The Truth Behind The Myths

Archers

Third Person POV

The woman addressed the crowd. "Third Cohort, who do you choose to represent you?"

A guy of 18 with a muscular build stood. "According to the added rules from 10 years ago, if we wish we may substitute two distance attackers for one close combat attacker."

"Are you invoking this right?"

"That we are, Praetor. We have chosen Jessica and Danielle Glass."

The gate opened again and Percy only had a moment to think 'I'm screwed' before the woman shouted for the fight to begin.

The two girls, identical in all except their stance, began to fire arrows at him. They stood back to back, one girl shooting left handed while the other shot the opposite way.

Percy began to dance frantically, hoping to find some sort of cover.

His eyes landed on something he hadn't noticed before.

Big burly Morgan had left her shield sitting on the arena floor. It was only a few feet from him.

Percy began to sidle towards the slab of metal. He continued to dodge arrows, the girls had sped up now and it was obvious they were either carrying huge quivers or more than one each because their shooting never slowed.

'Maybe they refill themselves.' He thought as he reached the shield.

Stomping his foot down sent the shield spinning into the air. He looked up to catch it.

The next thing the arena heard was a yell of pain.

Percy brought the shield down in the girl's range of fire and crouched, hiding behind the metal disk to inspect the arrow sticking through his upper arm. It wasn't barbed, but at the same time he couldn't just pull it out. So he grabbed it in his teeth and snapped it, wincing in pain at the feeling of the wood moving inside his arm.

Ripping off a piece of his shirt, he pulled out the piece inside his arm and again used his teeth, this time to tie a tourniquet around his arm, then to tie a bandage over the wound itself.

The pinging of arrows against his shield was steadily getting louder and faster, which meant the girls were slowly moving towards him.

Percy knew he had to get moving somehow. He didn't dare risk poking his head out to see how close the girls were, that would only garner an arrow to the face.

Just then, a scuffle broke out in the stands. Percy glanced up to see two boys who looked about 19 wrestling back and forth in their seats, angrily shoving at each other.

Taking a chance, he peeked over the shield's rim, seeing his attackers glancing up to the stands as well to see what was going on.

Bounding forward, Percy slipped between the girls as they distractedly tried to start shooting again, slicing both their bowstrings with his sword.

Twisting around, he began to slash at them. The girls had whirled and used their bows, which were now essentially yew rods, to defend themselves, blocking or ducking under his attacks.

Percy slowly backed them up against the wall, then knocked their broken bows from their hands and held them both to the wall with his sword laying across their necks lightly.

"Do you yeild?" The two girls nodded in answer to his question and he backed up.

Turning to the arena, he bowed slightly at the waist. "Let's move on, shall we?"

The woman nodded.

"Second Cohort, who do you choose to represent you?"

"We choose Jade Lloyd!" Someone shouted, not bothering to stand up. 

"I've got a better idea!" A second voice shouted.

A muscular man of about 22 stood from near the front of the stands.

"Forgo the last two fights-"

"Rowan, that isn't how this works." The Praetor interrupted, her eyes boring into his.

"Hear me out," The man responded. "Instead of having him fight two opponents, let's have him fight Zhang. If he can keep up with him, he'd be welcome in any cohort."

The woman was silent for a moment, then turned to the crowd. "All in favor of this change?"

Hands shot up around the arena, too many for Percy to count, but the woman seemed to be able to gauge the general feeling of their votes.

"It is settled then. Timber, would you like to take your five minute break before fighting our Praetor?"

He nodded. "That would be nice, thanks. This face doesn't stay perfect under too much stress."

The woman didn't smile. "Five minutes."

[A/N Percy's gonna fight Frank!]