Book 2: Oaths and Victories.

Chapter 16: The 'war' lasts less than half a day.

I'd apologize, but I'm not actually sorry.

Reyna absolutely does punch Octavian, because getting his comeuppance because of hubris is good and fine, but nothing's quite as satisfactory as an asshole getting decked.

Περσι

The problem with the distance between Europe and America on flying ship, is that by the time they get to camp, there's already purple banners planted at the edge of the forest.

But at least no one's fighting anyone yet, and he's pretty sure he just saw the Athena Parthenos pop up from the ground, so it could be a lot worse. If nothing else, he's learned better than to tempt the fates by complaining.

The important thing is that they've arrived before Gaia, so there's time to get everyone to shift their focus from fighting the other camp, to fighting the very evil primordial. Enemy of my enemy and all that jazz.

Sadly, because whomever is in charge of luck probably finds his suffering entertaining, that's the exact moment where all hell breaks loose and Gaia pops out of the ground.

It's a real whack-a-mole of a day.

Particularly the hammer part, considering they all finally figured the issue with Leo's fighting instincts, beyond the whole 'he has real ADHD' thing. And he's still wondering just how many demis are correctly diagnosed only to be told it's just instinct when they reach camp, like sometime Leo explains his thought process and it makes sense, so how would people know for sure?

He's had plenty of instances where a thought leads to another leads to another, until he's so far from origin it no longer exists in his head. But also, ever since he's been introduced to the demi world, dealing with that sort of thing is a lot easier.

For example, right now, as he's been making sense of this, he's also been opening a path into Gaia's forces, and leading the joint Greek-Roman forces. Multitasking is one hell of a skill.

As it is, though, he's in prime position for when Jason and Leo finally get to Earth Face herself, and start pushing her back, which means he's also in prime position to watch as a projectile crashes into Festus and Leo.

The ensuing explosion is loud and bright enough to make everything stop for a bit, and he even gets to see something fall from the smoke cloud before he has his hands busy again. But the monsters are a lot weaker, and a few moments later there's a different kind of light in the sky, and the fight comes to an end.

Λεο

He'd like to begin this by saying that there's no good way to describe what it feels like to be blown up without being blown up. No disrespect to the people who've actually been caught in an explosion, but the rest of the world is just there, not understanding a word of what they're saying.

Kind of like how when someone describes what flying feels like, which, considering he's done both things now, is a comparison he can make.

Blowing up fells like flying but all your limbs want to go different directions. See? There's the explanation, people will nod their heads in agreement, but secretly they'll all return home more confused than they started.

Point being, getting blown up without blowing up feels like falling and being thrown into the air in tandem, like speeding towards something and being completely still, like sheer force and heat. All of that, and none of it, at the same fucking time.

And then he's actually falling, which, at least, is a sensation he's a lot more familiar with. Sadly, Festus is too bent out of shape from the previous collision to do much more than stop him from dying on impact.

It would've been a little funny, he thinks, in a fucked up not at all funny way, if he survived a literal explosion only to die from gravity.

Also, Nico would've never forgiven him, and he kind of never wants to do something to make Nico hate him for the rest of eternity, ghost time included. It's probably the fact that he's like, pathetically gone for him, or maybe the fact that Nico's just that terrifying, or most likely both.

Yeah, definitely both.

Has he mentioned, yet, that being blown up without blowing up is very much a brush with death and comes with all the fun sensations those words imply? Cause it is, and it does.

He's particularly fond of the part where he wakes up and gets immediately flashed by giant lightning. The headache he's gonna have will be monumental, he can already tell.

Gaia goes down, being put back into imprisonment somehow, all of which happens while he's busy being unconscious. So when he wakes again it's to the Camp's infirmary.

It occurs to him then, as he's laying on the cot and staring at the ceiling, that as much as he'd like to kick back and let himself relax for the next however long. There's some urgent business he has to solve.

He takes a deep breath, slowly gets himself out of the cot and into his feet, changes clothes, and leaves. Walks beyond the tree line of camp, fire itching at his fingers, and towards one of two underground entrances located there.

Only one thing left to do.