Demons Of The League Of Assassins (A PJO and ARROW CROSSOVER)

Chapter 2 - II: Spontaneous Sparring and Weird Waters

1 Troubling Times
Starling City

Oliver Queen had more problems than he wanted:
- Anatoly was now his enemy
- there was a running FBI case against him
- he was not only targeted as Green Arrow, but also as mayor, even when he tried to stop being the hero
- and he still didn't know what to do in terms of William and Felicity

So, all in all, it wasn't his all-time high, but neither was his time on the island, so he could manage it, he would manage it.

2 To be on piecework training
Nanda Parbat

Al 'iiesar was leaning against a wall in the shadows and watched the recruits training, Ra's was standing beside him.
"They are not as rusty as I feared", Al 'iiesar said with a begrudging respect.
"I trained many of them myself", Ra's had a slightly proud smile on his face,
"and as far as I heard you still have not fought against a single one of them, you only hang around in the shadows, obviously avoiding any contact."
"Indeed, it seems so, but to tell the truth I did not want to single some poor soul out and defeat him in a humiliating way, they are no real challenges. On the other side, I would not mind a good spar."
Al 'iiesar looked challenging to Ra's, "would you mind?"
Ra's' answer came with a stab of his sword. "Not in the least."
Al 'iiesar expecting it parried the stab, as he saw the attack coming. They fought with an unknown speed, trading blow after blow. The assassins stopped their own training to watch this two masters of fighting, not daring to interrupt.
Al 'iiesar moved gracefully, never stopping, lead by his intuition. Ra's, on the other hand, moved not more than necessary, calculating his moves while fighting. Never once did it look like one was superior to the other for a layman, but what the trained eyes of the assassins saw was something different: they noticed nearly every opening and nearly every weakness, and they were impressed. Ra's al Ghul could not defeat a single man, who was not even a, to them, verified member of the League.
Then Al 'iiesar got a shot at the hilt of Ra's' sword and twisted Ra's al Ghul's blade with his sword, so Ra's had to drop his weapon. It left the assassins gobsmacked with which ease Al 'iiesar had used the disarming technique.
"You could have beaten me earlier", Ra's stated emotionless.
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"
Ra's did not answer him, instead, he spoke to the gathered group, "I want to introduce you all to the person, who brought me back and you here Al 'iiesar, the hurricane, because, as you saw, he is a whirlwind with swords."/
"Before I introduce him", at this Ra's pointed at Al 'iiesar, "I want a group from among you, I suggest around ten, to challenge him as his introduction to you. So he may prove his worth to you."
After his words, ten black-clad persons made a step forward, out of the crowd.
"Your challengers, Afendī", Ra's lightly mocked his protégé, who did not change his posture, merely a slight nod of his head to hide his grin could have given him away.
"Of course, Mylord", Al 'iiesar paid his mentor in the same coin back. Instantly Ra's gave his typical sign for the assassins to attack.
And attack they did. They struck at Al 'iiesar as if he was their sworn enemy, fighting in a complex choreography and getting Al 'iiesar seemingly into dire straits. Until Al 'iiesar drew his second sword, this time a mix between a xiphos and a European longsword, and switched from defence to offence. He started to attack in an unpredictable manner and a nearly unmatchable speed. He alternately took one or two at a time out of the game by knocking them out until there were only four left standing. As the two parties stood facing off each other, Al 'iiesar on one side the assassins on the other, Al 'iiesar took a run-up, leapt into the air and did a diagonal triple twist with whirling swords over the assassins, looking like a personified tornado of blades while doing this and taking out two of the remaining assassins. Using the distraction of his, by then at least to Ra's, characteristic move after he landed, Al 'iiesar also knocked out the other two assassins from behind.
The complete fight did not even last seven minutes.
It was so quiet one could have heard a pin drop because Al 'iiesar was not even panting.
After some more moments, Ra's broke the silence.
"Please welcome, Al 'iiesar. I think you saw why his fighting stile justifies to call him 'Hurricane'."

3 Flashback 03
Nada Parbat

The second time he awoke, it was in a startling grace. He knew, he was not where he hoped to be, but this was still a better place than where he was before, except the fact, that the three meddling sisters sent him here. This was everything but his only concern: he could feel two life forces apart from himself and the strange water. He got up and looked around in this Arabic seeming room. His first instinct following, he walked through the maze of corridors in this place, Nanda Parbat as the strange women called it. As he reached his destination, he was overjoyed to find his trusted friend in the yard before the monastery like building.
The black pegasus had been sleeping peacefully until then. He decided to let his friend sleep and instead investigate this weird water, he had sensed earlier.
As many times before his instincts showed him the way to a pool.
As soon as he arrived there, he could feel the deadly poison in the water, despite this he yearned to take a dip in the pool, to recharge his energy. Letting his natural ability take the lead he concentrated and divided the poison and the water, he formed a little ball out of the poison and froze it. But instead of normal water he still felt an anomaly in it. It was like a mix between a draughty/drafty gateway and it reminded him of the feeling in his uncle's palace, a feeling of death and ghosts, but not as much as there, more like Orpheus' entrance to the underworld.
His instincts screamed at him to do anything because he sensed something in the 'gateway', so he grasped into the pool and tried to drag this thing out of the gate.
What happened next was something even weirder than he was used to. And he was used to a lot of weird things.

AN: I finally hit the thousand work mark I set myself for the length of a chapter. Hope the chapter pleases you and sorry, that the Starling scenes are this short, but I first have to build up Al 'iiesar's background (even if most propably know, who he is) for my plot to work. So only thing left to say is also a "sorry" for the cliffhanger ;-).