Aphrodite's Daughter

②

May 21, 2024
『The Battle Begins: Part 1』
(Re-edited)
•••

After the fight in the castle, Zeus and I moved Electra out of the kingdom and into a town nearest to Olympus. We had Hermes cover the village in clouds so Hera couldn't see her.

Ever since I've been watching over Electra and Heron, or at least tried to, sometimes I go down to his village and make the adults and kids go missing for throwing rocks at Eletra and him. It's not my fault Zeus's fear for Hara is overpowering his love for Electria, it's sad and pathetic.

I moved away from my balcony and changed into my armor (Up above)
I walked to the arena where the championship battles were later that night

Gods and goddesses have to go against each other and the last four remaining move on, get assigned a duo, and fight against each other. This year is gonna be the same as last year, Ares set me up.

Once I had finally made it to the arena. I saw many gods and goddesses waiting for the battles to begin. I stayed to the back, away from everyone, just staring at the ground. Everyone was kind of giving me glances here and there. I looked up and locked eyes with Hermes, he gave me a smile and a cringe thumbs-up, which made me giggle. He stepped away from the group of his brothers and started to walk over.

"hey" He said, now standing in-front of me.

"Hi," I said awkwardly, twiddling with my fingers.

He caughed awkwardly, "So, you decided to join the championship"

"Yeah, I promised Ares I would" I said

His eyes wided "Promised Ares?" tilting his head to the side.

I nodded and hummed "I asked for a favor and he wanted one in return. I didn't really want to be here but it's only fair." I shrugged. He nodded at my words. "...After last time?" he questioned'

"Yeah...last time didn't go so well for me, if you remember"

"I do, I was the one who carried you out."

I laughed " I remember, vividly"

---

I didn't train hard enough for this.

I will lose but I can't, not to her.

All I could do was block her hits.

I had no openings to hit her.

My helmet flew off as she punched me in the jaw.

Moments later I met the ground.
I heard people gasp and say things under their breath

'No I can't lose' I thought to myself
I slowly got up.

My wrists were hurt and bleeding at this point from all of the hard hits they were getting.

My nose was bleeding from the punches she landed on me not too long ago.

I could already feel the bruises starting to form.

I slowly looked over at my mom. She wasn't there anymore.

I looked back at Nya she looked at me with a soft pity before she got into a battle stance.

I tried walking towards her but tripped over my foot and fell face-first.
I groaned as my ears started ringing
I tried to get up but my body was too weak.

My body was violently shaking.
I couldn't hear anything it just sounded muffled. I looked up at Nya with half-lidded eyes. She looked worried and called for help.

I let my head fall and let my body relax I already knew I lost, I already knew.

I felt someone turn me over and pick me up bridal style. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Hermes carrying me, that was the last thing I saw before it all went black...

---

"Well i-" Hermes was cut off as Athena walked in, she looked around at everyone, her eyes soon landed on me. She slightly smiled. I gave her a tight smile back before turning my head to Hermes "Good luck" I said, putting my hand on his rather large bicep before walking away.

Athena cleared her throat, gathering everyones attention and started to announce the rules:
1. Don't severly harm eachother
2. No abilities
3. No playing dirty

After she finished with the rules she started to list the participants and who their going up against. After a long 9 rounds, we have: Ares, Apollo, Hermes, Nya, Aether, Hemera, Nyx, Thanatos, and Pontus left since they won their battles and were going on to the next round.

Which leaves me and Nemesis. She's the goddess of Retribution. If I'm being honest she gonna be easy to beat. I stood on one side of the arena, while she stood on the other. She gave me a hard glare, taking out her dagger which grew in size to make it a sword.

I stared at her with a plain look, while I took out my sword from its holder and got ready in a stance.

'I'm not going to lose this time' I thought to myself.

"Wait" Athena called out, stepping in the arena. She looked at me "Aldora, your sword can not be used in the games. The poison in your sword will give you an advantage and could kill nemesis. I suggest you get a normal battle sword" she finishes.

I put my sword back in its holder, walked to the sidelines, and placed it on the ground. Athena walks to me to hand me the sword that I would be using. "Good luck, but im pretty sure you don't need it" Athena whispered to me.

"Thank you" I whispered back. I walked back into place.

"Ready," Athena asked looking at me and her, Nemesis nodded and so did I.

"Set...START"After she said that we both lunged at each other.