"You know something, don't you?" Bianca asked Ashe as they walked through the halls.

Ashe curiously gazed at a card in his hand while Nico fumbled with Medusa's amulet.

"Depends what you mean. I know you're in danger, but that's it." Ashe heard the metal clatter of the doors they had left from, glancing back to see Dr. Thorn pacing towards them menacingly.

"You two wanna see something cool?" Ashe asked with a smirk. Nico nodded with Bianca reluctantly doing the same seeing their pursuer.

"Say, Pértra on the count of three," Ashe tugged Bianca's collar and pulled her ahead of Nico as he turned to face Dr. Thorn. "Three!"

"Pétra!" Nico shouted with an emerald glare shot down the hall. A streak of electricity coiled around Dr. Thorn, paralyzing him with a grunt.

Nico looked at the amulet in his hands in awe, but Ashe pat the two's shoulders with a grin.

"See? Cool, huh? We've gotta go, though! That don't last as long as you'd think."

"What? What was that?!" Bianca shouted as they rushed for the exit down the hall. "It was cool is what it was! That was just like Medusa from Mythomagic! You... You know magic!"

Ashe snickered at their varying expressions, ruffling Nico's hair as they arrived at the door. Ashe kicked it open with a grin before hearing a whistle behind him.

Nico and Bianca quickly ducked out of the building and raced down the steps, but didn't see Ashe behind them. They turned and watch him nearly fly down the stairs with sparks bursting from the door.

Ashe rolled to his feet after the tumble and wave them to keep going.

"Get back here this instant!" Dr. Thorn bellowed as he nearly caved the doors in. Three dark projectiles suddenly fired from behind him aimed directly at Nico and Bianca.

The two ducked, only to hear metal clattering from in front of them. They looked up and saw Ashe had blocked the needle-like projectiles with a black bat that appeared from thin air.

Nico's eyes sparkled, but he and his sister looked up after hearing an animalistic growl come from Dr. Thorn. It made the hairs on the back of their necks raise and their body's tremble.

"What is he?!" Bianca asked in fear.

"Not to sure, but my first guess is porcupin- WOAH!" Ashe blocked another three needles as the Di Angelo siblings began to rush further into the forest outside of school.

Ashe had to admit the needles packed a mean punch, with each one making his footing stagger. He made sure to keep his eye on the kids, jumping back towards them in one leap.

Bianca yelped in shock, but grew relieved seeing it was their guardian.

"You two wanna help me hold this guy off?" Ashe asked, somehow keeping stride with them while running backwards.

"H-How...?" Nico wondered, but looked down at the amulet in his hands.

Nico looked up and saw Ashe grinning wide with confidence. "My friends are on the way, but I'll need your help for now. Whenever I say pause, you stun the guy. If he tries to hurt you or your sister, say 'Pedío' to protect yourself, okay?"

The two nodded rapidly in awe.

"Stop talking and face me!"

Ashe turned back to him, and watched him stuff a phone into his coat, but had to suddenly block three more needles.

In the middle of his deflections, Dr. Thorn rushed forward and sent two needles at Nico and Bianca.

"P-Pedío!" Nico shouted, making a veil of emerald light shower over him and Bianca. The needles crashed into the veil but lost all momentum and fell to the snow.

With no time to awe at another spell, they watched an invisible limb suddenly smack Ashe into them, sending the farther into the forest.

Ashe had luckily used Aphrodite's scarf to soften the blow delivered to his stomach, but the tumble towards the edge of cliff forced him to plant his feet and catch the Di Angelo siblings.

He made sure they didn't fall over and even tossed them further forward towards a tree, leaving him to face off against Dr. Thorn.

"You will not delay this matter further, human! They will meet my employer soon enough, and you mortal, will face the General." Dr. Thorn's monologue was extra spooky with the winter pines and heavy snowfall.

Per usual however, Ashe shook his head with nonchalance. "Ah, good ol' Luke. I've been meaning to get my own hits in for his betrayal."

His reply made Dr. Thorn snarl, "You alone cannot stop The Great Stirring, mortal. It is already underway. Monsters this era has never seen before will wreak havoc and destruction like centuries ago!"

The pound of a helicopter's wings began to flutter in the distance, with a low spotlight being spotted over the horizon.

"This guy is completely nuts." Bianca muttered weakly.

"Oh, I'm so~ scared that the damn zoo is opening..." Ashe yawned before flicking Dr. Thorn off. "Pause."

"PÉTRA!" Nico shouted, stunning Dr. Thorn.

Wielding Aegis, her spear and shield combo, Thalia rushed from the forest in a blur. Parallel to her, Percy uncapped Riptide and formed his own shield from his wristwatch.

Thalia grunted as she slashed out her spear, cutting Dr. Thorn's side. Percy followed up with a diagonal slash, but suddenly struck air with a clang.

"Huh?"

Dr. Thorn suddenly roared and broke through the paralysis, flinging out orange paws that would've slice the teens in two if not for their shields.

The sound of the helicopter was getting closer, but no one had the time or room to look.

Thorn's body erupted through his shirt, and the air Percy struck revealed a scorpion's tail that bristled with spikes at the end. Retaining his human face, fur burst from the seems of his clothes as he roared into the night.

"He's a Manticore!" Annabeth shouted, revealing herself beside the Di Angelo siblings from her invisibility cap, making them scream in fright.

"Who are you people?! What in the world is he?!" Bianca felt like she was losing her mind.

"He's got 3000 attack power and plus five to saving throws!" Nico was having the time of his life...

Grover's reed pipes whistled around the forest.

Thorn was suddenly tangled in a burst of foliage from below his feet, pinning his back paws to the ground.

"Won't save him from us, huh?" Ashe nodded to Nico, before rushing forward in a blur.

From his restraints, Thorn shot several needles at Ashe, but the boy sidestepped with ease and seemed to glide forward the rest of the way.

Sliding under a claw, Ashe slammed his bat into Thorn's hind paw. Percy dashed past Ashe and sliced the same leg, earning a welp of pain as Thalia circled around him.

Thalia deflected a needle but the force of the impact made her stagger, making her vulnerable for an attack.

"Pause!" Ashe yelled.

Thorn's slash was interrupted, allowing Thalia to regain her footing and slash his chest.

Ashe leapt over head and slammed his bat down on Thorn's head. He was about to pass by, but the paralysis wore off, allowing Thorn to backhand him towards a tree.

Ashe tore through the tree, somehow letting out a hoarse "PAUSE!" as he flew away.

"PÉTRA!" Nico screamed.

Thorn snarled as more and more weeds and roots began to ensnare him alongside the paralysis effect.

Percy slashed Thorn's ankle again, finally cutting the tendon and having blood splatter in the snow.

Thalia leapt up and released a flurry of stabs along his back before kicking off seeing his tail twitch. She and Percy brought up their shields as he suddenly released a barrage of needles in every direction.

Annabeth held Nico and Bianca close to the tree they hid behind, Grover cowered on the branch he stood on, Thalia and Percy were sent flying away from him from the force, and Ashe had to dance and dodge as he rushed back toward the Manticore.

Thorn roared and broke through his green restraints, lunging at Ashe with his claws reeled back. Ashe spun his bat around and leapt up to meet him, but his body suddenly flashed with electricity.

"No!" Annabeth screamed in shock.

Ashe's body locked up right as Thorn's paw swung down at him, but the sound of a shotgun burst from the sky.

A silver arrow of light flew straight through Thorn's paw, before the entire appendage exploded in a burst of gore.

"No... it can't be!" Thorn bellowed, turning away from the sparking body that fell past him.

Swinging his tail out, Thorn released a wave of needles deep into the forest, but silver arrows intercepted them all and sliced through them with inhumane precision.

Then the archers responsible came from the woods. They were about a dozen of them- all girls. The youngest was maybe ten and the oldest about fourteen. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions.

"The Hunters!" Annabeth exclaimed in surprise and relief.

Thalia did not feel the same, sarcastically muttering "Oh, wonderful."

One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. She was tall and graceful with coppery colored skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so she looked like some kind of Persian princess.

"Permission to kill, my lady?"

"This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws!" Thorn was not so fond of how things were beginning to turn.

"Not so," a girl with warm auburn hair gathered into a high ponytail, eyes of gold, and a face alarmingly pretty for her age. She had to be no older than Ashe, but her stern and dangerous gaze commanded authority far above anyone present.

"The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, look like a wild beast to me." She snapped her fingers and looked to the older girl with the circlet. "Permission granted, Zoe."

Thorn snarled before looking at Ashe's jittering body. "If I cannot take them alive, I'll have them dead!" He snatched Ashe into his grasp and raised his tail to pierce him.

"No!" Annabeth yelled, charging for the Manticore.

"Get back, half-blood!" the girl with the circlet shouted. "Get out of the line of fire!"

But Annabeth leaped onto the monster's back and drove her knife into his mane. The manticore howled, turning in circles with his tail flailing as Annabeth hung on for dear life.

"Fire!" Zoë ordered."

With several more stabs, Annabeth inflicted enough pain to force Thorn to fling Ashe away and into a tree. However, the arrows all hit their mark.

The Manticore staggered backward, wailing, "This is not the end, Huntress! You shall pay!"

And before anyone could react, the monster, with Annabeth still on his back, leaped over the cliff and tumbled into the darkness.

"NO!" Percy yelled in despair. "Annabeth!"

Before Percy could advance to the cliff, Thalia shoved him behind a tree as the helicopter above swung around and fired what sounded like a machine gun.

The Hunters scattered, but the girl with auburn hair leered indifferently at the machine.

"Mortals," she thrust her hand out, turning the entire vessel and its passengers into ravens. "are not allowed to witness my hunt."

The Hunters then began to advance on Ashe's sparking body, but Thalia rushed over and held up her shield and spear.

Percy trudged over to, struggling between helping Ashe or diving after Annabeth. The inner turmoil made the world around him deafening. He looked between the cliff and Ashe's unconscious body frantically, ignorant to the conversations around him.

Finally, Grover hugged him, noticing that he was beginning to hyperventilate. Percy panted, finally noticing the tears streaming down his cheek.

"She would want us to look after him. We'll find her." Grover whispered.

Thalia bit her lip as she tried to extract some of the lighting racing over Ashe. She wanted to comfort him too, but Ashe's life was the only one they could guarantee without diving off a cliff.

"You," Zoe muttered as she walked up to Thalia and Ashe.

"Not now, Nightshade." Thalia barked, doing small compressions on Ashe's chest. The electricity danced towards her body, slowly but surely leaving Ashe.

"Hm, some of Chiron's campers." The girl with auburn hair hummed, but her eyes landed on Ashe. Percy noticed the malice in her eyes and flinched.

Just as Ashe's eyes flicked open, he suddenly had to roll away from a knife plunging into his chest. Thalia was pushed away as the auburn-haired girl raced after him.

"Stop! Stop! Don't kill another one of our friends!" Percy shouted, getting ready to rush forward but Thalia stopped him.

"Lady Artemis?! What is the meaning?!" Zoe shouted in disbelief.

"A-Artemis...?!" Percy gasped.

The teens and Hunters had their attention stolen by the loud clang and clash of Ashe and Artemis' weapons. Ashe weaved away from several slices and stabs, twisting and turning as he glared down at her emotionlessly.

The back and forth between the two soon turned one sided as Artemis speed seemed to only increased. How Ashe continued to race around and dodge every attack was beginning to shock every spectator.

However, Percy noticed something glint in the darkness of the forest.

Ashe's eyes were much brighter than he recalled. They were now grey... silver like Annabeth's.

Ashe's body seemed to float as he dodged, as if he was simply willing it to move away from every attack. Artemis silently glared as she threw even more energy into each attack, starting to cut lines in the snow and trees.

"My lady, you must explai-"

"You should be dead." Her muttering was heard throughout the first before lines of silver suddenly raced in every direction.

Ashe's body jittered with electricity before he disappeared the same way, making double the cuts of silver and gold before they burst into a blast of sparks.

Ashe landed in the snow with his bat sparking with Zeus' lightning. Artemis landed on the branch of a tree with a leer, her hunting knife leaking a cool mist.

Ashe suddenly coughed, falling to his knees.

"Ashe...!" Percy shouted, rushing over to catch him. He slid forward as he fell into his arms, and saw him panting with his eyes dimming back to their usual color as they closed.

•

"So, how was it?" Athena asked with a snobby laugh.

Ashe groaned in pain from his curse, jittering even in his consciousness. He was confused. The entire year he was trapped in his own mind, he never experienced it here.

"That was... you?"

"No, no. You know what that was, don't you? You saw everything, correct?" Athena seemed way more interested than her normal calm and collected self.

"It was... like I knew her. Everything she had done or would do." Ashe stood up and looked at his hands.

"I must admit, my archive helped tremendously, but you've tapped into a primal sense nearly lost to time. Surely you felt it... the pure instinct of the fight?"

Ashe looked up skeptically at Athena. He couldn't understand a word she was saying, but he in a weird way, his body did.

Athena's smirk dropped seeing his confused frown, so she crossed her arms and sighed. "Fine, fine, I guess I would enjoy explaining the phenomenon myself, too."

Snapping her fingers, Athena suddenly wore round glasses, nearly making Ashe burst into laughter had he not clamped his hand over his mouth.

"What you experienced was something I'd like to call Ascent. And no, it's not ascending to godhood..." She glanced down and saw him lower his hand. "It's when you reach the apex of human potential: Pure Adaptation."

Ashe hummed in thought, but was still confused about what made him enter the state.

"You simply wanted to. Your life was in danger." Athena answered his question. "If it wasn't for the remnants of the divine corruption, I'm sure you could've lasted a few more minutes against Artemis at that power level."

"She wasn't at full power?"

Smirking at his disappointment, Athena leant down and ruffled his hair. "Of course not. She underestimated you just as Ares had. It's a valuable advantage as a mortal."

Ashe wasn't exactly happy hearing both Ares and Artemis weren't using their full power, but... he couldn't complain about his feats knowing he may have died against either of them at full strength.

"Wait, what happened with Annabeth?! Percy said Artemis killed her!"

"She's alive..." Athena closed her eyes for a moment, before opening them again. "I cannot intervene further, so that is the most I can relay."

Ashe went to speak up, but Athena beat him to it. "You must wake up. There is much work to be done, child. Keep up the good work."

•

Ashe woke up with a grumble, lifting his upper body to see that he was in a tent. He looked around, but slowly turned to his immediate right and saw Artemis glaring into his soul mere inches away.

Screaming in fear he fell out of the cot he was in, but Artemis only crawled over the makeshift bed and glared at him harder.

"H-Hello?" Ashe asked nervously.

"A mortal who wielded the purest form of divine energy, yet lives. Your anomaly of an existence disturbs me."

"Y-Your glare disturbs me." Ashe fixed himself stood up, seeing he was still in all his clothes and accessories.

"Why am I here? Where are my friends?" Ashe wasn't expecting her to give him such hospitality after nearly killing him moments ago, so he was on high alert.

However, he quickly noticed Bianca sitting awkwardly on a pillow a few feet away. She gave him an unimpressed stare, especially with how timid he was becoming in the face of a girl (she hadn't yet comprehended the strength of said girl).

Even Percy had been led to the tent by Zoe, with both giving relieved and disgusted stares respectively.

"We have much to discuss, mortal." Artemis announced. Ashe looked to Percy, making both share exhausted gazes.