Rise of House Neptune

A Rising Tide

Chapter 12

The final match of the Gladiator Challenge could've been a friendly spar for all the two young demigods cared. The fifth was taking this win home no matter, but the crowd was clearly interested in who the best fighter in camp truly was. Whispers had followed these young half-bloods since their arrival at Camp Jupiter, and while the words and welcoming had been very different between the two they were no less talked about.

Jason and Percy strode out towards the center of the arena to thunderous applause. Percy was fairly certain it was mostly for Jason, but either way he was excited to be in this moment. The two had been the first to enter the arena weaponless, and when they stood across from each other Mark stood to address the crowd, "Twelfth Legion, and citizens of New Rome. Welcome to the final match of this year's Gladiator challenge. Centurion Grace, and his Optio will face each other in finals for what may be a first in the history of Rome. A Centurion and his personal Optio to my knowledge have never fought each other for the gauntlet, and it is an honor to watch these two young half bloods fight for that honor. I watched both of these fighters from a young age, and six years later they stand before us all the best of the best. Gentleman, summon your weapons. 5, 4, 3-"

Percy summoned his trident from the wall, and Jason flipped his coin summoning his lance, and as the two gave a low bow to each other at one, and then rose taking deep stances. It had been one of the first fights in a while where neither competitor surged forward to be the aggressor, instead the two slowly circled each other trying to find weaknesses in each other's stances.

Percy was unsure how long passed before Jason thrusted forward, but with an unnatural speed the son of Neptune deflected down and attempted to finish the fight with a powerful corkscrew strike, but Jason easily rolled out of the haymakers strike range, and surged forward hoping to catch Percy off balance, but it wasn't meant to be. The two separated grinning at the other when Percy initiated a quick flurry of strikes followed by a well timed jump kick into Jason's sternum as he closed distance faster than the son of Jupiter could follow. The kick knocked him backwards several feet, and he glared at Percy while the boy just gave him a cheeky smile.

The two battled their hardest, but Jason was drained from his fight with Michael Kahale. Other than Kyle Logan Percy hadn't had to fight nearly as many tough opponents as Jason, or otherwise this could've been a different fight. The two swore never to truly find out who this strongest between the duo was. A fight with their powers would likely be a match only one would survive.

As the fight wore on it became clear that Triden's most important lesson over the last six years was taken to heart by Percy. Triden always believed that if you could outlast an enemy you could beat them. The conditioning, and constant sparring had certainly given the son of Neptune a great reservoir of energy to draw from.. Percy had been trained to be able to fight for hours if necessary, and many times he did when Triden just felt like pounding away at him, so while Jason was beginning to suck wind Percy was still a blur of footwork. In his exhaustion Jason didn't quite duck all the way under a twirl of Percy's trident, and the top of his helmet was nicked so hard it came clean off his head, and forced him into a roll with his eyes clearly ringing inside their sockets when he shakily rose.

Percy stopped for a moment to remove his own helmet. He would have no unfair advantages against his best friend. Jason nodded in respect to the young man before him in acknowledgement of the well landed hit, and even in Jason's eyes Percy could tell he knew he was going to lose. Now it was a matter of making everyone know that Jason could stand up to Percy.

Jason fought with a lot of heart, and he was drenched in sweat from exertion. Percy knew the time to end the fight was coming. Letting his body tense with anticipation the Optio slid into the next strike from Jason catching it in the prongs of his trident, and attempted to rip it out of his hands. Jason was great for a reason though, and held on for dear life as Percy ripped him forward, and Percy clotheslined the young man as the fight became close quarters, and did a jump around his fallen body having a better opportunity to disarm him successfully and then landed with a yell and slamming his trident an inch above his chest. Jason's eyes were wide as saucers as if he expected his cousin to kill him right there, but instead Percy had his head bowed towards him, "Yield, Centurion."