A few days later.
Percy POV
I swung my sword at Ares and missed once again. I had hoped being under water would give me an advantage but apparently not, even after getting accustomed to it. He was just too fast and I did not understand. I should be having him on the ropes by now but my attempts were met with either dodges or parries.
Feeling discouraged? Just drop the sword kiddo, I know it's getting heavy and a mere mortal like you is not match for me..
The god of war spoke into my mind and the grip on my sword loosen a little. I was starting to feel discouraged, I have not landed a single hit on him since we started and he constantly laughed at my failures.
You will heal all wounds anyways, just drop it and accept defeat... again.
I backed away and felt like dropping my sword. My hand was shaking and I struggled to keep it still. I needed a break and even though I will get injured Ares was right, I was going to be healed anyways.
Pathetic, feel like dropping your sword already? If I had known you were going to suck this much I would have never volunteered.
It had been going like this for days already. I'd wake up hungry as hell only to be rushed outside by the war god. He'd make me workout with him and then underwater we went until he got tired of sparring with me. I felt a sharp cut on my left shoulder and screamed in pain. I looked over at my shoulder and saw the wound rapidly healing, no time for blood to even get out. Like always.
Enjoying that? I know I am. I could get used to this. Who am I kidding? You already bored me, your strength and speed are a joke.
His excessive taunting was getting on my nerves and I rushed at him only for him to smile and effortlessly dodge. Strike after strike he was always ahead and his stupid smile was pissing me off.
Why you keep paying attention to what he says Percy? Calm down, to defeat him you must use your mind.
I realized that this voice did not belong to Ares and smiled. The goddess was right, Ares is a trash talker and that is the only thing he has been doing all this time, in fact he never attacked me at all. I need to ignore him and focus on the fight. I got into a defensive stance and stepped back a bit. I stood still for a few seconds waiting for his attack but it never came.
I see Athena decided to crash my party huh? Does not matter, let's see if she ends up helping you or harming you.
Ares then walked over to me and flashed us both to the surface. He immediately summoned some clothes on himself stretched a bit. No more games then, this was going to be a real battle without those stupid swords or the water weighing me down. I was definitely feeling the moment and felt pumped for the action.
"Put some clothes on and pull out your weapon of choice." I created myself some jeans and a camp half blood shirt and out of muscle memory reached for my pocket to pull out my sword. A little too late I realized that the pen I uncapped was Riptide and felt a knot on my throat. Ares noticed but did not say a word so I created myself some of my escrimas and gave a few experimental swings.
I looked over at Ares and noticed he had no armor and wielded a very thin blade. From the looks of it he was going to focus on speed. If that was the case then I will also use very light weapons. I made my escrimas weight two pounds each and readied myself.
"Let's get started." I told the god of war but he just lifted his index finger.
"Not yet kid, once our spectator get here the battle will start." Spectator?
I felt a deity flash besides us and turned a bit only to find myself looking at the goddess of wisdom. She wore simple jeans and a white blouse but I found myself gawking at her like an idiot. Athena glanced in my direction and smiled, I was about to smile back when I felt a very familiar pain in my lower abdomen. Ares sucker punched me again and laughed.
"Distracted already? Pathetic." I struggled to get up but once I did I turned to look at Athena and she gave me a reassuring nod. I guess it must be because she was a goddess and I haven't been in this body for a while but she looked pretty attractive and my body seemed to like it. Even from a few meters away I could smell her perfume and the sweet smell of lavender clouded my mind
"Focus on the Battle!" Ares rushed to me and swung his sword, I barely had time to deflect his strike with one of my own when I turned to look at Athena again. She was fixing her hair in ponytail and then gave me another half smile. I must have gotten distracted again because I felt Ares kick me straight in the chest and I fell back into the ground.
"You really can't stop looking at her? That will be the reason you lose this fight!" Ares launched at me again and when I turned to glance at Athena again he punched me in the face with his free hand.
"You're making this too easy." Ares laughed and I rubbed my nose only to find my blood all over my hand. The small traces of ichor on my hand just reminded me that as strong as I was I was no god. I am still a mortal, I can still die.
"Of course you can still die, I have done nothing but best you in battle for this past few days, If I wanted to I could put this sword through your heart and then no more Percy Jackson." Ares was right, Himeros said I was immortal till I fell in battle and Ares has been beating me for a few days now, am I no longer Immortal or how does that work?
Ignore him Perseus, just concentrate on the problem at hand. Resist the urge to look at me, I'm not that pretty anyways… just focus on defeating him. I know you can.
I stood up and inhaled deeply. I gripped my escrimas tightly and remained still, fighting the urge to look to my left, completely focused on Ares and Ares alone. I had to beat him, Athena believe in me and she was rarely wrong. Ares narrowed his eyes a bit and smiled.
"So you're about to get serious huh? Bring it on kid, you're still out of your league here." With that Ares began his assault, his blows were strong and fast, too fast to block so I could only dodge or deflect them. After a little while I realized that as strong and fast as he was he was very predictable. His attacks followed a pattern, a very efficient pattern that maximized his swings and the total damage he could output but a pattern nonetheless.
To beat him I had to make him break his pattern, I had to do something he could not block against with his sword and force him out of his muscle memory. I then had an idea, a very risky idea that will leave me defenseless for a little bit but it just might work. I turned my escrimas into daggers and held them close to my chest area. We stood a few meters from each other, I looked straight into his eyes and could only see cold calculating eyes, eyes of a true warrior. The world seemed to stop and the tension was starting to get the best of me until he spoke.
"Daggers? You rarely use them, you really think that will help?" Ares smirked and then ran at me, that is when I took my chance. I spun a little and threw both of my daggers at his face forcing him to dodge mid dash making him lose most of his momentum. I then created another dagger on my left hand and with its hilt stopped Ares' half ass-ed strike. I focused all of my energy on pushing up his sword along with my dagger aside and we both stumbled back a bit. I immediately kicked him in his stomach with my left foot and reached for my right pocket to find my all familiar pen, something that I could do in my sleep. With my fingers I uncapped Riptide and swung the broken blade under his neck to find the surprised face of Ares.
Athena POV
Percy had adopted a new stance and looked at Ares defiantly after I had told him some words of encouragement. I knew that he could do it, he had my blessing and Ares was close to bursting out. If Ares had exerted himself any more he would have unleashed his true form and frankly that would have been embarrassing.
"So you're about to get serious huh? Bring it on kid, you're still out of your league here." I saw as Ares unleashed his fury of attacks against Percy and realized that he was now fighting at full power, a little more and Percy's body would not be able to handle the strain.
I started to doubt if Percy could win this battle, Ares was going all out and it did not look good. His recent training had probably made him stronger and faster than ever before. If he had been this strong when we fought the giants he could have easily helped out the rest of us.
"Hmph, looks like he's going to use daggers." The voice of my sister shook me out of my thoughts. I turned to my right and noticed Artemis was standing there watching intently. She rested in her typical twelve year old form and she looked quite happy, she could have easily passed for an actual little girl.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with your hunters doing what father told you to handle?" I spoke to Artemis only to find her focused on the now paused battle.
"This Athena, is what I like to call the male glare. It's a moment that builds up unnecessary tension only to be broken by the male who feels they got the upper hand." I turned to Percy and sure enough he was standing still and looking straight onto Ares' eyes. I did have to agree with Artemis though, It did seem very unusual and it created much unnecessary tension.
"Daggers? You rarely use them, you really think that will help?" I could tell this was the moment I had been waiting for, this was going to be their final skirmish and it did not look good for Percy.
"Don't blink." I heard Artemis whisper.
Ares rushed to Percy only for him to throw his daggers in a futile attempt to catch him off guard and Ares managed to dodge them easily. Percy had lost his weapons and now stood still as a god of war rushed towards him. From the looks of it Ares was not going to stop and I was not going to reach him in time to save him.
Ares prepared to swing his sword straight through Percy's neck onto to find himself blocked by another dagger Percy held in his left hand. Percy pushed their weapons aside, kicked Ares in his stomach and pushed him back a little. He pulled Riptide from his pocket and instantly held it under Ares neck.
"I win" He said. They stood still for a minute until Percy capped Riptide and to my surprise Ares put his hand on Percy's shoulder. Ares did not say a word but if I had to guess he probably spoke to Percy with his mind. Ares then flashed away leaving Percy all alone in the middle of the barren field.
Should we go talk to him? He is still cursed and me killing him would not make Poseidon very happy.
It should be safe to go near him, he did learn to restrain himself a bit and both of us are capable warriors, not to mention Percy is extremely fatigued and looks like he is about to collapse.
He is no threat in that state, he has little to no energy left.
Artemis nodded but in that instance Percy fell flat on his face.
"Hmph, I guess he was no threat after all." I rolled my eyes at her and flashed next to him but when I got there a deity was holding him in her arms over her lap. She held Percy on her chest and slowly caressed his bloody cheek.
"What are you doing here Aphrodite?" She ignored me but when I summoned my spear and shield she instantly answered.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm taking care of him." Aphrodite pushed Percy's head in the middle of her chest and closed her eyes. She was not taking care of him at all, she just wanted to feel him on her.
"No you're not, you're just … rubbing him on you. What is wrong with you, he is unconscious and needs serious medical attention!" They did not know but Ares had not been feeding him and deprived him of most of his sleep, if Percy was a mortal he would have been dead by now.
"Let me check for internal bleeding." she said. Aphrodite was getting on my nerves, he did not have internal bleeding, she just wanted to lift his shirt. I grabbed Percy's hand and lifted him over my shoulder before Aphrodite could get her way.
"Hey!" She screamed in apparent indignation.
"Shut it, I'm taking him to my palace so he can rest there." Before I could flash away Aphrodite grabbed Percy and did not let go.
"I should take him to my place to treat his wounds, he can rest there. Besides Percy and I have a special connection, we share a daughter you know." What? That's not possible, Aphrodite has not had any children recently.
"Sharon is not his daughter Aphrodite." Sharon? "Also the boy is just a little bruised and hungry, give him to me. I will handle it." Artemis reached over and tried to get a hold of him but Aphrodite intervened.
"Are you crazy? I'm not leaving Percy with a goddess like you, don't tell me you want him for yourself," she lashed out. Artemis then turned furious and pulled out her twin silver daggers and pointed them at Aphrodite.
"How dare you! I would never indulge in such things! I am going to take him to my brother's palace not mine. Now give me the boy!" she screamed.
"Both of you shut it! Ares told me to take care of Percy, I was invited to spectate, I gave him advice to defeat Ares and I'm the only one with a legit reason to be here." My sisters shut up and Aphrodite let go of him.
"Now, I understand Aphrodite snooping around Percy but why are you here Artemis?" The silver eyed goddess turned around a bit and scratched her head.
"Thalia found out some of the truth on her own and became very annoying to live with. She is going to be hunting him down and I thought I should give him a heads up. She also found out he was training with Ares and when she told me I wanted to see it for myself." I took another look at Percy and realized giving him to Artemis was probably the best choice, she could get Apollo to heal him in an instant and she had valid reasons to want to talk to him and to come here. I dropped Percy's unconscious body at her feet and saw as he fell flat on his face again, I probably should not have done that.
"Very well, take him to Apollo and discuss what you must." Artemis gave me a grateful nod and flashed away with him.
"Believe it or not I actually care about him." I turned back at Aphrodite and wondered why she was telling me this.
"You probably think I am just some bimbo trying to seduce him but I would have stayed with him till he was better. Artemis is just going to dump him at her brother's and not care a whisker about his well being once she leaves." Aphrodite flashed away and let me wondering if Aphrodite was not as dumb as she pretended to be.