Preparing for the future... (open)

[JinHyun Lee]

Camp Halfblood was the last and unique place where the sons and daughters of the greek ancient gods felt safe. It was like a sanctuary where they could live their lives, learn from older campers or creatures like Chiron to defend themselves from the evilness that was waiting for them in the outside world. The only way those demigods could survive outside is if they were ready for the huge challenge of being half mortal half gods, and that they would do it, training, studying and preparing themselves.

Chiron wasn't the only one training them, there were some adult demigods, who had already grown up and had faced several horrors in their lives, horrors that had helped them to survive. Few of them got back to the camp from time to time and became conselours, helping Chiron and Mr.D to train the campers. One of them was JinHyun Lee, son of Athena. he was one of the best fighters, strategists in camp since the day he set a foot in it. When that poor camper was killed he decided to stay the whole year, helping the campers to be prepared for everything.

"ok... one more time..." he said as he walked back into the arena. His body covered in sweat and dirt. He had been training since dawn and several campers joined him in that training. but the campers seemed to be tired, while he, he seemed to be just begining his usual trainings. "do you think a chimera or a hydra will stop at something? do you think they wil think, oh... poor demigods, they are tired, I'll come back tomorrow and finish this combat..." He said as he walked turning to face all of them.

"they won't do that! they will enjoy watching at you while you fall to the ground completely tired and injured, then they will kill you..." he said and then stopped for a moment, he breathed deeply and smiled at them earnestly. "but you won't die like that, you're going to be strong and you will know how to strike in the right place and moment, to survive and keep those you care about safe and sound." He said in a completely confident voice. then he smiled and nodded as if he was agreeing to himself about something that he hadn't talked to the campers.

"ok, now... you're one... two..." pointing at the campers. "you'll set in pairs, one and two, three and four and so on..." he said then looked at a lonely camper. "you'll train with me..." he nodded at the camper then looked at everyone. "we'll practice the movements I showed you this morning, ok? after the first thee, you will have to go on free style, let your instincts to lead you..." he said and smiled at them...

[Nora Niall]

Lucky her, Nora got to be in the arena first thing this morning. She groaned as she picked herself up out of her bed and looked around the room, Felicity was still asleep, but that would be on her to wake up herself. She needed to go see Chiron about getting a new trunk, considering that hers had been stolen. Nora pulled a camp shirt on and a pair of jeans along with a black pair of combat boots. Her orange hair, however, was frizzy and stuck up in every single direction like she had stuck a finger in the light socket or shook the hand of Zeus himself. First thing in the morning, Nora felt as if she had been sleeping with her mouth open again. Ugh perpetual cotton mouth sucked. She still wasn't quite used to the time change from Australia to the United States east coast. Maybe she would get used to it eventually. Nora strapped on her breast plate and tightened up the straps. Nope, no dying for her today. Nora hooked up her black Choco Cat keychain to her belt loops, she wouldn't go anywhere without that. It transformed into her bow and quiver, Nightstrike. It wasn't magical of course, other then the fact that it transformed. But it was her stygian iron sword that she strapped to her side and her blue and white shield to her back. Good she was ready for the day.


Maybe later today she would visit her Warren, her little secret base in the forest where the only way to get to it was with tunnel travel. Nora tried to keep her mind on the lesson at hand, drilling with some of the other kids. Nora was better at archery then she was really at swordplay. She was fair, she could at least hold her own in a fight. Her talents were more into the ranged combat, she had Chakrams that she preferred to work with or even the boomerangs that were bladed that she had crafted herself, those were weapons that were familiar, unfortunately today was for swords. But the there was a single thought that went through her mind. Easter was coming up. Nora always liked to think of herself as kindred spirits to the Easter Bunny. Nora wasn't paying much attention to what the instructor was saying, she was busy plotting on where she was going to hide some eggs at, considering that Easter was her favorite holiday. But she was brought back to the real world when the instructor, Jin, had started counting off for pair. Of course there was just Nora standing in the back like some kind of doofus. Ever since that camper had been killed, people had started to steer clear of the Hades kids, not wanting to get close to them because of course, all Hades kids were psychopathic homicidal maniacs.


Great, just great, she was paired up with Jin. She pulled her black stygian iron sword from its scabbard and looked kind of awkward holding it. This wasn't much of her thing but since that was what she was supposed to do today, she would oblige, for the moment. She had her other weapons on her of course, she wouldn't want to be disarmed from her sword and not have any way of defending herself. Nora pulled her shield from her back and took up an awkward stance as she planted herself against Jin. "Let's get this started I guess." Nora said with a shrug of her shoulders.

[JinHyun Lee]

JinHyun observed how the campers started to make their pairs and how they looked at each other, some of them were serious and really tried to remember the right stance and the right way to attack, but others were still smiling, as if that was just a foolish thing to do. Ares kids were taking it seriously, maybe too seriously. He saw a couple of Aphrodite's kids that were checking on the reflection of their swords if they looked well or not. He sighed and shook his head, he wouldn't want to see them in a real war, they would be the first to fall under the enemy's force.

Then he walked to where the last camper was. She was a red haired girl, she should be 16 or 17 years old, fair skin and a deep icy look. He noticed she was using a black blade as a sword, then he knew who she could be related, almost for sure. "that is a very interesting weapon..." he said as he stood in front of her. then he saw how she moved and adopted the first stance he had taught them, well almost perfectly. He looked at her feet then at her hips and then at her shoulders. "are you sure you want to start a fight with that stance?"

He asked that still not taking out his sword. She had missed to move her left foot a bit to the back, if he moved around her and hit her left knee she would fall down on her butt, her hip was sent to the back too much, even if she covered herself with her shield he would only need to push a bit more with his sword against her shield to make her fall. Then her shoulders, "why is she benting to the front that much?" He thought when he saw her shoulders, then he looked at her with a confident smirk, but never letting his guard down.

Hestill didn't took his sword out, but adopted the right stance, maybe if he did that she would notice the differences and she would change them before her first attack. If he was right she was daughter of Hades and those kids never dealt well with public humiliation, their ego was like their father's, so maybe the best way was if she notices her mistakes first. If she didn't then it would be impossible to avoid the fact that he would have to correct her and maybe humiliate her in training battle. "come on, attack me first." He smiled and waited.

[Nora Niall]

Nora wasn't really good with swords. She preferred more exotic weapons. She watched a few other kids first, some Ares kids were taking this lesson seriously. There were other, Aphrodite kids, that weren't. Nora shook her head. Nora wanted to be better with a sword but it just seemed that no matter how much she worked with it, the blade still felt awkward in her hands. The hilt of the blade was inlaid with emeralds, wrapped in the most supple leather and perfectly balanced. At least for someone who was competent with the weapon that was. Nora looked at the weapon in her hand, still a bit unsure of what she was doing. She was a bit serious in her training, not overly zealous like some of the kids were, but Nora didn't want to be a burden to the other kids if she had gotten into a fight. Though the campers were more likely to put a dagger in her back then they were to actually help her, Nora found that out fairly fast. She really would have to speak to Chiron about the kids that were constantly stealing her trunk or were going through her stuff with such a wanton attitude. Maybe she would ask a Hecate kid for a spell or something to put on her new trunk, she knew a Hecate kid that would help her out.


Nora nodded as Jin commented on her weapon. "I guess it's alright. Swords aren't really my thing you know?" Nora admitted. Not that she expected him to go easy on her, Nora did how ever expect that Jin wouldn't flat out kill her. The last sparring match she was in, she had gotten paired with an Ares kid who had suspected her of being the killer, she ended up in the infirmary for a week to treat her broken bones and her cuts. Not to mention she got a nasty black eye from it. That was alright though, Nora knew that one day he would die and Nora would get the chance to toy with his soul for all eternity. There was a special place in the underworld for people who pissed off the children of Hades. That's what was a small sliver of hope that she had left in the world. Jin asked her if she was sure that she wanted to start with that stance. Wait was there something wrong with her stance? Nora blinked as she watched Jin take up the stance. Nora tried her best to mirror the stance, but sword stances always had their way of making a fool of her. She pulled her hips forward, trying to balance properly, but it was awkward.


Well after being told to attack first, Nora nodded. She wasn't sure, she was a midrange to long range fighter at best, this up close stuff was for the Ares kids. Not really for her. But Nora would do her best, shadow manipulation not included. Nora was at least good at thinking on her feet for a tiny bit. Suddenly there was a hole under her and she disappeared in it, popping up behind Jin to attack with an arcing blow from her sword. The sand wrapped around her feet, rooting her stance into the ground. It would be hard to knock her to the ground but it wasn't impossible. Nora quickly changed the direction of her blow from an arching move to a sideways slash, hoping to catch the instructor off guard. It probably wouldn't work, being he was a son of Athena, but it was worth a shot right.

[JinHyun Lee]

The red haired girl looked at him and then at her sword, she didn't seem to like that kind to weapon. then why was she trying so hard? maybe because she was trying to impress someone, maybe her godly parent? would Hades had given her that sword? If that was the case, then the God of the underworld would have done it before the camper died, yet the girl seemed to be a newbie with it. In JinHyun's mind thought of several possible reasons for several possible things around him. It had been something that had always happened in his mind since he was a kid. Nothing new there, He was able to think of those things and pay attention to what was going in the battle field, maybe a gift from his mother, maybe just practice after all those years in Camp.

The pale girl confirmed that she wasn't a sword person and talked to him in a confident way, not with the respect that other campers used to talk to him. He smiled and nodded at her. "a fighter always must find the right weapon, the one that would fit its body and mind, that is also part of being a good warrior." He said and then looked the way she helt the hilt of her sword, a good and thought slight clash of another sword in the right place would take that sword off her hand in a second, but they would work on that after the encounter, another thing that was a gift from his mother was his memory. He could record in his mind all what she was doing and would tell her after their combat. It was a pity he couldn't remember in the same way what he listened, only what he saw or felt.

When Nora was ready to attack, she didn't move at first, then her foot tapped on the ground and she was swallowed by the ground. JinHyun frowned and gave a single step to the front, he wasn't sure what had happened, just less than a second later his quick reasoning and the sound of moving ground behind him told him what had happened. He had trained with Felicity before, Hades girl too, but she wasn't able to manipulate the ground as this red haired girl. He turned to face her and saw the arching move, he moved his arm to stop the sword with the metalic protections on his arms but then she moved the sword, "a slash?..." He didn't expect that, not from someone that wasn't good with a sword, not from that unexperienced girl! He tried to move backwards but it was too late and he got a deep mark on his armor.

He smiled when he looked down at the armor's slash, then he looked back at her. He was happy, why? Ususally people didn't like to be attack or to get so close to a sword, but in Jinhyun's case he got excited with a well thought fight, this girl may not be experienced with a sword, but she had a warrior in her. "Good!" he said and squatted spinning on a foot and stretching out his other leg to hit the foot she had attached to the ground, it wasn't a rock so it wouldn't be that difficult to hit at it and make her fall. At least he hoped so, if not, he would break her ankle.

[Nora Niall]

It seemed like it had been so long ago that she had been given the sword as a present. Well it had nearly been six years. It seemed like it had been just something for decoration, something pretty and vicious looking to deter those who would attack her. But the thought was ill conceived. Anyone in their right mind would try to take her down to make sure that they had the bragging rights of taking on a Big Three kid and defeating them. That’s why Nora felt like she had to get better than what she was. She had to base on pure survival. Just this past week alone she had been attacked three times in the forest on the way to her secret base by two monsters that had been lurking in the woods and then again by an Ares boy who thought it would be great to take on a big three and have the bragging rights. The kid didn’t have chance, considering he was only twelve and she had a good bit of more experience on him. She handed him his rear and the whole camp had been buzzing about it for days.

The battle had begun quickly and Nora was rather pleased that she had managed to catch him off guard briefly. The score mark in his armor gave her a small sense of satisfaction. She concentrated on the body of Jin. That was how she had learned to fight all those years ago, to be able to predict the moves of your opponent by keeping an eye on their arms and legs in the corners of her eyes. She watched the surprise in Jin’s eyes as he looked at the score mark in his armor. At least it was a small boost of confidence for her. He swung low and tried to knock her off her feet, or at the very least break her ankle. No, Nora wasn’t about to let that happen. Using her geokenesis, Nora pulled out her boomerang from the back holster, she quickly went to block with it as she tried to hook his foot with the boomerang and throw him off balance. Being a son of Athena and having much more experience in the battle field, Nora expected him to easily maneuver around it.

Nora broke the sand that wrapped around her feet, the thing that rooted her firmly in place. She rolled backwards and once again was swallowed by the earth. She paused, waiting for at least thirty seconds before locating Jin’s feet. She grabbed them and pulled as hard as she possibly could. She tried as hard as she possibly could to pull him at least chest deep in the sand. She wanted to immobilize him. She burst from the sand as she completed her attempt to pull him chest deep. Nora reached out to the metal in his bracers, trying to force them into the ground even further. Okay maybe it was a stupid and newbie mistake to make a move or two like that. But it would be worth it if it worked.