ALEA IACTA EST ; GRACE

013.

THE DAUGHTER OF CUPID stood in the middle of the battlefield, unmoving (which in hindsight really wasn't a power move on her part, she could've literally died).

Her red eyes scanned everything, the monsters that had managed to invade their lines, the other legionnaires that were fighting against them and the floor; above all she looked at the black marble floor for any sign of her arrows.

Someone must've noticed her standing around while the others were risking their lives in the fight. "For gods' sake what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on one of the elephants?" Shouted a female voice directly into Philomena's ear, forcing her to look up and into deep brown eyes that glimmered with anger.

"I fell off and lost my quiver," she responded, returning her gaze to the floor.

"Then use the fucking sword you have hanging there and fight," Reyna Ramírez-Arellano shouted over the clamoring of weapons and pointed to Philomena's hip with her own sword.

"But I need the quiver. The arrows, they're my dad's," Philomena retorted, but still moved her hand to the sword handle and pulled it out, just like Reyna had instructed her to do.

The daughter of Bellona defended herself against a harpy, but only managed to slash at her before the creature flew off again. She then turned back to Philomena and looked at her, the way she stood there with her sword in hand, the same way Jason held his sword, and she understood by the way the daughter of Cupid was looking around with desperation in her eyes.

Without another word Reyna continued to slash at enemies or tried to not get accidentally killed by other Roman soldiers. "Do you need my help in finding those or not?"

Philomena followed closely behind Reyna, trying to keep up as best as she could, even with her leg buzzing in pain at every step she took. Disregarding her pain, Philomena bit her teeth together and searched her surroundings for the arrows.

They had reached the front line, and still there was no sign of Philomena's arrows, their search entirely pointless.

The corridors were too vast and there was too much going on, there was no way Philomena would be able to find the arrows again.

'Maybe', she thought bitterly, 'that's actually my destiny. To fuck up and let everyone see that I can't even take care of some very important arrows that could turn everything around for us.'

Not wanting to give up too quickly, Philomena ran over to one of the statues, ignoring the pain in her ankle as best as she could, and climbed onto its socket to get a better view of everything.

But it was to no avail, she couldn't even see Reyna anymore despite her just having stood by Philomena's side seconds ago. She jumped off the socket, realizing her mistake too late as her ankle gave in during her landing so that Philomena fell flat out onto her nose.

Standing up, Philomena cursed herself and the gods.

It was their fault that she was in this situation; were the gods not such gigantic douchebags their children and legacies wouldn't have to risk their lives before even having fully lived them. And she wouldn't be in this situation if she had trained harder, or at least started to train earlier; the others were right, she was completely useless.

"Why are you standing around again?" Reyna asked as she appeared out of nowhere, fending off a hellhound that was about to jump at Philomena.

"Contemplating life and you?" the daughter of Cupid asked, trying to distract herself from the pain in her ankle.

Reyna looked over to her and analyzed the way the other girl put more weight onto her right foot than on her left. "Trying to survive," she responded, then reached for something attached to her belt. "Here take this ambrosia and start fighting."

With a soft smile Philomena accepted the piece of ambrosia and quickly swallowed it, testing her ankle once again. It still hurt, but it was bearable.

Reyna gave Philomena one final nod before she disappeared in the crowd, her sword tightly clutched as she searched for the next enemy she would kill.

Philomena now stood on her own in the front line, among fighting Roman soldiers who were trying their best not to die and she was doing the same, her sword tightly clutched in her hands as she fought off one monster after the other.

She was in no way as good as any of the sword fighters but she managed, fully concentrated on the enemy in front of her and her surroundings. Philomena wouldn't die here, she needed to retrieve her arrows somehow and end this pointless war (how and on whom she would use these arrows was still unknown to her, but she figured she'd know that when the time came; if she ever found them).

Fighting really wasn't as easy as Jason or Reyna made it seem. It was fucking exhausting and Philomena hated every second of it.

She fought against monsters she had never seen and wasn't even sure if she was moving closer to the main hall or further away from it with the constant back and forth.

Her whole body felt heavy underneath the armor and she was getting weaker and weaker as the minutes passed, the pain in her ankle returning once again but she couldn't give up. Wouldn't give up.

It wasn't like she had expected this fight to be easily won, so really, there was no surprise here but still, the gods could at least try to send them some form of divine intervention or whatever to lighten their children's burden.

But no, that was too much to ask for.

They preferred to watch in silence and listen to the pained cries of their children and legacies as they were injured or killed by the gods' enemies.

After another Harpy tried to rip Philomena's helmet off and she had successfully transformed it into golden sand, the girl took a second to look around.

They had actually managed to get closer to the enormous gate that (probably) led to the main hall in which Saturn's throne stood. She could finally see the silver decorations on the marble, which meant that they were close and that they had managed to gain control over the monsters that had appeared.

Just in that moment, Philomena spotted a head of blond hair which was in a slightly grown out military haircut.

She hated how she could recognize Jason Grace from a distance and just by the way his hair was swept out of his face.

Then it hit her: Jason Grace had lost his helmet and was still fighting among the front lines while Harpies and other winged monsters were flying and clawing at the soldiers.

He really was a total idiot.

Philomena wondered how the son of Jupiter had been able to survive up until now.

HOPE speaks!

i literally can't wait until the battle is over cuz I'm SO helpless when it comes to writing battle/ fighting scenes so pls don't abandon my work just now, maybe it'll get better :)

lots of love <3