Wisdom of the Waters
Chapter 6
-Percy-
"Heroes!" Chiron called as they finished dinner before the big game "Warriors! Fall in!". Smirking he stood up from the Hermes table and walked over to the rest of his alliance, ignoring the glares being sent his way by Annabeth and the rest of her siblings. "Tonight's game has a…less than usual alliance," Chiron began grandly "Red teams currently holds the laurels and consists of the Ares cabin, the Hephaestus Cabin, Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, and Lou Ellen.".
"Blood for the pact!" he roared as he drew a knife across his palm to let blood flow from it and into the brazier as a sacrifice to his father, Poseidon, Ares, Hephaestus, and Hecate. This action was quickly mirrored by the rest of his Pact copied with a roar. He knew that some might think using that sort of tactic to throw off their opponents, and gain Olympian favor, was underhanded but the way he saw it, 'it's only cheating if the other guy does it'.
"Y-yes…well…the blue team consists of the other allied cabins. I have spoken to the commanders and told them how the forest is to be divided. Now, arm yourselves and prepare for combat!" Chiron instructed them, somewhat shaken at first but the centaur's voice became stronger at the end.
"Red Warriors!" Clarisse called out as well all began putting on the special equipment that Beckendorf's cabin had made for the match. It wasn't the best of the best but it was far better than the normal camp weapons the other team would be using "Brothers and Sisters of the Blood Sworn Pact! Tonight we go into battle for Honor, for Glory, and for Eternity!".
Roars met her speech as even the other team had stopped to listen like they had hoped would happen "Our enemies think that they're numbers will save them!" Clarisse continued as he and the rest of the alliance jeered at the thought. "They think that they're supposedly 'intelligent' leader will be able to bring them victory!" he openly laughed at that along with the rest of the alliance bar Grover who, while he was become disenchanted with Annabeth, still had a lingering friendship with the blonde. "They think they have Hope!" Clarisse roared as she threw her head back and their alliance met this with roars in the negative, thrusting their weapons skyward.
"They may have Numbers," Clarisse called out as they wound the speech to a close "but we have the War Sworn Children of Ares!" the Ares cabin roared in answer, "We have the children of Hephaestus and his heirs of Fire!" the Hephaestus cabin, led by Beckendorf, pounded their muscled fists against their breastplates as they roared, "We have Lou, our Empress of Enchantments!" instead of roaring Lou let out a practiced smirk and flared her magic to make it appear to pour off her form like an ominous aura, "We have Grover, a child of Nature!" Grover let out a rather feral smile that he never realized his half goat friend could pull of. "And we have Percy!" Clarisse finished "The Embodiment of Destruction!", as they had planned earlier he threw his head back and roared as loud as he could, using his power over water to send a 'pulse' through the water particles in the air that knocked the Blue team back a step but never touched his team as he released his chains, their clawed hands opening and closing, moving along like snakes.
Grabbing the banner flag he smirked at the Blue team, most of whom were shaking from their little display, and thrust it into the air "Blood Sworn!" he called out "Let's move!". Getting down to the lake front he used his whistle to summon his boat and handed the flag to Lou, "Alright guys," he said with a grin "I showed Lou the island earlier and the boat is magic so it can get you there without a problem. Just sit back, relax, and let's win us the game.".
As the Hephaestus cabin began climbing onto the boat Lou smirked and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she pulled him down into a kiss which he eagerly returned, "For luck." She said as they broke for air before giving him one more quick peck and climbing aboard the boat as it pulled off.
Glancing at the smirking Grover and Ares cabin he gave a deadpan look, "Don't look at me, I ain't kissin ya for luck." He said as Clarisse snorted in amusement and the guys looked green.
"Okay," Grover agreed quickly "okay, we're leaving.".
"Do I get a kiss?" Clarisse asked playfully as the others walked off.
"Of course," he said with a grin as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him "why would I be to deny?" before he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. When they broke for air they heard the conch horn that signaled that the game would begin. Grinning he scooped up Clarisse as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist while he unsealed his chains.
As he shot his first chain out at a tree branch and used it to begin swinging them along Clarisse giggled and kissed his cheek "You Tarzan, me Jane." She said with a laugh as he snorted, sending one of his chains out with the claws closed to form a spearhead shape to stab a passing hellhound through the heart.
"Ha ha ha," he snorted "very funny.".
"I thought it was funny," Clarisse said with as much of a shrug as she could manage as she held onto him "anyway, we should be crossing the boundary soon.".
"Right," he said with a nod before hearing a loud scream causing him to chuckle "I'm guessing Grover found his first victims…my bet is the Aphrodite Cabin.".
"Probably," Clarisse said with a smirk "one of the boundary lines is the creek shallows and the Aphrodite girls always spend the games doing their hair and gossiping by the water. The Naiads can't stand the brats so Grover probably got them to help him take them out of the match.".
"Any sign of Blues?" he asked once they crossed the boundary, his eyes peeled in front of them for anyone ahead of them while Clarisse watched over his shoulder.
"Three Hermes on our six!" Clarisse yelled as he noticed an Apollo demigod ahead of them, training an arrow at their swinging forms.
"Got it!" he yelled as he shot out one of his chains and grabbed the archer before spinning around in midair and swinging the chain out and throwing the Apollo Archer, using the demigod to bowl over the three Hermes Campers.
"Strike!" Clarisse cheered as he finished his spin and continued swinging forward.
"Any idea where Goldie locks might place the flag?" he asked Clarisse as they continued through the woods.
"Zeus' fist is the most defensible location in this part of the woods," Clarisse said after a moment, "she's the kind of person who would go over the on paper practicality of a hiding place or defense location, no matter how many people know of her preference for it.".
"Great," he grumbled "she's the literal definition of Insanity then.".
In response he got an, oh so eloquent "Huh?" from Clarisse.
"Albert Einstein," he explained "defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results every time.".
"Oh I am so telling her that later!" Clarisse laughed out "That is brilliant!".
"Which way am I going?" he asked, trying to get his semi-girlfriend back on track "I don't have these woods memorized yet.".
"Three o'clock," Clarisse said instantly, going from joking to her soldier mode in an instant "she'll probably be guarding the flag herself along with an Apollo Archer. She'd have sent Luke to try and get our flag so she could get some points in favor with her crush.".
"Yeah," he snorted "she acts like a little lost puppy around the guy…luckily there's a good chance that the Hermes group trying to get our flag is going towards the clearing that has some of the more aggressive Dryads that Grover managed to recruit.".
"How in the name of Hades did you pull that one off?" Clarisse asked, blinking in surprise as she pointed in the new direction he would have to go to reach the fist.
"Last night I pretended to stay up really late till I 'passed out' from exhaustion," he said with a smirk "acting like I hadn't seen the Stoll twins eyeing the folder where I was working on our 'strategies'. They bought the act hook, line, and sinker and swiped the file while I slept before putting it back after reading it.".
"You're an evil genius Percy," she said with a laugh as she kissed his cheek "and I love it!". Grinning back he shot one claw forward to continue swinging while the second was used to slam an Apollo camper against an oak tree, knocking the demigod out. "You really are the incarnation of destruction with those things," Clarisse said with a grin as she watched him take down the demigod "imagine when your control gets to the point where you can handle several at once.".
"That's going to be amazing," he admitted with a grin "but I can't get cocky. There are several monsters out there that are strong enough that I can't one-shot them, others are smart enough, then there are those that are both.".
"That's why you have me and Lou," Clarisse said with a shrug "anything you can't shred we'll tear apart. Your ass is ours and we aren't letting some dried up old monster take away what's ours!".
"Glad to hear that I'm such a hot commodity," he laughed before noticing a shape in the distance "that the Fist?".
"Yep," Clarisse said with a grin as she pulled out a small spyglass "and I see Goldie locks, the flag, and an Apollo guy preparing to shoot at us.".
"On it." he said, ripping a branch out of a tree and using it as a shield to stop the arrow. Getting an idea he dropped to the ground and used his chain to hurl the branch, "Special delivery!" he called out as he set down Clarisse and they took off running towards the flag.
"You want Goldie locks or Hawkeye?" he asked as they ran, Annabeth preparing her dagger by the flag while the archer tried to shoot him but for each arrow to be stopped by some piece of debris he picked up with his claws.
"You can have Goldie," Clarisse said with a grin "consider it a thank you gift for the great date last night.".
"I thought my thank you gift was the kiss you gave me when I dropped you off at your cabin?" he asked as he slammed his chains into the ground to go airborne.
"That I did for me." Clarisse responded with a laugh before she used her spear to swat aside the Apollo Camper's bow and began trying to disable her opponent.
Laughing faced off against a snarling Annabeth and used his claws to mimic a 'bring it' motion as she let out a yell and ran at him, slashing with her knife as he dodged each slash. As much as he hated it he had to admit that the brat had some talent with her dagger but her movements were predictable, no matter how clean they were. "You know what your problem is Chase?" he asked calmly as he bobbed and weaved around her slashes, his arms clasped behind his back while he used his claws to trip her up and taunt her.
"What?" she snarled, attempting to give him a nice face scar.
"You lack imagination," he said before he ducked under her slash and shot out with a palm strike to her stomach, lightly enhanced by the water molecules in the air, as she was blasted back only go stop when his chains grabbed her and lifted her up "you can't do anything you haven't read in a book or come up with any truly original strategies. You have intelligence but not the wisdom to use it…that is why you fail." Before flinging the girl at the Apollo Camper who was panting and on his last legs.
"Come on Claire," he said with a grin as he handed her the flag while she resumed her position holding on to him "let's win this.".