Confused by Time (Percy Jackson fanfic) (currently being rewritten)

Chapter 18 - You're Dead

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Gonna ask King that?"

Clarisse scowled at him. "No, but you're not King."

Percy smiled slightly and the ground rumbled as the earth slipped up around his leg, leaving gleaming gold armour in its wake. The sound of metal sliding on metal echoed around the arena, and then Percy was standing wearing armour that was an exact copy of Kronos'. "Still not King? I would change my eye colour to gold, but I really don't want to."

Clarisse swallowed. "That looks..."

Percy flinched. "Can we get this over and done with?" He snapped.

Clarisse took a breath and nodded. "Pretending you're King's a lot easier now," she murmured.

"Come at me, child of war," Percy said, deepening his voice slightly and making an active effort to make it smoother.

Clarisse raised Lelantos' spear and ran at him, rapidly closing the distance as Percy idly swung the scythe in front of him. Clarisse slashed with the edges of the spear and Percy leaned a few inches to the side, barely avoiding the blow as he swept down with the scythe and knocked her feet out from under her. The scythe shifted into a sword and he rested the point on the base of her throat.

"Dead," Percy said calmly as he withdrew the weapon and helped her up. "You can't just run into battle against him waving your weapon like a lunatic," he said to Clarisse and the other demigods. "Otherwise you'd be taken down before you even swing the weapon. You've got to be patient and wait for him to attack first, because otherwise you're already dead." Percy paused as he scanned the demigods, and his eyes landed on Annabeth. "Your turn, Annabeth."

Annabeth unsheathed her drakon bone sword and walked so she was a dozen or so feet away from Percy. "Would this be like fighting Kronos?"

Percy raised an eyebrow, deciding to not mention how she'd said his name. "Not completely," he admitted, "he's a lot faster than me, but otherwise yes."

"Faster than you?" Clarisse exclaimed incredulously.

Percy shrugged. "Well, yeah. He does control time at the lift of a finger."

Annabeth attacked whilst Percy was distracted, leaping towards him with her sword swinging through the air. It was a good attack, but Percy easily blocked it. "Faster," he growled, "you're dead if you're that slow."

Annabeth's jaw locked and she backed away, making sure that she was fast and on the balls of her feet. Percy grinned slightly as he watched her, noting that her guard was up at all times and she never stayed in the same spot for more than half a second. He let out a breath and took a step towards her. "I'm Lord Kronos," he announced as a reminder, ignoring the way the temperature dropped. "What will you do?" And he lunged towards her, blurring as he sped himself up, and Annabeth instinctively blocked the attack.

"I'll kill you," Annabeth smiled, and Percy nodded, swiping the scythe back and around, but Annabeth ducked.

"Good," Percy grinned. "But a little faster," and he moved around Annabeth in a split second, the air splitting beneath the swing of his scythe. Annabeth's eyes widened and she rolled to the side, but Percy swept out with his leg and knocked her over, cracking the ground beside her head with the scythe. "Dead," he said quietly.

Annabeth swallowed and took his offered hand, letting him pull her to her feet. "Too slow?"

Percy nodded. "And you weren't expecting me to do that. King will easily be able to pick up on that, and he'll do exactly what you're not expecting." He looked back at the demigods. "Jason? Thalia? You two want a turn?"