Chapter 7

Sword clashed against sword, sending sparks throughout the arena. A crowd of demigods in Greek armor and orange shirts watched the dual with entertained faces. The sound of metal clanging against metal was loud as it echoed through the arena.

Timothy gritted his teeth as he gripped his sword's handle tighter. Sweat ran down his forehead and down his face, he wiped some sweat out of his eyes. The pain of constantly dodging and striking so much had long faded as his body seemed to enter combat mode. Despite the sun beating down on him, he was moving just as quickly as when he started.

"You gotta be more aggressive, newbie!" Sherman jeered at him as he smirked behind his sword.

Timothy thought this whole duel was unfair. For one, Sherman was an expert swordsman, which meant nine times out of ten, he would whoop his ass. Then there was the fact that Sherman's sword was custom-made, meaning it was made just for him, so it was way easier to use. Then of course there was the fact his sword was longer than his. Timothy couldn't get close enough to remotely threaten his brother.

He raised his sword and slashed at Sherman, scoring yet another miss. A few onlookers let out laughs at his expense. He quickly dodged an incoming blow from Sherman, the air whooshing past him as he jumped back. Timothy's shoes hit the floor as he landed upright, he'd gotten better at not falling over when dodging.

"Dodge all you want, I get one hit in and you're a goner!" Sherman howled.

Timothy hadn't said much during their fight, mainly because he was fighting for his life, so talking was the last thing he wanted to do. He was just trying to make sure he could escape this arena with his arms and legs still attached.

The reasoning for this whole duel? Well, it all lied in the fact that Timothy scored a decent score on the archery range. Apparently, Sherman believed that meant he wasn't putting enough time into his close combat skills, despite Timothy not having been at camp for more than a few days.

The first few close quarter combat lessons he did have were mainly to find out what weapon he was most likely going to specialize in. He could've been a spear user, like Clarisse La Rue, his cabin's former counselor. He could've been a dagger wielder, like Annabeth Chase. He could've also been a swordsman, like Percy Jackson.

Eventually, he learned his preferred weapon was a sword, the same weapon Percy Jackson preferred. He'd yet to meet any of those legends, Clarisse, Percy, and Annabeth were all at university. He'd only heard stories about them but from what he heard, they were the real deal.

Clarisse was as Sherman quoted 'the best damn Drakon slayer' he'd ever seen. Apparently, she had slayed a Drakon without any armor after it had killed her friend, some daughter of Aphrodite named Silena Beauregard.

Then there was Annabeth Chase. Timothy had seen a picture of her, Scarlett had actually hung around with her a few times. He had to admit, Percy was one lucky dude, Annabeth was really pretty but not his type. From what he heard, she was a brainiac and he hated people who made him feel stupid.

Finally, there was the man, the myth, the legend, Percy Jackson himself. Timothy quicky learned who he was and now he knew why his name was so familiar. That guy was the same one who was accused of being a terrorist when he was younger. Timothy learned it was all part of a quest to retrieve Zeus's bolt.

"Eyes open, rookie!" Sherman shouted, nearly beheading him.

Timothy jumped, he let himself get distracted. He shook his head and got back into the groove of the fight. Sherman increased the intensity of his attacks, but Timothy just let his body work for him, each attack he saw coming was quickly countered.

The two went at it for more than ten minutes before Sherman finally got one over on him.

Timothy tried slashing at Sherman's weak spot, his left-flank was completely exposed. Unfortunately for him, he failed to see Sherman's fist flying towards his face. A hard fist collided with his face, nearly bursting his nose. A surge of pain knocked him out of the fight, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Fuck, ow!" Timothy cursed as he gripped his nose, blood dripped onto the arena's floor.

Sherman sheathed his sword and walked over to him, "Solid attempt, rookie. You gotta look out for surprises like that, monsters will always play dirty." He held his hand out to him.

Timothy took his hand. He was surprised he lasted as long as he did in that fight. He believed the reason why lay in the fact that he was left-handed, which gave him a natural advantage since Sherman and many other campers were used to fighting right-handed people.

"Go on back to the cabin and shower, your training is done for the day." Sherman ordered, "Oh, and have someone check your nose out too."

Timothy grumbled as he walked out of the arena, his nose was definitely fucked up. There was no way it couldn't have been after a punch like that.

Scarlett appeared on his right, "You okay? That was a pretty bad fight."

"I'm fine." He said in a nasally voice.

"I'm FiNe." Scarlett mocked him, "You're not fine, come on, I'll get you some nectar and ambrosia."

Timothy groaned, sometimes she acted a little too sisterly. He never said anything, but he secretly appreciated her, out of all his siblings, she went out of her way to help him out, even when she didn't need to. Maybe it was because they were bunk mates. Out of all the people he'd met at camp so far, Alexander, Sherman, Chiron, that scary daughter of Hephaestus, Scarlett had become his closest friend thus far.

Yet there was one thing he was truly grateful for, he finally had someone who he could proudly call his sister.

Ω

Scarlett aimed her rifle into the darkness, her rifle was shouldered and ready to fire as she continued forward, her steps made no sound like a true hunter. She scanned the surrounding area, her scope didn't have a night vision mode, but her eagle eyes didn't miss anything.

Her black camouflage helped her hide in the night, she was like a sniper, she relied on stealth and range to make her kills. Her pistols glinted evilly, like fangs on a snake.

Then there was Timothy, who was stumbling behind her, cursing and grunting as he nearly tripped over fallen branches and rocks. He had a torch in one hand while he carried a sword in the other. Scarlett had left him with torch duty and so far, he was quite miserable, he'd already burned himself once.

Timothy, despite having the torch, still couldn't see much. It seemed the rocks and branches would appear just as he was about to step on them. He took extra care in not dropping his sword.

The sword, like all the others in the armory, was unbalanced. Alexander had warned him that they weren't the best before he left but he thought that just meant they weren't as good as custom weapons. Each sword just didn't feel right, it made him feel like he was missing something. The sword felt wonky in his hand, like he wasn't holding it right, even though he was certain he was holding the thing correctly.

Another crunch rang through the forest as he stepped on yet another phantom branch. He winced, he knew he was scaring everything away with how loud he was, but he just couldn't help it.

"Can you be quiet?" Scarlett hissed over her shoulder, "We can't find anything because you're so loud!"

"Sorry!" He said as he crushed yet another branch.

Timothy followed her deeper into the woods, he was getting bored. They'd been out for at least half an hour now and they had yet to find anything worth looking at, no paw prints, no trail, nothing. He knew nothing about tracking monsters, but he reckoned Scarlett was an expert, her mother being a hunter and all.

Timothy wasn't sure if his hearing was off or if he was legit hearing something, but he swore he heard something moving around them. Every time he brought it up, Scarlett told him that it was probably a squirrel or something. Yet whatever he was hearing had to have been bigger than a squirrel, he knew that much.

Crunch!

Scarlett turned and glared at him, "That's it, I've had enough!" She stomped towards him, "You keep going this way, I'm going that way!" She pointed to the right.

"O-okay!" Timothy stammered.

Scarlett let out a growl as she stormed off into the trees. He sighed when she disappeared out of sight, the forest around Camp Half-Blood was just too thick to be quiet. He hadn't meant to piss her off, but he did anyways, like he did with everyone around him.

Timothy kept going, descending deeper and deeper into the forest. His grip on his sword got tighter as the flames of the torch in his hand seemed to grow warmer. By now, sweat was running down his face and body, he felt stuffy.

Eventually, Timothy decided he was fed up with this shit and decided to turn around and go back to the start. He turned and almost stomped back to camp when he paused, everything around him looked the exact same.

No way, there's no fucking way! Timothy thought, I'm lost!

Timothy spun around in a circle, the forest just seemed to get thicker everywhere he looked. He could already imagine his dad laughing from where he was. He was tempted to call out for Scarlett but the last thing he needed was for her to smack him in the face with the butt of her rifle.

He kept going through the way he thought he came from, if he saw broken branches then he knew he was going in the right direction. He pushed branches and leaves aside, he promised himself that the second he was out of these woods, he was going to ask Chiron for a flare gun before another one of these games.

Boom!

Timothy's head snapped towards the direction of a loud bang. The bang sounded oddly like a gunshot. He only knew one camper who had a gun and it happened to be his sister. He broke off into a run and smashed through branches and leaves alike. He kept sprinting, his feet pounding the forest ground.

"Stupid fucking monster, why won't you go down?!" Scarlett's voice shouted as another gunshot rang out through the woods.

Timothy broke through the woods, his sword in hand and ready for a fight. His eyes feasted on the scene in front of him and it couldn't have looked any cooler.

Scarlett was taking cover behind a tree, taking potshots at a basilisk that hissed and spat venom at her. Timothy watched as she chambered another round and fired. The gunshots were beyond loud now that he was closer. The basilisk seemed to be dodging every round she threw at it.

Scarlett gritted her teeth and took aim before firing again. Another miss. She fired bullet after bullet, reaching into her leather pouch to reload each time while ducking for cover. Neither she nor the Basilisk could seem to hit each other.

Timothy watched as she reached into her pouch and froze. When she brought her hand up, it was empty.

"Fucking hell, this is the worst time!" She shouted, slinging her rifle over her shoulder and drawing her dual pistols.

She stood up and started firing at the monster, the forest was filled with the sound of her pistols roaring. Bullets angrily ripped through the forest, but the basilisk was fast, it seemed to be dodging every bullet as soon as they were fired.

Timothy watched as Scarlett grew more disheveled and distressed.

"Just fucking die!" She screamed as she dropped one of her pistols and gripped her remaining one with both hands, firing more bullets at the monster.

Timothy couldn't believe his eyes, Scarlett seemed to be going insane. He watched the scene, his legs were frozen like cement. Tears started flowing down Scarlett's face as she helplessly pulled the trigger of her now empty pistol. She sniffled and dropped her pistol, falling to her knees.

The basilisk started to move towards her, its teeth bared. Timothy's legs unfroze and he bounded forward, getting a jump on the basilisk which was too focused on Scarlett. He brought his sword down on the monster.

It all ended so quickly, one second Timothy was slicing down at the monster, the next second he was standing where the monster was, yellow dust surrounding a red silk package. He reached down and picked it up, the silk was smooth in his hands. It wasn't heavy at all.

He walked over to Scarlett, who was now openly weeping. He couldn't help but feel pretty bad. He knelt down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder, she looked over at him through tortured eyes.

"Here, you deserve this." He offered her the package.

Scarlett wiped her eyes, "No, I don't. You killed it."

"You found it, it belongs to you." He asserted.

Scarlett closed her eyes and reluctantly accepted the package. He walked over and grabbed her pistol off the forest floor and handed it to her. She holstered her pistols and gave him a thankful smile.

Timothy walked next to her as they started heading back, she seemed to know where she was going. He eyed her nervously, she looked mentally defeated after her guns failed. He never thought he'd see someone mentally break like that.

"You know, you're a little too hard on yourself." He said, breaking the silence.

"What are you talking about?" She grumbled.

"Scarlett, your guns failed, and you broke down. Why?"

"You don't get it, you just don't get it. I told you already, I feel—"

"Useless." He cut her off, "It reminds you of when you were little, huh?"

Scarlett's eyes told him everything he needed to know, he wasn't the god of body language or anything, but he could tell he hit the nail on the head. She looked away from him and that all but confirmed his theory.

"I can't say that I know what it's like, but all I know is that when you can't fight, you feel useless, like you did when you found your mom." He said, "But the issue here isn't that you can't fight, you've just managed to convince yourself that you can't."

"My guns ran out of ammo, I can't fight after that!" She snapped.

"Oh yes, you can." He argued, "You just need to go for your kill, just because your guns don't work doesn't mean your body doesn't work either."

"That's easy for you to say, your specialty weapon is a sword."

"Yeah, but guess what, I didn't know I was a half-blood for basically my entire life." He retorted, "If I can learn how to fight up close and personal in just a few days, then you can too."

"You think so?" She asked.

"One hundred percent." He said.

The duo emerged from the woods to find the entire camp was waiting for them. Everyone was looking at them, including their cabin mates.

Chiron clopped ahead, "We heard gunshots, I'm assuming you two slayed the final monster?"

Timothy looked at Scarlett, who seemed to be asking him for permission to claim the kill. He nodded at her.

"Yes, we did." She offered the package forward.

Chiron smiled, "Well played." He turned to the rest of the camp, "That's game!"

Everyone murmured as they started to break off into groups to go to their cabins. Chiron turned to them and walked over.

"I must say, I was quite concerned when I heard the shooting." He said, "I imagine it must've been a fierce battle."

"It was." Timothy admitted, he didn't say anything about Scarlett crying. There were a bunch of secrets that he had but that was one he was willing to keep that a secret forever.

"Well, it's past curfew, you two should get going." Chiron said, he smiled at them before walking away.

Timothy and Scarlett were the only ones left. He yawned, his exhaustion was starting to get to him, he had no idea how late it was, but it had to be pretty late. Then he felt someone hug him, he looked over and found Scarlett hugging his arm. Then as quickly as she started hugging him, she pulled away.

"Thanks for helping me out, I'll pay you back later." She said.

"Nah, you don't gotta do anything." He tried to say.

"Nuh-uh." She shook her head, "I refuse to be in debt, I'm helping you out whether you want my help or not."

There she goes again. He thought, a smile growing across his face.

A/N: Quick question, do y'all think this story should stay at its M rating or should i lower it to T? The only reason i put this story in the M rating is because of the cursing and descriptions of violence.