Chapter 23, Percy ALMOST delcares war
The boar glared at us with a malicious look in its eyes. Grover and I took a small step back.
Percy, however, stepped into the surf. "Fight me yourself, Ares."
Um... I think I'd rather fight the boar than Ares. After all, Ares was a god. Gods had lots of power.
Ares laughed. But there was a little uneasiness in his laughter. It was barely noticeable, but I still heard it. "You've only got one talent, kid, running away."
That wasn't exactly true. Percy had really good talent with water. I was both lucky and unlucky enough to have experienced that.
"You ran from the Chimera. You ran from the Underworld." Ares said. "You don't have what it takes."
"Scared?" Percy asked.
"In your adolescent dreams." Ares snapped. But as he said that, I could see his sunglasses melting from the heat of his eyes. "No direct involvement. Sorry, kid. You're not at my level."
Suddenly, the boar started to charge straight at Percy with a deadly look in its eyes.
"Percy, run!" I shouted.
To my horror, he didn't run. Instead, he pulled out his sword and sidestepped as the boar rushed at him.
Percy slashed upward and the boar's right tusk fell down to Percy's feet. The boar charged into the sea.
"WAVE!" Percy shouted.
A wave immediately sprung up from nowhere. It wrapped around the boar like a blanket. The boar squealed once before it was gone, swallowed up by the sea.
Percy turned to Ares with a defiant look on his face. "Are you going to fight me now?" He asked. "Or are you going to hide behind another pet pig?"
Ares' face turned purple. His sunglasses were almost melted. Wow, he was really mad. "Watch it, kid." Ares warned. "I could turn you into-"
"A cockroach." Percy finished indifferently. "Or a tapeworm. Yeah, I'm sure. That'd save you from getting your godly hide whipped, wouldn't it?"
Whatever Percy was doing, I wasn't exactly sure it was that smart.
Flames danced along the top of Ares' glasses. "Oh, man, you are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."
"If I lose, turn me into anything you want. Take the bolt." Percy said. "If I win, the helm and the bolt are mine and you have to go away."
Ares sneered and swung the baseball bat off his shoulder. "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?"
Percy held up his sword.
"That's cool, dead boy." Ares scoffed. "Classic it is."
His baseball changed into a huge, two-handed sword. The hilt of the sword was a large silver skull that had a ruby in its mouth. It looked like a deadly weapon. Percy couldn't do this. He couldn't fight Ares! Did he know how deadly gods could be? It was dangerous! He might possibly die!
"Percy!" I said, panicked. "Don't do this. He's a god."
"He's a coward." Percy said angrily.
I swallowed. I knew there was no changing Percy's mind. I looked down at my necklace and had a silent argument with myself. Finally, I decided. "Wear this, at least. For luck."
I took of my necklace that had the more beads than any other camper had on it, not to mention my father's ring, and tied it around Percy's neck, my hands slightly shaking.
