No Pain No Gain (OPEN)

Sandra Deak - The Sassy Hunter


Sandra was walking along the border. She was examining the creatures that would fly or scurry by every so often. She could hear as they would chitter to each other about food and where they hid it or something. She had been wearing a gray shirt and cargo pants that most likely had mud on them due to her laying on the grass. She watched as a small bunny hopped by. Sandra felt a small smile on her face. She loved rabbits. They were a symbol of luck, perhaps it would bring her some.

But of course Tyche wasn’t in her favour, as she heard roars and crashes. She got up and quickly examined her area. She focused on where she had heard the roars. She turned to the left and began to run. Summoning her bow as she sped across to the trees where she heard more noise. As she was about to reach Half Blood Hill, she saw a figure running towards it. They person had armor on and was being chased by 4 cyclops.

“Oh my sweet Artemis…” Sandra whispered under her breath. She looked at the person. They wouldn’t be able to handle the beasts on their own. And right now, Sandra couldn’t tell if the person was a girl or boy. If she didn’t help and it was a girl, she would’ve brought disgrace to the whole protocol of the hunters. So in the end, she stationed herself at the top of the hill and fired 15 arrows into one of the cyclops's bodies.

4 right in the eye, three to each knee and 5 in a sloppy pattern all over the chest. It would be enough to slow it down and cause a lot of damage, but not enough to kill it. She watched as they came closer and closer to the border that protected the camp. Sandra came up with a plan in her head. She decided it would be best to lead them away from camp. It didn’t matter there was a magical border, nowadays, you never know what could happen.

“Ey, armour! We need to get these beasts that way!” She yelled and pointed away from camp. “And be quick would you? Don’t want Chiron up my ass for this. And please, do try to keep up!” Sandra yelled again. She began shooting again. She was now making her way down the hill.

    A girl with a bow came running up and shot one of the cyclopes with...well a lot of arrows. She told me to lead them away from the camp. Then a guy with some sweet golden-looking armor tackled a cyclopes. "Okay," I said gruffly, muffled by the helmet. "So, do you have a healer? A good one?" I then asked them as I deflected a club with the end of my spear, spun, and deflected a sword. One of the two campers answered with a "Yes" so I laughed a little and swung out with my spear keeping the cyclopes at a distance. "Good. Take those two, I've got these two." I yelled over to them.

    I took my spear in one hand and flipped it, turning it into a track baton. I rolled to the side as one of the cyclopes brought a club down, then dove back as the other tried to decapitate me. I quickly put my left hand on my left leg and pulled out one of my swords from the armor. I took it and slashed a gash across my chest through a chink in my armor. I felt more strength come to me as the blood seeped through the armor. Then I took off my helmet and cut down my left side of my face, over my scars. Even more strength came to me, feeling as if I could split a mountain.

    I melted my sword back into my leg and raised my hands towards the two cyclopes that were charging. Then I concentrated on their essence and willed them to experience extreme pain. The two cyclopes stopped in their tracks and fell to their knees. It probably looked horrible, what I was doing, but it was necessary. They started to yell and curse at me in ancient Greek. I could feel the blood trickling down my face and covering my already blood caked armor, I was loosing quite a bit of blood. I grimaced, ignoring any pain, and called over to the two campers, "I can hold these two, while you finish with the others. Then kill these."

I nodded at Sandra when she motion to get the left one. I charged it and at first it looked like easy pickings but then it started to swing its fist wildly. I was fast enough to dodge through it though on the account of the blindness.

I had to wait for a opening in its punches to charge it. I waited for it to roar and lift its arms above its head then I struck. I ran at it again this instead of going for the direct shot I slid under its legs.

I then turned and went jumped on its back and rapped my arms around its neck and tightened my grip. I kept going until it dropped to its knees then I took out my throwing dagger and cut open its neck. I fell to the ground and turned into a pile off gold dust.

I looked at Sandra and yelled "After your done there how about we do our special move".

I ground my teeth teeth at the dulling pain of my chest and face and took a ragged breath. The exertion of energy was starting to wear me down. My hands started to shake as I kept the Cyclopes unable to function. I've never had to instill pain this long before, at least not to this extent. I could see darkness around the edges of my vision to begin to form as unconsciousness tried to set in. I fought back and tried to hold on to what was happening. Finally my body gave out and I collapsed. Before I passed out, I could hear huge footsteps coming my way and then I was thrown back twenty feet and landed finally slipping into darkness.

I nodded and ran towards Sandra with about the same speed as she did to me. We only had one shot at this and so far we were only one for one on success rate. Those odds however never stopped me before and won't stop me now. When she jump at me I cupped my hands together so that Sandra wouldn't fall through. When she landed in my hands instead of throwing her straight up like last time I tilted my elbow and pulled it back. Then in a shot put slash slingshot like maneuver threw her at the cyclops going for the kid.

My aim was slightly off but Sandra should be able to adjust. I then charged the one charging at me. We ran at each other and his fist came down in a regular punch. I tried to go for the uppercut and our fist collided.He had more velocity though and sent my flying backwards.

Sandra felt the sudden change of momentum , but quickly readjusted and shot as many arrows at the cyclops as she could. She kept firing before she had to drop her bow so she could land on the cyclops’s neck. She was mere seconds from the beast and she yanked her dagger out and impaled it into the back of its neck. She held on so tight, her hand was turning as white as snow. She had one hand on the dagger. She yanked her other one out of her side sheath and impaled it into its side neck. It turned to gold dust. Sandra wasn’t ready and she dropped and landed roughly on her side.

She knew she hadn’t killed it because two daggers and 45 arrows would only of severely damaged him. And she would’ve been able to land with more grace. She saw the boy who had had the monsters chasing him. There was a spear a few feet away from her and she understood that he finished the beast. Obviously Sandra was displeased by this. She let out a loud grunt as she got up. She definitely broke something when she fell.

She held her ribcage as she slowly turned around to see Jonathan fighting the last cyclops. She decided to take a risk and made her bow appear. She then rapidly shot arrows in the direction of it. Thanks to her pinpoint accuracy, they should land on it. She is hoping her accuracy still works from where she stands now. But she didn’t have time to look as she felt a surge of pain go through her. She is assuming she broke more than one of her ribs.

Sandra reached into her pocket pouch and quickly took out a small vile of nectar and a small cube of ambrosia. She ate the ambrosia before she slowly walked over to the other boy, who was now sewing up his chest. She held it out with one hand.

“It’ll heal faster with this. I don’t know how you have acquired your combat skills, but they proved to be useful. Your gestures with the control of the two cyclops had helped, but next time don't use so much power. You’ll end up dead.” Sandra said as she looked down at the boy. “What is your name boy? And do you know your parentage?” She asked.

    I looked up from where I was finishing up the stitch on my chest and saw that the cyclopes were dead now. My body relaxed a little now that I didn't have to worry about being clobbered. I finished up the stitch on my chest, cut the thread, and tied it off with a surgeon's loop.  The girl came came over and offered my whatever it was she was eating. I shook off the cube of whatever that was with a wave of my hand. "No thanks." I told her with a slight Brooklyn accent. "Trust me, I'm better off with pain." She then warned me about my powers and that it could kill me. No dip Sherlock..... She also asked me what my name was and what my parentage was. I  "Name is Jason Denelly." I told her. "Call me Jace please." I stood up with a grunt and walked over and grabbed my spear to lean on. "Oh, my mother is Odyne, the goddess of pain. She may be a minor goddess, but she packs a punch." I said with lopsided grin.
    Then the guy in the wicked armor came over and said, "We can't stay hear, we have to get to camp now." I nodded in agreement, but I could feel the physical pain in each of them. I think I can handle both of theirs. "Hey, hold up a second." Resting the spear against my shoulder, I put a hand on each of their shoulder and concentrated on taking their pain. Pain shot into my ribs on both sides, making let go of the two and clench on the shaft of the spear. I growled as I got used to the pain and put it out of sight and out of mind. "There you go, you are still injured but it shouldn't hurt a bit. Now we can go!" I said with a grin.