Minya

We all stared in awe as Kent stood breathing heavily over Ares dead form. That had been a fight worthy of the gods easily. Kent had been on the backfoot practically the entire time but he had still pulled through and won.

I was slightly awed at Kent. No matter how hard Ares put him down, he would brush it off and get back up again. Every time, like clockwork, I wasn’t sure if anything other than death even COULD put Kent down.

Kent looked up as a beam of light shown directly into his eyes, blinking rapidly.

As we watched with bated breath, a spectral sword floated down, gold and azure markings all along its sides. It was beautiful. Kent looked like he was unsure about it though. I understood his thoughts, he was a fist fighter, why was Ares giving him a sword?

As soon as Kent touched it his eyebrows shot up and he excitedly read what was in front of him. That was when we realized that he couldn’t rejoin us, there was no door to this side.

With a shrug in our direction he went and sat in the stadium and the cage and him disappeared.

I understand now. We all had to fight or we would lose our friends. They were making us fight, and who knew what would happen to them if we failed?

It brought a lot more seriousness to the situation. I looked around at the gods more carefully. Which one did I want to fight? I had to think of what their fighting styles would be and if I would be able to effectively beat them, I couldn’t just rush into this like Kent did.

Hermes and Athena were the ones I ended up deciding on. I didn’t really know what Hermes’ fighting style would be, but wind rogue sounded like something similar to my class, fast and furious.

Athena would be more defensive, which could work in my favor but could also absolutely destroy me, so I wasn’t willing to take that chance. Hermes it was.

I walked towards the center of the arena and shouted. “Hermes! I challenge you!”

The ground rumbled and Hermes stood up, a grin on his face that reminded me of Grog. I shuddered and prepared myself.

Hermes’ staff appeared in front of him and he grabbed it before settling into a crouch and waiting for me to make my move.

I did nothing and simply watched him, wanting him to make the first move so that I could start to learn his fighting style.

I waited with bated breath as the silence stretched on, waiting to see who would end up making the first move. Hermes scowled and he raised his staff with the twin snakes writhing on it.

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“You think that if you push me into making the first move you will gain the upperhand? Foolish mortal, I am so far superior to you in speed, you can’t even hope to match me. Very well, I shall start this duel.” Hermes said, scorn practically oozing from his every word.

He raised his staff and started to create a mini tornado, air being sucked from all directions as he prepared a spell. I realized with a jolt that the longer I gave him to prepare the more dangerous his starting move would be.

He was trying to force me to make the first real move in this battle.

I could appreciate that. I started to stretch and get ready even as his staff continued to roar with power. If he wanted to play this game, I would just play it right alongside him, forcing him to show me his powers first.

Hermes gave me a glare so vicious I was somewhat surprised that my head didn’t start to melt.

I just smiled at him. “What? Did you think that your pretty show would scare me? If you did that's kind of pathetic not gonna lie. A god? Failing to scare a puny mortal?” I asked him, loading on the sass.

I was a professional runner, if I couldn’t trash talk then I couldn’t call myself a true runner.

Hermes' face turned red. “You dare mock me? I am so far above you that you should be bowing down to me! Not fighting me as though you even stand a chance of scratching me!” He yelled indignantly at me. He gave me the impression of an entitled teenager.

I just smiled at him and crouched, waiting for him to make his move.

With a yell he did, fierce winds wrapping around him as he blasted towards me. If it weren't for my high perception I wouldn’t have been able to see him, but as it was I only saw a blur and I jumped to the side, rolling out of the way and turning around to see him already headed straight at me again.

I leaped out of the way and started to run, gradually picking up the pace so that I could reach my maximum speed. I felt the air whip by me as I zoomed faster and faster getting to the same speed as Hermes and then going even faster.

The look on his face was priceless. I loved it.

He was both super shocked and flabbergasted that me “just running” was so far outstriping him in terms of speed even as he used his wind abilities to make himself go faster.

Just for the fun of it, I started to run circles around him and he could do nothing to break free of the circle, I was just too fast for him. I was going so fast that I was creating a mini dust storm all around him.

He finally planted his feet and slammed his staff into the ground, releasing a small explosion of air in all directions. I could tell just from a glance that that could seriously mess me up if I let it hit me.

So I didn’t.

With a subtle use of air manipulation, I controlled the air and held it.

Only to shove it back at him.

He looked at me in surprise only to be slammed to the ground with a faceful of compressed air, bouncing slightly on the sandy floor.

I sprinted over to him, jumping high into the air and landing squarely on his chest, both feet straight down. I completely knocked all of his air out of his lungs and I felt something in his chest snap.

He wheezed and tried to shove me off, but I simply stomped directly on his face like Kent had done to Ares previously. I could see why he did it, it gave me a lot of joy to break Hermes pompous nose.

I dug my knee into his chest and felt his ribs give even more. Hermes let out a grunt of pain and fell to his knees. With a final punch to his neck his body faded into motes of light.

Congratulations! You have successfully beaten the god Hermes! No one else will be able to fight him during the tutorial and you will be gifted an item from Hermes personally very soon. The item's power will depend on how impressed Hermes was with your fight.

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