I meant to update before now, but I was a volunteer at a thing called Japan Day at my local museum. My fingers were all numb from doing origami for five straight hours (I dressed up like a ninja!!!)

So, anyway. The dedication for this chapter goes to *drum roll* SarynetteGuzman for their comment, "OMG!!!! I can't believe Luke might die.... AGAIN!!!!!!! :D *Random Scream* O MY LOVE FOR MINECRAFT THIS CHAPTER WAS AWESOME!!!! ---Starts shaking like crazy-WERE THE HECK DID I GET ALL THIS ENERGY FROM, WHY AM I READING THIS AT 1:14 IN THE DANG MORNING!!!!!! WHY DO I HAVE A SUDDEN ERG TO DIVOWER POPTARTS, ALL SNUGGLED IN MA COUCH READING THIS BOOK OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!! Oh well, great chapter. Now if you excuse me I'm going to eat poptarts on my couch reading this book again...." Thanks SarynetteGuzman!

This is chapter 26. Four chapters away from the end of the book :(  and the start of the sequel :) Enjoy ...

Chapter 26: Revenge of the Keres - Percy's POV

I could barely process everything that was happening.

I was talking to Chiron while he retrieved two wounded campers, then I was fighting alongside Frank and Hazel and helping another camper to the hospital, then I was back by the lake, fighting against another wave of dracaenae.

I finished them off pretty quick and rushed off to the hospital to see how many campers and warriors we were down.

The first person I noticed was Luke.

He was lying unconscious on a bed in the corner of the amphitheatre. Dozens of cloths and bandages swamped his side and he was surrounded by three Apollo campers. I was afraid of what I would find underneath the cloth, so I left the Apollo kids to their expertise.

I saw Connor next.

The similarities between him and his older brother was so incredible I almost mistook him for Travis, apart from the fact he wore standard camp armour instead of our Chaos armour.

He was sitting on the side of a bed, not to far away from Luke, whom he still didn't realize was his half brother. An Apollo camper bandaged his arm and placed it in a sling. He nodded to Connor who stood up and rushed off to help some of the other wounded.

On the other side of the amphitheatre, a line of bodies were covered in makeshift shrouds of tarps and bed sheets. There were too many lined up I didn't want to know who was underneath.

The people occupying the rest of the beds were mostly campers. I think I spotted Zoë having a wound on her leg looked at, Atlanta and Theseus were wandering around helping the injured, and of course Luke was still asleep. But majority of the people in the hospital were campers.

Then I realized; if four out of my fourteen warriors were here, that only left ten battling outside.

I raced outside to help whoever was still fighting.

I could see my brother and some of his brethren taking down some giants by the lake. I watched on briefly as Tyson rode piggy back on a laistrygonian and slammed his club into it's head; bong, bong.

I'd managed to send him a kind of mind message like I'd done with Azelle earlier. I hadn't told him who I was, only that he might learn something about his missing brother if he came to help. It wasn't really that hard.

I ducked suddenly and swiftly as a silver tipped arrow went sailing over my head.

'Whoa!' I yelled, spinning around. 'Lieutenant Grace!'

She frowned and grimaced, 'Good to see you, Commander Epsilon. Just Thalia is fine. I see you managed to escape. The Hunters just got back after we'd been searching for you. Annabeth sent us an Iris Message. Duck!'

I dove to the side and slashed at a empousai who was about to slice her in half, while she shot an arrow at a hellhound that almost clawed me to pieces.

'Thanks,' I said. 'How many Hunters?'

She bit her lip nervously, 'Only about twenty to thirty. I left some of our newer recruits behind; the ones that have had barely any training. Their first real battle should not be one like this.'

'Definately not,' I agreed as I swung at a monster. 'That's what we've done with the younger campers. All the children under ten are hidden below the stage in the amphitheatre. We couldn't think of a safer place. The hospital's there.'

'Are many down?' she asked while pivoting on her heel and shooting straight over my head at some weird dog-turtle-horse hybrid.

'Too many,' I said gravely. 'Are there any more reinforcements?'

'Nico may return from his search,' Thalia reasoned, throwing her hunting knife at a monster before knocking another arrow in her bow. 'Last I heard, he was in India looking for you guys. I would take a while to shadow travel back without getting exhausted.'

I nodded. I was relieved to know that we had reinforcements coming, but it was not so reasurring to know that it was Nico alone, with no other back up. He was powerful, but we'd need more.

Thalia and I stood back to back, fighting against the hordes. I jumped over a sword swing and swiped Riptide out, sending half a dozen monsters back to Tartarus.

A shrill screech echoed through the valley. It sounded terribly familiar.

Before I could wonder why, the shrieking monsters flew over our dying fire barrier and joined the fight. I groaned in irritation as I recognized the Keres from my quest in the Underworld with Thalia and Nico years and years ago.

'Not them again,' I sighed.

'The Keres,' Thalia spat. 'Battlefield spirits. Why are they here?'

I rolled my eyes, 'We're on the battlefield.'

She chucked a knife at an incoming spider thing, 'Oh, right. Gods, where's Nico when you need him?'

'Here!'

Nico suddenly appeared from the gloom in full stygian iron armour, his sword extended.

'Sorry I took so long,' he said breathlessly, stabbing a monster on the way over. 'I accidentally ended up in Russia. I just got back and found myself in a war zone.'

'Good to see you,' Thalia said, patting him on the shoulder. 'But we have bigger problems.'

Nico's eyes hardened, 'The Keres.'

'Spirits of the battlefield, disease and violence,' I added bitterly.

Nico frowned at me, 'How did you know that?'

'I've met these ugly hags before,' I said, glaring at the Keres.

Thalia shook her head, 'Well, we've also faced them before. And they're going to tear right through the campers unless we take care of them.'

'Agreed,' Nico muttered.

I lifted Riptide, 'Come on. I think these guys need to be taught a thing or two.'

Thalia and Nico grinned at me, and together, we charged the Keres.

The way we stayed together reminded me painfully of our trip to the Underworld to retrieve Hades' sword, which he wasn't supposed to have in the first place. There were about twenty Keres in all, which was way more than last time, but I think we could handle it.

My shoulder ached as if remembering my old wound. I shook my head and tried to focus on our task.

'Hey!' Nico yelled, trying to draw the daemons attention on us.

Unfortunately, it worked.

The Keres' heads snapped around and focused on us. I can image that our scent would be pretty powerful; a daughter of Zeus, a son of Hades, and a son of Poseidon who was also a Chaos warrior. Needless to say, we were pretty smelly.

The head daemon snarled and screeched a command to her brethren. They all took flight and dive bombed us.

Thalia hefted her bow and shot furiously, taking down two or three with every arrow. Nico swung his stygian iron sword  lethally, any monster within three feet disintegrating.

Riptide was a blur in my hands, the bronze blade swinging back and forth in deadly arc. I felt unstoppable.

Monsters vaporized left, right and centre. We wasted no time eradicating the Keres from the battle. All was going well, until-

'Epsilon! Look out!'

Nico's cry warned me too late. I only had enough time to turn before one of the daemons dived at me, raking her talons across my shoulder. Thalia screamed.

I wondered if they'd recently visited the monster salon for a manicure, because the things claws were sharper than last time by a hundred fold.

My left side erupted in pain, slicing through my very soul. It was in the exact same place as when I got scratched the last time. Coincidence? I think not.

But unlike last time, I am a full fledged warrior in the army of Chaos.

With difficulty, I straightened and raised my sword as the daemon lunged again. It's talons clanged against Riptide, and the strength of the blow was enough to throw me back.

My sword arm faltered as the impact jarred my wounded shoulder. I tried to fight through the pain and attacked the remaining Keres, driving forwards with renewed power.

Within seconds, Thalia, Nico and I had turned what was left of the Keres to dust.

As they went, my sudden adrenalin rush went with them. I collapsed to the ground, the pain in my shoulder growing until it was blinding agony.

'Epsilon!' Thalia cried.

She and Nico propped me up against a nearby boulder, which gave me an even bigger headache as I had a nauseating flash of déjà vu.

Nico crouched down beside me and  pulled back the shredded bits of armour to take a look at the wound. He bit his lip and I saw tears well up in Thalia's eyes.

'Sorry,' Nico croaked. 'Its just ... our friend, Percy, he was scratched by the Keres in the same spot when we did a quest together years ago.'

I didn't trust myself to speak, so I just nodded. Nico's eyes suddenly had a new light to them, like he was doing a really complex puzzle and had just figured out where the really big piece fit in.

Thalia knelt down next to me and gently touched my shoulder. I yelped in pain and she jumped back.

'Gods, I'm sorry, Epsilon,' she covered her mouth.'We need nectar.'

Nico shrugged helplessly, 'I havn't got any.'

'It's okay,' I pushed myself to my feet.

Yellow spots danced before my eyes, forming strange shapes and figures. Was that a lion?

'Epsilon,' Nico protested. 'The Keres a spirits of disease, you said that yourself. And if you've met them before, you should know that your shoulder wound will need the immediate attention-'

'-of a god,' I finished. 'Yeah, I know. But do you see any gods around? I'm a warrior of Chaos, trained by the creator of the universe. I can handle a little scratch.'

Of course, as soon as I took one step, the ground swayed beneath me and I face planted into the dirt. Thankfully, Thalia and Nico caught me before I hit the ground.

'Hospital?' Thalia asked Nico.

'Hospital,' he agreed.

Ignoring my shouts of protest, they each grabbed an arm (Thalia was carefully of my shoulder) and pulled me along to the hospital.

I made it about three steps before I passed out cold.

Thalia's POV

It was a lot harder once Epsilon blacked out.

He wasn't really heavy, but I supposed his armour weighed him down quite a bit. Nico and I staggered a bit to the amphitheatre where Epsilon had told me the hospital was.

When we rushed inside, I almost dropped the commander in horror.

The place was crowded with wounded fighters with injuries of all kinds. I saw several broken bones, a few arrow wounds and around a bazillion sword cuts. The worst part was a row of tarps and bed sheets covering-actually, I don't want to know.

The minute we stepped in the amphitheatre about four medics came rushing over as well as one of the Chaos warriors. Now I thought about it, I could see about four of five of the warrior scattered around.

'What happened to him?' the warrior demanded. I noticed her voice was female.

'Keres scratch,' I managed. 'Went right through his armour. They've gotten stronger.'

The girl wasted no more time. She put an arm around Epsilon and helped us drag him over to an unoccupied bed.

'What's your name?' I asked her once Epsilon was lying down.

'Huntress,' she said quietly. 'I am known as Huntress.'

'Huntress?' I thought about it. 'You didn't happen to be a Hunter like me, did you?'

She might've cracked a smile, 'Possibly.'

I might've laughed if the sight of Epsilon hadn't deterred it. His breathing was shallow and looked a little pale. The Apollo campers crowded around him, pouring nectar of the wound before tightly bandaging his shoulder.

Epsilon groaned and opened his eyes.

'Déjà vu,' he grumbled, probably not meaning for me to overhear. 'Stupid Keres. I mean, I know they don't want me to fight, but this is just annoying.'

'Epsilon!' Huntress pushed forward and gave him a bear hug. 'Im so glad you're okay.'

He chuckled, 'Thanks, Huntress. But you might want to wait until the war is over before you make good on that statement.'

'We will prevail,' she declared. 'And we will do so with you as our leader.'

'I appreciate the faith, Huntress,' Epsilon smiled.

'Epsilon,' Nico whispered.

The commander turned to him and me, 'Nico; Thalia. Thank you for helping me against the Keres.'

'Nothing you wouldn't do for us,' I shrugged.

'Maybe so, but you still did. And I thank you for that. This daemon scratch is just a darn inconvenience, if you ask me.'

I eyed him uncertainly, but he avoided my gaze.

'Epsilon,' Nico said. 'It is strange that I cannot feel your life force, but I don't really think I have to to know that in your weakened state, you wouldn't survive long on the battlefield.'

'You friend Percy did, didn't he?' Epsilon snapped suddenly.

My hand shot to my mouth and Nico inhaled sharply.  Huntress nudged Epsilon's good arm and sent him a warning look. But the damage was done.

'I'm sorry,' he amended quickly. 'Forget I said anything.'

But we weren't ready to let it go.

'How did you know that?' Nico asked shakily.

Epsilon's jaw tightened, 'I-I met him once. He told me stories. That was one he told me.'

Yeah, and so is this, I thought bitterly. I was incredibly clear that his response was a lie. He was hiding something; something big. But we had no time to push for the truth.

I sighed, 'We can figure it all out later. Right now, there's a war going on. We just called in what should be our last reinforcements.'

'And they are?' Epsilon said.

'Me, of course. And my friends.'

The voice sent shivers down my spine; the good, warm kind of shivers. I could swear I saw Epsilon's eyes widen in disbelief. I turned and gave me long lasting best friend a huge hug. He was wearing tree bark armour that looked like it had some intriguing, hidden properties.

It's been ages since I saw you,' I said, smiling at my best friend. 'But I suppose being you has advantages and disadvantages.'

'Absolutely. But one of the advantages is that I can organize the satyrs and nature spirits pretty fast,' he grinned around at us all. 'Grover Underwood, Lord of the Wild; present and ready for battle!'

I hope you enjoyed that, because I enjoyed writing it. And don't worry, Epsilon isn't going to die ... yet. Mwa ha ha! Jokes, jokes. You don't know whats going to happen! (neither do I).

So, my competition is still going, but only for about six or seven more hours. It ends at midnight, tonight. If you want to make a cover and send it in before the deadline, I would LOVE to see your marvelous creation.

I'll probably update again soon (I have such plans). So please vote, comment and follow!!! (not stalk) Thanks guys! And remember; when life gives you skittles, chuck them at some random and scream, "TASTE THE RAINBOW!"  ;)