A/N: I don't anything Rioardan has created. Enjoy, favorite and follow this story.
Chapter 18
After Percy had gone through his embarrassing introduction, he took a seat next to Grover who was munching on tin cans.
Percy looked around before addressing Chiron. "How was everything at school after we left Chiron?"
"There were no problems. I was able to use the mist to make everyone believe that you two never existed. After that, I rushed myself to camp only to find that you had already encountered the dangers. But Ace tells me you were able to handle the situation without any problems." Chiron said as he continued to play his game with the cherub looking director.
"Well I wouldn't have been in bandages if there were no problems, but it was no big deal, I guess."
Tal chuckled, earning everyone's attention. "After defeating one of Echidna's children, he says it's no big deal."
"Tal's right Perce, you defeated the Minotaur. That's pretty impressive." Grover added nodding.
Percy's cheeks were turning pink under their complements. There was a moment of silence before Dionysus spoke.
"Ah I guess I must say it, welcome to Camp Half-Blood Perry Johnson." Percy turned to look at the cherub figure sitting next to him. Before he said anything, he glanced at Ace who just shook his head, an interaction that did not go unnoticed by the child of Athena.
"Thank you Mr. Dionysus, sir, and my name is Percy Jackson." Percy replied.
"I see you've learned about your heritage, thanks to Mace ove..."
"It's Ace you stupid drunk." Ace said cutting off the deity. Chiron dropped his cards and turned to Ace with warning eyes.
"I told you to talk with respect to Mr. D, Ace."
"Why should I respect him when he clearly doesn't respect me? Respect is something that's earned, and he clearly hasn't earned mine."
Chiron didn't know how to respond to Ace's logic. He clearly made a valid point, but that type of logic didn't work with the Olympians. Chiron turned to Mr. D to see him seething with burning eyes.
Before further conflict broke out, the daughter of Athena intervened. "C'mon Ace, Mr. D has always been like that. You can't get mad at him for not saying your name right."
Ace turned to face the girl. "No disrespect to you Annabeth, I don't know how you feel about your name, but my name, for me, is my identity; it's my persona. If he purposely mispronounces my name, then he's making it perfectly clear that he doesn't respect me as a person." Ace's argument left Annabeth dumbfounded. The way he talked reminded her of her long lost friend, he seemed just as stubborn as well. She realized she couldn't sway Ace, so she just backed away from the confrontation.
Silence filled the tense air as Ace turned to glare at Mr. D, who did the same towards Ace. Before this continued to any further, Chiron spoke up. "Well now that we know Percy is awake, why don't you show him around Annabeth? Even though you already had your tour, I presume you will tag along, Ace." But Ace was too focused on Mr. D to answer Chiron, so Tal nodded in his place.
"C'mon, I guess I'm your tour guide." Annabeth said, walking down the stairs that led to the rest of the camp. Tal had to practically drag Ace away when Percy got up and followed Annabeth.
When the campers were out of earshot Mr. D turned to Chiron, "I don't like him, and it's not because he's disrespectful. I can handle disrespectful. He is a threat, I feel as though he knows way more than he is letting on." Chiron turned to look at Ace at Mr. D's words. The boy was smiling now at something Tal had said, all the anger from his eyes being replaced with merriment and joy.
X*X*X*X
The group followed as Annabeth led the way, talking a little about each of the places she passed. She decided to cover everything on the North East side of the Big House before crossing the canoe lake and going to the North and North West side.
After showing the Arena on the North West side, she was heading towards the cabin area, when Clarisse and her gang showed up. As soon as Ace spotted the daughter of Ares, he made himself scarce and tried to hide behind Percy. He didn't want to cause anymore trouble than he had already caused with her.
"What do we have here? A newcomer?" The daughter of Ares said as she sauntered over to them.
"Clarisse, don't you have anything better to do with your time?" Annabeth muttered.
"Shut it Athenian. Why don't you go and renew your library book or something." Clarisse growled.
"Who's she?" Percy asked Annabeth.
"She's a daughter of Ares and the leader of the Ares cabin. The dumbest of them all" Annabeth scoffed.
Before Clarisse could say anything, one of her gang members spoke up. "Look who's here Clarisse." He said going to stand next to Ace. "Hey punk, finally decided to show your face again after that humiliating loss to clarisse?"
Ace didn't reply to his statement, he just stared at Clarisse with a blank expression as she did the same. Tension was filling the air with each passing moment
"Clarisse." Ace finally said breaking the silence.
"Punk." Clarisse growled back.
"Good to see that you haven't changed, though I wasn't expecting anything different." Ace said smirking.
Before Clarisse could reply, her brother, Matthew, that spotted Ace did something unexpected. He punched Ace in the stomach as hard as he could. "Shut your fucking mouth, you trash." He growld as Ace doubled over pretending to be in pain. If Ace wasn't an immortal and his body wasn't trained to be the best, that punch would've at least knocked the air out of him, but since he was an immortal and was trained, that punch felt like nothing more than a mosquito bite.
"I hate people who talk the talk but can't walk the walk." He said as he kicked Ace to the ground. "Now, how about you fight me this time before going into hiding. And don't come back next time." He said kneeling next to Ace.
When he got no response, he turned to face Percy and Tal. "What, aren't you guys going to help him?" He chuckled. "Some friends you have, but looks like they're smart enough to know not to bite off more than they can chew." He said looking at Ace again.
"Clarisse, control him. Wasn't this settled a long time ago? Why are you doing this?" Annabeth said, trying to gain control of the situation. Clarisse in return said nothing as she looked at Ace.
"You better watch yourself Ares spawn, You're treading on thin ice." Tal said as everyone turned to look at her.
"What're you talking about?" Matthew growled glaring at Tal. She pointed at Ace as he slowly started to rise from the ground. On instinct, Matthew jumped away from him, as Ace rose to his feet and dusted himself of the dirt he had collected while laying on the ground. He showed no sign of ever getting attacked. Matthew was expecting some form of retaliation now, but Ace just turned towards Percy.
"Listen up Perce, this is battle 101. You listening?" He said smiling.
"Yeah…" Percy replied hesitantly as everyone listened in on the conversation.
"This is one of the things I forgot to mention during your training, but you should learn to gauge your opponent's' power. A fight that doesn't guarantee at least a thirty percent chance of victory, you should avoid those. Understand?" Ace explained as Percy slowly nodded.
"Are you saying that there's a seventy percent chance of you losing to Matthew?" Annabeth inquired, as she stared at the undamaged demigod in front of her. She knew how strong the Ares kids were; that punch would've brought even Luke to his knees. But here was Ace, looking like nothing had happened after taking such a hard hit.
"Ha, looks like you aren't as stupid as I thought you were" Matthew laughed high fiving his siblings.
"No, this is a lesson for him as well. He should be paying attention, and not goofing off." Ace said turning to glare at Matthew.
"What'd you say you piece of shit?" Matthew snarled.
"Being a child of the god of war, one would expect that they know the art of battle. But the fact that they don't know this and bark at everything without consideration is an atrocity." Ace continued, ignoring the boys use of foul language.
"Shut your fucking mouth you trash." Matthew snapped as he charged at Ace. Matthew swung at Ace's face with his fist, but he simply ducked under the uncoordinated, wild attack. He then continued on to grab the boys arm and the sound that followed next made everyone cringe. Ace twisted Matthew's arm back and with a snap, the arm popped out of it's socket. Ace then proceeded to deliver the same punch that he had received from Matthew, and unlike Matthew's attack, Ace's attack knocked the wind out of him. Matthew slumped to the ground, clutching his now broken right arm. Even though Matthew was on the ground, Ace didn't stop his attacks.
The boy leaned down and delivered two quick punches that made blood sprout from Matthew's nose. He delivered another punch to Matthew's face before rising to his feet again. At this point, the child of Ares had lost conscious, but that still didn't stop Ace. While Ace was continuing his assault, everyone watched on with wide eyes, Campers that were passing by and saw the confrontation joined the crowd, while alerting others to come as well. The crowd observed on as Ace moved Matthew's left leg to the side. He was getting ready to deliver a blow that would surely break the injured boys leg, when suddenly a sword tip appeared next to Ace's neck.
"That's enough, let him go." Clarisse couldn't stand by idly anymore and watch her sibling get injured. Sure he was at fault for stating the confrontation, but this was going on too far.
"Have you ever heard this quote Clarisse, "If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared." It was said by Niccolo Machiavelli." Ace said, ignoring that sword point that was close to impaling him through his throat. He stared on as she shook her head.
"That's another art of battle that you should learn. If you need to fight, fight in a manner where your opponent won't even think about fighting you again. And that's exactly what I am doing. You guys should really learn these, it helps more than you think." He said turning to look at Matthew again. He spoke as if the blade that was now digging into his skin was no threat to him.
Clarisse had answered no, but the truth was that she had had learned the art of battle when she found out that her father was Ares, the god of war. She wanted to impress her father with her knowledge of war, if she ever got the chance to meet him. But during her studies, she had become frightened. The things she was learning were just too cruel to inflict on another. And now she watched as another inflicted damage on her sibling, using the same rules she refused to learn. It was truly terrifying to watch one beat on another with no care for their life. Clarisse wasn't one to get scared easily, but this being in front of her frightened her. The sheer amount of bloodlust coming from him was enough to make her skin crawl. It reminded her of the aura her father radiated.
But seeing her sibling's life in danger, she knew that she couldn't afford to be scared. She steeled her nerves before pressing on. "I don't care about your stupid art of battle or whatever, just let him go or I will run you through." She had to try her hardest to not let her voice break.
When she realized that Ace wasn't going to stop, she pushed her sword, breaking skin and drawing blood that trickled down Ace's neck. "I'm serious, let him go or you will get…" Before she could finish, a sword tip appeared by her neck. She slowly turned her head to see that the new camper was at the end of the sword.
"I think you should lower your own sword." He said as he looked at her with a blank expression.
Clarisse couldn't understand how he could watch and support his friend being so cruel and inhumane. He pressed the sword closer to her neck, forcing her to lower her weapon.
"Thanks Perce." Ace said letting out a chuckle.
"Oy, aren't you going to stop him?" Clarisse shouted at Tal, but it was already too late. Ace jumped into the air and landed on Matthew's left calf as a sickening crunch filled the air. Matthew's body jerked into the air as Ace snapped his tibia and fibula in half.
Some of the onlookers covered their eyes, not being able to watch the brutality that was taking place.
"You're a fucking monster." Clarisse growled. She felt sick to her stomach.
"You're damn right. Now you'll know better." Ace said with a smirk that sent shivers down everyone's spine.
"What's going on over here?"
Hearing the voice, everyone turned around to see...