Bane La Mortis, The Son of Hades

The Forces of Olympus

Echidna and Typhon waited until morning to attack.

During that time, Apollo and Artemis stocked up on arrows. Hephaestus and his son, Leo Kenneth, worked to fix and prepare weapons. The Hundred-Handed Ones each stood on a different level of the city, ready to throw the anything their many arms could get a hold of, (Ares was volunteering as a projectile). Demeter and Dionysus worked together to lay vines around the city, hoping to trip some of the monsters.

Everywhere Bane looked, Gods and their children, Saytrs, Nymphs, Dryads and Naiads were running around, preparing the mountain for the siege.

Hades placed a hand on his son's shoulder, making the boy look up at his father. Hades looked into Bane's eyes, seeing the fear in them. "Remember," Hades told him, "No matter what happens, at the end of the day, we will both go home".

"What if I die?" Bane asked, trying not to let his voice crack.

"Then I'll make an exception for you when you are in front of the judges," Hades smiled, "We'll stay in the Underworld, fighting the monsters together".

Bane smiled at the thought, knowing that no matter what happens, he would always have his family.

He was just about to say something when Cerberus howled, warning everyone of the Harpies that swooped down at them. Bane was just about to draw his sword when arrows shot from behind him, striking the Harpies and turning them to dust. Bane turned and saw Jack Tank, son of Ares, with guns strapped to his back, axes and swords hanging at his waist and a crossbow in his hands.

"Together?" Hades asked. Bane nodded and, together, place their hands on the ground. The stone road splintered, the dirt dried and cracked and all forms of plant life shrivelled p and wilted. From the decayed ground, hands burst forth, clawing around to pull the rest of their bodies up from the abyss.

All around them, skeletons, ghouls and zombies crawled up out of the ground with armour and weapons.

From the air came flocks of Harpies, Manticores and arrows. Bane looked over the edge and saw Cyclopes and Hydras all climbing up the cliffs. The entire monster army swarmed towards the mountain while the Hundred-Handed Ones hurled boulders, balls of bronze and a cackling War God into their midst. Artemis and Apollo shot arrow after arrow, knocking monsters off the cliffs. Then the first of the monsters started scrambling onto the ledge. Athena, Nemesis and Nike all stood on the ledge, stabbing at them with their spears and swords. But it was a wide ledge and soon more monsters started crawling up the sides and flanking the Goddesses.

Bane and a couple of Demigods and Saytrs ran to help, striking their weapons against the clawed hands of the monsters. But when they couldn't hold the ledge any longer, Athena called for a retreat.

They fell back into the streets of the city where Athena ordered the Saytrs to where there was plenty of vegetation for them to control. A daughter of Demeter ran after them.

Akhlys, Goddess of Poison and Misery, was with Eris, Goddess of Discord. The two of them were setting up the first blockade, a wall of stone blocks. Akhlys was covering the blocks with an acidic liquid while Eris was enchanting the path so that any monsters that passed it would be afflicted with bad luck.

Athena, Nike, Nemesis, Bane and another Demigod leapt over the stone block wall just as the first monster chased after them.

"Ready?" a voice asked next to Bane. He looked over to see Colin crouched next to him. "I've been fighting these guys in their home territory," Bane teased, "The real question is whether you're ready".

Colin laughed before an arrow shot through the space between their faces.