Josh: Chapter 28-30

After Capture the flag, everyone's proud of me, not only because I had helped out the campers to win the capture the flag, but I helped them when going against the hunters of Artemis, which the campers lost 60 times in a row, which of course, we now had won. I felt that I was different now. Before the quest, I still doubted my skills, but after, I gained confidence.

Thalia and the hunters walked to me, which was surprising, since the hunters mostly detests boys, but I figure that they wanted to talk to me about something.

"Josh," Thalia began. "That was amazing back there! You looked at my shield without even being scared!"

"Whoa?" I'm confused now. "What's so special about that shield anyway? Does it radiate some kind of presence?"

"This is Aegis. It's a gift from my father. It radiates petrifying aura to anyone looking at it, but I'm surprised to how you are immune to the effect."

Now I get it, the shield radiated a petrifying aura to those who looked at it. But still, how come I can't sense it?

"I'm so surprised that you didn't tremble in its presence." Thalia said. "I could swear that all campers did move away from the shield."

"Well, see you later." I said. "I better get going to the sword fighting."

I went to the sword fighting arena and caught sight of a hell hound. I could tell that it was a girl. She was bigger than a tank, with fur covered all around her, and she seemed to be snoring.

Then a girl behind me said, "That's Mrs. O'Leary."

I turned around and saw Clarisse. She's going to sword fighting with all of us, as it is now her schedule.

"Well, come on! We're gonna be late for sword fighting." Clarisse said.

"Oh, okay." I said. Then I jogged towards the sword fighting arena.

Once we're in the sword fighting arena, Clarisse went to the back room to bring a stash of weapons, but I already had one, so I don't need to worry about that.

Clarisse came back with a stash of swords, Nico didn't need one either because he already had one. I noticed that Nico's blade is black in color.

Nice noticed me looking at it. "It's Stygian Iron."

"Stygian Iron..." I said, amazed. "From the river Styx?"

Nico nodded.

"Alright!" Clarisse barked. "Everyone get one of these and go to the arena!"

So everyone picked up a weapon, Percy sticks with his riptide, Annabeth used a dagger, which is strange, because everyone else used a sword. Clarisse used her sword that's about 4 feet in length.

I counted how many people in the arena, there were 10 of them including me, and each came from a different cabin. I was paired up with a girl from Hephaestus cabin. She told me her name was Nyssa, she looked kind of stocky in build like other people in the Hephaestus cabin.

I looked at her blade, I could've sworn that blade was forged by herself because there was no brand that forged the blade that long. It must've been a few inches longer than mine.

She noticed me looking at it. "This is eta."

"Eta? As in 'Estimated Time Arrival?"

She nudged me. "No you silly! Eta is a symbol of Hephaestus."

"Oh, a symbol. I see."

"Steady, steady..... Begin!!!" Clarisse blowed her whistle.

"What are we doing?" I asked Nyssa.

"We're going to have a swordplay." Nyssa said as she stepped forward. She lunged at me and I blocked her strike.

And then we had our little swordplay. Nyssa is quite agile and strong, but I'm better. I concentrated on not getting chopped into pieces. I parried her overhead cut, I lunged and she blocked. We were taking turns attacking each other, until she made a mistake of thrusting the sword forward. I sidestepped and in one simple maneuver, her blade clattered of the floor.

"Well done Nyssa." I commended her.

"You too Josh, you're..." Nyssa faltered. "Josh, how did you do that?"

I was asked the same question when we were returning from our quest to Camp Half-blood. I felt that I was calmer and tamer, the same exact feeling that I felt just then. I looked at my shield, armor and sword and they all turned to silver. She handed me a mirror, and when I looked at it, my eyes and hair had gone silver.

I decided to change back to golden form when Nyssa raised her hand. "Let's see how you fair against me in your new form."

To be honest, I don't like this form. Not only I was more calmer and tamer, but I am more vulnerable in this form.

But I didn't have time to answer because Nyssa is pressing me again. She parried my swipe to the groin. My combat effectiveness is low when I am in this form, but it may come in handy in certain situations.

She did an overhead cut, which I dodged, and we basically were taking turns attacking each other until she confiscated my sword and won with the sword pointed at my neck.

"Hmm... I think you're better when you're in silver form." Nyssa said.

Like that's going to happen. The score is 1-1. I changed to gold form and lunged at Nyssa. I felt more powerful in golden form. I sidestepped when Nyssa was about to stab me, and I confiscated her sword and pointed the tip of my sword at her throat.

"Well played, Josh. I look forward to battle you again." Nyssa said, offering her hand.

I shook her hands. "I hope we understand each other."

The End