Rescue Part 2
They all looked at Clarisse with a hint of nervousness at first. But once they realized she seemed to be alone, a few amused smiles spread across their faces.
"You… alone?" one of them said, staring at her in disbelief.
"You're just a girl," another added with obvious amusement.
Clarisse raised an eyebrow when she heard that.
"Let's finish her quickly," one of them said, rushing straight at Clarisse without wasting another second.
Clarisse watched him approach and simply stepped aside. She placed her foot at the perfect moment, making the attacker trip and fall face first onto the floor with almost insulting ease.
The others reacted instantly. They drew their weapons and attacked Clarisse.
She raised her spear and stopped a sword descending toward her head. At the same time she kicked the weapon's owner in the stomach. Then she shifted to the side to avoid a dagger thrust aimed at her shoulder.
As she moved, she spun the spear from her shoulder down to her waist, carrying it behind her back. Suddenly she struck forward toward the attacker's neck with the blunt end of the weapon. The man clutched his throat, unable to breathe.
Clarisse lifted the spear again, spinning it around her body, and brought it down hard against his head. The man collapsed unconscious instantly.
The next one stared at her in surprise after seeing how easily she had taken down two of them. He attacked with his sword in a flurry of quick strikes.
Clarisse defended herself by moving the spear in front of her, stopping every slash with surprising ease.
While blocking, she twisted the spear slightly and the blade grazed the attacker's nose, cutting it. The man cried out in pain.
Clarisse swung the weapon behind her back as she ducked, striking him in the stomach with the blunt end. Then she rose while spinning on her heel and, using the momentum of the motion, delivered a powerful strike with the spear that sent him spinning before he collapsed unconscious.
The one who had fallen first was already getting back up. He charged at her again in fury.
Clarisse ran straight at him, stepped on his knee, and drove a knee directly into his face.
The man went unconscious immediately.
"Just a girl," Clarisse muttered with a faint grimace as she turned to look at the last one still standing.
The man was completely in shock.
He had just watched his companions fall one after another in a matter of seconds.
Without saying a word, he dropped his weapon and raised his hands in surrender. Then he turned and ran away as fast as he could.
Clarisse did not stop him.
She simply watched him go with a look of annoyance and contempt before walking toward the door.
…
Inside, Annabeth seemed to have heard the sounds of the fight outside. She quickly began untying the ropes that held her to the bed, moving her hands urgently until she managed to free herself.
When she finally succeeded, she stood up immediately and looked around for something that could serve as a weapon.
Fortunately for her, that place had once been a training area, though it was now partially burned. Among the debris on the floor there were a few daggers lying around.
Annabeth grabbed one.
At that exact moment the door opened.
Annabeth moved quickly and hid behind a nearby cabinet, gripping the dagger firmly and preparing to strike.
"Wise Girl? You around here?" a voice called, echoing slightly through the room.
"Clarisse?" Annabeth said as she recognized her voice and stepped out of hiding.
"Yeah. I came to get you out of here," Clarisse replied as she walked closer, studying Annabeth to make sure she was alright.
"Where's Percy and the others? The Fleece?" Annabeth asked quickly.
"Too many questions for so little time. They…"
Before Clarisse could finish, an explosion echoed somewhere on the ship, making the entire structure shake slightly.
Both of them looked up at the ceiling in surprise.
Clarisse reacted first.
"We should get moving before Romeo blows up the whole ship with us still inside it. I'll explain on the way," she said, urging Annabeth forward.
"What?" Annabeth said in surprise, though she immediately understood she meant Percy, so she followed without arguing.
But the moment they turned to leave, their expressions hardened as they looked toward the door.
Both of them stopped at the same time.
And then they saw her.
Alison was standing there.
She watched them carefully with an amused smile.
A bow and a quiver hung from her sword belt, and she held several daggers in her hands. One of them she tossed lightly into the air and caught again with ease over and over.
Behind her stood the man who had run away earlier, hiding slightly behind her back.
"Really… now you're hiding behind a woman?" Clarisse said, looking at him with open contempt.
The man only shrugged with a grin that instantly irritated Clarisse.
"Good to see you again too, Clarisse. I thought by now you'd be dead after bleeding out, but it seems you got lucky," Alison said calmly, staring at her.
Then she turned her gaze toward Annabeth with the same quiet expression.
"Looks like you woke up too. Well, that's better. I'm not really a fan of killing someone who can't see it coming."
When she finished speaking, she caught the dagger she had been tossing and shifted into a fighting stance, her eyes clearly hungry for blood.
"This woman is insane," Clarisse muttered as she noticed the obvious mood swings.
Even so, she raised her spear into a ready stance.
Annabeth did the same, giving a small nod.
…
Meanwhile, in another part of the ship…
A massive explosion shook the corridor, filling it completely with smoke.
Several Laestrygonians looked ahead with satisfied smiles, nodding to each other as if they had just destroyed an enemy with a coordinated attack.
But before they could celebrate for long, something shot out of the smoke at brutal speed.
By the time they realized what was happening, it was already too late.
One after another, they began turning into dust.
In the middle of them, Percy appeared.
He was standing exactly where the giants had been moments before, lightly spitting to the side while shaking the smoke and dust out of his hair. His face had a few smudges of soot from the explosion, and the edges of his clothes were slightly singed.
Percy glanced back for a moment, observing the destruction the explosion had left behind.
Then he looked forward again.
He was close to the room where he had seen Luke the last time. The place where the sarcophagus was… and where Annabeth was probably being held.
So he took another step forward.
But suddenly he stopped.
In a purely instinctive movement, he ducked with impressive speed.
At that exact moment, the sound of something slicing through the wall behind him rang out. Sparks flew as a deep mark appeared in the metal.
Percy rolled across the floor without losing a second.
Another slash appeared exactly where he had been a moment earlier.
Percy raised his sword quickly.
In the next instant, something slammed against it with force, sending out a sharp metallic spark.
Percy stared forward with a serious expression.
Then he saw a figure begin to materialize in front of him.
Luke.
In one of his hands he was holding something very familiar.
Annabeth's Yankees cap.
"Those reflexes and senses of yours always surprise me," Luke said with a half smile. "Makes me feel a little jealous, considering you're younger than I am."
He held Annabeth's cap in one hand… and his sword in the other.
Percy stared at the cap for a second.
Then he lifted his gaze to Luke, his expression far colder.
"Oh, this?" Luke said, raising the cap slightly. "I borrowed it for a while. Did you know it gets pretty itchy when you wear it?" he added calmly.