This Dark Night ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase¹

―xvi. a trick ends in death

A girl's voice yelled, "ARES!"

And a dozen war chariots charged into battle. Each flew a red banner with the symbol of the wild boar's head. Each was pulled by a team of skeletal horses with manes of fire. A total of thirty fresh warriors, armor gleaming and eyes full of hate, lowered their lances as one - making a bristling wall of death.

"The children of Ares!" Annabeth said in amazement. "How did Rachel know?"

Leading the charge was a girl in familiar red armor, her face covered by a boar's head helm. She held aloft a spear that crackled with electricity. Clarisse herself had come to the rescue. While half her chariots charged the monster army, Clarisse led the other six straight for the drakon.

The serpent reared back and managed to throw off Mrs. O'Leary. The poor hellhound hit the side of the building with a yelp. Naomi lost her grip on the shadows blinding the drakon in her surprise, and the serpent zeroed in on the new threat.

Even with only one eye, its glare was enough to paralyze two chariot drivers. They veered into a line of cars. The other four chariots kept charging. The monster bared its fangs to strike and got a mouthful of celestial bronze javelins.

"EEESSSSS!" it screamed, which was probably drakon-speak for OWWWW!

"Ares, to me!" Clarisse screamed. Her voice sounded shriller than usual, but Naomi figured that was fair given what she was facing.

Across the street, the arrival of six chariots gave the Party Ponies new hope. They rallied at the doors of the Empire State Building, and the enemy army was momentarily thrown into confusion.

Meanwhile, Clarisse's chariots circled the drakon. Lances broke against the monster's skin. Skeletal horses breathed fire and whinnied. Two more chariots overturned, but the warriors simply leaped to their feet, drew their swords, and went to work. They hacked at chinks in the creature's scales. They dodged poison spray like they'd been trained for this all their lives, which of course they had.

No one could say the Ares campers weren't brave. Clarisse was right there in front, stabbing her spear at the drakon's face, trying to put out its other eye. But, as Naomi watched, things started to go wrong. The drakon snapped up one Ares camper in a gump. It knocked aside another and sprayed poison on a third, who retreated in a panic, his armor melting.

"We have to help," Annabeth said.

She was right. Naomi had just been sitting there in shock. Mrs. O'Leary tried to get up but yelped again. One of her paws was bleeding.

"Stay back, girl," Percy told her. "You've done enough already."

Percy and Annabeth jumped onto the monster's back and ran toward its head, trying to draw its attention away from Clarisse. Naomi doubled her efforts with her shadows, blinding the drakon and pulling its focus in a dozen different ways. After the effort she'd been exerting since the start of the battle, it was exhausting, and when Clarisse pulled her into her chariot without taking her eyes off the drakon, Naomi was too tired to do anything except keep her head up, trying to keep the shadows up.

"You can do it, Clarisse," she said breathlessly. "A child of Ares is destined to kill it."

Through her war helmet, Naomi could only see her eyes—but she could tell something was wrong. Her blue eyes shone with fear. Clarisse never looked like that.

And she didn't have blue eyes.

Naomi's breath caught in her throat as that awfully familiar feeling hit her.

"ARES!" the warrior shouted, in that strangely shrill voice. She levelled her spear, jumped out of the chariot, and charged the drakon.

"WAIT!" Naomi heard Percy shout.