(Ella's POV)
“You all done saying good-bye?” Ares came toward us, his black leather duster trailing behind him, his sword glinting like fire in the sunrise. “I’ve been fighting for eternity, kid. My strength is unlimited & I can't die. What have you got?”
'A smaller ego than him for sure, right?' Percy spoke to me through his thoughts. I stifled a laugh by faking a cough.
Ares looked at me & said, "What's so funny little sis?"
"Oh, huh? Nothing's wrong. Please do continue." I said aloud. 'And be sure to whip his godly hide.' I continued in my mind.
'Oh, definitely.' Percy replied.
Ares cleaved downward at Percy's head, but he wasn’t there. The water seemed to push him into the air & he catapulted over him, slashing as he came down. But Ares was just as quick.
He twisted, & the strike that should’ve caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.
He grinned. “Not bad, not bad.”
He slashed again & Percy was forced to jump on dry land. He tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares seemed to know what he wanted. His sword had a reach several feet longer than Percy's.
'Get in close.' I told him in his mind. 'When you’ve got the shorter blade, get in close.'
He stepped in with a thrust, but Ares was waiting for that. He knocked his blade out of his hands & kicked him in the chest. Percy went airborne-twenty, maybe thirty feet.
“Percy!” Annabeth yelled. “Cops!”
I was so focused on the fight happening in front of me that I hadn't even noticed what was happening on the street.
I saw red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming. “There, officer!” somebody yelled. “See?”
A gruff cop voice: “Looks like that kid on TV ...what the heck...”
“That guy’s armed,” another cop said. “Call for backup.”
Looking back to the fight. I see Percy roll to one side as Ares’s blade slashed the sand. He ran for his sword, scooped it up, & launched a swipe at Ares’s face, only for his blade to be deflected again. Ares seemed to know what he was going to do the moment before he did it. Percy stepped back toward the surf, forcing him to follow.
“Admit it, kid,” Ares said. “You got no hope. I’m just toying with you.”
On the street I saw a second cop car pulling up, siren wailing. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake, were starting to gather.
Among the crowd, I thought I saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs. There were shimmering forms of spirits, too, as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle. I heard the flap of leathery wings circling somewhere above. More sirens.
Percy stepped farther into the water, but Ares was fast. The tip of his blade ripped his sleeve & grazed his forearm.
A police voice on a megaphone said, “Drop the guns.’ Set them on the ground. Now!” Guns?
I looked at Ares’s weapon, & it seemed to be flickering;sometimes it looked like a shotgun, sometimes a two-handed sword.
Ares turned to glare at the spectators. There were five police cars now, & a line of officers crouching behind them, pistols trained on us.
“This is a private matter!” Ares bellowed. “Be gone.’” He swept his hand, & a wall of red flame rolled across the patrol cars. The police barely had time to dive for cover before their vehicles exploded. The crowd behind them scattered, screaming.
Ares roared with laughter. “Now, little hero. Let’s add you to the barbecue.”
He slashed. Percy deflected his blade. The waves were hitting him in the back now. Ares was up to his thighs, wading in. The water behind Percy suddenly seemed to recede. He was holding back the tide.
He then released the tide & jumped, rocketing straight over Ares on a wave.
A six-foot wall of water smashed him full in the face, leaving him cursing & sputtering with a mouth full of seaweed. Percy landed behind him with a splash & feinted toward his head, as he’d done before. He turned in time to raise his sword, but he was disoriented, he didn’t anticipate the trick.
Percy changed direction, lunged to the side, & stabbed straight down into the water, sending the point through the god’s heel.
The roar that followed made Hades’s earthquake look like a minor event. The very sea was blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide.
Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed from a gash in the war god’s boot. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he’d been wounded.
He limped, muttering ancient Greek curses. Something stopped him. It was as if a cloud covered the sun, but worse.
Light faded. Sound & color drained away. A cold, heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time, dropping the temperature to freezing, & making me feel like life was hopeless, fighting was useless. The darkness lifted.
Ares looked stunned.
Police cars were burning behind us. The crowd of spectators had fled. Annie, Grover & I stood on the beach, in shock, watching the water flood back around Ares’s feet, his glowing golden ichor dissipating in the tide.
Ares lowered his sword.
“You have made an enemy, godling,” he told Percy. “You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware.”
His body began to glow.
”’Percy!” I shouted. “Don’t watch!”
We turned away as the god Ares revealed his true immortal form. The light died. I looked back. Ares was gone. Percy picked up Hades’s bronze helm of darkness & walked toward us.
But before he got here, I heard the flapping of leathery wings. Three evil-looking grandmothers with lace hats & fiery whips drifted down from the sky & landed in front of Percy.
The middle Fury's fangs were bared, but she didn’t look threatening. She looked more disappointed.
“We saw the whole thing,” she hissed. “So...it truly was not you?”
He tossed her the helmet, which she caught in surprise. “Return it to Lord Hades,” Percy said. “Tell him the truth & call off the war.”
She hesitated, then ran a forked tongue over her green lips. “Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a true hero. Because if you don't, if you ever come into my clutches again..."
She cackled, savoring the idea. Then she & her sisters rose on their bats’ wings, fluttered into the smoke-filled sky, & disappeared.
“Percy...” Grover said. “That was incredibly...”
“Terrifying,” said Annabeth.
“Cool!” Grover corrected. I gave him a quick hug before he asked.
“Did you guys feel that...whatever it was?”
“Must’ve been the Furies on top,” Grover said.
But I wasn’t so sure. Something had stopped Ares from killing Percy, & whatever could do that was a lot stronger than the Furies.
He looked at me, & an understanding passed between us.
“We have to get back to New York,” he said. “By tonight.”
“That’s impossible,” Annabeth said, “unless we-“
“Fly,” Percy agreed.
She stared at him. “Fly? In a plane, which you were warned never to do lest Zeus strike you out of the sky, with a weapon that's more destructive than a nuclear bomb?”
“Yeah,” Percy said. “Pretty much exactly like that. Come on.”
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Take care my lovely readers.❤
Alice signing off.
XOXO.
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Daughter Of Lightning - Book 1(Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)
Fanfiction**CURRENTLY BEING EDITED** Meet Eleanor Grace a girl who looks no less than an angel from heaven - beautiful brown hair, sapphire blue eyes & a perfect smile. She loves to play the guitar, is great at sword fighting, & her archery skills remain unma...
