing at the moon.

"No." Katie said as we looked around.

We were standing on the top of a rockcliff, underneath us was a forest that seemed to go on forever.

"Is that a camp?" Hazel wondered and she pointed over the pointed over the edge.

Underneath us was a small clearing and my eyes widened as I recognized Hazel's tunnel had brought us.

The camp contained out of a dozen large tents, all made of silver silk, curved in a crescent around one side of a bonfire. But something was horribly wrong.

One of the tents was on fire, wolves were running around the camp. I recognized some of them as the wolves from the hunt but there were other wolves too. Larger ones with glowing red eyes.

Girls in silver parkas were engaged in a battle, trying to shoot the attackers but the Hunt was hopelessly outnumbered, In the middle of the camp stood a man wearing a mask, or at least I guess it was a man. I couldn't be sure because he was 10 feet tall.

He wore grey tactical gear (giant size of course) with a cloak and hoodie but his face was covered by an iron mask shaped like the face like a skull.

On his back he had a quiver, stuffed with black arrows. On his belt he had a black hunting knife but as main weapon he had a huge black composite bow with silver blades sticking sticking out on the ends. If Robin Hood would be evil he would look like this guy.

He rapidly shot arrows at the hunters running around at the camp. I saw one of the Hunt's wolves had an black arrow stuck in his eye socket and another one was pinned against a tree with an arrow stuck in her throat.

The hunters tried to fight back and take a defensive stand but they failed horribly, the wolves were running around all over the camp, preventing the hunters from forming an actual plan.

'I need to help them.' I thought and commanded the shield of winter to activate.

"The hunt!" Katie cried out, "They are in trouble,"

"I know." I muttered and detached the shield from my arm and did the first thing that came up in my mind.

I threw my shield at the archer guy.

He must have heard it coming because he jumped out the way and my shield struck the ground instead of him.

He turned towards us and I realized I had given away our location.

"Take cover-" I tried to scream as he shot an arrow at us.

For a second I expected one of my friends to be impaled by an arrow, when that didn't happen I wondered if he had missed us.

I leaned over the edge, a black arrow had pinned itself into the cliffside.

The arrow looked like a regular arrow except for the fact it had a thicker part at the end and there was a blinking red light.

"What's that?" Hazel asked worried.

I jumped away from the edge as I realized what was about to happen.

A large explosion followed immediately after and the ground underneath our feet fell away, one moment we were standing on rock. Seconds later it crumbled to pieces.

I tried to absorb the fire so my non-fire-resistant friends wouldn't die from the flames, but I couldn't do anything about the fact we were falling.

Luckily, Katie did.

The landing was soft, it was like I had landed on a cloud... But it was not a cloud. I had landed on a bunch of leaves.

I opened my eyes and saw that all the trees underneath us had intertwined themselves and formed some kind of safety net.

A second later Katie and Hazel landed onto the tree leaves as well.

A second later the leaves spread themselves and we landed onto the ground (on our feet luckily).

Katie turned to me, "What's the plan?"

For once I didn't have a plan, in fact. I was totally taken by surprise.

I saw a familiar hunter taking cover behind one of the silver tents. She stabbed one of the wolves with her blades.

"Zoë!" I whispered as I ran towards her, sneaking behind one of the large silver tents so the archer wouldn't see us.

Zoë's eyes widened as she saw us.

"Percy?" Zoë hissed, she looked tired, her long dark hair was messy, she had a cut on her forehead and she was bleeding. "You too are alive?"

I ignored her question, instead I asked. "What the fuck is going on?"

Zoë raised an eyebrow, then her eyes widened and she aimed an arrow at me. "Duck!" she yelled and I immediately dropped.

An arrow flew over my head and pinned itself into the eyehole of a grey wolf that had been sneaking up on Hazel.

Hazel let out a yelp as she was caught by surprise.

Zoë grinned and pulled another arrow from her quiver. I heard the sound of another explosion in the distance and a tree caught fire.

"What is going on?" Hazel almost cried out.

Zoë raised an eyebrow, "New Demigod?"

I nodded, "And how are you alive?" Zoë asked.

"No time for this," Katie asked, "What is going on? Who is attacking the hunt."

Zoë grimaced, "Well. Percy is not the only one who came back from the dead."

She stepped away from the tent and shot an arrow at the archer's back. The arrow pinned itself into his back. He let out a horrified scream and spun around but Zoë had stepped back before he could see her.

She turned to me, "That should've killed him. The arrow had penetrated his heart."

"Is it a god?" Katie asked warily.

"A monster?"

Zoë shook her head, "No, apparently Percy is not the only one who came back from the death. It's Orion, and we can't kill him."

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