Red Skies at Morning | Clarisse La Rue x OC | Percy Jackson AU

Part 2: I Try Armature Bull-Leaping

Three months had passed since the chimera attack and things had only gotten worse. Chiron and Argus had verified my suspicions about the barrier, proving that I hadn't summoned it. That should have been good news, but what they found just opened a whole new can of worms. Some venom that came from a monster deep in the underworld had been used to poison Thalia's tree. Her spirit was slowly dying, causing the border that had kept Camp Half-Blood completely monster fee for the last 7 years to be compromised. 

The gods- mostly Zeus- were furious and demanded that someone had to be punished for what had happened to Thalia's thee. Of course, Mr. D decided to take any chance to avoid responsibility, shifting the blame onto Chiron and Argus. Argus was fired because he "failed as head of security" and Chiron was fired after being accused as the one to poison Thalia's tree. 

We were sorely unprepared for a situation like this and monsters kept slipping through and attacking campers. We'd rallied every Half-Blood capable of fighting and created a sort of militia. Well, if a group of well-trained demigods counted as a militia. That's how I ended up fighting for my life on Half-Blood Hill with a dozen other demigods.

"Border Patrol, to me!" Clarisse's command was ignored by most of the group as two Colchis bulls charged. Colchis bulls are bronze bulls made by Hephaestus himself. They're the size of elephants with red eyes and silver horns that they could easily impale a half-blood with by charging with the force of a speeding truck. We were trying our best to keep the metallic beasts away from the camp grounds but it wasn't going too well.

Fire blazed all around us and most of our child hoplites were scattered around in panic. There were originally thirteen of us, but now only ten were left in somewhat fighting condition. Kids' armor and shields were charred or had begun melting- did I mention the bulls breathe fire? Why does everything have to breathe fire? A few of us had already been put out of commission with severe burns or broken limbs. Everyone was getting tired and we'd barely made a scratch on either of the mechanical cattle; if this went on any longer we'd end up a reverse barbeque.

Clarisse was still barking orders at the patrol in an attempt to get us into a phalanx formation. I and the few others who were listening got in line beside her to make a six-person wall with our shields, bracing as the bull winded itself up to charge. 

I saw movement in my peripheral and turned my head expecting the other bull to be coming to flank us. Instead, it was chasing after someone with blond hair and a blue cap in their hand. Once the cap touched their head they disappeared.

'Annabeth?' I wasn't sure if it'd really been her. She'd left a few days ago to go find Percy. She insisted that he'd be able to help solve our tree problem, though I don't really know what Water Boy was gonna do to cure a poisoned tree.

"Hold the line!" Clarisse's command brought me back to the phalanx as we were hit with a stream of fire from the bull's mouth, the force of the blast alone almost knocking me right off my feet. The heat burned my face and in the back of my mind, I wondered if I still had eyebrows.

"Behind you!" A familiar voice yelled from somewhere nearby. "Look out!" 

The unexpected voice did nothing but startle Clarisse next to me just as the bull crashed straight into her shield. The blow forced Clarisse off her feet and sent her maybe twenty feet back. The bull had clipped the side of my shield as well, flinging me to the side with a spinning move that I'm sure would impress any professional diver. But since I wasn't a professional diver and there wasn't any water below me, I slammed the back of my head into the ground with my neck at a painful angle.

I was flat on my back staring up at endless azure dotted with fluffy balls of white. My head was spinning as I struggled to turn over onto my stomach, pushing up onto my knees and coughing up phlegm and spit mixed with a bit of blood. Did I seriously bite my tongue again?