New chapter, guys! Enjoy!
TheMeister7: Oh okay. Thanks for the offer, I really appreciate it, but nah I think I'm doing aight on my own for now.
cardmaster11: Another man of culture! My whole family loves NCIS lmfao
Mika1303: Thanks! And I'll take that advice. Idek how you guys are reading and reviewing so fast, but I'm not complaining lmao!
Percy and Artemis walked back to Camp Jupiter, hand in hand. But Percy had some things to ask her about on the way there.
"What are we gonna tell Zeus?" He asked worriedly.
"What's Zeus going to do, Percy, and its not as if you haven't blatantly disrespected him before," Artemis laughed.
"Aren't you not allowed to have relationships?"
"I didn't make a vow, I only asked Zeus for eternal virginity," Artemis explained. "I'd I ask him really nicely, and obviously don't mention the imbecile that is you, he'll hopefully take it off."
Percy huffed. By this time, they'd reached the edge of Camp Jupiter, and they let go of each other's hand so as not to arouse suspicion from any campers.
Soon, they entered Artemis' palace, and upon seeing Percy, Thalia immediately left. All of the other hunters instantly looked up, looking for any sign that something had happened between the two.
Percy and Artemis decided to tease them a little. They turned away from each other as if they'd had a disagreement, and Percy went over and sat on the other side of the temple, behind the altar where nobody could see.
All of the hunters looked down and sighed in disappointment. But when they looked back at their mistress, she was gone. They looked around the whole camp for a good hour, thinking that Percy had made her so angry that she had left.
Soon after that, they all filed back into the temple, wondering where the Hades she could be at. They decided to go and ask Percy what he'd done to make her so mad, and when they went round the altar, the sight they were met with shocked them.
Percy was sitting, his back against the altar and his legs stretched out in front of him. And Lady Artemis was curled up in his lap, her head leaning on his shoulder. Both were sound asleep, clearly exhausted after the rigorous battle earlier in the day.
Any anger that the hunters may have had after being tricked immediately disappeared. Percy and Artemis were suddenly jolted awake by at least thirty voices.
"SO CUUUUUTTTTTEEEEEE!!!" Half the hunters screamed at once. Percy rolled his eyes as most of the hunters went back to what they were doing, murmuring to themselves.
Grace and her group of friends came up and sat next to him as Artemis got up, stretched and walked off.
"You're even more like our big brother now, Percy!" They said, happily hugging him.
"Nah, wouldn't want that." Percy said, grinning. "Cos Artemis is like a sister to you, so that would make her my sister, making things really messed up." He snickered, leaving out the fact that he technically was Artemis'cousin anyway.
"Zeus did it," Jessica said, picking up his trident and straining with its weight. "Hera's his sister, and they're married."
"Now what on Earth makes you think I want to use Zeus as a role model for my life?" Percy laughed, taking the trident from her with a single pinky.
When they looked at him in awe, Percy laughed and explained the secret of his trident.
A week later...
Percy, Artemis and Alex walked around the camp, Percy and Alex saying their goodbyes while Artemis tried to hurry them up.
Suddenly, as they walked through the Field of Mars, Percy and Alex walking slightly ahead of the moon goddess, they were ambushed.
A lightning bolt came out of nowhere at the boys, and only Percy's quick reflexes saved them from being fried, with him pushing his brother one way and spinning the other.
They looked over to their right, where the bolt had come from, and saw all of the Greek campers there, lounging on the grass. Four people stood in front of them, weapons at the ready.
Annabeth Chase. Thalia Grace. Zeke and Carla Dean.
They marched towards the boys. "We challenge to duels!" They yelled. "Whoever wins gets to claim the lives of the others!"
Artemis looked at her lieutenant in disbelief. "Thalia... What in Hades are you doing?" She muttered.
By this point, the Romans and hunters had gathered, courtesy of a son of Mercury, who had heard what was going on and ran at speeds rivalling his dad's to go and call everybody.
Reyna stepped forward. "If those are the rules you have put forward, I shall flesh them out a little for you. The fights hall take place as individual duels, with the tallys being of who has the most wins!" She shouted, and everyone cheered, ready for some entertainment. They had just finished burning the shrouds for all of the warriors who had fallen against Polybotes' mighty army, and the depressed mood needed lifting.
This would work perfectly for that, Reyna thought, well apart from the whole death bit at the end. Ah well, they'd cross that bridge when they got to it.
Percy and Alex looked around and shrugged. "Sure!" They said, preparing themselves for a fight.
Their adversaries, however, were less than pleased. They had been hoping to quickly kill the two without any fuss, having the advantage in numbers. Now, they'd been pressured into an organised, refereed fight. This wasn't good, but to keep their pride, they had to do it.
Reyna again spoke up. "Jason, Frank, Hazel and I shall referee the matches. Matches will be until someone can't fight anymore, and then Apollo will heal them up." She said loudly, gesturing to the god beside her. Everyone apart from Percy, Alex and Artemis gasped, having not realised the god was even there. It was unusual for him to be so...quiet.
"First match! Percy against Thalia!" Reyna called, and nodded to the two of them, who stepped into the rectangle Apollo had quickly carved into the ground. It was roughly the size of the eighteen-yard box in football. Percy guessed that there would be some type of barrier at the edges to stop them getting hit too far. He decided to test it with Thalia's body.
As the girl charged towards him, Aegis strapped to her arm and her spear raised high, he simply drew Riptide and swung it around a couple of times. When Thalia reached him, he suddenly juked to the side like a matador. As she passed him by, he knocked the tip of her spear into the ground, where her momentum planted it firmly. She went flipping over her spear and spun into the air.
Percy watched keenly to see if his hypothesis would be vindicated. Sure enough, when Thalia reached the edge, a rectangle of sunlight appeared behind her, and she smacked into it like she would a normal wall. Thankfully the light was dim, so it didn't blind Percy or the spectators.
Thalia staggered to her feet, and Percy turned Riptide back into a pen and put it in his pocket. He embedded his trident in the ground beside him and raised his hands to beckon her forwards mockingly.
The lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis snarled in anger, and picking up her spear again, she whirled it around her head, wreathed it in electricity, and charged. Percy spun round her, still unarmed.
First, he got rid of her shield. No matter how strong he'd gotten, he still couldn't look at the dam thing without flinching.
In movements so fluid that even the ocean itself would be jealous, he spun inside her guard, and unstrapped the shield from her arm in one smooth movement. He then threw it like a frisbee, Captain America style, to land in the far corner of the rectangle.
She then started jabbing at him with her charged spear, trying to make sure he died. He could feel the murderous intent in her jabs.
Didn't stop him from dodging them all, though.
The watching spectators all oohed and ahhed as Percy dodged the spear strikes like some sort of martial artist. Percy rolled his eyes. What was this, a gladiator fight? He was already tired of Thalia, he'd finish her off quickly, he thought.
As Thalia was recovering from a strike that had accidentally extended a little too far, Percy struck back. He kicked her in the leg, making it buckle, then kicked the other one too. Thalia collapsed to her knees in front of him, but still struggled to get up.
I'm not done yet, she thought. I'll show him...
But then Percy did something unexpected. Instead of striking at we, he simply knelt on one knee and stretched his hand out to just in front of her stomach. Was he healing her or something, everyone wondered.
Only Alex, the one who knew his brother best, knew what was coming. He looked away. He may have seen a lot of horrible things, but this was one thing he would not want to see.
Suddenly, everyone gasped. Several girls screamed. Thalia looked down in horror and a haze of pain to see Percy's trident sticking out of her stomach, pushing through. Percy went behind her and pulled it out of her back and turned away.
"I win. Lucky for you, Apollo's here."
Reyna called the match, and Apollo rushed to the daughter of Zeus, not before giving Percy a discreet fist bump. He waved a hand over her, and suddenly she was as good as new. She stalked off to her friends again, looking miserable. Percy had been simply playing with her the whole time. The son of Poseidon had destroyed her.
"Next match? Alex, against Carla!" Jason shouted.
Alex walked in, stretching. Carla wasn't even worth his time, so he'd finish this quickly.
"Start!" Frank called out.
Carla wreathed herself in lightning and started running towards him. Yep, he wouldn't want to be touched by that level of electricity, Alex chuckled. It'd fry him immediately.
He made about twenty ice fists, and as the girl ran towards him, he said quietly and calmly,
"Consecutive normal punches."
He made all of the fists punch her repeatedly, all over her body and face. The hardness of the ice, coupled with the speed he was making the fists punch at, broke almost every bone in her body. She collapsed, the lightning around her sputtering, then disappearing as if someone had flipped a switch.
Alex walked back to his brother nonchalantly, fist bumping Apollo, who was on his way to heal again. He passed Hazel, who just stared at him, in so much shock that an emerald popped out between her feet.
"Uhh, Percy versus Zeke?" She said, still confused at how quickly the fight had ended.
Percy and Zeke jumped into the rectangle. Zeke flew up, and prepared to attack. But Percy just hurled his trident at top speed. Zeke dodged it, and laughed. "That all, Jackson?"
Percy smirked. "Clearly, someone was too busy wetting their pants while I fought Polybotes to focus on what my trident can do." He said, grinning.
"BEHIND YOU!" Annabeth screamed at her boyfriend, who turned just in time to be able to dodge the trident that was coming at him like a homing missile. He then started flying around everywhere, trying to lose it, but Percy kept the weapon hot on his tail the whole time. Everyone doubled over laughing at the sight of the arrogant son of Zeus bring chased by the unmanned weapon, tears of fear leaking from his eyes.
Soon Percy, grinning, decided to end it. He hurled Riptide at a spot in front of where the Zeke was, and just like Percy had planned, the son of Zeus accidentally impaled himself on the sword. He stopped moving and looked down in confusion at the bronze weapon embedded in his abdomen, and in that moment of his staying still, Percy's trident caught up and pierced through his chest.
Percy always avoided going for the heart or brain, because obviously, they needed to be alive tone healed. A healed corpse would still be dead. Or would it turn into a zombie, Percy wondered. Strange. He recalled his trident, and manually ripped Anaklusmos out of the son of Zeus that had stole his girlfriend.
Not that he really cared about that bit anymore, she was a b* anyway.
"Annabeth against Alex!" Frank shouted.
Speak of the devil.
As Alex walked by Percy, he muttered something to his brother. "Don't worry, I'll leave her to you to destroy," he said quietly. Percy nodded his thanks solemnly.
Annabeth stepped into the fighting area, holding her trusty dagger and analysing Alex, looking for a potential weakness. Alex didn't go for any of that bs. He simply brought out Shifter, (points for who remembers what shifter is) and hurled it at her. It impaled her through the stomach, going so fast that the whole spear going through and exiting out her back.
The last thing Annabeth saw and heard was Apollo turning to Reyna and saying, "There's been four fights out of eight. Let's take a break now..."
