ANTI-HERO, j.grace

THIRTY ONE

     Before the Battle of Manhattan, Klein Maddox had been filled with this sort of naive confidence. The number of attacks on the campers had steadily been increasing, but she was still clueless as to what fighting in a war really meant. It wasn't until the bridge exploded behind her that Klein Maddox began to question her fate.

The daughter of Apollo was incomparably pissed that she was fighting monsters again, that she was stuck in a race against time to ensure that the giant king didn't rise and destroy the rest of the world in Gaea's name. It wasn't fair.

Neither was the fact that she had run out of silver arrows.

Still, Klein Maddox tore through the first wave of monsters that went after her like she was cutting through butter.

In fact, the group of four demigods seemed to be holding their side of the fight far better than anyone on the premises could have expected. Leo was burning through every single ice attack Khione sent his way, and in the process he seemed to be defrosting every frozen thing around them, including Thalia Grace. One look from Piper and the Earthborn would drop their clubs and smile like she was the prettiest thing they'd ever seen, at least until she used her dagger and turned them back into mounds of mud.

And Jason - well, he was doing just as well as they'd been expecting. He effortlessly tore through the wolves and venti around him, muscles in his arms straining with every swing of the frozen plank he was using as a weapon.

He'd even managed to tame - more like subdue - his own storm spirit.

Watching Jason charge into the fight on the back of a horse that was crackling with lightning... he was quite literally the impressive son of Rome that lived up to his namesake.

Then Klein was sent flying to the ground, cracking against the floor like she was supposed to bounce but somebody had turned a trampoline to ice.

A wolf was snarling above her, angry jaws snapping down at her face as the beast swiped its claws at her. Rightfully so, the Maddox girl yelled out in surprise, a slew of curses flying from her lips as she felt it's claws cut into her skin. She shoved her bow up in defense, causing the wolf to howl as the silver jabbed into its skin.

Not proving to be enough, Klein turned to her last resort - shooting a bright beam of light straight up into the wolf.

Brushing the golden dust out of her eyes only made her scowl. "Motherfucker."

"You're too late. He's awake!" Khione snarled, causing everyone to falter in their own fights. "And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us."

Leo threw two flaming hammers at her, but Khione disappeared in a pile of slush. Still, watching the tools bust through the white powdery snow woman that the princess left behind was pretty satisfying.

Jason slowed the storm spirit to a stop beside Klein, looking down at her with eyes of worry. "You okay?"

Her hands were on her knees as she looked up at him, but without the actual battle Jason looked a bit funny sitting on top of this sparkling horse, so she cracked a grin. "Nice horse."

He smiled back.

"Oh, don't mind me! Just the queen of the heavens dying over here!"

Jason's smile fell pretty quickly.

Leo pursed his lips as the demigods gathered on the pool floor in front of Hera's cage, "Uh, Tía Callida, are you getting shorter?"

"No, you dolt! The earth is claiming me. Hurry!"