Everything's Changed

~ Chapter Nine ~

Third Person POV

Percy ran to the barrier and saw thousands of monsters. He was suddenly glad that all of the campers were training for this war. The demigods rushed to the hill and looked at Percy.

"Listen! I want half of the Apollo cabin to set up the infirmary with Bruce. The other half of the Apollo cabin get ready to shoot as many monsters as possible in the trees. Clint and the Hunters go to higher ground and get ready to shoot on my command. Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus cabins set up as many traps as you can along the border and further out without alerting the monsters. No disagreements here, if you are 12 and under or have been here less than three weeks go to the Big House and wait with Chiron. Everyone else is on the ground fighting. The front lines are me, Clarisse, Nico, and The Avengers. Watch each other's backs and fight with everything you got."

Percy turned to look at the monsters slowly swarming the area.

Percy prayed to the gods that everyone would be alright and nothing too bad would happen.

Percy's POV

When the monsters finally made it up the hill, the traps were set off. A good few hundreds of them died from that alone. When they got over their shock, they rushed forward.

"Archers. Fire!"

A volley of arrows and greek fire flooded the monsters and they disintegrated into dust. At this about half of their numbers had fallen. The archers went off to the side to keep shooting while everyone else surged forward.

Dodge. Parry. Roll. Dodge. Stab. Repeat. I got into a pretty good routine killing as many monsters as I could. After a good hour and a half maybe the monsters were gone except for fifty and someone who was hiding in the trees.

Kronos.

The archers took care of the rest of the monsters while Kronos came out of hiding. The demigods and gods who came who knew when surrounded us.

"Well, well, well. Perseus Jackson. I thought that you would take our deal. I didn't think you would be selfish enough to give up the lives of the people you call family to save yourself," Kronos taunted.

"At least we can fight our own battles. We don't have to possess people to have enough power," I said with a smirk.

Kronos was angry. Good. He came at me with a slash that I blocked. He slashed, and I ducked under the blade.

"Aw. Does Kronos miss his scythe?" I taunted.

Kronos growled and began to slash and stab at me faster. He put me on the defensive. He made a couple of scratches but nothing too bad. He fell into a routine but made a mistake when he tried to disarm me.

Taking that opening, I slashed at his side and began my flurry of attacks. Kronos could barely keep up and he backed himself into a tree and didn't even see it coming. When his back hit the tree, he lost focus for a second. At that moment I disarmed him and put my sword to his chest. He froze and looked at me with anger in his eyes.

"You might have bested me again. But know this, he's coming and he won't be as easy," Kronos whispered.

Before he could say anything else, I made a deep slash from his chest to his stomach. He disintegrated into dust and blew away.

Cheers erupted from the waiting group of gods and demigods. I walked to where the gods, Avengers, Nico, Thalia, and Clarisse were waiting for me.

"How many?" I asked.

"There were 43 injured and 2 deaths. A daughter of Nike and son of Tyche," Apollo said sadly.

I shook my head and looked at the ground.

"All of this could have been avoided," I said, still looking at the ground.

Natasha lifted my head and smiled sadly, "This is a war, Percy. Lives will be lost. We're fortunate there were only two. Sure, this could have been avoided but at the cost of your life."

"My life would have been worth those two deaths and 43 injured," I said walking away.