Skeletons firing

We made it to the edge of the town before the first two skeleton warriors appeared. They stepped from the trees on either side of the road. Instead of grey camouflage, they were now wearing blue New Mexico State Police uniforms, but they had the same transparent grey skin and yellow eyes.
They drew their handguns…
And | charged.
The first skeleton fired. Time slowed down. | won't say | could see the bullet, but | could feel its path, the same way | felt water currents in the ocean. | deflected it off the edge of my blade and kept charging.
The skeleton drew a baton and | sliced off his arms at the elbows. Then | swung Riptide through his waist and cut him in half.
His bones unknitted and clattered to the tarmac in a heap. Almost immediately, they began to move, reassembling themselves. The second skeleton clattered his teeth at me and tried to fire, but | knocked his gun into the snow.

In the chaos, Thalia and | tackled the other two skeletons on the stairs and sent them flying into the condiment table. Then we all raced downstairs, Guacamole Grandes whizzing past our heads.
‘What now?’ Grover asked as we burst outside.
| didn’t have an answer. The warriors on the road were closing in from either direction. We ran across the street to the plaza with the winged bronze statues, but that just put our backs to the mountain.
The skeletons moved forward, forming a crescent round us.
Six skeletons raised their guns. The other five came forward with batons. Fifteen metres away. Ten metres.
And nothing happened.
The skeletons closed in. | raised Riptide to defend myself...
The other skeletons opened fire. | raised my lion coat for protection, but | didn’t need it. The bronze angels stepped in front of us and folded their wings like shields. Bullets pinged off them like rain off a corrugated roof. Both angels slashed outwards, and the skeletons went flying across the road.

TTC ch.12,14