Percy recognizes Geras’s challenge as a trap: refusing means destruction, but accepting means wrestling a god who embodies Old Age. Geras’s presence makes Percy feel physically panicked and fragile, helping Percy understand why even immortals fear Geras’s ancientness.

To buy time, Percy negotiates terms. Geras agrees that if Percy loses, Geras will destroy only Percy and let Annabeth and Grover go. Percy also clarifies the win condition: Percy must force one of Geras’s knees to the pavement, while Geras wins by flattening Percy’s face against the ground.

Percy demands that Geras release Annabeth and Grover from the slowed state holding them at the chess game. Geras snaps his fingers, and Percy’s friends rush over. Annabeth immediately identifies Geras and realizes the bargain is a wrestling match; she pulls Percy aside to warn that Geras is nearly impossible to beat, since only Hercules ever wrestled him to a draw through brute strength.

Percy considers whether Geras might be right about immortality and whether leaving the chalice with him would spare Ganymede and limit the gods’ abuses. Percy decides he still must honor Ganymede’s request because choosing Ganymede’s fate without permission would make Percy too much like Zeus. Annabeth accepts that the choice is Percy’s but warns him not to underestimate Geras.

Percy returns to confirm the rules, while Grover tries unsuccessfully to trade leftover mochi donuts for the chalice. As soon as Percy asks when they begin, Geras attacks without warning, leaping onto Percy’s back with crushing weight. Percy barely stops his face from hitting the pavement, and Geras taunts him that the match can start whenever Percy likes.