CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
the beginning of the end
——— VERONA!
( CAMP HALF BLOOD, JUNE 30 )
PREPPING FOR BATTLE WAS HARD WORK.
The beginning of the end started on a regular morning on the last day of June, but it had progressed into something even more nefarious as Camp Half Blood tiredly prepared for battle before Percy, Annabeth and everyone else who was gone had arrived back. Not just hard, but exhausting. Verona felt her bones might sink into oblivion and completely fall out of her skin, should she moved another inch, much less. The sun was shining so, so hotly in her skin she felt as though it may burn straight off, and her siblings were running around with combs in their hands, brushing our pegasus manes and fixing crooked armour. She swore she even saw a few of them braid glitter into people's hair, and flowers onto other's armour. It was a nice sentiment, she supposed, them wanting to look good before war. They were also all wearing the same Givenchy perfume and cologne, because they swore that it was something monsters shied away from as though it was the plague. It was something even Elska believed in, which led Verona to think that maybe there was more to it than just that. As far as she was concerned, the monsters she had seen desperately needed a mani-pedi, and a full blow out, so maybe there was something to the Givenchy perfume.
Most of all, the sound of one of the satyrs from the council, Silenus, arguing with Chiron and Grover once he, Percy, Annabeth and much to Verona's surprise, Nico, returned. The boy in black looked like he needed a hug, but Verona had a feeling he wasn't very comfortable with it, so she had ruffled his hair and handed him custom black armour the Aphrodite cabin had in storage that she had found. He seemed thankful almost, and had tightened it around himself, strapping it on properly.
"I feared as much," Chiron muttered gravely once Percy had finished telling him what had happened on their quest. "We must hurry. Hopefully you have slowed down the Titan lord, but his vanguard will still be coming through. They will be anxious for blood. Most of our defenders are already in place. Come!"
"Wait a minute," Silenus sounded angry and petty, to be arguing at the very moment Camp Half Blood was about to go to war. "What of the search for Pan? You are almost three weeks overdue, Grover. Your searcher's license is revoked!"
Grover looked angry and upset all at once when he stood up, as though he had lost greater in his time away than ever before. "Searcher's licenses don't matter anymore. The great god Pan is dead. He passed on and left us his spirit."
Verona lifted an eyebrow, arguably surprised. For years, all any satyr had been trying to do is figure out where Pan was, and what he had been up to, if even alive. It seemed that Grover finally had. Something akin to pride blossomed as Verona stared at Grover, seeing how much he had matured since when he had first bought Annabeth and Luke to Camp. He had truly become a great satyr, and Verona was glad to call him a friend.
"What?" Silenus eyes almost popped out of his head. He reminded Verona of those googly eyed stickers at the arts and crafts place in Camp, and she made sure to whisper this to Annabeth when Silenus was not paying attention to the rest of the campers. It evoked a giggle from her that picked up some attention. "Sacrilege and lies! Grover Underwood, I will have you exiled for speaking thus!"
"Who ends a sentence with thus anymore?" Verona muttered to herself.
"It's true," Percy reinforced, defending Grover. "We were all there when he died. All of us."
"Impossible! You are all liars! Nature destroyers!"
Verona resisted the urge to form her ring clad into a fist and deliver a fatal blow to the elder satyr. Whoever had said respect your elders had never met Silenus, or they would be running in the opposite direction and retracting every word they had just claimed.
"We will speak of this later—"
"We will speak of it now!" Silenus interrupted Chiron, enraged. "We must deal with this—"
"Silenus," Chiron voice was forceful. "My camp is under attack. The matter of pan has waited two thousand years. I fear it will have to wait a bit longer. Assuring we are all still here this evening."
Verona resisted the urge to throw herself off Half Blood Hill, or better yet, maybe her mother would obliterate her into pieces. She wondered how many insults it would take for her mother to get angry enough to turn her into a dove right on the spot. Maybe she could anger Zeus? But frying to death like a french fry didn't seem to be the way Verona wanted to go, she was too pretty for that. Nonetheless, she would have done anything to escape the battle to come at this point.
This had to be one of the largest military operations Camp Half Blood had pulled off. They had gathered in the clearing, the Athena cabin had set up a command tent behind a grey curtain, discussing battle strategy and where to place people. Everybody was clad in armour, weapons strapped on and ready to fight. Somewhere over when she came in, one of the Apollo kids had the decency to hand her a spare bow and arrow, as an extra weapon claiming she was better than most with it. The Hephaestus kids had sent fiery traps surrounding the Labyrinth entrance, and Verona knew if you went further towards Camp, Connor and Travis had ordered the Hermes cabin around until traps were set to lure Luke's army away from the entrance and trap them in place. Silena signalled her forward to her side, looking much more nervous. Her armour was decorated in pink with glitter, making her look like a barbie doll with dark hair and blemish free skin, but Verona knew better than to underestimate Silena Beauregard — she was tougher than anyone had ever deemed her, and one of Aphrodite's most skilled children.
"I want you to watch Drew while fighting," Silena ordered, her breath uneven and voice full of worry for the Camp. She glanced up at where Beckendorf was manning two catapultes, having set up most of the traps around the entrance. "She's going to see how far her charmspeak can travel, and I need you to stop her if something starts to go wrong."
"Watch Drew, got it," Verona nodded along, moving towards where the Tanaka girl had been handed a bedazzled megaphone from the Aphrodite cabin, and was holding it tightly, looking much more pale and sickly than Verona had ever seen her. She joined her side, not saying a word but her presence was enough assurance for Drew. For all their fighting, Drew and Verona were still siblings at the end of the day.
Her head swivelled to face Verona after a moment, dark eyes setting on her. "...You're hair looks good, I forgot to say."
"That was a compliment."
"Don't get used to it," Drew scowled, but she seemed calmer now. There was a dagger strapped to her waist but Verona doubted she'd use it. Drew's charmspeak had a way of working words, as it always had. It was a talent only she seemed to have so far in Cabin Ten, but a major one at that. Manipulating one's voice to will their actions was not an easy feat, and if used the wrong way it could inspire something completely new. They had been lucky that for all of Drew's bitchy anger, she remained loyal to Camp Half Blood. Though the rest of them may underestimate Aphrodite and her children, Verona knew better than anybody that each person in her cabin was deadly come need to be.
She was glad Lacy and Carwyn were in the small Athena tent, with ambrosia and nectar in case of injury, away from the fighting. They were too young to fight in this battle.
They all were.
The ground shook beneath them, as though an earthquake was to rise from the surface of the planet. Verona hooked her hands around the bow, an arrow already loaded and ready for fire. Then it shook some more, and some more. Her breath turned uneven, and she sent one final glance to where Silena was, near Beckendorf and the rest of her siblings, easing into helping. She hoped they all would make it to the other side of this evening.
The ground trembled again.
"Lock shields!"
Then the beginning of the end started.
Verona had fought against monsters before, Iapetus, Crius, the Colchis bull, a Yale, and even goddesses such as Eris, and the wrath of Phobos and Deimos, but nothing could have prepared her for this. She drew arrow after arrow, firing at the first thing she saw, which were giants followed by a hoard of other monsters.
"Fire!" Beckendorf yelled, releasing his catapults as the Hephaestus cabin swung into action, Jake Mason leading them furiously from the ground and Beckendorf from the air.
Verona snapped her head to face a monster who had somehow made it past Clarisse's flank, only the noticing half the Ares cabin had been thrown to the side in the first round of fire from Luke's army. She fired an arrow, watching the monster disintegrate. "Time to shine, Tanaka!"
Verona heard Drew swear as she backed up to block the Aphrodite girl from fire, before her loud voice erupted from the megaphone, calming and soothing. It wasn't enough to stop the monsters, but it was certainly enough to slow them down for a moment longer, long enough for the Ares cabin to pick themselves back up, and long enough for the Hephaestus cabin to load their next fire, long enough for Verona to grab another arrow and grin proudly at Drew.
Then the drachnae came.
Verona swore she would never see the light of day again as the next round hit them harder and harder, overwhelming their defences. The Ares cabin and the Hephaestus cabin had been first in the line of fire, and had gotten hit the hardest in it, thrown to the side and some traps set up destroyed as Beckendorf gleamed himself down from the catapult, coordinating with Jake and trying to take down the drachnae. Some of Verona's siblings she could see in the distance, fighting off the drachnae as best they could, some even poking at them with their heels, which were somehow celestial bronze (Verona really needed to invest in those).
She was running out of arrows faster and faster, and with a sigh she realized that the Apollo cabin had given her a magic sheath of arrows, as it filled up once more once she grabbed the last one — at least she would never be weaponless. Drew continued to charmspeak loudly, enough to hold the drachnae off just a little bit, but even her charmspeak had become harder to stop them, as their were too many coming for them all at once.
Verona shot an arrow, swinging it went into the head of one of the drachnae's who had aimed at Jake Mason — he smiled in relief, sending a thankful look at the daughter of Aphrodite as the second drachnae behind it hit one of the traps he had set up, sending it into a fury green fire.
—— BLAM!
She released a shriek, grabbing onto her dagger and taking on one of the snake ladies as it made it to her and Drew's side. The girl beside her had a shield to protect her, but she backed up looking fearful as she continued to charmspeak, that being her only job in slowing the monsters down.
CLANG! Her dagger hit against the snake woman several times, and she got a cut to the cheek again, one to the shoulder that was blocked by her armour before she managed to get a good hit in, and the snake woman disintegrated into tiny pieces of dust.
"Oh, thank the Gods!"
"I think you mean, thank me," Verona grumbled, shooting another arrow as she sheathed the dagger. Drew sent her a look between knowing and annoyance, before she continued her one job.
The next string of attacks hit them even harder. The last of the drachnae all seemed to be approaching further and further from the first line of fire, getting past the Hephaestus cabin's traps. With a shriek, Drew continued to charmspeak, but it was doing nothing now, every monster was too far spread out for anything to occur. Silena seemed to notice this, for she pulled them out of the line of fire.
"Pull back!" She yelled at the two, and with a toss of her wrist, Drew's megaphone was gone to the side as she ran into the battle behind her siblings.
Verona was about to follow, when Chiron yelled at them to fire as she looked at what had gotten him so spooked, her eyes widening as she realized a Kampê, something between a snake with many heads and a lion, had landed on top of Zeus's fist. She fired a few arrows, but she was far enough away that they did not cause much damage to Kampê.
Then Kampê landed on the Athena cabin's tent, destroying it to pieces.
Verona let out a shriek, that sounded somewhere between Lacy and Carwyn's names, running towards it as fast as she could whilst the Kampê began to fly and chase after Percy and Annabeth. She figured they'd be fine, the two always were. She pulled at the tent's rubbles, all cloth and the flag of Athena's owl ripped to pieces until she found Lacy and Carwyn, pulling them up and kneeling close enough to the ground to pull the twelve and nine year old into a hug.
"You're okay..." She muttered as Carwyn let out a small cry. She turned towards Lacy, staring at her in the eye. "Take him to the Apollo medics and make sure he's okay."
"But you—"
"I'll be fine, go!"
The girl rushed off, her hand holding her younger brother's as she pulled him along past the fighting as quickly as she could, the Hermes and Apollo cabin guarding the two from the trees as best they could so they could get through. She spotted Julia Feingold and Alice Miyazawa from the Hermes cabin shoot arrows at two monsters who approached Lacy, and in the distance as Verona killed one of the drachnae who had approached her still alive, she could spot Spencer, the guy from the Apollo cabin she had made out with, smack a monster over the head when it aimed it's club at Carwyn.
For all of its fighting, the campers got along pretty well when they had to. The battleground was dusty and fiery, mixed with smoke and the sounds of cries of war as they marched onto the monsters. Beyond the Kampê that had gone for Percy and Annabeth (apparently the duo suddenly had a history with the fiery snake), all was seemingly going well for the Camp's standards considering they hadn't been ready for battle at all.
Then, Iapetus made an appearance.
He seemed more ghastly and sickening than the last time Verona had seen him. He smiled with glee and evil flickered in his one eye. Verona caught sight of a small flee like creature whizzing at him from a distance in his fist, and with widened eyes she realized he had somehow managed to find Connor first, who was in his grasp as he enacted his rage on him.
She fired her first arrow, hitting him straight in the knuckle.
It wasn't enough to cause serious harm to him (unfortunately) but it was enough for the one eyed wonder to let go of Connor, the boy falling into a tree, before taking a second fall to the ground. He seemingly got up as fast as he could considering he had fallen at least fifty feet, backing up and grabbing onto his own weapon as he approached where Verona was standing. Iapetus had made it to cornering them further back from the fighting beyond the archers, and everyone around them was busy fighting demons of their own or incapacitated. With a sickening jolt, Verona caught sight of Cabin Seven yelling "For Apollo" as loud as they could and storming into battle towards a giant following Lee Fletcher's sudden demise from its club.
"Thought I'd die falling off the lava wall, really," Connor commented as her approached her. His hair was sticking to his forehead from sweat, and his cheek was bleeding in the same way hers way — how sweet. They had matching injuries again.
Not.
His shirt had been ripped from one arm a little bit, revealing a giant cut on it that was bleeding profusely, and Verona was pretty sure she looked no better. She could feel at least two of her nails had broken (sue her, she had just gotten them done) and one of the drachnae had managed to knick her in the side behind her armour, a midsized cut blared her torso, bleeding much less than it should have.
Connor fired a shot at Iapetus, to which did very little damage to the cyclopes. "There's still time — if you can climb quickly, I can push you again." Verona offered, shooting an arrow at Iapetus' leg, slowing him down and giving the two demigods more time.
"I knew that was on purpose," He hissed. He fired another shot, before furrowing his eyebrows as she fired an arrow into Iapetus' arm and extending his hand towards her forehead, picking up part of the hair near the front curiously. "I see you got a haircut then, princess."
She gritted her teeth, firing another arrow and thinking about the drachnae who had managed to unevenly cut off a very small portion of the front of her hair, giving her bangs. "It wasn't by choice, believe me."
Iapetus didn't seem to be slowly down as he approached them. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! His feet thundered as though the world would shake beneath them.
She shrugged, turning to Connor and looking fruitless. "Well, I guess this might as well be the end, Stoll."
"Suppose so, Blaze," He gave her a soft smile, one of melted chocolate and caramel gold. Like a whisper in the rain, it held on even after he had turned away from her, replaying in her mind over and over again as Iapetus approached them. She could have sworn Connor whispered something to her that she didn't hear, but the wind picked up the sound and carried it away quickly, and if he had wanted her to hear, he had turned away before he said it.
"HALFIES WILL DIE!"
Iapetus looked angrier than normal, probably because Connor and Verona had shredded Crius into pieces of dust just days prior.
"HALF BLOOD SOUP FOR DINNER TONIGHT!" He yelled even louder, swatting at Verona. She sidestepped, taking out her dagger and slicing at his leg. Connor fired another bullet upwards and it hit Iapetus on his shoulder. "NO! NO!"
It was enough to make him fall back, and with one last prayer to both Artemis and Apollo, Verona fired her arrow and hoped it would hit her target, who was still moving, right where she wanted it to. The arrow moved dissipatingly slow in the air, slower than a tree branch in futile winds, and if not for the battle raging around her, Verona would have closed her eyes tightly and hoped it landed in place.
By some miracle of the twin archer gods, it did.
It landed right in Iapetus' eye, and with a shriek and something about how he'd "BE BACK SOON, HALFIES", Iapetus turned to cyclops dust, returning to Tartarus once more.
"Still standing?" Connor was up again, having been knocked over by Iapetus, and he offered her a hand from where she had been knocked to the floor as well. She twisted her hand in his, getting up slowly and with a painful wince. When she was standing, she did not let go, she held on for dear life, afraid of what was to come as she stared out at the carnage of the clearing before her, campers still in battle everywhere, crying out for Olympus when the gods were nowhere around to save them.
Connor squeezed her hand tightly, his eyes wide with something between anger and wordy. "Still standing," She replied half heartedly.
Then, their hands unwinded from one another, and with their weapons heaved in the air and armour torn through, they rushed into battle once more.
NOTE —————————— theres like two more chapters or something left in this volume, and then onto the last olympian we go! i'm so excited!! also tysm for 6k and 500 votes, i hope u guys r enjoying this!!