The Pact

Chapter 22: Fatal or Not Fatal

Kyon POV:

After Ares transported me out of the camp, I thanked a random deity for Ares' set of priorities, those being war and gore over punishment.

Of course, once I flashed in, Ares was gone, and an annoying voice filled my brain.

Alright, kid, last round, these are the big guns. Since most of these guys will most likely fatally wound you and you've already got some wounds littering your body, I'll do you a favor and heal those for you.

Kyon watched as the tiny bite marks of that shadow guy went away, the chunk of my shoulder returned, my mangled hands healed, and any other scratches or wounds closed up.

Alright, if I deem you dying from a wound and you win, I'll heal it for you. But you have to listen to For the Glory on repeat.

I nodded my head in consent. Immediately Ares started singing. Why couldn't he just turn on a radio or something? Did Ares have to sing? Groaning, I stood at the ready for any crazy opponent he would throw at me.

The coliseum was the same as in the dream Morpheus gave me. The stone stands are filled with ghost people. The coliseum had bleached stone, which ran as a concrete wall along the oval sandy battleground. I stood on one side of the arena while the other side had an iron gate. It slowly rose, letting my first opponent into the ring.

A half-snake woman entered the area. She had long black hair, reptilian red eyes, and two long fangs poked out of her mouth down to her chin. Her snake body began at her waist and was a dark blue. Two dragon claws were where her arms would be, and covering her torso was a simple gray t-shirt.

"So," she hissed," I hear you've killed a few of my children. I offer them revenge as I devour you." I was unimpressed by her speech. Honestly, the blinks and screeches from that demon who kept trying to eat my shoulder was more intimidating.

Then it hit me who she was, Echidna, mother of monsters. I readied my stance, and I tried to think of how to kill her.

She slithered towards me quickly and lashed out with her claws, parrying them with my sword. I dodged as she struck with her mouth open wide, trying to bite into my right shoulder. "Ooh, slippery are we?" she asked mockingly. I almost wanted to make a snake joke almost. I mean, she basically made one, calling me slippery. Isn't there a saying or something that literally just says 'slippery snake'? I don't know, but I just missed my opening for a joke as she slashed with her claws again, making me parry.

I went on the offensive, attacking her with my sword, pushing her back slightly as I rained a flurry of sword strikes on her. She parried the blows and caught my blade with one of her claws. I couldn't move my sword from her grasp even when she tapped her chin with her other hand. "So deary, how would you like to die?" she spat at me, refocusing on me, and tried striking me again; I dropped my sword and rolled away from her, dodging her slashes.

She cackled and threw my sword away, making it slide far to my right. I rolled to my feet, bringing out the two cow horns, and held them at the ready. Echidna watched me as her chin was pushed up, looking down on me; I hated when people did that. I felt my anger bubble but pushed it down. I needed a plan. My mind raced, thinking over her story, how she was killed, and who did it.

Echidna died in her sleep, murdered by Argus, the hundred-eyed giant. So even though she's immortal, she's not invincible, same as her children. If I can just get a good hit in, she should go to Tartarus the same way.

Steeling myself, I ran towards her, whirling attacks onto her, swinging to allow both daggers a fair amount of action, not giving in even as she parried and blocked each attack, even when it seemed that her defense was unbreakable. I growled at my inexperience with daggers; I should've trained more with them. Of course, I had only really trained in throwing daggers, never fighting hand to hand with them as I am now. My eyes flickered to my sword, knowing I needed it to win this battle. I pushed against her, forced her away, leaving me an opening to rush to my weapon of choice. Then running, I tried to get to my sword. I silently wished my sword did the same cool thing Riptide did when it returned to its owner after a minute or so.