Broken And Betrayed

EIGHT

Percy looked at the war god sadly. "I don't care how I go anymore. I can't be bothered fighting anyone. Why on Earth would I bother fighting you?" He said quietly.

"Punk, you'll fight me. If you manage to knock me out, I won't keep a grudge and we'll let you and your weak brother go with just a banishment. If I kill you, well, yeah. We swear on the River Styx. Right, Dad?" The war god said, turning to the king of the gods. He knew there was no way he could lose, and he couldn't let the boy die without proving that his win as a twelve year old was just a simple fluke. He told Zeus so in his mind.

Zeus huffed and nodded, and Ares grinned as thunder boomed, sealing it. He turned to Percy to try and cajole him a little more, but the demigod already stood with his sword out. Ares wondered what had pushed the boy over the edge, but shrugged and lifted his great broadsword.

It turned out that Percy had been forgetting one thing: Alex. He wasn't going to have fought for himself, but when he realised that his brother was in just as precarious a situation as he, and there was a way to save him, he leapt at it.

"I won't need armour against a whelp like you," Ares muttered. He made it disappear and swung off his cloak, leaving him bare chested with just a pair of biker's jeans on. Percy just shrugged. He didn't have any armour on either, just his regular camp clothes.

The two warriors stood in the middle of the throne room, staring at each other, each waiting for the other to make a move. The gods looked on, some in worry, some in nervous anticipation, and some in glee that the demigod would get his just desserts.

Apart from Dionysus, of course. Idiot was still asleep.

Alex worriedly watched the standoff in front of him, knowing that both he and his brother's lives were hanging in the balance. He hated this whole situation, and realised if he hadn't come here and brought Percy with him, none of this would be happening. Suddenly his attention was back on the scene in front of him as one of the combatants finally moved.

Ares just couldn't stand it. His revenge was finally right in front of him! He wasn't going to just stand there forever. Raising his broadsword, he leapt at Percy, the weapon cleaving through the air on the way to it's target.

Only to whistle through empty air.

Confused, the war god looked around. Somehow the demigod was standing behind him, in the exact same stance he'd been in before, but with a smirk.

All of the gods looked shocked and confused, apart from the god of the seas. Being able to easily sense all the molecules in the room, Poseidon knew what secret weapon his son was hiding. He just smirked.

"Come on, I thought you were going to attack me, Lord Ares," the half blood said mockingly, twirling Riptide skillfully. "Come on, then." He snarled at the god after a pause, his lopsided grin turning into a scowl.

If Ares was angry at the demigod before, it was absolutely nothing compared to the intensity of his fury now. He lunged at Percy with a two handed thrust, yelling, "Die, demigod!"

Percy simply swayed to the side, placing the flat of his blade against the flat of Ares', guiding it past his shoulder with a flick of the wrist. As Ares stumbled and tripped forward due to the lack of resistance, Percy hit his face with Riptide's pommel, jerking the god's head back, and then swung the sword again.

It bit into the unfortunate god's shoulder, who roared in pain as hot ichor poured down his arm. It was then that Percy showed his first sign of disappointment during the duel.

"Damn, I was going for the neck. You're lucky you tripped. Maybe your clumsy fighting style's actually done you a good turn for once."

Ares beat a tactical retreat, wincing as he moved his shoulder, rolling it around to try get some mobility in it back. Athena sat up straight in shock. Ares, being tactical for once? She might have to pay some closer attention. Ares' battle prowess mixed with some good strategy would be a sight to behold.

And to her surprise, the god even went as far as making his two handed sword morph into a battle axe that he could wield with one hand, while summoning a shield onto his useless left arm as a last resort.

Percy just stood there, waiting.

Ares then charged him again. Athena unknowingly leaned forward in her seat in anticipation. Ares then just started hacking at the demigod every which way, simply trying to break his guard.

Athena slumped back in her seat. She guessed there was only do much intelligence you could expect from her buffoon of a half brother. She'd wanted him to destroy that demigod for even daring to look that way at her daughter anyway. Damn sea scum.

Percy deflected all of Ares' blows with quite a bit of difficulty, realising that he would tire long before the god did. Silently, he thanked his past self for continuing his over the top training routine even after the war had been won, otherwise this fight would've been over at Ares' first blow. This constant defence continued for about five whole minutes, until he felt his arm start hurting from the force of the constant blows jarring through his sword.

He then repeated what he'd done during the opening blow, and mist travelled behind Ares, slicing his back open and sending the god to his knees. To the watching gods, it looked like Percy had teleported behind Ares and cut him, but to his father and also now Alex, it was clear what had really happened.

But as Percy raised his sword to deal the finishing blow, a spanner was thrown into the works of his plan. He'd forgotten about Ares' shield. Although the god couldn't move his arm with much accuracy, he could still pivot the rest of his body to swing it with a decent sized amount of power.

The shield crashed into Percy's face and the demigod was sent flying across the room. With great difficulty, he stood, shaking it off and using a pillar to support himself. Wait, why was the pillar giving him static shocks like that?

He looked up to see his hand on Zeus' throne, and the god in question frowning down on him. Zeus then drew his foot back and kicked the demigod, sending him flying back to Ares and also eliciting cries of protest from all the gods who were in support of Percy, especially Poseidon, who roared in rage. Zeus just smirked. He was King. What could they do?

Ares, who had recovered a little from the blow to the back, slowly walked towards the battered demigod. Once he was within about four metres of him, he smiled evilly. He'd make the demigod pay. Suddenly Percy lurched up and threw Anaklusmos end over end at him, and he barely dodged it. It pierced into his half brother Apollo's throne, who looked at it worriedly, while their father glared at him so he'd leave it.

"On our last, desperate moves, are we?" Ares said loudly, laughing. He'd won, there was no doubt about it. He laughed even harder, soaking in the fury of Poseidon and the horror of Apollo, Hermes and that other little demigod. He then turned back to the demigod. "Now, then, let's finish this."

That was when Percy smirked his lopsided grin.

(Cue that part of Giorno's Theme!)

The demigod flung his hand out, and Ares looked around wildly in confusion, for a clue about what he was doing. He experience a massive, sharp pain in the back of his head, and that's when the world went black for him.

Percy grinned. It was just a new trick he'd been practicing. When he moved all he molecules in the air away from a certain spot, it created a vacuum which sucked things towards it, albeit only for a short time depending on the size.

By doing this behind Ares' head, he pulled the god's head backwards and his sword forwards, pommel first. The collision had clearly knocked the god out. He looked at Alex, who was grinning, smiled briefly, and collapsed.