When we got to the arena, the Ares cabin was already there, though that was no surprise. They love this fighting stuff. I don't really think that Ares mixed with Aphrodite is a good combination for fighting simply because of our skill levels being so incredibly different but I don't make the schedule.
Valentina walked straight up to Clarisse and asked her what side she would be on if Zeus and Poseidon went to war.
"Why do you wanna know that?" Clarisse asked.
"Because, I mean, it is totes likely that they will eventually, as much as they fight. So who would the Ares cabin side with?" Valentina asked.
"I don't know. I need to speak with my cabin about it first," Clarisse answered.
"Okay," Valentina said, turning and strutting back over to us.
"So who are we siding with? Zeus or Posiedon?" Hart asked.
"I think we still just wait for their answer," Amara put in.
"What if they never answer us? Who will we side with?" Mitchell asked.
"Well, I mean, we want to help Percy, right? So if the Ares cabin never gives an answer, we just go with Poseidon," Lacy said hopefully.
"That settles it then," Jade decided. "If it comes to a war, and the Ares kids haven't answered, we will side with Poseidon."
"So we get to help Percy and his dad?" Lacy asked.
"Yes and-" Valentina tried to say as she was interrupted by Clarisse starting class.
"Listen up! A lot of you guys are a bunch of wimps! You need to train harder and fight better! Now, I need Gemma to come help me demonstrate some moves. Of course, we are learning this because we should be careful. Do you remember what I said in the first lesson this summer?"
"Rule number one is to not be unarmed..?" Jade answered unsurely.
"Good. Looks like someone listened. First, why are you unarmed? Do you not have an extra weapon? Is there no weapon nearby? Even a hairbrush could work as a weapon. Did you get in a street fight with no weapons? First of all, I could see my cabin in that situation, but not you children of love. And my cabin would definitely have a weapon with them. Did you already use your weapon, but then got disarmed? Well, if that's the case, weaklings, you gotta stop worrying about being pretty and start worrying about getting killed. Hopefully you still remember what we learned in the past couple of weeks. Of course, we are going to have a fight against each other close to the end of class like always. Because we already learned about the basics, I want to push you all with a challenge. I will teach you about the corkscrew attack, the tsuri goshi, and a scissor kick."
"Clarisse and I will demonstrate your first move, the tsuri goshi, then we will practice it together. After that we will learn about the jumping scissor kick and corkscrew," Gemma continued, in a tone I wouldn't expect from a kid her age.
We learned and practised about the tsuri goshi and the jumping scissor kick. Surprisingly, about 80% of my cabin succeeded. Why was it surprising, you may ask. It was pretty hard and we needed to get thrown on the floor. Trust me, it wasn't fun, but we all did it anyway because the Ares kids are pretty scary sometimes. On the other hand, the Ares kids did it all perfectly. But that was to be expected.
"So some of you guys were able to figure the tsuri goshi and the jumping scissor kick move out. Now we are going to learn a different move called the corkscrew," Clarisse said, as Gemma walked back over to her.
I saw Amara lean over to Lacy, probably asking what that was.
"I'm only going to say this once so listen well. The corkscrew is an important move to get your enemy on the ground. But you have to be on the ground to do it. So this move is best for when your opponent has knocked you to the ground. So say I am on the ground, not that that is likely to happen, but say I am," Clarisse got to the ground and looked at Gemma. "Stand right there and don't move. Okay, anyway I am on the ground and my opponent is standing over me. I'll reach my arms out and grab onto their leg like this. Then you roll over onto your back and move your hands like this."
She moved her hands into a position where instead of her hands being how they would've held on if she was laying on her stomach, they were now how they would be while she's laying on her back.
"So you do that. Then you are going to roll and as you roll you'll hook your right leg behind their left leg like this. And then you'll use the momentum from the roll as a way to knock them down like this." And then Gemma fell over. "Now I'm just going to show you it without explaining. She did the move again, knocking Gemma over again.
"Since you know it now, you need to find someone to practice with and take turns practising on them."
I walked over to Valentina since we are about the same size.
"You first or me first?" I asked.
"You try first," she responded. "I'd rather not be on the floor again."
"Ok, Val," I said, getting onto the floor.
I got into the position and attempted the move without much luck. I don't think I got enough momentum from the roll.
"Try again," Valentina ordered.
"You need to try too," I said.
"Well better one of us knows it well than both us being awful at it," she told me.
I didn't agree with her logic but once Valentina makes up her mind, it's hard to change it.
"Sure, whatever." I got back into position and tried the move again, this time knocking her over.
"Ugh! That hurt! And my clothes are even more dirty!" she complained.
"Well, I guess you had to get on the floor after all," I said, trying to hold in a laugh.
"This isn't funny, Silena!" she said, pouting.
Clarisse walked over to us. "What's the whining about?"
Valentina quickly stood up. "Nothing, Clarisse," she answered.
I still could barely hold in my laughter.
"What are you laughing about?" Clarisse asked me.
"Nothing," I said, shaking my head, my smile still wide.
"Sure..." Clarisse said, turning away from me.
After a while of practising that move, Clarisse announced, "Okay everyone! Give the second partner one more try and then we are moving on!"
"No way am I getting on the floor again," She said, crossing her arms.
"You know, if you don't get onto the floor, I could just call Clarisse over here," I said, hoping to use Clarisse as leverage.
"Fine," she said, finally getting onto the floor.
She tried doing the move but didn't roll very well. "I think I broke a nail," she said sadly.
"Val, you know that being a demigod means you have to sacrifice stuff, and right now you just need to forget about your beauty and try the move!" I was beginning to get annoyed with her.
"What kind of an Aphrodite child are you?" she asked accusingly.
"A practical-" I tried to say as I was cut short by Clarisse announcing that she would now pick the people who will have to do the fighting for today. Then, Clarisse and Gemma discussed who should fight each other.
"Ellis and Silena," Clarisse called us, "you will be fighting each other today. Try to use the skills we learned today. Good luck."
Ellis, a son of Ares, came up to me cockily. He was maybe ten years old, which means he was probably two years younger than me. We readied our stance. He moved forward and tried to punch my face. I ducked and punched his stomach. He staggered and I fixed my stance, planning my next move. As I fixed my stance, he kicked my stomach and I fell. It hurt, but I stood up quickly. He started to come at me again and we fought. He tries punching me, I block or dodge. I try to punch him, he blocks my punch and parries it. It went back and forth until I figured out he was trying to tire me. I stepped back a couple steps. He raised his eyebrow and smiled. I guessed he thought I was already too tired to fight. He stepped toward me and I pretended to punch his face. He got ready to block his face. And because of that, he left his body open. Perfect. I kicked his hips and used the jumping scissor kick we learned today. And he's down. I kept him down on the floor for ten seconds.
"Congratulations Silena. You just won the fight. Good job utilising what you learned today," Clarisse announced.
Quickly, I let go of Ellis and apologised. Surprisingly, he apologised back. My cabin rushed to me cheering.
"Since all that's done, class is dismissed early," Clarisse interrupted.
My cabin cheered louder. They surrounded me in a circle and asked how I did it. I just laughed.
"Hey, hey. Calm down. It was nothing but a bit of practice. Now, let's use our early dismissal wisely," I told my siblings. My siblings nodded and were about to leave.
"Clarisse, you never answered our question," Valentina reminded. My other siblings perked up and turned to Clarisse.
"What question?" Clarisse asked.
"Which side would you be on if Poseidon and Zeus go to war? You know they could have it soon." Valentina smiled.
"There's going to be a war and you didn't tell us?" Mark, an Ares kid, asked Clarisse.
"Was about to tell you guys," Clarisse sighed.
"So, what's your answer?" Hart questioned.
"Fine, let's figure this out. What are the pros and cons on each side?" Clarisse asked all of us.
"Athena cabin is on Zeus's side," Jade started.
"Percy is on Poseidon's side, I think at least," Sherman added.
"Is that good or bad?" Gemma raised her eyebrow.
"Good," Drew responded, "Percy is powerful. He is the son of Poseidon. With both Poseidon and Percy on one side, I would say they could defeat both Zeus and Cabin 6." Thunder rumbled closeby.
"Sorry Zeus, I didn't mean it," Drew whispered.
"Yeah, but Percy disgraced our cabin twice," Eleanor, a daughter of Ares, reminded her siblings.
"I mean, it was partly our fault. By doing what we did, we were looking for trouble," Gemma argued.
"He insulted us. And he also broke my spear," Clarisse countered.
"Yeah, but we shouldn't have tried to kill him in a creek. Filled with water," Gemma said.
"If I was there, water wouldn't have been a problem," Alex, a son of Ares who's pretty pretty relaxed unless he's in a battle, pointed out. He is rumoured to be better than Luke, but he's not as well known as Luke is. He's one of the best in the camp, but he didn't go to the Capture the Flag last week because he had to do something. I don't know what though. He was definitely not injured. He wasn't in the infirmary and he barely ever gets injured.
"You guys were trying to kill him?" Jade exclaimed.
"I have no idea what you are talking about. We were trying to make shish kebab," Gemma denied.
"You were trying to make a Percy kebab?" Mitchell asked unsurely.
"Something like that. Sadly, our victim broke our kebab stick," Gemma said light-heartedly.
"Guys, can we go back to our real discussion?" Amara reminded us.
"Well sorry, we all have ADHD," Lacy apologised for all of us.
"Just to put this out, I personally want to step up for Percy," I told them, "But our cabin will join whichever side you guys pick."
"Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this situation," Alex added.
"We have grudges on either side," Eleanor brought up.
"I, for one, don't like Annabeth and her stupid hat. And her cabin won last week's Capture the Flag. Not fun," Sherman gave his opinion.
"We have a lot of stuff against Athena cabin, but we only have one for Percy," Eleanor summed up.
"I say, we can beat the Athena cabin without Annie's stupid hat easily," Ellis predicted.
"Yeah," Clarisse agreed.
"And our father does have grudges against Zeus," Mark added.
"So, who votes for Poseidon's side?" Clarisse asked. Everyone, including my cabin, raised their hands.
"Then, that's agreed. We will be on Poseidon's side," Clarisse smiled at me.
"Wait. Since we have many short-range and midrange fighters in total, we should have some long-range fighters. I suggest someone should talk the Apollo kids into going to Poseidon's side," Gemma suggested.
"I could convince them," I volunteered.
"Try not to use charm-speak. And I could also join. The Ares and Aphrodite cabin counsellors going to the Apollo cabin counsellor sounds like a good idea to me," Clarisse added.
"That's a great idea," Gemma agreed, "You guys could tell them after sing-along."
"Yeah, now you guys are dismissed. Shoo-shoo," Clarisse shooed us away.
My siblings left to do their own things. I went to Clarisse.
"So, how did I do?" I asked her.
"Great. Though, not as good as me," Clarisse smiled.
I giggled. "Anyways, I gotta go."
"Sure, go," she shrugged. She went to her siblings and talked with them as they went back to their cabin.
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**author's note**
yep, so i added another reference here. yea um i used to watch mcyt last year. and so i was like u know who would be the best ares kid? technoblade, plus fighting demigods is technically like fighting orphans soooo... i put his irl name there, which is dave //edit: alex\\.. anyways just wanted to do that lol.
//edit\\
i was shocked when i heard the news... rest in peace technoblade.. u have been a great inspiration to a lot of people...
"technoblade never dies" (he will always live in our hearts)
- Gem