Non-Canon Omake: The Little Spider: Part 7

Athena watched as Apollo strolled into the main chamber on Mount Olympus, having put his chariot on auto pilot so he could watch the fun.

“Pretty ballsy of you to bet your cabin, Ares.” He said casually, taking his seat along with the majority of the other gods.

Ares scoffed. “As if I’ll be losing my cabin.”

“Careful Ares, that arrogance will be your downfall.” Athena took a shot at him.

“Sorry, who are you again?” He looked at her with a blank expression and she nearly reacted.

Well, just getting even a twitch from Athena was considered a success considering that there is very little that can make the Goddess of Wisdom change expressions so severely.

“My dear brother, as much as it pains me to agree with her, making a wager with the thought you could never lose is a certain kind of madness.” Dionysus spoke up, a goblet of wine in his hand and a flushed face.

The moment he got the go ahead to be allowed to start drinking, he already was drunk.

All the Olympians were present, even if they didn’t all join in on the bickering. Most of them were just content to watch the small bit of entertainment even if they weren’t particularly fond of fighting.

“Don’t worry, Ares. When you lose your cabin, your kids can bunk with mine.” Hermes chuckled.

The God of War rolled his eyes. “There’s no possible way she could beat my brat. How long had she trained, huh? Sure, she looks confident, but she’s barely even a teenage brat compared to Clarisse who I’ve given personal training to as a reward a few times.”

“Didn’t she punch your kid?” Aphrodite asked.

“Cheap shot.” Ares scoffed again, dismissing it entirely.

“So, you intend to cheat.” Athena summarized by his attitude. “My daughter foolishly didn’t set terms for the wager, allowing you to dictate everything. There was never a clause to forgo divine intervention on either side’s behalf.”

Ares shot her a grin. “You’re more than welcome to help your daughter out too, I won’t even be upset.” He said in a rather magnanimous tone.

Athena felt a mild annoyance she hadn’t felt in quite a long time.

She had genuinely questioned if the girl calling herself Arachne was truly hers despite all the obvious evidence.

But after what’s happened so far, that is certainly Wilhelm’s child, there was no doubt about it.

Only that man would spite her by calling their daughter Arachne.

She didn’t sigh infront of her fellow Gods despite the desire to. Truthfully, it merely elicited a few fond memories of the past that she quickly pushed away.

There were too many inconsistencies however with her daughter. The ways he moved, her attitude even her presence, they weren’t missed by the Goddess of Wisdom. Nor were they ignored by the other Gods even if they cared not for the peculiarities.

As a Goddess of War, she could tell her daughter had been properly trained. Ares as well could see it even if she disliked being compared to one another.

Though, he fully believed his own daughter would never lose regardless.

Ares wasn’t completely inept when it came to strategy, he just preferred the more blunt approach. That is to say, he knew that Athena would not lend her aid to her daughter after the blatant disrespect.

“It will be a lesson for my daughter, I will not interfere.” Athena said pointedly.

Her Daughter had potential, but it needed to be tempered by hardship. The arrogance and disdain she showed to the Gods would need to be remedied. If that meant that her daughter lost her so called ‘pet’ then so be it.

She will see that having the grace of a God will be instrumental in her life.

And of course, the important thing was that the Bane of Olympus would be entering Olympus’s hands.

It wasn’t said outright, but she could feel the uneasiness in the room after it was discovered.

Her fellow Olympians all wanted it ‘taken care of’ and into secure hands, not those of a child.

None of them had any real idea of what would actually happen if the Ophiotaurus were sacrificed per the prophecy, but none of them wanted to find out. You need not act flippantly with prophecies that involved beings born from Chaos.

The Ophiotaurus, from just a single glance, was weak. All the Olympians could tell, a mere demigod could kill it without breaking a sweat. But that just served to further their collective anxiousness around the creature.

The fact that it was so ‘weak’ yet hadn’t been found since the Titanomachy, that meant it had a significant and heavy fate around it.

Regardless, the important matter was that the Ophiotaurus be turned over to the hands of Olympus. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have other plans to utilize after her daughter’s inevitable defeat.

She was sure that one her daughter tasted defeat and humiliation so openly, she could approach her and figure out the anomalies far easier.

And of course, get her out of Poseidon’s cabin!

That was an insult of the highest order that she willingly housed herself in the cabin of his!

No matter what she said, Poseidon would ignore her with regards to Annabelle living in his cabin.

There was technically no rule that said a child of a God had to live in the God’s cabin. Merely that it was obvious without needing be said anywhere. Something she would have to remedy in the future.

Athena along with the other Olympians looked down upon Camp Halfblood where the majority of the campers gathered around the arena.

The Goddess of Wisdom was never one for overt action, she was ready to swoop in when the time was correct and content to bide her time until then.

@***@

Arachne hummed to herself as she was led to the Arena in the camp.

She didn’t know they had an Arena, that made her mentally give bonus points to this place. What was the point in a training camp if there was no arena!?

“Moo~” Mr. Blueberry nudged her and she happily rubbed his head as he floated next to her.

“Are you going to be okay? That girl is like twice your size and she’s kinda ripped.” Percy asked her, having heard everything that happened and knew what was happening. “I don’t know much about everything yet, but she looked pretty strong. And isn’t her dad like the ‘fighter’ and everything?”

“Hmm?” Arachne blinked, looking at him. “A am fine. Me mum taught me and a have fought a lot of strong people.” She said with a hint of boredom in her tone.

Sally was also with them, feeling rather awkward about everything happening. She was sort of an outsider in this regard, a mortal woman swept up in everything because of her son. Though, she was also a little curious to see what her son would be like in a few years.

“Is your mom a Goddess too?” Percy new at this point that she wasn’t talking about her Greek Parent.

“No, but she trained herself until she could kill gods.” Arachne shot him a big grin. “She’s pretty famous in other parts of the world. She even trained some demigods too.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Percy nodded along.

He was still processing everything, so whatever she said didn’t really register as odd for him considering he didn’t know any of this existed a day ago.

Sally on the other hand, she knew a few things due to Poseidon telling her long ago. She knew very well the absurdity of the things that Arachne was spouting but chose to keep her mouth shut.

It wasn’t just Arachne’s group running around.

Word had gotten around camp that Clarisse was going to fight a newcomer in the arena. Many people heard that they had a couple new campers, news around the camp usually travels fast. But they didn’t expect for one of them to immediately start a fight with the notorious Clarisse.

Usually, they only hear about Clarisse’s ‘welcoming ritual’ in that she gives every newcomer a swirlie.

Plenty of other campers running around nearly stopped to look at Arachne’s group, recognizing her and Percy as new campers. Not to mention Mr. Blueberry was very hard to miss, a literal floating fish the size of a shark.

But no one approached them, traffic seemed to congregate further away as the view opening up for Arachne and they found the ‘arena’.

It was an amphitheater, not that Arachne expected any different. Greek architecture was the assumption when she visited here.

It appeared as though they were among the last group to arrive. The excitement was clear from how all the seats nearby were filled and how loud the chatter was.

Clarisse was already waiting there, a spear in hand that seemed to crackle with lightning with a casual swing of hers.

Nearby, Chiron also stood impassively.

All eyes landed on Arachne as she pushed her way forward, stepping ahead of the group and onto the arena grounds.

Chiron was about to open his mouth and speak, but a meteor fell from the sky, landing in the arena. Rather than causing an explosion and crater, instead, trumpets played and all the straw dummies for practicing around the outer edge began to come alive and start dancing.

Dionysus stood there, arms up triumphantly.

He was drunk.

“Mr.D…..?” Chiron hesitantly asked amidst the stunning silence.

“What a tough audience, not even a little applause?” He frowned, snapping his fingers. And all the watchers were forced to clap under his power. “Oh, too kind. Too kind.” He bowed. “Ah, it’s been awhile since I’ve felt this refreshed. It almost makes it worthwhile putting up with all these brats. Now, what’s on the agenda today? Oh right, Clarence vs Arachne, battle to the death, winner gets the Blueberry.”

Chiron nearly fell over.

Not for the ‘fight to the death’ part, which he would correct momentarily. But the fact that he willingly used another camper’s real name.

That isn’t something he does.

….well, there was an argument that it wasn’t her ‘real’ name.

“Mooo~” Mr. Blueberry let out a strange noise of excitement at being mentioned.

“Hooyah, he gets it!” Dionysus snapped his fingers, pointing at the Ophiotaurus.

Chiron let out a sigh, covering his face.

It had been a long time since he’s dealt with a drunk Mr.D, but it was far from something he was familiar with.

Chiron only hoped that he would settle back down, merely excited that he could finally drink again and went a bit overboard.

“It’s not a fight to the death. In fact, any attempt to kill your opponent will be met with harsh penalties.” Chiron clarified, looking at both fighters. “And since one of the participants is a new camper – “ He was specific on the last part. “I will be watching closely.” He looked at both of them.

On one part, he didn’t know what Clarisse would do under the ushering of Ares. On a second, Arachne was a new camper, he didn’t know what her mentality was. She was clearly trained if she could kill the Minotaur, something he should have probably mentioned to the others. She could have been used to simply killing everything she ever fought, and some habits were hard to break.

Regardless, things were out of his hands. He knew that she was strong armed into this fight, she literally had just arrived in camp and this was all set up. It didn’t take a genius to see that it was all forcibly prepared.

“Yeah yeah.” Dionysus grunted. “Now to the fun bits, maiming is okay! As are debilitating wounds, heck, gouging out each other’s eyes, that might be a bit exciting!”

“….don’t please.” Chiron sighed.

“Anyways, we got a proper wager here!” His voice picked up, booming over all the sound. “On one side, we have Arachne, daughter of Athena with her Mr. Blueberry, the Bane of Olympus. On the other, we have Clarence, daughter of Ares, and the Ares Cabin at stake. Winner takes all!”

Chiron resisted the urge to sigh again. That was technically correct, but he personally would have worded it more politely.

But he just cast a wry smile knowing that Dionysus could be so flippant without any repercussions.

“If either if you want to back out now, you can.” Chiron offered.

“Denied!” Dionysus countered.

Chiron twitched. “Do you need a weapon, Arachne?” He didn’t know what else to call the girl, and since Dionysus named her that way, he was practically given permission.

“She probably doesn’t even know how to wield a weapon.” Clarisse snorted. “Look at those scrawny arms, I bet she’s never trained a day in her life before.”

Chiron almost wanted to tell her that Arachne defeated the Minotaur, a legendary monster. He held his tongue because he didn’t want to influence the fight.

“No need.” Arachne held her hand out, and before everyone’s eyes, a wooden quarterstaff appeared from thin air and she gave it a little spin.

“A wood stick?” Clarisse scoffed.

“You are not worth my spear.” Arachne said simply. “A don’t want to be accused of being a bully.”

If It were a true fight, all bets were off. But since it wasn’t potentially to the death, Arachne didn’t want to bully the girl who was being used by her father to steal her pet.

Oh, she would most certainly teach her a lesson, but if she used one of her good spears, it felt too much to Arachne like being a bully.

Chiron gave them both a glance then backed away.

“Hmph, this spear was given to me by my father.” Clarisse took a proper stance, and that same faint crackle emanated from the spear.

Clarisse thought it was a good intimidation tactic, she bet the girl had never seen a magic spear before.

Arachne on the other hand, she found it amusing.

 Arachne sort of drowned out the words that Chiron spoke as he went over the ‘rules’. If anything, she were still rather bored and didn’t treat this fight seriously.

He made some prayers to the Gods to acknowledge the ‘duel’ and such with some Godly displays happening above them, indicating that the Gods approved the duel and would support the winner.

It was only when he finally declared the duel to begin that Arachne became alert and refocused.

Clarisse rushed forward, akin to her blunt and aggressive demeanor, her spearmanship reflect this.

If she could take out her opponent by brute force, she would.

The spear of hers shot forward, quicker than a ‘normal’ human could hope to manage. Despite Arachne looking down on the Demigods here, they were far above the level of a normal human.

Arachne flicked the bottom of her wooden quarterstaff up, colliding with the tip of Clarisse’s spear, knocking it off its trajectory.

She followed up by swinging the other end of the staff towards the older girl’s head in one fluid motion.

Clarisse was taken off guard, surprised by the skill revealed and left herself wide open. The wooden staff smacked her on the side of the square on, sending her stumbling backwards with a moment of daze.

It didn’t even take her a single second to reorientate herself and she looked back at her opponent. Arachne spun the staff around and made a ‘come-at-me’ gesture with her hand.

Clarisse clenched her teeth and started to take it more seriously, realizing that her opponent wasn’t some complete novice. With a proper stance, she slowly and methodically took steps towards Arachne.

It was a method to push someone to the corner of the arena – in a true fight, to push them into a literal corner.

However, Arachne held her ground.

When Clarisse attempted her usual method of controlling and pushing, Arachne simply began to dodge. The electric spear shot out, and Arachne gracefully swayed to narrowly avoid it.

A flurry of stabs was released by the older demigod, yet each one of them hit nothing but air.

Clarisse, growing more and more angry, just pushed forward with her whole body. Her opponent wasn’t using a bladed weapon, so she went fully aggressive in utilize her bigger frame.

It did put Arachne in an awkward spot – if she wanted to keep playing around in the same way and simply dodge every attack.

It was difficult to dodge someone using their whole body to try and trample you.

With a mental sigh, Arachne dodged another spear strike, and ducked down, sweeping at the girl’s legs. It was swift and unexpected, catching the girl off guard. In a singular motion, her quarterstaff spun around at quick speeds and caught her before she could hit the ground and flung her up into the air a dozen feet or so using a good amount of strength.

Arachne didn’t even glance upward, calculating the right spot, she simply stood there with her Quarterstaff planted firming against the ground and the girl fell down ontop of the tip, letting out a rather painful cry before falling off it and hitting the ground proper.

There was silence as Clarisse laid there unmoving, a strange silence permeated the arena.

She had long let go of her spear unconsciously, and Arachne walked over to pick it up. As she reached for it, the spear suddenly trembled and shot back towards Clarisse.

Arachne had to jerk her head to the side and even then, a faint line was cut across her cheek.

The Girl stood back up, there was something around her mouth, presumedly whatever she had I her stomach came up even if she wiped it away, there was still remnants from when she landed ontop of the staff.

She trembled slightly, using the spear to hold herself up.

Arachne licked the corner of her cheek, the blood stopped flowing rather easily, but a few drops, but it annoyed her.

It annoyed her because she was more than familiar with the feeling of Divine Power, and while as a Demigod, her opponent possessed Divine Power, the portion that was utilized was most certainly not from a Demigod.

Arachne knew cheating when she saw it.

She guessed that the girl’s Father – the God of War – prevented Arachne from taking the spear and sent it back to his Daughter.

Arachne hated cheaters.

Narrowing her eyes, she could see a faint bit of Divine Power flow to the girl from the spear, a catalyst for the God of War to continue cheating.

Arachne didn’t say anything, she just stood there unmoving.

Clarisse grit her teeth and looked like she wanted to kill Arachne. She was steady again and ready for another fight. She rushed at Arachne, her speed on a different level than before.

As the girl approached, Arachne kicked her Quarterstaff at her, the wooden weapon flew through the air before Clarisse used her spear to deflect it awkwardly.

Arachne rushed up in that moment and threw a punch, one that was surprisingly blocked by Clarisse and the younger Demigod noted that not just her speed, but her strength had improved temporarily by a large margin.

It didn’t matter, she just wanted to get within range.

Clarisse attempted to push her away with her spear, but Arachne’s hands flashed out, grabbing the spear shaft with one hand, and with the other, the Power of Destruction erupted, and she swung it down a bit further up on the shaft, destroying it, the spear tip falling to the ground.

Clarisse was stunned, momentarily stopped, a taboo in a fight, and Arachne used that chance to swing her body around, her foot hitting the girl’s cheek, sending her soaring across the arena, tumbling on the ground.

Arachne grabbed the spear tip this time, holding it firmly in her hand as Clarisse got up, blood tricking out of her mouth.

“No more help now?” She spun the spear tip between her fingers.

Clarisse looked at the spear in her hand, what remained of it. “……That was a gift from my dad.” It was hard to make out her emotions in that moment.

Clarisse was the epitome of a berserker. She generally got stronger the longer a fight when on, a blessing from her father. The more blood that flowed, the more steel that shattered, the stronger she would get.

But right at this moment, she blanked because she felt the loss of her treasured spear that was a gift from her father.

Her dad told her that if she needed help in the fight to just call out to him. That winning here was the most important thing.

She didn’t think she would need his help. And Clarisse’s pride didn’t let her call out to him before, but with the loss of her spear, the pain of losing it overrode her normally inflated sense of pride.

Clarisse looked up to the sky. “Dad.”

Arachne’s eyes widened because the subtle feeling of Divine Power was nonexistent, that is to say it was no longer subtle.

She was sure that everyone in the camp could feel it as it descended on Clarisse.

She became encased in a malevolent looking armor, and the spear of hers that was broken, it seemed another spear overlaid it.

Not only that, but she was wreathed in Divine Power, and her strength soared exponentially.

Arachne though, despite hating cheater, felt a big grin tug on the corners of her mouth.

Now she felt like a proper Demigod!

“Not even hiding it now?” Arachne smiled happily. “Do ya need more time to cheat? If ya need more power, call on yer dad again.”

“If you don’t like it, you can ask for help too. There’s no rules against it.” Clarisse growled under her helmet.

“I think this is a little much for a simple duel.” Chiron tried to interject.

“She’s right, there aren’t any rules against it.” Dionysus said, sitting in a manifested lazy-boy chair. “She’s more than welcome to use the strength of a god as well. Proceed with the duel.”

What went unspoken was that a Demigod’s backing from their godly parent was just as important as their individual strength.

Arachne looked at Dionysus. “No rules against using a God’s power?” She asked again.

For some reason, Dionysus felt something in his chest, a strange sense of giddiness. “No rules against it.” He repeated happily.

Arachne’s grin grew wider.

It was rare that she got the chance to use this on an opponent!

She reached out and another weapon appeared in her hand. It was a spear, long with a blue handle, a silver blade and a golden wreath looped around various parts.

There was also a very…Holy feeling about it.

Though, only a handful of people present there stiffened at its presence.

Particularly, Clarisse felt it, wrapped so tightly in her father’s divine power. Chiron felt it as well, being an immortal. And Dionysus felt it as well, the strange prickling sensation on the back of his neck.

Arachne held the spear aloft, pointing it at Clarisse.

It was a replica of her Da’s spear, but it was still powerful in its own right.

“False Longinus – Balance Breaker!”

@***@

A/N

Clarisse: Ha, witness the power of a God!

Arachne: Oh, I can start trying now!

Clarisse: Confused demigod noises.