"You don't count. You don't like anyone. Sometimes I have a hard time believing you even like me." Tempe teased, offering him a teasing grin. "Yeah, I've noticed that. I should start calling you Captain Obvious She joked. "Mmmhm. You can look at it all day long if you keep doing that." She hummed lightly, closing her eyes for a moment and leaning into his fingers as he toyed with her hair. She offered him a grin at his next comment. "Good point. Anyway, you ready to go kick some demigod ass?" She teased, hopping up and trailing at his side.

"That's not true- how do you have a hard time believing it already?! I told you last night! How much have you been thinking about it?" Zephyr joked with a grin, mildly amused. And a little .. pfft. Hopeful. Did she really care enough to actually think about him at all? He never had that feeling. To know someone, somewhere, might be thinking about HIM. Since his mother drowned when he was 5, he didn't understand what love, or even like, was then. At her words he snorted. "Oh please don't. That phrase is way too overused." He answered, a bit dramatically, his lips curling into a small smile against his will at her next words. He decided not to answer, for one because other demigods were rushing to the wide sandy sparring area and for two because he didn't know how. At her last comment he let out a short laugh. "I guess you could say that. I'm just not overly enthusiastic about totally winning." He joked with a grin, though he was a little excited- he loved sparring. Swords were his thing. Archery not so much.

"I know. It still feels like a dream everytime you remind me." Tempe said, the spitting image of happiness. She looked ready to bounce around for a few hours just out of how content she was. She was slightly worried for this- thing, that was going on. But hopefully, she wouldn't suck too bad. She was more skilled with a bow than a sword, but she could hold her own well enough. "Well, optimism goes a long way. You should try it sometime." She teased, following him out to the arena and tilting her head with curiousity.

Zephyr lifted his eyebrows slightly, looking the slightest bit surprised when she spoke. "My brain is still convinced I'm dreaming." He snorted quietly, mostly to hide the fact he just wanted to tip over backwards and stare at the sky with a melted expression on his face. Again, he wasn't even sure how it was possible she cared, but again and again, she proved she did. He glanced at her as they approached the arena, chuckling slightly. "I should try it sometime. It might help me. It isn't like I've made it my whole life without it or anything." He answered sarcastically, looking around at the gathered people.

Chiron started speaking, explaining the rules- pretty much no maiming or killing. He then paired up people, and everyone got separated, including Zeph and Tempe.

To his utter joyless annoyance, he got magically paired up with Amelia, who looked WAY too happy about it. At least he got to kick her butt. All he had to do was get her weapon away from her or get her to give up. They were given the swords that they had formerly chosen, then the fights started. Zeph easily defeated her and kept moving on in the matches. The number of people still participating got cut in half each time.

-

(Don't judge yet lol... but I tried (and kinda failed) to male something for Ajax. It didn't turn out quite how I wanted, and it didn't really capture his exact expression, but hey- I tried xD

)

It does good! He looks too happy to be Ajax lol- but it's so, so gorgeous! Great job :) ))

Tempe giggled faintly at his response, just refraining from skipping as they made their way to the arena. There was, however, a definite pep in her step there hadn't been the day before. "It could! If you didn't always expect the worst, maybe the worst would happen less often." She teased.

She listened intently to Chiron explain, stretching slightly as they were separated. Her first match up was an easy fight, a twiggy Demeter kid who didn't look even vaguely like he wanted to participate. She disarmed him in about two moves, mainly because he didn't try.

She fared better than she expected, sweating but pleased by the time the semifinals rolled up- where she was paired with Luke. Lovely. He didn't seem extremely upset, but she had a feeling that he wasn't keeping the no maiming or killing rule in the forefront of his mind.

(Pretend he's looking at Mercy xD

Thanks!)

-

There were a grand total of four people left when Zephyr finally got a break. He wiped his brow, which was, admittedly, slick with sweat by now. He always held pride in his swordfighting skills, but that didn't mean he didn't exert a lot of effort to do what he did. He took the moment to glance around at the last four people, his lips curling into a half smile as he saw Tempe, and falling as he saw her partner. Luke. Zeph did hope this didn't end with Tempe bleeding on the ground. He did not look lowly upon her in any way, but Luke's swordfighting skills were... to kill for. Zeph was the only person that had ever beaten him. But who knew, maybe Tempe would be better than expected. Zeph was up against none other than his least favorite person at camp, Jock. He had absolutely no idea how the Ares boy made it this far. Brute strength, probably. Zephyr stepped back into swordfighting position and concentrated. As the matches started he immediately dodged a blow that would've easily taken his head off. "Jock, buddy, slow down- no killing!" He yelped as he ducked under another blow that probably would've sent his guts spewing across the wall behind them. Zephyr nimbly jumped in and got in a couple quick slashes at Jock's sword, but most of the time he spent dodging blows and trying not to get murdered. Near the end he amped it up and started getting quicker, then swung across with a clang. Metal scraped against metal, and a loud snap rang across the grounds. A bit of nervous fear punched his heart, because if his sword just broke then Jock was going to kill him. Literally. With a sigh of relief he saw that Jock's sword had broken clean in half. The boy looked furious. "Sorry." Zeph winced, taking a step back in case Jock decided strangling was the next best method.

Tempe let loose a calm breath and caught Zephyr's eye, giving him a subtle wink as she twirled her sword around her fingers and rebalanced, taking her position across from Luke. She offered him what she hoped was a friendly smile- which he didn't return- and wiped her brow of sweat before she circled him. Or, they circled each other. He moved in to take up the first blow, taking a shallow slash at her side, which she glanced easily off her blade. She counterstruck to slash at his chest, but his blade caught hers. They danced back and forth with a few more parries before Luke seemed to take off whatever restraint he had been holding. It was all She could do just to avoid his blade, and she rarely got a strike in. She was starting to get tired, and her brain felt like it was slowing down in spite of the adrenaline. She figured it was time for a last ditch plan and watched Luke make a particularly violent slash for her ribcage. With his hands lowered, she brought her blade up to his throat, taking not even a half-moment to see the slice in the fabric of her shirt. Luckily, no blood. He looked, for lack of a better word, livid. He stalked off anyway, and Tempe stooped to set her hands on her knees and pant.

Zephyr took a second, after he caught his breath, to observe what wounds he had sustained. He had a habit of going numb when he was fighting, so that he didn't get distracted. Now he saw blood. He blinked and looked down at his thigh, which was definitely the worst. Jock must've got in a good hit. He winced as his gaze trailed to his chest. Another smaller wound. And his arm. Holy guacamole. He was so slow! He couldn't even dodge JOCK'S hits? He sat down on a bench for a moment. There was a 10 minute break so that Zephyr and... he looked over. Tempe!? Amazement marred his vision as he stood and walked over, slowly looking at Luke and then Tempe again. "You beat him?" He asked slowly. "Okay. I'm afraid. Very very afraid." His eyebrows shot up as he smiled faintly, favoring his leg slightly. The pain had really started flowing in. "That's impressive, to say the least. Do you know how hard it is to beat Luke?!" He asked with a snort, sitting back down again for the last 8 or so minutes, looking a little tired.

Tempe only glanced up at the sound of Zephyr's voice, chest still heaving faintly. She shot him a wry grin anyway and walked to sit at his side. She didn't have any major wounds, but a couple of cuts here and there were slowly weeping blood down her toned abdomen. "Beat is a strong word. I got lucky. He took it easy on me. Plus, Chiron kept giving me easy matchups before that. I smell bribery." She shrugged, tipping her head down to pat her face dry with her shirt. She snickered at him and dropped the fabric. "You? Afraid of a woman? No way. Totally, never would have suspected." She teased. "Oh, I've heard. And I have a feeling revenge will be finding me soon. On another note, how did you get hurt that badly without being disqualified?" She asked lightly, setting her fingers ever so softly on her leg.

Zephyr glanced at her, his gaze slightly concerned as he noticed her small wounds, but it was inevitable in a sword fight. His gaze lingered 1/9th of a second too long on her rather well muscled stomach, which in his eyes was a PROBLEM he was supposed to be DIFFERENT from everyone else- but it was too late. He glanced away before listening to her words with a chuckle. "Bribery, eh? I'm not hearing too much confidence in there." He smirked slightly, then rolled his eyes. "When you put it that way... prepare to have your butt kicked." He snorted. Her question was rewarded with a wince as he glanced down at his leg. "Um.. Gorilla No Brains Jock decided to have too much fun. I'm obviously not fast enough to dodge." He answered with a dry tone. "And no one really cares. It's not like he cut off one of my limbs. The more experienced you get, the more Chiron turns the other way. I'm pretty sure our well being isn't his top priority." Zephyr snorted, looking up as they were called. "Hope you're ready." He grinned slightly before standing, cracking his knuckles jokingly, although still favoring his leg slightly as he grabbed his sword and got ready.