Chapter 11

Recap: I had been pulling arrows for an hour. Don't I get a little break? My arms were tired, and this was when I wasn't even trying. But I didn't have a choice, I had to go to this defense class besides, I liked Luke. I hoped that he'd go easy on me.

"Listen Adalyn I…," Percy started to say. "I didn't really mean what I said yesterday," he said quietly. He had muffled his words together, and the way he apologized made me think of two six year olds fighting of trivial items. It made me think that he wasn't really sorry, but he knew it was the right thing to say. I looked at him but remained silent. "Well… aren't you going to say anything?"

"Like what?" I meant to think those words but I ended up saying them.

"Like, 'I'm sorry too,'" I was suddenly confused and his words seemed abrasive

"Why? I did nothing wrong," I ended up saying. I was beginning to verbalize my thoughts.

"You did nothing wrong? You paralyzed my arm!" he nearly yelled. There was a long quiet moment. "Are you going to say anything?" he said still angry. I suddenly got upset at him too, who was he to yell at me? He was the one that was pushing so hard to know about my personal life.

"Why bother? You've already made up your mind about me," I said angrily. And I actually meant to say it that time. Percy was thoroughly irate with me now. But I didn't care, what purpose did he have in my life? When we came to Luke's defense class, Luke had disarmed a boy who was now on the ground with a weapon a few inches away from him. Luke helped up the boy.

"Percy you're finally back! And you've brought someone. Hey there Adalyn. Come to join us?"

"Chiron made me bring her along," Percy said irritated. He walked near a group of people and stood there with his arms crossed.

"Very well then. Let's see what you got. Percy, get the smallest sword for me," I didn't take it as an insult. I was indeed one of the smallest persons there. Luke handed me the sword that was a little longer than the length of my arm. Even though it was small it was surprisingly heavy, but I held it up as best as I could. "I'll go easy on you ok? Let's start with the basics, disarming. Watch carefully," Luke had skillfully made me drop my sword before I even got a chance to blink.

"Uhm… I'm not very good with swords," I said nervous picking it back up.

"It's alright, you'll get the hang of it soon," he said. Luke started coming at me. The swords made noisy clanking sounds each time they came in contact with each other. I stepped back each time, and my hand was slowly losing the grip it had on the sword. After about the fifth strike, Luke used the quick technique he showed me and the sword hit the ground with a loud clatter. The kids tried to hold in their laughter.

"Can I not use a sword?" I asked innocently. That made the children laugh. Luke too let out a small chuckle

"Then how will you defend yourself?" he said with a smile."I've taken martial arts, I know a few moves. I'm sure I can evade a couple attacks. The sword is just so heavy,"

"Sure but… how are you going to disarm me?" too many questions, I thought.

"I'll think of something," I said. Luke shrugged, and his face said that he was afraid that he'd hurt me, but he raised his sword in attack anyway.

"Are you ready?" he said still doubting the concept. I nodded. Without hesitation, he came straight for me. With a short gasp of shock, I turned on my heel, and used my hand to push his arm away from me. He staggered forward a little. "Pretty good," he said.

That was close. It had been a rather long time since I'd practiced combat, and Luke was very fast, and very skilled. Luke again came at me. I had expected the same type of attack but I was wrong. Instead of directly hitting me with the sword, he tripped me and I was on the ground when his sword was inches from my face. I was a little upset that I had been so quickly beaten for the second time, so I went by example and tripped him. He however didn't fall completely; he stumbled and then regained his balance. "Whoa, cheap shot. That's quick thinking. Very good," I didn't like how he called my move a 'cheap shot', even if it was in compliment form. That's when Percy's voice chimed in.

"Watch out for those quick hands of hers Luke," the campers laughed at his ridiculous statement. His words however gave me an idea. Although Luke was a friendly boy who had done nothing to me, something in my head told me 'time for Luke to get a little lesson on how the nervous system works,' I stood up and got ready for another round. I was determined not to be defeated again.

"You sure you wanna go again?" Luke asked. When I didn't respond with a 'no' he lifted his sword once more. With my newfound fortitude, I entered a state of mental translucency. Everything I saw was perceived better. Luke's movements seemed dramatically clearer, not so much slower, but I knew what he was doing. His sword came to me. I used my right hand to grab his wrist, making sure I applied force to the two areas in which pressure points resided. This hand held the sword, but he resisted dropping it though he was having much difficulty doing so. I jabbed him twice in his lower arm, and then was about to proceed, but quickly stopped. As the sword's loud clatter made me snap out of my daze. My hand was an inch away from Luke's neck. I did not want to hit him there. If struck hard enough, I could make his paralysis last for a significant amount of time, and more so I might damage the tissue that's there.

I learned soon after I started learning this specific art that pressure points dealt with how much 'pressure' was applied. If it was heavily applied, it could lead to minutes of paralysis, on the other hand if it a person was struck lightly, just a short few seconds of numbness. I generally hit Luke rather hard. As soon as I noticed what I did, I moved my hand away from Luke's shoulder, and let go of his wrist. His arm fell to his side involuntarily.

"Oh no-- I'm so sorry Luke! I didn't mean to-," Luke chuckled

"Its ok, its ok. Just tell me how to move my arm again," he said.

"I told you Luke!" Percy said with smirk. His voice sounded almost smug that he knew this was coming.

"That you did Percy. But she's quicker than I thought she would be." he then looked at me "I didn't even see you come at me. Those hands of yours are dangerous," he said. I looked at his arm.

"Did I hit you hard?" his arm showed that bruises were starting to appear. "I'm sorry," I said.

"It's alright. That was really good. If you learned long ranged combat you'd be excellent," I smiled at his compliment. I started massaging around the bruised area to try and get blood flowing to the bruise. I concentrated around the areas in which oxygen rich blood flows through the veins. "That kinda feels good," he said. I smiled again. He then cringed as I accidentally hit a bruise.

"Sorry!" I said. He shook his head.

"You apologize a lot. I'm fine," his fingers slowly moved. "I'm fine," he repeated seeing how his hand was responding to his will.

"Why didn't you do that to me?" Percy asked walking to see how Luke was doing. His arm slowly moving back and forth at his own will. "I couldn't move for like 10 minutes," he whined.

"You didn't ask me," I said simply. That statement made Luke laugh, and Percy more upset with me than before. Luke stood up and pointed (with his good arm) to two people. A large girl and me. When I say that this girl was large, she was large compared to the normal sized people around me. Her stringy brown hair was up in a ponytail and her face was far from kind.

"Clarisse, you and Adalyn go spar,"


that's right I said it! (well Luke said it) Clarisse and Adalyn. anyone want to guess who gets the last word? Or... Maybe Adalyn will just decline the fight. Who knows? I don't even know... OH MY GOSH WHAT DOES ADALYN DO I MUST KNOW! hm... better start writing