Percy Jackson and the Art of Gacha

Bogeys helpers came closer and soon entered hearing range. They sadly did not hear what I had discussed with Jack and the Mayor. But the other citizens had and they made room for me to approach the three.

So I stalked forward my legs, longer than before, made me come closer even faster than expected.

I did not bother to wait and let them talk. I already had a problem with them looking like children so I wasn't going to hesitate.

But then I heard one of them talking about what they would do to the children Bogey had chained up inside is dungeon. Something about tieing a noose out of their intestines and hanging them with their own organs.

Suddenly after hearing this I had no qualms with killing those three and later on Bogey.

I tried to ignite flames in my hands, as I was not going to dignify them with bei g killed by one of my weapons.

The flames in my hands had changed dramatically from what I had expected. They were pitch black and I could smell both the death and curses emit from them.

I knew anything hit with them would die and never come back and under normal circumstances I would hesitate to use them but spirits, as far as I was aware, could potentially come back from the dead and I was not going to risk it. Death it was.

The helpers had seen me by now and started to get worried when they noticed the flames in my hands. I pounced forward with my hands stretched out. One of them had unfortunately for it, been closer to me than the others and I had managed to place my hand on it. The fire spread immediately and began consuming it.

For a moment everyone was stunned and we just stared at the burning figure as their screams echoed through the surroundings. Then the other two reacted.

They turned heel and ran away but I was not done with them. The fire in my hand levitated upwards and formed into an arrow before launching after the second one.

I observed as the first one desintigrated into ash even without further use of the fire.

Knowing that now, after launching the arrow after the second one I had only one more helper to worry about I started running after it. My speed was even faster than it should have been but for some reason I could not catch up to the last child.

I decided to do something desperate. I tried to melt into the shadows, of which there were enough around, and succeeded. I managed to travel a few meters in front of the child but I expected it to be nimble and It might slip past so I needed a way to restrain it.

As I thought about it the flames in my hands changed rapidly and they soon became strings. They were long, thin and felt incredibly sharp.

I decided to try something, considering this current form of mine was a mix of my normal self, Rivers Child and Father Spider. I weaved a web within the forest I was in, right in the path the child would most likely take with the dark strings I now had and it turned out I had an exceptional talent for it, probably because of Father Spider and my recent adoption through the fates.

Once I had finished with my web I sat back and waited. Soon the child came running panicked as it was, it didn't notice the web in front of it and ran right through it.

At first I thought the web hadn't done what I wanted it to but after walking a few steps the child seemed to stop. Then it turned around and looked at me but in that moment I knew that it was already dead, as parts of its body fell of like someone had cut them. Once the last of the three helpers had been killed and it's bodyparts had hit the ground it burst into flames just like the last two and soon there was nothing but ash left behind.

I just stood there, was I happy that they were dead and would no longer be able to bring harm to anyone? Yes. But that did not mean I would have done it again if there was any hope for them to be better.

The others soon came after the child and after Jack and I stared at each other for a minute I said:

"Let's continue. We still have children to rescue."

Jack seemed to agree so he led me further and eventually we came across the house Bogey Man lived in. I wanted to know what the inside looked like before entering but I was unwilling to ask the others for help in that regard and suddenly wings fluttered and a murder of crows appeared from my shadow.

They immediately took flight and flew towards the house. Some found small pipes and other types of entrances to enter, others just smashed right into the windows, turned into black mist and seeped inside.

Within minutes I could, for some reason, see the inside of the house through the eyes of the crows.

I ordered them to move to the dungeon below the house and to be careful not to be found out, which the birds followed to a t.

Now I could see what was happening inside and where Bogey was. He was currently dancing around singing his delusional songs and telling the kids what he was going to do to them. Also he was harassing some of them with bugs, dropping from inside of his body more specifically his eyes and mouth.

The crows position the self inside, covering any why of escape fit for small insects.

I myself move as well, I entered the house, found the slide leading down and took it.

I was not In a talkative mood so once I had landed on the ground I just stood up and threw the protective gear I had previously made for the children towards them.

Once the gear had landed, even before Bogey could react, they unfolded and slung themselves around the children. Chains, my chains, launched from within my shadow and broke through the children's restraints, wrapped around them and pulled them behind me.

Now, that the children were relatively safe from him and outside of Bogeys reach for now, it was time to actually fight that bastard.

Bogey came towards me, literally turning the table to bring both me and the children closer to him, when I lit my hands on fire again and struck the table with my palms.

The impact cracked it and the flames traveled through the cracks, reaching bogey within seconds but he managed to dodge.

He closed the distance between us and landed a solid punch on my chin. I tumbled back, coming closer to the edge with whatever acidic poison lay below.

And then I fell.

Or so everyone thought. While Ugy Bogey had indeed managed to hit me, the me falling down into the accid was nothing but an illusion meant to have him lower his guard now that the element of suprise was gone.

Suddenly Jack was there, and he was fighting him for the children, protecting them and moving them out of harms way.

Or was he?

The truth is, I had began evacuating the building under the cover of the Illusion together with the children. Once everyone was out I turned around and spread a thin circle of flames around the house with Bogey still inside.

I soon carved runes into the ground around the circle and drew lines and circles with the flames inside of it.

The ritual I was setting up was in its original design an exorcism but with a bit of a personal touch and the effect of corruption, the skill, I had changed it into a violent version of it. It was called "Black Banishment" and it would not only first torture the targeted spirit with all the harm and hurt the spirit had caused but also with all the mental problems it had cause. After that the spirit was at the mercy of the deceased and only after ever affected specter/deceased had their revenge, would the spirit be killed permanently.

I activated the ritual without Bogey ever having noticed that he was fighting an Illusion and not something real.

The crowd outside including the children and me watched as a black dome appeared around the house for a few minutes before it disappeared.

Once the dome was gone you could see what had happened, which wasn't much considering the dome had taken the house, the acid pit and anything else related to Bogey with it. In the end the only thing left behind was a crowd of observers, six children of various ages and a big crater where Bogeymans house once stood.

I picked the children up and sat some of them on my shoulders, carried some under my arms and held the other two in my hands.

Suddenly one of them looked at me, with eyes that screamed "I am so done with this!" and asked in a curious but carful voice: "Why do you look like a Leshen?"