Soon, his father had to leave and attend to his duties up on Olympus. Leaving Percy to look around the camp to see where his friends had taken Xavier.
He walked all throughout the camp with his hood down. People still stared as he walked by, but he was slowly getting used to ignoring it. Especially when his mind was on something else.
Like where in the Hades' they've taken Xavier.
Finally, after walking through the entire camp and stopping to ask at least three people if they've seen them, he took to the air.
He had a hunch where they would be, and as he flew up to the cave of the Oracle and heard their voices inside he knew he was right.
"Come on… Please!".
Landing, he approached the entrance and turned the corner to see his friends attempting to woo Rachel out of her cave.
When there eyes met, her mouth formed an 'o' shape, and the others turned around.
"Percy?".
He forced a smile, "In the flesh".
She rushed forward to give him a hug, but Xavier stepped in front, remembering the last time when Percy's friends hadn't listened to him and hugged someone who's body temperature was below freezing.
"Not a good idea".
"What?", she looked around at the others for explanation only to find them laughing at her.
"Oh, real funny. Rachel just arrived back and missed the meeting and now she's out of the loop. Let's all laugh at her", she pouted slightly, only making them laugh harder.
Xavier patted her on the shoulder. "It's not your fault. Scarface over here just isn't as in tune with his new powers as I am. Touch him for anything longer than a few seconds and you'd get frostbite"
Percy rolled his eyes at the use of his nickname and shrugged his shoulders. "It gets away from me sometimes".
"Sometimes? Xavier and you literally had to equalise temperatures in a giant steam cloud before you could touch your girlfriend. I'm thinking more along the lines of all the time", Leo said, grinning and shoving Annabeth lightly with his shoulder.
She blushed, and even Nico cracked a small smile.
"Great to see that you guys are getting along", Percy grumbled.
"Come on, Xavier. We have to go. While I was running around camp looking for you guys", he shot a look over his shoulder, "I got us roped in to teaching the advanced sword fighting class some of our moves".
Xavier groaned. "You don't even use a sword".
They started walking away together towards the exit of the cave, "I told them that, but I guess using a sword in sword fighting class isn't necessary".
When they arrived, Percy saw a bunch of older campers waiting for them. He recognised a few friendly faces in the crowd and nodded to them as he passed.
It was quiet in the arena when they walked in, so Xavier and he stopped their friendly conversation and shared a glance.
Percy backed up until he was against the wall, and watched as Xavier showed them a few more advanced moves that weren't Greek style.
Alone against the wall, he let some of his aura seep out, covering some of the immediate area in a fine layer of frost.
As he watched the campers try to copy the move that Xavier was showing them, he noticed that they looked distracted, and a few of them even looked over to where Percy was a couple of times before refocusing on what they were doing.
After the fifth camper looked over, Percy pushed off of the wall and addressed them. "Can somebody tell me what you all keep looking at? Because I can tell just by looking at you that none of you are focused".
They looked around at each other and lowered their swords. "It's just. We thought that you would be teaching us, Percy".
Percy looked around and found them all nodding their heads.
"Why would you think that? I don't even use a sword anymore".
"What do you mean you don't use a sword anymore?".
"Did you guys not see the trident earlier?", he looked around and saw a few confused faces.
Mumbling under his breath in ancient Greek about blind idiotic heroes.
He uncapped the lid of Anaklusmos.
Over the short amount of time that he had had the trident since Chaos had given it to him, he had grown quite fond of it. The handle seemed to mould perfectly to his grip, and it was perfectly balanced just like his old sword used to be.
Xavier joined the conversation, "What? Did you think it was just for decoration or something?".
He smiled, laughing at his own joke, but the class of advanced swordsmen didn't look very impressed by the weapon.
"That thing? You gave up a sword for a fork?", another camper said from the back.
Son of Ares. Typical.
"Anaklusmos' new form is much more effective than the old sword that it used to be".
The son of Ares just scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Really? Why don't you and me spar, then. Trident on sword".
The others in the class backed away from him, and Xavier just gave Percy a look like he couldn't believe how stupid this kid was before he too stepped back.
"My pleasure", Percy grinned, retracting his wings into his back and taking off his cloak.
He was wearing a dark blue t-shirt that exposed his arms. They were long and lean, but muscles were clearly visible just beneath the skin.
All down his left arm was a burn, the skin there seemed puckered and tight, as if he had dipped his entire arm in fire. (Which wasn't that far off from what actually happened). His right arm was better, only marred by the occasional slash and claw mark here and there.
His grin seemed dangerous, and his eyes glinted darkly.
This was going to be fun.
Seeing the look in Percy's eye, Xavier stepped in between them. "Percy, don't hurt him too badly. I may not know the rules of this place that well, but if I had to guess I'd say that hurting campers that you don't like is against the rules".
Percy pretended to pout before a genuine grin covered it up. "Alright, mom".
"Hey! Why aren't you warning me?", the Ares kid asked.
Xavier looked him up and down. "I'm not warning you because you don't stand a chance".
Xavier walked over to the join the other campers who had all gathered to watch a little ways away.
"Alright, go!".
The Ares kid started circling, but Percy just looked over at his friend with a teasing grin on his face.
"Go? Who starts off a sword fight by saying 'go'?".
Percy didn't get to hear his response, as the Ares kid suddenly lunged in and Percy was forced to focus his attention on him.
The kid's sword looked relatively normal. Bronze, no gleam or glimmer of colour that would suggest it was enchanted or blessed in any way.
Ares didn't even bother blessing the kid's sword? Man, he must be really stupid.
He aimed a stab directly at Percy's gut, and without even flinching Percy caught the blade within two prongs of his trident and ripped it out of his hands.
It flew across the arena and landed a short distance away in the sand.
"Now if I were allowed to kill you, this fight would already be over".
The kid looked shocked for a moment, before gathering his wits again and diving for his sword.
Although he could have, Percy made no move to stop him, choosing instead to just watch as the kid dove in the sand and scrambled to get a grip on his sword.
Once again, the kid circled for a while before making a move. This time, he slashed horizontally, aiming lower for Percy's legs.
Percy deflected the blade away from him and continued his momentum to push the kid back and swipe at his arm.
The blades on top of his trident were razor sharp, and cut straight through his shirt and tore a gash in his skin.
Landing hard on his rear, the kid's sword landed away from him in the sand.
"Just stay down, Eric!", one of the campers called.
But the kid, no Eric, was in no mood to listen to anybody.
He got up again, and threw a knife that Percy easily dodged before picking his sword up out of the sand.
"You should listen to your friend, Eric", Percy growled. This kid was getting on his nerves. "The battle is over, you've lost".
But he wasn't giving up that easily. "My father always says that the battle isn't over until either you or your opponent is either dead or about to be".
Percy laughed, a short, cold laugh that held no amusement. "Your father? I beat your father in battle when I was 12. I don't think you should be taking any advice from him on how to beat me".
Eric snarled, and lunged again, this time aiming high.
Percy ducked underneath the swinging arm and came up behind him, kicking him in the back.
Eric stumbled, but didn't fall down. He whipped around, and the two exchanged a few blows before Percy's patience ran out.
He yelled, before catching and throwing away the kid's sword with his trident, and then continuing his momentum and using the butt end to ram into his elbow. As he was falling, Percy spun, and Anaklusmos came back around and caught Eric in the ribs, making a satisfying cracking sound as it did.
He fell to the ground, gasping for air and reaching for his elbow which was bent at an unnatural angle. Before he could, though, Percy was there. He stepped on it with one foot, causing the boy to yell in pain, and levelled the gleaming tips of his trident at his neck.
Blood roared through his ears, blocking out all sounds except for the beating of his own heart.
In a mini explosion of power caused by Percy's anger, the temperature of the area suddenly dropped to twenty below zero, and frost and ice covered the ground and the boy whose arm he was stepping on.
He watched in an almost sick fascination at his trident made a small cut in the boy's neck, and a small amount of blood dripped from the cut.
"Stop!". His friends voice cut through the haze of his anger and brought him back to reality.
The temperature stopped dropping, and Percy's rage filled eyes looked up to meet his friends' golden ones.
Xavier shook his head, and Percy's gaze travelled to the campers that were behind him, being kept warm by some of Xavier's own aura.
Only the area around him had been spared from the sudden drop in temperature, and suddenly the red colour of anger that had clouded his vision disappeared.
He stepped off of the boy's arm, earning another yell of pain, and returned the trident to his side.
He breathed deeply, struggling to get his aura back under control. Slowly, the temperature returned back to normal, and he opened his eyes.
The boy, Eric, was still laying on the ground, holding his broken arm and groaning in pain.
He gave a short nod to Xavier to signal that he was alright, and addressed the campers who had slowly come out from behind Xavier.
"As I said before, you would have been better off with him. I don't train with swords anymore. All I train for is how to defeat them. Xavier is the best swordsman I know. He will be a better instructor for you".
Xavier handed him back his cloak with a grateful nod. Percy put it back on, almost sighing in relief when he was able to put the hood up and hide his face from view.
"Okay then. Why don't we continue with what I was showing you earlier? You two, help Percy carry Eric to the infirmary", Xavier's voice was more curt than it had been earlier, and he gave a satisfied smile as the campers rushed to do what he had said.
When the two campers who were to help Percy carry Eric walked over, they stared at him wide eyed.
They looked young, younger than the others at least. Percy had always had a soft spot for younger children.
He gave them a small smile and let the hood of his cloak fall away from his face again.
"It's okay. I won't bite", they didn't seem convinced, but continued to walk forward anyway.
When they made it to the infirmary, Percy recognised a familiar face.
"Will!".
Will Solace was the Apollo cabin's best healer. Everybody liked him. It was impossible not to. The guy was just so… nice.
"Oh, hey Percy!".
That was another reason why Percy liked Will. He didn't treat him any differently.
"What happened to this guy?". They laid him down on a cot while Will examined his wounds.
"He challenged me to a duel because he thought that tridents were no match for swords", Percy tried to remain impassive, but it was hard not to feel a little bit satisfied.
"Well I guess you showed him. No holding back", Will's eyebrows scrunched up in concentration while he set Eric's arm.
"I did hold back. I kept disarming him, but he kept getting back up. It was getting on my nerves".
The son of Apollo shot him a look before examining the cut on Eric's neck.
"You were lucky, a few more centimetres and he'd be dead".
"And wouldn't that be a tragedy", Percy replied sarcastically.
Will shot him another look, this one more confused than anything before he walked away to grab some ambrosia.
"He'll be fine. But you need to be more careful next time, Percy. These kids are mortals, when you hurt them most of them don't get back up".
Will's words stuck with Percy as he flew back over the camp and towards the sword fighting arena.
He'd have to practice reeling in his powers more. Despite how he played it off, he'd never be able to forgive himself if he did end up killing someone.