"Because it's your duty as the boyfriend in this relationship!"
Julia smiled at that statement while the rest of the Romans shouted, "WHAT?!"
"Haha!" Conner laughed, "that was our exact reaction as well."
"A child of Neptune and a daughter of Jupiter?!" Rob yelled out, "is Venus going mad?"
"Shut up Rob," Julia snapped at him while other children of Venus glared at the Praetor, including Selina.
Thalia clicked her teeth in disappointment, "didn't I tell you to never insult a God in front of their kids?"
Rob paled as he put his head down, "I'm sorry."
"Thalia?" a familiar voice called out as Jason ran out of the crowd and into his sister's waiting arms.
"Jason!" Thalia called out as she grabbed her little brother and hugged him tightly.
"You came back!" Jason cried out in happiness.
Thalia grinned as she rubbed her knuckles on Jason's head, "of course I did dum dum, didn't I tell you I was going to?"
Jason grinned, "yeah, hehe, I forgot."
Thalia chuckled at brother's behavior as she called Annabeth over to introduce the daughter of Athena to her brother.
After a few more minutes of catching up Julia took the head councillors, along with Thalia, while Percy got stuck with Rob.
The two demigods walked into the field of Mars and there waiting for them was an entire cohort armed with imperial gold weapons and armour with their flag depicting an Eagle held high up.
"So I'm going to be dealing with the first Cohort today?" Percy asked Rob.
The Praetor nodded, "yup. And I'm coming with."
Percy raised an eyebrow, "really?"
Rob nodded as he put on his helmet, "yeah. What? You thought I was just going to hand over one fifth of the army to you no questions asked? Come on Percy, we like you, but we aren't stupid."
Percy chuckled, "fair enough," Percy took out the huge length of rope he used before and untangled it, "alright everyone listen up! What you're about to do is a training exercise of sorts. As some of you many know I have the power to create pocket dimensions, and one variation of said power is the ability to create worlds with monsters in them!"
"What type of monsters?" one of the Legionnaires asked.
Percy looked at their title and smiled, "excellent question Reyna," Percy smirked at her surprised look, "I remember you from the time we first entered camp."
"I am honoured sir!" Reyna stood at attention.
"At ease soldier," Percy chuckled, "now to answer Reyna's questions, the monsters you will be fighting are....a secret."
The Romans looked surprised while Percy continued, "this is mainly to get you used to the element of surprise. Obviously it will only work once, so I want to just see and gauge what you all would do at the said situation. Now, here are the rules. If you are about to die I will intervene and pull you aside. Once I pull you out you will stay where you are, unless you have to move in order to avoid a monster attack. The world where I am about to take you is no laughing matter, is something happens to you and we leave without you, you will be stuck in a world which is filled with nothing but monsters. Is this clear?"
The Romans looked at each other nervously as many whispered amongst themselves.
Percy rolled his eyes, "I said, IS THAT CLEAR?!"
"Sir yes sir!' The Romans shouted out.
Percy nodded, "good. Now, I am sending around this rope," Percy threw it into their ranks, "I want you all to pass it along and hold it tightly once everyone got a piece of it. And remember, the moment we leave this world you are on your own. You won't see me, you won't get any advice from me."
The Romans all nodded, even Rob who Percy expected to say something snarky like, 'as if we ever would need the help of a Greek,' kept quite.
After everyone had a piece of the rope Percy put his hand up, 'ID Create: Zombies.'
The legionnaires were all stunned as they saw the blue sky turn red. All the sound they heard from camp or even New Rome was gone. It was like they were the only ones alive. They looked around and sure enough they found no sign of Percy anywhere.
"Alright men!" Rob cried out, "line up! And remember, we don't know what these monsters are, so until we know where they are going to come from no one try anything risky! Stay together!"
Percy sat on top of one of the now empty watch towers looked down at the first cohort. So far they had stayed together and moved slowly across the field of Mars towards the campsite. Percy had already taken a look around and found that the normal zombies, that is the weaker kind, hanged out mostly around the borders of the encampment while the tough zombies were found deeper inside.
Percy had also checked New Rome and sure enough the same pattern of weaker zombies on the outside while the stronger ones on the inside held true. Percy watched as the first cohort eventually made it onto the road leading to the encampment, he smirked, 'looks like the show is about to begin.'
"Open the doors!" Rob shouted at the closed doors of the wooden encampment. They waited for many minutes but nothing happened. Rob cursed, "you two push the doors open!"
The first two legionaries nodded as they moved too the doors and slowly pushed them apart. The moment the door were opened however a hoard of the undead jumped out of the shadows of the wall and from the sides and charged the first cohort.
The two legionnaires who opened the door were hit first. One managed to fight them off while he rejoined the other by the other one tripped and fell down.
Percy zoomed forward and grabbed the fallen soldier before the zombies could get him. He reappeared in the middle of the field of Mars and put the Legionnaire down.
The Roman looked up, "what were those things?"
"Zombies," Percy replied as he poured mana into his gem and summoned Craig and Zed. The servants bowed to him, "protect this Roman and the others that I bring. Don't let them sneak away. If they are here, they stay here. Unless staying here endangers their lives, got it?"
"Got it boss," Zed said while Craig just silently nodded.
Percy then went back into the action and hoped he didn't miss anything. So far no one else had died while he was away, which was good. It seemed Rob didn't lose his cool as he had ordered all the Romans to form a turtle structure using their shield to give them the defence they needed.
The Romans then made small openings in their shield structures through which spears were thrust out killing zombies in either one critical strike or multiple ones.
Percy smiled as soon all the normal zombies were taken care off by the legionnaires. Rob finally released the turtle grinning, he raised his spear up, "VICTORY!" The Romans copied him as they cheered along with their Praetor.
Percy sighed, 'you so should have not done that pal.'
"ARGH!" the sound of hundreds of voices roaring at the same time tore through the camp. The Roman's premature cheering had gained them at the attention of all the stronger zombies inside the camp, and they were all coming for them.
Rob and the other's paled at the sight of Roman zombies charging at them. It seems in camp Jupiter the stronger zombies were all Roman while in camp Half-blood they were Greek. They had the exact same stats, just different looks to them.
The Roma zombies were semi-organized as they charged forward with their shields interlocks and spear thrusted forward.
"Return to positions!" Rob called out as they quickly reformed the turtle position. Percy then watched as the zombies rammed the Romans pushing them back. The ones in the back were unaffected, but the ones in the front were hurt.
The ones in the front fought back, but the Romans zombies attacked them mercilessly. Percy had to move fast, picking up injured Romans and healing them with his blood runes.
The Romans however quickly beat them all, and it only cost them half their forces. Rob now stood panting, that battle was difficult for him. Not only were the zombies Romans, but they also were undead.
The concept of the Roman battle tactics was to fight over the fallen bodies of your comrades, replacing them before your defensive or offencive position has been compensated. But the Legionnaires were only human, even if they were trained to walk over the dead, saying something and doing it were two different things.
The Zombies however didn't have any qualms about that. They walked over their dead, they used their weapons in the fight. They were merciless, it was like fighting the perfect Roman army.
"Not bad," Percy called out from the sidelines. The Romans all snapped their weapons at him in a panic but calmed down once they realised it was him.
"Jackson," Rob growled out, "what are these things?!"
"I told you, monsters. These things are a representation of what you might have to face when fighting the Titans. Their army will be the same," Percy narrowed his eyes, "just as merciless but even more powerful. These zombies are nothing, they are not even that properly organized. While I admit you Romans impressed me, you are all far from ready."
Rob sighed, "where are the others? Are they okay?"
Percy nodded, "yes. Follow me."
The Romans did as Percy lead them back to the field of Mars. Percy dismissed Craig and Zed and allowed the Romans to meet up with their comrades.
"Line up!" Percy called out as he passed out the rope to them all. After double checking everyone was present Percy put his hand up, 'ID Escape!'
The Roman were relieved to see the blue sky again along with the sounds of their fellow soldiers in the camp.
Percy walked forward, "now...how do you think you all did?"
The Romans looked down in disappointment as Rob spoke up, "badly."
Percy shook his head, "actually you all did pretty good. Much better than the first batch of Greeks I trained in fact."
The Romans looked surprised at that, "really?" One Roman asked.
Percy nodded, "yup. A lot more people almost died in their run. But they did manage to get further than you lot. Seriously, half a wave and you all were already exhausted."
"What do you mean half a wave?" Rob asked, "we faced two waves of zombies!"
Percy shook his head, "nope. Every wave of zombies contains a mixture of normal zombies and special zombies. You beat them both and the final boss of the wave appears. You guys only managed to fight off half of the zombies in that world, there was another army of them hidden inside New Rome which you would have had to fight. Only then would you have faced the final boss, and only after you defeat them does it count as beating one wave of zombies."
The Romans were surprised and horrified at what Percy was telling them. Rib was discouraged and so were the rest of them. Percy sighed, "look, this is completely expected, okay? There was literally nothing you lot could have done. All this proved was judging how well you all did in a stressful situation, nothing else. So keep your chin up Romans, you will have another chance to prove yourselves, and I expect you all to do better next time."
The Romans all nodded as a look of challenge came into their eyes. Percy grinned, this was exactly what he wanted, that look, that look of determination.
Percy dismissed the cohort and Rob quickly brought up the second cohort for their training. The Centurion for that cohort, Michael Brown, son of Vulcan, lead the group of soldiers and Percy took them through the same training routine he used for the first.
At the end of that day Percy had tested all 5 cohorts and the results were surprising to say the least.
The first cohort did the worst, they were far too rigid. They stuck to the basic Roman statics and while that might have been alright for fighting other humans, ruthless monster's were another matter.
The second Cohort did better, they had managed to loose less people, but Percy still stopped them all half way through the battle after they cleared the camp.
The third was just like the first, stuck to the rules of combat and didn't adapt quickly enough. The fourth did a little better than the second as they had made it halfway into the city before Percy stopped them.
Then came the fifth cohort, the one Jason was in. They were the most relaxed cohort of them all, Rob was right, they were more Greek than anyone else in this camp. So maybe that was why they did so well.
Percy was amazed that the way Jason took charged. The Centurion for the fifth, some dude named Sam, froze seeing the zombies. Jason lead the charge and decimated the weaker zombies. And instead of blindly charging in Jason sent scouts to look and draw out groups of Roman zombies. Once they were out the cohort would attack them before they alerted the others.
This went on until they completely annihilated the zombies inside the encampment. Soon the went to New Rome where Percy just watched and smiled as Jason applied the same tactics over here as well.
They lost very few Legionnaires, probably just 15 or so. Eventually Percy himself had to step in and stop the battle because at the end the fifth had cleared all the zombies resulting in the summoning of the Legion Zombie that Percy scared away with one look.
Soon after the fifth were done Percy got Rob to bring all five Cohorts to the field of Mars as Percy wrote a very basic report. Damn Romans and their paperwork.
The son of Poseidon stood in front of them all with his finished ten page report in hand. He looked at all the Centurions and the Legionaries, they looked straight ahead, not made eye contact with him. Percy smiled at the respect they gave him, 'damn, I wish the Greeks were like this. But then again that might over inflate my ego....'
"So, who do you think did the best?" Percy asked frankly.
"The fifth," Rob spoke out solemnly causing the Romans in the first cohort to glare at the fifth.
"Stop glaring!" Percy shouted causing to snap their eyes forward, "you all failed, it isn't their fault for being better than you! Instead of belittling them with your looks try and learn why they succeeded while you failed!" The first cohort looked down in shame as Jason finally realised why Percy was in fact the Greek camp leader, and not Thalia. The son of Poseidon might be laid back, but he can also be a ferocious and merciless leader.
"Now...why do you all think they succeeded?" No one answered Percy, "well since no one has the balls to speak up I'll do it. It's because they were able to adapt to their situations. The fifth didn't stick to the rules of combat, which works great only when fighting humans, monsters, as you all know now, are completely different."
"So they were better because they fought like Greeks?" Rob asked in surprise.
Percy sighed, "Rob you have got to stop using that term as an insult. Or I swear to the Gods I will shove that spear up your ass."
