Board Thread:Antaeus' Arena: Audience Chamber/@comment-1515612-20150930233157/@comment-10353303-20160207003547

It'd have been interesting to see if the two actually had a longer length duration of time in which to fight to see which of the two were actually better swordsmen. As it is right now, we don't even know if they are equal because they only fought for a limited amount of time:

"She rolled to the edge of the road and looked back, dazed and horrified, as the boys crossed swords, gold against bronze. Sparks flew. Their blades blurred—strike and parry—and the pavement trembled. The first exchange took only a second, but Piper couldn’t believe the speed of their sword fighting." (Chapter 11)

During this initial crossing of swords, they would have been fresh, which does not indicate much, if anything (even the worst swordsman could hold/evade an enemy during the first round of fighting). An exchange of swords isn't measured solely in terms of how quickly he/she can dominate the enemy, but rather (especially in this case), also how long one can outlast the other. How the two would react when fatigued during a fight between each other would be the deciding factor in determining which of the two was the better swordsman (the one who still fights with equal or just slightly lower precision and does not make as many mistakes despite being fatigued is the better fighter).

It would have been nice to see them use their powers more during the fight but alas, all we can do is hypothesize this aspect. Again I will reiterate the possibility of Percy conjuring pure water (a poor conductor of electricity = an insulator) to protect himself from Jason's lightning bolts. This being said, one area in which Jason could potentially use to deadly effect is his control over the wind. I am not sure how masterful he is over his abilities ("he's pretty good" is a poor indication of how skilled he is), but he could potentially utilize the wind to deadly effect. Even disregarding buffeting Percy with strong winds, even a simple gust of wind strong enough to cause Percy to lose balance during a swordfight would have been deadly enough.