4. Percy- Capture the Flag
The plan's quite simple really.
Daniel, Jason and I are on border patrol, while Will and Nico defend.
The remaining Ares campers: Sherman Yang, Ellis Wakefield and Mark Debachi, along with Piper and Annabeth, are on attack.
As we got into our positions, Annabeth approached Daniel, Jason and I, with a stern look on her face. Here we go, I thought, as she looked between me and Daniel, before turning her attention to Jason.
"Just don't let them kill each other, ok?" She said.
"I'll keep a close eye on them," he said, with a smirk.
"I'm serious Jason," she said, as his smile faded when he realised that she was, in fact, very serious.
"Uh… ok. Sure."
"Thank you," she said, then she began to walk away.
I placed a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to face me.
"What?"
I wrapped my arms around her waist, and pulled her into a kiss. At first, she was tense, but she loosened up, and we stayed that way until we heard the conch horn blow, signaling the start of the match. I broke the kiss, and she looked into my eyes. For the first time since we got here, she looked at me like she always had before, with love. But for only a few seconds. Then, her expression turned sour once more.
"I haven't got time for this!" She yelled, as she ran to join the rest of the attackers.
"Annabeth!" I yelled back, but she ignored me. "Wise girl?" I said to myself, a little bit broken hearted. Why does she keep doing this to me? She turns from kind, beautiful, slightly scary Annabeth, into mean, beautiful, really scary Annabeth, instantly, like the flick of a switch. A switch that goes at the worst of times… or more, at the best of times. I sighed and joined my friends.
"What was that about?" Jason asked
"We're just… going through a rough patch right now," I said, stealing a quick glance at Daniel.
"You two used to be inseparable. What happened?"
I waved away the question, if we want to win this, we'll need cooperation, or as much of that as I can muster out of Daniel. Just put on your brave face, I told myself.
"Keep your eyes open and your wits about you, this won't be like our usual games," Jason counseled.
"Why?" Dan asked.
"Because they always win," Jason said.
"Why?"
"Because they are awesome… just don't flirt with them, or they might kill you," I said jokingly.
"He's kidding, they will probably just maim you a little," Jason added.
At this point, my half brother was looking a little pale, so we decided to tone it down.
"What's the plan?" I asked Jason.
"Since when am I the one who comes up with the plans?" He gestured to the river, "Where on your turf. So tell me, what's the plan?" Yea, he didn't have one.
"Why does Percy get to come up with the plan? We're on my turf too," Dan asked.
"Because I have two great wars, and countless quests on you, not to mention five more years experience. But by all means, what do you have in mind?"
"I… Well, my plan was to have you too hiding in the forest. When the huntresses come out, you guys can surprise them from behind… they'll be like fish in a barrel."
"That is the… actually, that's not half bad thinking. But hear out my proposal, and we'll do votes. I was thinking… well first off, how are you with your powers, Dan?"
He raised his arm, and a small wave built up momentarily, before crashing down again.
"Ok, good. I say that the two of us go into the river and Jason can fly up into a tree. When they come, we combine our powers, and do something… subtle. When they're down, Jason can fly in from behind and it'll be like… well, like fish in a barrel, or more, half drowned hunters in a barrel."
Dan's eyes sparked with anticipation.
"Ok," he said.
"Really? I mean, yes. So it's settled?"
Jason and Dan both gave me a nod, before taking their posts. I joined my brother in the river, and not a second later, three huntresses appeared from the forest. I didn't recognise any of them.
"Thalia was right. Both sons of Poseidon," one said.
"Wait for it," I whispered
But then the plan took an ugly nosedive down to Tartarus, when a bolt of lightning broke from the sky, and down into the forest, of more specifically, to the point of Thalia's spear, who was concealed in the bushes.
"Gods damn it," is all I had time to say, before the bolt leapt from her spear, and struck me in the chest, sending me flying, and against a tree on our side of the river. She may have overdone it a little.
The fighting began, Dan released all the power he could muster, resulting in a rather dismal wave, that managed to just wet the toes of the huntresses boots. Jason flew down from his perch, flinging lightning from his fingers, but the girls dodged them quite easily. Me on the other hand… I wasn't doing so good.
I heard the swords clashing, the lightning flashing and the waves crashing as Jason and Dan desperately fought two on four. But that was all background noise, because I was too concentrated on the massive headache, the terrible pain in my back and-
"Oh gods…" -the massive branch impaling my thigh. The chest plate, shoulder pads, bracers and blue crested helmet doesn't protect much from leg impalement. I looked up at my comrades in arms… who were getting their butts handed to them.
I got a little angry, I'll admit. I yanked the three foot length of wood from my thigh, and ignored the pain as I got up. Stumbling towards the fight, I was getting steadier with every step, the pain numbing out of existence. The trail of blood from the tree ranged from mango orange, to a more mustard yellow as I stepped on, then the trail stopped completely as the wound had healed. But I decided to freak out about this development later.
Rage took over as I approached the fight, and my instincts controlled my actions.
Dan and Jason were both standing, disarmed and defeated, by the river, waiting for me perhaps. One of the hunters spotted me, and they all made the smart move of moving away from the river, to the edge of the forest, taking my friends weapons with them. I ran at the water, the leg wound being 'out of sight and out of mind', and as soon as my foot touched it, I commanded it, as a son of Poseidon does. The water moved under me, carrying me towards them, not like a wave, but more like a horizontal waterfall. In the span of a second, I was upon them.
A bolt of lightning flew past me, as I jumped, and flipped over Thalia's head. We turned on each other, and stood, a metre apart, staring each other down. These hunters are smart. They observed me, read my stance, my face, my abilities, waiting for an opening. Thalia had her spear in hand, and two of her friends, one a blonde, one a redhead, were wielding swords. The other huntress, a young girl with brown hair, dyed blue at the ends, was wielding two large knives, that were almost short swords.
I took riptide from my pocket, and uncapped it.
"Come at me, girls," I said. They responded by doing so, unfortunately they all came at me, making things considerably harder.
The redhead went for the first strike, going for my left flank, which I blocked easily, followed by a overhand strike by the blonde, which I also blocked. Redhead went in for another strike, jabbing at my thigh, and I sidestepped, kicking away the sword, whilst parrying another overhand from the blonde huntress. Then Thalia went at me, swiping her spear at my head. I ducked, and caught the spear above me, then I pulled myself in, slipped behind her and placed my blade against her throat. I forced the spear free from her grasp, and kicked her forwards. Spinning around with the spear extended, I forced all my opponents to back away, then I threw Jason the spear, and I was suddenly assaulted by the brunette.
I have to admit, she's good with the knives, Annabeth would be proud. She came at me with swift strikes, forcing me to dodge and block, keeping me on the defencive. She seemed to have a never ending supply of stamina, so fast that her friends couldn't get enough room to strike me themselves, and I couldn't attack without leaving myself open too long. She's tiring me out. Jason was taking on the swordswoman, but I can't keep this up for long.
"Jason, swap places! I have an idea!" My idea being to wing it.
"Ok!" He said, as he dodged a strike by the blonde, and ran towards me, using his spear to fend off my attacker, while I began blocking strikes from his.
I went on the offensive, parrying attacks from the blonde, and jabbing at the redhead. I blocked an overhand strike from the blonde, and kicked her away, then fainted an overhand strike on the redhead, and turned it into a backhand, hitting her across the head with the flat of my blade. I proceed to dodge a stab to my right flank, and I hit blonde's sword to the ground and planted my foot on it. Then, I gave her an almighty punch to the face, followed by a hard strike with the grip of my sword, sending her to the ground, unconscious.
The redhead went for a clumsy attack, clearly still dazed from my previous assault, and I blocked it easily. Using my blade, I twisted the sword from her grasp, flinging it into the air, and I brought riptide down on her head, almost splitting her helmet in two. I pulled the sword from her helmet, intent on letting her go, but then her sword landed on her head, hilt first thank the gods, and split her helmet in two, knocking her out. It also made me look really cool, which is always a bonus.
I checked on Jason, the brunette had gotten past his defence, and had his head locked in a scissor position with her legs, holding back the spear with one knife, banging him on the head with the other. I ran at them, pulling back my sword arm, and gave an almighty blow to her head with the flat of my blade, sending her flying off Jason's shoulders, and landing in the dirt. Slowly, she stood up again, and made an admirable attempt at walking towards us, before deciding against it. She sat down, and threw her knives in the dirt, before lying down, her chest heaving.
"Keep an eye on the prisoners. We'll continue border patrol," I said, as I threw Daniel a sword, who was still standing by the river, slightly awestricken and feeling quite useless.
"Damn," Jason said.
"What?"
"Thalia's gone." Just as he said this, I looked behind me to find Thalia running towards the river, with a flag in one hand, a sword in the other, and a very angry son of Hades on her tail.
"Stop her!" He yelled out.
If she gets that flag across the river, we lose.
I stepped onto the river, walking on the water's surface, and I raised my sword to the sky, summoning my power. The water rose under me, like a giant tidal wave, but continued to grow, bigger and bigger, until it was like a tsunami, frozen in time. Both Thalia and Nico stopped, wide eyed, looking up at me.
"Drop the flag, Thal," Jason said, as he hovered in the air next to me.
"There's no getting out of this," I said.
Thalia made a different choice, she ran to the side.
"Dam!" I yelled out as I jumped from the wave, and landed right in front of her. Of course I was bluffing, we both knew dropping that wave on her would have most likely killed her, and Nico, and anything alive in the direction of the wave for about nine to ten miles. But I don't know how running to the side wound have helped, considering I had the whole creek up in a wall of water. She has to get the flag across the river, those are the rules. Between me and Nico, she had nowhere to go.
She made an attempt to run past me, but I tripped her, and she stumbled to the ground. I rested riptide's blade against her shoulder, and snatched the flag from her grasp.
"Get this back to home," I told Nico, throwing him the flag.
I lowered the tsunami, and guided Thalia with the point of my blade, until she was sitting next to the brunette girl, who had apparently decided to have a nap.
"Sianna," Thalia shook her head. "Barely keep her awake after our hunts."
"Yea? Well I knocked her around a little… Jason, can you take these four to the jail?
"I don't think that will be necessary," he said, pointing out Piper, flag slung over her shoulder, running towards us, a massive smile on her face. I looked into the distance, and spotted Annabeth and the children of Ares holding back the Hunter's of Artemis. Piper had half a dozen arrows wedged in her armour, and a nasty cut on her arm, but she didn't let that bother her as she jumped the river, and won us the game.
Now I admit, maybe we all got a bit over excited. But to be fair, we have literally waited years for this day to come. We had beaten the Hunters of Artemis! It only took sixty-three tries, one of Chiron's famous pre-game pep-talks, not to mention years of training, and some of our best skilled, and most renowned campers, plus my brother, for river support. Soon the whole camp had joined the fun. There were campers climbing trees, chasing each other, talking up the wood nymphs and the daughters of Aphrodite… but where's Annabeth?
I looked around, in search of my rather difficult girlfriend, until I found her, Nico and Chiron, looking at something in the western woods. I walked up to them, and froze when I realised what they were looking at: A trail of orange turned yellow liquid, leading from a tree. It was only now that I became conscious of the hole torn in my cargo pants, splattered with orange, with a trail of yellow going down the length of my leg, now dry. I turned and ran into the river, getting down on my knees and scrubbing the multicoloured ichor from myself, filtering the water around to avoid arousing suspicion. Being the son of Poseidon, when I go for a dip in the river, nobody bats an eye. When I was done I forced the water from my body, leaving me bone dry, and I stepped out of the river.
"Percy!" I spun around, and found myself faced with Chiron and Nico.
"Yes?"
"We need to talk, in private," Chiron said.
"About what?"
"You know what," Nico replied.
Hey guys! I hope you have enjoyed so far. I know this chapter is considerably larger than the last ones, but I can't guarantee they will all be this length from now on. Feel free to share your opinion, and give advice on what I can do better. Also, if you see any errors in the text, for the love of gods, tell me! Now… What else? Oh yea, remember to favourite, follow, like, subscribe and stay tuned for more chapters. I live to serve, even if my math grade suffers. See ya! ;)