War Games, Camp Jupiter As we all walked toward the Field of Mars, our stomachs full from tonight’s delicious dinner, I looked over at the Romans, who were keeping a good distance away from the members of Camp Half-Blood, including me. Even after all these years, some of the Romans simply couldn’t adjust to us Greeks. Most of the Romans, however, got along peacefully and coincided with us without the slightest hint of distaste. Still, some of the Romans, like Octavian, for instance, kept a grudge against us. Today, though, because it was winter break, we visited Camp Jupiter, as they visited us every other winter break. The Romans marched in a steady rhythm, never losing their footing or tripping over their armor. We, however, were walking in one huge, disorderly group, talking amongst our friends with an air of lightness. We were shouting to one another, laughing, pushing, and poking each other, while the Romans were stiff and silent, in their orderly lines, trying not to say anything to us about how we were acting. Finally, when we arrived, Reyna cleared her throat, glaring in the direction of us, making us to fall silent. Trust me, if you’ve ever been the target of Reyna’s stare, you’d fall silent as well. “Welcome, Camp Half-Blood, to our home. Right now, you are about participate in what we call the ‘War Games’ which is, as I’m told, the Roman approximation of what you Greeks call ‘Capture the Flag’, with a few notable differences, of course.” She smiled dryly, not caring about caring about our reactions, although our faces brightened at the mention of Capture the Flag. Reyna continued, “Because our numbers are almost the same, we will be defending our banners, while you will be attacking. Give us a few minutes to prepare, and wait for the horns to sound, in which the games will begin!” The Romans cheered, and someone screamed, “Victory for Rome!” and they rushed into the Defenses. The wall, which looked like they were built out of several layers of steel, bronze, and stone, was mounted with water cannons and scorpion ballistae, along with some new additions; such as exploding crossbows and land mines with pressure plates in the walls. We looked at the wall for a few seconds, and then Annabeth, who was our honorary strategist, on account of her pregnancy preventing her from participating. Percy was going to be sitting out this round, too; He hardly did anything that endangered himself anymore because he said he wanted to be conscious or alive when his child was born, but we didn’t mind. Annabeth gathered us all around her, her game face on. “Okay, listen up,” she started, looking each one of us in the eye. “I know we usually fight for the glory of our cabin, but today, we don’t fight for Zeus or Ares or even Athena, we fight for Camp-Half Blood! We fight… for Greece!” We all cheered, and Annabeth’s face broke out in a smile, and then almost immediately morphed into an expression of sadness. She started sobbing uncontrollably, and Percy put his arms around her, looking into her eyes. “What’s the matter?” he asked concernedly. “It’s just— that I—Just so— Proud of— all of you!” She said through tears and hiccups, which made Percy’s face brake out in an expression of relief. “Oh, that’s all. Thank gods.” He breathed, and then he held her until she calmed down, getting control of herself. “Okay,” she said, looking at all of us. “Here’s the plan.” She explained to us her attack plan, and with every word, I grew more and more confident, and by the looks on the camper’s faces, they were too. By the time Annabeth had finished and we had gotten into positions, the horns sounded and Annabeth and Percy walked into the spectator’s box, waving down at us. Reyna’s voice blasted through an unseen loudspeaker “Let the games begin!” We cheered, and immediately, our plan went into action. The Ares cabin, back by the Athena and Hermes cabins, swords and spears raised, charged forward, me along with them. As soon as we got into range and the Romans readied their Scorpion Ballistae, the Apollo cabin started the first phase of the plan. Notching their detonation arrows, they launched them along the upper portions of the wall, and when the arrows hit the wall, they immediately split into heavy nets, causing the land mines in the walls (wall mines) to detonate, freeing the way for us and momentarily causing the Romans at the top to lose their balance. As soon as the wall mines exploded, the Ares cabin launched their spears (infused with Greek fire with the help of the Athena and Hephaestus cabin) which normally would only fly a few yards, but I used my powers to send them straight toward the defending Romans. Instead of hitting the Romans, however, I sent the spears into the mounted wooden crossbows, causing them to catch fire and explode, the guards mounted at them only being saved by the giant eagles flying overhead. Apparently, no one had ever done so much damage to the defensive fort without losing a single camper, so I guess that’s why the Romans sent the Fifth Cohort out to stop us. They came, headed by Haze, Frank, and Jason, with the legion’s eagle raised high. Frank shouted, “Twelfth Legion Fulminita!” causing lightning to shoot out from the eagle and arc out toward us. Some of our camper’s would’ve been charred if it hadn’t been for Ariadne’s husband, Styles. He jumped out in front of us, his hand held out in front of him. The lightning, instead of arcing and hitting random campers, joined together into one, massive bolt and slammed straight into Styles. He was flown backward, unconscious. Ariadne screamed, “No!” and ran forward. After making sure he was okay, she looked up at the Fifth Cohort, her eyes full of rage. Without even raising her hands, she glanced up at the water cannons, which were suddenly ripped from the control of the Romans, then back down at the Fifth Cohort. The cannons were unleashed, and thousands of gallons of water were blasted down into the Fifth Cohort, leaving them waterlogged and battered. We all looked up at Annabeth, who nodded her head from the spectator’s box. Things were still going according to plan, so the next phase was initiated. Ariadne snapped her fingers, causing some more water out of the water cannons to blast, but not at the Romans, at her. The water swirled around her, getting bigger and bigger, until she was incased in a giant 10-foot tall sphere of water. She raised her arms, and the water morphed growing taller and slimmer, until she was inside a giant, 15-foot tall gladiator with a water sword in hand. She slashed with her own sword inside the warrior, and the gladiator responded by swinging his water sword toward the Scorpion Ballistae, extinguishing them immediately. Before she could cause any more destruction, Frank, who must have expanded his powers, transformed into a real giant warrior, almost mirror image to Ariadne’s, and swung his sword at her. Apparently Ariadne could strengthen the water, because when the two swords met, they stopped, and Ariadne screamed, raised her sword, and went into combat with Frank; apparently she remembered that it was Frank who had caused the eagle to send lightning down. Styles, who had regained consciousness, was watching Ariadne, a smile on his face, and then he flew through the air to intercept Jason, who had been trying to electrocute Ariadne with lighting, their swords flashed, and they were battling. Meanwhile, the battle had resumed down on the field. The waterlogged but still angry Fifth Cohort had rallied and charged, causing the Ares cabin to go into full-fledged offensive mode. While they were fighting, I thought of trying to copy what Ariadne had done, but I shook my head, reminding myself to stick to the plan. While everyone was fighting, Leo and the Hephaestus cabin had made a few Greek fire launchers, and they were currently shooting them at the walls, almost entirely taking out the guards. Meanwhile, the wall opened again, and the Second, Third, and Fourth cohorts rushed out to join the battle. It became a real fight all of a sudden, and an air of seriousness filled the air; each person fought harder to win. Things were still going according to Annabeth’s plan though. I saw Victoria leading her cabin mates to a trench, where they threw auto-aiming nets at the oncoming Romans. Eric had turned into a were-bear again, and he was currently battling Hannibal the War-Elephant, tusks to claws. Michael, new bow in hand, was shooting sunlight arrows, which instantly blinded their intended target for a limited time, at Hazel who was running around on Arion, swiping many people off their feet. Jacob was launching heat sensing missile powered spearheads from his new spear Athena had given him. Finally, after disarming someone from the Second Cohort, I spotted Alex, who was shadow-traveling across the field, knocking people out from behind. She had stopped; she was currently battling Octavian, and, dare I say it, she was putting the smack down in him. Battered and bruised, she ended the fight with one swift hit to the helmet, causing him to collapse. She caught my eye from across the field and shadow-traveled to my side. “Ready?” she asked, her eyes on the wall. “As ready as I’ll ever be. I’m still not sure about this” Alex patted me reassuringly on the shoulder while, at the same time, sweeping one Fifth Cohort member’s feet out from under him. “Okay,” I said, grabbing her hand. “Let’s do this.” We were whisked once again into the shadows, and after the uncomfortable trip, we were on top of the Roman’s wall. She drew her sword, kicked one guy off of the wall, and said, “Good luck.” I nodded, and set off, running toward the center of the wall, where Annabeth guessed a door would lead down into the main chamber. I ran, but before I got close, I was stopped by Reyna, who had spotted me and flown in on her pegasus, Scippio. She held her dagger out in front of her, and she was not smiling. “Not going to happen.” She said, slashing toward my face. I parried, thrusting forward, remembering my training at camp. She was expecting this, so she stabbed down, and I barely was able to move my arm before her knife got embedded into it. She got in close, a move only knife fighter’s usually chose. In my mind, I switched my sword to ‘Knife: Defensive’ and this time, when she slashed, I was ready. I parried, grabbed her wrist, and kicked, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground (well technically the top of the wall, but whatever) cursing. Before she could get back up I had jumped over her in a chance to get into the chamber, which I saw did exist. Reyna threw her dagger, which would’ve embedded itself between my shoulder blades had it not been for Ariadne’s quick thinking. Still fighting Frank, she saw what was happening and shot a water blast toward me, but it hit the dagger, causing it to get tossed aside. Reyna got up, apparently ready to do hand-to-sword combat, but Ariadne shot another blast, sending her over the wall, and she was only saved by her pegasus, which, in order to avoid an arrow attack, dived low and was forced to join the battle below. I disarmed more Romans until finally, I was at the entrance to the chamber. I opened the hatch, looked around, and climbed down the ladder. When I reached the bottom, I turned around to see the entire First cohort armed against me. Before fighting them, I muttered, “Mother, help me” and ducked, avoiding a sword swipe, then started fighting. I couldn’t tell what was going on outside, but it didn’t sound good for us, because Reyna’s voice was often yelling “Victory for Rome!” and all that stuff. If it had not been for my sword, I would’ve been skewered a long time ago. I fought for what seemed like hours, ducking, jumping, sidestepping, slashing, thrusting, and swinging. Eventually, my breath started getting heavy, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep this up. Finally, I got so tire that it was basically just my sword controlling me and my arm responding. But finally, when my sword swung and reached empty air, I realized I had just taken out the entire First Cohort. Without wasting any time, I grabbed the banner hanging above the table, wrapped around me like a cape, and climbed back up the ladder. Apparently, during my time inside the wall, the Romans had gotten a lead. Greek demigods lay on the ground, either unconscious or wounded, and a numbered few were still fighting the Romans, but they were holding their own very well. I used my powers to magnify my voice and said, “Not to fear, Greek Man is here!” I jumped off the wall using my powers to make me fly across the Field of Mars with the Roman banners as a cape, causing the Romans to cry out in defeat and the Greeks to cry out in victory! When I landed, I was swarmed by all my friends (well, the ones that were conscious) and lifted up in their shoulders. Reyna was smiling. With much difficulty, I could tell, she said, “The battle is over. The Greeks,” she gulped. “Have won.” The aftermath was awesome, and the Romans were surprisingly good sports, well, all of them except for Octavian. It had been a good day. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow. - Odysseus
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 20:09:52 +0000
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