Lost & Found

Ch.16

Ch. 16

Reyna looked out her door and saw the smoke billowing from the area of the barracks and felt a sharp pain in her heart at the thought of her legionnaires. An attack within the borders of the camp could only mean the guards were dead, legionnaires had already died and she was nowhere to be found.

She looked back at Percy, her face ashen as she looked more like a lost puppy than a veteran of two wars and the leader of the greatest demigod army on the planey. An attack from within the camp boundaries had always been so farfetched, she was at a momentary loss for what to do.

Percy seemed to gather his wits much quicker as he stood up.

"Veni Huc!" He said with such authority, Reyna half thought he was telling her to come to him, but when Aurum and Argentum appeared in front of him, she realized what he was doing. He turned to the kids and gestured to the stairs. "I need you two to go upstairs, let Aurum and Argentum inside and hide in Reyna's room. Aurum and Argentum will protect you. Do not answer the door for anyone besides myself or Reyna. Is that understood?"

Luke nodded but he looked utterly terrified. He grabbed his sister's hand and led her to the stairs with Aurum and Argentum trailing a few feet behind, their metal bodies looking especially rigid as if they expected a fight at any second.

Once of the kids were safely upstairs, Percy dropped to his knee and bowed his head.

"Mars Ultor," he said in a firm and loud tone. "Bless me as I head into battle against the enemies of Rome."

Reyna was watching him, utterly confused at what he was doing. But a few seconds later, Percy's body began to glow until his jeans and t-shirt were replaced by a blood red set of Roman-like battle armor.

Instead of army sandals, he wore black army combat boots. His helmet was the color of blood and his chest and shoulder armor was mixture of silver and red. Riptide was sheathed at his waist and instead of a pilum, an imperial gold spear was in his hand. His armor feathered out around the waist and greaves covered his legs up to the knees.

Reyna was too shocked to ask how he had done that. She was staring at him before she caught herself, she looked down and found she too had been given a divine makeover by the god of war. She was in her standard armor and her praetor's badged gleamed on her chest; her gladius had sheathed itself and her own spear was now clutched tightly in her hands.

Before she could even come to full grips about their sudden wardrobe changes, Percy blew past her and out of the door, running at a full sprint in the direction of the barracks. She took off after him but couldn't keep pace as Percy's military training had done more than tone up his muscles. He ran so fast, she almost lost sight of him until she reached the barracks where Percy was stopped, sweat dripping from his head as he looked out at the scene before them.

A drakon, the type she couldn't even fathom a guess, was surrounded by a wide circle of legionnaires in half armor, half street clothes. They too had been caught off guard by the sudden attack. What scared Reyna most was that this drakon wasn't like as she'd seen before. Perhaps the smallest she'd ever seen, a slightly less horrifying forty feet in length, it was doing something she'd only heard legends of drakons doing; and it explained why none of her legionnaires wanted to get close enough to attack it.

It turned and sent a pillar of fire at a trio of campers from the third cohort who dove for cover with limited success. Cries of pain could be heard as she looked around in horror as burned and badly wounded soldiers were being pulled from the fires, their cries of agony feeling as if they were tearing at Reyna's very soul. Some campers were trying to contain the monster while others tried to extinguish the fires that were threatening to consume the barracks.