VintageBeef's POV:

The Camp has a war game every month? Why am I not surprised?

Anyways, Zed was excited to get a weapon, on the way to the arena he picked up a stick and stabbed the air. On the other hand, I was never good with conflict or sharp objects, when I first become a butcher, I nearly cut my hand off with my knife!

That leads me to a question: "Hey? Can we have our own weapons? Like not from this camp weapons?"

Xisuma's eyes studied me through the purpled stained glass on his helmet: "Yeah, I believe Grian's dagger is indeed not from this camp."

Grian perked up when he heard his name. he reached into his pocket and brought out a small dagger, the handle was an ashen brown color, the rear and front bolster was a shimmering gold color, the spine was ink black with some white ancient Greek letters engraved into it, it wrote: 'Ashrune'.

Zed slowed down to gawk at the dagger. I asked: "Is Ashrune the dagger's name?"

Grian skillfully span the dagger around and encased it into a scabbard. "Yep, I named it myself."

Xb raised his eyebrow: "You... named an object?"

Hypno butted in: "It's custom in this camp to name your weapons, my weapon is a tranquilizer bow and arrow, if I shot at a non-lethal area, it will be stunned, so it's a win-win, I call my weapon, Calamity."

Zed muttered: "Cool..." then asked: "What's your weapon?"

"A hammer. I use it to knock things very far away. It has a bit of an unpronounceable name though..." Xisuma's face reddens up a little under his helmet. "The hammer's name is Isthmus." He muttered.

Zed laughed: "That is a hard name to say."

Grian then said: "One of the Hermits call their sword Omega Lighting Decapitating Obsidian Warblade of Doom."

I tried to get that in my head, "That is a mouthful of words."

A new voice joined the gang, it said: "Those mouthfuls of words perfectly describe my Gladius Longsword, it's a great weapon, unlike your tiny dagger."

This hermit had brown hair and a light skin tone he also had a short beard, he wore a green short-sleeved hoodie that seem to have been through a lot, a brown vest, and a browner backpack that has arrows poking out hanging with the hoodie, he had fingerless brown gloves on, and his pant was a messy blue and his black combat shoes completed the set. His slightly amber eye studied me. Wait, eye? Under some of his hair was his 'other eye', a robotic blue lens, and some other mechanical bits that Mumbo would have explained further shined at me.

"Iskall!" Xisuma greeted him with a fist bump, Grian crossed his arms, a spark of friendly fire between the two hermits lit up.

"Meet Iskall, son of Ares, god of war." Bdubs introduced us. I looked to Zed and Xb with an uncomfortable face.

Iskall's face roughed up: "Hey! I am not like my father's personality; I won't hurt you. If you want, I have some Swedish Fish with me"

I looked to Xisuma, and he declined the offer politely, and seeing that Xisuma was hiding a look of sickness; I declined the offer as well. Xb and Zed followed my example.

And with disappointment on his face, Iskall put back the Swedish Fish in his backpack, he said "Anyways, let's go to near the tool shed, the other hermits are already waiting.

When we got there, the hermits had already started to whack chaos. Mumbo and the other guy who I am going to guess is Impulse making the sorting machine better than it already was. Stress and someone with a shocked face planted something. And others talking and fake fighting.

"Guys, shush down, it's Shishwammy!" the guy with the shocked face said. His voice was like a whisper, and his accent is a mix of Polish, Swedish, and English.

The others quickly quieted down, and Mumbo poked his face out which is messed up with ink and dirt.

"Do I need to do a speech?" Xisuma said rather annoyed because it seems like this happens a lot.

"Speech, speech, speech..." Grian mockingly teases Xisuma on.

"Grian... no..." Xisuma holds his finger to his mouth, trying to shush Grian. (Well, Xisuma has a helmet on, but you shush)

"Speech, speech, speech..." Zed joined and claps along, then all the hermits joined along screaming at Xisuma to do a speech.

Xisuma signed and mutter something under his breath then said: "HermitCraft, renew your weapon, and if you won't choose a new weapon to practice with. Go!"

The Hermit spilt and went into groups. I, Zed, and Xb were taken to the tool shed by Xisuma, Grian kept a close eye on him outside the shed.

"Good news, the rust on this machine has been cleaned and it is 10% faster! This machine is bonkers!" Mumbo excitedly announced. Impulse nodded, "In the future, I think I can still make it even faster."

Impulse was nothing like his brother Mumbo. (Well, technically his half-brothers but I honestly don't care) He had light brown hair with brown eyes, he wore a shirt with a face on it and an 'i' on the back, he had olive green medium-long pants and black sneakers with one of the shoelaces untied.

Xisuma nodded and said thanks, the two brothers walked away talking about redstone projects they could do next (they something about a robot dog and I suddenly want a robot dog).

Xb stared at the weapons, "How do we do this claiming sword thing?"

Xisuma shrugged: "Honestly I don't really know, the weapon kind of chooses you instead. You pick a weapon you like, and you try, try and try until it feels right."

Zed somehow manage to hold six different weapons (without slicing his head off) and said: "Can I have them all?"

Grian chuckles from the doorway, "I wish I could have six weapons; this dagger is easy to knock out of my hand and when that happens, I have nothing else to work with."

Xisuma continued: "The maximum is two weapons each, if you can focus on them both, so far the only people I know that can do this is False and Iskall, and they still struggle with that."

Xb was trying out the wands and spears, I was focused on knives and daggers and Zed went with swords and scythes.

Xb was running through some of the staff when he found one that glowed when his hand got near. He held it up for us to see.

"Woah," Zed said with his amazing choice of words.

Xb's eyes were glowing as well, he seemed not sure what to do next. Xisuma muttered as he stared at the glowing staff: "You chose a staff... interesting." Then he spoke up: "Try channeling magic into the staff, see what powers you have may narrow down who your godly parent is."

Xb asked a dumb but smart question: "How?"

Xisuma put his hands forward: "I don't know to describe it, it's like trying to silence a sneeze. You feel the magic in your body and force them to your outlet." His face is concentrated with sweat and at his palm, a small vortex of swirling wind appears.

Xb followed his example, his eyes glowed with energy, and his staff shinned like the moon.

"Then you pushed them in the direction you want." Xisuma continued and throw the swirling vortex out of the door, Xb did the same, but the thing he shot away was a beam of light. Grian peeking through the doorway looking confused, Xisuma just pointed in the direction Xb was standing, Grian's face morphed into a face of shock.

Zed tapped on my shoulder, "Hey... um... Xb's whole body is glowing with a symbol on top of his head, is that normal."

I turned and Zed was right. (About the glowing thing, not the is it a normal thing, although, in this crazy world, I won't bat an eye if this is a normal thing)

The symbol was a few inches on top of Xb's head, it was glowing a bright white, a circular ring embraced what looked like three arrows whose tips are round. A star with a dot marked the center.

Xisuma looked presently surprised as Xb stared at our faces. "What? Do I have something in my teeth?"

I pointed at the top of his head. Xb took a second to get it, he looked up and freaked out "What the? What's that, oh gods what happening, am I going to explode?"

Grian looked at us: "Xb just got claimed." There was a bitter taste in his words.

"Hecate, goddess magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts, and necromancy."

I paled a little bit: "Ghosts?" I shivered as if the room got colder.

"I swear they are more harmless than a doll, they are just sprites that live in the underworld." Xisuma shook his arms in on an x position.

Zed looked more excited now more than ever. "Soon if I chose a weapon, a symbol would appear on my head?"

"Maybe? I don't know how the whole claiming thing work." Xisuma muttered.

Xb stared at the no longer glowing staff: "I have to name this?"

Grian walked in, a dangerous flame glowed in his eyes: "Yep, it's a custom." His voice felt cold.

"It glows like a silver moon," Zed exclaimed happily.

Xb snapped his fingers, "That's it! I am calling this SilverLight!"

Grian's face amuses up "You could have been more original."

Xisuma's mouth stretched into a thin smile, "You named your dagger after its color."

Grian imitated a librarian shushing the others and giggled.

"Hey, this one, I like this one." Zed stabbed the air with a weapon.

It is a medium-sized sword, the blade goes straight for a bit but curves into a 'c' shape near the end.

"It's a khopesh. A real good weapon and we only have a few of them in this shed." Xisuma informed Zed.

"I'm naming you... Tim!" Zed said to his sword. (I swear I hear Grian silently cursing at Zed's naming skills)

"Interesting... name choice..." Xisuma stuttered.

"What about you Beef?" Zed asked.

"I think I am going stick with my butcher knife; I don't want any other weapon; I am just too attached to my work weapon." I smiled and pulled it out. Now I just need a name.

"Lazarus, like a laser. And they cut through meat like a laser."

Iskall's voice joined in, "Hey we decided the teams."

"The teams?" I asked

"The new hermits are with False, they are with Grian, Scar, Joe, Welsknight, Tango, Impulse, Bdubs, iJevin, and the opposite team is me, Cub, Doc, Etho, Hypno, Mumbo, Keralis, Ren, Stress, TFC, Xisuma, and Cleo." Iskall listed.

Xb looked a bit confused: "I thought twenty-four people were a little amount before, but later hearing all those names, it feels like a huge amount."

Iskall laughed: "You're know all of them in no time flat! Trust me."

"What are the teams for?" I asked again.

"A little game, two teams have three flags each, the first team to catch all three flags or knock every hermit in the other team wins." Iskall's eye glimmered with excitement.

"Wouldn't you get hurt?" Zed asked.

"Not really, yeah you may get stretched or cut and in the worst case, you get stabbed, but you'll be alive because Joe is a great healer," Iskall said.

Xisuma then guided us out of the cabin and into our group.

While the hermits are going around into their groups, Ex stepped out of the door and looked at the sky, "Be careful, there's sometimes very wrong with the sky but I have no idea what."

False seemed to be the leader of our group," Ok team, let's talk strategy."

"Maybe, the new hermits could go with one of the older hermits to guard the flags, that's the least dangerous job for them." Said the blue slime.

"What about where to place the flags?" said a knight out of the medieval times.

"One on that small hill, Grian and Beef could guard the flag there, if the flag was caught, the open field will make it easy for Grian to run around, one on that small land near the water, Jevin and XB will guard that flag, and the final one in that cave, Tango and Zedaph will guard that flag." Scar pointed around all over around.

"That sounds great, but won't it be too dark for Zedaph to see?" A guy with blond hair and red eyes asked.

Impulse raised his hand, "I think I could help!" He then snapped his fingers and a small flame burned on his hand.

False smiled at Impulse: "Sure, that sounds great! The others, I got something in mind." She smirked mysteriously and gave me, Zed, and Xb a flag to carry to our stations.

I followed Grian, it was a comfortable silence the whole way there.

The area was a grassy hill, there were no trees, it was a perfect area for running. I placed the flag down and Grian spread his wings out and zoomed around.

I stared at Grian flying around and doing cool tricks, and I wondered if I could be a better flyer. (Grian saw this, he laughed and said: "In your dreams.", he's a meanie!)

"Hey, Grian? Can I try flying with your wings?" I asked.

He stopped and hovered next to me: "No, it's really special for me, and this machine was made especially for me, if it was made for you, the wing size will have to be a bit bigger." (asked Grian again and found out he was lying, again. Meanie)

"Oh..." I lowered my head in disappointment.

"And I think because it was made for me and me only, I think it will overheat easier, the first day I got this machine, it overheated twice, and had Mumbo rewire it three times, and Etho freeze it once to cool down the system, it nearly caught on fire." Grian landed on the ground and started brushing out the 'feathers' of his wings. (Ask Grian and Mumbo, can confirm that this is true.)

"About Etho, why and how did you manage to convince me, Beef and Zed to pay 150$ for three ice cream."

He stopped grooming his wings suddenly and stuttered: "Uh... I have... great business skills... yep, business skills."

Despite that Grian was stuttering and had a bit of a red face, somehow in a part of my brain believed him. (Or I am just that gullible.)

"Sure... yeah, business skills." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Ok, I used a bit of charmspeak skills, for a Hermes kid it was quite easy. Cleo is a master at charmspeak."

"And why do need the money?"

Grian continued grooming his wings: "For my own needs and wants and the mist, those things were ridiculously expensive because Hecate needs it for... uh... I don't actually know what gods and goddesses buy."

He learned in whispered: "Though, now that we got her son here, I think I can bride- uh convince her to lower the price of the mist."

"About the gods, do you have any guess who my godly parents are? My mom never talks about him." I asked.

"Honestly, we can't say for sure until you get claimed, all we know is that your godly parent is a male god."

"And what about Zed?"

"I don't really know, uh, you two are friends, right? Do you know what gender his mortal parent is?"

"I... don't know, he kind of just popped up out of nowhere, Harry Potter style."

"Oh, he's an orphan? I didn't know that."

"Zed doesn't like to talk about it."

"I guess for Zed, we have no clue until he gets claimed."

"Hey, Grian how did you got claimed? I am kind of curious."

His eyes went cold, "I never got claimed. I was disowned."

It felt like the air stopped moving and everything froze to listen to Grian's story.

"Uh, do you mind if I asked for more details?" I tapped my fingers in dismay.

"No, not at all, it started six years back, before I even knew I was a demigod, I went to school with Mumbo, Iskall, and a few other friends that are not demigods."

I asked: "Oh you went to a school? And had a few friends that are... uh human?" (Oh geez, this sentence will sound weird out of context.)

"Yeah, I was a bit of a troublemaker, and my human friends' names were Taurtis and Sam." Grian answered, he zoned out for a bit then continued: "A monster attacked us at gym class. Mumbo, Iskall, and I stayed back to defend everyone, but it was all in vain. The school got destroyed, luckily no one except us got hurt." There was a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I think Mumbo got most of the hits, he passed out, and Iskall and I had to hide ourselves and Mumbo because those pesky monsters, was chased into this camp, then the other hermits saved the day." Grian looked around in awe as if he remembered that day.

"Iskall and Mumbo got claimed pretty fast but for five years I have been waiting for a sign, five years of mistakes I could never undo." His voice sounded like he was on the edge of tears (Great, now I feel terrible calling him a meanie before, sorry Grian!), I decided to change the subject; I asked, "I thought you said Iskall was your enemy or something. Yet you spoke of him as a friend."

"Correct, he is my rival and he can still be my friend, it's a weird friendship." He laughed lightly.

"And Sam and Taurtis? What happened to them?"

"Taurtis is still my good friend and a great pen pal, but Sam kind of disappeared? That's kind of disappointing. I wanted to talk to him again."

A few minutes passed in silence then I heard a moment to my left.

"Grian! I heard a moment to my left!"

He shushed me and dragged me into a bush, I asked "Who is that?"

He started: "A hermit from the other team, duh." (Don't duh me Grian. I am duhing you back.)

I lowered my voice into a whisper: "I know that! But who?"

He shrugged and continued staring at the area where the movement.

Iskall was the hermit that caused the movements, he cautiously peeked through the trees and found the flag.

"Oh, It's Iskall, good... time for my revenge," Grian smirked. I looked at him and he had a wild smile and evil gleamed in his eyes. (Remind me to not get on Grian's bad side, he's terrifying)

I asked, "Then what do I do?"

"Defend the flag, and if I do fail on my revenge, just run with the flag."

"But, what about you?"

"Don't worry, one of the rules of this game is that we can't kill anyone. The worst thing that will happen is a stab wound."

"Oh yikes, um, ok... I trust your judgment." I said as he took off with the grace of a bird, and I stumbled after him.

I took my pose near the flag; my palm was starting to sweat a bit and my hand moved to the area Lazarus was hidden. Grian hovered in front of me.

"Well, I suppose it will be dumb to think there was no one at this flag," Iskall said, his hand going to his bag and pulling out his sword.

"It was foolish to think I will leave this flag wide opened." Grian agreed, he stood in a defense position.

Iskall looked over Grian, "And who's that- oh it's one of the new hermits, I could take him down easily!"

I tried to stand my guard and took my knife out, Grian stepped in, "Hey, don't say that about my friend, Lazarus has seen a lot and I think Beef could cut you up."

Iskall smirked: "Are those fighting words?"

Grian sneered back at that remark, "Yes, those are fighting words." Then he lunged toward raising his hand into an arc shape while holding Ashrune tightly.

The battle seemed to be in a blur, Grian was not as good at battling face to face, but he got the flight and speed to make up for the lack of battling skill. Iskall was fast too, but not as fast as Grian, but he did heavy blows on Grian.

They both were doing a stare-off when a cheer cut through the silence. We all stared in confusion.

Iskall eyes seem to widen when he saw people congratulating False, he sat down on the ground, and weakly remarked: "You win this time. You win, good game!"

To the left of False was a blue slime wearing a white hoodie and grey pants and near him was Xb, who is all wet and soaked.

"Oh, geez Xb? What happened?" I asked.

"No one told me Jevin here was a son of the sea and can pull a tide on the other team," Xb muttered in awe and anger.

Jevin smiled weakly: "Oh, yeah, now that's over, I am going to take a nap. I'm tried."

"Water is a tricky thing to control, it's understandable that he's tired, go on, Scar? Do you mind walking him there? Jevin looks like he gonna collapse." False looked at Jevin then at Scar, Scar nodded and carried Jevin back to the cabins.

"Do you have a towel? I am all wet." Xb tapped on False shoulder. (There was a wound here... Xb!)

"Um... no." False pulled Xb's handoff. (Her shoulder is now wet, she silently cursed and winced at the water mixing with blood.)

Then Zed popped in out of nowhere, "Guys, I just created and joined a gang."

"A what?" Xb asked while squeezing the water out of his shirt.

"I am now a proud member of team ZIT! There's Tango and Impulse!" He waved his buddies over.

Impulse and Tango stood behind Zedaph, wondering how to get out of this mess they got themselves in.

"Uh... that's nice, what's your plan?" I asked while sharing an empathic look with Tango. (Well at least, I think that's Tango.)

"To pran-!" the rest of the sentence got cut off because Tango put his hand over Zed's mouth.

"Our plan is to make... the best restaurant!" Impulse hastily added. Grian (who is now bandaging his wounds up) narrowed his eyes at them.

"You realize I can sense it when people lie right?" Grian winced at Impulse.

"Well, now what?" I asked.

"It's generally free time until lunch, then after lunch, we have hermit class," False said.

I don't realize that you can teach someone how to make a fire and find tunnels underground.