The cheering started from the Hermes cabin, then spread all throughout the stands.

Michael walked out into the arena, a shortsword on his left hip and nunchucks on his right.

Coming out of the other side was Bianca, a knife on her belt and Riptide in her hands.

The crowd quieted down instantly upon spotting the legendary blade, some knowing the man behind the legend themselves, and others just knowing the stories.

Michael swallowed, nervous about facing Bianca, especially when she had the Jackson sword. The rasp of metal on leather rang out as Michael drew his own sword, determined to win no matter what.

"Fight!" Chiron shouted, once again triggering a huge wave of cheering.

Bianca always believed that if you made the first move you would win. However, Michael soon proved her wrong. Bianca started the match off by swinging her sword horizontally, trying to sweep under his guard, but Michael parried and went in for a stab to the chest. Bianca jumped back outside his reach before coming back in with a bunch of quick, ferocious attacks, but Michael matched each and every hit with his sword, sometimes counterattacking and betting thin cuts along her arms and face. It was through sheer luck and timing that she wasn't hit fatally, or disabled. Bianca started trading speed for strength and began to hammer away at the smaller son of Hermes. Unsurprisingly, Michael began to doge more and take fewer risks, knowing that he was built for speed attacks, and could not stand against Bianca's ruthless hammering. Believing that she had won, Bianca began to hit even harder, backing Michael up against a wall. With one final heave, Bianca hit Michael's sword so hard that she broke it in half. Michael threw the sword to the side and tackled her, causing Riptide to spin out of her hands. Michael then used his powers to speed run to the other side of the arena, checking himself for wounds, and finding a deep and rather large scratch on his left forearm.

Damnit, he thought. I have a date Saturday.

Sighing, Michael pulled out his nunchucks named Bone-Breaker, nonplussed by the fact that his sword was broken, and practiced swinging them over and behind his shoulders, and switching hands each time this happened. By that point, Bianca had gotten up, found her bearings, and picked Riptide back up.

"This little baby here is called Bone-Breaker. Ready to go?" Michael asked, nunchucks held in a ready stance. Bianca wiped the edge of her mouth, spat on the ground, and started running at Michael. Michael started running too, and no longer burdened by the weight of and extra weapon, he was able to move faster than before. As soon as they clashed, sparks flew and metal screeched as both weapons were deflected or blocked. Bianca had a harder time keeping up than before, due to Michael's skill with nunchucks. Several times, Michael had slipped past Bianca's guard, and she was getting the bruises to prove it. The combination of bruises and the heavier weapon she was using had caused her to falter in her blows and slowed her reaction time, allowing Michael to inflect more and more damage while having to deflect and doge less. After a particularly strong hit to the side of her head, she stumbled back, dropping Riptide in the process.

"Do you give up yet?" Michael asked, panting for breath.

"Not even close," Bianca responded, pulling her knife from her belt with shaking hands.

Gritting his teeth, Michael ran towards Bianca, swinging the nunchucks around in his hands, building up momentum and power in the weapon with each swing. Bianca readied herself, feeling a painful tugging in her gut before a huge blast of water flung Michael to the side.

"I didn't want to use this, but no way am I losing," Bianca said, panting from the exertion.

Michael got to his feet, still groggy from the blast.

I was hoping she wouldn't use her powers. He thought, knowing that his chances of winning were dropping by the second.

Another huge blast of water flung him in the air before the third blast of water shot him out of the air and smashed him to the ground. Michael laid still, hoping that Bianca would be tricked into thinking that he was unconscious. Bianca fell for it, and slowly limped over to Michael. When she got to him, she turned him over, seeing if he was really asleep. When Bianca rolled him over, Michael swung his nunchucks as hard as he could at her temple.

Thung!

Bianca's eyes crossed briefly before she passed out. Michael then slowly stood to his feet, swaying, as the crowd erupted into cheers, holding his nunchucks in the air. Once again, Apollo kids came out to take Bianca and Michael away, as he had passed out shortly after defeating Bianca.

"The winner is Michael Lodato!"

Cheers erupted, and after a few minutes of cheering, Chiron called everyone to silence once again.

"The next match is Kyria Wilder and Daliha Taylor!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Alex~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You know you're an idiot, right?" Cyra asked.

"Yea, yea, now patch up my hand doc. This isn't painless you know." Alex said, wincing as Cyra inspected his hand.

"Oh boy. Thank Zeus we have Nectar." Cyra said, applying the godly drink directly to his palm.

"And here, eat this." She said a moment later, shoving a parcel of Ambrosia in his face while tying a bandage around his hand.

"If you do this one more time, I'm not going to heal you again. You need to stop hurting yourself!" She said, getting flustered.

"But this tactic! Did you see how well it worked? Mellon never stood a chance!" Alex said, still pumped up from the fight.

"Mellon probably would have beaten you if he knew you were going to use this. He's definitely thinking of a tactic to beat you now!" Cyra said, tightening the bandages around his hand.

"That's why I have several tactics, and if things get out of hand, I have the Black Box," Alex responded, wincing at the sudden pressure on his injured hand.

"I need to get ready for my fight," Cyra said suddenly, standing up and brushing the dust off her pants.

She gave Alex a quick hug before leaving the infirmary.

Alex looked over to where Mellon laid unconscious. Alex walked over to him, pushed a strand of blond hair out of his face, and thought to himself,

What are you, Mellon Vasilias?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Black Box is Alex's "Final Move" if he has no other option, because of the amount of stress and pressure it puts on his mind and body.

ALSO! Cyra does not have feelings for Alex, she's Aro-Ace. No love triangles.

Plot twist Michael won. Looks like the Jackson stupidity gets passed down along with the sword.

The next chapter will be hard to write, So it may not be out until late Monday night.

On another note, the actual SYOC part ends Sunday at 11:59 pm. That way I can get on with the dang story.

See ya next time,

DragonsHero2