Percy Jackson: The Great Army of Chaos

Chapter 5|| Vines in training

"Come on Jackson, if my mom was still alive she'd be handing you your ass right now!"

Come on Perce, you can do it! I mentally told myself running even faster, the swamps was a difficult place to train in, running the track that Rocky had set, you had to use a lot of senses, I had to slide under roots, jump over roots, use vines to swing over swamps and to climb in trees. My concentration was strong, my back ached from the bag that sat on my shoulders that weighed as much as I did when I was eleven, the rules were the bag comes off and I start again. Running I didn't look back, a root came up, it looked like a tunnel that had been designed funny, I slid under it and continued to run, another root appeared only this one was entangled in vines, I ran up and jumped over it, I nearly fell back because of the fricken rock like eleven year old me on my back. I continued in a sweat, jumping and sliding over and above roots, the hardest was climbing trees, I've never gripped onto anything as hard as I did to those trees and vines. I could feel the amusement that Rocky held whilst watching me, his smirk only made me more determined to finish this course, the thing about the swamps is that it's really humid, so all rocks,trees and vines were slippery making it even harder for me. Rocky had told me that to be an Omega, nothing must seem impossible, during my six months of training I've learnt new fighting technics, apparently I will have the ability to talk through mind talk with my Alpha's. The thing that Rocky has focused the most on is power of the mind, he says without power in the mind you're like a ghost in battle and as Omega I'm meant to be the ghostbuster, running through these swamps I had to be focused, these swamps had no mercy.

I rounded a corner, at a speed I'd call fast, nearly sliding on some mud I jump onto a tree and begin to climb up it, my bag acted as an anchor pulling me down but I kept going up, this tree was the tallest tree around, through the time I had been here this tree had been my challenge, it had been a challenge just to get a meter above the ground when I first went up the tree, today I'm six meters going strong on a twelve meter tall tree, today I plan to make it to the branches, today I will reach the nine meters. I continued to crawl up the tree using everything that I have, sweat ran down my body like a shower, after reaching the eight meter mark my shoulders were numb and back felt as if I had misplaced a bone but it's fine because I'm a meter away. You know when you are high up and people tell you to not look down? Well that's exactly what I did, I looked down, the ground was far from my feet but that wasn't high enough for me, I grabbed a branch and pushed myself off, my foot slipped, luckily I caught a branch and hang there, images of Annabeth appeared in my head as I just hang, not making an attempt to get back up, her smile came to mind, the smile that I'd probably never see again, I'd never give up when it came to anything involving Annabeth like in Tartarus, people call me nuts for going into hell for her. I could just see her telling me not to give up, even though it was all in my head I listened and pulled myself up onto the branch, I could touch my target branch but that's not enough I have to sit on the branch. I jumped up and grabbed the branch I pulled myself up and admired the view that I'd never seen, it was just the tops of trees and a blue sky which took a bit of time for my eyes to adjust, down on the ground it was just gloomy.

"Get down Jackson!" Rocky yelled from the base of the tree.

"I will, in ten minutes!" I yelled.

"No, get down now Jackson"

I sighed, "It took me how long to get up here, but no I have to get down so fast" I moaned to myself. I grabbed a vine and slid down it, the vine gave in just as I was about to reach the floor, I landed on my feet with no issue, "You called" I said.

"I'm sorry kid for disturbing your time on that tree but I just got a message about your departure" Rocky said, "Kid, you're no longer leaving tomorrow"