The Angel of Death

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Five

Dick and I stood in the middle of a sparring ring. We had similar ones back at camp, but this one was obviously nicer. He had wrapped both our fists, but it felt weird. I was used to fighting bare knuckled, and I'm sure this would leave much less damage behind, but it felt bulky and would take a few swings to get used to. Dick was going over some of the basic stances and forms and I was pretending to listen. This had all been drilled into me already, it was practically second nature. Even if I used to fighting a bit more...unhinged, I knew all the formal ways, too.

Damian was cleaning his weapons nearby, and I knew he was watching. I had promised him a sword fight after this, afterall. Even if Jason had pulled him aside and quietly lectured him about I might be 'too worn out' after sparring with Dick. Bitch, please. Jason literally watched me cuss out the freaking Joker for like a minute. I wasn't made of glass.

"Ready?" Dick asked, and my focus snapped back.

"Ready to kick your ass? Oh yeah." I grinned, sinking into a crouch, one hand brushing the ground to keep my balance.

"Dick grinned right back. "Don't get cocky, kid. I have years of experience on you,"

"I doubt that," I snorted as we started circling each other slowly. "I'm four times your age, watch who you're calling kid."

"Yeah! Kick his ass, Nico!" Jason yelled from the sidelines.

Dick lunged, but his movements were slow. He was actually going easy on me. I smiled, side-stepping him and relaxing my stance, leaning against the edge of the ring. "You're gonna have to try harder than that, dude. I'm half god, come on."

Dick sized me up for a moment before he sighed. "All right, but remember that you asked for this."

He came at me, full speed, body low and limbs fluid. I waited until he got close enough before pushing off the wall and jumping over him, using his back as a springboard to propel myself to the opposite side of the floor, turning midair so I landed facing him. He didn't give me time to recover, but I continued to just dodge him, twisting and jumping out of the way.

Finally, he stopped. He was slightly out of breath, and I laughed a little, perched on the edge of the guardrail around the ring's perimeter. "Getting tired?"

"Oh, I could do this all day, but you have to actually fight me, Nico. You can't just dodge the bad guys all the time, you're gonna have to throw a punch or two."

I hopped down. "All right, all right. I guess we do it for real, then. No powers?"

"No powers. Just show me what you can do on your own."

Dick was not prepared for what I could do, it was so painfully obvious. I was stronger and faster, physiologically, and he was a good fighter for a mortal, limber and flexible, but in the end, I won by pulling a move Annabeth had taught us at camp. I waited until he swung at me, then grabbed his arm and yanked, dropping my body down and sweeping my leg out, taking Dick's feet out from under him. He fell forwards, and I twisted the arm in my grasp around his back, planting my knee between his shoulder blades and pinning him down. It was over in a second.

"Jesus Christ," Jason commented. "He got you good, Dicky."

"Yeah. Woah. I didn't expect that from you," Dick said as I helped him up.

I shrugged. "Survival. All demigods know how to fight, it's taught at camp. I mean, yeah, most of the time, we don't fight mortals, we usually go up against, like, giants or whatever, and that's a whole different can of worms, but this is all basic stuff. I told you."