A new age of Divinity: Theomachy

Combat Therapy Part 1

They walked out of Odin's study and Beth asked "So, we are going to talk to Tyr? He is the God of War of these realms, right?"
"Yep, one of the most respected figures. Traveled to almost every Divine Plane, even Olympus and Takamagahara. Yes, that's real and not a word I just made up," Nate replied.
"You say that with a but tone," Kenneth told Nate "What is it?"
"He tends to hang out in Valhalla these days," Marc explained "And you can't ever really go there without... dying."
"So what? One of you has to shoot me in the back or something?" Beth asked.
"No, to get into Helheim, we'd either need to die like that or almost any other way. To get into Valhalla, well first you gotta die in a fight," Marc reminded her "First, we'll need Gunnr to watch. She's one of the only ones I know how to find, and she's also one of the tree Valkyries that-"
"Three."
"That's what I said."
"Nah, you said tree."
"What? No, I didn't. Kenneth? Come on, I said three right?"
"No, I heard tree as well."
"Alright, fine! One of the three Valkyries that picked up souls after battle... so I'm guessing if we have one of us fight her and kill her, then they can probably take her straight to Tyr... wherever he is in Valhalla."
"Great, so who will be the one to-" Before Beth could even finish her question, Nate already raised his hand "Of course."
"Alright, everyone! Battle of the century about to go down. Let's get to the training ground and get this show on the road," Mikayla exclaimed as she ran out the front door.
"Left!" Nate called after her to remind her which way to go.
About ten minutes later, Marc had found Gunnr and Mikayla had gathered a crowd to watch. Nate had retrieved Gungnir and Beth decided to go with a long sword. The blades were about the same length, but Hofund was clearly more powerful, having been wielded by Heimdallr, it wasn't surprising.
"Alright, everyone! In the right corner, we have everyone's favorite one armed Demigod! The son of Heimdallr! Nathan Dallr!" A bunch of the admittedly small crowd cheered as Mikayla introduced the first of her two friends "And in the left, we've got the bitch's daughter! The traitor who survived Athena's wrath, and one of the Demigods who wants to bring her down! The smartest gladiator anyone will ever see... Elizabeth Ena!" Less of the crowd cheered, but that was mainly because they heard that Beth was Athena's daughter, but they also heard that she was ready to fight her own mother "Let the battle begin!"
Nate cracked his neck and began to walk towards Beth with Hofund dragging across the ground. Beth put her guard up, knowing how powerful a warrior Nate was. The last time they had fought, he had nearly killed her... and now he was going to kill her. As much as she didn't want to seem afraid, death did scare her. As he got closer, he swung the blade over his head.
"Alright," Nate sighed as he took the final step.
"Here we go," She told herself.
He swung the gigantic sword down at her head, but Beth ducked, and rolled under the attack. She got up behind Nate, and she would have attacked his back if this wasn't all an elaborate way for her to die. Instead, she just had to wait for him to pull the sword's blade out of the ground and turn to her. He turned and let out a grunt as he swung Hofund full force at Beth's head. She ducked underneath the attack and Nate struggled to regain control over the weapon before she got back up. They both swung at each other's heads and their blades clashed. Beth, being the bigger and stronger of the two, managed to push her shorter friend backwards. He braced himself better and pushed both of their blades down to the ground. Beth brought her blade back up and swung down at his hip. Nate let out a small yell as he brought his father's massive sword back up to block the strike. When he brought the weapon back up, he grabbed the hilt with both hands, and swung it at Beth's stomach. She momentarily forgot that she needed to die in this fight and leapt back to avoid the attack. The dodge was actually beneficial for her as even though Gunnr was in on the plan, she still needed to play by Valhalla's rules. If you go into a fight and just let yourself be killed, you go straight to Helheim, as that's seen as suicide. Nate stabbed at her stomach, but she blocked the attack. His strike was so strong that he knocked her sword aside, then he elbowed her in the nose. She staggered back, but regained her balance, and the two continued their battle... or they would have if Nate didn't kick her. She fell down onto her back and when he brought Hofund above his head, she rolled out of the way before he could chop her head in half.
"You've gotten better since last time," Nate told her as she got back up "But you still can't beat me." he swung Hofund again and batted her sword out of her hand "It's over."
"No, Nate. This fight has just begun." When he swung down at her, Beth grabbed the blade... for some reason, and managed to backroll kick it out of his hands "Back to even footing."
Nate watched her get back up and replied "Not really." He uppercut her in the ribs which made her lurch over "You just made this death a whole lot more painful for yourself." He grabbed her by her hair and uppercut her in the chest.
"Well, why would... I let you walk all over me?" Beth was clearly tired out and tried a desperate punch at his nose.
"Fair point." He ducked the attack and hoisted her up onto his shoulders "But still, it's time to end this." He swung her over and threw her over the edge into the raging waters below.
Beth suddenly sat up with a gasp and looked around at her surroundings. What she saw... was not what she had expected. She found herself sitting in an empty circular arena. When it went far up enough, it seemed to deconstruct. The place didn't feel like it was moving, but the ground beneath her looked like it was rippling out in all directions from where she sat. She got up and looked down to see her feet creating ripples now. She looked around and saw the pillars constantly rising up and crumbling away when they reached some sort of invisible ceiling. The sky around them looked like a pale, but still colorful sunset. The entire place was so surreal, but she didn't really know what else to expect from Valhalla.
When she turned around, she found someone sitting on a small bench a few feet away. He was skinny, a lot like Baldr, but slightly more muscular. Even sitting down, it was clear he was much taller than her. He had a long brown beard and hair and, once again, had pale skin and light blue eyes. The man's chestplate, being the only real armor he was wearing, was made of Svartalfheim Gold and Asgardian steel.
"You... are you Tyr?" Beth asked as she walked toward him slowly.
"I am, and trust me, I know who you are," He replied as he got up and took a step toward her, showing himself to be quite literally two feet taller than her "I know what you're struggling with, Elizabeth. You're doubting your strength, your will. You're uncertain of your abilities and power."
"So... what do you want from me?" Beth asked.
"From you? Absolutely nothing." His voice was calm and collected, completely unrattled unlike Odin had been "Well... there is one thing. I want you to understand that I know what you're feeling better than most. You see... my father offered me the seat of God of War in these lands, thousands of years ago. I struggled with the idea, assuming I wasn't good enough, not ready. That is... until dad told me about this place. The Arena of Enlightenment as he called it. I had never heard of it before him, but I researched it, trying to find it. Obviously, it was in Valhalla, so I traveled here, and I overcame my greatest struggle." He pointed over to the massive door at the far side of the arena from them "Once I did... I stepped through those doors."
Without turning back to him, Beth asked "So, what is in there?"
Tyr chuckled, which brought his gaze back to his as he looked down on her and replied "Nah, I'm not here to spoil that, then there would be no point."
"Then, why are you here?"
"Simply to help you prepare," He answered bluntly.
"But, why?"
"Because I can," He told her "And... because if you're able to overcome your mother, you'll likely have to kill her. Her and her brother are both dead... and the Greeks will need a God of War." He summoned a shield onto his left wrist with the rune that depicted war "One who understands the weight and responsibility of our position." He summoned a spear to his hand, the blade of which had his own rune etched into it "However... at the moment you're not ready." He turned back to her as he put the butt of his spear to the ground "But we'll get you there."
A sword and shield appeared in her left hand and a spear in her right before Beth faced Tyr and asked him "Show me."