Zero to Hero (Percy Jackson Fanfic)

Chapter Ten-The Arena

Percy's POV

"How're you feeling?" Jason asked.

I rolled my shoulders, "Excellent. I haven't had a good match in like, three weeks. You?"

Jason raised an eyebrow, "Not bad. Perhaps missing three weeks of practice will have made you soft."

I snorted, "What are you talking about? Just because I've been in public school, doesn't mean I haven't been practicing. What do you think I did instead of homework?"

Jason chuckled, then lifted his breastplate over his head, and his voice echoed slightly until his head poked out the top, "I would have done the same thing. Homework sounds awful."

"No you wouldn't have," I said, tying on my leather greaves, "You would have been one of the good kids who magically get their homework done on time, and are never late to class, and have tons of friends."

"You're probably right," Jason tied on his sword belt, "But that doesn't mean I would have liked it."

"It's impossible to like homework," I replied, standing. I stuck my sword in its sheath, "I'm pretty sure it's straight out of Tartarus, and is made to ruin the lives of mortal children everywhere."

"You guys ready?" 

We both jumped. Nico was standing by the entryway, his hand on his sword hilt, wearing all black like normal. 

"Oh, hey Nico," Jason said lamely.

"You really need to stop doing that," I said, jamming my helmet onto my head, "You're going to kill someone one of these days."

"Are you ready?" was all he said, though I could see a tiny smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, we're ready," I said, "We're ready, right?"

"Yup, see you in the arena, Percy." Jason jogged off down the dimly lit corridor to the right. It would lead him around the entire stadium using the underground hypogeum, so that we could both enter at the same time from opposite sides of the battlefield. 

Nico turned and walked down the tunnel in front of me, leading out into the stadium. You could hear the crowd from here. The whole camp was probably assembled to watch the match. The Monochromachia club hadn't done a public match in a few weeks. Since long before I left for Goode. (No pun intended.) Everyone was probably anxious to see us at it again. 

There were quite a few kids in the Monochromachia club, sometimes it felt like most of the camp. Since everyone was pretty good with some kind of weapon, it made for a lot of different types of people at the meetings. So what do we do at these "meetings" with so many people? We fight, obviously. That's why it's called the dueling club.

Chiron was announcing. I could hear his voice, but I didn't know what he was saying over the roar of the crowd. The stadium gave an even louder howl, sounding like a monstrous wave crashing on the rocks. I looked at Nico, who nodded.

"Good luck. And don't forget that you owe Jason brownies if you lose."

I grinned, "Right. Oh no! Not brownies!"

Nico nodded gravely and sulked off down the corridor. I set my shoulders and faced the stadium. At the far end, I could see a little spec of blond that must mean Jason had made it to the other side. I stepped forward, blinking in the sudden sunlight. 

The crowd roared. Jason and I walked across the vast arena floor. Today's obstacles included boulders the size of cars, a dozen or so plastic trees, and a weaving river zig-zagging all over the place. We met in the middle, right across the stream and Jason stuck out his hand. I took it, flashing him a grin, and the stadium roared its approval.