Percy Jackson and the World of Magic

Chapter 22: Training

3rd Person P.O.V.

The River Witch Magdalena looked at the spidery crack Adam had just put into the cave's wall and shook her head. 

"You're dead. You missed him by a mile." she said "And then it was his turn, and he didn't miss"

Adam wiped a drop of blood from his nose. 

"Try again"

"He's bleeding" Percy noted "He needs rest"

Percy was sitting on the floor of an empty cave the Iele used for spell practice, recovering. Adam, Garth, and Strange were with her. Zatanna was with Abbadon, where'd she spent most of the last four days in hopes to gain any sort of helpful information. Wanda was with Amora and Arion learning everything about Chaos Magic, Arion more so since he was once a Lord of Chaos. 

Before Adam's turn, Magdalena made Percy cast an apa piatra, an old Romanian protection songspell in which he had to summon a series of tornados underwater, then make them as hard as stone in order to shield him from a attack. He'd held it for a full two minutes, but the effort had left him with a blinding headache. 

"Here" Magdalena said, handing Adam a cloth for his nose. 

"You're pushing him too hard" Percy protested, worried about his friend. 

"Chthon will push him even harder" said Magdalena. 

"It's okay Percy, I'm good. Let's do it again" Adam said, stuffing the bloody cloth in his pocket. 

Magdalena swam a few feet right of the crack. She picked up a rock and scratched a hulking figure with horns and a big ugly face on the wall, the drew an X in the middle of its forehead. "Right there" she said tapping the X "Focus"

Adam looked at the cave floor and nodded. 

"Bring it, Adam!" Garth called out.

"Right between the eyes Adam" Strange said.

"Focus draga" Magdalena said.

Adam picked up his head, fixed his gaze on the X and started to chant. 

"I summon to me
Rays of Light
And make them
a weapon of light...."

As he did, light leapt towards him from the room's lava globes. Adam caught it and whirled it into a ball, just as he always did when manipulating the quantum field. But this time, he made the ball smaller, tighter, harder. Just as Magdalena taught him. 

"Magic! Help me!
Fight the dark!
Guide this missile
To its mark!"

With a loud cry, he launched the frag as hard and fast as he could. It hit the wall with an explosive impact. Everyone ducked as shattered rock flew through the water. When the silt settled, there was a deep hole where Chthon's head had been. 

"Excellent!" Magdalena shouted "Well done!"

"That was amazing!" Stephan said. 

Adam smiled. A gush of bright blood burst from his nose. 

"Adam!" Percy cried. He swam to his friend, and pulled the cloth from his pocket, and pressed it to his nose. "That's it, you're done" he said. "The magic is suppose to explode Chthon's head, not your own. Come and sit down"

As he watched Adam pinch his nose, Percy thought how Arion and Vraja had been right-they were stronger when they were together. But their new strength took its toll. Headaches and nose bleeds were only part of it. The hard training they did gave them bruises and cramps. While a week had passed, time itself had stopped around the entire planet. Arion's spell was being aided by Chronos, the Primordial (*cough*Elder God*cough*) of Time. Percy wondered what that history was about.