Chapter 3: First Strike

An OC, Grady, by Child of Thanatos, is entering the fray!

I owe him a waffle, I guess.

Following the arrival of the Horsemen, things got serious pretty quickly. Some wanted to duel them, some left them alone, and everyone else gossiped about them.

Meanwhile, in the Big House, War gets a call from Lady Chaos. He had one arm around Death while Conquest and Famine were arm wrestling.

"Yes, Lady Chaos?" he asked through his comms.

"Grady's on his way." she replied.

"Copy that. Thank you, Lady Chaos."

War turned off his communicator and looked at his wife.

"What was it, dear husband?" she asked him.

"General Bloodbane's on his way here." he replied.

Death's jaw dropped underneath her mask, Conquest and Famine stopped their arm wrestling match and looked at War with surprise.

Grady is a child of Thanatos, and his mother is a child of Hecate. He has pale skin and pitch black hair he inherited from his mother. His eyes are usually pitch black, but when his anger flares, they become blood red. Regardless, this guy is a real gentleman. His power is blood magic, which allows him to use blood in different ways. Grady's weapon of choice is a scythe and, occasionally, dual swords, which he mastered thanks to Death and Conquest, respectively.

Lady Chaos recruited him as a general because of his father, who feared that Zeus would come after him because of his power. Grady was a natural leader, so she picked wisely.

"I'm guessing he's the only available back up we have." Conquest said.

"This should go well..." Famine muttered.

Outside...

A strange figure materialized in the center of the camp.

It was a surprisingly handsome man with messy pitch black hair, equally dark eyes, and pale skin. He was wearing a black and silver long tailed coat with a tactical vest underneath, urban camo pants, and military boots. In his hands was a scythe, and sheathed on his back was a pair of dual swords.

It was General Bloodbane.

Chiron was the first one to notice.

"Who are you?" he asked, pointing a bow at him.

"Chiron, stand down." someone ordered.

When the centaur turned around, he saw the Four Horsemen.

"Conquest, with all due respect, why?"

"Because he is a general among the ranks of our mistress's forces." War answered for him.

Shocked, Chiron just slung his bow back and cantered away. Some demigods looked at Conquest and General Bloodbane, who looked like they were having a staring contest.

And a few seconds later, they started laughing.

"General Bloodbane, it's nice to see you." the Horseman said, hugging the general.

"Yes, Lord Conquest. It has been quite a while ever since you and Lady Death trained me in weaponry." he replied, smiling.

"Why did Lady Chaos send you here?"

"I had nothing better to do."

"Demigods, this is General Bloodbane, a general in Lady Chaos's forces." Famine announced.

General Bloodbane looked at the campers and raised his hand.

"Greetings, everyone." he greeted them before turning back to the Horsemen.

There was another flash, revealing all of the Olympians.

"I hope you don't mind if we...test your might." Zeus said.

The Horsemen and General Bloodbane looked at each other for a few seconds before turning back to the Olympians.

"Sure, why not?" Conquest said, smirking underneath his mask.

Arena...

The first thing they noted was Jake in the arena, bragging nonsense. The worst thing was that he was holding Riptide. Conquest was fuming with anger when he saw the sword of a hero in the hands of a brat who doesn't deserve godhood.

"So, who wants first duel?" he asked his fellow Horsemen.

"Can I?" Grady asked.

"Nah, you'll get your chance later. The other Horsemen and I should prove that we shouldn't be trifled with." Conquest answered.

"Okay, sure thing."

"I'll go first." the lead Horseman said.

"Good luck, love." Famine whispered seductively.

"Take him down, bro." War said, patting Conquest on his shoulder.

"Kick his ass!" Death cheered with delight.

He walked to the railing of the arena and slid into it like a snake. Conquest cracked his knuckles and drew his swords. While both looked identical, one had a light blue gem on the guard and a dark red one on the other sword.

"Okay, let's do this." Conquest said, twirling his swords for a while.

"Get beaten, stooge!" Jake yelled, raising Riptide and charging at the Horseman, who looked at him like he was an amateur (which he totally is).

Conquest sighed, blocked the sword, swept Jake off his feet, and and pointed one sword at him while resting the other on his shoulder.

"Yield?"

He just smirked, like he had a plan.

Suddenly, the screams of a female were heard.

Grady had his hands up, and his eyes were vampiric red. Something was wrong.

Conquest's ears were ringing as he turned around. He knew who it was, but to think that someone would stoop so low was making him angry.

The Horseman smacked the air around him, and a cap fell out of someone's head. Annabeth tried to stab him with a dagger from behind.

"Oh...is this what you want?" Conquest snarled. "More enemies?"

The Olympians looked at the fuming Horseman with fear, then shock as he punched her to the wall.

"You dare hurt my daughter?!" Athena roared.

"HOW DARE YOU: A GODDESS OF WISDOM, FORGET THAT YOUR SO CALLED FAVORITE CHILD TRIED TO KILL ME?!" Conquest roared back.

Suddenly, Death put Zeus in a chokehold from behind, and bent over to his ear, whispering cruelly,

"Are we not allies here? Do you want this whole world to fall until only ash and stone remain because of your arrogance?"

The other Olympians wish they could do anything about it, but War, Famine, and Grady had their weapons pointed at them.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh yes, we would. Isn't that right, dear? Remember our time at that one planet?"

It was true. Death and War decimated nearly an entire planet just by getting...intimate with each other without giving a damn about their powers.

"Of course, my love." War said coldly, walking over to her as she released Zeus from the chokehold.

"Apologies for their arrogance, Lord War." Hestia sighed. "Is it possible that you can give them another chance?"

The Horsemen and Grady secretly whispered among themselves. No one understood what they were on about. When they stopped, it was Famine who spoke.

"Think of it as a baseball game, and today is their first strike. Two more, and this alliance is off. For today, we are no longer interested in these petty arena fights."