Percy strapped on his lorica segmentata, Roman legionaries armor. Not the fancy, single piece armor with gold and silver inscriptions that you see in movies, but simple overlapping steel plates tied securely together with thick lengths of leather that dug into your skin.
"Percy, are you sure this is the right choice?" If he beats you, they are going to slaughter us." Percy looked at her, a defensive tone creeping into his voice unintentionally. "Alexis, what would you have me do? Huh? They are probably going to anyway! The most we can do, is play for time."
She threw the report she had been reading across the room. It seemed like all three of them had become increasingly buried in paperwork over the last two days. Most of them were casualty reports, armory and kitchen inventories, and Scout reports.
Aero walked up behind her, wrapping one arm around her shoulder and flattening out a map of the area. He pointed to the clearing that they were in, then swept his hand across the map. "There is no direction that we've found that will let us get out of the Picts little siege circle. From what I can tell, they won't come out of the forest and into the clearing, mainly cause the Apollo kids make them look like porcupines every time they step away from cover. Anyway, point being, we're practically blind as to our surroundings and what may be coming. I mean, why else would they wait? They could probably take us now."
Percy thought for a moment, then spoke. "Couldn't we call on some Giant Eagles? Get them in here and have them fly a couple of scouts around?" Aero dead panned. "Umm, I suppose, I honestly don't see why not, I'll contact Praetor Jason about sending us a few of his Eagles."
Percy strapped his sword, the symbol of Roman power, to his hip. "Well, lets get this fight over with..."
He walked with the pair to the main gate, ordering the guards to open the gate, then stepping out of the safety of his legions fortifications.
Percy stood alone in front of his legion, and waited for the Picts to finally emerge from the forest.
Bit it was just the one he had talked to, the one who had been riding the white stallion, that now walked forward. This didn't mean he hadn't brought friends, Percy was sure that most of the Pictish Army was just behind him in the woods.
He swung a massive two-handed axe with one hand as if it were a toy, a large square white shield, with nothing but a bunch of intricate green designs and a bronze boss on it.
Percy stepped a few paces forward, away from the gate.
The Pict charged forward with surprising speed, slamming the blade of his axe into Percy's shield, shattering the wooden supports Percy had had installed to help increase the effectiveness of his shield.
Percy jabbed at him with his sword, but he sensed the move and jumped backwards, out of reach.
Percy and the Pict circled each other, assessing each others stances, and weaponry. Percy glanced down at his shield, his arm was still numb from the impact. 'I can't take another shot like that.' He thought, moving his arm in small circles, trying to get felling to return.
After realizing that the longer he waited, the more time he gave Percy to recover, the Pict launched another lightning fast attack, Percy only had enough time to think 'I'm in trouble.' Before he was thrown into the fight of his life.
Zoe had been taking the lead, since Artemis seemed incredibly distracted over the last few hours. As they dodged patrols and skirted Pictish camps, her face continued to get paler. When they arrived at the clearing, they could see the North-West corner of the 15th's fort.
Zoe just about walked out into the clearing when she saw the North gate open, and a single man walk out. She glanced side-ways at Artemis and she her head. "Who is it?" Zoe asked her.
Artemis just looked down. "It's Percy."
Zoe looked back to her brother, muttering to herself about arrogant boys. Then a second figure appeared from the forest, wielding a massive axe. This one towering over Percy and swinging the axe with ease. Zoe cursed.
Artemis spoke. "He's engaged their best warrior in single combat, winning this would mean the Pics would have to give their dead brother a proper burial, which means they will wait even longer to attack, Percy's playing for time."
Zoe grunted. "What do we do?"
"We wait, if Percy wins, we follow him back through the camp gates."
"And if he doesn't?"
"We kill his opponent and hope the legion will let us in."
Percy quickly began to lose, after the second attack, his shield had basically become useless.
The Pict charged a third time, using his shield as an offensive weapon this time, slamming the side of the shield into his head. Percy crumbled, not unconscious, but severely injured, his sword flying backwards, blood filled his eyes and mouth, obscuring his vision and leaving a salty taste in his mouth.
He wiped the blood out of his eyes and was met face to face, inches apart, with the Pict, a dagger at his throat.
"Remember me in the afterlife Roman... Remember me as you wander your Fields of Asphodel. Cuchullain..." Before could slide the crude dagger across Percy's throat, two arrows buried themselves deep into his chest. He gasped, lurching sideways off of Percy's stomach and onto the ground next to him. Weezing horribly as one of the arrows had punctured his lung.
Percy just layed there in a daze of pain, he could vaguely hear some yelling and shouting, arrows being shot, a roar of outrage from the forest and then everything went black.
(A/N): Hey guys, sorry about the delay, but here you go! If you enjoyed the chapter, please Favorite, Follow, and Review, they mean a lot to me, they show you care about my writing and makes me want to write more.