Miss Quinn

156 ~ The Ball of Fire

It was nothing like the Battle of Manhattan. For one, the demigods were completely surrounded by monsters. Secondly, the fighting in Manhattan had been more spread out, covering more land. Here, Emma was a foot away from Will on one side and a foot and a half from Travis Stoll on the other, and every other movement had her bumping into one of them. Thirdly, the monsters kept coming. There was no end to the sea of them spread out before her. Emma was in the center of an onslaught. It was all she could do to keep swinging her daggers.

She stabbed and parried, ducked and dodged, avoiding the monsters' teeth and weapons as best she could. She had only a few scratches so far, where the occasional lucky strike had gotten through. Nothing deep, nothing her inner healing magic couldn't fix immediately. She was dripping in sweat, though. It had been ages since she'd fought under the glare of the sun. And it wasn't even at its peak yet!

"Emma, look!" Will shouted over the clanging of metal on metal, grunts, and yells. He pointed his sword skyward, and Emma kicked a two-headed man away from her and let her eyes follow it. Plummeting through the sky were a giant dragon and two humanoid figures beside it. Atop the dragon rode a dark-skinned girl, and in its claws were Percy and Annabeth. The two figures were Jason Grace and Piper McLean. Jason could fly, apparently.

Giant eagles circled Jason, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders.

Emma turned back to the battle, her distraction allowing a cyclops to charge up to her and almost run her over. She and Will engaged it, slicing its legs until it collapsed, and then driving their blades into its chest. It exploded in a cloud of yellow dust, back to Tartarus.

Jason and Piper landed on the crest of Half-Blood Hill, and a cheer went up from the Greeks and the Romans. The dragon, along with Percy, Annabeth, and the girl that must be Hazel, if Emma remembered correctly, landed in the circle of Romans separated from the rest of the demigods by monsters. The dragon disappeared, and Emma was too far away to notice where it had gone.

A few seconds later, a giant ball of fire streaked across the sky. It almost looked like a ship, underneath all the flames.

The sight seemed to give the demigods more of a reason to fight. The Greeks and Romans slowly pushed back the enemies. Wild centaurs toppled. Wolf-headed men howled as they were cut to ashes.

More monsters kept appearing – karpoi grain spirits swirling out of the grass, gryphons diving from the sky, lumpy clay humanoids that made Emma think of evil Play-Doh men.

"Emma, I have to go," said Will, gripping her arm. "Keep fighting. I love you."

"Be careful, Will. I love you too," Emma replied, staring into his bright blue eyes like it might be the last time she saw them. He smiled, then turned away and raced toward the other side of the pack. Emma turned back to the sprawl of monsters and continued to hack them apart, this time with Sadie having taken Will's place.

Someone in the Roman ranks yelled, "Eiaculare flammas!" and a wave of flaming arrows arced over the legion's shield wall, destroying a platoon of ogres. The Roman ranks moved forward, impaling centaurs and trampling wounded ogres under their bronze-tipped boots.

Somewhere downhill, another voice yelled in Latin: "Repellere equites!"

A massive herd of centaurs parted in a panic as the legion's other three cohorts ploughed through in perfect formation, their spears bright with monster blood. A muscular Asian boy marched before them. On the left flank, riding Arion, a small black girl beamed with pride.

"Ave, Praetor Zhang!" Reyna called.

"Ave, Praetor Ramírez-Arellano!" The asian boy said. Emma's thoughts fleetingly thought up who he was: Frank Zhang, one of the seven. And the girl on the horse was Hazel Levesque. "Let's do this. Legion, CLOSE RANKS!"