[Y/N's POV]
I leave for a week and all hell breaks loose. Figures. This happened last year too. I leave to look into Percy at Yancy and then when I got back, suddenly there's a war looming.
Bronze bulls were running around, spitting fire all over the place. They were about the size of an elephant, and they were slightly smaller than the minotaur. Except there were two of the bulls rather than just one of the minotaurs. That's arguably worse.
The taxi peeled out, spraying us with gravel and tire fragments. I was out something like six drachmas this week and now I had to fight. Again. They barely gave us time to get our things and they were gone.
"Oh, man," said Annabeth, looking at the battle raging on the hill. "That is nothing good." Percy muttered. "Cows!" Tyson exclaimed. I ran a tense hand down my face, drew my sword, groaned, and started walking towards the battlefield. Black plumes of smoke were rising from camp, and saw other campers go flying at the mercy of the bronze battle machines.
"Border patrol!" I yelled. "Get your sorry butts over here!"
"We're trying our best!" I heard a gruff, female voice respond.
"Border patrol?" Percy muttered. "We don't have a border patrol."
"We do now!" I yelled. "Come on. We gotta help."
Well, this last year has somewhat softened my opinion of Clarisse. Maybe because every time she or the other Ares campers had anything to say, the collective response was "Be quiet! (insert name) Your dad got his ass beat by a twelve year old!"
Still though, I never really would've wanted to help her very much. This was a different matter entirely though.
Everyone was scrambling to find order. The fire was spiraling around Thalia's tree and another of the demigods went flying past and tumbling down the hill. His helmet was covered in fire, the horsehair on top burning like a lantern.
Another guy was waving his arms in distress, and then stopped, dropped, and rolled like in one of those fire safety presentations how they always tell you too.
I got a few of those at that middle school. Surprisingly enough, mortals are often chaotic as well. Not as much chaos as this moment mind you, but there's still something fun happening almost every day.
Clarisse looked much worse for wear. She was fighting with a broken spear, and her armor was cracked. The bull flipped her, but she didn't falter. Her broken spear shaft got jammed into the bull's neck. It just snorted and let loose a column of fire towards her.
Percy uncapped his sword and turned to Tyson. "Tyson, stay here. I don't want you taking any more chances."
"No!" Annabeth said. "We need him."
Percy stared at us, then at him. "He's mortal. He got lucky with the dodge balls but he can't- "
"Percy those are Colchis bulls! Hephaestus made them, and they will most definitely turn you into a burnt marshmallow if you're not careful!" I yelled, shaking his shoulders.
"We can't fight them without Medea's Sunscreen SPF 50,000. We'll get burned to a crisp." Annabeth cried out, drawing her dagger.
"Medea's what?"
I had just remembered how ridiculous magic items sound. 50,000 FPS. That is, a lot more than the FPS thirty you use to not get sunburn. Of course, now I'll never forget that there's an FPS 50,000. Annabeth had a habit of filling my brain with her out loud thoughts. I didn't mind most times, but FPS 50,000 is not a useful tidbit.
Annabeth rummaged through her backpack and cursed. "I had a jar of tropical coconut scent sitting on my night-stand at home. Why didn't I bring it?"
"Probably because you wouldn't imagine needing FPS 50,000 on a given day." Maybe I should see if Lou Ellen can make a magic bag that has everything the owner would need...
DAMN IT!
LOU ELLEN!
She still had my armor and now I was unprotected by anything but my own battle instincts. Which means, not very well protected.
"Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not going to let Tyson get fried." Percy spat.
"Percy- " Annabeth stammered.
"Tyson, stay back." he raised the sword. "I'm going in."
I tried to stop him, but he was already running off toward the battlefield. I shook my head and looked at Annabeth. "He's going to get killed one of these days, and I'm not going to take responsibility for it." I said. She massaged her temples and we charged off after him.
Annabeth threw on her hat of invisibility and taunted a bull. It saw me, and I figured I was the one making fun of it. As soon as I neared the bull, I was sweating. A wall of fire blew past me. I skidded to a halt, and almost fell to my feet.
A large boulder was hurled at me, and my body reacted before my brain luckily, as I dropped my sword. One of the scattered demigods ran past and tripped over the weapon. One of the bulls stamped it's feet and charged.
"Oh jeez." I scampered to my feet and lunged toward the warrior. The bull was a few feet away when my body made contact with theirs. Fortunately, the momentum let both of us evade the bull.
Unfortunately, the demigod's landing broke his arm. I sighed and looked back at where my sword was supposed to be. There were multiple different shards of bronze stomped into the dirt. My sword was also broken.
"Fantastic. Give me that and go find an Apollo kid!" I yelled to the other demigod, ripping his weapon away. He scrambled out of sight while I took his sword and stood in front of the bull. It stared me down, and snorted smoke.
"I've fought things bigger than you before! You got nothing I haven't seen already. Bring it!" The bull cocked it's head and started making crashing mechanical clanking. It opened up wide, and I heard sparking.
"Ok. I haven't actually seen that before." Million degree flames sprayed at me and I dove to the side. A tree behind me was torched. It started creaking and cracking where it was burned. The tree fell hard on the bull, but the only thing that happened was that the tree shattered into a countless amount of wooden splinters.
"Ok. It's gonna be like that is it?" I muttered, already tired, and trying my best to keep my calm.
I tried to adjust my grip on the new blade, but it was a different size than I was used to. I'd have to get Charlie to put a new one together once all this was done. I threw the sword, blade down into the dirt and scraped my foot on the ground like the bull had. This plan was being made up by the second, and the lucky thing is that common sense wasn't inhibiting me.
It didn't have real eyes, but you could still see the glare the bull sent my way. The mechanical menace widened it's stance, lowered it's head, and snorted again. It charged, exactly how I wanted it to. I think. Like I said, I'm making this up as I go.
As the bull neared, I squatted and jumped, landing flat on the bull's back. I nearly slid off but managed to maintain my spot on the saddle-lacking bovine. I flipped around and grabbed onto the bull's horns. It's head shook wildly, and I was reminded of the one time I saw Percy try a rodeo bull. He lasted something like 5 seconds. So far, I was beating that record.
I tightened my grip onto the horns, and tried hard to steer the bull in the correct direction. Eventually, I turned it toward the path I needed it to travel. The bull started bucking and hopped right over the sword.
My hand met the grip and I yanked it out of the ground, changing my hold on the handle. I sliced down, and one of the horn's went flying. The bull bucked at just the wrong time and I lost my hold on the other guy's sword. It clattered toward the ground and got stuck there.
The horn landed in my palm and that gave me another idea. The bull stopped bucking and started charging towards another pack of demigods.
I flourished the sharp horn in my palm and drove it into the bull's eye. Bullseye. Heh. Black oil squirted out past the horn all over the ground. As it neared the others, they scattered. I jumped off the top of the bull and onto the side, my feet planted just behind it's front legs, it's remaining horn my handle me off the ground.
I traced my fingers in the grass, feeling some energy flowing into my body. The grass died, and I grimaced. The energy hurt to take in, but I needed it. My weight, combined with that, I pulled the bull's horn towards the ground, steering it toward a particularly thick pine tree.
Prior to impact, I jumped off at the last moment and tumbled to the ground, smacking my back hard against a rock. The bull collided into the tree, letting out a horrid mechanical moan as the tree stopped it. The bull slammed to a halt, falling where it stood.
"I got it!" I laughed manically. "Ha! I got it!"
I did not get it.
The bull clanked to life, and turned to face me. It's face was dented and broken. The horn was driven further into that eye, and oil was leaking down onto the grass below. "Oh come on." I whined.
It started inching closer towards me. Granted, we were only inches apart to begin with. I started trying to back up, and the bull didn't stop moving. My back slid up the rock and I tried to hold onto my guts. The bull stamped it's feet and spat out some more smoke. It was darker than before, black like the night.
It opened up and prepared to spray fire at me. My breathing quickened, and my heart was working in overdrive to not explode. The bull's other eye suddenly was pierced with a short bronze blade. "Leave him alone!" Annabeth shouted.
The bull spun around, wildly, to face her. But it couldn't locate the source of the voice. It was blind, but it started spraying fire rapidly, narrowly missing both of us. She ducked, but the bull stayed on her.
The bull sprayed again. Annabeth lunged, clipped something and fell. She cried out. The bull looked down at the sound and reared up to fire again. I didn't have more than a second to react, but luckily, I'm pretty fast.
I sprinted towards her, lifting her up and getting out of the line of fire. The bull turned once more, spraying fire at the tree it rammed. The tree started groaning, and then it fell. Right onto the bull again. This time, it crashed to the ground, broken beyond repair. I started catching my breath, and looked down at Annabeth in my arms. She was breathing hard too. "You alright?" I sputtered.
Her face went red. She stammered. "Yeah. Yeah. I think I just twisted my ankle. We're uh... We're even now, right?" She asked. I tilted my head. I heard sparking coming from the still bull, but I didn't think much of it. "Yeah... I guess. But I saved you in Pennsylvania, then just now so- "
In an instant, a flash of light crept into the corners of my vision, and I felt a burst of heat. Time slowed to a halt. I turned to put my back towards the explosion coming from the bull and squeezed to protect the person I was holding onto.
I felt searing pain from the fire and shrapnel pierced my back. Everything went fuzzy.
[Percy's POV]
Tyson tried to protest, but we all split off and I was already running up the hill toward Clarisse, who was yelling at her patrol, trying to get them into phalanx formation. It was a good idea. The few who were listening lined up shoulder- to- shoulder, locking their shields to form an ox hide and bronze wall, their spears bristling over the top like porcupine quills.
Unfortunately, Clarisse could only muster six campers. The other four were still running around with their helmets on fire. Annabeth ran toward them, trying to help. She taunted one of the bulls into chasing her, then turned invisible, completely confusing the monster. It charged at Y/N instead. The other bull charged Clarisse's line.
I was halfway up the hill, not close enough to help. Clarisse hadn't even seen me yet. The bull moved deadly fast for something so big. Its metal hide gleamed in the sun. It had fist- sized rubies for eyes, and horns of polished silver. When it opened its hinged mouth, a column of white-hot flame blasted out.
"Hold the line!" Clarisse ordered her warriors.
Whatever else you could say about Clarisse, she was brave. She was a big girl with cruel eyes like her father's. She looked like she was born to wear Greek battle armor, but I didn't see how even she could stand against that bull's charge. It started running hard, kicking up dirt clouds. Eventually, it turned, wheeling around behind Clarisse on her unprotected side.
"Behind you!" I yelled. "Look out!"
I shouldn't have said anything, because all I did was startle her. The bull crashed into her shield, and the phalanx broke. Clarisse went flying backward and landed in a smoldering patch of grass. The bull charged past her, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. Their shields melted right off their arms. They dropped their weapons and ran as the bull reared around and closed in on Clarisse for the kill.
I lunged forward and grabbed Clarisse by the straps of her armor. I dragged her out of the way just as the bull freight- trained past. I gave it a good swipe with Riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going. It hadn't touched me, but I could feel the heat of its metal skin. Its body temperature could've microwaved a frozen burrito.
"Let me go!" Clarisse pummeled my hand. "Percy, curse you!"
I dropped her in a heap next to the pine tree and turned to face the bulls. We were on the inside slope of the hill now, the valley of Camp Half- Blood directly below us- the cabins, the training facilities, the Big House- all of it at risk if these bulls got past us. One of the campers shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bull distracted.
It ran a wide arc, making its way back toward me. As it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and kept coming. The bull turned to face me, fire sputtering from the gash I'd cut in its side. I couldn't tell if it felt any pain, but its ruby eyes seemed to glare at me like I'd just made things personal.
I couldn't fight both bulls at the same time. I'd have to take down first, cut its head off before Bull Number One charged back into range. My arms already felt tired. I realized how long it had been since I'd worked out with Riptide, how out of practice I was. I lunged but it blew flames at me. I rolled aside as the air turned to pure heat.
All the oxygen was sucked out of my lungs. My foot caught on something. A tree root, maybe. And pain shot up my ankle. Still, I managed to slash with my sword and lop off part of the monster's snout. It galloped away, wild and disoriented.
But before I could feel too good about that, I tried to stand, and my left leg buckled underneath me. My ankle was sprained, maybe broken. I heard an explosion and a weak shout of pain.
I looked over and saw Annabeth crawl out from under Y/N's motionless body. She looked terrified as she shook his shoulders. Beside them, the smoldering remains of one of the bulls gave off smoke.
The remaining bull made a turn and charged straight back to me. No way could I crawl away.
Annabeth shouted: "Tyson, help him!"
Somewhere near, toward the crest of the hill, Tyson wailed, "Can't- get- through!"
"I, Annabeth Chase, give you permission to enter camp!"
Thunder shook the hillside. Suddenly Tyson was there, barreling toward, yelling: "Percy needs help!"
Before I could tell him no, he dove between me and the bull just as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm.
"Tyson!" I yelled.
The blast swirled around him like a red tornado. I could only see the black silhouette of his body. I knew with horrible certainty that my friend had just been turned into a column of ashes. But when the fire died, Tyson was still standing there, completely unharmed. Not even his grungy clothes were scorched.
The bull must've been as surprised as I was, because before it could unleash a second blast, Tyson balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face. "BAD COW!"
His fists made a crater where the bronze bull's snout used to be. Two small columns of flame shot out of its ears. Tyson hit it again, and the bronze crumpled under his hands like aluminum foil. The bull's face now looked like a sock puppet pulled inside out.
"Down!" Tyson yelled.
The bull staggered and fell on its back. Its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places.
My ankle felt like it was filled with acid, but as I limped towards Annabeth, she gave me some Olympian nectar to drink from her canteen, and I immediately started to feel better. There was a burning smell that I later learned was me. The hair on my arms had been completely singed off.
"The other bull? What happened." I asked.
"Y/N blew it up. He's..." she stumbled over her words. "He's not breathing." I looked down at him, and she was right. He still wasn't moving, not even a visible breath taken. She was shaking, and I couldn't take my eyes off of him.
It was surreal, but I only saw his back, smoking and charred. There were large chunks of metal sticking out of his burnt body.
He wasn't budging an inch. Annabeth started picking some of the larger chunks out of his back. He started sputtering, seizing and choking.
Annabeth's eyes widened. She cautiously put her hand on her dagger. I flipped Y/N over. All I could see was some blood trickling out from his mouth. His eyes were open and looking at the sky. They were still bronze and silver. He looked very out of it. But I could see some of those veins crawling up his neck. Annabeth let out a cry of relief, and ran off, returning with a backpack flowing with supplies.
From out of it, she produced a bag of something. Ambrosia squares. A magical food that healed ailments of demigods. But first she opened his mouth and poured nectar from her canteen inside. He coughed. Some of the golden liquid ended up flying out of his mouth, but the veins receded down his neck. He started breathing again, but winced in pain with every ragged breath. I felt relieved, and helped Annabeth pull him to his feet.
As he was being lifted, he cried out and swore. He fell back down, writhing in pain. Annabeth said, "Sorry!" He waved her off, and just laid there, rolling back onto his stomach. I could see all of the gashes on his back bleeding fiercely.
His breathing was staggered and he had his eyes shut again. Annabeth pulled out a square of ambrosia and he ate it gratefully. He pulled off the smoldering remains of his shirt and stood up, his wounds already healing.
Clarisse violently charged up the hill, ready for battle, but when she saw there was nothing there anymore, she dropped the broken spear and kicked it in anger. A strand of her stringy brown hair was smoldering, but she didn't seem to notice. "You- ruin- everything!" she yelled at me. "I had it under control!"
I was too stunned to answer. Annabeth grumbled, "Good to see you too, Clarisse."
"Argh!" Clarisse screamed. "Don't ever, EVER try saving me again!"
"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "you've got wounded campers."
That sobered her up. Even Clarisse cared about the soldiers under her command. "So do you." she motioned to Y/N, who sighed.
"I'll be back," Clarisse growled, then trudged off to assess the damage.
Tyson lumbered over. I stared at him. "You didn't die."
Tyson looked down like he was embarrassed. "I am sorry. Came to help. Disobeyed you."
"My fault," Annabeth said. "I had no choice. I had to let Tyson cross the boundary line to save you. Otherwise, you would've died."
"Let him cross the boundary line?'" I asked. "But-"
"Percy," I heard Y/N groan out beside me, "Take a closer look at Tyson, why don't you." he grunted in pain. "Forget the mist, and really get a good look at him." I was skeptical.
The Mist makes humans see only what their brains can process... I knew it could fool demigods too, but...
I looked Tyson in the face. It wasn't easy. I'd always had trouble looking directly at him, though I'd never quite understood why. I'd thought it was just because he always had peanut butter in his crooked teeth. I forced myself to focus at his big lumpy nose, then a little higher at his eyes.
No, not eyes.
One eye. One large, calf- brown eye, right in the middle of his forehead, with thick lashes and big tears trickling down his cheeks on either side.
"Tyson," I stammered. "You're a..."
"He's a cyclops," Y/N groaned. "A young one too. That's why he-" he grunted again. "That's why he couldn't get through the boundary without permission."
Annabeth nodded. "Tyson's one of the homeless orphans."
"One of the what?"
"They're in almost all the big cities," Annabeth said distastefully. "They're... mistakes, Percy. Children of nature spirits and gods... Well, one god in particular, usually... and they don't always come out right. No one wants them. They get tossed aside. They grow up wild on the streets. I don't know how this one found you, but he obviously likes you. We should take him to Chiron, let him decide what to do."
"But the fire. How-"
"He's a Cyclops." Annabeth paused, as if she were remembering something unpleasant. "They work the forges of the gods. They have to be immune to fire. That's what I was trying to tell you."
I was completely shocked. How had I never realized what Tyson was?
But I didn't have much time to think about it just then. The whole side of the hill was burning. Wounded heroes needed attention. And there were still two banged- up bronze bulls to dispose of, which I didn't figure would fit in our normal recycling bins. Clarisse came back over and wiped the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you can walk, get moving. We need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."
"Tantalus?" I asked.
"The activities director," Clarisse said impatiently.
"Chiron is the activities director. And where's Argus? He's head of security. He should be here."
Clarisse made a sour face. "Argus got fired. You two have been gone too long. Things are changing."
"What?!" Y/N shouted. He ignored all the pain he was probably feeling and walked up to Clarisse aggressively. "What do you mean?! It's only been a week! Where'd he go!" Clarisse smacked his hands away from her.
"Get it together!" she pushed him.
"But Chiron... He's trained kids to fight monsters for over three thousand years. He can't just be gone. What happened?"
"That happened," Clarisse snapped.
She pointed to Thalia's tree.
"They're just gonna keep blaming him for that!?" Y/N shouted. Clarisse nodded softly.
Every camper knew the story behind the tree. Six years ago, Grover, Annabeth, and two other demigods named Thalia and Luke had come to Camp Half- Blood chased by an army of monsters. When they got cornered on top of this hill, Thalia, a daughter of Zeus, had made her last stand here to give her friends time to reach safety.
As she was dying, her father, Zeus, took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. Her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. The pine had been here ever since, strong and healthy.
But now, its needles were yellow. A huge pile of dead ones littered the base of the tree. In the center of the trunk, three feet from the ground, was a puncture mark the size of a bullet hole, oozing green sap.
A sliver of ice ran through my chest. Now I understood why the camp was in danger. The magical borders were failing because Thalia's tree was dying.
Someone had poisoned it.