Arthur:
"Arthur, your jacket is still flaking." Annabeth pointed out, "At this point, it looks like it was made from a cow instead of a mythical lion."
"Tell me about it." I muttered as I rubbed the few dark spots still on my jacket in order to finally remove them.
I don't know whether it was because my mother enchanted it, the dye I used was possibly of low quality, or if it had something to do with the leather being supernatural, but my Nemean leather jacket was returning to its white and silver colors.
It was as if the jacket had rejected it.
I hadn't noticed it until Percy had pointed it out earlier in the week, but the dark dye I had used was now peeling off en-mass.
Which was pretty annoying if I was being honest. Don't get me wrong, I liked white and silver as it was my mom's colors, but it was a liability when trying to be stealthy when I didn't want to waste mana on invisibility.
Which had been the whole reason I had dyed it in the first place.
But for now, it was fine. Stealth wasn't in the plan of attack against this pack.
Uriel had been right when he praised me for including the daughter of a goddess known for wisdom and strategy on my little team. For as soon as I told Annabeth about the tome my mother had given, which had information on basically every beast, monster, and notable individual in the Biblical pantheon, she practically stole it from me.
She'd been glued to it for a long while after.
It paid its dividends though, as when I had asked Percy if we should just repeat the stealth play we did against the Vampires she chimed in about how stupid that would be.
In hindsight yes, it would be pretty stupid to try stealth against monsters who had some of the greatest senses in the world. Especially when Demigods already had a strong scent, to begin with.
Which was why we all agreed to go in heavy.
For Percy and me that was fine, we had elemental powers and legendary swords at our disposal. Annabeth meanwhile did not, I had to improvise a bit.
So now we found ourselves on a deserted beach on Lake Michigan's shoreline. The perfect training spot for all three of us.
"Arms like this when you hold it and adjust the stock so it kicks into your shoulder, not your collar bone." I instructed with my arms wrapped around her from behind to help adjust her stance.
"Like this?" She asked as she adjusted the M4 I had gotten her.
"Just like that." I confirmed, "Now let loose, it should be adjusted to burst right now."
I let go and backed off as I watched her fire into the targets I had set up. I'd give Annabeth this, she was a hell of a lot easier to teach than Percy.
Which wasn't hard considering Percy still couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a shotgun if he tried. Though I'm sure being the daughter of a war goddess helped with weaponry as well. The only people better at martial abilities than the Athena kids were Ares children after all.
"Oh, so I get a pistol meanwhile she gets an assault rifle?" Percy complained from the hood of the car.
I snorted, "You can make earthquakes, summon tsunamis, and shoot ice spears. You're fine as you are."
"You're not wrong, but I still want an assault rifle."
"And you'll get one when you can prove to me that you can hit a target semi accurately from 20 yards away." I offered.
The last time I'd let Percy fire my rifle, he almost put a hole in the car despite the fact it was a good 50 yards right to the target he'd been aiming at. Suffice to say it was going to be another couple of years before I let him try again.
Percy rolled his eyes and jumped off the car, "Speaking of hitting things, you wanna train together? It's been a bit since we went a couple of rounds in the ring."
"Nah." I said, "You can keep practicing whatever you want while Annabeth works on her aim. I'm going to move a couple miles away from you guys and practice with some Air and Lightning techniques I want to try and develop."
Percy raised an eyebrow, "And you need to go a couple of miles away to do it, why?"
"Because my control isn't perfect and unlike you, Annabeth doesn't have any special resistance to elemental abilities. The last thing I need is to lose control of a lightning bolt and have to explain to Athena why I turned her daughter into a pile of ashes." I explained as I glanced at said girl.
Her first target was already peppered decently and she had reloaded a second magazine into the carbine for the next one.
"Makes sense I suppose." Percy accepted, "Just do your best and try not to cause a forest fire… again. I'm not putting this next one out."
"Yeah yeah." I waved off as I turned around to begin my trek away from the shoreline, "And if you sense any kind of evil energy my way, it's probably because I'm going to use a summoning contract to talk to a Devil."
I only made it a couple of steps before I got a response.
"You're gonna summon a demon? Is that even remotely safe?" Percy called after me.
"Nah, a Devil not a Demon." I shouted back, "Devils look like humans, and this one's in high school I think."
"Oh… have fun I guess?"
A chuckle escaped me from just the sheer confusion I could hear from Percy's voice. I could understand it myself. The Greek myths we all heard were pretty literal in this universe. The monsters and all the gods existed, Demigods were sired to go on quests, and epic prophecies with mixed meanings were issued. It all lined up pretty well.
Sure some of it had a modern coat on it. It was established that some stuff did adapt to humanity as they advanced and how they viewed those old myths.
But the biblical faction meanwhile was deviating from its OG myths pretty hard. Either the bible here was really fucked up in translation or the random option decided to crank itself up to 11.
It wasn't quite DXD from what I've seen. The presence of The Colt and Demon Traps seemed to indicate a bit of influence from Supernatural, but the human-looking Devils and Fallen were very much DXD.
Or maybe there was some other book series or anime I hadn't seen which it had taken influence off of?
Then there was Uriel who reminded me of his character from The Dresden Files.
It all seemed to be one big mess.
20 minutes later and I had a nice little clearing all to myself for this summon and unlike last time I was now forgoing the Devil Trap I had made last time.
The Raum chick seemed pretty chill all things considered and her level hadn't even been that threatening all those months ago. Meanwhile, my abilities had only grown stronger.
If it came to blows I was highly confident I could take her head off before she could react.
Pumping the same amount of mana I had last time I tossed the contract towards the ground and just like before a purple magic seal exploded into existence before a distinctly female form appeared from it.
Both my eyebrows shot up as I realized the female form in front of me was almost naked with the exception of the micro bikini that put the micro in micro.
Jesus Christ.
The Raum girl blinked in confusion before her gaze fell on me and understanding dawned on her.
"Oh hello, Arthur! Long time no see!" She greeted, "You know, you seem to have an uncanny ability to summon me when I'm right in the middle of class."
My eyes ran up and down her very curvy form in skepticism before meeting the older girl's eyes.
"Uh-huh, I didn't know bikinis were one of the standard uniforms down there. An odd choice, but who am I to question another culture?" I said with a shrug.
The devil in front of me rolled her eyes, "I was in swim practice, Arthur. You saw me in the uniform the last time we met, and don't act like you don't know anything about the academy. I've been hounded by some of your sisters, their friends, and your friends about you. I know you've attended Lucifuge Academy just like me."
Hmm, maybe it wasn't ideal to have alerted Michelle that I was still alive, but eh. It was probably going to happen at some point.
"That would be true if I didn't have amnesia." I said dryly, "I don't remember anything before the day at the airport where my dad was killed."
Which to be fair, this body did kind of have amnesia in a sense. Just instead of brain damage causing it, a soul swap did the job instead.
Gwen didn't seem to expect that as she seemed taken aback by that piece of information.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry to hear that Arthur." She said apologetically as a bit of concern appeared in her facial expression, "Do you need to go to a mind healer? We might be able to recover your memories and make sure there was no lasting damage. My family has some of the best ones in the Underworld on staff at our castle."
"Nah. My mother already checked over my mind and made sure there was nothing wrong." I lied straight through my teeth, "And if a Goddess can't find anything wrong I doubt anyone you have can. No offense."
"That makes…" She started before she trailed off and fixed me with an odd look, "Did you say Goddess?"
Hm, I guess I didn't tell her what I was the last time we met.
"Oh sorry, guess I never fully introduced myself. Name's Arthur Achilles Winchester Son of Artemis and Grandson of Zeus." I said with a small bow.
Technically a lot of campers could claim that last bit, but considering I had his lightning and air powers, I felt like I was a bit more entitled to it.
Plus if it made others treat me better or be less likely to fuck with me, then who was I to argue?
I received a wide-eyed stare in return, "Z-Zeus? As in Zeus, the King Olympus?"
"Yep." I said popping the P.
"Huh." She muttered to herself, "I guessed you had Angel heritage when I talked to your sister. Guess I was pretty far off."
Couldn't blame her for that. The Silver Eyes and Photokinesis were basically a dead ringer for Angel in her case.
"Well moving past my lineage, let's talk about why I summoned you." I said, directing the conversation to my main point.
"Your main point huh? Are you sure you just didn't summon me to stare all day Arthur?" She teased as she enticingly pulled on her bikini strings.
From concerned and awed to flirty in seconds. Truly weird these Devils were.
"As much as I would like to, I have something else that's far more pressing." I said and handed over a piece of paper, "I'd like you to find all the information the Underworld has on this person. I'll take anything you can get your hands on from books to scrolls."
The Raum girl looked at the name on the paper, "Samuel Colt? Aw phooey, you're giving me homework? And here I thought you called to do something fun..."
She trailed off that last part with a little smirk and a wink.
Good god if all the girls in the Underworld were this gorgeous and flirty I'd do my best to never step down there.
"Maybe another time." I said dryly, "Is there anything in particular you want as payment for this? More divine metal or some other form of wealth perhaps?"
I had plenty to spare with my access to Olympus and my Lotus Card. Even if it was a pain in the ass to convert mortal money to Drachmas.
The young lady in front of me put a finger up to her lips and hummed in thought, "None of that. Being from a noble family I don't need much in the way of wealth. How about a singular favor instead?"
"As long as it doesn't involve anyone's souls being taken then you've got yourself a deal." I said.
"Awesome!" She cheered, "Now to seal our contract!"
"Seal the contract?" I questioned.
As far as I remembered we didn't do anything special the last time.
"When you first summoned me I couldn't technically complete it since you had me in a Devil Trap and forcibly sent me back. But now we can!"
"Oh so is it some form of signature or blo-"
My words were cut off rather forcibly as I suddenly found a pair of lips on my own and another tongue inserted into my mouth.
Between that and the almost completely naked pair of breasts pushed against me I almost didn't register some form of energy click between us.
!
Devil Contract formed! Please go into your quest log if you would like to review said contract.
Despite the contract already being sealed, I found myself locked into the little make-out session for a little while longer until she finally let go.
"Vanilla and strawberry. I like it." Gwen giggled with a wink, "See you later Arthur~"
Another purple sigil lit up the clearing and I was once again alone.
So… my first kiss had been taken by a gorgeous Devil.
"What in the goddamn fuck is wrong with my life." I muttered.
In hindsight, I should have seen that coming. Stories said that crossroad demons often sealed their deals with a kiss or other mature methods.
Shaking my head I charged up lightning within my body and turned towards the largest boulders in the area.
Might as well get some training done while I was out here. I had gotten inspiration for a new technique that could take my destructive power up a couple notches.
"So this is the area?" Percy asked as we came to a stop where the poorly maintained dirt road ended, "Gotta say it's kinda underwhelming compared to the Vampire Lair."
"You're not wrong." I agreed and opened the car door.
It had been violently storming in the middle of the night at an abandoned town when Percy and I hunted those Vampires. Along with the supernatural fog around the gothic mansion, the scene had really been set in a fantasy sort of way.
Whereas of now we were just in a forest at the beginning of dawn.
"You know it kinda just feels wrong that we aren't using anything silver." Percy said, "Never thought I'd be hunting werewolves, but I'd at least expect to use silver bullets."
"That's what Celestial Bronze is for Percy." Annabeth chided as she stepped out of the front.
"It's just like when we were hunting those Vamps." I added, "If we were normal humans we would have needed stakes, holy water, and a bunch of other shit. You know, annoying stuff. Our magic bronze thankfully lets us cheat past that."
"So how are we going to do this then? Did those files Uriel gave you give us the exact location?" He asked.
I shrugged, "It gave a decently small area of where his sources say they are. But it shouldn't be hard to find them with my eyes and tracking abilities."
With that, I sent a bit of mana towards my eyes to activate my enhanced sight.
"They should be mostly asleep during the day so by ti-"
I stopped my sentence midway through as my aura sight kicked in.
There were a lot of red foreign auras around us.
Huh.
"You good Arthur?" Annabeth asked with a tilt of her head.
I looked at the Son of Poseidon, "Uh Percy, that seismic sense of yours isn't passive is it?"
Percy gave me a strange look, "No, I have to concentrate to use it. Why?"
"Humor me and use it."
He closed his eyes and I felt an ever so slight tremor pulse out from where he was standing.
A few moments later his eyes snapped back open.
"Oh…"
"Yeah…" I muttered.
Annabeth looked between the both of us before she frowned, "We're surrounded aren't we?"
The both of us nodded.
Whelp that killed the initial plan.
I thought for a second about how they possibly knew we were coming before I came to an obvious conclusion.
Percy and I must've smelled stronger than I initially even thought. I knew that would destroy our stealth option, but I didn't realize it would let them know we were coming before we even started.
Now that I knew they were there I could distant make out the ruffling of leaves and growls that definitely weren't from normal wolves.
"Well in the interest of not becoming dog food, time for combo move 5 Percy."
Percy's eyes widened, "We're doing the WildFire combo?"
"Yep." I agreed.
Annabeth groaned, "I swear to gods if you both get me killed I'm haunting both of you."
I chuckled, "Alright Percy on my mark."
A blur at the end of my vision alerted me to the fact the beasts had gotten impatient or an order and were now moving towards us.
"Never mind, mark Percy!"
The Son of Poseidon nodded and his face twisted in concentration and his hands clenched into fists.
Almost an instant later an orb of water appeared in the air in front of Percy. It then started growing exponentially larger.
If one were to pay attention you would notice that as the orb grew, the foliage around us began to wither and die as it dried out. If you had a bird's eye view you would see the same effect happening to it around a quarter-mile away as well.
Living things had water and unlike magical beings, plants couldn't resist water being drawn out of them by those who could manipulate it.
It allowed Percy to gain access to water if there wasn't a source around or enough in the air.
And it allowed me fresh access to a bunch of kindling.
A sphere of lightning shot from my hands and into the air where it then split apart into hundreds of smaller bolts that then rained down onto the now dry forest.
The first of the beasts broke the tree line in the small clearing we were in just as the first bolts touched the withered ground and trees to create the embers needed for the plan.
I gave a wave to the ugly mother fucker as I pulled on the pressure that built up inside my lungs.
A great burst of wind came forth and gave fuel to those embers.
The last things I saw before Percy's now-massive orb of water formed a dome to cover us and the car was the world erupting into a sea of flames.
"Jesus." I winced as while I couldn't see clearly through the churning dome of water, the light refracting through it was still almost as bright as the sun and I swear I could still feel the heat through it.
I took a chance on activating my eyes again and saw that all the red auras that had been surrounding us were either gone or flailing around on the ground as they were incinerated.
We stood in the dome for a good 30 more minutes before we finally felt the heat drop significantly and I signaled for Percy to drop the water.
Percy let his hand drop and wiped some sweat off his brow as the water crashed to the ground and let us view our handy work.
"Damn." Percy whistled, "Smokey's gonna be pissed at us, Arthur."
!
25 Lvl 40 Werewolves eliminated. +25000 XP and 2000$.
Leveled up 1x time!
Nice.
"You can say that again." Annabeth mumbled as we viewed the burnt-out and charred forest around us, "Your both lucky Pan's been gone for centuries. Otherwise, he'd be down here kicking both your butts."
I snorted, "Yeah well if he ever comes out of hiding I think he'll have bigger fish to fry with the rest of humanity. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch might have his attention first."
The smoking ruins of the forest around us stretched out as far as the eye could see. Which was unfortunate as this pack would definitely know we were coming now.
And now they'd be pissed considering we just incinerated a good chunk of their pack.
"All right let's get moving then. I'm not liking how possibly big their pack is if they can spare 25 fighters just for an ambush. I want to get this done before it's even remotely nightfall." I said.
Percy and Annabeth gave me a nod in return and with that, we were off.
Hell:
"It's still too tight."
"And you're complaining~"
Cadius Winchester rolled his amber eyes in faux annoyance at the woman in front of him, "You're incorrigible. You know that?"
The woman smirked and brushed a piece of snow-white hair back behind her ear, "Perhaps. But maybe if you stopped fidgeting so I can tie it correctly I wouldn't be almost choking you."
"You know I hate suits." He muttered, "They're so restrictive and stiff."
"But you look oh so handsome in it. I'll be fantasizing about ripping it off you all night." She purred into his ear.
Cadius brought his hand up to lift her chin to get a better look at her ruby red eyes, "I'm sure you and Lilian will be doing plenty of that later."
"What a lucky man you are, Mr. Winchester The Lord of a House at only 21, a powerful peerage, and having the two beautiful ladies at your side during the gala." She playfully said as she finished the tie, "Perfect."
"Well then if we're ready let's go grab Lilian and depart. Wouldn't be a good introduction as a new lord to be late." He said as he looped her arm around his, "Shall we Miss. Lucifuge?"
She rolled her eyes, "I suppose Mr. Winchester"
"You know if you both could stop flirting for 5 seconds you'd realize I was already here."
Both young adults turned their heads around and indeed found their black-haired companion smirking at them.
Cadius took in her midnight black dress with appreciation, a stark contrast from the white and gold one the woman on his arm was already wearing.
"I see you finally got his tie on Daphne." Lilian remarked as she came up to the Winchester's free arm and wrapped her arm around it, "I take you both are ready?"
"Unfortunately." The scion of house Winchester muttered.
Daphne Lucifuge reached up and planted a kiss on his cheek, "You'll do fine politicking sweetie."
"I suppose we will see."
Cadius flared his magic and summoned a teleportation circle. In the blink of an eye, all three of them were gone.
Note - If you wanna read 5 chapters ahead or just wanna support me here's the link - https://www.patreon.com/cw/AWinSter. The last two chapters over there are far longer.