Lone Gamer

Chapter 8: Claimed

It, quite suddenly, occurred to me that I still had the spike in my shoulder from Thorn's little attack to keep Nico, Bianca, and myself obedient. It didn't hurt since Solomon's Blessing cured me of the poison, but now it was kind of just in my arm and I didn't like that.

So, without even really thinking about it, I grabbed the spike and tugged it out.

Squelch!

I wasn't prepared for the wet sound it made as my blood briefly shot out of my arm, causing Thalia and Annabeth to turn to me. Looks of horror quickly overcame them.

"Are you crazy!?" Thalia yelled as she ran over. "Annabeth, ambrosia and nectar!"

"I'm on it!" Annabeth said as she put her bag down and began to take out some cubes and a flask.

"Calm down, I'm fine," I told them.

"You are not!" Thalia snapped. "You're going delusional from the blood loss! We need to get you some ambrosia and nectar stat, or else..." She trailed off as she noticed something.

Annabeth rushed over with the cubes and flask, before she also froze as she saw just what Thalia saw.

The fact that blood was no longer squirting from my arm. Instead, they watched as the wound closed right before their eyes without any issue, and then watched as my clothing repaired itself and cleaned itself of any blood.

It was like I'd never been injured.

"How in the Hades...?" Thalia whispered in shock. "Take off your jacket."

"Are you kidding? It's freezing!" I told her.

"Do it!"

I grumbled but decided against murmuring anything rude and slipped off my jacket. Just enough to reveal the shoulder that had been stabbed with the spike.

She marched forwards and tugged at my sleeve, revealing not even a scar remained from Thorn's spike. She stepped back and stared at my face. "How did you do that?" She demanded. "I've never seen or heard of anyone healing that fast without ambrosia or nectar."

"Let's just say a mage blessed me and leave it at that," I responded, shrugging.

"You won't tell us?" Annabeth frowned, clearly disproving. It was evident to me she was the type of girl who didn't like unanswered questions and would definitely roast me over a hot fire if it made me talk.

"I swore not to," I responded, and suddenly both nodded in understanding. I was going to have to remember that for the future. Just saying 'I swore not to' and they immediately thought I swore on the Styx.

I felt bad about lying, but who the hell knew it was so easy!?

"Damn shame, we could really use that," Thalia murmured. "But if you swore, I guess it can't be helped. Your name was Percy, right? Is that short for anything?"

"Yeah," I sighed. I hated my first name. "It means Perseus."

"The Destroyer," Annabeth spoke up. "He's the only Greek Hero who got a happy ending."

"My mom gave it to me," I told her. "I guess she was hoping I'd end up with a happy ending too... At least, I think so. I'm not entirely sure if she's aware of me being a demigod, and I don't want to get her involved in it if I can help it. I owe too much to her to worry her like that."

"Can you do anything else?" Thalia asked. "Besides the absurd healing?"

"Who knows?" I shrugged. "I'm not the kind of person to give away everything I can do to two people I literally just met... Err, no offence."