Got this up quick, hope you enjoy. Thank you all for our support and help with this. Much appreciated.

Okay I re-uploaded this chapter because I noticed a lot of errors. It appears something is wrong with my uploading process. Words out of sentences are just completely missin which are present in the original document. I have corrected as many as I can, but if you notice more let me know.

Chapter 25

Percy's hand snapped to his belt, but no sword hung there. He silently cursed himself for putting it away when he got off of his horse back at the stables. The settlement was always a safe place, untouchable. He didn't think he'd need it. More soldiers began to appear behind the first runner. Without a doubt the soldiers had come from the Arena. Their armor was unmistakable. The soldiers moved quickly, but they weren't necessarily in a hurry, even after they noticed Percy had seen them. They had calculated this carefully and they weren't going to rush it.

Percy's frantic mind tried to calculate the best possible plan of action. He was unarmed, there was no one else around, and Annabeth was handicapped by her injury. His disadvantages were staggering. Next to him Annabeth had finally caught on to danger. Her eyes were jumping around their surroundings like she was trying to find something to help them. By the expression on her face, Percy didn't think she was coming up with anything more than him and they were running out of time. The soldiers were nearly on them. One of the soldiers lifted his spear on his shoulder to a throwing position. Percy quickly grabbed Annabeth in his arms and half-lifted, half-dragged her into the storage building they had been staying next to. Percy didn't need to look behind him to know the spear impaled itself in the ground where Percy had been standing seconds before.

Once inside Percy released Annabeth and she let herself fall against the wall so she was leaning her shoulder and head against it. She held her side with both of her hands and took deep breaths to calm herself. Percy realized he must have hurt her when he grabbed her. He felt a sudden wave of guilt crash on to him.

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright. It's better than being speared," Annabeth said, voice tight with pain. "Trust me. I know." Percy wasn't in the mood to receive Annabeth's humor. They were under attack.

"Where did they come from?" Percy wondered aloud. He moved away from Annabeth and was looking through the storage for something that might be useful. There were extra clothes, linens, farming tools, and a small collection of weapons. The weapons had a few rust spots on them and were of an obviously poor quality. Percy would have rather his own sword or something from the armory, but he didn't have the time to be picky. Percy strapped two swords to his belt and stuck as many daggers as he could into the waist of his pants. There was some armor, but it looked so worn it probably would have done Percy more harm to wear it than leave it.

"Percy," Annabeth called. She had opened the door just enough for her to peek outside. Percy hurried back to stand by her.

"What do you see?"

"Same as what we saw outside, just closer." Percy took some daggers out and handed them to Annabeth."Do you have a plan?" Annabeth asked, closing the door and looking up at Percy. He drew his first sword. He did one last check of the blade to make sure it would hold in a fight. "You don't have a plan," Annabeth guessed. Percy took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders.

"I'm going to fight. It's the only thing I can do."

"You can't fight all of them alone," Annabeth pointed out. "We need to alert the others."

"I'll leave that to you. Look around here for some way to raise the alarm," Percy instructed Annabeth as quickly as he could. He didn't want to waste a lot of time talking. "If you can't find something… everyone will know soon enough. Just stay in here and stay safe. You're in no condition to fight.""

Percy-"Annabeth began to protest, but Percy cut her off.

"You admitted it yourself. Now, stay safe." Annabeth looked like she wanted to argue more, but knew there was nothing she could say. A smirk grew on Percy's face before he reached past Annabeth to open the door. Annabeth made no move to follow.

"Be careful," she called after Percy right before the door shut behind him. Percy only had seconds to register what she said before his face met with a shield and he was slammed against the building.

Soldiers were running past the storage building, but some of them had broken off to follow Annabeth and Percy. There were five soldiers around Percy and staring at him with and eagerness to spill his blood. Percy blinked his vision clear after being smashed in the face in just enough time to see a sword being swung at his neck. Percy spun away from the attack and into another soldier. The second soldier slashed through Percy's thigh and Percy stumbled back to the ground. He had been caught off guard and he didn't have his bearings in the fight. It was costing him greatly. Blood soaked through Percy's pants and he couldn't put weight on his leg to stand back up.

The soldiers grinned wickedly at Percy as the came at him again. Percy drew a dagger from his waistband and rammed it into the knee of the closest enemy. Percy could feel the soldier's knee cap shattering and he dropped to the ground. Outrage flashed in the soldier's eyes and he shouted at his comrade to kill Percy like they weren't already trying to do that. The remaining four soldiers that could walk began to approach Percy with much more care. They thought they had him beat, but Percy hadn't even started fighting. Percy was very familiar with his enemy's forward formation. The foreword most soldier was only a distraction. The other three would quickly move from his flanks to surround Percy and deliver the actual attack. Percy couldn't afford to allow that to happen. He had no armor or shield to defend himself with.

Using the side of the storage building, Percy pulled himself to stand on one leg. He took a deep breath to prepare himself and then he lunged forward and thrust his rusted sword at one of the soldiers on the side of the formation. Pain arced through Percy's leg and made him cry out in pain. He would have fallen over if his sword hadn't stuck in his target. None of the Arena soldiers were prepared for Percy to attack on the side and the second of surprise allowed Percy's sword to get by their defense. The formation broke and the soldiers attacked as they individually saw fit.

Withdrawing his sword, Percy hopped back on to his good leg. He managed to catch one of his enemy's swords with the hilt of his own, but the force of the blow on Percy's rusted sword made the blade break. It made the point sharper and jagged at the cost of reach and defensive maneuvers. Percy was glad he grabbed two swords, but his first one was the better one. If one strike broke it, he feared if the second would do anything at all. Percy quickly threw his broken sword and caught one of the soldiers in the shoulder, but it wasn't enough to stop him. The soldier's sword still completed its arc and cut Percy's shoulder to the bone. It hit on his right arm, making Percy's sword arm virtually useless. Percy could still move his arm, but the pain made spots appear in his vision.

Percy was certain he was dead as the soldier brought his sword one more time. Then the soldier suddenly dropped with a crossbow bolt sticking in the side of his helmet. It was an incredible shot if it could pierce metal. The shot halted the other two soldiers that were attacking Percy. Their heads snapped around to identify where the shot came from. Percy wasn't worried about the shooter. Crossbows took a long time to crank back and reload. Plus, the shooter had killed the Arena soldier not him. If the shooter wasn't Percy's ally, the person had horrible aim. Either way Percy figured he had a few more seconds of safety.

While the two soldiers were distracted Percy drew his second sword. The action was extremely awkward considering the sword hung on the left side of his belt and he had to use his left arm to unsheathe it. He managed it somehow before one of the soldiers turned back to him. The other was stalking away with his shield raised. Percy figured he was going after the shooter and leaving the other one to finish off Percy. He swung his sword high at the last soldier, but his attack was easily deflected. The soldier let Percy continue his attack. It took a lot of effort from Percy to attack and almost none for the soldier to defend. Percy was aware the soldier was just toying with him, waiting him out until he wore himself out. He didn't care though. It was easier for him to attack with his left than defend with his left.

The soldier became slack in his defending as Percy's attacks became sloppy. Percy could feel his body failing him. The intense pain of his injuries began to subside as his mind began to fade. He had lost a lot of blood and it was becoming a struggle to remain conscious. He had to end this fight quickly. With a last surge of adrenaline, Percy found a hole in the soldier's slack defense. Percy's sword broke on impact, but a part of it still managed to drive itself into the soldier. The soldier's eyes went wide before he fell to the ground, Percy following after.

Percy was so tired he was ready to close his eyes, but part of his mind was yelling at him to get up. The fighting wasn't over. It had to have spread to the rest of the settlement by now and they needed his help. Even if he was barely moving and only had one rusted dagger left, he could still help. Percy felt tears in his eyes as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. He couldn't remember the last time he cried. Through his blurred vision Percy saw Annabeth moving towards him, a crossbow loaded and ready to be fired in her hands.

"You're plan really sucks," Annabeth said as she crouched down next to Percy.

"I noticed you change it." Percy gritted his teeth in pain as he spoke. He was barely able to get his words out.

"Yeah, well, the alarm seemed redundant." Annabeth turned her head to look at the rest of the followed her gaze to see what she was talking about. There was fighting everywhere that Percy could see. It was impossible to say if either side was winning. The Arena soldiers were outnumbered. They probably didn't expect the refugees to be in such high numbers. However, a single Arena soldier could easily fight off two refugees. Some of the refugees weren't even fighting. They were busy trying to control the fires that have broken out over some of the buildings. The whole scene looked startling like Percy's memory of when his home was raided, although, the soldiers didn't look interested in the capturing of slaves, but rather the extermination of an enemy.

"Hey! Hey, there's still two alive over here!" The first soldier that Percy had taken down shouted from his place on the ground. Percy had forgotten that he didn't actually kill him, only took out his knee to keep him from moving. Annabeth put down her crossbow and picked up a sword from one of the fallen carefully made her way over to the shouting soldier and swiftly silenced him.

"We need to get moving," Annabeth declared, turning back to Percy. "Do you need help up?"

"Like you'll be able to support my weight."

"I'm sure we could." Three new soldiers appeared from around the corner of a nearby building. Percy didn't think anyone had heard the shouting, but apparently there were some soldiers to spare. On reflex Percy picked up the crossbow and fired. The bolt flew into the neck of one of the approaching soldiers. He fell to the ground with a thud and his comrades didn't even flinch. Annabeth attacked next, but she was too slow. One of the Arena soldiers blocked her attacked and disarmed her in the same motion. Then the soldier grabbed Annabeth and threw her to the ground.

"Annabeth!" Percy shouted her name and tried to stand up, but he became extremely light headed and immediately collapsed to the ground.

"Hey, don't worry. I'll get you too," the second soldier taunted Percy. Percy tried to fight as the soldier stood over him, but his arms just flailed weakly. The soldier grabbed Percy's arms to restrain him. Percy could do nothing but watch as the sword was slowly pressed to his neck. He glared the best he could at the soldier, not wanting to show weakness. Percy didn't think it'd faze the soldier, but the pressure of the sword tip on his neck lessened. "Wait. Don't kill these ones."

"Why not?""He's got an Arena tattoo," the soldier standing over Percy explained.

"You want to take the girl in with him?"

"Might as well. We were told to keep some of them alive." Annabeth's soldier made a noise like he was disappointed. He hit Annabeth in the head with his shield to make her stop fighting as he lifted her up on his shoulder. Percy's mind worked hard to try to understand what was happening. Right when he was on the answer he was knocked out by a hit on the head as well. He was so close to unconsciousness already it didn't take much to knock him out.