The Heroes Of Olympus: Aincrad Reborn

Hazel

Hazel felt relieved. 

Finally, after such a long while, she was playing a game that was actually easy

Giant fortress to break through? No.

Fireballs of death raining on you from above? Nope.

Automaton velociraptors coming to rip you apart? Nada.

Just plain old simple Capture the Flag with weapons....and no maiming allowed. The only real thing to worry about would be the monsters that prowled the woods, but they were mainly nocturnal.

"This is going to be great." said Hazel to Asuna as they watched the other campers go through a table of weapons and armor. 

Hazel and Asuna had decided to take a leaf out of Kirito and Percy's book and just stick with what they had on them. Of course that was dangerous, considering they could be maimed easily that way. But Percy and Kirito weren't your average brawlers, and neither was Asuna and Annabeth, though Annabeth decided to put on armor anyways as sort of a habit (just a simple chestplate, no more.)

Asuna smiled. "It's been a long time since I've done anything like this.....of course most of it happened in a virtual world..but still."

"You'll be fine." said Hazel. "Anybody who can out manuever Clarisse like that has some major skills. And you'll be with Kirito's group anyways, so you'll pretty much dominate everyone."

Kirito, Asuna, Darren, and Hazel had been assigned to defending the flag area, the thought being that Darren's long range and Kirito and Asuna's fast moves would be the perfect defense. Percy, Annabeth and the rest of the Athena and Hephaestus cabins would take offense, attempting to take the Ares, Nemesis, Aphrodite, and a couple of other assorted cabins. 

The numbers weren't in their favor. But Hazel personally felt that the bare skill that each of their team mates possesed was more then enough to make up for that.  

2 hours later, more or less, They were scattered around the forest, around 50 ft away from the flag which was set in a large clearing next to a bunch of juniper.

"Okay." said Darren fidgeting with his bow. "Either the other team really sucks, or things are going really slow."

Hazel silently agreed. Things had been way too quiet. They should have at least seen someone bypass the border of their team's zone by now.

Kirito yawned. "Don't worry about it. They'll come....eventually."

"But what if we just win without doing anything?" said Asuna. "Won't that be boring?"

Kirito's expression almost made Hazel laugh out loud. The thought that he would just stand there doing nothing while the campers on the front lines had all the fun was apparently a little overwhelming.

Asuna giggled. "Honestly, you should look at yourself!"

Kirito just stared with his jaw slightly open. "So we're just going to stand here........and do absolutely nothing.............for 5 hours........."

"Hey, maybe a monster will find us and we could kill it." said Darren. "Or we could chop some wood and make a giant wooden statue of Octavian and burn it to the ground. Anybody? Eh? Sound good?"

"I'm for the monster killing." said Kirito. "But I honestly don't know Octavian enough to start burning a statue of him."

"Well he's a jerk." said Darren. "Trust me."

"You know what I really find strange?" said Hazel.

"That Sharknado was ever made into a movie?"

"Darren!"

"Seriously, I mean a movie about a tornado with flying sharks that eat people, what kind of weirdo came up with that?"

"DARREN!!!"

Darren raised his hands. "Sorry, just feeling bored that's all." (Seriously, it's actually a real movie..)

"What's strange." continued Hazel. " Is how quiet everything has gotten....."

Everyone else looked at each other. The forest's usual chirps squeeks and other noises that were common to a forest full of life, had all dissapeared.

"That's........creepy." said Asuna as she drew Morning Rose nervously.

Kirito drew Elucidator and readied himself. "It's too quiet, no way this silence is normal."

"Uhhh.......guys?!" Darren was pointing his bow at something in the dark trees. Coming out of the forrest was a huge fox who looked around the size of Percy's pet hellhound Mrs. O'leary.

"I don't believe it.." said Asuna. "It's an Onyudo!"

Hazel looked at the giant fox uneasily. "A what?"

"It's a kind of Yokai." said Kirito. "They're supposed to be gentle as long as you don't disturb them, they're the largest species of yokai, a full grown one is supposed to be the size of a mountain."

"Eh......so it isn't dangerous.........right?" said Darren nervously training his arrow on the Onyudo. (The Nine Tailed Fox from Naruto, or Kurama as he's now called , was based off the Onyudo and other Japanese mythological figures. Other legends describe the Onyudo as taking the form of a racoon dog creature. The Onyudo appeared briefly in Avatar the Last Airbender when Ang first entered the spirit world.)

"Well not as long as we don't bother it.." said Kirito frowning. "But what's a yokai doing in a forest full of Greek monsters?"

"Well whatever it's doing here." said Darren. "Could someone get it to stop licking me!?"

The giant fox was silently flickering it's tongue over Darren's cheek, as if curious.

"Just don't move." said Hazel. "We don't want to set it off or anything."

"Easy for you to say!, I think some drool went in my eye!"

Suddenly the fox began to growl menacingly, as if it had just recognized something in Darren's tasted. 

"Err....that doesn't sound good."

Suddenly the fox swiped it's giant paw at Darren who barely managed to get away in time, but unfortunately he dropped his bow.

"MOVE!" shouted Kirito as he ran at the yokai with his sword ready.

"I officially  hate foxes!!"

"Darren look out!!" Hazel shouted frantically as the fox snapped it's jaws at Darren's shirt collar and began to shake him around.

"Hey!" shouted Kirito. "No one eats my friend!!"

Kirito swung Elucidator in a deadly arc. A blast of dark energy shredded throught the forrest and hit the Onyudo, causing it to let go of Darren and fly off into the forrest on it's side.

"Ugh!!" said Darren looking at the drool all over his clothes. "Yokai cooties!!"

Asuna moved in at the Onyudo with incredible reflexes, moving her sword in a fast repetitive jabbing motion at the Onyudo's side. The Onyudo roared in pain and made to swipe at Asuna with it's claws. But before it could, Hazel had moved in and stabbed her Imperial Gold calvary sword into the monster's belly.

"RRRRRAAAAARRRRGGHH!!!" roared the monster fox now attempting to rip Hazel apart with it's claws.

But Kirito stepped in between the fox and Hazel and sliced his sword into the fox's paw, cutting it off.

The fox backed off growling as blood poured out of the stub that used to be it's left paw. Kirito moved in a blur of speed and sliced the giant fox through the torso until it split in half  and began to disintigrate into dark mist

"What did I do?!" shouted Darren. "Why did it attack me?!"

"I think I know." said Hazel.

Just before the fox completely dissapeared, a black scythe symbol was visible on the fox's hind leg. The symbol of Kronos.