Melaina's Burden Of The Aegean Sea

Chapter 2

"I can't tell if you want to torture me or if you are doing this just to make sure I can protect myself," Thalia says out of breath, holding herself upright by a tree, as sweat dripped from her body.

"Why can't it be both?" Melaina said stalking around her, letting her blade drag in the dirt. "You are a good fighter, yes, but the more we train the better you'll become. Plus, since you're a demigod, you have more range to do this, and we also have to test out your powers if you have any and the skills you can possess" She says hiking the blade over her shoulder.

Thalia didn't have time to reply once she saw Melaina darting towards her with full force ready to slice her into two with her swords. Ducking and rolling out of the way she was able to escape and counter the attack but Melaina was still able to draw blood from her forearm.

Looking at her arm, seeing the blood she was shocked. "What the hell? You could've killed me! That was almost my head" She quipped eyeing her.

"Your reflects are sharp" was all she said wiping the sweat from her lip.

"After dying last time, I would sure hope so" Thalia half-joked, ripping the bottom of her shirt, tying it around her bloody arm. "This is not fair, by the way," she says moving around, so Melaina wouldn't get the upper hand again. "I only have this spear, yet you have two swords"

"You can use your shield also," She says glancing over to it on the side of them. "That you refuse to use, might I add," She says readying her weapons.

"Besides the point. It's hard to use this spear as is. I don't wanna try to learn how to use this as well as the shield in the same setting. I would without a doubt confuse myself" She says twirling the spear around her back like an expert would as she continued to walk eyeing her.

"Oh? I see you're mastering the spear, however. I'm impressed"

"I mess around here and there with it, while you go searching for clues," Thalia says showing off more just for the fun of it.

Chuckling she watched the girl before her. "Ready?" She questioned getting in a fighting stance holding one sword above her head as the other was in front of herself.

Thalia took a deep breath before charging at her, with a smile and head nod Melaina ran forward. Melaina grunted as her back slammed into the tree, due to Thalia kneeing her in the midsection, once she got close enough. Melaina was caught off guard by the tactic change but was impressed by her. Persistence emanated from her friend's eyes, with strategic thinking and accusation burning out of her electric blue eyes, as she held her up against the tree with her spear. Thalia gasped, once Melaina appeared behind her, using her mist control, choking her from behind with her forearm, careful not to let her blade cut into her as she cut off her air like a tourniquet.

Her mind screamed at her, desperately trying to think of a way to get out of her grasp. Her lungs burned, her mouth working like a fish on dry land, sucking in nothing but fear. The edges of her vision started to grow fuzzy. Panic flooded her veins with adrenaline. She struggled, clawing at the arm sealed around her throat. Taking the spear she tried to go for her legs, but Melaina set her foot on it, holding it in place. She then tried to kick at the nearby tree, trying to make them stumble back but only managed to connect the back of her head to her nose, the impact ricocheting painfully through her nose.

Melaina snarled, loosening her hold, giving Thalia the opening she needed. She threw her left arm between them, turning to the side and trapping Melaina's arm against her chest before elbowing her best friend in the face.

Melaina stumbled backwards, grasping at her bleeding nose. Thalia didn't wait. She advanced toward her, with her spear in her hands, twirling around to guard her face, her body relaxing into the sparring stance she'd practised for some time- knees bent, weight forward on the balls of her feet, head lowered. Melaina glared up at her, straightening into a matching stance. Their eyes locked. It was just like many practices before, only now there was more powers and abilities to practice.

Thalia knew it was just a practice fight, that she could easily stop, but she wanted to prove that she could handle herself to Melaina, that feeling alone mixing with adrenaline, coursing through her was like a pulsing heart. If Melaina wanted a fight, that's what she'd get.

With a yell, Thalia swung her spear at Melaina's head. She ducked, sliding easily into a leg-sweep, knocking Thalia's support from under her. The ground smashed into her back, forcing the air from her lungs in a rushing wheeze. Melaina with both swords in hand made a moved to slice at her but Thalia used her spear to block the attack.

Thalia was then able to use both her legs kicking her in the stomach once more but also flipping the goddess to the other end of the woods, creating distance between them. She then rolled back to her feet, with the help of her spear, still fighting against the tightness in her chest.

Melaina closed in on her, letting her swords skillfully go flying at every which way towards the woman. Thalia blocked as many of the blows as she could, her arms jarring in their sockets every time she did, her ribs and face blossoming with pain every time she didn't. She stumbled back through the shadows of the woods until she was now being once again cornered. Cringing, she held her hands up in surrender as she slid down the tree. Melaina backed off holding her sword at her throat, eying her warily as she spits blood onto the autumn leaves.

Thalia's knuckles were bleeding, her ribs bruised, and her lip split into an oozing gash. It was time to end this.

"Alright, I give," she said, the words gravelly and pained as she forced her battered throat to work. "I can't continue anymore," She says dropping her spear.

With a content huff, Melaina dropped one of her swords, wiping off her bloody nose. "That's fair. I'm more than impressed with you today if I do say so" She says offering her a hand. "Let's go get cleaned up"

Wiping off her blood from her lips, she took hold of her wrist, pulling herself up. "I don't think I ever wanna have another practice fight like this again for a long time," She says falling back on the tree, watching as Melaina gathered their weapons.

"I quite honestly enjoyed this," She told her truthfully, hiking Thalia up from the tree, letting her throw her arm around her shoulders, allowing her to put most of her body weight on her.

"I bet you did," she says exhausted. "You know I almost had your ass if you didn't use your mist control"

"Mhm when I cut off your circulation to your head, I didn't realize, it was that bad" She joked glancing over to her with a smile. "Because there's no way you could think that"

"If you didn't, I could've taken you" She retorted seeing the house in the distance. "Don't let my size and appearance fool you"

Thalia appeared as a thin average height young woman no shorter than Melaina with pale white and lightly freckled skin, curly dark brown hair, and blue electric eyes, like her father Zeus. She is fond of feminine doll-like clothing, but after her training and the unpredictable fights, she now sports goth-like clothing with more masculine boots to add practicality to her outfit in case she was caught unaware in a fight.

"You must've lost a lot of blood back there," she said picking her up some more since she was beginning to slip off her.

Thalia just scoffed but didn't say anything more as they continued towards the house. They were halfway there till they both heard the trees rustling. Thalia was trying not to think that it could be anything more than just an animal. However, once Achlys and Desdemona both began to howl she knew it wasn't because of an animal.

Sharing one look at one another, they both took off towards the house at lightning speed. Though, since Thalia was a bit more banged up compared to her, Melaina came to a stop. Thalia gave her a questioning look but instead of saying anything, Melaina shoved the weapons in Thalia's arm before grabbing ahold of her.

"Just trust me," she says to her before making her close her eyes. "Oh my Zeus, I hope this works" She mumbled as she used her mist control to teleport them to the house.

"Oh good, they have owners," The man said once the two appeared in front of him. "Can you call off your guard dogs?" He said holding his hands in surrender as they growled at him.