Arsonist's Lullabye ──── Leo Valdez

𝟒𝟏: 𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝- 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞

─────𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 without silver. 

A wolf launched itself at him and he may have let out an embarrassing scream. Even Leo snorted. Jason stepped in at the perfect moment and swung his scrap wood into the beast's snout with a satisfying crack. Maybe only silver could kill it, but a good old-fashioned board could still give it a Tylenol headache.

Vincent let him deal with the wolves, while he turned toward the Earthborn. As easy as they crumbled, there were just too many of them. What they lacked in durability, they made up for in numbers. 

Some screamed nonsense like, "YAY-SON" or the occasional, "VROOM VROOM"

Vincent cut through them like a knife through butter. It was natural to fight alongside Piper, both of them taking on Earthborn after Earthborn. 

Piper was so impressive-looking as she fought, almost glowing with beauty, that the Earthborn stared at her in awe, forgetting that they were supposed to kill her. They'd lower their clubs and watch dumbfounded as she smiled and charged them. They'd smile back—until she sliced them apart with her dagger, and they melted into mounds of mud.

Vincent rolled under the Earthborn, cut off their arms, waited until Piper distracted them and then he killed volley after volley, lines after lines of Earthborn. 

He had severely missed this, he had forgotten what it was like to feel truly alive. 

After the Battle of Manhattan, he hadn't gotten much of a chance to fight actual monsters since he hadn't left camp at all. But now he could let loose. The Earthborn didn't have feelings or brains as far as Vincent knew, so controlling their fear was out of the question. It all came down to sword fighting and boy, was Vincent enjoying it. 

He turned toward the sound of hooves and saw a storm spirit horse bearing down on Jason. Just before the spirit could trample him, Jason launched himself into the air, grabbed the horse's smoky neck, and pirouetted onto its back.

"Show off," Vincent laughed as he watched his friend ride a storm spirit with no regard for personal safety. 

Through the chaos, Vincent caught glimpses of his friends.

Jason too charged into battle, swinging his icy piece of wood, knocking aside wolves and plunging straight through other venti. The horse was a strong spirit, and every time he plowed through one of his brethren, he discharged so much electricity, the other spirit vaporized into a harmless cloud of mist.

Vincent as a rule, didn't like horses much, but this guy seemed okay. 

Leo had taken on Khione herself. While fighting a goddess should've been suicide, Leo was the right man for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he'd been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two silver-tipped ball-peen hammers to smash any monsters that got in his way.

Vincent realized that Leo was the only reason they were still alive. His fiery aura was heating up the whole courtyard, countering Khione's winter magic. Without him, they would've been frozen like the Hunters long ago. Wherever Leo went, ice melted off the stones. Even Thalia started to defrost a little when Leo stepped near her.

It was a maddeningly formidable show of power and Vincent almost stumbled, losing focus when he stared too long. 

Khione slowly backed away. Her expression went from enraged to shocked to slightly panicked as Leo got closer.