Percy sucked in a breath. This was it. The duel had been called hours earlier, but the hunters had insisted on getting something to bet on. They eventually decided on arrows; everybody had twenty arrows and the amount of arrows you ended up with was how many you could shoot. Thalia had suggested this and every hunter instantly agreed.
Who knew they would love shooting that much?
The contestants couldn't bet on their own match, but besides that, it was fine. There were a few more rules like: you have to bet at least once, no betting more than ten arrows at a time, etc.
Percy swore he was almost going to die of boredom before Artemis ended the discussion, saying they needed to get on with it, otherwise it would be too dark to see anything and thus be an extreme disadvantage for Percy for the hunters had practiced night vision.
"The first match is," Artemis called out, "Perseus versus Phoebe."
Phoebe entered the ring and they circled each other, daring the other to strike first. Percy summoned his scythe, which elected a sharp intake of breath from Thalia and the others that were in the titan war.
Deciding to strike first, Percy ran forward, swinging his scythe. Phoebe instantly ducked under his swing and Percy had to ignite the place in front of him to avoid her hitting him with her dual daggers. Cursing, Percy instantly leapt back, infusing his scythe with fire and swinging it, causing a flame replica of his scythe to spiral in front of him.
Phoebe easily and effortlessly dodged it before spinning and slashing her daggers at him. Percy created a fire barrier and struck back, catching her daggers and successfully disarming one of them by spinning it out of her grip. Phoebe cursed in Ancient Greek and Percy leapt forward, creating dozens of flame avatars. These, he could control with his mind and therefore took less effort.
Phoebe leapt backward, exiting the half-circle that was being made. Percy dissolved the flame avatars before forcing a bundle of flames into his hands to reach higher temperatures, making his flames blue and infusing them into his scythe. Several hunter's eyes widened at this sight.
Using his scythe, Percy struck the ground, erupting the ground where Phoebe was. She dodged, but Percy twisted around and knocked her remaining knife down using his hand. Before she could move back, Percy held his scythe to her throat.
She muttered something incoherent and Percy took his scythe away, breathing heavily. Several groans erupted from the hunters; probably ones that bet against him.
Reyna was up next. The ex-praetor held a gladius in one hand and a knife in the other. As soon as the match started, she leapt forward, nearly skewering Percy's head with her knife while her sword intercepted the scythe coming her way. Percy ducked and spun the scythe, narrowly disarming Reyna's gladius, which she managed to catch just in time. While she was fumbling with her weapons, Percy created dozens of flame avatars again and made them throw scythes of fire at her, dissolving them as they did so.
Cursing, Reyna jumped upwards, losing her balance and falling down. Percy held his scythe to her throat.
"I yield." Reyna said.
Percy took his scythe away and wiped away his sweat clinging to his forehead. Reyna leapt to her feet and walked over to Thalia, sporting a disgruntled expression on her face.
"Thalia against Percy!" called Artemis and a grin made its way onto Thalia's face.
Summoning Aegis and her spear, she readied for battle. Percy had seen Thalia use Aegis so many times it didn't faze him anymore. They circled each other, occasionally slashing or stabbing to test out the other's defenses.
The air crackled with ozone. Cursing, Percy summoned water from the atmosphere and caught the lightning bolt right before it hit him. Thalia narrowed her eyes at this and struck with her spear, narrowly missing him. He used the water infused with Thalia's lightning and threw it at her, shocking her.
Of course, the lightning proved to be very ineffective; she was, of course, shock-proof. It did, however, serve as a timely distraction, on enough for Percy to spin his scythe against Thalia's shield, knocking it out of her grasp.
Instantly switching her spear to two hands, Thalia held it in front of her, daring him to attack. Dozens of flame daggers were created and thrown at Thalia.
Spiraling her spear in front of her, Thalia shattered several of them before turning to Percy, who had tried to dart to her blind side. She spun her spear around and slammed it to the back, forcing Percy to duck before striking him with a lightning bolt.
Dodging the bolt, Percy turned around in time to catch Thalia's spear with his scythe, twisting it but unsuccessfully disarming her only weapon. Grasping her weapon with one hand, Thalia decided to try Percy's technique and summoned a lightning bolt into her hand, twisting it into the shape of a shield.
Dismayed, Percy instantly leapt back, but Thalia would not let him recover; driving her spear forward, she struck the place Percy was previously.
The air crackled with ozone. Percy barely had time to notice that something was wrong before the earth shattered in front of him. Several lightning bolts struck Thalia, narrowly missing Percy, who had managed to throw back his scythe and jump back just in time.
Thalia emerged from the wreckage, sheathed in lightning, grinning from ear to ear.
Percy barely had time to mutter a curse before she was on him, slamming her spear into his scythe, over and over again. Several of these attempts struck him; electrocuting him and providing more coverage for which Thalia struck him with. All the while, Thalia was constantly slamming her new shield into his scythe, which conducted electricity, apparently.
Percy was getting shocked left and right, and it looked like the fight was over. Groaning, Percy managed to spring back, dragging his scythe into the ground as he did so. His eyes darted left and right, looking for an advantage. Gleaming on, Percy struck the earth with his scythe, shattering it.
Thalia stumbled and tried to right herself, but not before Percy took his scythe and slammed it into her head. Thalia's eyes rolled back, and she fell to the ground, unconscious.
Sighing deeply, Percy turned towards the hunters who were gaping at his victory, eyes open. Artemis was staring at him that looked akin to grudging respect.
"So. Our new guardian has beaten most of our experienced hunters," she started, eyes gleaming, "but to gain my respect, he must beat… me."
Percy barely had time to jump back before Artemis was there, slashing her daggers at him, her silver eyes glowing in the moon's shine.
Percy routed his scythe to intercept a dagger that was cleaving towards him. He twisted his scythe, disarming her. Artemis effortlessly summoned another one and struck back, hitting his scythe time after time, driving him back.
Percy's eyes tinted blue and he struck back, cleaving his scythe at her head. She twisted out of the way, her daggers instantly from their attacking position to defense, grinding against his scythe as he tried and failed to deliver a finishing blow.
Breathing heavily, Percy took his scythe away, but Artemis was already slashing at his torso, forcing him to leap backwards.
Artemis regarded him with her silver eyes. Balefully snatching arrows out of her quiver, Artemis took out her silver longbow and shot dozens of arrows at him in the span of less than a second.
Percy summoned a flame barrier and watched as the arrows were destroyed by the flames. Dispelling it, he turned to see… empty air.
Before his mind could process this new information, Artemis struck arm, directly on a major artery. A flash of pain landed on Percy and he instantly turned around, hitting Artemis with a newly created flame dagger before leaping back.
Percy tried to swing his scythe, but his arm wouldn't move. Looking at his arm, he muttered a brief curse before summoning the hearth and healing it. Swinging it with his newly rejuvenated arm, he struck Artemis, who had leapt at him, trying to knock him unconscious.
Percy dodged the swing and stepped sideways while taking his scythe and slamming it into Artemis. He took Artemis by surprise, enough time to carve a slash into her arm.
Artemis fumbled with her daggers before dropping one. Before she could attempt to heal herself, Percy leapt forward and carved his scythe toward her head, twisting it so that it her head. She stumbled, and that was enough time to summon chains of fire to pin here to the ground while Percy held his scythe to her neck.
A tense second passed.
"I yield," Artemis muttered, noticing how cute Percy's face looked when he was tired…
NO! You are a maiden goddess! her mind yelled at herself.
Taking his scythe away, Percy turned to face the disgruntled goddess. "So, now what?"
"I guess you win," she muttered.
Percy nodded and stepped back a little, "I'll uh… just go now-"
"No, I think you need a prize," Artemis said, turning toward him with an evil smile on her face.
"No thanks, I should really get going…" Percy started, but Artemis stopped him. Smirking evilly, she waved her hand.
A bright light surrounded Percy, shaking the earth around him. Energy flowed out of the chasm, striking him. Percy yelled, but no sound came out. A blinding light surrounded everyone, first starting of red, but soon turning silver, like the shine of the moon.
The energy flowed out of her as the chasm subsided and the earth stopped shaking. Percy fell to one knee as sharp agony raced through her, particularly focused in her groin.
The hunters peered at her, and at once, shook with peals of laughter. Artemis was also there, a smug expression on her face. Percy shakily stood, her face twisted in an adorable scowl.
"What's going on?" she asked, confusion evident on her face.
In between shakes of laughter, Thalia shakily gestured towards her body. Percy looked down and shrieked.
In place of him, a girl with raven-black hair and orange eyes stood there, dressed in an orange parka.
Percy promptly fainted.
A/N:
Percy was able to beat Artemis because of Chaos' blessing and the fact that Artemis underestimated Percy. Pride was technically her downfall, even if it wasn't her fatal flaw, which I might include in the story at some point. (please leave ideas for Artemis' fatal flaw)