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( Chapter Twenty-Two ━━━ Turn Your Back On Mother Nature ! )
Besides Colton and I, Clarisse was only able to muster up six campers to help. The other four were running around like headless chickens, trying to get their flaming helmets to go out. All of the campers wore Greek battle armor over their clothing, except for me and Colton. Trying to figure out how to go about this, I swore I saw the familiar dark brown hair of Annabeth Chase before it disappeared suddenly.
"Hold the line!" Clarisse ordered us.
I glanced at Colton. "We don't have armor. We are going to burn to death."
He bit his bottom lip and the shrugged. I'm not sure why it came to me as a surprise, but it did. "We don't have time. It's a risk we'll have to take," he said as Bull Number One crashed into his sister's shield which sent her flying backward. She landed in a smoking piece of grass.
Colton clenched his jaw, turning his attention to Bull Number One which was blasting other campers with the fiery breath it had. Their shields melted off of their arms. Right off their arms.
"Behind you!" a familiar voice yelled. "Look out!"
I turned to where Clarisse was on the patch of grass as Bull Number Two was closing in on her. Only she hadn't been sitting in the patch of grass anymore. A blonde boy had dragged her by the straps of her armor back to avoid Bull Number two as it bolted past them. At first I thought it was Will Solace, but he would have been healing campers as they were hurt.
"Percy?!" I called as Clarisse pummeled my half-brother's hand, cursing him cutting in as she did.
Percy dropped Clarisse next to Thalia's pine tree, standing next to Colton and I as we all watched the bulls. We had to come up with a plan and quick.
Another voice—Annabeth Chase—spouted off orders to other heroes. She said to spread out and keep the bulls distracted.
The first bull ran a wide arc, making its way toward Percy and I. It passed the middle of the hill and instead of the boundary line doing its job to keep the monster out, it fought a bit before letting the bull in. Bull Number Two turned to face us. Fire burned from a gash in its side. Its red ruby eyes seemed to glare at the two of us. Bull Number One charged back into range.
Percy and I might have been able to take on the bulls at the same time, but then again, Percy was severely out of practice. You couldn't exactly sword fight in New York City and no way was Sally going to let us do that in the apartment.
