MOONLIT [Discontinued]

ARC II (1): Rise Shall the Fallen

Even with the presence of a large number of fallen leaves and dry twigs covering the ground of the dense forest, there was possibly no chance one could hear the movement of such a large group. Not a single crunch of misstepping on a dry leaf or even a huff of a breath gave away their presence. Such was the level of skill and coordination among these 26-odd people.

As the group broke through the forest cover and into the open, they observed a short gradience above which was a metalled country road. On the opposite side was a huge mansion that obstructed further view, complete with high walls and its own driveway. Beside the forest on this side of the road they were on, there were absolute flatlands on the other side as far as one could see.

Seeing as they had reached their target, the leader of the group broke through and stood in front of them all. The chilly winds of the early morning blowing from the flatlands were battering this group. Long, fiery auburn hair belonging to the surprisingly young 12-year-old leader blew around her yet did little to deter her steely gaze as she observed the mansion in front of her.

Satisfied with her observation, she turned her startingly silver eyes towards the group under her command who were standing with practiced discipline, and who were also revealed to be all girls with the oldest looking no more than 17. The Hunters of Artemis stood high and proud, awaiting the order of their Mistress.

"Tsch! What are we, mercenaries?" Artemis cursed, twiddling with the strings of both bows strung across her shoulder, as was her habit whenever she was unsure and anxious. As for now, she was extremely annoyed at her father.

The Hunters of Artemis were known to hunt in the wild, and seldom joined the civilization and even those few times were mostly when Artemis sensed a maiden in distress or her domain of childbirth reached out to her. But the Hunt's job was to clean out monsters, dangerous ones, whenever they resurfaced from Tartarus. And due to that job specification, Artemis found herself stuck with a mission in the mortal world.

The Manticore and Lamia had both resurfaced. Though they both had resurfaced at different times, the Manticore being the first to resurface a year prior to the turn of the 20th century, followed by Lamia 2 years later, the real problem arose a month ago, after 5 years of both running around.

Apparently, these two had met up and were killing demigods, satyrs, nymphs, and humans alike, especially children. To add to that, they were now working together with some mortal mafia who they had manipulated with the mist and thus had become way more dangerous.

Time and again Olympus had sent demigods to end this predicament, getting only failure as the result and death of the demigods. Which is why the job had been handed over to Artemis and her Hunters.

Considered as the most lethal and successful fighting unit on Olympus, Artemis, on behalf of her Hunters, had to accept this job, lest she suffer a blow to her reputation and pride as the Eternal Huntress; same for the Hunters who prided themselves as the most efficient and fastest monster killers.

Artemis stood still for a while and thought about the best way to end this quickly and settled on a decision. Assuming her immortal form was out of the question, since she couldn't assume her form in the presence of mortals. Then again, this fight was more than likely going to be solely an indoor fight, not the ones she and her Hunt were used to fighting. A large number of the hunters would definitely increase possible casualties and damage to her side.

'Percy, I hope I am choosing the right path,' she thought as she pictured the smiling face of an annoyingly endearing demi-primordial.

"Zoe, Naomi, Atlanta, and Phoebe," Artemis said in a clear voice. "The five of us will be going in. We will find and eliminate our target as quickly as possible and hopefully be back as fast as possible. The rest of you, retreat into the forest and await our return."