𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐚; percy jackson

𝟎𝟖 | fighting for his life

in the previous chapter;

"yes, yes i want to fight" percy decided after a while, trying to sound confident.

he was pretending, still it was almost unnoticeable how he really felt.

"jackson, step forward" meara spoke coldly while looking away and breaking their eye contact.

her looking away from him made him even angrier, he didn't know why.

everything got mixed up inside of him, he couldn't even figure out his own emotions at this point.

"choose your opponent" she remained showing no emotion.

he was lost in his emotions and she was emotionless.

"you" percy said, while nodding his head in meara's direction.

a buch of quiet gasps and whispers filled the arena.

the 8th chapter;

✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼

"percy i mean, are you sure? don't you want to choos—" luke warns him before being cut off.

"he made his decision" meara declares sharply, if her stare could kill, percy would be laying six feet under after being stabbed at least a hundred times.

luke has never seen meara like this, he knew she was powerful, of course he knew, that's why he kept her so close all this time. deep down, he wanted them to fight, he wanted to see how her skills improved if so.

every single one of the campers watch in horror, she has always just shown them tricks and sometimes examples on some of them, but they've never seen her fight one on one.

and no one has ever asked her to a duel.

none of them were stupid enough to test her.

they didn't need her to prove herself.

percy chose her as an attempt to show her that he's not scared of her, that she can't just come out here and act like she's the boss of him, he could feel her sudden authority but was determined to not let it consume him.

but this wasn't the only fact that led him to his final decision, flashbacks of the conversation with luke about glory have gotten into his head, if he proves himself as brave, then he'll be one step closer to being noticed.

and what's more brave than choosing one of the best sword fighters to duel him.

meara would've never chosen him to fight with her on his first day even if he was her worst enemy, but him having the audacity to choose her to fight against him has her furious.

she only seems calm, she learned how to force herself to be, but there's a bloody war happening inside of her.

her conversation with aire replayed in her head.

short switch to meara's pov:

"use it, use being different, being feared. and become fearless" she whispered so quietly that i questioned myself if she even said anything.

"what?" i lowered my voice as i turned my head closer to her ear.

"use it in your advantage"