Battling Demons: Book 2 [COMPLETED]

Chapter 3: Dueling

Nico's POV:

Nico sliced the head off the training dummy. Practicing with straw figures wasn't the same as fighting a real monster, but it was the only way he could think of to release his stress. Nico heard the conch for dinner but had elected to ignore it. He didn't feel like interacting with anyone or seeing any of his friends. He had also heard Festus arrive, but he ignored that too. His only focus was on fine-tuning his skills; he needed to build up his strength. And if that meant training until he collapsed, then so be it. He cut down another training dummy.

"Now, what did that dummy do to deserve that?" Nico whipped around, sword centimeters away from slicing open Jason's throat. "Easy there, killer." Jason put his hands up in a defensive surrender.

Nico lowered his sword, turning away. "Don't sneak up on me like that." He used his sword point to sift through the remains of the dummy.

"Fair enough. That wasn't the response I was looking for." The son of Jupiter stated. Nico looked up. Jason was smiling at him. "I'm happy to see you, man. I haven't seen you in months! I haven't heard from you in weeks."

"Yeah, hi, welcome back," Nico said shortly, stabbing his sword into another dummy.

"What's the reason for this massacre?" Jason gestured at the mutilated dummies.

"Training."

"Is today a one-word answer day?"

Nico, exasperated, looked up at Jason. "What do you want, Grace?"

Jason looked affronted. Nico only called him by his last name when he was angry with him. "What is wrong?"

"I'm fine," he averted his eyes.

"When's the last time you ate? Or slept?"

"Look, I'm glad you're back, but I really don't feel like going through an interrogation. Can you leave me alone? I was training before you interrupted me."

"I'm just worried, Nico." He lightly punched Nico in the arm. "I'll train with you to spare these dummies from any more injury. They aren't that easy to make. Believe me, I've tried in arts and crafts. So. Much. Straw." He shivered. He blinked back the memory, before smirking at Nico. "But, what do you say? A little one-on-one sparring session?" He flipped his coin, his sword appearing in his hand. He flourished it, pointing it at Nico.

"Why not?" Nico agreed, realizing Jason wasn't going anywhere. Best make most of his training time.

He set his own sword aside, not wanting to reap Jason of his soul in case he nicked him. He grabbed a well-balanced sword from the rack. He and Jason started walking in a defensive circle, around the middle of the arena, waiting for the other to attack.

"I don't think we've ever dueled before." Jason was trying to distract him. "Two sons of the Big Three, battling it out for glory and bragging rights. Who will strike-?"

Nico lunged forward, cutting off Jason's monologue. Jason deflected his sword and used the wind to blow Nico backward. Nico landed in a crouch.

"So, we are playing with powers, are we? I can fight fire with fire," he muttered under his breath.

He stood, raising his arms, as Jason barreled towards him. Nico closed his eyes, waiting. The ground around him erupted. Jason faltered and stopped as skeletons began knitting themselves together. Jason tried to slice them away, but more kept forming and reforming. Nico felt his energy drain, but he had cornered Jason. He gripped the sword and walked through his ranks of the undead. He lashed out his sword which meant Jason's in the air, sparking. They exchanged blows back and forth.