Triplets of Leto

Chapter 16

Percy POV

"I want to see the kids." I heard a loud and rough voice shout from outside.

"I'll deal with this." Artemis said evenly.

She then walked outside, anger writen all over her face. Luke, and Annabeth tried to follow, but she said "no. Stay here," without even turning around.

We watched through a crack in the tent. Apollo was cowering behind us.

"Where are the kids?" Ares called angrily.

"What are you talking about?" Artemis said with much confusion. She was a good actress.

"The demigods. Three of them. One daughter of Athena. One son of Hermes. And one undetermined. I got word that they were here." Ares said.

"I have no idea what your talking about. There are no demigods here, Ares. Now go away. Get out of my camp."

"How many hunters do you have?" Ares asks, smiling.

"25," Artemis says, immediately. She silently curses.

"Then why are there 28 tents?" Ares asks.

"I didn't know you could count." Artemis shoots back, but she doesn't answer the question.

"How will the Council react when they hear Artemis, a man hating goddess, is hiding males in her camp?"

Artemis doesn't have a come back, so I jump in. I run out of the tent and say, "I have a deal for you, Lord Ares."

He smiles wickedly and says, "what is it?"

"We fight." He laughs at this, but I continue, "I win, you tell no one about this, ever. You win,"

"I win," he starts. "When I win, you'll have to do the 12 labors of Heracles. Deal?"

He sticks his hand out, but I shake my head. "Swear it on the river Styx first." He does. I shake his hand, "deal. We fight in 5 minutes at the arena."

"Got it. The gonna twins ref?"

Artemis nods.

What have I gotten myself into?

.....

I head straight to my tent. I know Ares will be all about force. So I grab the only piece of armor I have, Chris's helmet. I was surprised to find it fit me perfectly.   

To summon the wings, you simply say "wings." Since I wasn't exactly trained with them, I decided against the wings, unless I absolutely needed them.

I jogged to the arena. Just about everyone was there. Great. We have an audience.

Ares is already there, standing there in a fighting stance. I almost passed out from flashbacks. I had three. One of Clarisse standing ready, on my first day of camp. One of Zöe standing ready with Mira and Phoebe, from yesterday. And the last one was of Ares again, but he was younger. I don't knew when that ever happened.

But I couldn't focus on that. Of course, I had a plan to follow. If Ares was anything like his children, he would use fast, hard swings, tiring himself out quickly.

I could play that to my advantage. I'll play defense first, then after Ares was tired out, I'd go quick, short, swings on offense.