The Underworld's Champion

Percy failed?

Percy swung his sword furiously as Zoë dodged each and every one of his strikes. He cursed in frustration. His opponent was too quick for him to hit with Riptide, he had to trick her somehow.

Zoë relentlessly kept dodging, stepping backwards and sideways, swaying like an expert dancer. Occasionally, Zoë would attempt to strike her dagger towards Percy, but all of her attempts were foiled.

Percy took a huge swing towards Zoë's right, and quickly stepped back, using the feint as a distraction. With Zoë now blocking her right, her left was completely open. Deciding to take advantage of this, Percy ducked down, dodging a strike from one of Zoë's silver daggers. The demigod swiftly pulled out a dagger made of shadows from his sleeves and stabbed it into Zoë's left shoulder, causing her to drop one of her knives.

Zoë cried out in pain as blood started to rapidly flow from her shoulder. She gritted her teeth, determined to ignore the throbbing pain, and chanced a quick stab into Percy's chest. His eyes widened in horror as he saw Zoë's knife directly in front of his chest. In a split second, Percy vanished into a puff of smoke, and reappeared behind Zoë.

Zoë was befuddled. Had she stabbed her opponent or not?

Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her. She wheeled around, poising her dagger just around the average height for a person's neck., only to see Perseus blowing raspberries at her.

"Catch me if you can!" Percy smirked before running straight towards the hunter's flag.

Zoë cursed and sprinted after Perseus, ready to stop him.

Percy's plan was risky; he knew that he could not outrun a huntress who had been training for millennia. He had only one shot at this. Percy looked straight to see a bunch of Athena campers walking in an orderly fashion towards the flag. He turned around to see Zoe only a few metres from him and finally reached out his arms for the closest branch as he pulled himself up onto a tree.

Zoë was appalled; this boy wanted to fight above ground? The lieutenant accepted that as a challenge and leapt forwards onto the closest branch.

Percy watched in amusement as the huntress followed along, his plan was working. He leapt from branch to branch, swinging himself up. His arms ached slightly as he neared the flag. Percy could see the faint outline of the flag now. He put on a burst of speed, and leapt forward from a branch about 5 feet high, hands reaching for the flag.

"Twang!" An arrow cut through the air and rebounded against Percy's arm.

Percy turned around, expecting to see Zoë. Instead, Percy was met with about 30 bows all nocked with arrows. Percy eyes scanned among the hunters, searching their ranks for Zoë. "How?" He asked once he found her.

"We have a group of hunters nearing your flag, and the testudo you sent!" Zoë smirked as she pointed to the side, showing a bunch of campers tied up or unconscious. "We knew that you would attack us that way, after the Ares cabin defeated a few hunters. I fired an arrow in the sky to signal the hunters attacking the right and left to circle back to the center and cut you off."

Percy frowned before smirking. "I can grab the flag in an instant! What makes you think you can stop me?"

Percy was right, the flag was only about two feet away from him.

Zoë snapped her fingers and a hunter fired an arrow towards Percy, which he swiftly dodged with much grace.

"We can pin you down in a second, whereas it'll take you a few to grab the flag."

Percy narrowed his eyes. "I think I'll knock your ego down a peg." He snarled at them as he felt the familiar tug in his stomach. Now smirking, Percy lifted his arms and a wave of water came crashing down from behind him.

Percy brought his hands down, a humongous wave of water washed away the hunters, mimicking his movements. The pressure knocked quite a few of them out.

Zoë's mouth was agape as the wave of water knocked her out. Multiple hunters tried to fire arrows at the water.

Percy snickered. "How dumb are you! You can't kill water!"

Percy snapped his fingers and the water dried up. He carefully walked over the unconscious hunters, making sure to step on each one of them. Percy reached for the flag. He then lifted it up in triumph once he had it in his grasp.

Out of the corner of his eye, Percy spotted a person -no, something - walking out of the woods. He tilted his head in confusion, the campers were all either subdued or back at the flag, protecting it from unwelcome Hunters. He walked towards the person cautiously, Riptide at the ready.

A raspy voice spoke,

" Five Will Go West To Goddess In Chains
One Shall be Lost In The Land Without Rain
The Bane Of Olympus Shows The Trail
Campers And Hunters Combined Prevail
The Titan's Curse Must One Withstand
One Shall Perish By A Parents Hand."

"It can't be!" A voice shouted in disbelief.

Percy turned around once more, to see Chiron.

"Another prophecy, a new quest has to be issued at once!" Percy announced.

Chiron nodded, still in disbelief. Not once, in his entire life, had he ever seen the oracle step out of the attic.

"Chiron, what happened!" Luke yelled, as he ran towards his teacher.

"A new prophecy is what happened," Chiron replied as trotted off to the Big House."Take the injured to the infirmary, and call all the Cabin Councillors to the Big House."

"Percy, is this true?" Luke had a glint of fear in his eyes. "The last time a prophecy happened Percy was thought to be dead, and Grover had betrayed them," Luke thought. "Maybe a certain good could come out of it. The most recent one revived Thalia, after all."

Percy nodded gravely, for once his sassy demeanor nowhere to be found. "It's true."

The Hunters began to stir along with all the other demigods. "Campers and Hunters, we have a new prophecy." Luke announced. "Cabin Councillors to the Big House, the injured to the infirmary!"

Everyone had either a confused, fearful or solemn look in their eyes, even the hunters.

"Hunters, you're coming with us!" Percy commanded.