The Silver Ring (PJO)

Chapter 42

With a great clash, the two armies merged into one fighting mess. Soldiers yelled right and left, some in pain, on the ground, slowly dying, while others in confidence, as a battle cry.

I charged right into the mass, a whirlwind of strikes, parries, and stabs. Soldiers fell every second by Riptide, but two more would take their place. Nevertheless, I kept trying to kill as many as I could; they had the numbers.

I then came across one of Void's elite squads. I immediately focused on them. In a few strokes, they too were out of the fight.

But I wasn't a god; killing hundreds of soldiers with no break was taking a toll on me. And I couldn't exactly recuperate, since I had charged into the enemy lines with no abandon and now didn't know my left from right.

Suddenly, a familiar hulking form came into view, fit with a gigantic battle-ax that seemed to be at least two hundred pounds. At first, I was terrified to see Wesley—especially since he looked angry at me—but then I had a brilliant idea.

"Wesley!" I exclaimed friendlily, as though right at that moment I wasn't slaughtering his comrades right in front of him. "How are you doing, man?"

It had the reaction I hoped to provoke. "I can't believe you were on Chaos' side all along!" he roared, livid. "Now die!"

I gulped as he raised his weapon and charged at me,  while I kept pretending to ignore him. But at the last second, I dove to the ground, the battle-ax missing me by mere millimeters . . .

And hit half a dozen Void soldiers. 

The warriors went flying in all directions like rag dolls, hitting dozens of more soldiers and either giving them minor injuries or just making them stumble to the ground. This gave the Chaos soldiers in the vicinity an advantage, and you better believe they took it.

"I'm sorry about this," I genuinely apologized as I stabbed a caught-off-guard Wesley who gaped at the chaos he caused in shock.

Then I went back to demolishing soldiers.

After a little bit, I realized there was also an enemy who was slaughtering dozens of soldiers on my side. I charged from behind my, Riptide aimed at their heart . . .

Only to be deflected as the soldier turned around with inhumane speed and parried it.

"I finally found you, Jackson," Eon said triumphantly as Void soldiers—who had been hanging deeper in enemy lines—surrounded us in a big circle so nobody could get in—or out.

"Any chance we could just call it a day and fight tomorrow?" I tried. "I'm pretty tired—Whoa!"

I jumped back as Eon stabbed at me, anger flashing in her eyes. "We're settling this right here."

We circled each other, looking for an opening to exploit on the other, but not finding any.

Then Eon snapped. Within a moment, she was in front of me, swinging to decapitate me.

I quickly blocked, and we became blurs, one moment striking at each other then defending the others' stab.  We were quite evenly matched—but I knew the moment she got impatient and decided to use her powers I was dead.

That's exactly what happened.

At one point, Eon did a powerful swing which would've cleaved my skull open. There was no time to dodge the strike, so I opted to block. But I didn't realize Eon's blade was lit up with blue fire until it was too late. 

The force of the hit was as though I had gotten hit by a semi. I flew backward through the air for what felt like infinity until I hit the hard steel of a soldiers' shield, knocking the wind out of me. I slowly got up, wincing at the pain in my ribs—they were definitely bruised or even broken. Eon hadn't moved, her lips in a very irritating smirk. I lifted Riptide again, ready to fight.