Hi everyone, new chapter. I've noticed that my chapters seem to be getting longer and longer. This one's a whole 2500 words. But they take a bit longer to write. So what do you think? Should I keep them a little shorter and update a bit faster, or at this length and update once about every day and a half?
By the way, if you're not actually logged on to this and it has you as Guest, sorry if I don't respond to your reviews. For some reason, they only show up for me on the feed thing now like a day or two after you've written them! Idk if it's just for me, or for everyone that this happens.
TheMeister7: Yeah, I had to write quite a lot lmao. It's my last couple days before school starts again, so I want to get as much out before I have to start using my brain for work again lol.
Erebus207: Yeah, it's actually kinda hard trying to write them getting destroyed but staying massively prideful at the same time.
cardmaster11: Now you've put the image in my head I can't stop laughing lmfaoooo
Anyway, enjoy! Vale!
After about half an hour of everyone lounging around and relaxing, Annabeth looked at Hazel and nodded. It was time.
Hazel sneered. Who did Annabeth think she was? All the Romans hated her, including the daughter of Pluto. Hazel waited until she heard Percy call her.
"Mrs Zhang! We ready to go again?" He said. Hazel turned to him and nodded, and started helping Apollo again. Then he realised what he had called her, and that she had responded.
Hazel's face heated up so much that Apollo thought there was another sun god around for a second, before realising what had happened and grinning.
"Percy against Carla." Hazel said solemnly, trying to calm her flustered self down. She knew that there was only one way that this could go, and that's with Percy and Alex winning every single duel.
Annabeth frowned. That was strange. Of course, she knew the Romans hated her, but Hazel seriously hated being rude. For even Hazel to ignore her, just how badly did the Romans think of her?
Percy stepped forward, stretching. "You sure you guys don't wanna forfeit?" He said, not even facing the girl in front of him.
Carla yelled, and before they'd even called the start, she sent a lightning bolt at him, but Percy intercepted it with some water and sent the charged water at her. She went flying back, but only due to the force of the water.
"I'm a daughter of Zeus. I can conduct electricity, but it doesn't harm me, idi-" Carla was cut off by Percy's sword suddenly at her throat, and him laughing.
"Of course I knew that, it was just a distraction. Idiot." He snickered. But Carla refused to yield, and slashed at his face. But strangely, Percy let her, before sending her flying with the trident, so hard that she couldn't get up again.
"Percy wins!" Hazel called. Even though Carla was so seriously out of commission, Apollo ran to heal Percy's wound first. It was moderately deep cut running from his cheekbones down to his jaw, but Percy waved the sun god away.
"I want to see if I can get a cool scar!" He grinned. Alex slapped his head. Not this again.
Then Artemis ran up to him and slapped him, right on the cut. Percy yelled in pain. "What was that for, woman?!"
Artemis grabbed his hand. Percy was about to ask whether she really wanted to hold his hand in front of everyone, when she used said appendage to bodily throw him back to Apollo. "Go get yourself healed and stop this nonsense!" She yelled after him.
Percy groaned. "Fine..."
Meanwhile, Alex had been preparing for his next fight, against Thalia. Probably the strongest of their opponents, he wouldn't underestimate her, just in case. Although he had been able to beat her mistress, so it probably wouldn't be too hard.
They stepped into the ring, and circled each other slowly. Thalia suddenly raised Aegis, and Alex made the mistake of looking at it. Upon seeing it, he flinched, turning away, and that's when Thalia chose to strike.
She leapt at him, but forgot that Alex could sense molecules. Still with his eyes closed, Alex spun and thrust Shifter at where she was in the air. He'd only brought the spear for this duel, not bothering with the trident.
However, in an impressive show of skill, Thalia deflected it with Aegis, only letting it push the shield with enough force to make her spin in the air till she was facing him again. She then thrust at Alex's unprotected collarbone, since he wasn't wearing his armour either, but Alex simply created a stick of ice in front of him, which her spear stuck into instead.
"Impressive," Alex said. "You made me have to use my powers." He thrust his spear at her, and she dodged it, jumping back to regain her composure. But as she jumped back, Alex was already throwing his spear. It impaled her and she staggered back, clutching her stomach.
Alex sauntered over and pulled his spear out of her, but as he did so, Thalia swung her spear at him in a last ditch attempt to win. But due to the immense pain she was feeling, her strength gave up before the weapon even got near him. Alex kicked her shield at her, knocking her unconscious, and strolled back to he and Percy's corner, grinning.
Underneath the grin, however, was a mental frown that only Percy could see, knowing his brother. He really needed to stop underestimating situations, Alex thought to himself.
"Two duels left!" Reyna shouted. "Alex against Zeke, and Percy versus Annabeth!"
At the mention of his fight against Annabeth, Percy grinned. This would be good.
Alex was so hyped to see Annabeth get destroyed, he accidentally beat Zeke in seconds.
He was laughing so hard, he had to stab his trident into the ground for something to lean on. Unknown to him, Zeke had been flying straight at him, about to tackle him like a floating cornerback, and was in that place.
The trident went straight down through Zeke's back, impaling him and pinning him to the ground. He screamed in pain, and Alex looked down, surprised.
"Oh... Hi? What're you doing down there?" He asked, a huge grin on his face.
Soon, everyone was leaning forward in anticipation as Percy and Annabeth stepped into the ring. "I've been waiting for this..." Percy said darkly as he twisted and stretched, cracking his back and neck.
Suddenly, Annabeth got very scared. "Why... Why are you doing this?" She whimpered.
"Vengeance is sweet, Annie Bell," Percy said. "Also, the author and readers want it." He grinned.
"Author... Readers... What?" Annabeth asked, confused.
"What?" Percy replied.
"You said something."
"Did I though...?" Percy said innocently.
Annabeth scowled, then put on her invisibility cap. Percy smirked. Why part of 'I can sense molecules' did people not understand? Or maybe she didn't know yet.
Still, it was her funeral.
Percy started swinging and slashing with his trident. He made sure all of his strikes connected but only to cut and wound instead of biting into her body. But due to the apparent lack of resistance, everyone thought he was just swinging around wildly in fear to stop Annabeth getting close.
Carla, Zeke and Thalia started to smirk, having fallen for it.
Alex, sensing the molecules, grinned even wider.
After about five minutes of this, Percy grinned. He spun closer to Annabeth, wrenching her dagger out of her hand and plunging it into her back, so stealthily that noone noticed the knife appear in his hand and disappear again. In the same movement, he whispered in her ear.
"Now you know how it feels to be stabbed in the back."
He then continued to slash at what everyone thought was just air for a few minutes, then decided it was enough.
He stuck his trident out into seemingly empty space, and then flicked it up. Looking at the head of the trident, everyone saw a Yankees cap swinging on the left prong.
Gasping, they all looked down.
Annabeth stood there, swaying, covered in wounds, blood and tears, with her own weapon sticking out of the small of her back. He had been hitting her all that time?
Percy smirked and slung her cap away, then turned and walked off as she dropped to the floor.
"Maybe next time, you won't challenge us," Percy said, and gave the other three a pitying look. Thalia decided to focus on that instead of the disappointed look she knew Artemis would be throwing at her.
But nobody saw that, as Apollo healed her, Annabeth gave Percy's back a cruel look. She wasn't done yet. Then the look was wiped off her face as Reyna spoke.
"Well, according to Annabeth and her group's terms, Percy and Alex are now free to execute these four. Of course, we hope they won't?"
Percy looked at them uncertainly, and Alex stood next to him, looking up at his brother. Percy stood, thinking. No matter how cruelly he had acted just there, he'd known Apollo would heal them. Could he just...?
Then he shook his head. Annabeth and Thalia, at least, had stood with him through important battles and he'd honour that.
So that's just what he told everyone.
Percy and Alex turned to walk away, and in that moment, Annabeth nodded at her three accomplices.
Thalia threw her spear, and Carla called a lightning bolt down.
Percy swayed to the side, and the spear hurtled past his head so fast his hair was ruffled by the wind it left.
As for Alex, he quickly managed to pull some water out of the Little Tiber, freezing it just above him. The lightning hit the ice, melting quite a bit of it, and Percy and Alex turned quickly to find all four running at them.
"Finally, a real challenge!" Percy yelled, grinning. Alex smirked and nodded, watching their assailants carefully. He would not underestimate the opposition this time.
Thalia called down a lightning bolt, which Alex quickly dodged, and he engaged her in battle. Meanwhile, Percy engaged Annabeth and Zeke in battle. He saw Carla sneaking round to try and attack his brother from behind, and started fighting her too.
Soon enough, Thalia was defeated, with Alex throwing her shield away and knocking her out so she couldn't use any more lightning. He turned to look at Percy, and almost dropped his trident in awe.
Percy stood, dual wielding his trident and Riptide, spinning them and slashing with them to deflect any attacks coming his way. At a glance, he appeared to only be fighting the twins, but when sparks were seen flying from Riptide for no apparent reason, Alex sensed the molecules and realised that Annabeth was attacking in invisibility mode too.
By this point, everyone had surrounded them again, and Alex sat down to watch. Everyone else followed his example, beginning to relax again after that surprise ambush. Percy had it under control.
For Hades' sake, a couple of the veteran Roman soldiers even started using him as a live demonstration of how to perfectly dual wield two different weapons!
They all watched as Percy slowly defeated assailant one by one. First, he spun and smacked Annabeth so hard she flew into a tree, keeping up his guard with Riptide against the others. While he was distracted with that, Carla called a lightning bolt down on him.
Her mistake.
Percy used water from the Little Tiber to absorb the lightning, and in the same movement, sent the water at the only combatant that wasn't immune to lightning.
Annabeth, shakily getting up, looked up at the sizzling water coming at her, and just cursed.
Not only was she sent flying back by the water, she was accelerated and knocked out by the electrical charge being transferred to her. She smashed right through the thin tree that had stopped her before, and was unconscious by the time she landed, even further away, making everyone wince.
They all turned back to see Zeke and Carla attacking again, even angrier. Carla wreathed herself and her two daggers in lightning, and Zeke summoned strong winds around himself. Percy smirked at that. Nowhere near Jason's level.
He summoned his own personal hurricane, which was so strong it not only countered Zeke's wind, but pushed him back. As the son of Zeus fought against the wind, Percy simply stepped closer to him and hit him over the head with Riptide's pommel as he fended off Carla with his trident. The son of Zeus folded to the ground, fast asleep.
Percy turned to Carla. The girl wasn't even worth his time. He simply engaged one dagger with his trident and the other with his sword. Using Luke's technique, he disarmed her of her right blade, then with his trident he hit her other weapon so hard it flew out of her hand. She looked up at him, fear finally instilled in her by the skilled warrior.
Percy smirked. "You guys finished?"
She started to scream at him, but he simply kicked her in the chest, sending her flying backwards to land with her brother. He turned away. "That's done. Let's go, Alex." He said, rubbing his hands together.
"If we're quick, we'll be able to get something to eat before we go."
Alex slapped his forehead. Of course that was what Percy was thinking about. Not the fact that he'd just absolutely demolished three powerful demigods once, and that's after defeating them all individually.
Of course, Alex still ran after him. They'd probably find Grover going for some free enchiladas.
Two hours later...
Percy and Alex stood at the edge of the camp with Artemis. The hunters, all packed, were walking towards them.
Percy looked worriedly at Artemis. Ever since the fight, she'd been looking uncertain about something, and Percy couldn't figure out what.
"Arty. Is something wrong?" He finally asked.
She looked away for a moment, then nodded firmly. "Yes. I've just been deciding on something, that's all." She turned to the hunters. "I have an announcement to make. Thalia Grace is demoted from Lieutenant, and officially expelled from this group." She said firmly.
All eyes turned to said demigod, who was gaping like a fish. "Bu- But milady! Why?"
"You, knowing that that Athena girl was in the wrong, went along with her and attacked our guardians. And then later, you tried to attack them with the intent to kill, no less!" Artemis shouted.
"I'm sorry, Thalia. Thank you for your service," she said, turning and walking off. The hunters followed her, some looking like they wanted to console Thalia but following anyway.
Thalia yelled after her. "YOU'RE JUST DOING THIS BECAUSE PERCY'S YOUR BOYFRIEND!" She screamed at the goddess' back, tears forming in her eyes.
Artemis turned back to say something, but then turned away again. "Hopefully one day you'll understand what you've done, Thalia," she murmured softly, but the breeze still carried her voice to the former lieutenant.
Soon, only Percy and Alex were left, Oscar and Sadie standing beside them.
"For what it's worth, we are sor-" Alex began, but Thalia cut him off.
"Shut it. I don't need your apology. And Percy! You're obviously not sorry. I hope you're happy now, huh?" She yelled, glaring at the older son of Poseidon. Percy just looked at her for a few seconds, then shrugged and walked off, his brother strolling next to him.
"If you'd bothered to listen for once, you would've noticed that Alex said we." He said over his shoulder.
Thalia looked down sadly. That was the best apology she would get, it seemed. She turned back to go see Annabeth, thinking about how she'd messed up. She'd just stay at camp, she guessed. Dammit, this was all Percy's fault anyway.
Meanwhile, Percy and Alex walked in the opposite direction. Alex looked at his brother. "Don't you think you were a bit harsh?"
Percy shook his head. "No," he said, fondling Oscar's head. "She brought it on herself. Not our fault. Come on, let's go." He said shortly.
He ran off to catch up with Artemis. He needed something to cheer himself up, he thought.
Maybe teasing his new favourite goddess would do the trick.
