Heirs of Olympus

Chapter 7

Jason didn't like it. No he didn't like this one bit. Piper, Percy, and Annabeth had left with King Kekrops and his troops to try and sneak under the city to come up beneath the Acropolis. While he trusted all of them with his life, he didn't like the idea of splitting up nor did he like depending on the reptile king not to betray them.

Piper's song had enchanted Kekrops and Jason trusted her powers, but he wished he could be there. He turned towards Leo and the others. "How can we get close enough to be ready when it's time?" he asked the group.

Hazel frowned. "I could use the Mist to help hide us, but with the Giants expecting us, it will be harder. It would be better if we could somehow hide us and I could use the Mist to strengthen whatever we are using to deceive them" Hazel offered.

"I've got something that might help" Leo offered with a smirk. "I can release a smoke screen from the Argo. If Jason can cause the winds to circle us with the smoke, then Hazel could use the Mist to make us look like a cloud" Leo said with a smirk.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard" Jason finally said after several moments of silence while everyone stared at the son of Hephaestus. "But we got nothing else, so let's try it" he gave up.

Leo whooped and moved to the controls and lifted the Argo II into the air. As they lifted up he made some modifications to his Archimedes Sphere and suddenly smoke came pouring out of the ship's underside. Luckily the smoke was white. Jason concentrated on the winds and wrapped the smoke around them while Hazel focused on the Mist. They moved off towards the Acropolis. Slow and hopefully unobtrusive to Gaea's forces.

They slowly approached the temple and could see the forces gathered there. Putting the ship into hover mode, they waited. Jason could see the onagers around the temple. It was all up to the other three now.

Waiting for dawn wasn't easy for Clarisse when she wanted to take the battle to those damn Romans and the scum that they had allied themselves with in their plan to attack her home. She had sent Lou Ellen, Will, and Cedric to attempt a sabotage mission against Octavian's siege machines. Eliminating those onagers would significantly even the odds. The hope that Nico would arrive with his miracle was gone and she had prepared her forces for the battle to come the best that she could.

Chiron had taken a team to the west flank and would prevent attack coming from that direction while the water protected their east and north sides. Leaving the south for all of their forces to consolidate on one front to face the Romans.

Checking over her war chariot Clarisse prepared for battle and looked over the over 100 Greek demigods who had assembled to fight the invasion. She knew they were outnumbered but that was meaningless. They would fight for their home.

"Clarisse" Chris murmured and pointed as she saw Coach Hedge stomping towards them wearing some kind of armor made from tree bark holding his cudgel.

"Cupcake!" Hedge yelled at her. "The forest spirits are ready to fight!" he yelled proudly. He was followed by a dozen satyrs and three nymphs.

Clarisse sighed. She would rather they evacuate with the youngest demigods, but she knew it was pointless and she could use even an extra arm or two.

"That's good Hedge. Have your forces join the main attack team" she offered.

Hedge grinned maniacally and let out a wailing kind of whistle causing several of the children of Apollo to wince at the sound. Clarisse's eyes widened as the woods exploded as nearly twice the number of satyrs, nymphs, and other nature spirits as demigods moved to join their forces tripling their numbers. While they weren't as useful in a fight as a fully trained demigod, things just got a lot better. Maybe now they had a chance.