THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH Percy Jackson ... - No one's invited.

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“And when you grow to be bigtelekhines , will you make weapons for the army?”
“Yes!”
“Excellent. Now, we’ve brought in some scraps for you to practice with. Let’s see how ingenious you
are.”
There was a rush of movement and excited voices coming toward the cart. I got ready to uncap Riptide.
The tarp was thrown back. I jumped up, my bronze sword springing to life in my hands, and found
myself facing a bunch of…dogs.
Well, their faces were dogs, anyway, with black snouts, brown eyes, and pointy ears. Their bodies were
sleek and black like sea mammals, with stubby legs that were half flipper, half foot, and humanlike hands
with sharp claws. If you blended together a kid, a Doberman pinscher, and a sea lion, you’d get
something like what I was looking at.
“A demigod!” one snarled.
“Eat it!” yelled another.
But that’s as far as they got before I slashed a wide arc with Riptide and vaporized the entire front row
of monsters.
“Back off!” I yelled at the rest, trying to sound fierce. Behind them stood their instructor—a six-foot-tall
telekhine with Doberman fangs snarling at me. I did my best to stare him down.
“New lesson, class,” I announced. “Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze
sword. This change is perfectly normal, and will happen to youright now if you don’t BACK OFF!”
To my surprise, it worked. The monsters backed up, but there were at least twenty of them. My fear
factor wasn’t going to last long.
I jumped out of the cart, yelled, “CLASS DISMISSED!” and ran for the exit.
The monsters charged after me, barking and growling. I hoped they couldn’t run very fast with those
stubby little legs and flippers, but they waddled along pretty well. Thank the gods there was a door in the
tunnel leading out to the main cavern. I slammed it shut and turned the wheel handle to lock it, but I
doubted it would keep them long.
I didn’t know what to do. Annabeth was out here somewhere, invisible. Our chance for a subtle
reconnaissance mission had been blown. I ran toward the platform at the center of the lava lake.
“Annabeth!”I yelled.
***
“Shhh!” an invisible hand clamped over my mouth and wrestled me down behind a big bronze cauldron.
“You want to get us killed?”
I found her head and took off her Yankees cap. She shimmered into existence in front of me, scowling,
her face streaked with ash and grime. “Percy, what is your problem?”