“So, after a month of training… you think you’re up for a challenge?” Charlie’s words were spoken to the corpses, sorry, the almost unconscious forms of the five Demigods who made up the rest of team Charlie.
As his words suggested, it had been one month since the day Jake shot at an ice block three hundred metres away, and he had gotten quite a few new experiences in since then.
For one, Jake’s archery form was destroyed by Charlie and repurposed into something else, this was because Jake’s form was stable, but did not account for having to dodge or move while firing.
Now that Jake could reliably hit a target from far away, he had to do so consistently while under pressure.
Said pressure was originally Mark trying to hit him while Jake aimed at something, then it was Terri, then Terri and Mark.
At this point, Derek was the one to try and hit Jake while Jake stumbled around and tried to hit his target, and Jake had no doubt Mary would be the last one, if Charlie didn’t get involved.
Another new thing was that Jake had been taken to the teleportation array created by Rose Cora all over the world that allowed Demigods to get to attack points of Gods as quickly as possible.
There was a method of checking if a God would appear, but sometimes it didn’t work, such as when Huitzilopochtli appeared, as it was delayed in when the signal of the God was sent.
Other times the signal was sent early, and Demigods knew what God they’d be facing a week before he/she appeared.
Knowing that they might be called in, team Charlie collectively used the teleportation arrays more than once, taking a trip to Australia, then Germany, and finally back to America.
Someone offered South Africa, and that person was quickly refused.
Nothing wrong with the country, it was just that a Demigod or two lived in that area and meeting up with them was hazardous to the health.
The array was draining, and took about ten minutes to half an hour to charge, but the Agents in charge of it were understanding to why Jake and the others were using it.
Jake puked the first time it activated, and suddenly found himself more than a few hours off in his biological clock.
Another new thing that occurred was that team Charlie was getting a bit of attention amongst the other Demigods.
Alexandria was a combination of a private school and a boarding school, if one had housing nearby, they could stay there, but if they didn’t, dorms were available.
Jake stayed in the dorms, with Derek having a room on a different floor inside the unisex dorm, one for the boys, and one for the girls.
There were more than a few Demigods at Alexandria, and occasionally whispers could be heard about the new team, and this was because only six teams were in circulation at a time, and team Charlie hadn’t been around for two or three years.
During these conversations, Jake also managed to butt in during some and get some information he wanted to know regarding Aegis, mostly in the ‘who is important to know’ area of questioning.
The Council, the Head Agent, and the Team Leaders were the juggernauts of Aegis to be listened to immediately.
The Council comprised of seven Demigods, each amongst the most powerful Demigods alive and their positions are decided by strength and competition.
In fact, once every three months a person may challenge anyone on the Council to a battle and the Council-member may not refuse said challenge unless a God is invading.
Council-members may even challenge each other to change ranks, but the current group was:
Rank one, Edgar Yule, the strongest Demigod alive, his God parent was unknown and he was known for being the best weapon user and instructor in Aegis.
Rank two, Rose Cora, the second-in-command of Aegis, she was apparently the daughter of Pandora, how she was considered a Goddess was a mystery but Rose was proof that Pandora was considered one. Rose was also the best magic user and instructor in Aegis.
Rank three, Samuel Esteban, a wanderer who enjoys meeting new people, and teaching, his Godly parent was Mictlantechutli, lord of the Aztecan Underworld making his God parent a God of the Dead. Samuel was the best unarmed fighter in Aegis, and took students whether they were Demigod or a normal human, though he taught no one boxing.
Rank four, Shane Bismarck, one of two Ancient Demigods in Aegis, Shane is a son of Hephaestus and thus specializes in analysing his opponents and creating items to counter them… unfortunately, many have begun to consider him an eccentric Bat-man due to this trait…
Rank five, Lyle Porter, son of Odin and a part-time model… surprisingly down to earth for a guy as rich as he is, he occasionally leads team Delta.
Rank six, Lukas Winter, son of Hercules and the leader of team Alpha, the strong man of the Council, physically he is actually the strongest, however he does not have the skill of the higher ranked members and thus possesses the rank he does. He frequently challenges Samuel apparently.
And Rank seven, Nikita Quartz, a daughter of Horus and the second of the two Ancient Demigods, her ability in long-range combat was something Charlie immediately commanded Jake to aspire to.
These seven council-members were the longest lasting ones, after a whole lot of fighting over the positions occurred during the creation of Aegis… rather, the only positions fought over were the lower three…
As for the Head Agent, Jake could not recall meeting the man but apparently he was nearby when Jake awoke after the fight with Huitzilopochtli.
The man was known as Agent Karma, the only Agent to not possess a number as his call-sign (notably they did not include any zeroes or ‘double o’ in their Agent names) and strangely enough, no one knew his first name.
Agents had a number that determined how long they worked for Aegis, the smaller the number, the earlier they began working for Aegis. Their names were known though, and they were free to use their names or numbers interchangeably.
The Agents focused on merit though, not seniority.
But as for Agent Karma, he was unique amongst the Agents for his position as an ambassador to other supernatural entities such as vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and so on.
And supernatural beings typically looked down on humans, on the weak as they said… so it said a lot that they all respected and were at times terrified of Agent Karma.
The man was one hundred per cent human, but he was strangely youthful and powerful for a human, and someone considered that Agent Karma might have done a ritual of some kind in his youth to result in his power.
Whatever he did to achieve it, the result was the man and his title of ‘World’s Strongest Human’.
Granted, the man achieved that title through skill, but no matter how skilful he was, the sheer power a Demigod possessed usually surpassed him.
Brought down to the same level, Agent Karma would win every time though.
Rumours of the man sparring with Edgar daily had gone around, though no one knew how true they were.
Much later on, Jake would find out these rumours were false from the man himself, as the rumours were perpetuated by Edgar so as to make Agent Karma look scarier to the younger Demigods who might disrespect him.
That plan clearly worked given the myths about the agent.
As for the Team Leaders, they were obviously strong, at the very least Century Demigods who were hiding their powers until the creation of Aegis.
Lukas Winter was one, Charlie Baker was another, and so was Lyle Porter. Two of those were Council members, and it stood to reason that Nikita Quartz probably also helped out, either in team Beta, Epsilon or Foxtrot.
No one knew where team Epsilon was actually, but they were registered as ‘active’ though.
And so it was that Jake was told of the hierarchy of the Demigods, and realizing that, for all of his new skill, hitting a target a kilometre away was a possibility now, he was still amongst the weakest Demigods…
For now… Combat had a way of urging the growth of Demigods so they could survive the next fight.
“Again, you guy’s ready for a fight?” Charlie asked as a groan was sounded out in response…
“Good, cause I set us up to be fighting a lesser known God in a week.” That got their attention quickly, and through the pain they all stood up with worry in their eyes.
“Don’t worry. From our reports, it seems to be a God with strong ties to snakes. Don’t know if you skipped the memo, but I’m strong against animals, and things that are weak against the cold. This God is both.” Charlie assured.
“Okay, okay… we have a week to prepare right… so where are we fighting, and at what time of the day?” Derek asked, with his mind quick to go to combat information.
As a child of Ares, Derek and his siblings would commonly be thought of as muscle-heads and the thought wouldn’t be completely wrong…
But when it came to combat and warfare, there was no mind sharper than a God of War’s, or their children in this case.
Following the instructions of Charlie, and the suggestions and ideas of Derek, the week passed and their team was ‘ready’ to confront a God.
Gods were not to be ‘killed’ but they could be ‘defeated’ even by teams.
That being said, it was standard procedure to have a Council-member or a suitably powerful Demigod nearby to assist the battle in case the God was too powerful.
This was a flawed plan, as sometimes the Council-member would step in too late to protect the weaker Demigods, but it was the only thing they could do bar fighting the battles for the younger Demigods.
In this case, the assistant for team Charlie was Rose Cora herself.
“It’s good to see you again miss Cora.” Jake greeted with a nod and the woman in turn nodded at him.
Her image of seriousness was destroyed by the blonde man having his ear twisted by her.
“Ow, ouch, stop it Rose, I just wanted to watch!” Edgar Yule everyone, the strongest being on the planet bar Gods, and even then it isn’t so clear-cut.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Mister Yule is really lazy huh…” Terri muttered while Mark and Derek agreed.
Jake just accepted the oddity that was Edgar’s personality while Mary frowned at the ear-twisting… she was having some bad memories of that technique…
Rose was her teacher for magic after all.
“Edgar, go do your paperwork. Look, Karma’s already coming along to drag you back.” Rose offered, and Edgar looked to the suited man approaching as if the man was the personification of death… or endless work.
The latter was scarier to Edgar.
“Ignoring Edgar, I’ve been reading up on your progress Jake, quite impressive with your new firing range, though given who has been teaching you magic, I might just take over from there.” Rose’s annoyed glance at Mary showed that she knew exactly what the issue was.
Jake looked like he received the greatest gift in the world as he nodded enthusiastically. Not because of who would teach him, but because of who wouldn’t be teaching him.
“Alright guys, let’s go, the God is appearing in Spain at the Valley of Ordesa, otherwise known as Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park.” Charlie’s pronunciation was good as they stepped on the teleporting array.
“It’s one of the lesser known National Parks of Spain, but it’s actually the oldest one I think.” Mark offered, liking to collect random facts to tell people, something he got from his eldest brother actually.
Sometimes he got facts slightly wrong though, so they were taken with a grain of salt.
Soon the array activated, and they found themselves underground.
All of the teleportation arrays were connected and were typically underground, but in the case of headquarters or notable places like Alexandria, they could be above ground.
This one was underground, and had Jake wondering how many of the things existed…
And also, it showed the power Aegis possessed as an international organization when they had ways of illegally entering a country, and the country wouldn’t even complain.
There was never a case of the teleportation arrays being used to stage attacks, so it was accepted for now.
“Come on, the God is set to appear in the next hour or two, let’s go.” Charlie’s statement was met with nods as they moved, Rose trailing behind due to being an observer.
Once emerging from the underground, they found themselves exiting a non-descript building in Jaca, the closest city to the park.
Some people seemed surprised to see them leaving the building, prompting Jake and the other young Demigods to turn back to look at it, seeing the sign ‘Aegis’ proudly.
No wonder they were being stared at.
Someone stepped forward and began speaking in rapid Spanish, to which Charlie responded in the same language, his accent non-existent in comparison to most foreigners.
After a moment, the person that stepped forward moved back to the crowd, and Charlie motioned for them to follow him.
“At some point you’re all going to need to learn different languages to be able to talk with the locals. If not, there is a translation spell, but trust me when I say learning the language is better.” Rose could be heard scoffing at Charlie’s explanation, though no one called her out on it.
Clearly she believed the spell was fine, or that there was something else she considered better.
“Right, Charlie, were you also planning on telling them about the spell involving information intake?” Rose’s question cleared up what she thought was better, and had the five Demigods looking at their commander with questioning gazes.
“…I wanted them to learn the normal way Rose, and besides, they can’t learn it right now…” Charlie’s complaints fell on deaf ears as Rose glared at him.
“Charlie, between having them learn languages normally and appreciating what they learnt, and having them learn quickly with magic, the latter is quite a bit more logical.” Rose’s words had everyone understand what the spell was about, retaining information and sorting of information.
Basically, a spell to help in studying… that sounded really useful…
“Though you are correct in that they aren’t allowed to learn it yet given they’re still in school…” Rose realized after her statement was out there, and this had the five look sad at the prospect of not using something that useful for school…
Well, school was for mental things, not magical things despite the Demigod Studies class.
There was clearly a difference between mental and magical given Mary’s ability to use magic instinctually with barely any understanding on how it worked.
“Okay, so we’re facing a Snake God. Regardless of how you five do, this God cannot win this encounter with both Rose and me here.” Charlie smirked at this while Rose rolled her eyes.
After a walk of quite a distance, they found themselves within the Valley of Ordesa, waiting until high noon, the apparent time the serpent God would appear…
Moments after the metaphorical clock struck twelve, a… warp, for lack of a better term, in space occurred in the distance.
From the strangely circular ‘hole’ in reality, emerged a serpentine head, followed closely by large wings and clawed arms.
“…Isn’t that a Dragon?” Terri’s complain was ignored as Charlie looked to Rose who palmed her face.
“It was a really odd error on our part… the only things we got from our divination was this location, the time, and the word python, so we assumed snake God…” Rose’s stare at the dragon drew a sigh from her lips.
“It wasn’t what it was God of, but the name of the God. It’s the Greek Earth Spirit, Python, known to have been slain by Apollo.” Jake perked at the name of his father, staring at the Dragon, ironically named Python, who was staring across the vast fields of greenery and mountains.
It’s body was in the shape of a standard western dragon, huge to the point where a small house would be the size of its head, and its scales were a dull green of common snakes, except the scales of the being known as Python were much, much larger, and its eyes a blood-red, looking around,
It soon saw Jake’s group, and upon seeing Jake in particular, began to growl almost without meaning to as it sensed the essence of Apollo.
“You, you have the stench of my enemy, the stench of Apollo! Die for his transgressions!” Python roared as it charged forward, its body similar to the western interpretation of a dragon, and yet slinking forward as if mimicking its namesake.
“Why is it that every God I’ve encountered so far is getting pissed at me for a father I’ve never met?” Jake’s complaint was obviously ignored as everyone removed their weaponry.
“Right, this is a bit different than expected, but we can work with this. Mary, you’re practically a Dragon yourself, so you should be capable of surviving close combat. Derek, don’t die.” Charlie’s orders were realistic in regards to their skill levels, Mary wasn’t as skilled as Derek in combat, but given her natural advantages, she was the stronger of the two.
Charlie’s commands were followed as Mary’s body began to take on traits similar to the beast charging at them, a tail, beastly eyes, claws and a scale pattern coming over her skin as she charged forward.
Following behind her was Derek who was already wincing in anticipation for facing the dragon-like God, leaving behind the other four members of team Charlie, and Rose who was further back watching.
“Terri, set up communications, you’re not going to be able to punch through those scales with your abilities so try hitting it with weaker attacks from a distance.” Terri nodded, standing up and running off, much faster in comparison to Mary and Derek due to her father being Hermes, the Greek God associated with speed.
“Mark, not a lot of things work against beings like Python, but I’m sure you know temperature control would work brilliantly. Make something, use it, and set up a shield to hide behind somewhere in case someone gets injured.” Mark went off, not heading towards the colossal God charging forward, instead heading to the side.
The only reason Mark hadn’t set up any equipment was because of a motto of his siblings.
‘Prepare for everything, and do what is necessary’. Some would take that to mean to make as much preparation as possible, but the children of Hephaestus would tell you otherwise.
Preparation for everything could be taken as is, but the latter half of the motto was to say ‘don’t do anything until you know what to do though’.
Shane, the flag-bearer of the Bismarck family, repeatedly hammered in that lesson when teaching his siblings because assistance for one problem could be a debilitation in another situation.
Preparing something fire based to use against an ice enemy, only to find out your enemy is fire based, would cause your own equipment to be used against you.
And so it was that children of Hephaestus began to specialize in both building, and information usage.
“Okay, Python, Earth Spirit of some kind, killed by Apollo signifying a weakness towards either fire or arrows, Jake is perfectly suited to be fighting this guy, not to mention the normal weaknesses against cold for cold-blooded beings meaning Charlie-” Mark began to mumble to himself as he ran off.
“Jake, you and I are the most important combatants of team Charlie, we’re the source of damage. I’ll be laying suppressive fire for Mary, Derek and Terri, you fire off damaging attacks okay? And make sure to never stand still… you’ll die if you do.” Charlie warned as he shot off in the opposite direction of Mark, leaving Jake to start running away from the God.
Charlie wasn’t sure whether or not to be proud or annoyed at Jake’s action… as a ranged fighter, getting too close was a death sentence.
On the other hand, it’s impossible to look heroic while running away from the enemy…
“Bastard son of Apollo, I will enjoy grinding your bones to dust before I spread them across the lands of Delphi as a sacrifice to Mother Gaia!” The beast known as Python roared as it charged forward, or at least tried to before Mary made her presence known, leaping forward to punch the dragon’s foreleg, tripping up its charge momentarily causing it to roar in pain.
Taking the opportunity, Derek stabbed at its leg with his halberd, the weapon crafted by one of the elder siblings of Mark standing up to the scales and barely piercing through to draw blood of the beast.
Python’s retaliation would be almost too quick for the human eye to see as its other leg came down in a clawing motion, but for the enhanced bodies of a Demigod, it was fast, but not to the point where it could not be dodged, as Derek did.
Mary did not dodge, instead crossing her arms in front of her chest as the claws hit her flying away.
It was a calculated thing, as Mary and Derek were to distract and cause Python to pause, taking the time to hit something counted…
That, and Mary also needed to gauge the hitting power of the God.
“One-hit, two to kill!” Mary shouted as she flipped into a landing, her arms already showing signs of bruising despite her enhanced durability in relation to other Demigods, her assessment was accurate.
They could survive any hit from Python, but a second would more than likely kill them.
This was discounting attacks like blowing off their heads, or that they could block said hits.
Python attempted to attack Derek after hitting Mary, lunging forward to swallow him whole only for a gunshot to ring out and an insane amount of pain to go through Python’s mouth, rearing back its head as the frozen blocks of blood dripped out.
In the distance, more than two kilometres from the God, stood Charlie with Winter Bane, having shot at Python’s mouth just as it tried to bite down on Derek, letting the younger Demigod escape.
In truth, like Rose, Charlie was just observing this encounter, there were differences between Gods and Python was barely considered one, originally being known as a spirit which was not the same thing.
It was obvious like how fighting Zeus would be much different in comparison to fighting Hephaestus who was a known cripple, and not even a warrior.
In the hierarchy of Gods, Python was pitifully low.
Not to mention that Python had three natural enemies within Charlie’s team. First was Charlie himself, specialized in fighting within a forested area against animal-type enemies, and focusing in ice-based powers, Charlie was a natural counter to Gods like Python.
Then there was Mary who was the daughter of the Mother of Dragons, she didn’t have the strength to drive back Python, but that was due to her lack of experience, something she would gain. She was similar to Python in physical ability, making their situation similar to ‘rock versus rock’.
And finally, with a streak of fire heralding his opening salvo to the fight, was Jake.
The arrow of fire punched into the chest of Python, causing it to roar in anger, a part of its chest gouged out and cauterized as it screeched, trying to rush forward.
Jake was the son of Apollo, the same God that killed Python in the myths. Like all Gods, Python couldn’t die on Earth unless certain conditions were met, but myths had large impacts on Demigods and their affinities against other mythical beings.
Apollo trumps Python was already in myth, the son of Apollo, with similar if weaker powers, should also be strong against Python.
This was set in myth, and even here it proved true, given that the injury given by Derek was already healed, but the wounds caused by Jake and Charlie were not, the healing being halted.
“Regeneration, use fire or ice!” Mark shouted out as he joined the battle, carrying rifle of his own, microscopic runes on the barrel to give the rifle bullets similar in function to Winter Bane.
Everyone began to attack using this method, Terri allowing everyone’s words, whether shouted or not, to be heard across all six teammates, hiding from the enemy so as to not have communication destroyed.
Derek and Mary were the distractions and Python momentarily paused due to attacks from the two Demigods.
Taking advantage of this pause, Charlie and Jake would attack, trying to gouge out the heart of the beast so as to ‘kill’ it.
Mark on the other hand assisted with observation, and shared a shield with Derek which could survive more than one hit from the God.
“I’m not necessary for this fight.” Rose said to herself as she watched from a distance away, looking at the actions of the younger Demigods with approval.
This would not be too dangerous a fight for them, even considering their weakness in relation to older Demigods.
“It’s dangerous to be complacent, but it’s a waste of effort to fear that which you can defeat.” It was dual nature that Rose was well aware of, given her own fights against Gods and spars with her fellow Demigods.
She could defeat every Demigod ranked lower than her, and yet she had suffered a defeat against Samuel and Shaun more than once.
“This should be over soon…” Rose looked away, to the nearby town in thought.
Without the Demigods around, the town would have been destroyed without question. Weak as the God may be, it was still a God, beyond the limits of humans.
Python would be capable of destroying the town easily, even Rose or Charlie could do so at their level of strength.
So while simple… this fight was in fact necessary.
As Rose expected, the fight lacked any notable issues other than a moment in which Python began to try and manipulate the earth beneath the feet of the Demigods.
Rose nullified it with her own control, not wanting the younger Demigods to be thrown into the deep end…
They would win, after a while due to the vitality possessed by Python, leaving its ‘corpse’ to vanish into motes of light, proof that it had returned to the Divine realm in which Gods resided.
The Demigods would never know that Rose helped them in this fight, and that was fine by her…
They needed to grow, not be killed.
She wouldn’t let the latter happen on her watch, never.
They left Spain shortly afterwards, getting a message of thanks from the Spanish Government for the lack of damage inside the valley.
The face the Demigods made when they received fifty thousand Euros each brought a smile on Rose’s face and a laugh from Charlie…
And the children would also hopefully never learn that Aegis got more than a million each time they defeated a God in a country… they might ask for more then.