The Vanishing Hero

chapter 22

Chapter 22: Training Montage

~1 Week into Training~

3RD PERSON POV

The remaining Romans finally arrived at CHB and settled into the temporary quarters designated to them. Athena and Annabeth ironed out the details of where everyone would stay and etc. Percy had to give another rousing speech to the Romans about the training and what is to come, receiving nods from Lupa and Reyna in appreciation. Though Percy mainly let Reyna handle the training and simply watched over.

That is, of course, the weapons and tactics training. Percy still made them all undergo physical strength and endurance training, which made his approval rating hit an all time low; not that he cared. The Greeks were starting to show promise with their own strength and endurance, but not enough for Percy to have them taper off of it just yet.

Most of the Greeks had the basics of their selective weapons down, though some still had yet to master those, but it was only the first week. Percy had decided to give them Sundays off to rest and relax, or train on their own, always offering to help if they wanted it and some did (mostly younger campers and the hunters).

~2 Months into Training~

PERCY POV

I had begun to taper off the endurance and strength training for the Greeks and Romans and used it mostly for punishment now, though some took it upon themselves to maintain it on their own time. Those campers had my respect for that. The campers and hunters alike had made vast improvements to their combat abilities. Most notably, my girls in the Hunt. I had to put in a decent amount of effort when facing off against either of their groups, and got to use my powers if I face off against all six of them at once.

The young campers that were going to serve as support and medics had been improving well too with Chiron training them in first aid and myself assisting with self defense. Nearly all of them used one or two daggers, but a few had bows and arrows. Watching them train always brought a smile to my face and reminded me why I'm fighting so hard.

The Minor Gods at camp served as good sparring partners for my own training, allowing us to cut loose for a bit. Usually, I'd take on Jason one on one, or challenge him and Leo with a few handicaps, like no flashing. They'd been extremely impressed with all of my newfound abilities, but they'd only been a good exercise to maintain my shape and skills with all of my weapons.

I looked forward to sparring with Artemis when we trained with hunting knives in the evenings after everyone had gone to bed far more than the Minor Gods. Artemis was absolutely unreal. For starters, her skills were ridiculous, though with millennia to hone it in, it wasn't that surprising. She'd been taking the time to train me and after a couple months, I wasn't far off from where she was at; at least I thought.

She's the definition of natural beauty. Aphrodite may be the Goddess of Beauty, but she doesn't hold a candle to Artemis. I only noticed it because I barely came to realize that she's in her 20-ish year old form around me far more often. It's safe to say that I've formed a bit of a crush on her. She's one of my best friends... no probably my best friend after traveling with her and the Hunt for a year.

She's funny too, but you'd never guess it. She makes small jokes and her laugh is like arriving in Elysium over and over again. When I joke back to her and she pouts or gets a little angry, it might just be the most adorable thing I've ever seen. I've got feeling something awful, that's for sure.

Now however, I decided to go do my own training, seeing as it's so early in the morning and I can't sleep thanks to Gramps. It was abnormally warm that morning, so I decided to train shirtless since no one was up yet and I wouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing the scars. It turned out to be a bad idea.