New chapter, enjoy.

...

Percy grinned as he and Annabeth circled the sparring arena. She was skilled with her blade and could get inside his guard with her clever plans, most of which he was pretty sure she thought up on the spot. It was a shame he was just that much stronger than her.

"Let's take a quick water break?" Percy proposed, after another minute. Annabeth's stamina was far lower than his so he had been careful to make sure she was okay to continue.

"How are you not exhausted?'" Annabeth sighed, lowering her sword. Percy watched her walk over to the water fountain and plop herself onto the bench next to it.

"I've been fighting for over ten years," Percy laughed as riptide turned back into a pen. He walked to the bench and sat next to her. "You're one of the best I've fought throughout the decade," Percy smiled before handing her the bottle he had placed under the bench.

Annabeth looked at him in shock, "I knew you were the hero of Olympus and all that, but ten years?" she asked after a moment.

Percy chuckled again, "actually its probably been a lot longer than that, I just call it ten years."

"How did you start fighting?" Annabeth asked.

Percy sighed, "it's a very long story. I'll tell you about it someday," he promised, "but first we need to finish training for this stupid tournament the gods put us on," he groaned.

"Yeah, your right," Annabeth sighed and Percy could see the gears turning in her head that showed she was thinking hard.

"Don't think too hard, you might hurt yourself," Percy grinned hopping to his feet and re-entering the sparring area.

"Oh. It. Is. On!" Annabeth roared jumping to her feet and charging behind him.

The subtle change of airflow caused Percy to duck as Annabeth's dagger flew past the space his head had occupied moments prior. Instinctively he shot his foot behind him to smash into her stomach, making sure that he used just enough force to knock her away and nothing more. Percy spun drawing riptide before he advanced toward Annabeth who was getting to her feet about 20 ft away from him. If he had seen how she had reacted to his kick with several backward flips he would have been really impressed. He slowly advanced on the blonde who had now assumed a ready pose her dagger in a reverse grip in her left hand and her feet split in a way that she could move in whichever direction suited her purpose relatively quickly.

Once he was about 10ft away Percy charged forward his blade slashing down toward Annabeth's right arm. The blonde spun out of the way before charging into his arm range and trying to slash at his neck. Percy pulled out of the way riptide tapping Annabeth on the back before he retreated.

Annabeth sighed, "I thought that would work," she groaned as she assumed her ready position once more.

"You were wrong. You need to stop overthinking your actions," Percy replied. "You really just need to have a plan for what you want to accomplish, if you have that then you won't have to think as hard."

"What does that mean?"

Percy grinned, "a plan of action, at least on the battlefield is the way you want your opponent to move. It's not that hard to do. This last one wanted you to go left so I swung to your right. The rest was me reacting to what you did. Most of the intricacy in combat comes from real experience. Therefore from now until we are done sparring, I am going to almost kill you."

"What, why?"

Percy grinned, "your body moves differently when you are scared for your life. It will limit your thinking and prevent you from moving exactly how you want," he said as he began to release killing intent. Percy watched calmly adjusting his killing intent until Annabeth's breath began to quicken and fear filled her eyes. His body seemed to scream terrified. "You have ten seconds to make your first attack, after that we begin."

Annabeth nodded and as Percy watched her take a few deep breaths to compose herself the blonde assumed her stance before charging at him. Annabeth covered the 20 ft in less than a second her dagger aimed right for Percy's left hip. The son of Poseidon grinned, "aiming for the weak side I see," he said before twisting out of the way and swinging the flat side of riptide's blade towards the female demigod's back.

The second before the blade hit her Annabeth disappeared and Percy halted his swing in shock. Moments later he felt the cold edge of a blade at his throat, "I'll count this as my win," Percy heard Annabeth whisper into his ear and he grinned.

"You used the invisibility cap?" he asked as Annabeth reappeared moments later about 20ft away from him once more a blue Yankees hat in her hand.

"Yeah, you said think about how your opponent reacts, and I figured I could surprise you at least once with this."

Percy thought back for a moment, "So you held the hat in your hand and used a big attack to distract me from it? Smart plan, but you should be careful, most people won't be able to stop their swing."

"Okay," Annabeth nodded.

The two began to circle the arena once more.

...

Sorry this chapter took so long. i have school.

Not sure when ill have time to update this again. I'll try for next Wednesday, but I'm also gonna need to update A New Beginning.