Chapter 6


The entire crowd, except for the defeated Ares campers, moved from the arena to the woods and then split into teams. Hunter was still realizing that he used his knife again. So when an Athena kid gave jobs to each of her teammates, all Hunter said in reply was, “Wha-huh? What am I doing again?”
“You’re going to-“ The horn blew and the many battle cries drowned out the remaining words of Hunter’s strategist. Everyone charged except for the couple of people students assigned to stay back and guard the flag which was hidden near the top of a tree to the south of the creek, which served as boundary for the game. Hunter looked around and then climbed a tree. He found his footing then leapt into another tree, bow at the ready. Down below he saw a child of Aphrodite and took out an arrow from his sheath, blunted for safety. He took aim at the camper and fired. The arrow hit and dropped the camper.  Hunter shouldered his bow, found his footing and leapt into another tree. Months of practice, bruises, and concussions really paid off. He leapt from tree to tree taking out random campers with his bow. He stood out of breath in the tree he took a nap in yesterday evening. He looked around and saw action all around the forest. Groups of campers fighting each other to get to the other’s flag. Just then Hunter saw a small hint of red through the trees. Hunter leapt again to another tree and looked more closely. ‘The flag!’ Hunter thought as he leapt to another tree. Below he saw, the other team finally advancing across the creek.  He leapt from tree to tree as he approached the flag. Finally he saw the flag and its guards. One by one he picked off the guards and then hopped down out of the tree. Just as he grabbed the flag he saw Marina, with a sword, and Kyle, with his scythe, entering the clearing.
                “Seriously? How did you get here so fast?!” Kyle said with a surprised look on his face as he folded his scythe down into a trowel, which he slipped into his pocket.. “Is this the strategy you were talking about? Teleportation?”
                “Sorry to interrupt, but do we really have the time to talk about-“ As Marina said that, 4 Ares campers came in and charged at us. Kyle, in a split second, pulled out his scythe and blocked an oncoming attack.
                “RUN! MARINA! HUNTER! I’ll hold them off! RUN!” He shouted as he blocked another two attacks. Hunter grabbed the flag and took off toward the boundary, Marina following close behind.  They ran for a few hundred yards when Hunter could hear the trickling water of the creek. He pushed on and kept running until he tripped over what felt like a leg, causing him to drop the flag. 
                “Keep going Marina! Grab the flag. I’ll catch up!” Hunter shouted as he stood up and fired an arrow at an Iris camper who was about to chase Marina. He shouldered his bow and walked back to where he tripped. He looked down and saw a giant snake. It was about to strike when he took his knife and stabbed it in the head, impaling it to the ground. As he checked to see if it died he heard a loud roar. He looked up and saw a lion’s face staring right at him.  Hunter started backing up and watched as the lion rose from behind the greenery in the forest. The Lion lunged but it seemed like its tail was caught on something. Hunter rolled out of the way as a ball of fire went zooming past him. Hunter looked at the beast now fully revealed. It was a chimera.  Hunter turned to run, but it batted Hunter with its massive paw. Hunter felt the blood stream from the new wound on his back as the force slammed him into a tree. The beast finally freed its snake tail which wrapped around Hunter’s leg and dragged him towards the chimera. The chimera looked down at Hunter, helpless. Hunter shouted for help, but just then the stag pendant around his neck started to glow. The glowing seemed to daze the chimera. Hunter looked at his pendant as it quickly grew and transformed into a large golden hunting knife. Hunter picked up the knife and jammed it into the Chimera’s throat. He slid the knife down the belly of the chimera, sufficiently killing the beast. The chimera collapsed into dust right on top of Hunter who passed out.