𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝙱𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚞𝚗....

𝚅𝙸𝙸

"On your left!" Ellie shouted. I whipped around and shot my arrow. The arrow embedded itself in the neck of the Empousa that was trying to sneak up on me.

I unsheathed my sword, my bow and quiver of arrows disappearing as I didn't need them at the moment. I started slicing at the Empousai that surrounded me.

We had been tracking the group of Empousai for two weeks now. They had been going after demigods by trying to pretend they were human and sneaking into mortal schools. There was about two dozen of them when we first ambushed them, and now only ten remained.

I swapped back to my bow and jumped to higher ground, notching a few arrows and letting them fly. "I really, really hate Iowa right now." Ellie complained. "Agreed." I said, shooting two more arrows.

I grabbed a silver throwing knife from my belt and aimed at the nearest Empousa before throwing it. The knife hit the vampire hybrid right in the forehead, disintegrating her instantly.

"I know Iowa is supposed to be known for their cornfields and crap, but right now they seem to be better know for their creepy vampire ladies." Willow joked, dropping down from the trees and landing on my left.

We continued shooting arrows at the Empousai until there was none left. "Good work everyone, let's regroup at camp." Artemis called to everyone.

All of us grabbed any intact arrows and then headed back to camp, the wounded already haven been taken there after the battle.

It was now the middle of March but it wasn't getting any warmer. We have been traveling north for a while so it has been staying cold as time goes on. Hopefully by the end of the month it gets a bit warmer.

Anyone who had been wounded during the fight stopped by the healing tent to get some ambrosia and nectar. Once everyone was back to full health, we broke camp to set out for our next hunt.

The plan was to head towards the city of Chicago, where there was supposedly a group of basilisks hanging around the area.

Everyone made sure they had packed everything away and cleaned up the campsite before we headed out.

We trekked through out the rest of Iowa and crossed into Wisconsin in just a few short hours. We needed to cross the state and make it to Chicago within the next forty eight hours, so we only had time to stop twice to rest and eat before we needed to get moving again.

Normally, no human being would able to walk from Iowa, across Wisconsin, and all the way to Chicago in that time, but since we all had the blessing of Artemis, we had more superhuman abilities than mortals, demigods, and nymphs. We rarely ever had to make long stops because of our high endurance levels.

About halfway across the state, we stopped and set up camp for the night. We had a four hour window to rest before we needed to start moving again. Within five minutes camp was fully set up.

"Finally! I thought my hooves were going to fall off if I had to hike any longer." Oakley sighed in relief.

He plopped down on some of the pillows in the back of the tent, which was now his designated sleeping area. Willow and I just rolled our eyes at his dramatics and set our things down.

Our animals had all gone to sleep so they were able to get their rest in for the next part of our journey. Normally, the Hunters of Artemis just hunted down monsters as they came across them, but occasionally there would be one that was targeted specifically.

The last time there was a specific monster that they had hunted down was a few years back when they went after Echidna and her Caucasian Eagle in Seattle.