The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

sixteen

THANKS, CHIRON.

"One on one." Percy challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"

Luke curled his lip. The soldiers who were about to kill them 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 Ariana 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 Percy. "I told you last summer, Percy." he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."

Had Ariana had the strength she would've summoned their own warriors to battle him.

"And you keep avoiding one." Percy noticed. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"

Luke glanced at his men, and he saw Percy had trapped him. If he backed down now, he would look weak. If he fought Percy, he'd lose valuable time chasing after Clarisse.

For their part, the best they could hope for was to distract him, giving their friends a chance to escape. If anybody could think of a plan to get them out of there, Annabeth could.

On the downside, Ariana knew how good Luke was at sword-fighting.

"I'll kill you quickly." he decided, and raised his weapon.

Backbiter was a foot longer than Percy's own sword. Its blade glinted with an evil grey-and-gold light where the human steel had been melded with celestial bronze.

Ariana could almost feel the blade fighting against itself, like two opposing magnets bound together.

She didn't know how the blade had been made, but she sensed a tragedy. Someone had died in the process.

Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield. He grinned at Percy 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 defence and versatility.

Luke lunged and almost killed him on the first try. His sword went under his arm, slashing through his shirt and grazing my ribs.

Percy jumped back, then counter-attacked with Riptide, but Luke slammed his blade away with his shield.

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

Ariana tried to stand up but was pulled back down by Annabeth. "Don't you try anything Ariana. No powers, no sword fighting nothing." She hissed.

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

When Luke lunged again, he jumped backwards into the swimming pool. He spun underwater, creating a funnel cloud, and blasted out of the deep end, straight at Luke's face.

The force of the water knocked him down, spluttering and blinded. But before he could strike, he rolled aside and was on his feet again.

He attacked and sliced off the edge of his shield, but that didn't even faze him. He dropped to a crouch and jabbed at his legs.

Suddenly his thigh was on fire, with a pain so intense he collapsed. His jeans were ripped above the knee.

He was hurt. He didn't know how badly. Luke hacked downwards and he rolled behind a deckchair.