ꨄ︎ 𝖈𝖆𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖆 ༄ care, can i ask you something?
༄ it's like you want me to hit you.
𝗜𝗡 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗛
carolina has spend
her entire life waiting
for something to arrive
...
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ares stood in front of percy. "i've been fighting for eternity, kid." the god told him. "my strength is unlitimited and i cannot die. what have you got?"
a smaller ego, he thought. but he didn't speak his mind. he kept his feet in the surf, backing into the water up to his ankles.
ares cleaved downward at percy's head, but he wasn't there. his body thought for him. the water seemed to push him into the air and he catapulted over the god, slashing as he came down. but ares was just as quick. he twisted, and the strike that should've caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.
he grinned. "not bad, not bad."
he slashed again and percy was forced to jump onto dry land. the boy tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but ares seemed to know what he wanted. the god outmaneuvered the blonde, pressing so hard percy had to put all his concentration on not getting sliced into pieces. the boy kept backing away from the surf. he couldn't find any openings to attack. ares' sword had a reach several feet longer than anaklusmos.
get in close, luke had told him once, back in their sword class. when you've got the shorter blade, get in close.
percy stepped inside with a thrust, but ares was waiting for that. he knocked the boy's blade out of his hands and kicked percy in the chest, who went airborne —twenty, maybe thirty feet. the blonde would’ve broken his back if he hadn't crashed into the soft sand of a dune.
"percy!" annabeth yelled. "cops!"
percy was seeing double. his chest felt like it had just been hit with a battering ram, but he managed to get to his feet.
he couldn't look away from ares for fear he'd slice him in half, but out of the corner of his eye percy saw red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. car doors were slamming.
"there, officer!" somebody yelled. "see?"
a gruff cop voice: "looks like that kid on tv... what the heck..."
"that guy's armed." another cop said. "call for backup."
percy rolled to one side as ares' blade slashed the sand. the boy ran for his sword, scooped it up, and launched a swipe at the god's face, only to find his blade deflected again. ares seemed to know exactly what percy was going to do the moment before he did it.
