Crimson Rivers [1] - Percy jackson

Chapter 19: The Party Ponies Invade

‘One on one,’ I challenged Luke. ‘What are you afraid of?’

Luke curled his lip. The soldiers who were about to kill us 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 I’d ever seen, with wings like a giant raven. The pegasus mare bucked and whinnied. I could understand her thoughts. She was calling Agrius and Luke some names so bad Chiron would’ve washed her muzzle out with saddle soap.

‘Sir!’ Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof. ‘Your steed is ready!’

Luke kept his eyes on me. ‘I told you last summer, Syrus,’ he said. ‘You can’t bait me into a fight.’

‘And you keep avoiding one,’ I noticed. ‘Scared your warriors will see you get
whipped?’

Luke glanced at his men, and he saw I’d trapped him. If he backed down now,
he would look weak. If he fought me, he’d lose valuable time chasing after
Clarisse. For my part, the best I could hope for was to distract him, giving my
friends a chance to escape. If anybody could think of a plan to get them out of
there, Annabeth could. On the downside, I 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 my own sword. Its blade glinted with an evil grey-and-gold light
where the human steel had been melded with celestial bronze. I could almost feel the blade fighting against itself, like two opposing magnets bound together. I
didn’t know how the blade had been made, but I 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 me wickedly.

‘Luke,’ Annabeth said, ‘at least give her 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. There are more moves, more options, more ways to kill. I thought back to Chiron, who’d told me to stay at camp no matter what, and learn to fight. Now I was going to pay for not listening to him.

Luke lunged and almost killed me on the first try. His sword went under my
arm, slashing through my shirt and grazing my ribs. I jumped back, then counter-attacked with Regulus, but Luke slammed my blade away with his shield. ‘My, Syrus,’ Luke chided. ‘You’re out of practice.’

He came at me again with a swipe to the head. I parried, returned with a thrust. He sidestepped easily. The cut on my ribs stung. My heart was racing. When Luke lunged again, I jumped backwards into the fire place and felt a surge of strength. I spun in the flames, creating a funnel cloud, and blasted out of the deep end, straight at Luke’s face.

The force of the flame knocked him down, spluttering and blinded. But before I could strike, he rolled aside and was on his feet again. I attacked and sliced off the edge of his shield, but that didn’t even faze him. He dropped to a crouch and jabbed at my legs. Suddenly my thigh was on fire, with a pain so intense I collapsed. I was
hurt. I didn’t know how badly. Luke hacked downwards and I rolled behind a deckchair. I tried to stand, but my leg wouldn’t take the weight.

‘Syrrrrrus!’ Grover bleated.

I rolled again as Luke’s sword slashed the deckchair in half, metal pipes and
all. I clawed towards the flames, trying hard not to black out. I’d never make it. Luke knew it, too. He advanced slowly, smiling. The edge of his sword
was tinged with red.  ‘One thing I want you to watch before you die, Syrus.’ He looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was still holding Annabeth, Percy and Grover by the necks. ‘You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appétit.’

‘He-he! He-he!’ The bear-man lifted my friends and bared his teeth.

That’s when all Hades broke loose.
Whish! A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius’s mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he crumpled to the deck. ‘Brother!’ Agrius wailed. He let the pegasus’s reins go slack just long enoughbfor the black steed to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.

For a split second, Luke’s guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins’ bodies dissolve into smoke. Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell. ‘Ponies!’ Tyson cried with delight.

My mind had trouble processing everything I saw. Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives were almost nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly coloured T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER.

Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number I. Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs
bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can- and-straw attachments on either side. They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and colour that for a moment even Luke was stunned. I couldn’t tell whether they had come to celebrate or attack.

Apparently both. As Luke was raising his sword to rally his troops, a centaur
shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool.
His warriors scattered. I couldn’t blame them. Facing the hooves of a rearing
stallion is scary enough, but when it’s a centaur, armed with a bow and
whooping it up in a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior would retreat.
‘Come get some!’ yelled one of the party ponies.

They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded
against Luke’s warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe.
They tried to run, only to slip and fall.
Chiron galloped towards Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the
deck, and deposited them on his back.
I tried to get up, but my wounded leg still felt like it was on fire. Luke was crawling out of the pool. ‘Attack, you fools!’ he ordered his troops.