🏛️🏆⚔️
NICASIA grunted as she dodged her opponent's sudden hit aimed at her face. she ducked down to the ground and swept her opponent's feet out from under them. clarrise hit the ground with a thud.
the two were engaging in a semi-friendly duel, a daily occurrence. the ares cabin, along with all the war gods' children (minus the athena cabin) took part in a weekly combat competition to see who was the best. the competition started way before any of them were born, as a way to decide who would get to go on a quest. the winner of the competition would lead and the runner up would accompany them. the third member would be chosen by the leader of the quest.
now, it was more of a game than a competition, since nobody really got any quests anymore. the winner got the rights to as much dessert off of the losers' plates as he or she would like. the bracket and leaderboard for the games was posted outside of the arena, so anyone could see it. the order of who goes first was always changing, so every person had faced off with every single participant of the games at least once. the eliminated participants had to watch the rest of the duels. the injured and the first ones out had to be the judges.
clarrise stood, staring down nicasia. nicasia smirked at her best friend. they had both been the winners of their half of the bracket, so they were the final two. they were competing against each other for the win.
nicasia's smirk disappeared as clarisse charged at her. she brought her own spear up as clarisse attempted to slash at her. the two spears collided, the electricity from clarisse's spear started to spread to nicasia's spear. the energy bar at the head of her spear absorbed the electricity, but her spear still started to warm up from the heat of the electricity.
nicasia pulled her spear away before swiping it at clarisse's hand, sending clarisse's spear through the air. clarisse disarmed nicasia a few seconds later, both of their spears now sticking out of the ground a few feet away from them.
the two of them threw punches and kicks at each other, hardly any of their hits actually hitting their target. nicasia got clarisse with an uppercut. clarisse shook it off and landed a kick to nicasia's gut.
nicasia stumbled backwards before trying to go in for another hit. clarisse caught her elbow and threw her onto the ground. she still had one of clarisse's arms in her grasp and used it to spin her self around on the ground before kicking out clarisse's legs. the momentum form clarisse's throw gave her kick more power. as clarisse went down, her elbow caught nicasia in the nose, blood starting to trickle down. nicasia stood as clarisse hit the ground again.
nicasia watched as clarisse stood, preparing for her to charge at her again. "THE LIST!" clarisse yelled out to both the judges and the crowd. nicasia sighed, already knowing where this was leading. "i win. nicasia forfeits by cheating. that move is an illegal one, we agreed that it should be added to the list last week."
clarisse was referring to the list of illegal moves. the list was full of moves that were banned for being unfair, cheap shots, cheating, or unsportsmanlike. the list stated that killing, using any sort of powers, using illegal moves and sabotaging were against the W.W.T. code. (weekly war tournament) the list hung on the wall of the ares, athena, and hermes cabin. it also hung outside the arena. all of the papers had been stuck to a flat surface, most likely a wall, with a some kind of knife, courtesy of clarisse. no one dared to touch the papers or the knives because they didn't want the knives to end up stabbed into their arms instead of the wall.
"that move is not cheating! it's being smart!" nicasia protested. "LETS VOTE ON IT!" claus called out from the crowd. nicasia gave him a nod in thanks before turning back to the rest of the crowd. "VOTE!" the crowd of eliminated participants started to chant.
after a few minutes of chanting clarisse and the judges agreed to have a meeting. "ALRIGHT! we'll have a meeting! send your representatives to the ares cabin in five minutes! follow the policy!"
nicasia turned to look at her brother once again. she sent him a nod, silently telling him to go represent her and her siblings since she couldn't. nicasia was the chosen representative for the nike kids, but since her move was the one they were voting on, she wasn't allowed. that was another rule, that if the topic being voted on directly has some thing to do with a representative, they will have to send another person to vote.
clarisse, niclaus, and the rest of the representatives exited the arena and headed to the ares cabin. as soon as the door shut, some of the war kids went up to the cabin, hoping to eavesdrop. everyone else, including nicasia waited in the arena. the people in the crowd were discussing whether they thought the move should be added or not. after a few minutes, the representatives came back into the arena, holding one of the lists.
"IT IS DECIDED! NICASIA'S MOVE IS UNSPORTSMANLIKE!" the enyo representative yelled. yells of both agreement and protest sounded from the crowd. "IT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE LIST. AS OF TODAY, THIS IS THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVENTH ILLEGAL MOVE, LISTED AS NICASIA'S MOVE!" she announced. nicasia glared at clarisse. clarisse was her best friend and she loved her, but they did not get along at all when they had to go against each other because of how competitive both of them are.
they were so bad when they were against each other, that chiron had banned it during the chariot races. the last time they were on opposite teams during the chariot races, both of them ended up with one of their kneecaps shattered, nicasia with a broken arm, and clarisse with a few broken ribs. they also both had concussions, as a result of head butting each other.
they had been competing together on separate chariots, nicasia on the athena chariot and clarisse on the ares one. clarisse and her siblings had thrown a big rock into the wheel of the athena chariot, destroying it. the athena chariot started to break down and go out of control. nicasia and the athena kids decided to get them back for it and nicasia ended up throwing a sword at the ares chariot, cutting the reigns of the horses. the horses kept going, leaving the chariot behind. both chariots had ended up destroyed.
nicasia had marched up to clarisse, the two of them yelling at each other. donni, a son of aphrodite and the final member of their trio, tried to break them apart. he knew what was going to happen, but he got their too late and just watched them fight, disappointed.
clarisse was the one who threw the first punch. nicasia was now set on winning the fight and hit her back. eventually hitting each other wasn't enough and they started to kick and scratch each other which eventually led to the two of them head butting each other. the two of them kept fighting and failed to notice that they were on the edge of the ledge they had ended up on top of. long story short, they fought and they took a tumble.
"CLARISSE IS THE WINNER! FOR THE NEXT WEEK, YOU ALL WILL BE GIVING UP YOUR DESSERT TO HER UNTIL SHE SAYS SHE HAS HAD ENOUGH!" the judges yelled. everyone scattered back to either their cabin or the infirmary. now, nicasia and clarisse were alone in the arena.
"sorry nicki, but that move is unfair. if it makes you feel better, i'll share my dessert with you." clarisse said. nicasia looked at her bestfriend. "it's not unfair. and i forgive you clare. don't forget to get some strawberry ice cream for donni. we're going to the hill tonight right?" clarisse smiled, happy that nicasia forgave her. nicasia, being the daughter of the goddess of victory, was naturally a really, really sour loser. luckily, clarisse knew that food was the way to her heart.
the two of them walked off to the infirmary, leaning on each other. as they walked, they talked about what snacks would be good to bring to the hill later that night and the latest gossip. nicasia had been so focused on what had been happening, that she didn't notice the sea green eyes that had watched the whole thing happen.
percy had watched the whole thing happen. chiron had been giving him a tour when they walked by the arena. chiron had been interrupted by mr.d, the two of them speaking in hushed whispers before chiron said they "had important briskness to deal with" and left. it was just then when he had heard the sounds of cheering and fighting coming from the arena. that was when he saw her.
SNAP!
the sound of a twig breaking behind him scared him. "sorry" grover muttered. the two of them continued to watch the duel between the two girls. percy immediately recognized one of the girls as the one who saved him the night he battled the minotaur. that's when he realized that he didn't know her name.
"who is that? the girl who saved me the night i fought the minotaur." he asked grover, watching as she was in what looked like a disagreement with the girl she was dueling with. he could've sworn he had seen her somewhere before that night, but he thought that his head might still be a little messed up from when he hit it earlier. "that's nicasia." grover answered before going on "all the war gods' kids compete every week in a kind of dueling game. nicasia told me that the winner gets the loser's desserts. they run it like bracket play in sports. no one really knows when or why it started but it's tradition. nicasia and clarisse are almost always the final two."
the two of them moved out of the way as a group of kids left the arena and went into one of the cabins. percy watched as the girl -nicasia waited and the crowd started talking amongst themselves.
as she stood there, he took this time as an opportunity to really look at her. the last time he saw her, she was kind of blurry and only appeared in flashes. she had a muscular, but slim build. she had medium brown skin and unnaturally blue eyes. he noticed that a thin scar ran downwards through her right eyebrow, stopping just before it reached her eyelid. her dark brown hair had blonde highlights and was currently in braids with gold cuffs scattered through her hair. right now, she had blood coming out of her nose and she looked a little bit annoyed.
"does she always win these types of things?"he asked grover, watching as the group that had gone to the cabin walked back in, holding a paper that looked like a list. he could hear them yelling, he just couldn't hear what they were saying. "yeah, actually. it's kind of her thing." grover answered.
percy continued to watch nicasia. she did not look happy about the fact that she just lost the duel. he noticed that she was really good at fighting. he didn't know how he felt about her. he continued his tour with grover. but the whole tour one question wouldn't leave his mind. why did she help him? he could've done it on his own, it just would've taken a little while longer, so why save him? he kind of hoped that he could ask her that.
"five minutes people!" annabeth yelled. the members of cabin six were rushing around, trying to finish their newest projects and books last second. nicasia watched as two athena kids ran into each other, too busy reading their books to see the other approaching.
nicasia had changed into a pair of loose black jeans, a new camp shirt, a white zip up jacket, and a pair of white nike blazers with blue laces for dinner. a teal leather arm cuff sat snugly on her wrist, like usual and she kept her braids down.
she sat in between the bunks, on the floor. she was currently in the middle of a chess game with abigail, annabeth's sister. she reached her hand out and gently tapped abigail on the shoulder, to get her attention. it's almost time to go she signed. okay, let me turn my aids back on really quick abigail signed back.
abigail was a year younger than nicasia and two years younger than annabeth. she had been mute since she was born. when she was nine, she was attacked by a monster and ended up losing her hearing too. a few weeks after she lost her hearing, she received a gift from her mother. her mother had gifted her hearing aids that were indestructible and grew with her, so she never grew out of them.
nicasia helped abigail pack up the chess board and pieces back into the box. "six! head out!" annabeth yelled out before marching out of the cabin, the other athena kids right behind her. nicasia and abigail were some of the last ones out, along with a few of the girls who were finishing up the page they were reading in their books.
once they reached the dining pavilion, they sat down at cabin six's table. annabeth sat at nicasia's right and abigail sat on her left. nicasia looked down at her plate as it filled itself with food. her meal consisted of mozzarella sticks and chicken alfredo, with sprite as the drink.
"quiet children!" mr. d said. "i have an announcement for you brats. if you don't already know, we have a new camper, peter johnson. if you already knew that then just shut up and get over it. anyways, as always, capture the flag will be tomorrow." he said, sounding completely uninterested, before sitting down.
everyone started to converse with the people around them and eat their food. when it was the athena cabin's turn to burn their offerings, nicasia dropped some of her mozzarella sticks in the fire. athena, vic- nike, thank you for a somewhat peaceful summer i guess. she thought as she watched the mozzarella sticks burn.
she made her way back to her seat, as the naiads picked up everyone's plates and cups. nicasia suddenly shivered as she felt something cold hit her head. a cold liquid ran down her face and neck from her head. "sorry" a mocking voice said from behind her. nicasia didn't have to turn around to know who it was. she recognized that annoying voice. it was melanie, daughter of eris.
the two of them had never ever gotten along. all nike kids and eris kids hated each other. they were too different. their mothers were nearly opposites. nicasia and melanie got along the worst out of all of them. the two of them had already gotten into several fist fights and were not allowed to be left alone in the same room anymore.
"oh hey, tori leaves in a few days right? you think she'll be another julian?"melanie asked, teasingly. "julian goes a'jumpin, right?" that was when nicasia lost her cool. melanie kept talking but nicasia couldn't hear what she said. she had just poured milk on her head. on her braids. she had also just taunted her about her older sisters wellbeing. nicasia grabbed her empty tray. clarisse and donni watched her from across the room, already knowing what was going to happen.
nicasia was so upset that she didn't notice exactly how many people were watching the whole interaction. without thinking, she turned around and smacked melanie straight in the nose with her tray. the tray hit melanie's face with a sickening crack! melanie fell to the ground from the impact, blood dripping from her nose.
nicasia now stood in front of melanie, still very upset. "sorry" nicasia said, in the same mocking voice melanie had used. melanie slowly stood, holding her injured nose. the other kids started to crowd around them. "come on, since you wanna fight so bad-let's fight then. i'll make it easy for you-you can get the first hit."nicasia said, angrily. melanie walked up to nicasia. melanie slapped nicasia across the face. nicasia threw a punch. the two of them hit each Föhr back and forth and nicasia had eventually tackled melanie to the ground. "you have no idea what you talking about." nicasia seethed.
nicasia straddled melanie's torso and threw a punch. as she went in for a second punch, she was pulled off of melanie. nicasia turned her head as she thrashed, trying to get free. "let go of me!" she said. "i'm not gonna do that nicki. you got her good enough. i think you broke her nose." clarisse said. "you're lucking i got you out of there before chiron showed up."
"alright i'm done! let me go." nicasia said. clarisse let go of her and she walked back to her cabin. as soon as she got into her cabin, she hit the showers because she did not want to smell like milk for the next few days. while she was in the shower, she let her hot tears of anger slip out. once she was all cleaned up, she laid down in bed for another sleepless night.
captain speaks!
so nicasia is besties with clarisse! and donni, who will be introduced next chapter.
please don't forget to comment! it helps me update. all grammar and spelling corrections are welcome as long as they are polite.
nicasia's relationship with a lot of different people will be introduced in the upcoming chapters.
thoughts? questions? something you just wanna say?