Audentis Fortuna Iuvat

The tsunami of monsters barelled over the crest of the hill and came down on us with all the momentum of the rushing seas. Reyna screamed orders at the top of her lungs but the legion was in panic.

"Pila!" She screamed and spears shot up from the ranks. "Fire!" Monsters went down in the dozens, shattering into powder and being swept away by the wind on immediate contact with the imperial gold.

"Archers!" Catie shouted from beside Reyna, her face slightly tinted green in the light of the brewing storm. I remembered that she had been sick during my hospitilisation. I don't think that of the two of us I was the one most needing bedrest. "Shoot!" She ordered and arrows bursted from behind billboard shields, skewering monsters left and right, and generally causing mass havoc.

My sword weighed heavy in my hand and my nerves were on I edge. I was ready for the order to charge and I could feel the uneasiness of the others behind me. The longer we waited the more my nerves were being stretched like a rubber band that needed desperately to be released before it snapped.

I must have blanked out for a moment as sometimes happens with my ADHD. Making it seem like a record skipping as it plays but then continuing on smooth as anything.

"Charge!" Reyna screamed and my feet took off without me. The legion was a bettering ram of force as we pulverised the enemy lines to sand. I stabbed and chopped with my gladius. A dracnae's head, a hellhound's nose, a smaller cyclops; they all felt the white hot wrath that had been boiling inside of me. I wasn't aware of anything but my own movements flowing in perfect fluidity. Slash, chop, duck, stab and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. I'm pretty sure I was being cut and battered as much as any other demigod but I felt nothing. I was strong and I was brave.

For once, I was a daughter of Bellona.

"They're retreating!" Catie yelled and I came to my sense to notice the ranks of monsters thinning as they turned heel and ran. "Fall back!"

As their tide receded, so did ours. We fell back into our cohorts beside the lines of minivans. The company of monsters, however, was in number pitiful in comparison to ours.

"Injured please report to the Apollo medics!" Reyna called over the helmed heads, gesturing to where a purple tent was being erected behind the vans. "Centurions call roll and assign campers to collect any deceased left on the battlefield." Her voice choked slightly, lonely bodies littered the field underneath the thin layer of monster dust. "Then if you Centurions will gather with me and we will regroup. Senetus Populusque Romanus!"

There was a heartbroken cheer from the legion as I found Becca and we called roll to find one camper missing. It wasn't a name I recognised strongly but I still felt a pang of guilt. It was my job to keep these people safe. My job that I had failed at. We assigned two grieving children of Mars to search the desolate field and with heavy hearts did as Reyna said and headed to the huge pavilion where she would hold council.

I was praying furiously already for the end of this war. Yet I knew that it had barely started.

Notes