Leon POV

Lux's eyes flared with a fierce, glowing light, her anger barely contained as the room seemed to darken around us. The dimming of the lights made her eyes the brightest thing in the room. Without a word, she turned on her heel and walked out. Before leaving, she threw one last warning over her shoulder.

"Do your best if you want to live." she warned as the doors closed behind her.

The other god then followed her and the security blocked the exit. As the door shut, I was left alone with Mike, the dim light returning to normal as the doors shut, leaving us no choice but to put on some gear and follow through with their orders. I then just looked around the armory. The place was a mix of the ancient and the modern: swords and shields lined up beside assault rifles and grenades.

I grabbed a light armor vest, strapping it on securely. I added some extra metal plating to my shoulders, joints, and knees, figuring that a little more protection couldn’t hurt. I put on some gloves and these lightly plated shoes before taking a pistol, a knife, a rifle, and some ammunition. I was hesitating to take the grenades, but I took a few anyway.

I would put a helmet on...wait, I'm not supposed to wear my glasses. So I put on this helmet that looks like it came from Halo.

"Why are you wearing so much armor?" Mike asked

"And why are you wearing none?"

He only put some metal plating on his shoulders and that was it. He has no weapons and it doesn't look like he's trying to hide any either, I saw what he did earlier, and I can tell that he has something up his sleeves, but this test had 2 gods behind it, and if it comes from a place that managed to lock up more dangerous people than us...well...having no armor at all was dangerous.

"Can you like run really fast at least? Like the Flash?"

"I can run faster than regular humans and most demigods." he answered enthusiastically, "I ran a 100m race in about 5 seconds."

"Oh, we are dead."

As we then walked out of the armory, the distant roar of the crowd grew louder. The arena was packed, the noise filling the air and the crowd’s cheers only got louder as I made my way to the center. Ahead of me, two skeletal guards stood motionless, their empty eye sockets staring back at me and Mike. They were heavily armed, each one holding a massive spear in one hand and a shield in the other.

A massive grizzly bear then came forward. The crowd’s cheers surged as the bear raised a paw, silencing them with a single motion. Its voice boomed across the arena, deep and commanding.

"The distance is enough," the bear declared, "I will be the referee for this match. This match ends when both fighters on one side are dead."

With that statement alone, the cheers rose to a deafening level.

"Battle stances!" the bear shouted before turning in our direction, "Any questions?"

"I'm just going to put on a stance, and you tell me how it looks."

"...Boy, even the Turkish man would not recommend that stance."

"Just a question before I destroy everyone, did it at least look cool?"

"Maybe without your armor, but yes, it's somewhat cool."

"Alright, thank you, can we get a bit more distance."

"Sure...but did you get a pistol simply just to do that?"

"Yup."

"...I've seen many stupid things, and that was one of them, and I've been here for 2000 years."

"Thank you."

"That wasn't...nevermind."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

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Mike POV

As soon as the grizzly bear roared "Start!" I felt a jolt of excitement surge through me, and I didn’t waste a second. Electricity crackled along my skin, a familiar and exhilarating sensation. This was my chance to prove I was more than just the son of Zeus, that I was worthy to stand among the gods.

I charged forward, feeling the energy coursing through me, making my movements quicker and more powerful than humanly possible. The first skeletal guard barely had time to raise its spear before I was on it. I slammed my fist into its bony chest, the impact sending a shockwave of electricity through the guard’s body, causing the bones to crack and splinter in different directions. The guard staggered back and I used that opportunity to close in.

My hand reached out to grab the backup knife strapped to the guard’s side. It was huge and felt more like a short sword in my hands. I charged it with electricity and swung at the guard with all my might. The knife slashed through the guard’s ribcage, sending more bones flying, but the damn thing just wouldn’t stay down. If anything, I see the pieces of bones slowly levitating and flying back to the guard in some sort of regenerating process.

I kept moving and dodging as the guard struck back with its spear. Each time it lunged, I was quicker, sidestepping and countering with electrified punches and slashes from the knife. I was in the zone, fully charged, feeling unstoppable. But then, just as I was about to go for another blow, I saw the guard’s empty eye sockets fix on me as if it had suddenly figured me out. It feinted left, and I dodged to the right, just like I’d done a dozen times before. Only this time, the spear was already waiting for me.

Pain exploded in my stomach as the spearhead pierced through my body. The shock of it momentarily short-circuited my powers, the electricity flickering and dying out. Before I could react, the guard’s shield came crashing down on me, hitting me with the force of a freight train.

I flew back and slammed into the arena wall. The impact knocked the breath out of me, and I collapsed to the ground, gasping, blood pouring from the wound in my stomach. Everything hurt. I could feel the coldness creeping in as my vision started to blur. Damn it... I thought, gritting my teeth, and trying to hold on to consciousness.

"Got a bit arrogant there...man, your head's bleeding, here, maybe you should have my helmet instead." A familiar voice said as I tried to force my head to look up at him, it was the nerd with the white hair. "I told you that you need armor."

“Where’s the guard you’re supposed to fight?” I managed to ask

He pointed over his shoulder, and I squinted in the direction he indicated. Sure enough, there was another skeletal guard, lumbering toward us slowly. Alongside it was also the guard that had just wrecked me, its body was almost healed at this point and both of them were closing in on us.

"All you had to do was not charge in." he said as he then turned in their direction, "Well...huh, enemies do walk in slow motion when you're talking, I never knew."

"Just because they're walking slow, doesn't...mean...they're slow." I spat out before I noticed the glasses on his face after he took off his helmet, "Why the hell are you wearing glasses under your helmet? Who the hell wears glasses under the helmet?"

The guy just blinked, as if he’d forgotten they were even there.

"Oh, right. Here, hold on to these for me.” He then took off his glasses, handing them to me in a casual manner, almost like we weren’t in the middle of a life-or-death situation, “Don’t die yet. I'm gonna need you in the future if we're going to escape successfully.”

I was about to comment on how this was the first time he was serious about something, but before I could say anything, he stood up and turned to face the approaching guards, leaving me staring after him with his glasses in front of me as I tried to put pressure on my wound while trying to process what the hell he is planning to do.

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3rd Person POV

Leon approached the skeletal guards. The one targeting Mike lumbered past him, entirely focused on its mission to finish off the injured demigod behind him. The other guard, the one assigned to Leon, made a low, rattling noise as it raised its spear and opened its jaw wide. A moment later, a torrent of flames erupted from its mouth, setting the ground beneath Leon ablaze.

But Leon didn’t flinch. The fire danced around him, scorching the ground and his vest but otherwise leaving him unscathed. His eyes remained fixed on the skeletal creature, a faint smile playing on his lips as he turned briefly toward the two gods watching the match. The skeletal guard that had bypassed Leon suddenly halted mid-step. It looked down and saw Leon’s hand gripping its arm with a force that caused its bones to creak and crack under the pressure.

Before the guard could react, Leon yanked it backward with a sudden burst of strength, and threw it at the walls, sending it crashing into the wall. The impact shattered its arm into splinters, bones scattering across the arena.

Not wasting any time, Leon turned his attention to the other guard who had now stopped spewing flames and got into a proper battle stance. He closed the distance between them, a move that went against his own advice for Mike, and grabbed the guard's spear mid-strike with one hand and the shield with the other as the guard tried to bash him with the shield. Leon subsequently twisted the spear out of the guard’s grasp, snapping it in two, and then ripped the shield away, breaking the giant shield in 2 between his hands before tossing it in the gods' direction.

The skeletal guard staggered back and withdrew its backup knife, but Leon charged forward and shattered its skull into pieces with his fist as the rest of its body crumbled to the ground.

"Well, that was anti-climactic." Leon was now dusting off his hands as he saw the thrown shield pieces earlier vaporized mid-air in the corner of his eyes, "They were weaker than I thought...huh...the underworld isn't as hot as I thought."