A/N: Finally, my story has come to the interesting part. It's crappy that the mid-term exam is screwing my mind.

Thanks TheWingedSunDragonofRal13402 a.k.a AN, jwest1751 and minhduong2511 for favoring me and my story.

DeathmatchDrunkard: You just have to wait and see I guess. That lesson is quite hard to learn; especially Percy is obviously not a resident of Tartarus yet.

TheWingedSunDragonofRal13402: You can't expect her to be like a piece of stone you know. She's half-human so she has the right to be soft, but you'll get the hard-core part you ask for. After all, she's a daughter of Kronos, she'll never be actually… harmless, especially with the amount of power she inherits from her father, not to mention from her mother whom we're not sure if she's a full human!

NIce (Guest): Quite a lot of people have asked for romance between Percy and Plasma. I'm not really good at writing love stories or anything involved… fluffiness, but I'll give it a try. They both have to become fierce fighters to stand a chance in that pit, so emotions can be a bit difficult to have some space there. Thanks for reading. I really appreciate your review.

Huy: You don't have to tell me that all over again, you know.

BeautifulNoMatterWhat: Thanks for reading and good news is: here's the next chapter.

Also thank you for the lovely phone calls from Bangkok and Budapest!

Chapter 15: I have a hard time digesting lesson #2

Third Person's Point of View:

If there was a worldwide marathon, no-one should invite Percy Jackson and Plasma Knight to come because these two teenagers would no doubt bring all the competitors to their knees. Or maybe, it was just Tartarus that boosted their running speed and length up.

"Don't panic, they'll give up before we do." – Plasma with her neutral voice but certainly could bring chills to anyone's spines.

"Are you sure?" – growled Percy between his panting, bringing a few slashes to whatever was behind their backs.

Their thighs were burning due to the long run. It was obvious that the demi-gods up on land had taken their rage out by slaying various monsters every time they found one, or even go looking for monsters themselves. The son of Poseidon and daughter of Kronos were being chased by an army of monsters and luckily it wasn't their first time so no-one complained. The pace, the rush, the emotions, the pain… everything was becoming more familiar every second passed by. The blue-eyed girl mumbled:

"No."

Percy didn't want to stop and that feeling truly scared him. Tartarus was getting to him. Various unexplainable emotions passed through his mind as he ran after Plasma. First was self-ashamed. Plasma was a girl that was much younger than him and she didn't seem to be affected just a slight bit while he, who was supposed to be the older boy, was panting pathetically and sweating like a pig. Plasma had explained to him that all the weapons her mother left her were abnormal, so he shouldn't be surprised when they could injure him even both of them had bathed in the river of Styx. Second emotion was some kind angst that he was quite sure that the best therapists on Earth couldn't understand it. He wanted to scream at the unfairness. The monsters seemed to enjoy themselves down here, and they could always get out and reform to hurt his cousins, siblings, demi-gods. Tartarus was itself pure evil and it was painfully obviously foolish to let all bad guys gather in this pit and form an annoying league of we-hate-the-gods-and-western-culture. It was just ridiculous that the beasts stayed together all the time while he hardly ever had quality time with his friends and family.

"Idiot, it's not the right time for those."

A wave of intense emotion of warning slammed at his mind. He mentally cursed himself for thinking too much.

"You think…"

"You die." – Percy automatically replied.

"Adapt…"

"Or die."

"Kill…"

"Or be killed. When is this race going to end?" – Percy asked impatiently.

"After this." – His spine chilled, her voice was deadly icy. – "You still have to prove that you're a worthy resident of Tartarus." – Plasma's eyes flickered between blue and amber.

"What?" – Again the son of Poseidon spitted out a dumb question.

Something rose from the solid ground under their feet, shaking the whole area violently. In half a second Percy thought of his father, the Earth shaker but immediately shook the feeling away to face whatever was coming. A gigantic figure stood from the dirt and looked at him with scary bright grey eyes. They weren't stormy like Athena's, but they could certainly steal consciousness from ones with weak nerves, also they constantly changed from black and white, which formed the strange grey color. Like other titans and gods, the giant man was muscular and there was aura of power radiating from him.

"I'm Lelantos, Titan of Air and the hunter's skill of stalking preys."

Oh sh*t.

Percy's Point of View:

Plasma Knight had got to be f*cking kidding me! She wasn't going to let me fight this titan on my own, was she? But the daughter of Kronos was very unpredictable and since she had warned earlier: I had to prove that I was a worth resident of Tartarus and the tests weren't pleasant at all. I chose this, and I had to deal with my decision. I didn't regret though because sooner or later I would die, so I wanted to seek for a meaningful death, not a stupid one.

"Oh yeah, what's your motivation of killing me anyway? It's not like my dear gramps will shake hands with you!"

It was an old tactic, provoking your enemy so that they would lose their senses, but unfortunately it only worked on immature gods like Ares or other minor gods. Titans were experienced fighters and powerful-beings; they weren't dumb enough to fall for my childish fighting styles. To do this, I must do this better than I had ever done.

"Why don't you figure it out yourself after the battle, little demi-god?"

"We'll see." – I said, tightened my hold around Blaze. My advantage was sword-fighting and I shouldn't waste it.

He smirked and charged. His speed was damn fast, too fast that I could barely see anything. Sometimes I caught the glimpse of deep blue glowing from Plasma's orbs and the golden red light from the flames around Tartarus but nothing was clear enough to actually see. If I couldn't figure out a solution fast, I would be pretty much screwed. Soon I realized all his powers: speed, hiding, limited air-controlling power like thickening air making me trip on my own feet like a fool, fastening air turning it into small breezes and minor winds or something like that, sneaky like the huntresses of Artemis. Sometimes when he moved, I didn't even know his position. My eyes were useless. It took me quite a long time to remember that sights weren't everything in a battle. Other senses were important too and I should really give them some quality credits. Since my eyes had become a liability, I reluctantly closed them in order to hear or at least feel the presence of the titan in the air. He was deadly quiet and fast, like lightning, moving gracefully but surprisingly, not as Plasma, darting around me like arrows and lightning, but again, not as impressive as the daughter of Kronos. In every spar with Plasma, we were always even. Was that because she had been playing easy on me? That I was actually a wimp, not a great warrior as people and perhaps I thought I should be? The titan's thunder punch landed on my left cheek, nearly knocking my brain out of my skull. Damn it, I was thinking too much again. My atlas underneath the skin of my neck wanted to crack so badly due to the strong impacts, but I forced my body to move, my organs to stay in place as long as the battle still went on.

There was something about Lelantos made me doubt his will to win this fight. Sometimes he looked at me as if I wasn't really his rival, but an acquaintance, an ally of some sort. My eyes must have fooled me since everything was damn blurry, but my judgments towards those things were rarely wrong. All things that happened during this test were so complicated but I forced myself to answer the questions and wrote them on the sheet. Lelantos could appear in thin air right behind my back every once in a while and gave me a fatal blow but thanks to the curse of river Styx, I wasn't smashed like smashed potatoes. If it hadn't been for the bath in the Styx, I would have died for the hundredth time. It was frustrating that my confidence was wounded due to the ugly facts. I swirled, pointed, moved around with Blaze like a dance, fast but recklessly, since I wasn't allowed to think much at all. Thinking meant death – according to Plasma. Honestly, if I had a chance to think, I wouldn't even know what to think of. Lelantos had managed to avoid my sword with some difficulty, but he didn't get tired easily like me.

Every battle would come to an end, quickly or slowly but still. I was glad that this one did, too. It happened pretty quickly since my reflexes and instincts had become more natural during the battle. Lelantos wrestled me to ground, making me see stars flying around but still managed to let out a horrible roar and kicked his stomach with my leg while hitting his head with the flat side of Blaze's blade. He grumbled to respond my weak attacks but I jumped up into the air and created some water to support the height, swirling my long sword around to form a mini tornado and blind his sight. The titan's huge arms made their ways to my throat but I concentrated on Kronos inside my mind and recalled the memory of Plasma slowing down Zeus' lightning bolt flying towards me and luckily succeeded on slowing down Lelantos' motion. He fell down to the ground and growled painfully, but he didn't look surprised. I pointed Blaze at his throat and asked hoarsely:

"Any last words?"

"Lady Knight is right like always. You are quite a fighter, but to stay here, you have to do much better than the performance you just did."

"What?" – I slowly understood the whole situation that Plasma had made a deal with Lelantos to fight me. He wasn't just a random titan in this pit who desired my life like others always.

I made a mistake by turning back to the titan to compose my mind and deal with this whole thing. My mind didn't feel like killing the titan right now, not after he seemingly had gone easy on me as well, just like Plasma.

"Never turn away from your enemy, Jackson."

Apparently he didn't, at all because he nearly ripped my back apart with his attack. I deserved it since the mistake I made wasn't something that could be passed. I totally forgot that she didn't announce that I'd passed the test. My mind went wild at the horrible pain shot through everything. I wanted to lie down and forgot this damn world and abandoned my own miserable existence. Everything was on fire.

Rise up from the pain, Percy. From now on, agony shall be what makes you stronger. – It was what Plasma had also taught me. Could I do this?

I did a cartwheel with some energy I had left inside my body when feeling another blow was about to land on me. Thank god that my calculation was right since my whole torso flew out of the titan's fist's way and I landed accurately on his neck, my legs wrapped around his neck. I crushed his collarbone or whatever it was, making him scream in pain. My mind shouted at myself. I felt the warmth from Blaze, the vital pulse from the blade, the desire to feel my power, my aura washed over me. Blaze wanted to fight with me. I forced all the chaos emotions on the sword, feeling heat radiating from it and a glowing bloody red light came from it violently. I saw Plasma stood up from her position and narrowed her eyes at the sight. Without asking, I knew what she wanted me to do. To finish this. To end this.

"What's your last word, Lelantos?"

With that, Blaze with the strength of my arms went through Lelantos chest, right through his heart. A titan was hard to kill, so I used everything I could think of, emotions, memories, the physical pain I had to give Blaze what it needed. Lelantos' body glowed and began to disintegrate into golden dust slowly. He gave me a weak smile that I wanted to stab myself:

"Don't lose your humanity, both of you."

I caught the mass of dust that was supposed to be his hand and whispered: "I'll try" as I felt a strong surge of power shaking my body. Everything became too much as darkness started to swallow me. Just before I gave in to it, I saw Plasma knelt next to me, mumbling:

"I've already lost it."

A/N: Okay, it's the best I can do after test marathon. Honestly, I feel worn out. Can you guys boost me up with some reviews? Thanks for reading.