The moment Finn and I stepped outside, chaos exploded around us.

  Campers screamed. Shadows twisted unnaturally. The air felt wrong—thick, too still.

  Ambush.

  Finn reached for his sword. "Holy—!" Then his eyes landed on Max Harris, Ares cabin’s counselor, grinning.

  “Oh, come on,” Finn groaned. “A prank? Really?”

  The supposed "attackers" were dummies rigged with wires. Victor Miller from the Hephaestus cabin smirked.

  I exhaled. "That was cheap."

  Max cackled. "C'mon, you should’ve seen your—"

  The ground roared.

  Not a tremor—a gut-deep quake that sent weapons rattling. The dummies jerked violently.

  No—not the dummies.

  Something behind them.

  A stench rolled over us—burning flesh, sulfur, rot.

  Damien swore. “Please tell me that’s still part of the prank.”

  Max’s face paled. He shook his head.

  The prank was over.

  Then the real monsters arrived.

  A three-headed jackal. One head muttering curses, one radiating Black light, literally, and one, the middle one, attacking anything in it’s way. A panther-shaped void, it wasn't just nothing it was a shadow, a physical shadow. And the worst—a giant with molten veins, towering above the trees.

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  “Now...” it rumbled. “Let’s begin.”

  Finn lunged first. The Giant backhanded him into a tree.

  “Finn!” I ran forward—too late. The jackal pounced. Claws ripped through my shirt. Heat blasted my face. Then Chloe was there, daggers flashing— BIG – MISTAKE

  The jackal bit down.

  Chloe screamed.

  Blood was all around her.

  Damien tackled the jackal away. Chloe collapsed, gasping, clutching her side.

  Then the giant moved.

  A single step. The earth cracked. Runes ignited across its arms.

  It raised its hand—and fire exploded outward.

  Campers scattered. Some weren’t fast enough. Three went down screaming, armor melting.

  We were losing.

  Chloe was dying.

  Something inside me snapped. A tremor racing through my veins, taking over me, I’d always fought this-this thing down while fighting because it always came, in any fight, but not now. No.Holding.Back

  My vision tunneled. The world was lagging behind me. Raw, ancient power flooded my limbs. My grip tightened around my sword. Energy burned through my veins.

  The Giant turned to finish us. Too slow

  I moved.

  One second, I was standing. Next, I was in the air. My sword streaked for its neck.

  It barely reacted before I buried my blade to the hilt in its shoulder.

  The Titan staggered. Lava gushed. Its massive hand reached for me—too slow.

  Finn and Damien didn’t waste the opening.

  A grenade landed in its chest.

  BOOM.

  The explosion rocked the clearing.

  The Titan looked at me, eyes burning. "You think you've won?" It laughed. "You've let her enter your body, boy. You lost before you started."

  Then it disintegrated.

  “Ugh, y'all are gonna take the glory for this right?” Max said

  Finn blinked at him. Then punched so hard he collapsed.

  I barely heard it. I was already kneeling beside Chloe, pressing my hands against her wound. There was blood, too much blood.

  She was alive. But barely.

  Aaron was heading here with supplies as fast as he could, but he wouldn’t make it in time. Chloe was poisoned with darkness… That was it, I’d had the same feeling in war before, holding my comrades as they took their last breath, but this? This hit harder, but a voice spoke in my head— You can save her, Marcus. Use my power.

  I didn’t think. I let it in.

  Light erupted from my hands—brilliant, searing white. The darkness recoiled, but so did I. My vision blurred. My pulse thundered in my ears. The power wasn’t just leaving me—it was going somewhere else.

  The ground rumbled.

  A whisper curled through the air, softer than breath but heavier than stone.

  Then I was gone.

  The last thing I heard before the darkness took me— Laughter.

  And the strike? It wasn’t over. It was just waking up.