A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!
"Faster! The beast must be caught, dead or alive!"
Percy ducked as an arrow whizzed by. Had he been a little slower, the arrow would have embedded in his head.
With his sword, he slashed away vines that would have caught him in their grasp. But unlike the usual easy lifting of his sword, he felt like his arms were heavy as lead.
Shit, Percy cursed in his head. The poison was spreading faster than he had expected. His blue eyes narrowed as he felt the poison slowly coursing towards his heart. He should have been more vigilant, but he had let his guard down at the last second.
His mother had warned him since birth to never stand out. Not that he ever wanted to, but the attention always seemed to land on him no matter how he tried to avoid it, especially since his uncontrollable ability made him stand out.
Was this the end for him? He laughed bitterly. What a fitting end for a beast to die in the wild all alone.
His assailants continued to pursue him while he darted through the dense brush of the woods. Percy's vision was blurring. The pain was almost unbearable now.
"Stop!"
Another arrow flew by, this time landing its mark on Percy's shoulder. Percy hardly stumbled as he kept up the pace. The pain of the arrow could hardly compare to what the poison was doing to his body. He had to live. If he died, then all the secrets would be buried with him.
If he had been given the antidote, the number of people after him would not have been a major problem. But the poison he was given as a child seemed to not only deter his physical strength now, but also seemed to drain his mana. Only the antidote could stop those effects, and he could not possibly receive a dose of the medicine once he had decided to rebel.
There! Percy still had enough energy to spare within him to sense that there was a large source of flowing water nearby. He changed the course of his running direction immediately, ducking from tree branches along the way.
The ground became wetter, with the ground sucking his boots from the mud like they wanted to drag him down. But it worked to Percy's advantage as he drew into the leaking pool of his mana to draw water from the mud. Without bothering to look behind him, the mage knight forced the water into ice spears that hurled towards his pursuers with deadly speed and precision. He didn't need to look back to know that his ice magic had struck.
Soon, he found the source of water. A river-fifty feet below-was churning furiously below his feet just as he managed to stop himself from going over the cliff.
Percy grimaced as he looked at the dark waters below. The only escape route was now down and rushing angrily.
The sound of several men crashing through the undergrowth made him turn his back to the river as he faced the enemies.
"It's the end of the road for you, now. You should have just come quietly and kept your mouth shut," one of the men sneered.
Percy stared coldly back. There were five men left from the original eighteen sent after him. Just two of them were water mage knights. He had considered them his fellow knights until they had betrayed him.
But even though Percy was outnumbered, the assailants were wary. They were facing the "Beast of Galvador" after all, and he had just taken down so many of their comrades. They were all afraid to make the first move. Just making contact with him could cause their skin to blister with ice.
"I doubt that. Shouldn't you know what happens when you corner a beast?"
Percy's green eyes narrowed as a huge torrent of water suddenly gushed out behind him. The other two water mages tried to reverse the waves, but Percy simply created two hands out of the larger wave that smacked the water mages into the ground. The mages were knocked unconscious, and their mana energy dissipated. Before anyone else could make a move, the water had turned to ice, freezing the men into place as their expressions turned to horror as they found themselves encased in ice.
But Percy couldn't see whether he had fully taken care of his attackers. The poison was burning his lungs now as he wheezed for breath. His mana reservoir that had been as flowing as a lake was reduced to a mere puddle the size of a dinner plate. His knees buckled, and Percy felt himself falling. The last thing he saw was the darkening sky and the cliffs above him before the rushing river swallowed him whole.
"Pathetic." The man sneered. As he shook his head, his golden hair flew in wisps.
He coolly checked out the wreckage of the fight. The woods were so cold that the ice had hardly melted around the bodies.
"Eighteen men with water and fire mages combined, and not a single one of them can capture one man?" Prince Octavian snorted.
The "Beast of Galvador" was no simple man indeed. His physical prowess and mana manipulation was worthy of that title alone. Secretly, Octavian himself was rather reluctant to face the water mage himself, particularly as he possessed no elemental magic. It was a sore point in his life, and one that had brought an inferiority complex that made Octavian lash out fiercely against those possessing mana. The "Beast" was just perfect for the prince to thrash.
"Your Highness. We found this floating in the river."
One of Prince Octavian's men showed a knight's jacket, torn and wet. There were traces of blood on the sleeve.
Prince Octavian didn't bother taking the dirty jacket from his servant.
"Have this delivered as soon as possible as proof he is dead. Father will be pleased."
"But Your Highness, we have not located the body yet. Are you sure we should send out this information to the King? Furthermore, the King has not issued a decree for us to hunt down Sir Jackson."
Prince Octavian raised an eyebrow. With a flick of Octavian's wrist, Octavian's second in command stepped forward. The man who had questioned Octavian's order was suddenly flung into the sky with the second in command's wind magic. In seconds, the hapless man fell screaming until his body collided with the ground. His screams were cut off abruptly as the man's last breath expired. Those who were smart stayed quiet, lest they too, ended up in a tangled mess of limbs.
Octavian prodded the man's body with his foot. "To answer your question, you fool, that bastard Perseus Jackson will soon die from the poison regardless without the antidote. Whether the Beast is alive or not, he will regret not dying a painless death in my hands."
The prince turned away from the river. "Move out! We have other orders from the King to complete."
A/N: Yo, yo, yo! Here we are with the first chapter of my newest story! Yes there will be some hot M-rated scenes that I will warn you beforehand that are NSFW, but for now lots of plot and magic ahead. And yes, there will be some differences in this story and my Wattpad version, so this PJO version is not just me changing the names to PJO characters. And also, isn't the cover image of this story just so utterly delish? It's from a Korean webnovel called "The Predator's Contract Partner" if you want to check that out. Hopefully they won't mind me borrowing it for a bit, but I definitely don't own that gorgeous image.
Anyways, let me know how ya'll feel, and see you next chapter!