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Percy and Clarisse always had sort of a rocky relationship. It probably didn’t help that within their first interaction the older girl had tried to stuff his head down a toilet. The retribution she had coming. Somedays he still would have a laugh over the daughter of Ares being covered in toilet water.
After that, though their relationship didn’t really improve. They were continuously fighting especially after he had broken her first spear in his first Capture the Flag game at camp. Again though, Percy figured that she had it coming. Although it was kind of unfair that he had an advantage since he had been standing in water which gave him a power boost.
Their relationship still continued to be rocky continuing into his second year at Camp. It did give him some insights into why she was the way she is. Percy didn’t envy her for having Ares as a father.
Their relationship then improved after he helped her get back the stolen chariot from her two godly brothers. After that, they still had a rough relationship but it wasn’t totally hostile. Clarisse did eventually come to help them during the battle of Manhattan, but he did still consider her to be unreasonably stubborn.
The daughter of Ares had softened a bit after Selina’s death and he could see that it had hit her particularly hard. Clarisse didn’t have too many friends at camp because of her standoffish nature and so to have Selina be revealed to be the traitor and then die immediately afterwards had hit her hard.
All in all, it led to their current situation of facing off against each other during Capture the Flag. It was like his first summer all over again.
Clarisse didn’t spend too much time at camp anymore since she was now going to university with Chris. So it was rare for them to actually play Capture the Flag again.
Per usual the two of them were on opposite teams. This wasn’t really a surprise since this happened a lot. The main reason for this was that it was typically the Athena and Ares cabins that held the flags. It made sense since those two’s patron gods were gods of war.
Like most times the week leading up to the game had everyone tense. It was only their second round of it since the war so emotions were still running high. The camp had been uncharistically empty due to all the casualties that had occurred. Most people were just getting back into the normal pace of the camp and a big portion of them still had lingering injuries from the battle. None of them were super serious, mostly still just tense and sprained muscles but enough that it was annoying.
Even Chiron and Mr. D had been pretty lax on the rules for the past month or so. Mr. D himself had been pretty busy with the cleanup of Olympus and all of the extra meetings they held there due to the war. Chiron on the other hand was practically singlehandedly running the camp while still running the efforts for the last few stragglers of Kronos’s army.
Clarisse herself had run a few of those missions as she had been pretty restless. Percy more often than not opted to stay out of those missions since he was still incredibly emotionally drained from the battle.
Just a few days after the war it had all come crashing down on him and he had spent most of the day doing nothing. Annabeth had been on Olympus heading the cleanup crew and getting designs for the rebuilding effort started. Grover and some other Satyrs had also been busy checking up on the nature spirits to see if they had been affected, and his best friend still had his own duties as Lord of the Wild to attend to.
For most of the war, he had pushed back his own feelings about what was going on and tended to focus on leading the measly defence they had.
He had definitely gotten off track and had zoned out which Clarisse took as an advantage. She quickly lunged at him, Maimer being held in her hand with a deathly grip. Percy barely dodged in time and rolled to the side, and came up swinging.
The two of them duelled with their usual intensity. While to onlookers it definitely looked like they were trying to kill each other, both of them knew that the other would stop before one of them could get seriously injured. They had definitely worked through their murderous tendencies with each other within the past few years.
The two of them duelled very quickly, neither of them wanting to relent. Both he and Clarisse were on even footing and when they duelled Percy preferred to be away from water so the two would have an even match. Clarisse was one of his favourite people to duel since she attacked with ruthless intent.
He vaguely noticed a small crowd of the younger campers forming around them, his primary focus being on Clarisse swinging her electric spear at his head.
He ducked again and sent his leg in a low kick, aiming for her ankles. Clarisse deftly umped over and Percy took that second to stand up and get Riptide in front of him. “You’re getting slow Clarisse!” he taunted. Clarisse sent him a grin that used to terrify him but now he knew better.
“And you’re getting lazy Prissy!” she responded jabbing Maimer forwards which he batted away with Riptide, electric tingles being sent up that arm. Throughout the years he had gotten used to that feeling so the numb feeling wasn’t as strong as it once had been.
Percy just returned with a smirk and lunged with Riptide, aiming for a slash that butted her spear away with the hilt. It continued like this, both of them sending taunts at the other, just having a fun time.
On one of the newer campers' faces, he saw a vague level of concern. Percy figured it was because of the speed at which they were fighting (he was wrong apparently, the Stoll brothers had corrected him, apparently it was because it looked like the two of them were aiming to decapitate each other).
Their fight was migrating deeper into the forest where more people were fighting and rushing at each other to get to the flags. Apparently, most plans had been abandoned and it was now a free-for-all to see who could get the other teams flags first. People were running past them haphazardly with weapons raised with someone else typically chasing after them.
It was Percy’s favourite brand of chaos.
The two of them were a whirlwind of blades as they pushed each other back in a flurry of movements.
Their typical rhythm was sent spiralling out of control when one of Clarisse’s newer siblings sent himself flying into the fray. Percy blocked the boy’s slash and sent him flying back with a single swing of his sword.
Clarisse once again lunged at him and Percy forgot all about it as he defended himself quickly.
They were interrupted again as the same kid came back for an attempt at round two. Clarisse growled.
“Hey, back off! Only I’m allowed to fight Prissy!” she yelled. Percy rolled his eyes but saw his opportunity to attack. He jumped up from where he was standing in a crouch and sent Riptide towards her unprotected chest.
Clarisse barely blocked in time. “Hey, hey! I can take two of you!” Percy said nonchalantly, eager for a challenge. Clarisse raised an eyebrow but relented nonetheless.
Time seemed to blur as the battle recommenced this time with him against two Ares campers. The younger Ares camper (who he couldn’t remember the name of) quickly showed that he hadn’t had much time at the camp. Percy could spot a few holes in his defence which he made plans to help him correct (somehow he had let Chiron convince him to take charge of a few of the classes which he kind of regretted since it was spent with quite a few questions about his quests).
The other Ares camper was quick to notice that he was outmatched and within a few good hits from Percy he had backed off.
Somewhere, in a different part of the forest, Chiron blew the conch horn, signalling the end of the game.
Both Percy and Clarisse stopped themselves midswing and held their weapons to the side. It was a mutual agreement that when the conch horn blew that their duel would end.
Percy turned to shake her hand. “Good duel.” He nodded.
Clarisse narrowed her eyes. “Until next time, Jackson.”