Hi GUys!
I'm not very good with fight scenes okay, so don't judge me pls.

Anyway thanks for all the reviews! I really appreciate them and the fact that you survive long enough to read my super duper irregular updating HAHA

Have fun with this chapterrrr

~Kuntakintae

Percy's POV

"Clang!" The piercing, sharp sound of metal clashing against metal echoed throughout the entire hallway, causing the multitude of Luke's fans to wince and stumble back.

Shock flitted across his face as he registered what had just happened. I winced mentally as he quickly observed and studied me carefully. There went whatever hope I had that Luke would never know me.

"Who are you?" Luke asked slowly, eyeing me cautiously. I guess this was a new experience for him- not just anyone could block his sword when he had seriously being trying to kill.

The moment Luke's eyes landed on Annabeth, he had immediately drawn his sword- the famed backbiter- out from its sheath and slashed at Annabeth with a cold, feral grin plastered on his face.

It had only been my countless years of experience as well as my constant vigilance that had saved her.

"My name does not concern you, Luke Castellan. Back away from Annabeth," I spoke emotionlessly, staring at him calmly as we pushed against each other.

Normal people wouldn't have been able to tell, but I could see clearly that he was extremely perturbed. It wasn't every day that someone could hold his own against him. Especially someone from around his age.

He had spent almost the entirety of the past eight to ten years training and fighting experienced, aged swordsmen. The ones who could even hold a candle against him were usually the ones who had been training in swordsmanship for at least twenty five years. Even then, he could beat them relatively easily.

For him to meet someone like me- someone his age and managing to be on par with him- must have really shocked him.

Luke's face went blank suddenly, and all my danger senses tingled excitedly. A cold feeling settled upon me when I realised that Luke was about to actually fight seriously.

What worried me wasn't the fact that he was the world champion of swordsmanship. What worried me was the fact that right now, with Luke being serious, everyone around us was in extreme danger.

"Get out of here!" I shouted as I jumped back quickly, disengaging from Luke and shifting into a mode I have not gone into willingly for a long time- killer mode.

A numb feeling descended upon me as Luke and I stared at each other, both of our expressions mirroring each other- emotionless, blank and unreadable.

All my senses began to become a thousand times sharper. My brain started to process things I heard, saw, smelled, touched and tasted at a million times faster than normal.

The faint pungent smell of urine from someone who had lost control of his bladder due to the killing intent radiating off me and Luke. The sounds of shuffling and stomping of feet, as well as the gasps of the hyperventilating students told me that everyone was scampering away from us frantically. There was also a breeze, which told me that the entrance from outside was open.

With speed that could match a cheetah, Luke covered the three meters between us in less than a second and swung at my stomach. My reflexed kicked in and I immediately dropped to the ground and swung at his legs. Of course, it didn't even scratch him as he jumped. I rolled away in a nanosecond before his blade sliced the air which I had occupied.

I parried the next slice to the head and countered with a slash to his side, which he avoided by sucking in his stomach and kicking his body backwards. Not intending to give him any space to relax, I rushed forward at the speed of lightning and swung at his head. Unsurprisingly, he managed to twist his body to avoid the blade.

Our Spar continued, adrenaline pumping through my veins like water through a hose at a hundred miles per hour.

A familiar feeling started to settle in, and suddenly I found myself actually enjoying myself. The tingling fear for my life and the thrill of dancing with death…it has been a long time since I had felt like that.

It was…intoxicating.

Luke had an insane and gleeful grin on his face as he dodged, weaved, rolled, parried, ducked and swung. A mad glint was twinkling in his eyes.

I realised, later on, that my face had been exactly similar to his.

"STOP!" A loud, commanding voice rebounded off the walls of the hallway.

By that time, Luke and I had been well into the fight, and both of us were too immersed in our fight to stop. We were too deeply entrenched, trapped by our instinct to fight and to kill, to thirst for blood and to gladly kill or be killed.

Tartarus does that to you. It completely eradicates whatever sanity and morality you have, honing your instinct to kill and twisting your mind to love to do that horrible action.

It had been a part that I had long ago buried deep within me. It had surfaced a couple of times the last few years, but I always managed to quench it down before it got out of hand.

This time, I hadn't even tried to prevent it from happening. I had let it take over me willingly- if I wanted to survive against Luke, I had to do it.

"I said, STOP!" The loud voice boomed across the hallway once again. Two blurs suddenly dashed into the momentary space we –Luke and I- had created when we broke off from another clash and suddenly, Thalia's slightly pale, fearful but determined face was staring at me.

"Stop, Percy," She whispered, her hands clenching her knifes tightly as she stood stiff and alert in front of me, her knifes held in front of her, as though she was preparing to parry.

The fact that Thalia actually thought that I would attack dragged me out of the state I had been in and suddenly. My eyes shifted towards Luke and NIco. Luke's sword had stopped just short of Nico's blade, as my sword had with Thalia's knifes.

"You aren't a normal swordsman," Luke said softly. The euphoria and madness that had taken over us was starting to recede and disappear.

"The way you fight, the skill you possess…where did you learn all that from?" Luke's voice was steely and threatening, with a hint of fatigue in his voice.

"None of your business. Stay away from Annaebeth. That's all you have to do, or else we can have a 'spar' again," I told him in the same tone. His words didn't scare me, and neither did his attitude nor the fact that he fought on the same level as me.

After all, he had been nominated for the best swordsman of the millennia in Tartarus, and had almost won it.

The winner had been none other than me, but he didn't need to know that.

"You two are never going to spar again," the voice from before- whom I had realised belonged to Mr Brunner- floated through our ears. Both of us shifted our attention to him.

"You two are to meet me at my office immediately. Sheath your swords right now," Mr Brunner commanded, his tone filled with anger and rage.

Luke looked like he wanted to stab Mr Brunner right in the throat just then, but after staring at Mr Brunner for ten seconds, Luke finally took a deep breath and sheathed his sword.

"I will not be attending," He said simply before walking past Mr Brunner down the hallway, not another word departing from his mouth. The crowd of observers- who had shifted to around twenty meters away from us- parted like the red sea as Luke walked towards them.

The air was tense and heavy. No one screamed and shouted as Luke walked past them, no one took pictures and tried to touch him. Everyone was staring with mixed expressions of awe, fear and trepidation. Mr Brunner just stared at his back with clenched teeth, annoyed at being disrespected but knowing it wise not to take action.

As Luke reached the junction at the end of the hallway, he glanced back at me, meeting my eyes for a split second before turning around.

That single action conveyed his message to me as clear as day.

"I'm not done with you yet."

When Luke silently cut the corner and disappeared, everyone's eyes shifted to me and gave me the exact same look.

"Where's Annabeth? Is she okay?" I asked Thalia. Worry started to gnaw at my heart as I swept my eyes across the crowd, trying to spot Annabeth's face.

"We brought her to the infirmary. She fainted once you two got…serious," Nico told me, hesitating slightly at the end. I bit my lip, regret starting to grip my soul.

I shouldn't have fought Luke at all. I should have just quickly said sorry to Luke and go off with Annabeth quickly. I shouldn't have acted so rashly, forgetting all about her and giving in to the thirst for a good spar of death.

"Percy, Thalia, Nico, come with me to the infirmary. We're going to visit Annabeth," Mr Brunner said in a voice that left no room for argument. He gazed at me piercingly.

"We will then discuss about what just happened just now," Mr Brunner then began to roll his wheelchair towards the direction of the infirmary.

"C'mon, we need to go and see how Annabeth is doing. Whether she's safe," Thalia prompted me when I stood rooted to the ground. That broke me out of my trance.

Without saying another word, I started to take quick, big strides to catch up with Mr Brunner. I could see, from of the corner of my eye, Thalia and Nico sharing small little smirks, but I didn't think too much about it. Annabeth was the most important issue as of right then.

The next issue was how I was going to settle the deep-shit I had just stuck myself into.