THEOS

The First Truth of Death gave him just enough warning to leap out of the way, so that when another torrent of water blasted towards Luke, it only dug deep trenches in the ground, and not him.

Although, a cursory inspection revealed that the force of that attack was significantly less than the one he had used on the hydra’s carcass. Which honestly annoyed Luke more than anything. A fact not helped by the teasing glint in Theseus's eyes, or the fact that he had brought his hand to his face– faking a yawn.

It was good to know that Theseus wasn’t attacking with enough power to kill, but even so, it grated on both Luke's nerves and pride that he wasn’t being taken seriously.

It stung, and more than he would like to admit.

Luke was good– really good, when compared to the average warriors of Sylcra, nigh unbeatable in fact. He was better even than most of those who had competed in the tournament– afterall, he was able to overcome both Hephaestus’s divine presence, and where most others had struggled on the steps, not even carrying Rex had slowed him down.

That single attack however, had revealed something that he had suspected since they had locked eyes on the pyramid, and all but confirmed when Theseus had gouged a hole in the hydra.

Luke wasn’t a match for him.

His technique was geared toward finding openings to attack, but to attack, he needed to get close enough to hit him. Which, if the future he was seeing was correct, wasn’t going to happen. There was no way to get close to him without being hit.

Perhaps if the son of Poseidon had fought with an actual weapon, him and Luke would be able to compete on more even grounds. Maybe if Luke were allowed to use all of his weapons, and his rapidly growling collection of talismans, he could put up a better fight against Theseus. Assuming of course, that Theseus wouldn’t be able to use his own substantial wealth and resources against Luke.

Seeing how the tournament disallowed all that, the smart thing then was to give up and hope that once Theseus had both scrolls, he would leave them alone. And, Luke was reasonably sure he would too, once he had both scrolls, not only was continuing to fight pointless, but Luke couldn’t shake the thought that Theseus wanted something. Whatever that was, he wouldn’t get it if he eliminated Luke.

But fuck that, there’s no way I’m giving up our scroll. It's still four, no five of us, against one of him. We have the advantage.I just need to get in close– and Son of Poseidon or not, he only has so much mana before his bloodline drains him dry.

Hell, if he’s smart, he’ll give up before he comes close to running out, or risk someone coming after him when he’s vulnerable.

Which means, we just need to force him to spend enough of it, that going after a weaker target would be more worthwhile.

“This will go faster for all of us, if you just give me your scroll.” Theseus chided, pointing another finger at Luke. Holding on off attacking, as if he fully expected Luke to take him up on the offer.

“For a guy as outnumbered as you are, you sure are cocky.” Luke spat back, keeping a close eye on him and his spector, preparing to dodge at a moment’s notice.

Theseus sighed audibly, his ghost slashed its finger twice, and apparitions of two lines of lethally fast water cut through the air towards him. Covering an area wide enough, to not only pin him, but Rex as well, with a third wave trailing fractions of a second behind, which would hit Luke if he dodged the attack by flying up.

Luke’s sword immediately left his hand, and positioned itself, seemingly of its own will, in front of Rex, while he leaned back so far that his back was nearly pressed against the ground.

Most of the water sailed harmlessly over his head, grazing and cutting a few strands of his hair that lingered in the air, while the rest turned to mist against his sword. In the process, knocking Maximus over thirty feet away. While Luke was confident the blade itself was fine, the grip his mana had on space was weaker when channeled through the sword– which was why he already hadn’t chucked it at Theseus. If the other contestant managed to catch it, then Luke would be completely unarmed for the rest of the battle, and when dealing with reflexes as good as those belonging to warriors, that wasn’t a possibility he could ignore. It was a lesson Heracles had beat into him often enough.

“Hmm. You’re good at dodging.” Theseus grinned at him. “What about your friends?” He said, and this time he aimed past Luke and towards Arya. Just as easily as Luke had, she dodged as well. Suddenly, Theseus’s smile looked a little more strained than it had a second ago. It told Luke all he needed to know.

Theseus wasn’t used to people being able to avoid his attacks.

Yeah that’s right. You won’t have any luck with Spiros either, jackass. Luke thought, calling his blade back to his arm, and completely unable to help smiling, as Theseus took aim towards the lovestruck spear-wielder.

Unfortunately for the Son of Poseidon, that’s when Rex decided to join the battle. Blinky expanding behind him menacingly, he fired one bolt of blistering flame at Theseus after another. Only to have him erect a wall of water in front of him, stopping each fiery projectile in its tracks in an explosion of steam.

Theseus clicked his tongue and sighed. Holding his palm out, he rose a foot into the air, and a cloud of thick mist settled around him, obscuring him from sight.

Shit. Luke cursed internally, the moment his technique cut out. And not just mine either… Spiros and Arya are probably down for the count too unless they learned other Techniques, but even then… we can’t attack if we can’t see him.

Wrapping his body in mana, Luke shot to the sky. Intent on giving himself some space, now that he couldn’t foresee the trajectory of Theseus’s attacks.

Below him, he saw a horrifying sight.

Blinky had left her cape form, and filled the entire clearing where they had slain the hydra with her writhing mass. Most of her form was obscured by the mist though, showing only the vague flashes of writing eyeballs and tendrils hiding in the mist.

Moments later, Arya, Spiros, and Rex all escaped from the misted area, no doubt having the same idea as him.

“What is this– thing?” Theseus’s voice rang out from within the mist. His tone, unexpectedly, not revealing any signs of nervousness or even fright, but instead radiating with pure and utter glee. “How .” He laughed, and immediately, Rex fired an arrow from the direction of the noise. The hiss of evaporating water, the only proof that he had both struck true, and ultimately failed.

Luke watched, at a loss with how to proceed. It didn’t make sense to him. He thought Theseus would be in a rush to escape the foggy hell that the clearing had become. Even if he could defeat Blinky, that didn’t mean it was a good idea to fight her.

It never was.

She wasn’t particularly strong, or even fast, but the amount of damage she could withstand was obscene. The only way to kill her was by destroying every eye, and Luke didn’t think anyone knew how many of those she had. The number constantly shifted from moment to moment, from hundreds, to tens of thousands in the time it took to blink. Even cutting her tendrils was more akin to cutting through a human hair than it was flesh, with her consciousness distributed throughout. Just severing the tendrils wasn’t enough, so long as the eyes on the appendage were intact, and the flesh remained alive, Blinky would just reattach it. It was why Lukeus had resorted to killing Blinky’s mother with a Hero tier talisman in the first place.

Simply put, dreadglares were aberrant. Their biology, if it could even be called that, defied conventional sense. Unfortunately, neither Spiros nor Arya were aware of the fact, and in the heat of the moment, Luke didn’t remember to tell them.

“This is going to suck.” Spiros cursed, his spear twirling in his hands, he, like Luke, watched the fog helplessly. Waiting for the inevitable moment, when he thought Theseus would kill the demon, and turn their attention towards them.

“Any ideas?” Luke asked him, not realizing they were on completely different pages.

“Yeah.” Spiros scratched his chin, and closed his eyes in concentration.

Immediately, Luke realized what he was about to do, but before he could stop him, it was already too late.

Spiros’s ring flashed, and his spear disappeared from his hands. Seconds later, both his fists erupted into brilliant gold flames, the heat of which Luke could feel even dozens of feet away from him. “Rex!” Spiros yelled. “Call back your familiar.”

“Wait—” Rex yelled, but without heeding his warning, Spiros dove back towards the ground. Massive balls of fire shooting out of his fists one after another towards where they had last heard the Son of Poseidon.

In the fog, Blinky screeched, when a stray fireball caught a few dozen of her eyes. Then moments later, her shape congealed into eldritch wings, and a mass of eyeballs pushed against the air and rose in the sky.

Luke cursed under his breath at the wasted opportunity, and blamed himself for it. Had he communicated better, then perhaps Theseus would continue to waste his mana on a foe that was insidiously difficult to damage, let alone kill.

Completely opposite to his expectations though, Theseus left the cover of his mist, and chased after the dreadglare. Letting both Spiros’s and Rex’s continued attacks peter out on his watery shield.

Okay, what the fuck. Luke thought, his eyes narrowed in thought as Theseus recklessly pressed on.

His actions failed to make any sense, before Luke realized why he was doing what he was doing.

The guys fucking trophy hunting, does he think we’re jokes. Luke thought incredulously, holding his sword in a white-knuckled grip. Theseus’s dismissive attitude was getting under his skin.

The fact was, that Theseus didn't think of them as threats. He would rather hunt an interesting creature, than finish them off and take their scroll.

Luke resolved to not let his arrogance go unchallenged.

Activating the First Stance of the Sword, and careful to keep the Prince of Atlantis in his sights, he dropped low to the ground.

They weren’t allowed to use any artifact other than their storage rings and a single pre approved artifact. That didn’t mean he couldn’t find something that wasn’t a weapon and use that instead. Anything gained within the trial was free game, after all.

Shifting his blade's secondary ability from boosting his agility to strength, he threw Maximus straight into the sky. Concentrating, he poured his mana into it, and propelled it faster and higher.

Then gathering a fistfull of the hydra’s necks in each hand, he spun on his heels. Once, twice, three times, then four, and with the aid of his technique aimed it at Theseus, before letting go.

Theseus, in the sky, sent one scythe of water after another towards Blinky. Strategically cutting away one tendril after another, slowly but surely, wearing her down.

It wasn’t even working. Her eyes were intact, and she would just reattach the parts he would cut off, before they even touched the ground. Falsely assuming that the demon would run out of mana, sooner rather than later, and thinking this was a battle of attrition.

He may have even been right.

Unfortunately for him though, before he could find out, the carcass Luke had thrown collided into his watery shield, and unlike the intangible projectiles of flame fired at him by Rex and Spiros, punched clean through. Water, after all, was water.

The hydra itself didn’t do much damage, but the gap created by its forceful ingress was enough for both Rex and Spiros to land an attack each.

Snarling in fury and steaming from the heat of the flames, both his arms turned to water as he launched simultaneous attacks on both Rex and Spiros.

Spiros, with the aid of his Technique, dodged. Rex, got hit straight in his chest, and faster than any of them could react, flickered orange and disappeared.

Fuck.