𝐂œ𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐬é𝐬 [Percy Jackson]

133

The fight was going great– until Jason got stabbed.

Jason slashed his gladius in a wide arc, vaporizing the nearest suitors, then he vaulted onto the table and jumped right over Antinous's head. In midair his blade extended into a javelin. 

He landed on his feet holding a six-foot-long pilum. As Antinous turned to face him, Jason thrust the Imperial gold point through the ghoul's chest.

Antinous looked down incredulously. "You –"

"Enjoy the Fields of Punishment." Jason yanked out his pilum and Antinous crumbled to dirt.

Hadrian had pulled out his bow and quiver from his amphora and started shooting left and right. If the ghosts were too close range, he just whacked them or jabbed at them with the end of his bow.

Damasen's magic arrows kept appearing back in his quiver that was strapped to his back. He jumped onto a table, kicking all the plates off. He aimed at the ghost that had grabbed his waist. He flipped him off and let the arrow go. 

Jason kept fighting, spinning his javelin – slicing through ghosts, knocking ghouls off their feet.

Across the courtyard, Annabeth fought like a demon, too. Her sword- a jagged bronze blade she'd taken from Zethes the Boread- scythed down any suitors stupid enough to face her. Apparently, Hadrian and Percy had missed a lot.

The Greek tyrant Hippias lunged at Annabeth, his dagger raised, but she blasted him point-blank in the chest with a lovely pot roast from her cornucopia. He tumbled backward into the fountain and screamed as he disintegrated.

An arrow whistled toward Jason's face. Hadrian didn't even think. He wasn't sure if he actively calculated it or if he just knew from experience. But he shot an arrow to intercept it, the two arrows collided and Jason hadn't even been aware of it. He flashed Hadrian a smile and cut through a line of sword-wielding ghouls and noticed a dozen suitors regrouping by the fountain to charge Annabeth. He lifted his javelin to the sky. A bolt of lightning ricocheted off the point and blasted the ghosts to ions, leaving a smoking crater where the sand fountain had been.

Over the last few months, Hadrian had fought many battles, but he'd forgotten what it was like to feel good in combat. Here he was with friends, Argo II not far off, and of course he wasn't in Tartarus anymore. Of course, he was still afraid, but a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. For the first time since waking up at camp, Hadrian felt whole. He knew who he was. He had chosen his friends, and he had gotten a last chance to meet Kira. His family included all the demigods who fought at his side, Roman and Greek, new friends and old. He wasn't going to let anyone break his family apart.

A ghost tried to come at him from behind, only Hadrian whirled around and smiled blindingly, "I don't have time for you- go run away and trip down the mountain"

He obeyed. 

Hadrian started yelling as well as shooting. He told the ghosts to line up one by one while he skwered them, he told them to do the macarena as he fought the others, and he even told some of them to sing Taylor Swift as background music. 

Soon no more enemies faced him. The remaining ghosts began to disappear on their own. Annabeth cut down Hasdrubal the Carthaginian, and Jason made the mistake of sheathing his sword.

Hadrian watched it happen. Varus- the roman demigod. The guy Jason apparently knew about. Somehow Annabeth, Hadrian, and even Jason had forgotten about him. And only remembered when Jason cried out in pain. 

Varus' disgusting face was next to Jason while he whispered something in his ear. 

The tip of a golden sword jutted through the front of Jason's shirt, just below his ribcage.