Kyle Snu and the Mark of Ananke (PJO fanfic)

XIII

With loose bronze armor and a heavy sword, I walked out toward Avery. Even after beating two ares kids, she hadn't broken a sweat. She looked at me with determination and asked, "Nice to see you again Kyle. Ready to get destroyed?"

"Actually I'd prefer not to."

She just smiled. The sword looked natural in her hands, it was a custom made weapon with a white crystal on the hilt and the name Avery etched into the blade in cursive letters. Still walked out in front of us. And using his sword, he moved my blade right on top of Avery's. Then he struck them apart and yelled, "Begin!"

Avery hit my sword one time, sending it flying, then mocked me in the head with the hilt. I fell on my knees and rubbed the welt forming under m hair. "Ooow. What the heck was that for?"

"Sorry Kyle. I can't just go easy on you. It's not in my blood."

I looked at Stoll and he shrugged. "She's not lying she the daughter of Nike, or Victoria actually. Winning is what drives the children of victory." He looked over at the Ares girl on the bleacher. "Samantha, you and Jace are up next, give Avery a break."

Avery sheathed her sword and removed her armor. She flipped her hair over her shoulders and helped me up. "Wanna try something else for now. The canoeing lake isn't quite frozen over."

"No. Canoeing is not my thing."

"Well apparently neither is fighting."

"We could just go for a walk."

"No competition. Hm... Okay I guess we can go for a walk. Let's go find Nico first, I need to check what time we're leaving."

She began walking and I followed behind her. "Wait. What do you mean?"

"Nico and I are going back to New Rome tonight. We just came to drop off a message from Praetor Tyrone. Something about an unnaturally large amount of dracnae around the city, and a prophecy that says something about that."

"Oh. Okay." I didn't really know what she meant by dracnae."

We walked until we reached the big house, where inside we found Nico petting a huge black dog that made my hair stand on end. The thing was the size of a small elephant. Avery walked up to him and began talking. I waited at the door. When she came back was very mellow, "Chiron wanted to talk to you. He went to the climbing wall were your dad is instructing today. Nico said we should meet him down there."