Answer: Just about everything.
Who would have thought a horse bred for speed was faster then a domesticated zebra? So yeah, that was pretty dumb. But, Percy Jackson was nothing if not an optimist. So he did what came naturally, and what came naturally was to use his ultimate weapon; a cup of water. The camp staff had made it very clear that fighting dirty was not against the rules. Hades, he could have sworn that the Ares cabin was just straight up throwing swords at other chariots. Like, they brought of box full of swords specifically for throwing at chariots. Percy had to give them points for sticking to their theme. Thalia was at the reins, and Nico was being Nico, so it was pretty much up to Percy.
So he did his 'Son of Poseidon' shtick. He concentrated, and the cup of water near Nico began to rise up from its containment, to which Nico contested, saying:
"Dude! I was gonna put flavoring in that!"
Percy responded with, "Where do you get the Drachma for all this?" Before continuing on with his work. The child of the sea god extended his hand, and the water responded in kind, as it moved slightly. He focused on the cabin ahead of them, the Hephaestus chariot. He jolted his hand forward, and within a few moments, the back of the drivers hand was splashed. It was some kid that none of the big three knew all to well, except for the fact that he had a name none of them would even try to pronounce. Of course, it was multiple cabins per chariot, but everyone knew that the ones driving were the cabins represented. Well, apparently, the alliance in the Hephaestus chariot was strained at best, as the driver immediately started blaming one of his crewmen of hitting him with something. Percy thought the truth would be fairly obvious, for they were right behind them, but when you don't like someone; you look for reasons to be mad at them, he supposed.
Whatever the case, Thalia was quick to capitalize on the Hephaestus chariot going slack on the reins. Thalia handed tossed her spear to Nico, and stated: "Break it and this chariot gets a little more room in it." Then continued to go harder on the reins.
"oh." Nico muttered.
"She's very competitive." Percy countered.
"I can see that." He finished, then did what he assumed Thalia wanted him to do: He shoved the tip of the spear into the wheel of the Hephaestus Chariot; which promptly lost control of itself. It was then the crew seemed to notice that most of the cabins had spun out by now. Lot of injuries. Thalia even snapped out of her fight or flight mindset as she took a look around. Hurt campers, the infirmary would have to use more of their godly healing supplies, which they were on a limit on these days. This couldn't be smart, could it? If Camp Half-Blood was attacked any time soon, they'd be down a lot of good soldiers. This seemed like-
Her train of thought was then interrupted by a sword penetrating the chariot side. The first to respond, surprisingly, was Nico. "You chipped the paint job!" He said, a mixture of anger and offense obvious in his tone. He was actually quite proud of the work the three had done together, and to see it damaged upset him a bit. "You are so redoing that!"
The Ares cabin answered by throwing another sword; except they hit a bump, messing up the kids aim. What was supposed to hit a wheel instead zoomed past Percy's face, and managed to graze his cheek. Now, for those who don't know: Getting hit with celestial bronze, hurts like hell. Even a small nick can make it feel like the right side of your face is burning off, which is exactly how it felt for good ol' Jackson. He kneeled down in pain, a multitude of Greek curse words escaping his mouth. There was a small second of silence before Thalia stated in a deadly calm, a tone you want to run away from if you ever hear her speak it.
"Do you guys care about winning anymore?"
It got a resounding no from both parties, to which the daughter of Zeus said:
"Good."
Then proceeded to match speed with the Ares cabin, ram into them, cut of the reins from both Spot and the enemy horse; then jump ship to deck the woman who threw the sword in the face; whose name happened to be Clarisse La Rue, officially knocking both chariots out of the race; with luckily minimum damage done to the body.
So in the end, The Aphrodite cabin won, and our heroes have to clean stables for a week.
Yay.
A/N: ay y'all, inspiration hit. Hope you enjoyed.