The Winged Warrior

Chapter 17

She settled back down on her bed and the room was filled with an awkward silence, but seconds later we were saved from it.

A huge crash echoed through the cabin, shaking the walls and door. I jumped up, Lexi following suit. I yanked open the door and we ran out into the corridor.

Luke was already racing down the stairs, Nico close behind him. We followed and ran out the front door.

Many campers had already gathered in the center of the ring of cabins, looking around for the source of the noise. Me and Luke flicked up our hoods quickly, but Nico ran over to Will, who was standing among his siblings with his hand on his bow.

I stared around and explored with my senses, but only received a confused buzz of static in return. My hair stood on end and I knew something was wrong.

I extended my wings, ignoring the cries of wonder and awe from the demigods around me, and took off. I flew up through the whipping branches of the trees, emerging above the sea of green.

The trees whispered in the slight wind, and from above the leaves looked like waves, ripples that spread over the top of a great leafy carpet below. But as I flew closer to the edge of the forest and looked down at the camp borders from above, I felt as though my heart had just taken a very bumpy landing.

There was a huge mass of metal moving towards the camp.

Luke's POV

Percy took off the check out the scene from above and I switched into invisible mode, running through the forest, chasing after the flickering shadow of Percy's flight cast upon the floor. I reached the camp boundaries and stopped in my tracks.

A hell of a lot more automatons than I was comfortable with were moving towards the camp. All were different sizes, and the flashes of sunlight reflected off bronze, gold and steel near-blinded me as I raised a protective arm. Then I remembered it wouldn't do much good if it was invisible.

I ran as fast as I could back to the huddled mass of people in the center of camp and saw that Percy was already there.

"Did you see what I saw?" I asked him, reappearing  by his side.

"Yup. How on earth are our weapons gonna cut through that lot?" Percy asked, looking frantic.

I looked around at the scared looking campers and noticed the Athena kids to my left.

"Oi! Brainiacs!"

I laughed inwardly as all of them turned towards me at the call. A dozen pairs of grey eyes pierced me.

"How would you defeat a giant army of metal monsters?" I asked, innocently.

"Erm... maybe with electrically charged weapons? You could fry their circuits." Annabeth spoke up. The rest of her cabin nodded.

"Ok!" Percy yelled over the crowd, and his voice carried as people looked up at him. "Come to me to charge your weapons."

Immediately, there was a rush of movement as everyone charged at Percy like a stampede of elephants. They were all determined to have the best chance.

Percy began touching the tips of the sharp weapons thrust under his nose, sending a bolt of electricity zooming through the metal and safely into the straps at the bottom without harming the weapon's wielders. The first campers to receive this upgrade were already running through the trees towards the oncoming hoard. 

Once the campers had cleared, Percy sent shocks though my arrows and through Nico's staff. The we all ran out to help.

The scene was of utter desolation.