[PRIVATE] fire away

Raziel Swift was a cheery little devil today, and it showed. With a huge grin on her face and an arrogant spring in her step, she shot her nth arrow and watched it hit a dummy's forehead. It joined the other arrows sticking out from various joints and body parts, all of which was her doing. No one could beat Raz in showcasing her archery skills. All her years of training had paid off. Now she was pretty much just whiling away her time in the arena intimidating others with her skill in long-range weapons. (You won't find her anywhere near swords though - Raz thinks she's too cool for that. Pfft. Of course that's the reason.)

Positively glowing with pride and glee, Raziel went to retrieve her arrows when the first clang of metal hitting the ground grabbed her attention. She turned, and her grin grew even wider. Well well, what do you know? It was Neo Foster!

See, once upon a time, she ended up sparring with this Ares guy named Neo Foster. He had a pretty face, but his head was up in space and he needed to come back down to earth. (Pfft, she totally did not relate him to that certain song, nope.) Basically one thing led to another and then she won that little spar (as she had expected). Raz snorted just thinking about it. The look on his face when she kicked his ass... priceless! No wonder she couldn't resist pushing his buttons even more with her gloats and taunts. He was beaten by a girl! He wouldn't be able to show his face in Cabin 5 in pure shame!

All thoughts of showing off practice forgotten, Raz just stood there and watched from a short distance away. However, it soon turned out that it wasn't worth much. Every knife just kept landing in the dirt. The last one even missed spectacularly by several feet.

Good gods, she thought, he's even more terrible than I thought.

Raziel pretended not to notice the irritated look on his face as he downed his water, and that he had obviously been distracted as he made those throws. Her knuckle went to her mouth, muffling the laughter that instantly followed. It wasn't loud, more like giggles actually, or just quick puffs of sharply exhaled air.

But then a spear suddenly sliced the air and for a moment Raz froze, watching it pierce through the dummy's heart in a blink of an eye. She dismissed it quickly enough. Everyone's bound to get lucky at one point, she thought. But still she found herself slinging her bow around her shoulder to free her hands - hands that were now raised high and applauding the boy that made the lucky shot.

"Bravo! Took you long enough!" Raziel glanced at the spear sticking out of the dummy. Then her eyes went to the cluttered mess of knives on the ground and she clicked her tongue in mock disappointment. "Honestly, I thought it would take you years to hit it. Just curious, are you 100% sure that you're a son of Ares? Because I'm pretty sure that Ares' spawns are skilled at the whole weapon thing."

She winked, her lips twitching into an unmistakable smirk.