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Liam believed that nature was the best teacher, but also the cruelest. Nature rewarded excellence with food and punished even the smallest mistakes with death. It tolerated no laziness and continually purged itself of weak creatures, these were the reasons Liam enjoyed being surrounded by nature from time to time. His brief camping trips didn’t only help him with his tracking and survival skills, they also helped him escape the constant chaos of camp Jupiter which was much needed at times. Although Liam had come out here to hunt several times, he had never brought any archery equipment because he never killed the animals he hunted. For him, the fun was in testing his tracking skills, his stealth abilities, and his basic survival skills. He preferred to not kill any living thing unless he had to. However, despite the fact that most of his hunting trips hadn’t involved much violence, he always kept a gladius strapped to his left hip in case anything tried to attack him.

Today, The son of mars had spent most of the afternoon tracking down a deer. The tracks and clues his prey had left behind lead him much deeper into the woods than he usually ventured, but no matter how deep he ventured, he saw no deer. In fact, he hadn’t seen any animal at all today, which was strange, to say the least. Even though it was getting dark, he refused to turn back until he had managed to find his quarry. This was mostly due to pride since he had never failed to find something once he had set his mind on tracking it. So, time passed and daylight disappeared, yet he still didn’t see a single animal. It almost felt like they were all hiding from him, or maybe something worse than him. By the time he managed to finally find the deer it was already dead, but there were no bite marks on it which indicated that it wasn’t killed by a hungry predator. He also couldn’t see any arrow wounds or blade marks, which meant it hadn’t been killed by one of the Artemins kids who also liked hunting in these woods. From the looks of it, this deer had been killed by some sort of blunt force trauma that crushed its ribs.

Liam wanted to investigate further, but there was no time. the sun had set, and he could see a few storm clouds approaching. Clearly, time wasn’t on his side today, so he decided to turn back and head to camp. Sadly, due to how deep Liam had ventured into the woods, the storm caught up to him before he could get anywhere near camp. The heavy rain soaked his clothes and washed away his tracks, which made it much more difficult to navigate back to camp. At this point, all he could do was remind himself to stay calm and follow his instincts. Even though he had no clear direction, he knew that panicking could only worsen a situation, so he slowly trudged through the muddy forest in an attempt to get back to civilization.

Despite the fact that the rain had washed away any tracks and trails he could have followed back to camp, he didn’t really mind the storm. Mostly because the occasional burst of lightning helped light up the dark night sky and the sound of thunder scared off any wild animals that might have posed a threat to him as he tried to navigate through his poorly lit surroundings. The only thing that posed a threat to him now was the flu since he wasn’t immune to the side effects of bad weather like the children of Jupiter or Neptune.

After a few more minutes of nonchalantly trudging through the muddy woodlands, Liam heard a loud thunderous roar in the vicinity. The loud thunderous roar didn’t sound like it came from any normal woodland creature, and while the most sensible thing to do would have been to avoid whatever had made that sound. Liam had a feeling that if he avoided the beast now, it would probably sneak up on him later, once it became aware of his presence. He knew that If he walked away now and allowed the beast to catch him off guard later, it would most certainly be the death of him, so he ran toward the direction of the roar to investigate it and face the problem head-on before it came back to bite him in the b*tt.

After a few seconds of sprinting in the direction he had heard the roar coming from, he also heard a rather familiar voice. He couldn’t exactly identify what the voice was saying or who it had come from. But the familiar tone made him run just a bit faster. When Liam finally arrived at the scene, he burst out of the foliage like a wild animal, then he came to a halt in order to assess his surroundings. His eyes quickly recognized the blonde demigod that was angrily scrambling back to her feet. Then when he saw the minotaur, Liam’s body moved on its own and stood in front of Estelle in order to shield her from the monster. Even though Liam knew this woman was a capable fighter.

He had seen her take down several campers in sparring sessions, and he had known her long enough to understand what her powers could do. In his mind, he definitely knew she was no damsel in distress. Yet for some reason, his body had moved without thinking and shielded her as if she was a damsel in distress. ” Hey sparky, you alright?” his tone was nonchalant and his words were brief, as usual. Anyone who knew Liam knew he wasn’t a man of many words; he chose his words carefully and used them only when necessary. This habit of speaking only when needed often made his words carry more weight around camp since the other capers knew he never spoke needlessly.

When Liam spoke to someone, he was usually formal enough to use a person’s full name to refer to them. If he didn’t know them, he would simply call them camper. Estelle was probably the only person in the camp whose name he didn’t use, instead, he had grown fond of calling her sparky, and occasionally he would refer to her as Princess Bolt when he was being sarcastic toward her or just teasing her. Liam remained in front of her and looked back. ” how about I distract him, then you can light him up?” he spoke while entering a light-footed boxing stance. His heels barely touched the ground as he prepared to pounce on the monster with his bare hands. Liam knew he was strong enough to easily lift a ton and his strength probably maxed out at a ton and a half. So maybe, he and this beast would be equally matched in brute strength. If not, the minotaur would probably only have a minor edge over him. So, if he grappled with the minotaur just a bit, he knew he could give Estelle just enough time to use some sky magic on the beast.

[attr="class","THREAD1BLTAG"] WORDS (optional) Estelle R. Mason

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The rain continued to pour as the minotaur shook its head and roared at them ferociously, its bronze nose ring gleamed under the moonlight as it exhaled angrily and prepared to charge at the two demigods. Hearing the blonde demigod behind him telling him that she was fine, put Liam at ease and caused him to do something he didn’t do often, which was smirk just a little. ”atta girl.”

When the minotaur roared again and began charging at them, Liam released his own bloodthirsty roar and charged right at the minotaur. The beast had charged with its face down and its horns forward in an attempt to impale the son of mars, but Liam grabbed the minotaur’s horns and planted his feet firmly into the muddy ground for balance. Then he proceeded to push back against the monster. The two of them were locked in a battle of strength and wills as they tried to push each other backward, the muddy floor provided very little resistance or stability for both of them so if Liam or the minotaur lost their footing they would most certainly go down.

He pushed the beast back one step, then it retaliated by pushing him back two steps. The monster was clearly just a bit stronger than him, but Liam didn’t have to win this muddy tug of war. He was just buying time for the beautiful demigod who was now above them to give him the signal. And sure enough when he heard her shout “Liam Move!” he kicked the minotaur’s lowered face upward so he could safely release its horns, then he let go and jumped back.

Liam was blinded by an extremely bright light as the bolt of lightning came down to strike the minotaur, then the deafening sound of thunder followed right after the lightning. Luckily, he was just out of range when the bolt struck, so he was pushed back a few feet by the sheer force of the lightning as it struck the monster. After being pushed back, he quickly rolled in the mud and got back on his feet in one fluid motion. As a close-range fighter, he was used to getting up as quickly as he had been knocked down.

The first thing Liam did when he got up was look for Estelle, seeing her falling out of a tree definitely concerned him but he knew how tough she was. So, he fought off the desire to go check on her, and instead, he ran toward the minotaur. He couldn’t believe this thing was still standing after Sparky had brought down a literal bolt of lightning on it, but it looked stunned for the time being and he didn’t want to waste this opportunity.

So, Liam quickly moved behind it and firmly wrapped his arms around the beast’s waist, Then, he used all the strength he could muster to perform the most forceful and violent German suplex possible. As he performed the suplex, he slammed the minotaur on its head as violently as he could with a loud thud, which caused the minotaur to release a beastly howl. He hoped that he could snap its neck or at least collapse some of its spinal vertebrae with this move since he smashed it headfirst into the ground. But even if that wasn’t the case, he was still at an advantage since the monster was on the floor now. Liam quickly got back on his feet and picked up Estelle’s spatha, then he carelessly shoved it into the minotaur’s chest.

Usually, Liam would have confirmed his kill, but in this situation, he didn’t. He assumed the monster couldn’t possibly survive everything they had put it through plus a sword through the chest. So, instead of making sure it was dead, he rushed over to Estelle in order to check on her. Liam knelt beside her, then he gently held her head up from the mud. Once her head was elevated He slowly moved some of her blonde hair away from her face so he could see those eyes that had the same hue of grey as a storm cloud, it was obvious that Her ferocity in combat had clearly impressed him.

Liam usually didn’t care much for superficial looks. This is why none of the women in the camp had caught his attention in the slightest. But Estelle’s combination of beauty and ferocity had made him notice her when he first saw her sparring. Liam quickly shook those thoughts out of his head and reminded himself of his priorities as a legionnaire above everything else. ” Nice work Sparky, let's get back to camp.” his tone was as calm and low as usual, but his face had a vey small smirk, one that was very easy to miss. Then he helped her up and allowed her to lean on him for support. He watched her closely to see if she could walk, If she was still too dizzy then he’d probably carry her.

[attr="class","THREAD1BLTAG"] WORDS (optional) Estelle R. Mason

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Liam had noticed a very subtle wince of pain when Estelle tried to laugh, which concerned him just a little, but his face didn’t show it. He was glad she still had the energy to make jokes about her flight after everything that had happened. Liam chuckled just a little at her comment about the ungraceful landing before he replied. ”you think you're not graceful?... Not even the most graceful ballerina is light-footed enough to walk on air…… after that display I might start adding twinkle toes to your long list of names” he spoke with a playful smirk on his face as she leaned on him so he could help her walk. The son of mars enjoyed having Estelle this close to him, his hand gently rested on her waist for extra support as they began to walk.

” if we dragged that minotaur back to camp do you think we could trick everyone into eating minotaur steak?” he asked her jokingly as he considered playing a little prank on his fellow demigods. The children of mars had a habit of messing with each other and roughhousing for the fun of it, so he could already imagine the look on the faces of his half-siblings after he told them they were eating some random creature that he and Estelle had killed.

At this point, both of their clothes were soaked and covered in mud, Liam even had a bit of minotaur blood on him which he didn’t mind in the least. He just enjoyed being out here with her, but then he got a bit curious about why she was all the way out here fighting cow monsters by herself. ” So, you know I like punching stuff, but you didn’t think of inviting me on your little monster hunting trip? I’m hurt sparky.” he spoke playfully and even changed his voice to make it seem like he was emotionally hurt, then he placed his hand over his chest to make his acting a bit more believable. He was obviously joking, but he often found it weird that he felt comfortable being this playful around someone else. He didn’t understand exactly why being around her felt this comfortable, but it just did.

When she told him she could walk by herself now, he let go of her waist and allowed her to stand on her own two feet. He was glad to see her bounce back, then he suddenly remembered that he had left her spatha inserted in the minotaur’s chest. He released a subtle sigh before he continued speaking ” oh by the way. I left your favorite toy in beef head’s chest. Remind me to get you a new one tomorrow.” unlike his siblings, Liam couldn’t summon weapons at will, but he had quite an impressive collection of historical weapons hidden away in his cabin so maybe he would give her a sword from his collection. Or maybe he would surprise her by having a new sword made with the word “sparky” engraved on it. He smirked a little at the latter. He was completely oblivious that the monster hadn’t died.

[attr="class","THREAD1BLTAG"] WORDS (522) Estelle R. Mason