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

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anybody.OR ELSE!”
The gates opened again, and this time a young warrior came out. He was a little older than me, about
sixteen. He had glossy black hair, and his left eye was covered with an eye patch. He was thin and wiry
so his Greek armor hung on him loosely. He stabbed his sword into the dirt, adjusted his shield straps,
and pulled on his horsehair helmet.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Ethan Nakamura,” he said. “I have to kill you.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Hey!” a monster jeered from the stands. “Stop talking and fight already!” The others took up the call.
“I have to prove myself,” Ethan told me.“Only way to join up.”
And with that he charged. Our swords met in midair and the crowd roared. It didn’t seem right. I didn’t
want to fight to entertain a bunch of monsters, but Ethan Nakamura wasn’t giving me much choice.
He pressed forward. He was good. He’d never been at Camp Half-Blood, as far as I knew, but he’d
been trained. He parried my strike and almost slammed me with his shield, but I jumped back. He
slashed. I rolled to one side. We exchanged thrustsand parries, getting a fell for each other’s fighting
style. I tried to keep on Ethan’s blind side, but it didn’t help much. He’d apparently been fighting with
only one eye for a long time, because he was excellent at guarding his left.
“Blood!” the monsters cried.
My opponent glanced up at the stands. That was his weakness, I realized. He needed to impress them. I
didn’t.
He yelled an angry battle cry and charged me, but I parried his blade and backed away, letting him
come after me.
“Boo!” Antaeus said. “Stand and fight!”
Ethan pressed me, but I had no trouble defending, even without a shield. He was dressed for
defense—heavy armor and shield—which made it very tiring to play offense. I was a softer target, but I
also was lighter and faster. The crowd went nuts, yelling complaints and throwing rocks. We’d been
fighting for almost five minutes and there was no blood.
Finally Ethan made his mistake. He tried to jab at my stomach, and I locked his sword hilt in mine and
twisted. His sword dropped into the dirt. Before he could recover, I slammed the butt of my sword into
his helmet and pushed him down. His heavy armor helped me more than him. He fell on his back, dazed
and tired. I put the tip of my sword on his chest.
“Get it over with,” Ethan groaned.
I looked up at Antaeus. His red face was stony with displeasure, but he held up his hand and put it
thumbs down.