GOLD RUSH ↬ p. jackson x reader {book one}

PARTY PONIES. THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY.

I HATED TO ADMIT THIS, BUT I WAS KIND OF INVESTED.

"One on one," Percy challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"
Luke curled his lip.

The soldiers who were about to kill us hesitated, waiting for his order. Before he could say anything, Agrius, the bear-man, burst onto the deck leading a flying horse. It was the first pure-black pegasus I'd ever seen, with wings like a giant raven. The pegasus mare bucked and whinnied.

"Sir!" Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"
Luke kept his eyes on his opponent.
"I told you last summer, Percy," he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."

"And you keep avoiding one," he noticed. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"
Luke glanced at his men. "I'll kill you quickly," he decided, and raised his weapon. The blade glinted with an evil gray-and-gold light where the human steel had been melded with celestial bronze. Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield.

He grinned wickedly.
"Luke," Annabeth said, "at least give him a shield."
"Sorry, Annabeth," he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."
The shield was a problem. Fighting two-handed with just a sword gives you more power, but fighting one-handed with a shield gives you better defense and versatility. There are more moves, more options, more ways to kill.

Luke lunged and almost killed him on the first try. His sword went under Percy's arm, slashing through his shirt.

He counterattacked, but Luke slammed the blade away with his shield.

"My, Percy," Luke chided. "You're out of practice."

He came at him again with a swipe to the head. Percy parried, returned with a thrust. He sidestepped easily.

The cut on my ribs stung. My heart was racing. When Luke lunged again, he jumped backward into the swimming pool, and blasted out of the deep end, straight at Luke's face.
The force of the water knocked him down, spluttering and blinded.

Percy attacked and sliced off the edge of his shield, but that didn't even faze him. Luke dropped to a crouch and jabbed at Percy's legs. Luke hacked downward and Percy rolled behind a deck chair. He tried to stand.

"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated. I tried to tear my eyes away but something about the fight was so mesmerizing that I simply couldn't.

Luke advanced slowly, smiling. The edge of his sword was tinged with red.
"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy." He looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was still holding us all by our necks. Well, Annabeth and Grover. He had sort of forgotten I was there and let me stand between them. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appetit."
"He-he! He-he!" The bear-man lifted them and bared his teeth. I could feel his breath over me.

That's when all Hades broke loose.

Whish!
A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius's mouth. I ducked. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he crumpled to the deck.
"Brother!" Agrius wailed. He let the pegasus's reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.

For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies dissolve into smoke.
Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell.

"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.

There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER. Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns.