“Welcome to Demigod Studies. We have a new student joining, so I’ll just reiterate what I said at the beginning of the year! This class caters to the individual, and teaches everyone differently based on necessity.” Their teacher stated as he looked over everyone…

For Jake though, he was just staring at the teacher with his face very, very carefully remaining neutral.

‘What was that about not knowing what is taught in Demigod Studies?´ Jake wondered as he looked at the man who had brought him into the school, Charlie Baker… clearly the man was lying.

“And before you think it Thomas, I didn’t lie. I really don’t know what is taught here.” His grin showed that he knew exactly what Jake was thinking, and was saying it to call Jake out.

“If so then how are you a teacher sir?” Jake asked and mister Baker smirked.

“I wasn’t until today. You, Derek, Mary, Mark and Terri, with me. The rest of you, you know who your teachers are.” The Demigods called out looked to each other, and then walked forward to follow Charlie as he walked away.

Demigod Studies was the one class which every class joined in as long as they were in the same year.

Apparently seniors, like Jake and Derek, got their class at the end of the day, with freshmen getting the class in the morning and so on.

After walking with the older Demigod until they were in their own section of the large facility, the man turned around and they stopped.

“Great, we have all five of you. You five are going to be a team under my command against Gods and whatever other supernatural things we might need to fight.” Charlie’s words got the teenage Demigods looking at each other as Mary spoke out…

She really was noticeable compared to other people, given her beautiful appearance…

No Demigod looked bad, but Mary was really good looking. The only other Demigod Jake considered to be equal in the looks department was Miss Cora.

“Us five? Why now?” Mary asked a question that Jake didn’t quite understand as Charlie scratched the back of his head before he sighed.

“Many reasons, but the fact is that there are supposed to be around five or six Demigod teams, and for two years now, I haven’t been a part of one, hence we created Team Charlie. And no, it isn’t actually named after me, it’s actually named after the military code.” Ah, Jake knew some of those…

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Epsilon, Foxtrot… what else… he couldn’t quite remember more but if they were named then those should be the six.

“Each team has their own jurisdiction when it comes to situations, such as Team Bravo which is usually on call to fight Divine Beasts instead of actual Gods, or team Alpha which is a team specializing in fast arrival.” Charlie’s words got them to look at each other before looking back at him, wanting an explanation.

“We’re hoping to turn the five of you, plus me, into a sort of decoy unit. When big enemies pop up, we either take them out or keep them busy until one of the tougher Demigods pop in.” Charlie caught the glances, especially from Mary wondering at his strength.

“I’m a powerful Demigod admittedly, but I’m too specialized. If the enemy doesn’t use fire or is animal based I’m really weak against them.” Charlie admitted weakly as Jake considered his own reason for being in the team.

“Is that why I’m in the team? I can control fire, so I can fight people you can’t?” Jake asked, getting a glare from Mary who was ready to defend Charlie, except-

“You’re right. Between the two of us, we are the strongest long range attacking Demigod team. The other four members are to round us out actually.” Mary looked a bit betrayed at this actually…

Was she an airhead? She seemed smart at first glance but her reactions…

“We have Derek as the son of a War God to be a front-line attacker, Terri to be a scout, Mark to build whatever equipment we need at the moment and Mary… Mary is special.” The blush on her face said yes, she was probably an airhead.

“Wait, so this team is based around the two of us, so it’s actually a long-range assault team isn’t it?” Jake’s question would have merit, normally, but it was Derek who set him straight.

“Maybe if we were fighting anything other than Gods man, then we could say things like assault and such… but Gods don’t die.” Derek’s words were met with nods from everyone as Charlie added on.

“Yeah, unless your name is Edgar Yule, any God you fight probably isn’t dead, just injured and back in the Divine Realm where they live. It’s why I said decoy team kid.” Jake got the idea.

If God’s were killable, they would be a long-range assault team. But that implies that the enemy can be killed, which isn’t the case here.

Gods do not die when they are killed… Jake felt his brain take two steps to the left and trip over itself at that thought.

“It’s a thing Aegis does, the only time we consider any team an ‘assault’ team is when a Council member is a part of the team.” This made sense and Jake shook his head from his previous confusing train of thought before nodding.

“Ahem, we got off track there, anyway, Demigod Studies changes depending on the students and this class has the most teachers. If you are to be part of a team, your team leader is your teacher.” Charlie pointed to himself, proving his point before he pointed elsewhere…

Jake was interested in this strange thing, but his eyesight had changed after his fight with that Aztec God, Huitzilopochtli… it wasn’t just that, his physical strength and speed, the accuracy of his movements, everything was heightened…

It wasn’t overly powerful in comparison to Gods or other Demigods, but compared to the peak physical ability of humans, Jake was firmly above that.

Using his eyesight, he saw the human students getting taught by men in suits with sun-glasses, some having a board to write or draw things out, and others were practicing martial arts or weapon use.

“For normal humans, they get training from the Agents here. Agents are the people who keep everything running smoothly in Aegis in case you didn’t know kid.” Charlie spoke once more to Jake who nodded, knowing about the Agents…

Aegis wasn’t an overly secretive organization, but they didn’t broadcast everything either. Their Agents were common knowledge given their appearance before and after fights against Gods that could be predicted.

“And for all the other Demigods who aren’t part of a team, well they are normally taught by elder siblings or a Demigod with similar abilities.” Charlie pointed to two dark skinned Demigods, one older as he demonstrated summoning a fireball of all things, and the other trying to imitate it.

“They’re sons of Ra by the way. Continuing. What I’m going to teach you five is simple. I’m going to increase your basic abilities so that you can survive an encounter with most Gods, and from there we can specialize.” Charlie’s words were punctuated with a clap before he pointed at Derek.

“Derek, you have gotten training before from other Demigods right?” Derek nodded, his joking smile vanished as he became serious, stretching his hand to his right, causing light to gather.

The light slowly coalesced into a rune of some kind, before a piece of wood stretched out from it, Derek grabbed onto this and pulled, bringing out a large halberd.

“Yes sir. I was trained in weapon use by one of my elder sisters, and I was taught general storage magic by an Agent. As for my hand-to-hand, I was trained by a daughter of Neto…” Derek’s words brought a shiver to himself even as he spoke…

The horrors he faced while training…

“I also received training from Councilman Samuel during our hunt of Anansi.” Derek admitted and Charlie’s eyes widened slightly as he smirked and nodded.

“That’s good. Samuel is the greatest hand-to-hand combatant of the Demigods, even one lesson from him is worth a lot. What fighting styles do you know?” Derek considered it for a moment.

“I know krav-maga and pankration, though Councilman Samuel refused to teach me he did recommend learning boxing and possibly Tae-kwan-do.” Derek stated, thinking about the latter as Charlie nodded.

“That makes sense, Samuel’s main fighting style is boxing, he just knows the others from fighting users of those styles for so long.” Charlie’s words were apparently interesting to the other Demigods, but to Jake it just made him tilt his head in wonder…

Wait, Mary was doing it to… oh no, he was doing an airhead move.

“Everyone always wondered what was his best fighting style… but boxing? Isn’t it kind of limited? I mean, don’t get me wrong, there are few fighting styles with an equal focus on punches, but…” Terri spoke up in wonder but Charlie just nodded.

“Yep, Samuel’s a boxer at heart, he’s a natural at the style. And boxing is a limited fighting style, given that it doesn’t have any kicks or throws.” Charlie’s smile turned a bit vicious, as if he knew many things they didn’t… which was probably accurate.

“It says something that even with its limits, Samuel can beat the crap out of anyone using just boxing.” Even Jake who had never seen the man could consider it to make sense. The man was the strongest in no-weapon fighting and his strongest style didn’t even have a few categories of attacks.

“Anyway, we’ll work on tae-kwan-do and I’ll show you some boxing myself, I used to spar with Samuel, I’ve had my fair share of beatings from that guy.” Charlie’s self-depreciating words did not act as intended as Derek, Mark and Terri looked at him as if they were only now realizing how strong he was.

“Anyway, Mark, you’re a son of Hephaestus. Which means you have basic know-how on every weapon you can make right?” Charlie asked, getting a nod from the smaller Demigod, making Charlie smile a bit.

“Good. I won’t need to worry about your fighting style, given that your eldest brother trains all his siblings himself at least once a month.” Mark looked away at that, and Jake considered Mark’s dislike for the mentioning of his brother…

“As for you, Terri, you’re a daughter of Hermes so I’m guessing you’re fast as shit and act as a field medic?” she nodded, and Jake considered the energetic girl.

His own father, Apollo, was considered God of medicine and that helped Jake with healing apparently… so maybe he could learn a thing or two from her, if she could already heal people?

“Since you’re going to be a healer and scout, your combat requirements aren’t going to be as high as Derek or Mary, but I trust you know some basics of a throwing fighting style like Judo?” Her nod and wide grin seemed to make Charlie tired of looking at her as he turned to Mary, who perked up at the attention.

“Mary, you’re training with me obviously. Everyone, just, before you ask, Mary, would you mind telling everyone who your mother is?” Mary looked very disturbed as she looked to the other four, looking at her…

Jake just sighed, and then looked to Charlie.

“Sir, does she have to tell us right now? She’s clearly uncomfortable with the topic… we’ll need to know, but does it have to be right now?” Jake’s words got an appreciative look from Mary before she looked to Charlie.

“I’ll say… my mother is Tiamat. The Mother of Dragons of ancient myths centred around the Babylonian era.” She looked a bit unhappy with that, and Jake didn’t know why…

Until he saw Derek and the other three step away from her for a moment, confusing Jake as Charlie gave the three a small glare before sighing.

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Mary just seemed to accept that they wanted to get away from her, while also being surprised that Jake was still standing close enough for her to grab.

“Jake, you don’t really know much about mythology since you’re a new Demigod, but dragons are… well you can think of them as the scaly cousins of Demigods.” Jake raised an eyebrow, looking to Mary.

“Dragons, depending on the place and era, are either considered good, or evil, and the most ancient legends of them involve evil, they were considered representations of the devil.” Jake looked at Mary… and then back to Charlie.

“And that matters how? Sorry, I’m a bit ignorant here, but why does that make Mary dangerous or scary?” Jake asked as Charlie looked to Derek and the others who were now sheepish at being caught out.

“Dragons are dangerous Jake. They’re essentially Gods that can be killed for us Demigods due to their age and power, and Mary is essentially a human one. There was that case of a dragon attacking Berlin and razing half of it to the ground before someone stopped it?” Charlie asked, and Jake thought back…

Oh he knew of the incident. Then he looked to Mary.

“Well, that’s cool. So you are like a human dragon? Glad I’m on your side then.” Jake’s nonchalance got surprised looked from Derek and the others, but Charlie smiled at it.

Derek and the other two had known they were Demigods for over two years, they had time to build up prejudices, but Jake didn’t, he only knew he was a Demigod less than ten days before.

“Thanks for that Jake. I’m sort of Mary’s father figure, but we don’t share the same mother.” The meaning was clear, Charlie was a Demigod of a different God or Goddess, and he was just fostering Mary.

“And you three, just because you all are scared of dragons does not mean you can treat your teammate like that. Do it again and I’ll shove an icicle up your assholes.” All three winced, hands unintentionally moving to their rears.

“Good, you three get it. Jake, you and Mary will both be training with me. There are very few people she would train with, and I need to train you because we have similar abilities.” Jake nodded getting the idea as Derek and the others walked closer, apologizing to Mary who just nodded with a glare.

Jake really wasn’t sure what was going on with her emotions…

“Kid, don’t try and understand Mary, she switches emotions quickly.” Charlie warned, getting a weary nod from Jake…

“Alright then, let’s continue the dream plan! Derek, I want you to copy this mannequin. If you fail to copy it correctly, it will stop and return back to normal.” There was no mannequin, but Charlie pointed his finger to his side, creating a rune similar to how Derek had done earlier… except this one was difficult.

Then there was another, and another, and slowly a circle began to form around the runes as a block of ice formed, cracking before bursting to reveal a humanoid figure of ice, holding a spear similar to Derek, and it began to move on its own.

“Next, Terri, what I’m having you do is that you are now the healer. Of this entire class.” Teri was confused as they heard a tiny explosion followed by a cry of pain, making her eyes widen.

“Go! Heal that person! Look around for injuries, help everyone. When no one is hurt, you are to be jogging around this entire place to build up stamina. As the scout and healer, you need to be where you need to be at all times. And if where you need to be is moving, then you need to keep up!” Charlie shouted getting quick nods from Terri before she rushed off.

“Mark, I want you on blueprints, I want you to make three blueprints before this class is over, at the beginning of each class I’ll give you a goal and you must have designed three things to do the same thing.” Mark’s eyes widened in fear.

“Today’s topic is ice, draw up three blue prints for a magic device to generate ice in some form. If you don’t know the necessary runes and such, don’t mind, just leave it blank with a note for what type of rune should be placed there, and I’ll teach you them after.” Mark nodded, reaching into his bag quickly to pull out a collapsible drawing board as he got to work.

“Now you two, come with me, Jake, do you have your bow?” Charlie’s words got a shake of the head from the student as Charlie sighed.

“Of course you don’t, you don’t know the storage rune… nor do you know how to use magic, or to summon your Principles.” Charlie sighed, before looking to Mary who seemed to nod… she had gotten serious when the training started huh?

“Mary, I know what you can do, you can’t use any wide range attacks in this place, so I want you to get used to quickly activating and deactivating your Dragon Principle. It takes you way too long to go from normal to combat ready.” Mary nodded, walking away as she began to focus.

From what little Jake saw, she was slowly gaining skin coloured scales as she focused, but before he could pay any more attention, Charlie had snapped his fingers, calling for attention.

“Jake, I need you to listen, I want you to activate a Principle. Here’s a bow, now turn it into a Divine Weapon.” Jake looked to the plain bow with confusion, then looking to Charlie.

He didn’t care for Jake and his confusion, instead forcing the plain weapon into the hands of the student.

“There, now focus… concentrate, close your eyes if you have to, but try and locate a burning feeling in your heart. And when you find it, try and make that feeling cover the bow in your hands.” Charlie’s words were confusing, but Jake nodded, willing to listen to his words as he focused.

It was there. To Jake’s surprise, there was a burning feeling in the centre of his chest, similar to the flickering of a flame… maybe the flickering was his heartbeat? It made sense, given that the fire seemed to be everywhere in his body to some extent.

He focused more of the fire, drawing it to his hands, wincing at the pain of something moving up his arms as he focused it into his hands…

Then there was a bright line shining on his eyelids as he opened his eyes in surprise, looking at the bow in his hands.

No longer was the bow in Jakes hands plain or wooden, not it seemed gilded gold, with markings all over it as it shown, the string seemed missing until Jake noticed a feeling of fire…

And then the string was there, made out of fire, and yet, Jake knew it would not hurt him.

“Well done, seems like you activated the Principle.” Jake looked to Charlie, confused on what was going on.

Seeing the confusion of the kid, Charlie gestured to the bow.

“That, is an effect of a Principle. A Principle is the domain of Gods and things that they are Gods of, and we Demigods can use the Principles of our parents to lesser extents.” Charlie’s words got Jake to look at the bow.

Inlaid, on the body of the bow was a word, repeated on both sides of the body, the slot where the pressed against acting as a divider.

Ignus… Jake had typed in the word and it was really simple. It meant fire, in Latin.

It was actually an appropriate name, given who his father was.

“This is probably caused by your father being a God of Archery, which is done using any bow-like weapon. So any weapon of that category that gets to your hands?” Charlie’s smirk said many things.

“They get upgraded like that. You won’t be needing arrows or anything like that, your Principle and magic power will sort that out for you.” Charlie’s words got Jake to look back down to the bow before he tried to pull back on the string.

Jake gasped as a light started to form between his pointer and middle finger as he stretched the fire that formed the string…

It was surprisingly difficult to pull the string back, and Jake appreciated that. If it were easy to pull back, the tension would be bad. If it were too hard, then the tension would be too much.

This was difficult… but the good kind. It meant that for Jake’s current strength, the bow was perfect, likely it adjusted itself for its user.

“Oh we got to name that thing now… any bow you touch will always appear the same when you use it so… Ignus huh? Isn’t that your birth name?” Charlie asked, looking to the words on the bow shaft, and Jake looked to it and nodded.

“I have a name for it.” Jake said, ignoring Charlie’s half-hearted attempts to name it (butt-fire was not a valid name) and he looked at it, and then back to Charlie.

“Solaris Ignus.” Jake’s statement cut off Charlie’s last attempt, some Japanese sounding name.

It was appropriate to Charlie at least. Kawamura was always BURNING!

But that reference would have gone over Jake’s head, and Charlie considered the statement of the younger Demigod.

“Sure, that sounds appropriate. I was maybe going to recommend something like dragon breath after I stopped joking, but Solaris Ignus… it works, and it’s technically named after you.” Jake wondered at that…

He was raised Jake Thomas… but he was born Jake Ignus. Jake Thomas was a human eldest son of Mark and Annie Thomas…

But he was a Demigod, and as a Demigod, his name should be Jake Ignus.

He’d change it later… first he had to deal with another issue…

How had he not noticed until now that Mark Bismarck shared his father’s first name?

Eh, probably because he referred to the man as ‘Dad’.

That would be weird, and it would also be strange for the two to meet but…

“You want to have your parents stay with you… that isn’t possible. Aegis fights Gods, it’s dangerous. We are strong, but we aren’t so strong we can look after everyone. Most Demigods are orphans and our Agents are all people who severed ties. Visiting, sure, but…” He recalled the words of Edgar Yule when the man had gotten a plane for Jake to go down to L.A.

It was sad, but it also made sense to Jake. He fought so his parents didn’t need to die, so his little brothers didn’t need to die.

He would miss them, but at least it wasn’t forever, he’d see them during breaks and the occasional visit.

He had ample time to talk to them about it, and he would still refer to them as his family…

But when asked if he would take on his birth name, Jake had originally been unsure.

Now, looking at the bow with his birth surname on it…

He felt the distinction was necessary.

“Kid, no, Jake. You decided on something just now, didn’t you?” Charlie’s question got a look of confusion from Jake, before he realized that anyone within a few metres of him were staring at him.

“Uh… did I do something?” Jake asked as Charlie chuckled.

“It’s not bad. But your magic… it’s clearer.” Jake wondered at that, looking at the little fire inside his heart, and indeed, Charlie was right.

Before it was a deep red, as if setting his blood on fire… now it was lighter, closer to yellow, and Jake wondered at the strange difference.

“It’s a thing that happens only to Demigods, but, our magic is affected by our emotions. If we are troubled by bad emotions, our magic gets sluggish and weak to some extent.” Charlie raised his hand, a sculpture of ice appearing on his hand in an instant.

“It wasn’t obvious until I felt it now, but you were emotionally troubled. Somehow, you lightened the baggage so to speak, and so your magic might flow better now. That’s good.” Charlie’s words got a confused look from Jake.

“The longer your heart is clear, the stronger you’ll get. If you’re bogged down by bad emotions, you get stronger slower.” Charlie smirked, reaching to his side, creating a rune similar to the first one Derek made, and in his hand, an old revolver appeared.

Within moments, the revolver’s appearance changed, looking like ice was creeping over it before it shattered, revealing a revolver with a blue handle similar in colour to Charlie’s eyes, the previously black metal of the gun now a shining white with dark blue depictions of what looked like yew leaves.

“This is my weapon, Winter Bane. Come on, you and I are going to the shooting range. Mary, you’re welcome to come along.” Mary, who Jake had been ignoring while focusing on the bow, appeared in his sight and he blinked.

Her previously black hair was now blue, and her eyes animalistic red, and she had scales, as well as claws and a tail…

Rather, why were her clothes not damaged by the tail, it was nigh seamless when it came to the clothes.

“Clothes sewn by an Arachne, and imbued with magic by a few other Demigods. Our combat uniforms are usually of similar make, because some Demigods like Mary change physical shape and I’d kill anyone that looked at her if her clothes tore while fighting.” Charlie’s words were emphasized by pulling back the hammer of Winter Bane.

Jake nodded furiously, getting what Charlie was saying… he wasn’t biologically related to Mary, but…

Their relationship was similar to Jake’s own with the Thomas family.

He got it, and so he smiled as he followed the two.

By the end of the hour long period of time, they had all regrouped, Derek sweating and huffing, Terri laying passed out on the floor, and Mark looked ready to bite his nails as he only had one blue-print.

In contrast, Jake and Mary looked king of happy, especially Jake as he had gotten a chance to practice archery… better, at distances he never considered before.

Charlie made him look pitiful though, with how accurate the man was with a weapon known for violent kick-backs and inaccuracy beyond a few metres.

the targets were set up every twenty metres until the hundredth metre, and then one every hundred metres.

Charlie hit the furthest one, at three hundred metres… he claimed being capable of shooting even further, but the building they were in wasn’t that large.

Jake barely managed to get two hundred metres, which was actually impressive given that he was used to school-level archery and not what Charlie termed as ‘hunting archery’.

“Well, I’ve got a rough idea on all of you. Also you three, I made you three work a bit harder because quite frankly Jake and Mary have more talent.” The three looked crestfallen, but Charlie clapped his hands to get their attention once more.

“Hey, don’t be so down. Jake’s entirely new to this, so he isn’t stronger yet, he just has greater talent. You all just need to work harder to keep up. Look at Shaun, he has over one hundred siblings, including you Mark, and yet he’s strong, disregarding his age.” Charlie’s words were correct, and lit a fire in the three Demigod’s eyes.

“I… don’t get it.” Jake admitted, looking at the three and then wondering what this talk about talent was, before Charlie waved him off.

“I’ll explain it when we have this class again, since you need a lot of theory rammed into your head as soon as possible.” Charlie said, poking Jake in the forehead with Winter Bane…

Jake was ready to piss himself when he remembered what the gun did to the target Charlie shot earlier.

“As for those three, they already know what you know, so they just need to build up their basic abilities. As for Mary…” Jake and Charlie both looked at the girl who seemed torn between being shy and glaring at them.

“She is very powerful and she has her theory down, to be honest she’s only training to prevent the degradation of her skills.” Mary looked smug at that, yet somehow still managed to find space in her emotional coverage to glare at the other four Demigods her age.

“She’s competitive, she’ll get over it. Right, so, to be a bit formal, Bismarck, I want you to message your brother for tutoring, you know he’ll drop whatever he’s doing to help a sibling.” Mark looked like he ate something foul but he nodded.

“Cole, if you haven’t already, I want you to sign up for the First Aid class. Magical healing is excellent, but even God’s can get tired, let alone you. Learn some mundane healing for if you need to save on magic.” She nodded with looking at her schedule, looking a bit irritated at a change she’d have to make.

“Oliver, you’ll be doing a fitness plan. You’re already fit, but… well, you’re the child of a War God, I have no doubt you could toss boulders at people with a bit more training.” Derek looked very excited about having a teacher with a Y?

“Mary, you live with me, I know how you train, I’d rather you relax honestly.” Mary glared at him for that and Charlie just sighed before looking over to Jake.

“Thomas-” Charlie was cut off by Jake glaring at the man, the green in his eyes fading to become bright yellow for a moment, causing them to stop.

“Ignus. Jake Thomas was a human. I am a Demigod, and my name is Jake Ignus.” Charlie thought back to the clearing of the kid’s magic about half an hour ago and nodded, understanding a bit.

“Right, Ignus. I want you to increase your range. The furthest on target shot with a bow and arrow by a normal human was two hundred and eighty metres roughly. As you said, you aren’t human.” Jake nodded, looking to Solaris Ignus.

“Jake, I want you to be hitting targets a kilometre away by the end of the month. And if you don’t I’m going to hurt you.” Charlie’s words were met with a nod by Jake before Jake looked to the bow, taking away the energy he was covering the bow with.

The bow quickly reverted to its normal wooden form.

“Ah shit.” Charlie said looking at the bow and Jake wondered what was wrong…

That’s when the bow turned to dust and Charlie sighed.

“Well, we better get you a stronger bow.” Jake just stared at the dust floating away...