Ssst... thunk! Ephraim gave a small smile as his arrow hit the bullseye, unlike the arrows of those he was teaching. "Your stance is important." He said, his cultured voice sounding somewhat bored. "Your hind foot should be parallel to the target, your front foot facing towards the target. Now, nock an arrow." He waited as they did so, then nocked his own. "Keep the bow tilted slightly, so the arrow doesn't fall off. Hold your arm out straight, and don't let it get in the way of the bowstring. Now, draw back, touching your middle finger to the corner of your mouth. Sight down the arrow, aim quickly, and fire." Following his own instructions, he watched in satisfaction as he scored another perfect bullseye. To his pleasure, the aim of his students had improved.

"I'll expect an hour's practice time each day." Ephraim raised his voice over the groans he heard from his students. "Be silent! This is a matter of life or death. One day, what I am teaching you will save your life. And when that day comes, I want you to live because of skill, not luck. Luck has no place in war. Only your skill can save you, and it's my duty to ensure that your skill is as high as it can possibly be." He surveyed his students, walking behind the line of archers, his black trench coat flaring out behind him. "You know what is out there. You know the forces that want us dead. Not only the monsters, but also the gods. We have to be vigilant, that when the time comes for war, that we can stand and fight."

"It may seem hopeless. Zeus, Odin, and Horus are against us, along with many other gods. But we have Nyx and Hades on our side. Loki and Set stand with us. And many more." He stopped to correct the stance of a younger girl. "With their support, we can win this battle that faces us. We must win. And by all the gods!" Ephraim raised his voice here, grabbing the attention of all his students. "We will be victorious! I swear it!"

Over the rousing cheer that went up, only Ephraim heard the amused female voice. "You know, for someone who doesn't like talking, you really know how to work a crowd."

"I have little other choice, Nycteris." Ephraim stated with a frown. "They look to me for guidance, and I must provide it." He turned to face Nyx's daughter. "No matter how much I despise it."

Smirking, Nycteris reached out and poked him. "Loosen up a bit. Yes, war is coming, but it's not here yet. Have a little fun, maybe find a girl. It won't hurt, I promise." She rolled her eyes playfully.

"Until this war is fought and won, I have no time for such trivial matters." Ephraim scowled slightly, as he did every time she brought up the idea.

"Trivial?" Nycteris scoffed. "You know as well as I do that a little R&R can do wonders for soldiers, especially ones this young." She glanced over at the line of archers-in-training, watching as a couple of teenagers exchanged kisses between flights of arrows. "They have to grow up too soon. You grew up years too soon. Sometimes it does you good to let yourself act your age. Think about it." She walked off backwards as she spoke those last few words, then turned and went on her way.

Ephraim watched her go before turning back to the targets and picking up his bow. Taking a deep breath, he released another arrow. Although his aim never wavered, his heart wasn't in it, not really. Nycteris's words, although they were nothing new, ran in circles in his mind. Think about it. Ha. He wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it for a while now.

Victoria watched the little speech with barely concealed disgust. To be fair, that was how most people regarded her around here - they liked their little renegade Gods who coddled them and made them into their own tools in the divine struggle for power. These people seemed to miss that for the most part their renegade Gods were no better than the rest. Nearly all of them were liars, tricksters, deceivers. Not as vile as Zeus, perhaps, but there were few who were. She stepped up to a target a short ways down from the other shooters.

The other problem was the bows. Bows were great weapons if you were, say, a Scythian. Maybe if you were hunting buffalo across the plains of precolonial America, or building an Empire from the steppes. There were two crucial problems - they weren't Mongols, and this was the twenty-first century.

Rather than raise a bow she unslung her Mosin-Nagant from her shoulder and raised it to her shoulder, taking a half-second to line herself up and still her breathing, then let loose with a rapid-fire barrage, her hand moving in a blur as she cycled the bolt and pulled the trigger. The British had called it the Mad Minute, and she was the equal of any Tommy - and she had a better rifle to boot. Every five shots she slid a hand to her belt and pulled a stripper clip, slotting into the rifle, and then she was plugging away again. Boom, click, boom, click, boom, click.

Thirty-six shots. Sixty seconds. Perfect accuracy.

"Bullshit religion and ancient weapons are no match for a good rifle, kids."

Rayon stared blankly as Ephraim gave his speech. He didn't understand half of it, but as people around him started cheering, he decided to cheer along with them.

In truth, Rayon was feeling a little down. He missed his mother, and he didn't know anyone here. It was his desire to make a friend that led him to join the crowd.

With Ephraims speech over, Rayon turned his attention to the target range. A particularly loud rattling sound caught his attention, and he watched with interest as Victoria fired away.

"Woah woah, that's so cool! Were'd you get that huh?" he said excitedly.

Victoria slung her rifle. "It's a family weapon. My mother's father took it off a dead Arab during the War of Independence." She glanced over at him. "That's the Israeli War of Independence, if you were curious." She drew her Colt and stepped up to another target. "We face the Old Ways. If Ares comes down here we have no hope of besting him or his spawn with swords." She took a shot, putting neatly into the bullseye. "If we want to survive this war, if we want to win, if we want to be free of the Gods..." She took another shot. "We have to embrace the new ways. New weapons, new tactics, new ideas."

"And what happens when you find yourself with only a bow to defend yourself?" Ephraim spoke from behind Victoria, still holding his bow. "Many of our enemies will be using these old-fashioned weapons. What happens when you run out of bullets and the only weapon you have is a sword lifted from a dead enemy? We need to train you all to be at least familiar with how to use these old-fashioned weapons, which are still as deadly as when they were still widely used. If you think these weapons are useless, then maybe you're in the wrong class."

Stepping back, he raised his voice. "Anyone who thinks bows are outdated and useless weapons, please raise your hands." Ephraim's eyes swept over the line of archers as the odd hand rose.

"If I run out of rifle rounds I have my sidearm. If my sidearm runs out of ammo, I have my knife." She unsheathed her kukri and flicked it over in her hands, catching it by the tip, then flicked it over back to the grip and sheathed it. "I don't discount the merits of learning how to handle hand to hand weaponry. But bows? Bullets are cheaper, lighter, smaller, easier to make, easier to carry, easier to conceal, easier to use, and vastly more effective than arrows.

"But perhaps a situation will come where I am forced to resort to a bow taken off a dead warrior. Perhaps a situation will come in which I am forced to fight using only a Groucho Marx mask and a rubber chicken. The first rule of an army - you train how you fight. If you train us to fight with bows you are expecting us to fight with bows. That will not win us this war."

She started pacing, her arms crossed. "You want to win this war? Because if you want to fight this war on the same footing as the Gods you will lose, this refuge will be destroyed, and everyone in it will die. You face a foe with superior numbers and superior powers. Do you think to win through the power of sheer willpower? Because we are in the right? That isn't the world we live in."

Victoria paused a moment. "You want to win this war? Learn from the examples of those who fought giants and won. Look at David, who bested a man thrice his size, armed and armored to the teeth. And how? Because David did not fight the battle Goliath wanted. He forced Goliath to fight his battle, and because of it Goliath took a stone to the face, and a sword through the neck. We cannot base our strategies, our tactics on our enemy, because our enemy is the master of those tactics. Learn from modern armies, marching into wars against small, flexible groups, and no matter their military success they simply cannot win. We can use those same tactics."

"The enemy comes to us. And because of that we have an advantage. We can choose the battlefield, and choose how the battle is fought. But this? This will avail us nothing. For a few thousand dollars we could have a Kalashnikov for every person in this refuge, and for only a little more tens of thousands of rounds, enough to start our own apocalypse. It will take these children months to be battlefield proficient with even the most basic shortbow. Give me a week and a box of rifles and I can turn every one of them into a sharpshooter."

"And how will we buy these weapons? With money from the gods?" Ephraim scoffed. "We are not rich. I know the ways of war better than you ever will, daughter of Prometheus. I do not force people to learn weapons they are not suited for. Out of these, I will find the natural archers. They will continue in my class. Others will be natural swordsmen. Natural axemen. And still others will have an affinity for modern weapons. They will find another class. Variety in our forces will work to our advantage, will it not?" He raised an eyebrow. "As you obviously have no respect for me or the class I teach, you may go." Turning away from Victoria, he called out. "Bows down!" When everyone had lowered their bows, he inspected the targets, calling the names of those with the best aim. "If I have not called your name, you may be dismissed."

"You may have just made a very dangerous enemy." Nycteris had returned, and spoke to Victoria. "Whether you knew it or not, you have just insulted his mother's favored weapon. Anuke does not appreciate insults of that kind, and neither does Ephraim." She shrugged. "Besides, his teaching has produced some of the greatest archers in the Refuge."

"I really could give less of a damn if I've hurt his or his mother's feelings." Victoria said dryly. "I already count all the Olympians as my enemies by sheer virtue of my parentage, the Aesir and Vanir by my allegiances, and nearly every other deity by my beliefs." She smiled as she walked away. "But if money is a concern...well, funny enough. The people of this world have a habit of keeping their funds in poorly defended brick and mortar boxes. Although we might need a little bit more than I can get out of a teller."

She raised her voice. "Alright, who's up for boosting an armored car?"

"Why steal an armored car? I'm sure there are other ways to get funds." Johnny said as he walked over. Wearing full combat gear and carrying a G-36 in his hands, the barrel pointed at the ground off to one side. A smirk on his face as he looked over at the two.

"There are plenty of ways to gain funds for the talented. Most simply never chose to look down that particular path. My father and I both found that making money from the humans need not require much in the way of risk. To us or them."

"Suit yourself." Nycteris shrugged and started walking away. "Anyone in the tracking class, with me." She called over her shoulder. "Or is that another useless skill?" She raised an eyebrow at Victoria and kept walking.

"More useful than archery." She shrugged. "Have fun. I know I will." She turned her attention to Johnny. "Robbery's not all that difficult, gets us the funds immediately, and it's useful practice for the kids here who don't know how to hurt someone. But if you're offering the family funds for the war chest, have at it." She said, although she looked a little put out. "Shame, though. I had good times robbing banks with my Mom back in the day."

I'll have to give that kid a warning later. Nycteris thought, leading her class to the armory. "We shouldn't run into any monsters, but I want you armed just in case. Take the weapon you can use the best." When they were all armed, she led them into the woods.

"The chest was built up specifically for this war. Though I try not to give council when it isn't asked for. The gods and their children will act as they will." Johnny replied.

"Next time we are in the human world or someplace I can access the internet or a phone I'll be sure to shuffle some funds around. Though that will depend on whether the leaders of this camp actually bother to ask me. Sometimes they focus too much on the way they are used to doing things." He said calmly even as he continued to smirk, watching the groups go about their business.

"Well, I don't know if they ever will." She tilted her head towards Nycteris and Ephraim. "But I'll certainly ask for it. How much money are we talking? If we have enough we might be able to forgo contacting some gun smugglers and just go straight to hiring a bunch of PMCs. Getting a couple mercenary attack choppers on our side would certainly upset the balance of this war."

"It would be enough for that, but going high profile so very early on might play to our own disadvantage. Tempting as it is. It would be better to fund the forces we already have. While a PMC would be a good ace in the hole, them being involved in one battle would alert the entirety of the world to our own existence. Imagine if they humans knew that the children of gods walked among them. In the long term that may be worse than all of us dying at once." Johnny replied, having already thought out hiring human fighters to come to their aid. There were a few ways that would end ultimately, none of them optimal in his line of thought. Either things would go back to the ways of old, with people begging favor from every god they now knew to exist, turning on them and slaughtering them all in fear, or gods get asked to join an international community which they would likely immediately set about dominating now that they were known.

"You have a point." She said in a dejected tone, only to perk up a moment later. "Hey, I got an idea - we could see if one of them will let us -rent- an Apache!"

"I highly doubt they would allow that, given that the PMC would take the blame for any attacks made with it. To put it mildly the very idea would make their legal departments shit themselves." He replied, moving to one of the unoccupied ranges and aiming his weapon.

Riley
He stepped from his cabin, an icy wind blowing through the camp as he did, cool air hitting warm, and a bit of a fog began billowing from his room before the door shut, sealing the sub-temperature cabin. As he walked, patches of ice would form and slowly melt as his feet left the ground, and a cloud of cold air surrounded him and anyone in a ten foot radius could feel it. As he exhaled, a cloud of vapor fell from his lips, as was costume to his breathing. He continued to walk, making eye contact with any who dared look him in the eyes, as in elder camp member, he had developed intense capability over his powers, including the ability to make frozen projectiles for long range attacking, and icy sickles for more personal combat. He had been raised in the camp, and knew of no life separate from his loyalty to the camp, and while others often disagreed with his methods, he was respected for his dedication to the camps survival.

Having overheard the arguments over war methods, he had taken it upon himself to make his presence known, and offer his well weighted opinion into the mix. As the arguments became heated, then subsided, he chuckled softly to himself, before a small icy spike flew at incredible velocity between Ephraim's arms, slicing the string of his bow clean in half, if his actions did not make his thoughts on the matter clear, his words soon would.

"Wood splits, cracks, freezes over and becomes useless, the same as swords and shields. A rifle may survive for a few decades, but will eventual be deemed useless, especially in the arms of someone lacking proficiency with a firearm, such as myself. Perhaps an acknowledgment that the modern, and even the less modern have their flaws, but name me a flaw in power so raw and ancient it has made beings of immortality unstoppable. Name me a weakness in weapons conjured from the capabilities woven deep into your own soul, something that will last until your own defeat."

He asked calmly, his hands forming a sickle in the right, and a floating spike in the left, gesturing with them to further his point.

@LadyTale@Corsair

"...Damn. As usual, thwarted by lawyers." She thumped her fist into her open palm. "That reminds me, we need to see if it's possible to file a restraining order against the Gods. At any rate, we can still see about purchasing some guns and ammo. I know a guy who knows a guy."

She looked at the guy throwing shards of ice around, then looked over at Ephraim. "Huh. Good job, you made me look polite by comparison."

Adrian couldn't help but chuckle as he lazily meandered on by the shooting range. Looked like target practice was subsiding for the day, and considering the familiar sounds of an argument, he could understand why. He didn't even have to see faces to know Victoria and Ephraim were butting heads. And even after the riveting conversation ended, and Nycteris took off for the woods, the air was still just ever so tense. Or maybe Adrian was confusing "tense" with "steadily dropping". He only realized he was mixing up words once Riley made his way towards the targets.

"Ugh, should've put on thicker shorts this morning." He thought, his bare legs receiving the brunt of the icy wind. Once Adrian reached Victoria and Johnny, Riley said some words that Adrian couldn't help but agree with. "Gotta side with Frosty on this one. I'll probably never be good with a bow, but I know I can hit someone with a fireball. With the same speed and strength of an arrow." Another gust of the cold front passed by, and sent a noticeable shiver down his spine. "...Though, it would be cool if we were working with something a little warmer." He mumbled a little softer, blowing a spew of flame into his cupped hands to warm them.

"Vicky, Johnny." He brightly greeted the two. "Are you guys playing nice this morning?" He asked the way a doting mother asks her children. He may've shared Victoria's opinion on the gods and how not to worship them, he just didn't see himself being as...militant as she was. "Militant? Is that the word i'm looking for...? Driven. Driven sounds better."