Son of the Moon

13

-Percy-

"We're going to dominate tomorrow!" Nico cheered as they all took in their chariot that they had been working on for the past two weeks in preparation for the races. They had decided that he would be the main driver with Bianca as the fighter on the back as she was the best archer which would allow them to not need to get close to attack. Nico had turned out to be extremely good with carpentry and metalwork and spent time doing a lot of the physical construction of the chariot as well as summoning up a couple of undead skeleton Horses to pull it as they wouldn't tire out. Clarisse had spent time building different weapons to mount to the chariot and to give to them to use while Amanda helped out Nico.

The chariot itself was a sight to behold. The main body of it was black but there were small star like diamonds dotted throughout its surface and surrounding the decorations. In the middle of the front portion of the Chariot was a silver moon flanked by a caduceus on each side while the sides of the chariot each had a silver boar (AN: hehehe) so that the chariot paid homage to their fathers. The horses were pure white skeletons but had manes of black flames and, according to Nico, were the skeletons of the horses that pulled Achilles' chariot. Along with the decorations and the horses the rim of the chariot was lined with silver spikes and the spoke center had a silver barbed tip as well to shred their opponent's wheels.

"Imagine Annabeth's face when we destroy her chariot in the race tomorrow." Clarisse laughed out, probably remembering earlier in the week when the annoying daughter of Athena had mocked their chariot skills and openly declared how she would win the whole thing.

"Same goes with my brothers Travis and Connor," Amanda added "those two may mean well most of the time but their complete idiots. They think that Percy and Bianca aren't going to shred their chariot just because Percy's a friend of the line. While he isn't going to be overly harsh he's still going to do what it takes to win this thing."

"Let's just get some sleep guys," he said chuckling "we have a big day tomorrow.".

The next morning he and Bianca stood waiting at the track for Nico, Amanda and Clarisse to bring in the chariot while he inspected the completion. The first group he noticed was Charles Beckendorf and a daughter of Hephaestus named Nyssa with their chariot. The first thing about it that he noticed was that instead of horses they were using the remaining Colchis bull to pull it and they had clearly repaired the mechanical menace. The second thing was that the chariot itself was solid celestial bronze and he figured that it likely had more traps than the labyrinth hidden inside it.

The second chariot was pulled by a couple of Clarisse's brothers and was blood red with a pair of black stallions pulling it. The two sons of Ares were loading their chariot up with javelins, spiked balls, caltrops, and a bunch of other nasty toys that would have worried him if he knew that it wouldn't drastically slow the chariot down.

Will Solace and Michaels Yew of the Apollo cabin had a sleek golden chariot that was pulled by two beautiful palominos and their fighter was armed with a bow like Bianca was and, like Bianca, had promised to shoot arrows with rounded heads that would simply knock the other person out or hurt them but wouldn't kill.

The fourth chariot was manned by Amanda's siblings the Stoll brothers, Connor and Travis, and didn't look like anything special. But he knew that looks could be deceiving, while the green chariot may look old and worn down with those two driving who knows what it could do, the box that they brought up with them was worrying as well.

The last chariot that he really took notice of was manned by Annabeth and her brother Malcom. It was a simple gray chariot with an owl on the front with a couple grey horses.

Before he could take stock of the other chariots the others showed up with his own and me smirked at all the shocked glances it got before he climbed in and pulled Bianca up. "Charioteers to your mark!" Tantalus yelled, looking anywhere but at where they were. Shaking his head he urged the skeletal horses onward to the lineup and waited. "Charioteers attend your mark!" Tantalus yelled again before pausing and yelling "Begin!" and the groups thundered off.