The Extinction of Heroes

Chapter 3: My Trainer is Out to Kill Me

Brace's POV:

"I'm not a selfless man,

I'm not a man of wealth.

If I had all the world,

I'd probably give it to myself.

But the trees begin to walk

And the ground begins to talk."

Imagine Dragons~ "The River"

"So let me get this straight, my dad is a Greek God? And there was a war, with giants, and you lost, and now we're hiding?" I ask.

Percy nods. I look to my right, and standing next to me is a girl. I'd guess she's about my age, sixteen. She has long brown hair, with different colors of blue, green, and pink in it. She has a few piercings, and she's wearing combat boots with some sort of lame school uniform.

Her name is Elena, I learn. She then asks a question, "So why are we here then?"

Annabeth clears her throat,"About two years ago, there was another war, but it was a Titan war. After we won, the gods offered Percy any gift he wanted. He chose that all the demigods be claimed by their mom and dad before they turned twelve. Meaning the second they made that oath they should've told us about you."

Percy continues,"There's a prophecy. It mentions children of the broken oath. it most likely refers to," he pauses and points to us,"you two."

"So we're part of a prophecy? Is there anyone else it could be about?" Elena asks.

"It could be me, but another line hints that it isn't me, so, er yeah, it is you," Percy replies.

I listen to her ask more questions for a while. My mind is swimming. My dad is the god of war. My mom hates the god of war? That doesn't seem very smart. Now we have to defeat Gaea. The supreme evil queen of giants. She is also the literal Earth. If Percy, Annabeth, and everyone else couldn't defeat her, surely there's no way Elena and I can.

Not to mention the last war ended pretty gruesomely. Annabeth told us how tons of demigods were slaughtered. Then, to permanently awake Gaea, Jason and Piper were sacrificed by the other giants. Annabeth had cried while telling this part, and I realized that all of the demigods must be pretty close. That might be difficult for me, as I don't often get close to people. I can't open up to people.

"So now what? What do we have to do?" I question, glancing up at the two older demigods. I finally spoke up. Annabeth whispers something to Percy, and he walks out of the room.

"You need extreme training. Your training is based on your godly parent, your physical ability, and some other things," Annabeth tells us.

"So who are our godly parents?" Elena asks, she seems like a talker, so I let her talk. As long as I don't have to, she can talk as much as she wants.

"Elena, your dad is Apollo, so you have powers slightly over healing, you're good with music, and can shoot a bow and arrow like nobody's business."

She turns to me,"Brace, as a daughter of Ares, as you know you are, you are pretty good with all weapons, although you will find one you're best with. You don't have any powers, but Ares gives a blessing to his children in their greatest time of need."

I nod. Although it only makes me doubt this even more. Elena can heal people and shoot a bow. Her powers literally heal people. All I can do is use weapons. We're supposed to save the world, but I'll be dragging us behind.

Percy walks in with two blonde boys. One has pale blue eyes and the other has shocking gray eyes. The one with gray eyes has a more muscular build, and he is about an inch or two taller than the other guy. The other guy is athletic looking but leaner and less muscular.

Annabeth gestures to the blue eyed one,"Elena, this is Will. He is going to be your trainer, he is also a son of Apollo, so he's your half brother."

"Brace," she gestures to the other guy,"this is Mason. He is best fit to be your trainer, I think. He is a son of Athena, goddess of wisdom, so he and I are half siblings."

Elena and I nod, then I speak up,"So when do we start?"

+++

Turns out we start today. Mason leads me to an empty room filled with weapons. He tosses me a pair of black Nike shorts and an orange tee shirt. The shirt says "Camp Half-Blood." He turns around and I change. I keep my black athletic shoes on.

"You will do everything I tell you. I'm doing this for the cause, not for you. You're an idiot. My job is to train you. I'll make you less of a moron." He barks. I straighten my back and look up at him. He is at least 6'2" and while I am 5'7" I have to look up t him.

"Now, if you are the athlete Percy said you were, you know what a horse is. You have 35 seconds to run one, GO!" I take off when he says. My feet push off the floor. Of course I know how to run a horse, you go forward, back forward, back. I'm not an idiot like he thinks I am.

I finish at thirty-two seconds. He makes me do another, and at least twenty after that. I only get short breaks for about thirty seconds between them. When he tells me to stop my legs are shaking. My lungs are burning, and the stitch in my side feels like it'll burst through my skin. I look up at him after wiping sweat off my face with a the bottom of my shirt.

"Okay, now you will practice punching. You'll need to learn this incase you get disarmed in a fight. I'll correct you as you go."

I start punching the bag. My fists feel clumsy. It's like I'm not doing it right, but he's not telling me what to do.

"Widen your base!" he barks.

I plant my feet a little past shoulder width apart and slightly bend my knees - ready position. It comes a little more natural, but the bag doesn't move much.

"Tighten your core!"

I tighten the muscles in my abdomen, and the bag moves a little more with every punch.

"Now do it like you mean it. The world is on your shoulders and you punch like a girl. Put your body weight into it." He orders.

I practically lunge at the bag with each punch. My fists sting but the adrenaline keeps my going. He makes me so angry the way he treats me. I'm sure this is how the children of Ares are treated. Like idiots.

"Stop!" he calls. I throw one last punch and stop. I look down at my hands, and my knuckles are bleeding. That was the sting I felt. I normally wouldn't think much of it since it was just blood, but it was bleeding quite a bit.

"You'll need to bandage that, I suggest finding a child if Apollo. If you can't, there's some bandage over there," he points to a bathroom,"there was a time where we'd feed you ambrosia, and it would heal, but since the fall of the gods, we no longer get it."

I look at him as he walks out of the room, then he turns back to me, "You will eat dinner with the other children of Ares, there's six others here. You will also room with some of them. Dinner is in an hour, I suggest you clean up."

I bandage my hand in the bathroom, I don't want anyone's help. I don't want to be here. I don't want to meet my half siblings. I don't want to save the world.

+++

As I walk down the hallway to the dinner room, I run into Elena.

"How was your trainng?" she asks, although I can't think of a reason she would care.

"Awful. I ran and punched a bag until my hand split open," I tell her, lifting up my bandaged hands.

"Oh, I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked." she says apologetically. I wave her off.

"How was your training?" I ask in return.

"It was actually great. Will taught me to use a bow, and some healing chants. But I can only use them in an emergency."

"I wonder why they were so different," I grumble, feeling a bit angry at how easy she said she had it.

"Annabeth said it was personally made for us." Elena reminds me.

"Yeah, I guess."