I received quite a few questions asking about the Titanoboa. Just google it, and you'll sorta get a picture of what the snake looked like. Also, I didn't use a real mythological monster because as you can tell from the story, I don't intend to go full PJO or Greek Mythology. They are described as Demi-God's by Chiron because they possess abilities that normal man do not have. But - they aren't fully powerful like a God. Hence, Demi-God. I'll explain a little bit more in greater detail about it later on.

And sorry for the bad english.

Percy's POV

"I'm very glad to see all of you here today with us." He said, smiling warmly, "We all had a pretty good scare with the crash, but I'm proud and glad to say that all of you have survived."

"The second test was supposed to take place after you arrived safely, but due to some unforeseen circumstances the 'hunt' was cancelled…"

Hunt? Was that what Grover had mentioned earlier?

"… But judging from all of your performances from the incident, I'm pretty sure all of you passed with flying colours!"

He seemed to be looking at me directly when he said those words, but I pretty much shook it off as he was probably addressing it mainly to everyone in general. I was supposed to be listening to the briefing... But what Grover had mentioned… I just couldn't help but think that I was missing something...

"Now, on to the third and final test!" He enthusiastically clapped his hands together with a twinkle in his eyes. "As you can see, we are in a colosseum. And what do people do in colosseums?"

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone looked around waiting for someone else to reply.

"They die?" a boy with black hair and pale olive skin asked.

"Hahaha not what I was looking for, but yes!" He replied chuckling, "They fight for survival and dominance!"

"As you all would have noticed by now, this is no ordinary school. This is the Demi-Goode academy! Otherwise known to many of our students here as the Demi-God academy! Why Demi-God you ask?" He continued. "In this world, there are some who have been blessed with… the genes of the Gods."

What? Genes of the Gods? He can't be serious can he? I seriously don't belong here then… I looked around slowly. The people around me were special? Even Grover? No offence - but I was starting to really doubt the truth of his statements…

Mr Brunner's tone suddenly became a lot more serious, and I focused in on what he was saying with even more intent.

"And this school, which has existed since the dawn of mankind, aims to protect and instruct these gifted individuals."

His gaze seemed to intensify as his eyes shone and swept around the room to look at each one of us.

"Individuals such as yourselves right here!"

Here? Special individuals? I definitely do not belong here…

I mean… What special abilities do I even have?

Is he crazy or high? They must grow Cannabis here…

"I'm sure many of you have your scepticisms, and there will also be some of you who understand exactly what I am talking about. *he winked* However, I won't force you to come to terms with it, or participate any further beyond this point if you do not want to. If any of you have any doubts or do not want any part of this, please just raise your hand."

*silence*

"I assure you, nothing will happen, we won't kill you or do anything cliché from a movie. Haha, all that will happen is you leave and move on." He calmly continued, "Anyone?"

*more silence*

I was tempted to leave… Like really tempted to leave - I was afraid and nervous. I mean, do I really deserve to be here? I don't have any of these special genes or abilities. But hell, I'd made it this far, I wasn't about to give up so soon.

He looked pleased as he continued, "Okay then! Let's begin shall we? Your final test will consist of 2 tests, the first will be a test to determine whether you gain final admission and the second will then determine which specialisation you will belong to."

"But what if I fail the first test?" some guy at the front of the group asked.

Mr Brunner calmly replied, "If you do fail the first test, I'm sorry to say but you will be asked to leave and possibly reapply next year if you want."

He continued, "The second test will follow the first test, and then after the second test, students will be assigned their school and will be given dorm assignments. Specialisations will be explained and assigned after the test results are announced."

There was a lot of chitter chatter and I could feel the nervousness and tension among everyone. I guess it was natural for everyone to feel nervous and anxious.

It was starting to get really exciting.

"W-will-will we b-b-b-be t-taking th-the test infront of all t-t-t-th-the st-st-st-stu-students out th-there?" Grover stammered, as he pointed to the arena.

Everyone quickly shut up as all eyes moved to Mr Brunner.

"Yes you will." He calmly replied.

"Oh my god" someone said.

You could practically feel the atmosphere get heavier with even more anxiety and nervousness. Grover looked like a mess, as I patted him on the back to give some sort of reassurance to him. Who was I kidding anyway…? I was nervous too. In front of all those students? That's crazy… If we messed up… if I messed up- I'd be embarrassed, and everyone would know…

I looked at Mr Brunner, just sitting there waiting as he watched all of us panic amongst ourselves. He seemed calm, and he had a slight smirk on his face. It took a while, but I finally figured out what the expression he was wearing on his face was. He was actually enjoying this.

"Many students before you, and many students after you have felt and will feel the same way you do right now…" He gestured towards the entrance to the arena, and then back at us.

All of us went quiet.

"…But only a handful of those students combined, have managed to put aside their fears, and have taken advantage of this opportunity… Take the bull by the horns!" His outstretched palm clenched into a fist.

Not to ruin the mood or anything, but dang he was good at motivational speeches.

"Each and every one of you deserves to be here. If you make it, thank the gods, if you don't, it just wasn't destiny's hand. Everyone here was born and given an incredible gift, but not everyone has what it takes. Don't give excuses for yourself – like I wasn't born with an ability as good as his or wasn't as powerful. It's how the person who uses his or her ability that is truly strong."

I could feel my courage gathering and my blood boiling from the adrenaline rushing throughout my body.

"Now… your third and final test awaits!" He shouted, "Follow me half-bloods!"

We followed the wheelchair-bound Mr Brunner towards the entrance of the arena. As we got closer and closer towards the entrance, it got brighter and brighter as the light coming in from the colosseum illuminated the tunnel. I shielded by eyes from the sudden change in light exposure as I was temporarily blinded. As soon as my eyes adjusted, my ears did too. The roar of the students deafened us temporarily as the cheers and shouting from about 30, 000 spectators suddenly came to life. You could practically feel the excitement and raw energy coming from the spectators.

Was this what it felt like to be a gladiator in ancient Greece? The grandeur and sheer magnitude of the thought of being in the arena was somehow so exciting and addicting.

I immediately felt goose bumps all over my arms. I was supposed to be nervous, I mean I was really nervous… but right now- strange enough as it seemed, I was feeling even more confident and calm than I've ever felt.

It was like I was born to do this.

We gathered at the centre of the arena. Mr Brunner stood… well, sat on a raised platform that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. With a microphone in his right hand, he gestured to the crowd to quieten down with his left. Looking up at him, I realised how much of a presence this man had. Immediately he had made the entire colosseum quieten down. The amount of respect that everyone here had for him was evident.

"Hello, everyone! Welcome once again to the Demi-Goode Academy's Annual Entrance Programme!"

The arena was once again filled with cheers and screaming.

I was looking around the colosseum and all the spectators that were seated around us. They seemed to be seating based on their colours… or specialisations. There were blankets of multi-coloured collared shirts with blue blazers all over the place.

God there were so many people here…

More cheering and shouting erupted throughout the colosseum. I realised my train of thought had drifted out of the speech, and quickly tuned back to continue listening to what Mr Brunner had to say…

"… Good luck to all the contestants and may the gods be ever in your favour!"

Wait… he was done with the explanations?!

"LET THE TEST BEGIN! Veritas, Virtus, Libertas!"

Oh shit.

The crowd got really rowdy and started cheering even louder.

I looked around in panic.

What was going on?

My attention was drawn towards the platform where Mr Brunner had just been… which was now floating away. The podium that he had been on had elevated and taken him above the ground level of the arena, to the 3rd level of the colosseum where he disappeared through a door already opened for him. Looking around my surroundings a little bit closer; I realised that it wasn't a typical colosseum. At first glance it looked pretty similar, but there wasn't a viewing box where the 'king' or 'emperor' usually sat. Instead - the entire 3rd level, just below where the spectators sat, were glass windows that encircled the arena. I saw faint silhouettes and lights through the windows.

BOOM, BOOM

The floor started rumbling...

"Percy! C'mon man!"

I turned around to find Grover shouting at me.

"What?" I shouted back.

"C'mon! Hurry! What're you standing around for!"

He pointed behind me and I immediately turned around.

All around me the students had started scattering.

Oh.

There were screens installed to the sides of the arena all around us just above entrance height. Each screen had huge names typed out on them. I never noticed them before, as the picture on the screens had been the same image as the materials around us.

Interesting…

Grover was running towards a section where the screen above read 'GROVER UNDERWOOD' in green letters. I noticed that there were many different coloured names for each different student. I spun around, quickly looking for my own name.

Damn… where was mine…

Where…

There it is!

It was in azure blue and read 'PERCY JACKSON'.

I started sprinting towards it. Leaning against the wall, a loud beep sounded above me.

Once the last contestant reached his section, the ground started shaking vigorously. At the centre of the arena – a huge hole opened from the ground. Steam shot up from the sides and filled the entire arena making it impossible to see what was going on at the centre.

The smoke cleared and what stood at the centre was an elevated circular ring.

It kind of reminded me of a Dohyō. (A sumo wrestling ring)

Right above the ring was a huge screen that showed the ring from many different angles and at the side of the screen were smaller profiles showing all 20 of us.

It was kinda weird looking at myself from a camera…

Below each person's picture were our names in the same colours that we had been given before. What was that about? Was that the specialisation assigned to us?

I had missed the instructions given by Mr Brunner but I had a feeling that I had already sort of guessed what the first test was supposed to be…

We were supposed to fight each other.

DINGGGGG

A loud ringing sound echoed throughout the colosseum. Everyone's attention was drawn to where the sound had come from - the huge screen above.

Where our pictures were- suddenly had highlights around the edges as if we were being chosen in an arcade game. The sound effects that a game makes when you hover over characters in an arcade fighting game – that's probably the best way to describe it.

There was a p1 and p2 symbol above the highlighted pictures as they randomly and briefly hovered over our profiles.

They were selecting this randomly...

Would I be selected first?

The highlighted pictures started slowing down, and finally stopped over 2 profiles.

P1 – JAMES MILLER

P2 – GROVER UNDERWOOD

A speaker suddenly announced, "Mr James Miller and Mr Grover Underwood please make your way to the ring!"

"YES!" a boy shouted as he did a fist pump. He had a huge smirk on his face, was about 5'9, Grover's height, had bright blonde hair and was wearing a really tight shirt… spandex would have been less tight… Thankfully he had a well-built body and wasn't afraid to show it. You could almost immediately tell he was an athlete.

He looked familiar… He had the sort of face that reminded me of Bryan. Arrogant, cocky and you could almost tell that he thought that he was better than everyone.

Immediately I turned towards Grover. His mouth was shaped like a huge O and I could tell he wasn't breathing…

Oh dear…

Grover…

Thanks for reading!

Let me know what you think by reviewing if you want.

Next chapter will be the first battle from Grover's POV.