Clarisse and her cabinmates came towards me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled to the forest floor.

Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. I was still weak but felt a little stronger as the fight went on. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes, with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward into the creek.

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me on the banks of the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."

I looked, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get me pulverized."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but…" She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"

"You should probably get that looked at. It's bleeding pretty good." As soon as she said that, I finally felt the warm liquid as it dripped down my arm and off my fingers into the dark brown dirt below us. I immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.

"Okay, definitely need to go to the Infirmary…" she stated.

Before I could protest much, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"

Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at me.

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"

She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her – an enormous shadow with teeth and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hound's neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.

By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly injured. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat, but right now, I only felt like 50 pounds of shredded beef. I felt my chest heaving with pain and the inability to suddenly take in enough air. My knees wobbled to hold my weight and I leaned against the tree, too unsteady to stand.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't…they're not supposed to…"

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared. It took me a moment to realize that my body had also melted with the hellhound and hit the ground on my knees, my energy gone and head spinning. Somebody grabbed me from the side before I face-planted into the earth.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. She turned me onto my back and I coughed trying to remember how to breathe. I watched as my vision started darkening around the edges, but could feel a coppery taste in my mouth after that last cough.

I raggedly drew another breath, not deep enough to get enough air, and brought a shaking hand up to my lips. More blood covered my fingers.

"I don't feel so good," I whispered, starting to close my eyes as Annabeth held me closer.

"Chiron! Percy's injured. We need to get him to the Infirmary now!" Annabeth turned back toward me and shook me to wake me up.

"Percy, stay awake. Just until we get you to the Big House. Luke, help me get Percy up." Luke handed off the hard-fought banner to another Hermes guy and stepped forward.

My body decided to betray itself and I slipped away before I got fully upright, darkness blacking out my vision faster than any light switch being turned off.