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"You're going down, Seaweed Brain," the familiar voice called out to me as I stretched out my muscles.
I turned around and beamed at my friend Annabeth as she strode towards me.
"Hey, but since you're my boyfriend," Annabeth continued, "I'll make sure you don't get hurt too badly."
The words wrung a chuckle out of me and I retorted, "Of course I won't get hurt too badly, none of you guys could lay a scratch on me!"
This was perfectly true. After I dipped into the river of Styx, every part of my body became invulnerable, except for this one section on my back. However, to keep game play fair, Dionysus has the ability to temporarily lay off the invincibility effect, so during the game, I will become vulnerable again. Not that it mattered; half of the red team couldn't damage me anyways even if they tried.
Annabeth smiled, "Hey that actually wasn't half-bad of a comeback-"
"Haha, gee, thanks," I replied.
"-for a three year old!" Annabeth finished, leaving me dumbstruck.
One of the downside of being the son of Poseidon is that you're not the brightest button in the box, so it's hard for me to come up with a good insult. But that doesn't matter to me either; Annabeth could have the first dibs with talk, but I'll definitely have the last laugh when we fight.
"I'll be sure to visit you in the hospital after the game," Annabeth laughed and walked away, leaving me with a feeling that she wants to get me more than the flag itself.
The battle horn sounded and the two teams split up to separate sides of the forest. We play the game in the forest of Camp Half-Blood. It was a great place to lay traps and ambushes, and perfect for sneaking to the enemies' territory unnoticed. Our team got the East half of the forest. It had a very uneven terrain so we stationed our flag on top of a hill, making it quite visible but hard to reach.
"Good luck man," Grover said to me as I jabbed our team's flag into the dirt.
"Thanks dude!"
"But just to tell you, if you do fight with Annabeth, make sure to come back in one piece!"
I frowned, "Are you supporting me or discouraging me?"
"Supporting," Grover answered, "But Annabeth has gone through a lot of training this summer. You need to be careful around her!"
"Whatever," I grumbled, not believing that even my best friend had lost faith in me. It was true that Annabeth had trained a lot since we came back from our last mission. I also haven't seen Annabeth fight for quite a while so I'm not sure how much she improved. But I'm still certain that there was no way Annabeth could beat me.
"Well, gotta go man," Grover said, "I'm not in this fight."
And as the satyr dashed away from the battlefield, the final bell sounded, starting the exciting game of Capture the Flag.
Glian and I dashed from tree to tree as we ventured deeper and deeper into team Red's territory. We followed a secret route I discovered recently, so I was pretty sure there wouldn't be any patrol guards here. Behind me, several other blue team kids ran to catch up. They lagged behind a while ago since they weren't as fast as Glian and I, which worked out quite perfectly because then the pair of us could scout the area before bringing our entire troops in.
There were nine of us in total. Robbie stayed back to guard the flag, so he was in charge of the defending group. I would have brought more people to come along with me, but then it would be a lot easier for us to be detected. Stealth was the key to winning when playing against Annabeth.
It wasn't easy trying to keep seven idiots quiet as they blundered through the forest, but somehow we managed it and reached a few yards away from Annabeth's fortress.
You see, the West half of the forest has this ancient fortress standing. No one knew why it was built or who built it. But instead of taking it down, the campers thought it would be a pretty cool place to hide your flag in for Capture the Flag. Usually, Clarisse doesn't use the fortress because she thought it was too unfair and not "manly" enough. But now that Annabeth is in charge, it was obvious that the fortress was going to be the flag's hideout.
I looked up at the very top of the fortress and saw two campers patrolling the area. They each had a bell in their hands, ready to ring for alarm when they see enemies. We could simply let them ring their bells and fight the red teams' defense group head on, but it would be a lot easier if we took the two patrol guards out and then sneak in.
"Ok, Glian and Heather," I whispered, "It's your turn now."
The little Apollo demigod named Heather looked at me and nodded. Glian just stared at my face.
"I need you two to shoot an arrow and take out the two guards," I ordered, "However, the tough part is that we need you to take them out at the same time. If one sees us shooting at his teammate, he'll ring the bell. So I want you to aim at the guards. When I say 'go', both of you will shoot at the same time."
Heather nodded again and got out her bow. Glian continued to stare at my face, his bow was already ready in his hands. I looked at the mysterious boy. He was the only camper in Camp Half-Blood that hadn't been chosen by his parent, so we don't know which god was his guardian. My first guess was that Glian was from Apollo since he was very handy with a bow. Then I fought him once in sword fighting and realized he was excellent with a sword as well, so we're not sure who he's from.
Glian notched an arrow and pointed it at a guard. Heather saw that Glian was ready and hurriedly followed suit.
"So have you guys aimed?" I said.
I saw them nod and called out, "Go!"
Two arrows darted through the air. Glian's projectile hit his target directly on the face, knocking him out immediately. A normal human would have died from the shot, but we demigods were made out of tougher stuff so I'm sure the kid will be okay. Heather's arrow, however, missed and flew away into the open sky. The other red team member stared at his unconscious partner, but before he could ring his bell, Glian fired another arrow, knocking him out as well.
"Nice work," I complimented.
"I missed," Heather said miserably.
"No worries, you'll get them next time."
Ring! Ring!
I wildly turned my head and almost swore. There was a third guard perched on the roof that I never saw and he was shaking his bell like a madman. I heard the scrambling of footsteps inside the fortress. The door of the castle opened, and demigods from Ares, Demeter, and Athena filed out. Among the group of red soldiers stood a Greek-armored Annabeth.
"Pathetic, Percy," Annabeth, "I expected a much better ambush from you. Guards, attack!"
They charged at us. The battle began.
Well, next chapter, it's Percy vs Annabeth! Who do you think will win? Please tell me who you think the victor will be in your review! :)
