Longest chapter so far. Had quite a bit of fun writing this. Enjoy! Sorry for the English mistakes.

Percy's POV

Honest to god, I was having a hard time believing what I was witnessing right now.

Y'know that moment? When you were just a little kid and it was just after seeing someone do something incredible for the first time, and then thinking to yourself in that exact same moment – Just how the hell did they do that?

'Like, there's no way I'd be able to do that', or 'just no way that just happened'.

Well… what I was seeing right now, made those moments seem like dull, boring, fall-asleep on the couch kind of moments.

It was pretty incredulous.

I was watching the match between Grover and this James guy, who by the way looked incredibly familiar and I… I just couldn't believe my eyes. I was standing on the tip of my toes. It was pretty nerve wrecking… and great for some reason. Grover was controlling trees and making things pop out of the ground for goodness sakes.

Trees out of the ground!?

Can you believe that?

And this James guy… his hands literally caught fire. No really. Like they literally combusted into flame and he was throwing fireballs at Grover.

It was horrifyingly awesome. Something out of an X-men film actually. Grover was doing all he could to dodge and avoid the fireballs. My heart was beating so fast, watching him narrowly dodge after dodge. The announcer said that fatal attacks weren't allowed, so I naturally just assumed that even if they hit him that'd they'd step in or something.

…

They would, wouldn't they?

Finally, the James kid said something to Grover and for some reason he got really pissed off. Next thing I know, Grover's trapped the James kid and he collapses onto the ground. The match is declared finished and they are both taken off the stage with help from the medics. The crowd here was going crazy loud.

But damn, Grover put up one heck of a fight. Never would I have imagined Grover having such incredible abilities. I wasn't sure about who won though. Maybe it was a draw?

Where did they take the contestants who finished?

Where did Grover and that James guy go?

I had so many questions going on in my head I didn't realise that the next match had already begun.

DINGGG

The same loud ringing sound echoed throughout the colosseum and once again, everyone's attention was brought to the large screen hovering above.

The highlights randomly shifted about the remaining 18 of our profiles and eventually started slowing down.

They finally stopped and there were only 2 profiles highlighted.

P1 – MICHAEL WHITE

P2 – PERCY JACKSON

Oh shit.

No One's POV

"Pretty cool ability huh Thals?" The blonde haired girl said. "I'm pretty sure no one expected that outcome."

"Yeah... I guess it was alright." The spiky black haired girl replied. "Pretty big upset though. Almost everyone here thought it was going to be a sure win for that James guy. Wasn't he the youth Olympic boxing champion or something?"

…

"Annabeth?" She asked curiously. "You okay?"

"Ahhhh pheww!" Annabeth sighed, as she blew up her bangs and looked up.

"Yup yup I'm fine." She replied with a smile, turning to face Thalia. "Just didn't realise I was holding my breath for so long haha."

"Tsk. You really shouldn't get so into it you know. These new kids may be our future competitors." Thalia sighed, "This is a good learning opportunity for us to prepare strategy against our potential rivals."

"I guess…" Annabeth replied.

Doesn't really matter to me though, she thought to herself.

"I'd still kick their asses though." Thalia smugly declared with a grin. She put her arm around Annabeth, "Doesn't matter how good they are!"

Annabeth smiled and nodded in response.

The 2 females were seated next to each other in the captain's booth. It was a segregated section above the main body of seats where only the captains of each house sat. Annabeth was the captain of the Grey coloured house, and Thalia was the captain of the White coloured house. However, although that meant that they were supposedly rivals, that didn't change the fact that they were childhood friends that had practically grown up together since they were babies. They were still best friends and did almost everything together.

"Look! Look! The next match is starting!" someone shouted.

Both of the girls turned their attention to the huge screen hovering above the colosseum.

"Hmmmmm, Michael White huh?" the orange house captain scoffed. "This is going to be a fast match. That Percy kid is pretty unlucky."

"Ya think so?"

"Yeah for sure. There's not going to be an upset this time. I mean, just look at his build! He's another future Olympic champion." The guy continued as he shrugged his shoulders, "The guy is an Olympic gymnast and I hear he has a pretty impressive background in martial arts. There's just no way I see him losing!"

"And the other guy… this Percy? He looks pretty lost if you ask me…"

"Whaddya think Annabeth?" the orange house captain asked as he turned his head and made his way over, "Who do you thinks gonna win?"

The orange house captain had moved in, and had gotten awfully close to her at this point as he sat down right next to her. He had asked her out a few times before but she had never reciprocated his advances. It wasn't like he was unattractive or hard to look at.

It was just that, in the exact words of Annabeth – 'he was a player and had a scumbag personality.'

"Well, I think it could go both ways. We don't even know their abilities…" She replied coyly "But if I had to go with either of them, I'd probably pick... Percy."

"Woah woah, is this Annie picking a side despite not knowing all the facts?" Thalia said in wonderment. "What do you know that I don't?" she asked, as she eyed Annabeth suspiciously.

"Wha- No-nothing!" Annabeth replied, "I just like an underdog… that's all."

She was blushing. Why was she blushing?... Annabeth thought to herself… She shouldn't be blushing. There was no reason to be blushing. But Thalia was right, this was so unlike her. She never picked a side without knowing all the facts. Did it have anything to do with finding him and rescuing him? Of course she had worried about him and had visited him in the recovery room. She had also fell asleep on his bed waiting for him to wake up… No, it couldn't be. Well… he had made her laugh without meaning to. Nope. Not it. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he looked kinda cute. NO.

Definitely…

Annabeth?… Definitely not that.

"Let's just watch the match, alright?!" Annabeth blurted out, hoping Thalia would drop the subject.

"Fine, fine." Thalia raised her hands in defence, as she reluctantly agreed. "Well… That Percy kid does look kinda cute though…" She muttered to herself.

Annabeth gave a weak smile to Thalia.

C'mon Percy!

Percy's POV

"Veritas, Virtus, Libertas!" the announcer shouted.

The butterflies in my stomach were really starting to get to me.

Damn, that stupid phrase is really starting to annoy me. Everything was starting to annoy me. What was wrong with these people? I mean, sureeee it probably would be entertaining to watch people fight from a spectator point of view, and I'm sureeee it would be interesting to see all these people with special abilities come up and about. But they were in for a big disappointment. Not only did I not have any flashy or cool abilities, I had no abilities.

I looked at the guy standing across of me. He had spiky black hair that looked like it had way too much wax put into it, was about 5'4 and looked like he had come directly out of an anime. OKAY, although he looked Asian, and I know that's sorta racist, but I wasn't being racist and neither am I racist! That's honestly the best way I'd have to describe him. Not only because he was Asian, but because he had the build of a martial artist! And I don't know… A gut feeling of mine told me that he probably did some sort of martial arts. He didn't talk much, which helped a little bit but I wish I knew what I was dealing with here.

Right! He reminded me of that one dude in that ninja anime… What was his name again? Sanuke?

If he had some crazy ability like producing fireballs or controlling mother freaking nature, I'm pretty sure I was a goner.

Oh gods.

I was so nervous.

The loud trumpet sounded which of course signalled the start of the match, and right on cue the crowd erupted into a frenzy.

And suddenly, I wasn't nervous anymore.

I can't explain it, but something inside of me just, clicked.

Straight away I knew my gut feeling was right.

I hated it when my gut feeling was right.

He gave me a smirk, and started rushing towards me at an incredible speed, a speed at which I thought previously was inhumanly impossible. Ok maybe not inhumanly impossible, but matching up with an Olympic-like athlete would be a pretty good comparison.

Getting a running start he instantly covered the 200m distance that was between us, he then leapt high into the air, somersaulting twice before coming right at me with his foot aimed directly at my face. All this probably happened within the span of what, 3 seconds? It was blindingly fast. For everyone else that is. However, once he had started running towards me, the tingling in my head kicked in and time slowed down almost instantly. Every minute detail that the human eye would've previously missed stood out to me in slow motion. The windswept tiny hairs on his face moved as he ran forward, his calf muscles tensed up as they tightened under the pressure of his legs against the solid ground and the moving specs of dust that were travelling through the air came into clear view as everything slowed down. Time seemed to come to a standstill as the kinetic energy that was once there disappeared.

I swiftly side stepped to the left, easily dodging his flying kick. He landed firmly where I used to stand and rolled backwards, recovering his balance.

Woah.

'OOOOO' the crowd gasped in amazement. Even they couldn't believe I dodged that.

I stepped back towards the center of the ring. No way was I going to back down without a fight.

He slowly got up and took a standing position. I could tell he was surprised and was now reading me, trying to calm down and take in what had just happened. He raised his arms and took a crouched fighting stance, carefully sliding his feet and body forward towards me.

This time, I took up a fighting stance myself. I raised both my fists and awkwardly tucked my elbows closer to my body.

Was this how I was supposed to fight? Should I make the first mov-

Before I finished that thought, he instantaneously pounced onto me. This time he moved even faster than he did before. I couldn't really tell though, because it was practically granny speed to me still.

He led with a right straight headed straight for my face; but to me it was coming so slowly that I easily parried it with my left arm. He followed up with a left swing, right straight, right straight, left uppercut, right straight and left hook. I dodged them as easily as it came, trying to use bear minimum of my strength to dodge. Weaving my head and body left, right, left, right, left… It was actually quite exhilarating dodging them by a hair's breadth. The punches came towards me and I waited until the last moment to move out of the way.

He rushed forward again, leading with a right straight, I dodged it easily, but this time the tingling in my head screamed even louder. His left knee shot up, flying towards my gut. He had feinted me, with all the constant punching combinations and both my arms were not going to make it in time to block it. Almost instinctively, I threw my body backwards as I flipped back, cartwheeling myself a few times a distance away. His eyes shot open wide. He probably couldn't believe what had just happened.

Well, neither could I…

My mind and body were on high alert and it was actually the most comfortable I've ever been in my own skin.

The crowd was in silence as they watched the exchange between us unfold before them. Once it finished, the crowd exploded into applause and cheering. "UNBELIEVABLEEEEEEEEE. DID YOU ALL JUST SEE THAT." The announcer screamed, "AMAZINGGG!" Even he was caught off guard, and had actually kept quiet the entire time.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"Er- do what?" I replied. He had caught me off guard with his sudden question. I actually thought he was mute.

"That exchange we just had… What you just did… The rest may not have noticed it. But I did." He stoically said as he gritted his teeth. He looked angry.

"Ummmm. Huh?"

I honestly had no idea or clue as to what he was talking about.

"You… You… You dodged every single one of my blows by a hair's breadth." He angrily shouted, "You think I wouldn't notice that?"

Ohhhhhhh.

That's what he meant.

"It wasn't to humiliate you or anything man." I replied, "I just –"

"Ok I didn't want to do this. But you leave me no choice. RAAAAAAAAAAH" he screamed, looking up towards the sky with his eyes tightly shut. "ARGHHHHHHH RAAAAAAAH"

"What… you ok dude?"

He looked like he was in a lot of pain.

What was happening – wait…

The tingling in my head just started screaming.

Arghh.

Part of his body was turning black. Why was it turning black?! Are those tattoos…? Wait, no. Was that… was that fur growing out of his body? What was going on?

Yeah that is fur. What the hell? What was going on?!

Soon, his nails started growing out, and they were scarily starting to look a lot like claws. His ears sharpened, his eye's iris started turning feline and his body started growing. And yes, he had a long black tail.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHhhhhhh." He finally stopped screaming as he calmed down slowing his breathing. "hngggggg"

It was like a scene out of a horror film. He had literally turned into a were-black panther… I didn't even know they had those. The transformation finished and I stood facing a 5'6 half human, half black panther. He had black streaks of fur all across his body that was not covered by his clothes. They looked like tattoos from afar, as they streaked and ran all over his body. He eyed me cautiously, like a predator and its prey. And I couldn't help it, but I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. This was the first time I had faced something like this, but at the same time, it felt like I had faced something much worse than this.

I should've been much more frightened than I was. But I really wasn't.

Huh.

Strange.

"Try dodging me now." He snarled into a smirk, showing his teeth that were starting to look awfully like a panther's. Getting down onto all fours… he assumed a pouncing like position.

Here he comes –

He swiftly leapt into the air like a black panther, slicing through the air as he came right at me. The screaming in my head doubled into overtime as once again time slowed down. The noise around me cancelled out as I heard my own heartbeat and felt the blood pump through my body and back to my heart. My senses doubled into overtime and every single thing around me came to a halt as i zoned out the distractions surrounding me. He was almost 3 times faster than he was before, but…

It still looked like he was moving in slow motion to me.

I jumped backwards into a flip and easily dodged it.

SWOOOOSH.

The sound of his hands made a sickening sound against the wind where I once stood. Almost immediately, he recovered and started rushing me once again. Only this time, using his claws to slash at me. Right, left, right, right, left, right, left, right, left. Nothing had changed much; just that if I didn't dodge now, he'd probably cut my face out. He roared, and furiously continued swiping. They were getting faster and it was harder to dodge without exiting the ring. I was getting closer and closer to the edge and was running out of room to go to.

This had to stop. It was getting too dangerous for me to stay on the defensive.

I had to end this.

He furiously continued attacking. The discipline and strategic attacks that he had used before were completely gone. What was left was only his rage and animosity taken over. This was my chance. He swiped left directly at my head. I immediately spun my body with the direction of his attack, easily dodging it. My body gracefully twisted in mid-air 3 times, as I struck out my left leg using my bodies momentum; aimed directly at this jaw.

CRAAACK.

Got him.

The blow had hit his jaw cleanly as I landed into a roll and got up on my feet.

His head remained tilted in the direction of the blow for a while, as he slowly turned to face me. He looked pretty pissed. I immediately dashed towards him, ready to deal the finishing blow. I'd dodge the first hit, either ducking or side stepping and would follow it up with a roundhouse kick or an uppercut. All of a sudden, a silhouette appeared in between us and a pair of huge, strong arms stopped me in my tracks. I blinked a few times as the figure shouted at me to stop. STOP.

It was the referee.

It was only then that I noticed Michael's eyes had started closing as his expression changed into a blank one. He collapsed face forward into the arms of the referee. He was knocked out cold. His features had slowly started reverting back into human form and there was little to no trace of his transformation left on his body.

"ANDDDD YOUR WINNER. PERCY JACKSONNN!" the announcer screamed to the crowd.

The sound of the crowd suddenly exploded into an uproar. Cheering and applause filled the stadium as I suddenly remembered where I was.

Holy shit.

I won?

I won…

I looked down at my hands and legs in astonishment. How the hell did that just happen?

No One's POV

"OHHHH SHITTT!"

"Did you just see what happened?"

"Ohmygod it was so fast I barely even caught that!?"

"Wow. That was incredible!"

"Never would've seen that coming..."

The entire captain's booth was buzzing with excitement as none of them could believe their eyes. They were all standing up in disbelief and amazement after what they just saw.

"Daaamnnn Annie?! Did you just see that?" Thalia shouted excitedly at her best friend, "Shit dude that was so badass! Did you know he was going to win like that?"

"Ahhhh pheewwwwww." Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief, as she replied earnestly, "I honestly didn't!" She truthfully had really no idea what had just happened. How Percy had won she had no clue. Michael White had turned out to have one of the rarer abilities – a transformation type. Not only did it enhance one's physical abilities, but it also gave them the special attributes of the beast that it transformed to. Not only that, he had a Black Panther transformation type. Finally, to top it all off, with his already stellar physical and martial arts background, it was a pretty powerful combination. But Percy had not only gotten away totally unscathed but he had knocked him out in one blow. And he looked like he had totally no idea how he had did it.

She looked at the jet black haired guy carefully, who stood at the center of the ring awkwardly with his arm raised up by the announcer, as he started smiling and waving shyly to the crowd as they applauded and cheered. If she wasn't wrong, he had bright emerald eyes the last time they met at the hospital. She smiled to herself. Percy Jackson huh?

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