The Ancient Prophecy

50 : The potion - Petros

"The odds of winning the war are 50 precent . Maybe they get higher with Thanatos's undead army , the alliance we have made with some deserting titans and the Resistence's army . But we must remember that demigods are still mortals and that amongst them there are humans too ." Athena spoke as she looked between the four demigods .
     All five were in the Resistence's library . They have dragged some tables together and put a large map of the city on it . They have locked the doors to the library so no one could come in and interrupt them .
"Do you four know the reason we , the Gods , lost the Titan War in the first place ?" Athena asked .
"Typhon ." Petros said almost instantly "The Titans brought him into battle right before you could win ."
"Exactly , demigod . Typhon is the Titans' best weapon . Without him they could have never won against us in the War . Our main priority should be to have a clever plan to defeat him ."
"But he is triple the size of a god's original form , has one hundred serpent heads that spit fire and has wings ." Charis spoke , concern clear in her voice .
"That is the reason why he is such a dangerous opponent . If it only were for his size , we could had swept him off his feet . But instead we could not even get closer much to him without fire being spat at us or Typhon rising from the ground ." Athena explained .
"How about we attack from a distance at his back while others are distracting him from the front ." Phedora suggested .
     Petros raised an eyebrow at her "It would work if he was not so tall . Even from a far distance you will only reach maybe his knee . And if you go too far you will not reach anything . And also .. you suggest we sacrifice some of us as a distraction ?" It was just constructive criticism but it sounded more accusatory and cold than Petros expected it to be .
    Petros and Phedora stood in silence looking at eachother . The girl had a blank face , no expression whatsoever . It seemed to reflect the expression Petros was having .
    The boy felt a hand squeezing his shoulder "Why do  we not focus more on overcoming the first part of the battle , which is the fight with the Finders and Titans ? We can think of a plan to defeat Typhon after having a strategy to preserve our forces throughout the first fight . Our strategy to defeat him can be great but how can we do it if we do not have enough forces , right ?" Sot said with a reasuring smile .
I guess he knows how to change the topic quickly ...
"I suppose that is a great point , son of Hermes ." Athena nodded with a slight smile . The goddess turned her gaze to the map that was set on the table .
    Petros turned his head to Sot , a smirk twitching at the corner of his lips "You either had luck with your choice of words or you actually get great ideas in that head of yours once in a while.." the son of Hecate whispered to Sot .
   Sot just smiled "Should I take that as a compliment coming from you ?" he whispered back .
"Maybe ." Petros smirked back .
   Sot slowly took his hand off Petros' shoulder and turned his head back to the map , the same smile on his face "As much as I appreciate that , next time do not almost cause a conflict , alright ?" he whispered .
   Petros' smirk dropped . I did not mean to do that ... He looked down at the city with a frown . I am not even mad much about what she has done ... unless her friendship or relationship or whatever is it with that general will actually trouble our plans or cloud her thoughts .
"So , as you can observe , the Finders' base is right opposite of ours , us in the northern part of the city , them in the southern part . If they decide to attack us in this time it would take a while for them to get here , so we have a little headstart in case they attack first . But I doubt they would ." Athena spoke while pointing at the map "From what you all told me , the finders have more soldiers in their army than us but we have stronger powers than them ." Athena put a hand on her chin "As expected , there are three phases of this grandious battle . The first is the battle from the ground , between the Resistence's army and the Finders' army . We must achieve victory in this first battle ." Athena pointed to the place on the map where Mt. Othrys was illustrated in a dark brown "The Titans will of course not interfere with the ground fight , so the second phase will be the battle between them and Thanatos' army of undead plus our alliance with Rhea and the other deserting titans . I will lead the second fight . In opposite of the ground fight , I will not attack the Titans first but wait for them to attack me to buy more time for you demigods to win ." the goddess lifted her head from the map and glanced with the most serious look Petros ever saw at each of the four demigods "It is a crucial step . The first battle has to be done before the second one and both these have to be won to assure us are the winners . There can be only two outcomes . We either win the first and second phase quickly , defeating Kronos completly and we will not have to deal with Typhon too because Kronos is the only one who can wake him up from his lair ... or we do not win the second phase and have to fight in the third phase with Typhon with our last forces while fighting the Titans . We have to give all our best in those first two phases ."
     After the goddess said that the room went completly silent for some seconds before Athena continued .
"For the first phase... in the back rows the archers should be positioned . In the front rows the spear wielders should be positioned with shields and on the left and right flanks the swordmen , longswords in front of the shortswords , also with shields . The assassins will have to spread across the battlefield unseen , maybe through shortcuts around the city , until they manage to get to the Finders' army's back to take out some of their people or at least from their flanks . Dagger wielders should be positioned closer to the middle and they should have shields too , given the fact that they do not have such a long range . The dagger throwers should be placed between the archers and dagger wielders since they have a medium range . You chose the formation you find most fitting for the spot we fight in ."
     And with that Athena finished the coordination of the army . I should have known it would take this less for her to make a clever plan for it ..