Camp Half-Blood New Age Book One Chapter Three

Capture The Flag!

Chiron blew the horn for all of us to go to the forest. Capture the flag was getting ready to begin.

Once I got there I made sure to get with Onyx and Asteria. I introduced them to each other and we went to our starting posts. “I, Aspen Chase, son of Pan, Leader of Red team, hereby give my leadership up to Cyrus Storm.” The team started cheering. How did he know my last name? Oh well. “Thank you, Ok ten of you make a circle around the flag. Onyx, stay here and be an eleventh man to help guard the flag. I need ten more people to stay to tend to this flag, if someone goes down, you take their place. Four people come with me to go capture the flag, and the rest of you, just go out there in groups of three, and defeat anyone you find. Alright LET'S WIN THIS.” Asteria and three other people that I didn’t know came to my side.

Our first opponents were all children of Athena, so they say. There were 7 of them. We charged at them, three of them went for me, I slid on the ground to dodge two swords swiping down, then I cut the third one on the ankle. He fell to the ground and tried to swing at my legs. I jumped up and landed on the sword. “Sorry”, I said right before I snatched his sword and threw it far into the woods. Very far. The other two came right back at me, I ducked the girl’s swing and blocked the boy’s swing with my sword. I decided to test my strength, I grabbed the boy and threw him, he crashed into three trees, breaking all of them. “Oops”, I did not think I would throw that far. The girl looked angered and charged at me. I dodged left and took her sword from her. I had noticed she was right handed, so I slit her right forearm then threw her sword. I saw the other guys fighting. Asteria held up her left hand and her hand lit up purple as a purple doctor strange looking thing formed in front of her hand. Her opponent's sword glowed purple then flew into the tree. Then Asteria spoke something under her breath, and all the other four opponents went flying in the same direction Asteria’s hand was pointing. She was so awesome.

We continued forward and I lost three of my men along the way. Now it was just me and Asteria. We headed towards the flag, once we got there, there were ten people waiting. three of them darted towards Asteria. She started using her magic to fight them. I focused on the seven that were glaring at me like I was food. I recognized all of them, especially one of them, Marcus, the one who I had fought in the arena. So it was seven against one. I was up against four great combatants, who all happened to be the children of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and WAR STRATEGY. Two of them were children of Ares, god of WAR AND VIOLENCE, and one of them was formerly the greatest swordsman at the camp. And the last one was a son of Nike who happened to be the goddess of VICTORY. The odds were soooo even. Totally.

The children of Athena charged me first. I used fire to blast above them and come down on the other side. Hope that wasn’t cheating. I grabbed two of them and threw them into Damon, son of Nike, and all three of them flew into the ocean. Hope they don’t drown. That’s when Marcus and his brother charged at me. I used my sword to block both the boys' attacks, then I turned around and blocked a girl’s attack and slit the other boy’s thigh. I knocked the girl’s sword out of her hand, turned and dodged two sword attacks. I turned back around and weaved the girl's punch, caught her arm and hit her in the stomach with the hilt of my sword. She collapsed. When I turned back around I blocked one sword only to be cut in the right cheek with another. People gasped as they were watching. Asteria was still fighting her opponents. I hoped she was doing well.

My cheek was caught in the sun as one of the trees fell down, my cut sealed back up, and people started whispering. “How did you do that?” Marcus asked. “I don’t know”, I admitted. The other boy swung and I blocked it. I slid between the two and cut both of their calves with my sword. They both fell, I came back around to the front and punctured the other boy’s thigh. He fell and started yelling. Marcus punctured me in the stomach when I turned back around. I fell to the ground. Then he slit my neck. My vision started to get blurry. He swung again, but this time I sprung my sword up at his sword, and yanked to the right. His sword flew to the ground. He punched me in my face. Then he kicked me on my shoulder. I flipped over. I knew what I had to do so that I didn’t die. He kicked my face and I spat up. He kicked again but I caught his foot and flipped him over.

Before He got back up I saw several trees blocking the sunlight. And I tried to bring back the light that I used to incinerate Medusa. It worked, rays of sunlight shot out of my hands and sliced down several trees. The sunlight shot quickly down into the field. When it hit me, it struck through my flesh and bones. I felt strong, my cuts and bruises cleared away. A sun appeared in my hands again and I tried to heal myself the same way I healed Onyx and myself this morning. It worked. It didn’t even look like I had been cut before.

I stood up and faced Marcus. The sun disappeared and I picked up my sword. I attached my sword behind, on my back, though you could only see the hilt, the rest of it was covered by my warrior cape thing. Even though I had been knocked around, my laurel crown was still atop my head in the same position.

I grabbed Marcus’s leg and threw him into the one person still fighting Asteria. They both knocked into a giant rock that cracked on impact. All the demigods from red team started cheering. Everyone who was guarding my flag came up to where the rest of us were. I walked up to the blue team’s flag pedestal. I grabbed the flag and raised it into the air. More cheering. I was feeling great.

Everyone started gasping. I didn’t know what was happening until I looked at Onyx. Above his head shadows formed into a crow. “So who’s my dad?” Onyx demanded. Chiron looked concerned, “Well, your father is…” “Who?” Onyx asked. Chiron continued, “Your father Erebus. He is the Primordial, and personification of darkness and shadows. You are the very first demigod son of Erebus ever.” “Are you serious, that’s so cool, I think I’ve read about Erebus before.” Onyx stated. “Your father is more powerful than everyone else’s parents here.” Chiron added. Onyx smiled, “Well now I know what this sword is, it’s Stygian Iron, it’s the strongest and toughest metal in the world.” “You are correct, Onyx.” Chiron agreed.

Then out of nowhere a sun with a chariot on the inside of it appeared over my head. Again everyone gasped. These demigods gasp way too much. “YES! Who’s my father Chiron?” I asked. Instead of Chiron answering me, everyone started bowing down to me. I was a little confused, “Okay everyone, just because I’m the Prince of Greece does not mean you have to bow down to me. I hate it when people bow to me. We're all equals.” Chiron stood up, “That is very kind of you young Cyrus Storm, but that is not why we are bowing to you. We call your father the Protector of Life. He helped our plants grow, gave us serotonin in the morning, gave us warmth, gave us fire, gave us happiness, he was powerful, kind, positive, and funny. Your father is Helios, the personification of the sun. You are the first demigod son of Helios just as Onyx is to Erebus. Also your father is more powerful than anyone else's parents here, including Erebus. But I don’t understand, Helios was imprisoned in the sun. How were you born?”

I understood, my mother was saying something about freeing Helios, right before she died. I was pondering if I should tell them the truth. She told me not to tell the gods who my mother was, but these aren't the gods, can I trust them. I know what I could tell them, “Some uneducated lady accidentally freed Helios, he stayed hidden for a while, and then married my mother and didn’t tell her who he was, only that he was a god. So I guess that’s why I have this solar energy sword, and he must have given me the cornucopia for safe traveling. Although I left it in the big house. Oh also do you guys have cabins for Onyx and I?”

Chiron looked like he just got sat on by an elephant, “Well I guess your story has to be true, and yes we have cabins for 94% of the gods. We have them even for gods who don’t marry mortals, just to honor them. But come on. Aaron Davis, show Onyx to his cabin. Cyrus, come with me, we will get your cornucopia then I will take you to your cabin. Goodnight everyone.” Everyone cleared the woods.

He took me to get my famous food supplier then he showed me to my cabin. He had a lame pep talk to me about not becoming evil, and that this is a great responsibility having as much power as I do. The main awesome part about the talk is that he named me the Camp Half-Blood Chief, which is basically the leader of all the demigods, like the top general of the army. Chiron announced this to everyone at our little dinner called the campfire. We stood around the campfire singing songs, telling jokes, and partying. Then we went to bed. I’m starting to like this demigod thing.