-Big House, Camp Half-Blood; After Dinner-

~3rd Person's Point of View~

"Are we sure we can trust Kosmos?" The question was on repeat now. Each demigod had their own opinion on the mysterious group of powerful beings. This time the question came from Butch from the Iris cabin. "Something feels off and it's not just from the assassin. The leaders are acting weird too. This whole war came out of nowhere more than the last war."

Clarisse growled, striking the table with a knife. "I say we capture them as they sleep. Take them out one by one. Beat them up until they tell us everything."

"How would that help us?" Thalia demanded.

"The army was sent here to help us." Chiron interjected, giving each demigod a stern look. "We are to be gracious for their help."

"Annabeth, what do you think?" Piper asked, noticing the older girl's contemplative silence.

The daughter of Athena looked up. She took a deep breath, weighing her words. "We shouldn't attack the army." Clarisse stood up in anger. "I'm not saying I trust them. There is something off with them. And Kosmos is another problem. Katie, were you able to talk with Kasey?"

The head of Demeter's cabin shook her head. "No, she refuses to answer our questions. Kasey is stubborn. She believes Kosmos is someone that can be trusted."

"They had one conversation." Hazel brought up, squeezing Frank's hand. "Could Kosmos have told her something?"

"Or he could have threatened her." The tension in the room grew as the son of Jupiter stated what was on everyone's minds.

"This isn't the time to dwell on this." Chiron spoke. "It's late. We should follow Chaos' Army leaders' example and get some rest. Unless someone wants to add to the earlier meeting?"

The earlier meeting the son of Kronos is talking about happened following dinner. As Nyke had said before dinner started and following the public interaction of Kasey and Kosmos, the leaders gathered together to discuss the training menu for the next morning. With unit 1 and 5 arriving later in the morning, they should arrive by the time training starts.

Not much was said to add to the information for the war. Camp Half-Blood, the unit leaders, and Head Commander still don't know much about what is coming.

"For Chaos' Army each unit has a special skill set. The leader of the unit is the best in that skill in the army." Nyke explained at the start of the meeting, standing up in front of the table.

"Aside from unit 5 as Nyke can beat Milos in swordfighting." Malantha added in, laughter clear in her tone. Snickering could be heard from most of the unit leaders who stood in a line a few steps behind their commander.

Milos had let out an offended exclamation that was promptly cut off by the unit 1 leader. "The units that will be arriving tomorrow are units 1 and 5. Unit 1, my unit, are archers." Hesper glared at the other unit leaders.

"And unit 5 is Milos' unit, they specialize in swordfighting." Commander Nyke stated, choosing not to acknowledge what was happening behind him.

"And the other units' specialties?" Chiron asked, nervously glancing at the silent threats that were being exchanged by some of the unit leaders.

"Unit 4 are the knife wielders, unit 3 is the blacksmiths and builders, and unit 2 specializes in abilities."

"Abilities?" Annabeth asked.

It wasn't Nyke who answered, but the 2nd unit leader. "My unit is filled with those who have special abilities."

"Special abilities?" Piper was the next one to ask.

Malantha nodded. "Yes, like your charmspeak, Daughter of Aphrodite."

"That's why it would be beneficial for all the half-bloods here that have abilities from their parent's have a separate training with Malantha." Nyke proposed.

"That...will work." Annabeth replied, staring at the head commander. "I can schedule a rotation for the cabins-"

"Why a rotating schedule?" Hesper asked.

"Yeah, everyone with abilities can meet with Malantha at the same time. Did you not schedule the cabins to go with her?" Charis added.

Annabeth frowned. "Not exactly, I drew up an order for the arena. Now that I know you all specialize in more than just fighting, I can redo the schedule to utilize the skills of the non-combat cabins."

With that, the leaders of the camp and Chaos' army sat down to rework the training schedule together.

"Why wasn't this the plan in the beginning?" Leo asked once the schedule was completed and everyone was in an agreement. That last part took much longer than anyone was expecting.

("I call having cabin 16 in the arena with me first." Milos exclaimed. Everyone gave him weird looks. "What?" was the collective thought.

Nyke shrugged, used to strange behaviors from the unit leaders. "Alright. Nemesis cabin will be in the arena first with Milos and unit 5.")

("Rotating each cabin through each unit leader isn't working out." Katie sighed, tired of hearing the arguments between everyone. "Maybe we should have each unit leader at chosen stations and everyone can go where they want to. That way each camper can train what they work best in."

"That could work." Annabeth and Nyke said at once. Nyke startled, but Annabeth barely paused. "On the first day anyway. After the second day of training us counselors and unit leaders can sit down and see if we need to switch things up."

"We should also keep in mind that the campers will need breaks." Chiron kindly and sternly spoke. "It won't do anyone good if everyone gets too burnt out before the fighting starts.")

("I want the Hunters of Artemis to be my first group. Only the huntresses." Hesper emphasized.

"And why is that?" Thalia snapped, lightning sparking off her gently.

"I have heard stories about your group. I want to see your strength." There was something more to it, but no one said anything on the subject.

"Makes sense seeing as Hesper is a man-hater." Other than Milos' quiet comment which earned him a jab to the ribs.

"Hesper has gotten better." Malantha's comment didn't help either.)

Leo's tired question sent grumbles throughout the room, the excitement of the day had grown on everyone. That was when Chiron sent his charges off to bed. Stumbling and dragging their feet off to their cabins, every soul started to settle down for the night.

The moon was high in the sky, the bugs making their noises in the summer night, nymphs peacefully sleeping, and even Peleus was quietly resting. Nothing seemed wrong. Looking inside the camp, the gods of Olympus were prepared for anything.

Nyke and some of the Hermes cabin campers were expecting disturbances outside the border of Camp Half-Blood, they were not expecting the bone chilling scream coming from the cabins.

In an instance, the unit leaders emerged wearing pajamas and their hooded cloaks with their weapons. Running towards the commotion that was originating from Cabin 4, Demeter's cabin.

The children of Demeter, with the guidance of Katie and Miranda, were pouring out of the cabin screaming and crying.

"What is going on?" Nyke asked the two cabin leaders, scanning the campers and the now empty cabin.

Miranda whipped around, glaring at him. "Shouldn't we be asking you that?" Her tone was angry, tears started dripping from her eyes.

"Miranda-" Katie held her sister back as their siblings moved away from Nyke and the approaching unit leaders.

"What happened?" Charis asked, looking around with her knife drawn.

A bright flash followed her question. Then more lights came. "How dare the Chaos' Army attack one of my children!" There standing between her children and the Chaos' Army leaders was Demeter herself, towering over them all.

"What is the meaning of this?" Zeus yelled, glaring down at Nyke and the others.

"Meaning of what?" Hesper asked, glaring right back with her bow in hand.

"Sister, Brother, perhaps we should hear them out first?" Hestia asked, standing next to the assembled leaders.

"Hestia, what if they were the ones who took my son?" Poseidon asked, looking worn out.

"My lords and ladies." Chiron bowed, the campers hastily following. "Pardon my asking, what is it that you are doing here?"

"Kosmos was found in my cabin about to attack one of my children." Demeter announced.

"What?" Nyke and the unit leaders exclaimed.

"Where is he now?" The commander asked, feeling conflicted.

"I'm right here, Head Commander." Kosmos' voice came from the entrance of cabin 4.

Malantha gasped. "What happened to you?" She asked, staring at the assassin in horror.

"Kosmos-" Nyke started only to cut himself off as he noticed something was wrong with Chaos' assassin. He ran forward when Kosmos became unsteady.

Before anyone could react more, Chaos appeared and caught his beaten up assassin. "Kosmos, what did I tell you?" His voice was soft and chiding. "What happened?"

"You don't know?" Vernandos asked.

Chaos looked up at his gathered leaders. He signed, holding his now unconscious assassin. "No, although I have my suspicions. It seems that the enemy made their move and Kosmos stopped it."

"But-" A son of Demeter spoke up. "But he was standing over Kasey and was going to attack her with his sword!" His shout gained everyone's attention.

In a moment, there was yelling and shouting. Weapons were being drawn. No one was thinking, only reacting to the news.

"Silence!" The sharp voice cut through the entire camp, silencing everyone. "I apologize if it may seem that way. How about we hear from young Kasey herself?" Chaos spoke, looking at the daughter of Demeter with a small smile.

Kasey stood behind her siblings, tears streaming down her face as she stared at Kosmos. "Will-" She sniffed. "Will he be okay?"

Chaos softened more at the question. "Kosmos will be fine. He's been through worse than this."

She took a deep breath with a nod. "Good. I want to thank him for saving me."

"Saving you?" Demeter gaped at her daughter, shrinking down to human size. "What do you mean? What happened?"

"I don't know." She answered. "It was dark. And cold. I couldn't breathe. No one could hear me. I didn't like it!" Kasey shivered, sobbing as she held herself.

While Demeter and her children comforted her, Chaos looked troubled.

"Nyke."

"Yes, Chaos?" He straightened at the call.

"I'm taking Kosmos back for the time being. Someone should be on guard in every cabin with campers. There might not be another attack tonight, however, we need to be on guard. I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you. I need to look after Kosmos." Chaos' words were rushed.

As soon as those words were said, he disappeared leaving his leaders' and everyone's confused question unheard and unanswered. Confusion was all that was felt by everyone. The sound of Kasey's sobbing was loud in the silence.

I guess I'm keeping my promises. Here is chapter 10. I just finished writing chapter 11. I haven't really started chapter 12 yet, but if I finish it by or on next Saturday, I will be posting chapter 11 after I finish chapter 12. 

I normally don't do a publishing schedule like this, however, it seems like this way is working much better than my usual way of doing things. At least for this book. As I said before, I fell out of the Percy Jackson fandom. Once I'm done with this book, I have 2 more small projects to do and then I'm done writing for this fandom. 

I'm shooting for the end of this year to finish this book and those 2 projects. Might seem like plenty of time, but with how distracted I can get and the fact that I have no idea of how many chapters there will be in this book, I don't know how well hitting that goal will be.

I do thank you for reading TUAoC and sticking around. I don't know if there is anyone who is still around from the beginning of this book, but I thank you nonetheless. 

I appreciate every one of my readers. You are a big part of the reason why I am sitting down to finish this book. 

Thank you for all of the votes. And I really appreciate comments as it motivates me to write more. 

I will be back next Saturday with chapter 11. That I will promise. If I don't fulfill that promise, feel free to bug me. 

Until then!

~MsPenguingirl1234. 

Published: March 25, 2023.