Percy vs. Ares

He cleaved downward at my head, but I wasn't there.
My body thought for me. The water seemed to push me into the air and I catapulted over him, slashing as I came down. But Ares was just as quick. He twisted, and the strike that should've caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.
He grinned. "Not bad, not bad."
He slashed again and I was forced to jump onto dry land. I tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares seemed to know what I wanted. He outmaneuvered me, pressing so hard I had to put all my concentration on not getting sliced into pieces. I kept backing away from the surf. I couldn't find any openings to attack. His sword had a reach several feet longer than Anaklusmos.
Get in close, Luke had told me once, back in our sword class. When you've got the shorter blade, get in close.
I stepped inside with a thrust, but Ares was waiting for that. He knocked my blade out of my hands and kicked me in the chest. I went airborne-twenty, maybe thirty feet. I would've broken my back if I hadn't crashed into the soft sand of a dune.
"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "Cops!"
I was seeing double. My chest felt like it had just been hit with a battering ram, but I managed to get to my feet.


I couldn't look away from Ares for fear he'd slice me in half, but out of the corner of my eye I saw red lights flash-ing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming.
"There, officer!" somebody yelled. "See?"
A gruff cop voice: "Looks like that kid on TV ... what the heck ..."
"That guy's armed," another cop said. "Call for backup."
I rolled to one side as Ares's blade slashed the sand.
I ran for my sword, scooped it up, and launched a swipe at Ares's face, only to find my blade deflected again.
Ares seemed to know exactly what I was going to do the moment before I did it.
I stepped back toward the surf, forcing him to follow.
"Admit it, kid," Ares said. "You got no hope. I'm just toying with you."
My senses were working overtime. I now understood what Annabeth had said about ADHD keeping you alive in battle. I was wide awake, noticing every little detail.
I could see where Ares was tensing. I could tell which way he would strike. At the same time, I was aware of Annabeth and Grover, thirty feet to my left. I saw a second cop car pulling up, siren wailing. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake, were starting to gather. Among the crowd, I thought I saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs. There were shimmering forms of spirits, too, as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle. I heard the flap of leathery wings circling somewhere above.

More sirens.
I stepped farther into the water, but Ares was fast. The tip of his blade ripped my sleeve and grazed my forearm.
A police voice on a megaphone said, "Drop the guns.' Set them on the ground. Now!" Guns?
I looked at Ares's weapon, and it seemed to be flicker-ing; sometimes it looked like a shotgun, sometimes a two-handed sword. I didn't know what the humans were seeing in my hands, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't make them like me.
Ares turned to glare at our spectators, which gave me a moment to breathe. There were five police cars now, and a line of officers crouching behind them, pistols trained on us.
"This is a private matter!" Ares bellowed. "Be gone.'"
He swept his hand, and a wall of red flame rolled across the patrol cars. The police barely had time to dive for cover before their vehicles exploded. The crowd behind them scattered, screaming.
Ares roared with laughter. "Now, little hero. Let's add you to the barbecue."
He slashed. I deflected his blade. I got close enough to strike, tried to fake him out with a feint, but my blow was knocked aside. The waves were hitting me in the back now. Ares was up to his thighs, wading in after me.

I felt the rhythm of the sea, the waves growing larger as the tide rolled in, and suddenly I had an idea. Little waves, I thought. And the water behind me seemed to recede. I was holding back the tide by force of will, but tension was building, like carbonation behind a cork.
Ares came toward, grinning confidently. I lowered my blade, as if I were too exhausted to go on. Wait for it, I told the sea. The pressure now was almost lifting me off my feet. Ares raised his sword. I released the tide and jumped, rock-eting straight over Ares on a wave.
A six-foot wall of water smashed him full in the face, leaving him cursing and sputtering with a mouth full of sea-weed. I landed behind him with a splash and feinted toward his head, as I'd done before. He turned in time to raise his sword, but this time he was disoriented, he didn't anticipate the trick. I changed direction, lunged to the side, and stabbed Riptide straight down into the water, sending the point through the god's heel.
The roar that followed made Hades's earthquake look like a minor event. The very sea was blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide.
Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed from a gash in the war god's boot. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he'd been wounded.



TLT pg.341-344