Chapter 35

[Third Person's PoV]

A week later…

Lucian ducked his head and swung his sword making his and Luke's sword clash against each other causing sparks to fly.

Luke kicked Lucian in the stomach sending him back and was about to follow up with another slash of his sword but couldn't as Lucian used the kick's momentum to roll backwards and create some space between them.

Lucian went and slashed his sword forward which Luke deflected it, Luke then tried to strike Lucian on his left side which he parried and the two continued to each move trying to see who could scratch the other one first.

The sound of metal hitting each other reverberated around the area as they both tried to take advantage of any mistake the other one makes.

Luke sent an overhead strike which Lucian stepped to the side, Lucian hit Luke in the stomach with the hilt of his sword making Luke grunt slightly before taking a few steps back.

Lucian went and ran towards Luke clashing their weapons once again, Lucian pushed Luke's sword down with his own blade before he proceeded to grind his blade against Luke's creating more sparks and deliver a cut right on Luke's cheek.

Both Lucian and Luke winced in pain slightly before moving back, Luke wiped his cheek while Lucian looked down at his thigh with a smirk, they both managed to injure the other at the same time.

"That's enough you two, you guys have been at it for a while now" Thalia sitting on the edge of a rooftop with Annabeth next to her looking down at the ground.

Annabeth looked at Lucian with narrowed eyes, "You have literally just finished recovering a few hours ago, do you think it's safe to immediately go on a rooftop and start sword training with Luke."

Lucian releases his sword in hand causing it to shatter, since it was just made using his tracing magic on Luke's sword that he promised him to make a couple months back.

He turned towards Annabeth and with a smirk said, "Come on we just made it out of Connecticut and finally arrived in New York, If i didn't immediately go towards the rooftops of a building and start a sword fight then this trip would have been wasted."

Thalia just shook her head, "You guys are just wasting our time"

"You wouldn't understand Thalia, it's a boy's romance to be fighting on a rooftop with swords and everything" Luke retorted.

"You're right I don't understand, can we leave now?"

Luke and Lucian looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders, not caring either way, yeah sure.

"Sure we're done anyways" Lucian added as he walked towards the edge where the fire escape was placed, they all jumped down to it and started to climb down the fire escape.

When they all made it back on the ground they looked towards Grover, who was now more relaxed around them.

"Where to now Grover?" Annabeth asked,

"We go North towards and pass through the Bronx which would then continue and reach Long Island, where Camp half-blood is being held" Grover said after pointing a finger on his mouth and pointing it up in the air before pointing them towards the North.

They nodded before they started following Grover, but they didn't just go north since they are in a city they decided to explore and buy necessary items that they would need for their trip.

Whenever it would come down to paying Lucian would look at them arrogantly, "Come along now peasants, I don't have a lot of time to give. After all you know what they say, time is money… something you guys don't have"

Lucian waved his wad of cash to fan himself, "Ohohohoho" giving them his best rich man laugh.

"Sigh, Lucian you're the only one that can make something as enjoyable as shopping be so annoying" Thalia said with bags in her hands.

"What can I say, I have a gift for these kinds of things" Lucian replied while bringing down his brand new sunglasses from the top of his head that he just bought that were in the shape of dollar signs, putting them on.

Grover wasn't saying anything as he was in his own world enjoying his vegetarian made enchiladas.

"So this is what ice cream tastes like… I should have bought more…"

Lucian expression tightened for a bit before it returned back to what it previous was, "Annabeth Darling, with me around we could have ice cream for breakfast lunch and dinner"

"I don't see how it's a good idea to try ice cream in the cold in February, it tastes way better in the summer," Luke said, shaking his head.

"Wait, if you have all this money why aren't we ordering a cab or something to take us towards camp" Luke asked.

Just as Lucian was about to explain, Thalia answered, "since we're getting hunted, remember, if we do order a cab then the driver would just be put in unnecessary danger."

Luke nodded his head, "I see…" although he doesn't really agree with that reason.

"It's not because of that dummy," Lucian said, shaking his head.

Thalia looked at Lucian with a raised brow and waited for him to continue to see whether to hit him or not for calling her a dummy.

"I could just summon my griffin, remember? Which is way faster than a cab. So there's no need to even think about it.

And second of all you wouldn't catch me dead in such a poor people mode of transportation. If I need such a mortal ride, a limousine would be the only correct option."

Everyone just rolled their eyes at his reasoning, since they forgot about the griffins since they hadn't seen it in a week due to Lucian recovering.

Lucian then stopped, his expression turned serious, which caused everyone to stop as well and look at him in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked.

"I sense something, it's fast approaching and just when Lucian was about to summon his weapon a large screeching sound was soon heard causing them to cover their ears, "AHHHH" They all ground writhing on the floor in pain.

Lucian could barely open his eyes due to the pain he was experiencing, Lucian looked behind him where he sended the presence and saw a ghost woman with its mouth wide open screaming.

No matter how hard they pressed their ears the screaming was still heard, blood started pouring out of their ears.

Lucian bit his lip to make himself concentrate; he willed his ring to turn into a scythe.

Lucian gritted his teeth with bloodshot eyes due to pain, stood up and ran towards the female ghost spirit.

He swung his scythe, slashing it across her chest, taking her by surprise as she wasn't expecting Lucian to recover.

Instead of turning to dust, she glowed a bright green light, disappearing from the mortal world.

The others were still groaning on the floor holding their ears in pain. While Lucian uses his scythe as support, "I swear dad when I see you I'm punching you in the face…" Lucian didn't know if he whispered it or loudly yelled as all he could hear were ringing sounds.

It was going to take a while for their ears to recover, luckily they were all demi-gods so it shouldn't take a long time…