Child of Artemis

Chapter 16

Aron barreled torwards the fighting, stomping down trees along the way. Nymphs stopped fighting and ran to their own trees to try to protect them, to no avail.

He arrived in a few brief steps, his long sword in his hand. He must have brought it up from the lake bottom.

He flattened some more trees and carved a trench in the ground. Behind him, a burly Asian guy was running up to Aron, a short spear in his hand, and a bow and quiver slung over his back.

For a second, Avalon thought the guy would be cruched as he ran straight between the giant's legs. Then he changed, bow, quiver, spear and all, into a giant gray dragon. Avalon blinked, thinking she must have imagined it. But the dragon was still there, breathing fire in Aron's face and whipping him with a barbed tail.

Unfortunately, she'd allowed herself to get distracted. A smoky spirit materialized in front of her and flew at her face. Avalon couldn't see anything, for it had wrapped itself around her like a blanket. Then something shiny came into view, and the ghost vaporized.

Aurora turned around and stabbed another spirit. "Thanks," Avalon said. She returned to swiping at the ghosts with her dagger.

Slowly, the ghosts pushed the campers back into the clearing which had been their infirmary. Looking over, Avalon saw Hazel grab Nico's sword and swing it at one of the ghosts. The dark blade absorbed the spirit's essence.

Hazel looked behind her, conversed with Nico, and knelt down to help him. She gave him a piece of ambrosia and helped him to stand.

Once again, Avalon had let herself be distracted. She dodged a spirit and slashed at another. Then the ground rumbled. She looked up. Nico was standing, his sword in his hand, eyes closed. A crack appeared in the ground, growing bigger and wider.

A wailing noise sounded from all the spirits as a wind dragged them towards the large crack. It didn't seem to affect any campers. Then all the spirits were sucked in, and the earth closed up. Nico collapsed, and Hazel dropped down and fed him some more ambrosia, a worried look on her face.

"WHAT?" Aron demanded. He sheathed his swords and held out his hands, a furious look on his face. A dark fog rolled in, covering everything. Avalon couldn't see a foot in front of her. She wandered in one direction, to bump into someone.

Looking up, Avalon could see the hazy circle that was the moon. She called down its light, and the fog soon burned away, leaving her slightly more exhausted than before.

She focused on the moonlight and imagined it burning away the rest of the fog, and it complied. The fog dissipated, and an outraged Aron cursed and kicked over a tree.

The dragon suprised Aron when it whipped him across his forehead. Golden ichor flowed from the scratch and into his eyes. Aron rubbed and blinked, and the dragon went on the attack again, scratching at his scalp. The dragon blew fire, and Aron's hair went up in flames.

He patted out the fire on his head and swatted at the dragon, knocking it to the ground. The dragon wriggled and transformed into the Asian guy. He lay there for a moment, but got up and sprinted away as Aron tried to step on him.

"WELL?" he screamed. "Are you all going to help me?!" All the campers yelled battle cries and charged Aron.

Ivan flew around Aron's head, throwing thunderbolts. Clarisse had hitched a ride in his shoe and was slashing away with little effect at his dragon legs. Farther away, the Hephaestus campers were slapping together simple bombs which the Apollo cabin shot from a distance.

Piper, Aurora, and another girl each had megaphones and were trying to charmspeak Aron, without much success.

Aron snatched Ivan out of the air and squeezed. Ivan tried to squirm free, to no avail. Then a bolt of lightning came down, illuminating Ivan. The lightning spread all over Aron's body. His fist unclenched, and Ivan dropped to the ground, his clothes smoking.

The lightning shut off. Aron looked unharmed, but his armor was charred and his boots were smoking. Clarisse was lying on the ground, smoke rolling off of her. She floated up and came right towards the campers. The nearest kids gripped her arms and dragged her into the clearing.

"Who's next?" Aron growled, swinging his sword around in a figure eight. One camper chucked a bomb at him, and everyone else charged Aron.

Avalon leaned against a tree and gathered herself. It would be hard enough to get a good aim with campers bumping into her as they ran past and yelling battle cries in her ears.

She unslung her bow and pulled out a golden blunt-tipped hydra arrow. The last few campers ran past her to join the mass of campers swarming around Aron's legs. A few had climbed onto his shoes and shot grappling hooks upward which caught on his armor. They started climbing up the rope.

Nocking the arrow, Avalon aimed at Aron's mouth. The giant swung his sword and turned so that her target disappeared from view. Then he turned around again and attempted to shake some campers off of his boot.

While he did that, Avalon shot her arrow, realizing that the moment was the best chance she would have to do so. The heavy hydra arrow sailed right into Aron's mouth.

Aron stopped fighting momentarily and stuck out his tongue. The hydra had wrapped its golden tendrils around it. He felt the thin wires and snapped them in half and tossed the wires aside.

He swept most of the campers aside with the flat of his sword. Avalon pulled out an arrow with a wooden tip and lit it on fire when she struck two pieces of flint together.

She aimed and shot. The arrow hit Aron on the back of the head and clattered to the ground. The fire had already spread up and engulfed his hair. Aron didn't notice until he saw himself reflected in his blade.

He patted his hair out. By now, his hair was half the length it used to be, and no longer glossy and straight.

Aron stumbled forwards, his sword knocking aside campers. By now Avalon was in reach of the sword and she slung her bow over her shoulder.

She charged into the mass of campers hacking away at Aron's feet. Climbing onto his shoe, she gripped the rope of one of the grappling hooks and started pulling herself up.

She reached the bottom of his armor, and a hand reached out to help her up. Avalon grasped it and climbed over the edge of the armor.

About ten campers were inside his armor, stabbing Aron repeatedly in the stomach. A few brave ones were trying to jump onto his arm when it passed by.

Avalon unsheathed her dagger and made a bunch of vertical scratches on Aron's stomach. She then added some more horizontally, so the result looked like a grid.

She was about to start again when the giant twisted downwards. She found herself sliding down to the edge of his armor. She put on foot on Aron's stomach and the other on the armor to steady herself. Avalon looked down and saw that all the campers had somehow tied a net around Aron's arm, and they were pulling him to the ground.

Aron shifted again, and Avalon slipped and slid down the side of his armor. She grabbed the edge, but her hand was sweaty. Another camper was rushing over to help her, but she couldn't hold on much longer.

She slipped, and then she was falling. Avalon tried to roll over, but the wind wouldn't allow it. Then a huge hand grabbed her out of the air.

Aron lifted her up to his face and stared. Avalon stared back. "This one will do fine," he said. Then, oblivious to the attempts of the other campers to injure him, he walked away.