Previously:
The wizard's eyes widened, and the crowd roared in excitement.

"You can not even being to imagine the possibilities you hold." I said. In one move, I sent all the water I grabbed and a small stream of fire at him.

If possible, the audience got louder as the water splashed through them but not—I think—in a bad way. And the match was over.

- - -

"You got me wet."

"I'm sorry, Zoë, you were in the splash zone."

"You got me wet."

I put my hands up in a 'what do you want me to do, you're already dry' motion.

She huffed and stomped to the room.

"How'd it go?" I asked as Frank came back into the training room after his match. The room was slowly getting emptier as the days went on. It was now the fifth day and we were finally getting good matches. Both of us have taken to using our powers more often to win.

Frank just sighed as he dumped his bow and quiver down next to me and held up a finger. He left me sitting on the bench very confused. He returned seconds later dragging a robed person behind him. "I lost." Frank said as he almost threw the person he was dragging onto the bench next to me. As he did, the hood of the robe fell down.

My brow jumped to my hairline. "You lost? With the people we've been seeing here?" Then the face of the robed person next to me registered in my brain. "Merlin? Frank, are you saying you lost to Merlin?"

Frank crossed his arms over his chest. "He's been in the competition this whole time."

"Why'd you never tell us?" I asked, sagging my shoulders. "Do you not trust us?"

Merlin eyed us each carefully. "No." he said finally. "You can't keep a secret."

"We've kept the secret that you're magic from the knights!" I protested.

"True, you haven't said it outright but all of you have not been exactly subtle about it either!" Merlin said. "Remember the other day when Arthur nearly fought that magician who lost all his chances in the market square?"

"Yeah, you stopped them by making the cloth cover of that merchant booth fall on the guy's head!" I said excitedly. "Then—"

"—Then you proceeded to ask Arthur if things like that happen around him to make things magically work out." Merlin finished, giving me the stink eye. "And Frank said there must be someone watching out for him all the time to be able to do things like that no matter where he is."

"That could have meant a number of things." Frank said, waving his hand.

Merlin turned his stink eye to the son of Mars. "Arthur then turned to me with a dangerously contemplative look on his face. He doesn't think very quickly so it's a good thing Estelle decided to bring him whatever she was looking at the time but he was entirely too close to figuring it out."

"That's a good thing, though, isn't it?" I was confused again.

"No!" Merlin said, standing from his seat. "I don't want to put them in that position!"

"But, Merlin, don't you think having them find out here would be better than in Camelot?" I said. "Then they can have time to think things through before you all go home without worrying about needing to uphold the law."

Merlin paused in his pacing at my words. He stared off into space until finally, he glanced at the both of us with new eyes. "You're smarter than you look."

I sighed. "I get that a lot. So, Frank, how'd you loose against him?"

Frank glowered at said warlock. "He surprised me. I wasn't expecting him."

"How? They call out the names before the match even starts." Confused seemed to be my constant state today.

"He's going by the name of Emrys while he fights."

"Changing your name isn't going to be enough to be unrecognizable in the fights from the knights." I scolded him. " Besides, if you stay in long enough, we might fight each other and it'll be even harder."

"I expect to be out long before then. You're going to win from what I've seen." Merlin said.

"I don't know; if Zoë's biased conclusions about the other competitors is to be believed, you will be able to get to the end." I said. "Especially if Frank and I train you."

—- —- —-

The days following the fight that got Frank out of the competition, Frank and I trained with Merlin. Under the guise of helping him know his way around a sword or bow and arrow, the three of us would spend hours after dinner in the forest just outside of town training. Arthur and his knights showered us with appreciation for helping to keep 'helpless Merlin' safe. Apparently they've all tried but they never made much headway.

"So you said that you have some control over the weather and elements, right?" I said at the start of one such session. Merlin nodded in response.

"From what Frank has told me of your fights, you use a lot of wind and storm magic and a little fire. This is perfect because I'm going to teach you mastery over water."

"That's been the hardest for me." Merlin admitted. "Every time I try controlling water it's like it..."

"Laughs at you?" I finished with a smirk. "That's because you can't control water."

"But you just said—"

"I said I'm teaching you to have mastery over it. Not control." I clarified. "Water does what it wants. My father once said that 'the sea does not like to be restrained.' In gaining a mastery over it, you will be able to know almost every quirk water has and how to manipulate it into doing what you want it to. One of the first times I used my water powers in the arena was to bring the water down from the various fountains and pipes. That was the easiest way to do it. Do you see why?"

"Because you were freeing it." Merlin's eyes lit up in understanding.

I grinned. "Exactly. Now, you're not going to have as much mastery over it because you don't have an almost genetic connection to it like I do but you should be able to gain a decent amount because of your own connection to magic itself." I said. "Which I still can't wrap my head around but let's focus..."

Merlin's progress sky rocketed after that lesson. It seemed part of his motivation was protecting Arthur so his desire to get better drove him to learn even how to fight with a sword. Something I've been told was a lesson he least liked in the past. He was the best with the bow, however. Especially when he realized he could trick out his arrows with spells.

At one point while training him, I realized I was going to have a harder time fighting him because of this. Ah, well. I wanted a challenge, didn't I?

—- —- —-

My last fight of the competition if I loose. If I win, I move onto the finals where I may or may not fight Merlin.

And no way was I going down to this guy.

He was the largest guy I'd seen. His muscles had muscles. If I were being entirely honest, he reminded me of my old friend, the Minotaur. He had a massive double bladed axe with barbs at the base, a big, bald forehead, a gold nose ring in his right nostril, and three gold earrings of various sizes in his left ear. Oh, and he growls and grunts too.

"Do you even know any magic?" I asked Mud—as he was called, Mud of Saxon—dubiously as I dodged a swing meant to lop off my head. "Hey! There's a strict no killing rule here!"

Mud just shrugged and grinned, showing several missing teeth.

"Lovely." I said under my breath. "This dude doesn't care about his face, which means if I try knocking him out, I won't be able to. And if I try strangling him to knock him out, his neck muscles will protect him. What now?"

I can't leave Merlin to potentially fight this guy. Even Merlin's next opponent wouldn't last two seconds against him.

Trying out a trick I'd only thought about, I grabbed hold of the water in the barrels around the edge of the arena (they'd put those there after I broke the fountains the first time) and flooded the floor. There were several shouts of excitement that made it through the noise dampening spells on the arena.

Mud glanced around at his feet warily. He must have heard about the water. I grinned up at him cheerfully just as the water exploded around us, soaking the first few rows in the audience. It started swirling around me as I ran around Mud to the lanterns next to the barrels.

He spun around, trying to keep his eye on me, so he didn't catch onto my plan.

One by one, I knocked over the lanterns, the floor getting progressively darker. I saw some members of the audience get disappointed at not being able to see but I ignored them. They won't have anything to complain about soon enough.

With the water still swirling around Mud and I, and the torches extinguished but the oil thoroughly mixed with the water, I froze. Facing the giant of a man as he continued to spin around the arena, trying to figure out where I went.

I waited for Mud to stop moving then let the water still and grinned in anticipation. Taking Riptide out, I coated it in my flames without letting it touch the water...yet. With it lighting up, I saw the same disappointed audience members visibly gasp.

Mud took a few steps back. "You cannot hide in your darkness now, Jackson." He said smugly. He hefted his axe in both of his hands and started towards me.

I did my best to hold in my laughter so I wouldn't seem insane.

"You're so sure I did that to hide?" I taunted as I lowered my sword slowly to the water. I didn't move. The audience didn't move. The only one doing so was Mud. He stalked towards me, not taking his eyes off mine, completely missing the moment my flames came in contact with the oil saturated water.

Immediately, fire erupted and spread to the rest of the water, which had started swirling again.

The audience leapt to their feet as the fire traveled slowly in Mud's direction. His eyes widened in panic, and with nowhere to go, he could do nothing but charge. By that time, I'd coated my hand in flames too, and grabbed hold of the axe handle as he swung, burning it to ashes right in his hands.

Now weaponless and surrounded, he raised his hands and backed away. He was getting burned everywhere he went. If he wanted to live, he had to yield.

But of course that would be if he were a rational human being. I shouldn't have expected rationality from someone with absolutely no magic who entered a magical competition and still made it to the semi-finals.

—- —- —- —-

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Gwaine exclaimed upon the group getting back together that night. "The way you wiped the floor with that guy was awesome! Not even Arthur could have done better!"

"Hang on!" Arthur protested. "We don't know that!"

"Oh, sure." Merlin agreed with a laugh. "We've seen you fight, remember? Any time you face against an axe, you nearly die. Percy didn't even use his sword beyond lighting it on fire."

I shrugged. "It was more of an intimidation tactic."

"The point is," Elyan said, leaning over the table, grinning. "You wouldn't have been able to properly fight him without having an advantage like magic."

"I beg to differ." Leon spoke up. "We have defeated plenty of opponents magical and non—magical that were much stronger than that beast of a man. Without magic."

Lancelot coughed into his cup and Merlin just found something on the other side of the room more fascinating than coming clean.

Smirking, I decided to mess with them. "I doubt that."

Merlin jerked his head to glare in my direction.

"What do you mean?" Percival asked.

"I mean," I started, "that many magical beings or problems require magical solutions. There cannot be very many opponents like that in which you've won without magic."

Now Merlin was coughing and Lancelot was looking in the direction the warlock had been. Only this time he had a smile.

"I can name more than five!" Leon said smugly.

"Oh, please do." Zoë leaned forward. I could tell she was looking forward to this.

"Well, there was the troll that almost married King Uther..."

—- —- —- —-

In the room where all Percy's previous opponents sat, giving their best advice to Merlin, the atmosphere was strongly conflicted. On one hand, people were scared for Merlin. Percy's last opponent was carried away on a stretcher.

"He's scary, don't shoot any water up his nose, he seemed to take that personally."

"Go for his legs, if you manage to make him stumble, you might have a chance."

"He's got fire and water and a sword, you'd most likely live if you just forfeited now."

"Don't let him mix all three."

On the other hand...well...Merlin was finding it difficult to keep a straight face. Percy's training the last two days helped him have a better understanding of his fighting style than the people giving him their advice right now. Nevertheless, for the most part, they were right. All things mentioned would be good to watch out for but the biggest concern is one they hadn't even considered.

Percy Jackson doesn't care how big the difference between yours and his power levels was. He's going to take you down just because it's fun. This brings out an unpredictability and creativity not seen in most warriors. This is what Merlin would need to be careful of. No matter how much of an upper hand he could have, Percy would find a way to make that his worst disadvantage.

"Emrys, I don't think you understand. He makes getting electrified seem like he's being tickled."

Ah, yes. There was also the fact that the immortal teenager's pain tolerance is ridiculously high because of his background.

Merlin was excited for the match.

But he was also doomed.

—- —- —- —-

"And now, the final gambit!" The announcer's voice rang through the stadium. "Let's welcome to the stage, Peeerrrrsssseeeuuussss Jacksoooooooon!"

Doors on one side of the arena slammed open and Percy walked through, not hearing the sudden increase in volume coming from the stands. It was almost enough to break the sound dampening spells.

"Aaaaaaannnnnd Eeeemmmrys!" Doors on the other end slammed open and a hooded, robed Merlin walked through.

"Who do you think will win? Percy or Emrys?" Estelle asked Arthur with an almost cheeky grin.

Arthur eyed the two combatants with a shrewd look. In his mind, Percy was the clear champion, given how he'd seen the hooded one was fighting, but he knew enough about magic to know that everything was not always as it appeared. He knew Percy had been holding onto a few trump cards so it stood to reason that the hooded one would be too. When in doubt, he glanced at Percy's younger sister, pick the safest answer.

"Oh, Percy, definitely."

Zoë chuckled. "Good answer."

Oh, she knew who was under the hood. She still thought Percy was superior. She'd seen Merlin training.

Right off the bat, Percy lit Riptide on fire and the crowd erupted anew. He certainly knew how to win over a crowd.

Merlin knew not to give Percy much more time than that. He launched a ball of fire his way before Riptide was even fully lit. It wasn't the best choice given how Percy is connected to fire in almost the same way he is to water but at least he didn't send a stream of water toward him. That would have lowered Zoë's opinion of him considerably.

Percy swung Riptide like a bat at the ball of fire and it few out of the stadium, fizzling out before it even reached it's peak. As Merlin was readying a small electric storm—which might have actually done something—Percy stomped his right foot hard, causing a tremor so violent that the crowd grew silent.

Only to completely deafen every occupant the very next second. Zoë had her hands over Estelle's ears, hopelessly hoping to prevent damage there. She rolled her eyes when she saw Lancelot glance over at her.

Merlin had stumbled to the ground in surprise. From the ground, he saw Percy smirk and shrug shamelessly. Merlin just smirked under his hood, his eyes flashing gold through the shadows covering his face.

A lantern shot towards Percy's head and only his reflexes helped him dodge quick enough. But it gave Merlin enough time to enchant the larger than life stone lions around the arena with an animation spell. They each shot onto the floor and began circling Percy.

The demigod hefted his sword at the challenge and leapt into battle. "Too scared to fight me face to face?" Percy called.

"Yes!" Merlin answered, much to the amusement of the audience.

"Get over here, scaredy-cat." Percy said, not even looking as he sliced at another former stone lion.

"Fine." Merlin sighed.

Then, Merlin did something that told Percy that he's been practicing something on his own.

His right hand reached to his left side and pulled from thin air, a glowing, almost translucent golden sword. It cackled with electricity that Percy could feel from across the arena. This pulled the crowd in his favor. Even through the spells to mute the audience, the two could hear their screams.

Percy frowned. Up until that point, the crowd had been his. "You realize water is a conductor for electricity?" Merlin and the audience sat in ignorant and confused silence.

"Huh?" Merlin asked the question on all of their minds.

Percy sighed. Reaching for the barrels of water around the floor, he walked calmly toward Merlin, the water rushing to the both of them. It lapped at their ankles mischievously, as if it knew what Percy was planning. "Turn that down to non-lethal for a moment."

"It already was." Merlin said matter of factly.

"Eh? How were you planning on defeating me with the voltage that low? Never mind," Percy shook his head. He was getting off track. "Watch this."

Percy convinced the water to stay away from him and Merlin. "Touch the water with your sword."

He did so.

"Good. Now hold still." Percy swiped his hand at Merlin as if to splash him, and the water responded. Immediately, he seized up and fell to the ground.

The fight was over.

—- —- —- —-

We were riding with our friends from Camelot a few days after the tournament only as far as the inn on the outskirts of town. We'd seen a cyclopes our last day at the tournament and knew we had to leave soon. I wasn't entirely sure he wasn't following us out.

"And how long have you been practicing magic?" Sir Leon asked Merlin. It seems the poor knight had been the only one who hadn't figured it out. And the others had all figured it out on their own but thought they were the only ones to do so. Even Arthur, who I thought would be the last to know had actually been one of the first.

"I was born with it, but I've been practicing for years now." Merlin answered. He looked around at the others, his eyes lingering on Arthur. He was still in shock that they'd known the whole time. "How long have the rest of you known?"

"Since the trip to the Fish King." Gwaine said immediately.

"Since we found you as an old man in the forest." Elyan and Percival said.

"Since you saved my life." Arthur said.

"Which time?" Merlin and all the knights said at the same time.