Chapter 7

I woke up about an hour later, Billie and Katie had left, and I was left alone in the Demeter cabin. I glanced at a nearby alarm clock.

Oh shit!

Despite my soreness, I rushed to grab my clothes. I stepped under the shower for a minute to refresh myself and rushed out the door. I almost missed my next class, training in the sword fighting arena. I jogged up to the arena and entered the massive structure. After Luke died, and Quintus died, Percy decided to take on the role of instructor. Nobody disputed his claim, as they acknowledged him for his accomplishments. I only hoped that he wouldn't follow the pattern.

When Percy first arrived, things started out shakily. He had been given a quest surprisingly early, and it didn't help that his father was Poseidon, who naturally wasn't too fond of my mother. Though to be fair, I wasn't that fond of her either. I guess the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Soon after the Second Titan War, I had gotten to know Barnacle Boy a little better. While my first impressions weren't great, Percy was really down to earth. I was a little amazed at his decision of turning down immortality and all but his wish was much better.

Our friendship spouted from a common person, Annabeth. Percy was always worried about their relationship, especially after they started to date. Seeing as Malcolm was her second in command, (a little too close) Percy decided I was the one to confide in. Soon, we were thick as thieves, though it seemed as though Annabeth would be our only link, we found one more thing we liked about each other.

The sounds of fighting surrounded me. There were demigods hacking away at straw dummies, others were practicing javelin throws, while still others were sparring with each other. I spotted Malcolm and Annabeth fighting, the former sporting a spear while the latter held her trusty dagger. From an outsider's view, Annabeth had a clear disadvantage, her weapons would never be able to get past the reach of the spear. Malcolm was also doing a great job of not overextending, keeping the thrusts short and quick, only used to poke and maintain positioning over Annabeth. She parried away a jab at her stomach, but Malcolm quickly followed up with a strike using the shaft. It cracked against her hand, causing her to lose the dagger. Unperturbed, Annabeth rolled towards her opponent, grabbing the dagger with her left hand as she passed it. Malcolm tried to spear her again, but Annabeth grabbed the spear right under the point and shoved it into the ground. Suddenly off balance, Malcolm could do very little as Annabeth finished her roll and knelt right under his stomach, dagger a few inches from his abdomen. He backed away, conceding.

I tore my eyes away from the fight to find Percy. He had happily taken up the task of sparring against me after most of my cabin mates had gotten tired of getting their ass handed to them. Even the ones that preferred combat to architecture like me were tired of losing so often. I saw him in the far corner of the room and was about to head over when someone challenged me.

"Xavier! Come over here!" I turned around, Annabeth was waving at me. I made my way over, careful to keep away from the sparring demigods.

"Are you challenging me?" I grinned, directing the question towards her.

"Yup, I've been practicing, gonna kick your butt today!"

I responded by placing touching my bracelets together, they transformed into twin celestial bronze tonfas. They were my own design but forged by Jake from Cabin 9. I knew that a sword was the typical armament for a demigod, but having learned martial arts before coming to camp, as well as being a child of Athena, my skills leaned towards unorthodox weapons. The polished rods extended an inch past my clenched fists and an inch past my elbows. Annabeth approached, dagger held behind an outstretched palm. Malcolm stood on the sidelines, watching the spectacle. I knew that a few other campers had stopped to watch what was going on.

Not going to disappoint

I started with an experimental jab, Annabeth swatted it aside easily. I then lashed out with a swing, loosening my grip slightly. The tonfa twirled in my grasp, grazing her shirt as Annabeth jumped back. She retreated to a safe distance, posturing again. I advanced. Metal struck metal as I blocked slash after slash, retaliating with swipes of my own. I had a longer reach, but I had to be careful of the sharp edges of the dagger. My weapons were blunt, but a good hit with one of these babies would cause significant bruising. Annabeth kept backing up, still on the defensive. She landed a kick to my stomach, making me back off a moment, turning the tables.

I was on the defensive now, avoiding the slashes of her small dagger along with the powerful kicks she combined them with. I didn't expect her range to be so long. Annabeth wasn't tall by any stretch, she was several inches shorter than me, but the practiced ease with which she kicked was quite dangerous. I ducked under a particularly high kick and responded with a low sweep, trying to catch her on one foot. I missed, barely. I felt a bit of pain as Annabeth managed to scratch my calf in response. The cut was shallow and wouldn't be life-threatening. I let a particularly nasty roundhouse sweep the air in front of me, with her back now facing mostly towards me, I lunged forward and managed to push Annabeth off balance. I closed the distance to make her kicks less effective. As I expected, Annabeth reverted to mostly knife play as we continued to spar.

I parried away a thrust at my side, then tanked a swift kick to the shins. I held my position, trying to bait Annabeth into doing what she had done before. I lowered my guard around my abdomen, giving openings as my tonfas twirled through the air. She took the bait. As she tried to kick me in the stomach again I hooked her ankle with my tonfa, pulling her forward. Unable to balance on just her one leg, she had no choice but to hop forward. I hooked my heel around her other ankle, pulling it towards me while I shoved her. Annabeth went horizontal, landing heavily on her back. I pinned her dagger arm with a tonfa, the other hovered above her throat.

"Yield."

Annabeth slapped the ground with her free hand. "Uncle." I hopped off of the head counselor, brushing myself off. Annabeth lay on the ground for a little longer.

"I thought I had you."

"Might want to brush up on escaping grapples," I responded. "Your kicks are becoming a force to be reckoned with though, I can see you've been training hard."

Annabeth finally lifted herself up, brushing herself off in the process.

"Well, I decided to take your advice for once, seems to be a waste though." she gestured at the Annabeth imprint on the floor.

"Your kicks were fine, you have all the offensive aspects down perfectly, you just have to practice your defensive maneuvers now too."

Annabeth grumbled something under her breath but I couldn't hear. I decided that she probably didn't want a rematch and headed back in Percy's direction. We had gathered a little crowd of people as Annabeth and I sparred and they followed me as I confronted the son of Poseidon.

By the time I was within earshot, Percy was hacking and slashing at a straw dummy, making quick work of it with his quick, flashing blade.
"Oh, you're back! Sorry, I'm late!" I called out, jogging closer. Not skipping a beat, Percy flung Riptide at my face. I ducked and rolled, letting the blade spin past. The crowd of demigods behind me parted very quickly, a few of them diving to safety.

Getting right to it, as usual.

I felt my adrenaline start to spike, my ADHD going into overdrive as I released my tonfas. I charged Percy, feinting a high blow, but going for his legs with a low sweep. As if reading my mind, he jumped back and kept his distance, waiting for Riptide. In my head, I kept a silent count. Eight seconds before it comes back... 7... I charged again, barely telegraphing any of my strikes. However, the short reach of the tonfas meant that Percy only had to keep his feet moving away from me. He mirrored my steps, for each foot I stepped forward with, he stepped backward with, keeping the perfect distance away. 3...2... It's time to switch! Right before his sword reappeared, I placed the front parts of my tonfas together, the built-in magnets twisted them into place, locking them together. I grabbed the combined section as the handles sank back into the rod and reappeared at the end. I tried to press forward, though Percy had regained his weapon.

Sparks flew as we clashed, staff against sword. Grasping one end of my five-foot staff, I stopped Percy from slicing my neck. His agility made him a hard opponent, but my weapon was more versatile. Forcing him back, I shifted my grip to the middle, increasing my defensive abilities. We eyed each other for a moment, hoping to catch any advantage. One foot, one inch... just one centimeter out of place...

Percy leaped, sword still readily in hand, not telegraphing anything. I backed up, into a dummy. Sensing an advantage, Percy unleashed a flurry of attacks. Twirling my staff, I blocked each one of the deadly swings. A quick hip height cut was quickly dodged by rolling to the side, staff in front, ready to block any leg movements against me. Another staredown. We tensed our muscles, hoping to intimidate the other into being defensive. This time, I attacked. Using my superior length, I swung it rapidly at his head. Percy blocked it easily, but it opened up his side for a quick second whack. Percy stumbled a bit as I landed the hit, but without even stopping, he rolled forward, into my guard. Cursing, I leaped back, changing my grip again, fending off the slashes. Sweat poured down my brow, threatening to fall into my eyes. I blinked, suddenly Percy was gone. Or so he thinks. Percy had used this move against me a number of times. After the first few times of getting 'killed,' I had gotten a hang of the sneak attack. I changed my weapon into the tonfas, whirling around, bending under the slash to the neck I knew would be coming and extended both rods of celestial bronze forward. A satisfying 'Ooof' spilled out of Percy as I knocked the air out of him with my tonfa enhanced punch. He backed up, clutching his stomach with one hand and his sword with the other.

"If the blades were out, you would be dead" I called out.

"It'll take a lot more than that to kill me" he replied, a smile tugging at his lips. This time, both of us charged.

"Just lay down and die... make it easier for the both of us" Percy spat, watching his stab get parried away.

"Ladies first" I grinned, whirling around to sock him in the leg. The clang of metal meeting metal was deafening at such close quarters, though my mind filtered it out of the more necessary information being processed. I could vaguely feel the energy of the spectating crowd cheering us on, but that fell into the background as I focused on the battle in front of me.

"Age before beauty" Percy grunted, shoving me away while simultaneously aiming a slash at my arm.

I hopped back, letting him rip through the open air. Though a small stinging pain revealed he had succeeded in cutting more. Darting in and out, I traded more blows, as well as banter. This went on for a few more seconds before I made a mistake. My foot landed badly, throwing me off balance. Percy seized the chance to send me sprawling on my back. He was on me in seconds, sword pointed at my throat. The crowd cheered, eager for blood.

"It's over" he panted, sweat drenching his camp shirt.

"You got me..." I said in between gasps of air. "Not"

In a single fluid motion, I reattached my tonfas, trapping his sword in between the rods. I shoved it into the ground next to my head as I used the improvised ledge to kick the son of Poseidon in the chest. Surprised gasps came from the audience. Percy fell hard on his back. I turned around, grabbing the unusual combination of our weapons. I removed my weapons from Riptide, changing them back into bracelets. Grabbing the slightly unbalanced sword (I never understood how he could stand it), I held it above his chest, point facing downward. After a moment, I stabbed downward... With the pen cap, changing Riptide back into its pen form. I helped Percy up.

"That was pretty good Xavier, though that footwork back there was sloppy."

"Yeah, I gotta watch out for that. Did you like my recovery?"

Percy laughed, "I haven't ever seen anyone get out of that position before. You're the first I've seen. But don't think it's gonna work again." he added.

I nodded. Percy was a natural fighter. What he lacked in knowledge, he made up for his frightening ability to absorb another warrior's techniques.

"So, what are we, 20-16?" I asked nonchalantly.

"I seem to recall at least two ties in that, so 20-14, advantage to me of course."

I paused as I heard my stomach growl, the sound carried easily through the large space. Percy's rumbled too.

"Lunch?"

"Yeah, lunch sounds good. I should take a shower first though."

We walked out of the arena.