The Silver Ring (PJO)

Chapter 36

Planning to thwart a scheme that you didn't have any info on was hard. You needed expert knowledge of the building you were protecting, experience with battle tactics at fighting the invisible enemy, lots of patience, exquisite efficiency, and outstanding knowledge of where to put minimal troops to save manpower.

I didn't have any of those abilities. Considering I was an ADHD son of Poseidon, I could barely stay still while hiding from the enemy, but staying still for hours while talking about mind-numbing ploys?

Forget it.

I tried. I really did. But in the end, I was still sent to a bedroom, basically grounding me. One might've been unhappy about it, but I was ecstatic; I hadn't gotten any sleep last night, and I took this opportunity to recharge my batteries.

When I woke up seven hours later (nightmare free, thankfully), everything had been figured out.  The castle had been split up into zones and starting exactly an hour after sunrise, every soldier would patrol a specified region. Until then, the palace would be locked down. Every sector had a higher-up supervising, who would contact Chaos if they found any soldiers of Void.

Even though Chaos had millions of soldiers, they weren't robots; they still had to eat, sleep, and entertain themselves. Since we didn't know when the plan was going down, only a specified twenty-four hours, this meant that Omega had to make shifts of eight hours each, severely reducing manpower. He had done this out of concern for his soldiers but reminded them to stay vigilant and carry a weapon at all times while making sure to alert a general if there was a breach through the defenses.

The reduction of manpower forced Omega and Chaos to station most of the soldiers at the entryways, with the others guarding corridors—who would not only catch intruders that had slipped past the first line of defense, but guard dozens of rooms at one time, in case the Void soldiers tried to go through the windows. Plus, the off-duty soldiers would give some resistance throughout the inner unguarded sections. Omega, Rosaline, and Jessica would control two sectors each, guarding the most vulnerable spots if there was an all-out attack—like the northern, southern, eastern, and western gates. I wasn't stationed anywhere, so I could wander wherever I pleased.

I decided to spend the rest of my day relaxing, which was warrior code for training. When I reached the gym/arena, it was crowded with hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of soldiers who had the same idea as me.

Thankfully, the gym was enchanted to have infinite space—otherwise being jostled by sweaty bodies every second would've been a problem. 

While I was exploring the arena, looking for something to do, I heard a voice yell, "Percy! To your right!"

I looked right. Rosaline was waving to me, in the middle of a giant sparring ring. On the outside of the ring were many of the primordials, many sporting ripped clothing, making it obvious they had sparred with Rosaline.

I walked over towards them. "You want to spar?" she asked me.

"And almost kill myself again?" I asked. "Hard pass."

"C'mon," Rosaline whined like a little kid who didn't get a toy they wanted. "I just want a good spar, but these idiots,"—she pointed towards the primordials who looked offended—"just keep on giving up!"

"I can't fight better than a primordial!"

"You beat me single-handedly," Gaea said supportively.

"See? Even they want to see you fight!" Rosaline exclaimed. 

I wavered for a few seconds, then relented. "Fine," I groaned, stepping into the huge circle that marked the arena. "But if I die, I'm going to haunt you for eternity."