Chapter 67
Then we heard a sound that sent a chill up Percy's spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.
Percy raised his shield up, while I created a water shield using water chakra, manipulation of the water and water magic. Also I cast Skin Barrier on both myself and Percy. We had a feeling something was stalking us.
Then the growling stopped. Felt the presence retreating.
On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.
"Cream the punks!" Clarisse screamed.
Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet.
She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made us feel any better.
They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. We could run. Or we could defend ourselves against half of the Ares cabin.
We managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur. They surrounded us, and Clarisse thrust at Percy with her spear, The spear completely broke against his skin and we both darted in like a serpent with our blades, stabbing, slashing and cutting at her. Then we turned towards her five other friends and attacked them it was finished instantly.
"No maiming," they managed to say over all their wounds.
"Oops," We both said.
Then we heard yelling, elated screams, and we 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 somehow, 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 red 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.
We were about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to us in the creek, said, "Not bad, heroes."
We looked, but she wasn't there.
"Where the heck did you guys 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.
We felt ourselves getting angry. We weren't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set us up," We said.
"You put us here because you knew Clarisse would come after us, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."
Annabeth shrugged. "I told you guys. Athena always, always has a plan."
"A plan to get us pulverized."
"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but . . ." She shrugged. "You guys didn't need help."