𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄, 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆

11 . . . Bull Breaker Brother

☀︎︎✯.•°★

MITCHELL WASN'T PLANNING to get woken up to Clarisse wearing full armour, shaking him awake. "Wake up, idiot!" She yellled.

Mitchell grunted, "what?" He rubbed his eyes and slipped out of bed. He grabbed his orange camp-half blood shirt and slipped it on, ignoring the fact it was inside out.

"The damn barrier, you idiot! That's what!"

Suddenly, Mitchell was wide awake. He grabs two daggers from his bedside table and runs out of his cabin with Clarisse. When they arrived they were met with the sight of two bronze bulls by camp's entrance.

The camp's magic boundaries didn't allow monsters to cross past Thalia's tree. But the metal bulls were doing it anyway.

"Border patrol, to me!" Clarisse ordered.

Her warriors were scattering, running in panic as the bulls charged. The grass was burning in huge swathes around the pine tree. One hero screamed and waved his arms as he ran in circles, the horsehair plume on his helmet blazing like a fiery Mohawk. Clarisse's own armour was charred. She was fighting with a broken spear shaft, the other end embedded uselessly in the metal joint of one bull's shoulder.

Mitchell was fighting without armour, he had no time to run and find some. He told the campers to get into a phalanx formation. The few who were listening lined up shoulder to shoulder, locking their shields to form an ox-hide-and-bronze wall, their spears bristling over the top like porcupine quills. Unfortunately, Mitchell could only muster six campers. The other four were still running around with their helmets on fire.

One of the bulls started to chase the air, which confused the campers a lot, but none of them questioned it. The other bull charged straight towards them.

The bull moved deadly fast for something so big. Its metal hide gleamed in the sun. It had fist-sized rubies for eyes and horns of polished silver. When it opened its hinged mouth, a column of white-hot flame blasted out.

"Hold the line!" Clarisse ordered her warriors.

Unfortunately, at that moment, the other bull lost interest in air. It turned, wheeling around behind Clarisse and Mitchell, on their unprotected side.

"Behind you!" A voice yelled. "Look out!"

They shouldn't have said anything, because all it did was startle the two. Bull Number One crashed into Clarisse's shield, and the phalanx broke. She went flying backwards and landed in a smouldering patch of grass. It went straight at Mitchell next, who wasn't as fortunate at got a bull to the chest. He groaned and landed right next to Clarisse. The bull charged past the two, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. Their shields melted right off their arms. They dropped their weapons and ran as Bull Number Two closed in on Clarisse and Mitchell for the kill.

Someone lunged forward and grabbed Clarisse and Mitchell by the straps of their armour. They were dragged out of the way just as Bull Number Two freight-trained past. The person gave it a good swipe with Riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.

Mitchell blinked and standing above him was a slightly taller, a little more mature, Percy Jackson. His jet black hair was a little shorter, obviously he had cut it recently, and it looked like he just came from school judging by the uniform.

"Let me go!" Clarisse pummelled my hand. "Percy, curse you!"

Percy dropped both Mitchell and Clarisse in a heap next to the pine tree and turned to face the bulls. They were on the inside slope of the hill now, the valley of Camp Half-Blood directly below them — the cabins, the training facilities, the Big House — all of it at risk if these bulls got past them