Demigods + Wizards = ???

Chapter 8

Ayooo! XC and school have been taking up my life lately, but I hope you like this! (Also, it's insanely long, which is why it took so long to write. But I wanted to do it right.)

Percy's POV

Hazel and I watched the rest of the Seven *pop* right out of existance, along with the wizards, and then sighed simultaneously, relaxing in our seats. 

"I've never been very good at acting," said Hazel. "The break is nice." 

"You get used to it," I said easily. "But yeah, now we can really train." 

Hazel and I turned towards each other with identical grins on our faces before jumping out of our seats and racing into the back yard. 

Moments later, we stood facing each other, swords in hands, mischievous light still in our eyes but mock-scowls on our faces. It was silent, the only noises the sound of our breathing and that of the wind rustling the tall grass around us. 

And then, with a yell, the silence was broken. Hazel swung her sword at my head - a risky move for a practice fight, one she wouldn't have made if she wasn't certain I could block it - and I deflected it with mine, shoving her off-balance. Before she could recover, I slashed at her side. She was barely able to block the strike, and even when she did, she backed up several steps. 

I smiled with one side of my mouth and stepped forward, but before I could get anywhere close enough to attack, Hazel yelled and a giant wall of rock erupted in front of me. 

"Is this schist?" I asked incredulously. 

"As a matter of fact it is," Hazel replied, her voice muffled but the smile on her face obvious even though I couldn't see it. "I'd developed a bit of an affinity for it." 

"Well, okay then," I said. I could hear Hazel getting restless on the other side of her self-made wall. I closed my eyes and reached my senses down into the ground, looking for water pipes nearby. Sure enough, there was one right beneath the pile of schist. With the same familiar tug in my gut, and a slight grunt, the pipe exploded, destabilizing the behemoth of rock and softening the ground, causing the entire structure to topple. 

Some of the dust cleared, revealing Hazel with her arms crossed and a mock-scowl on her face. "You'll pay for that, Jackson," she laughed. 

"We'll see about that." With a joking snarl, I jumped across the rubble, swinging Riptide viciously. 

She blocked, and I retaliated. It went on for a bit, back and forth, gaining ground and losing it again. Then my blade caught Hazel's in just the right way and I used the disarming move Luke had taught me all those years ago. Hazel's sword flew out of her hands and across the yard. 

I smirked. She smiled back, then closed her eyes. Oops. I forgot about that. And then her sword was right back in her hand and we were going again, and then my sword caught on a piece of rock just as Hazel struck, and the blade went spinning across the grass.

Now I did not have magic metal powers like Hazel did. I was a bit stuck. But when she swung at my torso, I wasn't just going to stand there and get chopped in half because I didn't have a sword. I ducked low and rolled back onto my feet, grabbing a handful of schist gravel as I did so. Hazel stabbed at my feet, I jumped to avoid it, and then I turned and ran, tossing the gravel in her general direction as a distraction. As I ran, I heard Hazel sputtering and spitting dust out of her mouth. But then, Riptide started to wiggle. And before I could grab it, it had flown across the grass and into Hazel's hand. 

I narrowed my eyes as I walked towards her and she walked towards me. 

"Do you yield, son of Poseidon?" asked Hazel in a manner that would have terrified me - if I hadn't seen the barely concealed smile in her eyes.