"I've barely been here a day," Jean was incredulous. "And I'm supposed to do what?"
"Survive a mini-siege," Lisa said dryly.
As they did every Friday evening, the Twelfth Legion was arrayed on the Field of Mars for war games. This particular evening, the First to Third Cohorts were storming a fort guarded by the Fourth and Fifth. Upon Jean's induction into the Fifth, Praetor Reyna had looked her up and down and pronounced her fit to participate. Percy and Annabeth were joining the games as honorary legionnaires of the Fifth Cohort, while Lanesra and Lisa were privileged spectators from an observation tower a hundred metres away.
"Siege?" Lanesra scoffed. "This is a playground session."
"Unfortunately, that's how Camp Jupiter works." Percy shrugged his shoulders, jostling his chestplate into position. "Survive or die." He buckled the straps tight.
"Straighten your knee." Annabeth was helping Jean put on her armour. "There, all done."
"It won't be so bad," Percy said. "You're stationed in the inner keep with the banners. The attacking cohorts probably won't even breach the walls. Not with me around."
Jean took an experimental step forward, eyes widening at the weight of her armour. "This thing weighs a ton."
"On the bright side, it makes it easier to keep fit."
"Metal armour," Lanesra shook her head. "So impractical."
"Comes in handy when a cyclops is trying to eat you alive," Percy told her.
"Don't the hunters wear armour?" Jean asked Lisa.
"We do," Lisa showed her the sleeve of her silvery hunter's shirt. Upon closer inspection, Jean noticed silvery threads mixed in with the fabric.
"Like chainmail, but much lighter," Lisa grinned.
"I wish I was a hunter," Jean moaned.
"You can be if you want to," Lisa said brightly.
Annabeth noticed the pained look on Lanesra's face. "We'd better head off. It's almost time."
"Catch you later," Lisa gave a wave goodbye. She and Lanesra headed for the tower.
"All cohorts, assemble for the games," Reyna bellowed over the battlefield. "And may the best team win!"
"Stay sharp!" The Fifth Cohort's centurion Hazel Levesque was shouting instructions. "They won't give us much time to prepare. I want all ballistae aimed at their Testudo formations. Archers concentrate fire if they won't break. Defend the gate at all cost. Percy, Annabeth, watch the flank. I don't want them sneaking up with ladders while we're distracted in front. Jean, you're guarding the banners in the keep. Bar the doors once you're inside."
"Good luck." Annabeth bumped Jean's shoulder. "We'll see you after the games."
Across the field, horns blew. A loud cheer went up from the three attacking cohorts as they started forward.
The banners were propped against a wall in a chilly stone room the size of an apartment. Jean shivered as her metal armour turned cold against her skin. She absently moved to rub her arms, then abandoned the attempt when she realised her gauntlets were in the way.
She was the only guard in the room. Two wooden benches and a table were stacked against the door to block anyone from breaking in. It had been easy enough to push them over, but the wooden locking bar was the size of her leg and she had almost broken her back trying to drop it into the brackets.
She paced up and down the room, trying to gauge the game's progress from the intermittent sounds of battle coming from above. Rumbling explosions punctuated the sound of screams and yells. An elephant trumpeted and stomped around.
She lost track of time shivering in the room, wondering why it was so cold despite an obvious lack of ventilation. She carried her spear in hand at first, then propped it against a wall when it became too heavy for her to hold. Eventually she found herself sitting on the floor, tired from the armour weighing her down. Her eyelids started to droop.
A loud crashing sound started her awake. Her eyes snapped toward the entrance. To her horror, she saw that a hole had been broken in the right door. An armoured hand was reaching through the gap, trying to dislodge the locking bar from its bracket.
Jean scrambled to her feet and started toward the door, then realised her spear was still propped against the wall. By the time she had grabbed it and run to the door the hole had widened enough for a person to stick his helmeted head in.
"Could you pass us the banners?"
"No," Jean said incredulously.
"Oh well," the guy pulled his head out of the hole. "Guess we'll have to do things the hard way then."
Wood splintered with a crash. The doors shuddered as the enemy legionnaires pounded on it. Jean thrust her spear through the hole in the door, trying to hit someone. A legionnaire grabbed the spear from outside instead and yanked on it hard. Before Jean could realise what was happening, he had pulled it out of her grasp. A second later the spear came whistling through the gap, grazing the side of her helmet and bouncing off it.
"Oh, no." Jean stumbled backwards, holding a hand out for balance, then tripped on her own feet and fell to the floor. "Uggh."
She pushed herself upright in time to see a chainsaw blade push through the tiny gap in the doors, cutting through the locking bar with a loud buzzing sound.
"You're kidding," Jean groaned. "How do you people have a chainsaw?" She drew her sword hastily as the locking bar fell apart. The attackers heaved the doors open. Five of them climbed over the stacked benches to face her.
"Should've passed us the banners when you had the chance." one told her.
Three legionnaires surrounded her. The other two took the banners and left.
"You already have the banners." Jean told them.
"Yeah," the guy replied. "But we can't have you raising the alarm, now can we?" The legionnaires closed on her and raised their swords.
Jean ducked under the first swing, then scrambled away from the second as he stabbed at her. The third attacker slashed and she blocked the sword with her own two-handed strike. The swing had looked casual, but the impact made her arms buckle and she stumbled away. Something struck the side of her helmet hard, sending her tottering in the other direction as her head rang, then she was kicked in the back and collapsed with a crash, her armour weighing her down.
"Get up, new girl." An armoured boot crashed into her side, making her yelp.
Jean pushed herself up with her arms, then collapsed again as a spear struck her across her back. Fury rose in her and she jumped to her feet, sword in hand.
Suddenly her armour felt light as a feather. Her senses opened up. Her sword, which she'd been struggling to wield, felt perfect in her grip, balanced and deadly. The temperature seemed to drop even further and an icy calm washed over her.
The first legionnaire attacked in a wide, overconfident swing, his gladius aimed for her head. Before the blade could connect she stepped in and struck him on the side of his helmet, then kneed his crotch and slammed her hilt into his face. Before he could fall to the ground she was already moving, turning to face the attack of the other two demigods.
Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The Roman on her left, closest to her, lunged with his blade. Jean sidestepped the attack, cut his arm as it went past, tripped him with her foot, then turned to see that the legionnaire on her right had his sword raised above his head, poised to bring it down. Jean lunged onto her right knee and brought up her sword to meet his strike, deflecting it to the side. Her own blade swept low, slicing into his leg. The attacker's face contorted in agony as he started to fall.
A commotion in the corridor outside reached her ears. Jean turned and threw her gladius, sending it spinning end over end just as a figure in armour appeared in the doorway. It was Annabeth, her drakon-bone sword in one hand and a crossbow in the other. Her eyes widened as the gladius came flashing toward her and she leaned to one side, narrowly avoiding being impaled. Behind her was Percy, who batted the gladius away with Riptide. The sword clattered to the ground as the two demigods goggled wide-eyed at Jean.
"How…" Percy gaped.
"Three on one against a newbie," Jean spat. "Cowards, the lot of them."
Percy and Annabeth continued to stare. Jean started to feel slightly unnerved.
"What? I'm sorry I threw the sword. I thought you were enemy legionnaires."
They still didn't speak. Percy motioned to look behind her.
Jean turned and her jaw dropped. The three legionnaires were frozen in mid-movement like flies in amber, suspended in the positions where Jean had struck them, falling to the ground in slow motion. The one Jean had bashed in the face had a stream of blood from his broken nose floating in midair like he was in space.
"What the-"
The freezing sensation stopped. Gravity suddenly returned and all three legionnaires crashed to the ground in crumpled heaps, gasping for breath. The one with the wounded leg howled.
"How…" Jean turned back to Percy and Annabeth, baffled. "Did I do this?"
The three legionnaires scrambled away from her, eyes wide with fear.
"I—" Jean's brain felt like it was short-circuiting. "I don't understand."
A few Fifth Cohort legionnaires came through the doorway, Centurion Hazel among them.
"Oh, good," she said to Jean. "I was worried they would be too much for you."
"Um, yeah," Jean said awkwardly. "I managed to stop them, I guess."
"With some help, I'm guessing." Hazel gestured toward Percy and Annabeth. "They raced off to help you the moment they realised the enemy had gotten in." She noticed their stricken expressions. "What's wrong?"
"Let's get out of here." Annabeth took Jean's elbow, swallowing hard. "We need to see Reyna and Frank."
Nico materialised in the alley with a swirl of black, wrinkling his nose at the stench of garbage and filth. The Sword of Hades flickered with pale fire at his side, casting eerie shadows in the alley's gloom.
The alley itself was scarred with signs of battle. Long haphazard lines had been gouged in the brick walls, some rough and thick like an out-of-control power washer, others sharp and fine. Sword marks.
Shattered glass crunched under his boots as he walked forward. Nico glanced upwards to see that part of the apartment block overlooking the alley was destroyed, caved in as if an explosion had occurred. A half-destroyed fire escape dangled from the damaged apartment block. The rest of the escape was a tangled mass of rusting, half-vaporised metal in a heap on the ground. The police had sealed off the area, designating it as a gas explosion, but Nico knew better.
It was clear that a battle had taken place here. What worried Nico was that the combatants were nowhere to be found, which meant that the attacker had likely captured Alabaster and left. Nico swore.
A luminous green speck caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. His gaze was drawn to a faint green glow emanating from a patch of dirt in the corner of the alley. He probed the dirt with the tip of his sword. A smile crept onto his face.
"Alabaster, you clever bastard."
(Line break)
Unfortunately I won't be updating frequently, maybe only once every couple of weeks, but anyways here's another chapter. Enjoy!