Annabeth's POV

"Alright, everybody, listen up!"

The campers who had gathered at the arena gradually stopped talking and jostling each other for a better view.

Anthony, the guy who had spoken, scanned the crowd to make sure everyone was paying attention. The son of Ares had only arrived at Camp Half-Blood 2 months before, but he was already well known for holding out against two Cyclopes that had chased him to Half-Blood Hill. He had downed both of them with just one punch to the gut each. That, combined with the fact that he was only 17 years old, but already almost as tall and buff as the god of war himself, well...when he talked,people tended to listen.

"So guys, you all know that Clarisse usually teaches combat class on Wednesdays," Anthony said, scratching his chin. "Well she's out on a recon mission today, trying to scout for any enemies that might be trying to set up a forward base here on Long Island. So Chiron allowed me to fill in today."

I groaned inwardly. Ever since camp was attacked last year in what everyone now calls "The Battle of the Labyrinth", Chiron and most of the head counselors agreed that combat lessons be increased from only Thursdays to a tiring 5 days out of the week, so we could all keep up our peak physical condition.

I guess I agreed. A lot of campers were being sent out on missions lately to oppose Kronos's forces, not even bothering to get formal quests from the Oracle like we used to. We all needed to train now more than ever to further hone our skills.

But ever since earlier today when Chiron told me Clarisse would be out on a job, I had been hoping we'd all get the day off from this lesson. We were all beat down pretty hard from out near constant training. I guess I should have known better.

"Now, before I explain what we'll be doing today, "Anthony continued. "I want all of you to take whatever weapons you have with you, and hang them up on this rack."

He gestured to a new wall that had been built on the side of the arena, with dozens of nails and hooks hammered into the surface. Percy stepped out of the crowd of assembled demigods, Riptide held at his side in pen form uncertainly.

"But uhh...didn't we come here to work on our weapon skills?" he asked. "How can we do that without our weapons?"

I rolled my eyes and looked away, annoyed. I was still mad at him from an argument we'd had a few days before. He had told me that he was going to leave camp for a day or two, and I knew it was because he was going to hang out with the mortal, Rachel. In a lapse of judgement uncommon for a daughter of of the wisdom goddess, I had yelled something like, "Fine, go hang out with your damn girlfriend! We don't need you here anyway!" It wasn't true. We do need him here. I need him here. But I couldn't tell him that.

He told me Rachel wasn't his girlfriend, that he just needed time away from camp. Away from the monsters, and the fighting, and the worrying. And I guess I understood where he was coming from, but that didn't do much to lessen the jealousy I felt towards Rachel. I tried to reason where it was coming from, thinking, I'm only jealous of her because there's nobody I can run to, nobody I can lean on when everything gets to be too much. That's all.

I knew in the back of my mind that there was another reason that I was jealous of her, but I refused to admit it, refused to even think about it.

A new voice spoke, and my eyes snapped back to the conversation.

"Yeah, what are we supposed to be training with then, if we can't use our weapons?" Travis Stoll scoffed. "Our bare hands?"

Anthony chuckled. "Actually, yes. Today's lesson will be testing you hand-to-hand combat skills."

The others whispered excitedly. Now that I thought about it, most of us had trained with many different types of weapons, but we never tried just plain old fashioned martial fighting.

I raised my hand.

"How will we be practicing this?" I asked. "I mean, we can't really just beat up the straw dummies. There would be no challenge."

Anthony looked at me and grinned. "That's right," he agreed. "Which is why I removed the combat dummies. You'll all be fighting each other."

I smirked. So it'll be some sort of contest between us, I thought. Good, I could do with some stress relief.

A girl spoke up from the crowd. "But what if somebody gets hurt?"

I looked over at who had spoken, and saw a pale faced Silena Beauregard standing near the back of the group.

"And why would we need to learn this anyway?" she continued. "It's not like we'll be getting into fistfights with Cyclopes and hellhounds!"

"Well...true." Anthony admitted. "But from what I've seen from various mission reports lately, more and more rouge demigods are joining Kronos's army. And when you get disarmed in battle and have nothing but your own body and your own wits to defend yourself with, you'll be glad you took these lessons, don't you think?"

Silena shrugged. "I...I guess. I'm sorry, I just don't want anybody getting hurt. We get that enough from the monsters..."

"It's perfectly fine," Anthony said, smiling. "And to answer your first question: We have plenty of nectar and ambrosia in case anybody gets banged up too badly, okay?"

She nodded, then returned to the back of the group.

Anthony walked over to a table that was beside the newly constructed weapons rack. He picked up some small bundles of a navy blue material.

"Now, these are mixed martial arts, or "MMA", fighting gloves," he explained, holding a pair up for us to see. "They're lightweight and flexible, but more importantly, they'll give your hands a small degree of protection when you're training with them."

He set the gloves back on the table and grabbed a clipboard.

"Alright, let's get on to the reason we're here right now," the son of Ares said. "I've picked 6 people to fight. They will be split into 3 pairs, and the pairs will fight in the order I call them in."

Travis's brother, Connor, bounced up and down on the balls of his feet, his hand raised excitedly. "Do we get to pick our-"

Anthony cut him off. "No, Connor, you can't pick your opponent. I've already matched the 6 up according to their skill. If I let everybody pick their opponent, then everybody would just pick weak people that they think they could beat. And we can't have the strong pounding on the weak, now can we? Even if it would be fun to watch," He added, grinning.

Connor lowered his hand, looking slightly put out.

"Now, no more questions," Anthony continued. "We all have other classes to get to, so let's move on to the fighting." He glanced down at his clipboard. "The fighters will be paired up as follows: Group one is Nyssa Hayes, daughter of Hephaestus, versus Amanda Keller, daughter of Ares."

I looked over at Amanda, who was cracking her knuckles and smirking confidently.

Nyssa was standing nearby me in the group of demigods, so I edged my way over to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

She looked over at me curiously. "Annabeth? What's up?"

"Do you think you can take her?" I asked in a low voice, nodding my head towards Amanda.

"Oh come on,"Nyssa replied. "An oaf like her? She's no challenge."

I frowned worriedly. Nyssa and I had been hanging out a lot lately, since I haven't felt like being around Percy much, and we'd actually become pretty good friends. I didn't really want to see her lose when a crowd was watching.

"Are you sure?" I pressed.

Nyssa sighed. "Alright, I was going to tell you this later, but I'll just tell you now since you don't think I can beat that Ares girl. You remember I told you about my boyfriend Steven, back home in Indiana? The wrestler?"

I nodded. She had mentioned him back when we first started talking.

She shrugged, trying to hold back a smile. "He's been teaching me some techniques over the winter, and he's pretty confident that I'm almost as good as him already."

"Nyssa, that's great!" I said, unable to hold back my enthusiasm. If she had learned from her boyfriend, combine that with the training she got here at camp and she would be able to handle herself just fine.

After Anthony had named the first group's fighters, some of the campers had started muttering to each other about who they think will win and maybe placing bets on the two girls. Anthony let us talk for a minute, but now he called out for quiet.

"Group one," he called out. "Please come and wait in the center of the arena, as you will be fighting first."

Only then did I pay attention to the arena floor. It had been completely covered in sand, which would be harder to fight on than the normal stone floor. I also saw some pebbles mixed in, which I'll definitely be using to my advantage if I get picked.

Amanda walked over towards the middle and folded her arms, grinning confidently.

I squeezed Nyssa's shoulder before letting go. "Good luck, Nyssa," I whispered.

She glanced back and smiled. "I don't need luck, I have skill," she whispered back, then went to go stand across from Amanda, smirking just as confidently as the daughter of Ares.

I shifted my attention back to Anthony, who was looking back down at his list.

"Group two," he said. "Will be Connor Stoll, son of Hermes, versus-"

Connor cut him off by jumping up in the air and whooping.

"Yeah!" he yelled excitedly. "Who's butt do I get to kick today?"

"-versus Travis Stoll, son of Hermes." finished Anthony, his mouth twitching into a smile towards the end.

I snorted, because both of the near-identical brothers had their mouths open in twin surprise.

Travis recovered first. "Why-why do we have to fight each other?"

"Like I said earlier," Anthony replied, raising his eyebrows. "I paired people up that had similar fighting talent. You and Connor are in a league completely seperate from the others."

Connor's smug look returned. "So we're the best fighters out of everybody, huh?"

"Actually...no," Anthony chuckled. "You two have the lowest combat scores out of all the demigods gathered here."

"Are you serious?" the brothers exclaimed.

"We're the worst out of everyone?`Connor asked skeptically. Anthony nodded.

Travis pointed at someone in the crowd. "But that little Hephaestus pipsqueak Harley is here," he said. "You're saying even he is better than us?"

"Yeah," Anthony said smirking. "He is. I bet he could go six rounds with Chuck Norris without breaking a sweat if he wanted to."

"But he's, like, seven!" Travis exclaimed.

"Seven and a HALF!" little Harley yelled from the back.

I giggled. I loved Harley. We didn't have many little kids here, and Harley was the youngest by far.

"Ok, look," Anthony said, his tone serious. "No more complaining. Group two, let me remind you that it's not Harley you need to worry about. You aren't fighting him, you're fighting each other. Now go stand by the edge of the arena's floor, and let me call the final group."

The two Stolls walked over to their spot at the edge of the sandy circle, folded their arms, and gave each other identical glares.

Anthony shook his head at their antics and looked back at his clipboard. "Now, for the last group."

I crossed my fingers in the pocket of my jeans. I hadn't tested myself against another demigod in quite awhile, and I was eager to see how I would be able to hold up..

"Group three," Anthony read off. "Will be Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

A few of my half siblings in the crowd cheered for me, and my brother Malcolm, who was somewhere behind me, clapped me on the shoulder. "Nice one."

Great, I got picked! Now as long as I get paired against someone that can put up a decent fight, then I'll be happy...

"And fighting her will be Percy Jackson," Anthony continued. "Son of Poseidon."

"Oh, Styx," I cursed under my breath. Well, I did ask for someone decent, right?

I glanced at Malcolm, and he nodded reassuringly.

"Beth, it's just Percy. You know him better than pretty much everyone here. If anyone can beat him it's you."

I smiled at him gratefully. Out of all my siblings in the Athena cabin, Malcolm was the one I was closest with, and the only one who was really into arhcitecture like I was.

He was also the only person who called me "Beth". Well...except that one Apollo boy that kept hitting on me a few years ago. But threatening to gut him and sacrifice his entrails to Athena was enough to dissuade him from that nonsense.

I noticed Percy glance at me before addressing Anthony. "Why do we have to fight each other again?"

"Well, if you two go stand near group two, I would be happy to explain," Anthony replied smiling.

I shrugged and headed over to where the Stolls were standing at the edge of the arena. I fell in line next to...well, I could never remember which Stoll was which. Percy always had an easier time telling them apart than I did.

Speaking of the son of Poseidon, he came to stand beside me. And I mean right beside me. Our arms were almost touching.

Standing in such close proximity to him, I felt goosebumps raise on my arms in spite of myself.

Stupid Seaweed Brain, I thought. Stupid, annoying, tactless, cute, tan, muscled...

A slight breeze blew through the area, and his shirt hitched up a little, giving me a view I really did, and did not, want to see right now.

Was that a six-pack hiding under his shirt? He's not even sixteen yet, how can he have a six-pack already...?

"Annabeth."

Being a daughter of Athena, I'm a master of my own mind. I've learned to always be aware and never get got off guard, with zero exceptions. So when Percy tapped me on the shoulder, interrupting my train of thought about his abs, I wasn't thrown off in the slightest.

"Uh, six?"

Or not.

Percy frowned. "Six...what?"

I shook my head slightly and glanced away, trying to collect my thoughts. How is it that he can distract me like that, even when I'm supposed to be mad at him?

"Forget I said anything. What do you want?" I asked shortly.

He nodded towards something behind me, so I looked. Nyssa's opponent, Amanda, was arguing with Anthony about which wrestling moves she was and wasn't allowed to use, while Nyssa just rolled her eyes, annoyed at the holdup.

"Anthony seems busy for now, so I just wanted to take the chance to talk to you," Percy said.

I had the feeling I already knew the answer, but I asked anyway. "Talk about what?" I sighed.

"Well..." he started uncertainly, picking at his shirt like a nervous schoolboy. It was kind of cute. Then I told myself to snap out of it. "It's just that...Well, I know we haven't talked lately because of that, er, fight a few days ago. And I just wanted to apolo-"

I smiled slightly an shook my head. "Look, Percy, you don't need to apologize for that. Really. If anything, it was my fault and-"

At that moment, Anthony finished talking to Amanda, and told her and Nyssa to go stand in the arena's center and get ready to start.

I looked back at Percy. "We'll finish talking about this later, okay? After I kick your butt," I teased.

Percy rolled his eyes, but there was a playfulness to it. "You're on, Wise Girl."

I blushed lightly at his use of the nickname, but managed to shift my attention back to the main event. The fights.

"Okay guys, now before Nyssa and Amanda start us off, I have a few rules to lay down first," Anthony said.

Amanda snickered as if to say, Pfft, who follows rules?

Anthony glared at her pointedly and continued. "Rule number one: like I said earlier, the fights will be hand-to-hand only. No powers, no weapons. Rule number two: there will be no intentional maiming or killing. Try to limit yourselves to just breaking bones, and only if completely necessary for you to win."

Most of us nodded. This rule was pretty common among activities here at camp.

"And rule number three: fighting will continue until one person surrenders, or receives a broken bone."

He tapped the ground at his feet with one of his leather boots. "I'll be right here and will help anyone that gets hurt. But, as mentioned, we have plenty of nectar and ambrosia ready for anyone who gets injured too badly, so don't be scared about getting a little rough."

The son of Ares grinned, then looked at the two girls standing across from each other and nodded. They nodded back and then glared at each other intently.

"On my count of three," he said. "One..."

The girls took different fighting stances; Amanda spreading her feet slightly and baring her fists, and Nyssa dropping into a slight half-crouch.

"Two..."

Amanda twisted her head to stretch her neck muscles. Nyssa just smiled grimly.

"Three!"

So, this was part one of this two-part one-shot...Two-shot...? Whatever.

I hoped you liked it! This is the first story I'm writing here on this site. I'm excited to write more, but it just takes me a little while because i'm new to all of this...

But please, bear with me! I've already begun working on the other half of this story, so it shouldn't take too long.

Thank you so much for reading! And dare I say it...? Drop a review, please! As I'm just starting out, I need all the criticism I can get, good or bad! Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Again, thank you readers!

- styl3 p0ints (Mark) :)