Woe of the chosen

Chapter 17: A continental bout

Waiting in this silver room with the other nine contestants I grow curious as to how they fight in battle. There's gotta be a reason as to why this arena is this big, right? As I look around the room, a tall, white, big, buff, shirtless man with red shoulder-length hair and yellow eyes walks up to both Amelia and I. He says in a loud confident tone, "HELLO! MAGNUS! I! AM!" The man reaches his hand out for a hand shake and continues, "WHO?! ARE?! YOU?!" I shake his hand and try my best to grip it firmly, but he gripped his hand so tight that it almost crushes mine. I reply, "I'm...Pluto..damn you have a good grip." He laughs out loud and replies, "THAT IS BECAUSE! I AM BIG STRONG MAN!" He proceeds to flex his muscles in many different positions, and manages to make Amelia chuckle. He looks at her, and then reaches his hand out for a hand shake. Amelia and I look at each other, and I say, "Good luck." She squints her eyes, and looks back at Magnus and clasps her hand with his. Magnus' face shot up and exclaims, "OH! YOU HAVE GOOD GRIP! STRONG WOMAN!" Amelia smiles and confidently replies, "You too!" The two now seeming to get along I look at Magnus and recognized him from yesterday. He was the one arm wrestling the Minotaur! The two let go of each and Magnus says, "I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN BATTLE! STRONG WOMAN!" Amelia smirks and replies, "Likewise!" Magnus turns around and was about to leave, but Zurich walks up to us, and Magnus' face shot up red. He clears his throat and exclaims, "OHH!! BEAUTIFUL LADY!! I LIKE!!" Zurich looks at him and replies, "Sorry hun, but these big beautiful set of coconuts belong to this boy right here." The lady in a tight red suit points at me, but before I could say anything Amelia steps in between us and starts to stare at Zurich.

Everyone starts to feel tension in the room as both girls make eye contact. Zurich says, "We meet again. What's your name?" Amelia replies, "It's Amelia why do you care?" Zurich chuckles and replies, "Well, I need to know the name of the person I look forward to beating up the most." Amelia takes a step forward and puts her face in front of Zurich's. She says, "I think you underestimate me." Zurich smirks, and replies, "No, I'm just so confident in my abilities that I don't see you as a threat." Zurich scoffs and sarcastically continues, "I mean, What that's plant arm gonna do? Hurt me?" Amelia lifts up her plant arm and proceeds to give Zurich the middle finger with it. She has wide grin across her face as she does this. Amelia says, "You'll find out soon enough." Magnus puts his arm in between both of them separating them. He exclaims, "LADIES! FIGHT STARTS SOON! FIGHT THEN! TALK NOW!" Zurich sarcastically replies, "That's exactly what we've been doing beefy boy. Just talking..." Amelia replies, "Yeah...talking.." Zurich turns around and walks away from us. Amelia looks at me with a serious look on her face. She says, "When we go out there to fight..I'll be fighting my hardest to make sure we make it to the Valley of Death. So, I want you to promise me something." I reply, "What is it?" She walks up to me, and puts her hand on my chest. She says, "Promise me you won't lose yourself. I know you want to reach the Valley of Death so that you can figure out what you are. I just want you to promise me that while you try your hardest to reach it...you won't lose yourself." These words of hers are very reminiscent to the ones Hermes told me back then. To take time to grieve, but to also try my best in not losing myself while doing so. I don't know what she means by losing myself, but I do have my doubts about this whole Godlender of Hephaestus shenanigans. I gently held her hand and make eye contact with her. I reply, "Yeah, I promise." Magnus looks at us smiling as if he's proud or something. Which is weird because I don't know this man. I look at him and ask, "Why are you smiling at us? Just curious." He replies, "ROMANCE IS BEAUTIFUL! I ENVY YOU TWO, BUT I LOVE HAPPY PEOPLE!!" Amelia looks at me and says, "Envy us? That's interesting..." My face flushes a little and I reply to Magnus, "We're just friends..Y-yeah just friends, right?" I look at Amelia as I say this, and she starts to play with her hair and replies, "Yeah...friends.." she smiles and walks behind me. She says, "I'll be sitting down in front of the wall over there waiting for the fight..if you need anything, you know where I'm at." I nod, and she proceeds to walk away. Magnus looks at me and proudly exclaims, "AH MY FRIEND!! YOU HAVE MUCH TO LEARN ABOUT WOMEN!!" He pats my back, and starts to laugh. I take a quick glance at Amelia, and mutter to myself, "Yeah...I guess I do."