THEOS

“No.” Luke said immediately, and tugged the scroll towards himself.

Theseus’s obstinate eyes met his, and he tugged it back– still unwilling to let it go.

Fuck this. Luke thought, and focusing on his sword, he doubled his strength, and snatched the scroll out of Theseus’s hands. Doubling the attribute didn’t max it out yet, but it did put him well past the midway point of the tier. Theseus was likely stronger even then, considering how dense the mana was in Atlantis, but the sudden leap in power would catch anyone off guard.

“Wai–!” Theseus yelled, his eyes widened in shock.

“No.” Luke shut him down immediately, and flew back as he lunged forward. Lifting his sword, and putting the pointy end in between the two of them.

Fully cognizant of the fact that at any second the other teen could change his mind and attack, Luke sent a portion of his awareness to the Spell hovering in his mana. Ready to activate it at the smallest sign of aggression. It wouldn’t do much against him, Spiros had demonstrated that point already, but Luke was aware, first hand, how distracting blinding flashes of light could be when they burst inches in front of eyes– warrior or not.

That’s right, I have cards up my sleeve too, asshole. I can’t fire jets of water powerful enough to carve holes through hydras, but when it comes to attributes, I’m King. Luke thought, taking a visceral amount of satisfaction in the fact that he had something that was a surprise to the other teen. Being on the back foot the entire time, had not been comfortable for him.

I’m still not a true match for combat focused bloodlines yet, or probably anyone that comes from a powerful background…

If what I’m hoping for with spells doesn’t work out, I’ll pick up another Technique. He decided. Maybe the lightning one Cyzicus and Nel use if they let me learn it– but after I become a Hero. Or… maybe Sophia left something behind? I don’t really know what happened to her Storage Ring, but considering that the Rebel’s ring only had two of her– now isn’t the time.

Focus. Luke chided himself, just in time as Theseus made a half hearted swipe at the scroll.

Without a shred of hesitation, he flinged the scroll to Arya, and immediately after, redoubled his agility stat, and flew back dozens of feet. His Technique hadn’t indicated that Thesues would try anything, but dodging if he needed to was paramount, and it was always better dodging from a distance.

Especially when Luke couldn’t discount the possibility that Thesues’s pride wouldn’t let him walk away afterall.

“Comeon– why can’t I join you?” Thesues protested, his mouth slightly agape as if no one had ever told him the word no in his entire life. Considering he was the child of a god, that may well have been the case too.

The nerve of this guy. Is he for real? After all that, he wants to team up, and he’s curious why I don’t?

“You just eliminated my friend, and I’m mad at you.”

“So, what does that have to do with anything! He’ll be fine, Hepheastus will heal him up better than he was when he came here, and the whole point of this round is to eliminate people. Don’t take it personally.” Theseus said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Okay he might a point, but–

Spiros snorted. “The answer is still no, deal with it, and give me back my spear before I take it from you. I still have plenty of uses on my Spell.”

“And I have one of those too, what’s your point? I was just stopping in order to give you a chance to continue on, but if you want to keep fighting I will too. I don’t even care if I get eliminated, but I promise I’ll take you with me when I go.” Theseus said, and on cue a watery barrier appeared, separating Theseus from Luke and Spiros.

The First Truth of Death, however, remained silent.

He’s bluffing. Or at least, not willing to restart the fight just yet.

“Calm down, both of you.” Luke sighed. “Theseus, you’re right, this is a competition– and I’m competing against you and I want to keep it that way.”

“What– you’ll team up with them, but not me? Is that it? We’re family!”

“What do you mean, I– we just met you!”

“Why’s that matter? Everyone needs to meet people sometime.”

“Why is it so hard to say no to you?” Luke asked.

“It’s not!” Theseus denied.

“Dude, I’ve been saying no for how long now?”

“Well, you don’t have to be mean about it.”

Luke wanted to tear his hair out in frustration. Instead he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When all this had started, the last thing he thought was that he would need to be considerate of Theseus’s feelings. Well, more than normal at least.

How did we even get here? He thinks I’m his brother, and asks me to come to Atlantis. I say no, we fight, Rex and Blinky get eliminated, we whittle him down to a point that fighting isn’t worth it anymore, and now he wants to join us?

If Spiros wasn’t running on fumes, I would have just sent him home. He’s the son of a god, and someone who had myths written about him back on Earth, I’m sure he would have been fine even without the rewards from here.

“I’m sorry for being curt– but I think there's too much tension between us for all three of us to work together effectively.” Luke said, and it wasn’t even a lie. Spiros was so angry, Luke could practically see steam coming off of his ears.

Actually, having him with us is practically a guarantee of getting to the next round. A few hours of rest to recover some mana, and we can probably start going after the other groups with confidence. If nothing else, it would take us to the next round…

“Luke.” Spiros said slowly. “What are you thinking?”

“I mean, think about it, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to let him join us…”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Theseus grinned, and then realizing he was still holding Spiros’s spear, smiled sheepishly and held it out. His watery barrier giving way, and dissolving in a spray of mist at the same time.

Spiros eyes the offered weapon with caution, before slowly moving forward and grabbing it. The moment Thesues took his hand off the spear’s shaft, his ring flashed, and it disappeared into the space within.

“I’m not opposed to letting you join us, but why do you want to?” Spiros asked.

“I just realized how boring it's going to be spending seven days alone, hiding with some scrolls.”

“Arya wha–” Luke started to say, but a flicker of movement at the very edges of his vision caught his attention.

Sword at the ready, Luke barely had a moment to dodge as an arrow tore through the forest and over his shoulder.

A moment later, Arya started thrashing. A thin green nine had caught her ankle and was threatening to drag her, and their scrolls, into the forest.

Surprisingly, it was Theseus that acted first. A thin arc of water flew from his finger and severed it cleanly, and the three of them rushed to join her, while she rose higher into the air to join them.

The moment they were close enough, water expanded encircled all four of them, Theseus offering them what little protection he could.

Which turned out to be not very much at all, realized Luke, batting away an arrow with his sword when it punched throught the barrier.

While him, Rex, Arya, and Spiros had been a terrible matchup for the Son of Poseidon, whoever was attacking them now was the the complete opposite.

For one, their arrows were actually made of tangible material, and not energy that was wholly ineffective against his wate. Second, the attacker, or attackers, both had ranged options.

Desperately raking his eyes over the treeline, Luke tried his best to find the source of the arrows. But each one came from a completely different direction, and whoever was controlling the vines was so deep in the foliage, that he doubted he would ever see them.

“Any idea who’s attacking?” Luke asked instead. “Or where they’re hiding, for that matter?”

No one answered, but their silence was all the confirmation Luke needed.

“Alright… Arya, you stay with these two, neither of them has much mana, so look after them as much as you can.”

“I can still fight!” Theseus protested. Spiros opened his mouth, likely to say something similar, before stopping himself, and flying closer to Theseus, he put a hand on one of his shoulders. Whether to hold him back from leaving, or to steady his wobbly flight, Luke wasn’t sure. It did both those things regardless.

“What are you going to do?” Spiros asked.

“Fight, obviously. I haven’t used that much mana yet, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“And the scrolls?”

“I’m not going to take them and run if that’s what you’re worried about Spiros.” Luke sighed.

A glimmer of understanding flashed across Arya’s eyes, and reaching into her robes, she handed them to him.

“Don’t lose them,” she said.

Grabbing them, he attempted to put them both in his storage ring, only mildly disappointed when they refused to go in, he stuffed them into his own robes and held them against his skin with his mana. His pockets having long since been destroyed.

“If I do, lose them it’s going to be because they eliminated me, and that’s not going to happen.” Luke grinned.

Then turning slowly in the air, he took a deep breath and flew out of the bubble, taking off in the direction the latest arrow had come from as fast as he could.

The fight had come at an inopportune time, but out of the four of them, he was in the best position to attack, and with both of their scrolls with him acting as both prize and lure, he was confident it would be him they came for.

Meaning they would leave Spiros alone.

Picking a fight with Theseus, even a tired one, wasn’t worth it. Luke was sure that even a minor display of his power would convince anyone looking to thin the herd of that.

And if worse came to worse, he trusted Arya and her power enough to know that while she may not be the strongest of those competing, she would be able to hold her own as well. The First Stance had made all three of them formidable opponents to the vast majority of people, and the chances of these particular foes falling into that tiny group was near zero.

Of that Luke was confident.

They had chosen to attack from a distance and harass them instead of moving in. He didn’t know how long the attackers had been watching them, but the timing alone suggested that they had waited until they were worn out.

Another wine rose out of the air, and quick as a whip, lashed out at him. It’s movements were so easy to spot though, that even without his techniques, he was able to act on it.

Cutting it down with a single swipe of his sword, Luke stood still in the air and turned a slow circle.

“Are you going to fight, or just poke at me like cowards?” He yelled into the air.

All he got for his trouble was a volley of arrows flying to him from all directions. They were fast, but he was better. Waiting until the last second, he dodged as many as he could by climbing higher in the air. Most of them whizzed past his feet.

A second later, another volley of arrows followed the last, one after another. Each of them from different directions.

Sometimes from above him, sometimes from below, and often at one angle or another. He weaved between them as long as he could, but the longer he stayed in the air, the more arrows took flight. The number of them increases by the dozens every second.

Cursing under his breath, Luke shot towards the forest, already covered in writhing vines he realized something was very wrong.

It was only when Luke spotted an arrow that he had already dodged looping around and coming back at him, that he realized what it was.