Chapter 80 – One Punch Teacher Ares
Let’s skip over the pitiful love story of some handsome boy.
This isn’t some world where men are wild, and women are cunning, so there’s no need to start a fight over, “Hey, are you eyeing my girl?”
Besides, if that guy tried to approach Atalanta now, he’d end up with something broken, and Theseus was sharp enough to know that at a glance.
Moreover, he didn’t have time to worry about such things these days.
As soon as Theseus, with a visibly irritated face, left the room, it felt awkward to continue our conversation, so the gathering was adjourned.
Having spent the entire day on an external mission, I had a day off tomorrow.
We had drunk wine to our hearts’ content, and everyone scattered, planning to sleep in late.
But my day was just beginning.
“...Eris?”
“Heh? So now you can sense me without using that strange aura?”
As I pretended to head back to my quarters, I casually called out her name, and under the faintly brightening dawn sky, my view was suddenly filled with a strikingly vivid pink.
The troublesome child of strife and discord... no, the goddess.
And by bloodline, my elder sister Eris.
Her long pink hair shimmered seductively, and though her eyes were the same crimson as Atalanta’s, they had a sinister glint that reminded me more of blood than of jewels.
Her Greek-style dress of a peculiar glow clearly revealed her ample feminine curves, and her mischievous and sadistic beauty was enough to momentarily captivate even me.
However, seeing the ominous aura she was cloaked in and the sadistic gleam in her eyes that overshadowed everything, I was reminded of how important first impressions truly were.
“Hmph... you’re holding up better than I thought. You’re tougher than you look. Ares and my sister aren’t exactly the types to go easy when they teach.”
“Well, I’m not so weak as to be knocked out with a single sword strike, unlike someone.”
Unlike someone, I’m not that fragile.
As I smiled gently, deliberately for her to see, Eris’s face, which had been grinning as she prepared her decisive blow, suddenly turned cold.
“What, does that bother you?”
The Goddess of Strife and Discord, and a bratty goddess who makes you want to punch her just by looking at her, was leisurely engaging in a war of words with me. To understand this better, we have to go back a few days.
As I was nearing the end of what I called my adaptation period, Chiron summoned me after a long time.
Personally, I was also looking forward to having a sparring match with the centaur who wielded the ultimate spear technique known as the Crazy Wind Spear technique.
However, during the adaptation period, the grueling schedule filled with 18-hour days, and even almost a week taken off that had to be compensated for, kept me incredibly busy.
But the prospect of officially taking time off to have fun made me cheer and rush to his office.
However...
“It’s been a while. Young brother.”
“Heh... Tsk, didn’t break a single bone, did you?”
Unexpected figures were there to greet me alongside the centaur.
I completely ignored Eris, who glared at me as if ready to spit.
With a bright smile as full as her heart, the black angel welcomed me, and I responded with a bright smile.
“Sister Nemesis!”
“S-Sister...”
“Sister?!”
“Cough, cough, cough!”
“Ahem! Aheuck?!”
Ah, the word “sister” that slipped out without me realizing caused a tremendous ripple among these mythical beings.
Nemesis, with her stern face, flapped her wings and turned her head.
Eris, as if chewing bitter herbs, glared at me with a contorted face.
Chiron and the mysterious, handsome man coughed repeatedly as if something was caught in their throats.
“Wow, calling the Goddess of Judgment, whom even father fears, ‘sister’ so casually? Chiron, where did you pick up this guy?”
“Ahem, he’s certainly made my time here anything but boring.”
To describe this man, I’d call him a battle fanatic.
A handsome man with a refreshingly bold impression, with dark blonde hair mixed with an oddly familiar oak color, extending to his shoulders.
However, when I faced his fiercely upturned smile and his gleaming red eyes that seemed to gauge their prey, a chill ran down my spine as if encountering a wild beast.
Moreover, seeing him chatting with Chiron without hesitation, and Chiron also showing respect, it was evident that this person was a god.
And not just any god, but one with quite powerful strength.
“Hmm... Look at this.”
Inside the infinitely vast arena created by Ares’s power, I and the War God fought with such fervor that it was hard to distinguish between sky and earth.
I began to earnestly learn what it truly meant to face a god.
As I walked, bickering with Eris, we arrived at the barrier created by Ares’s power, located outside the forest.
“Hmph... Then I’ll go up and watch~”
“Do whatever you want.”
“Tsk!”
At my indifferent farewell, Eris huffed and disappeared.
With a battle-ready stance, I entered the barrier.
As soon as I stepped inside, I was greeted by the bright sun shining in the middle of the sky, the vast, endless wasteland, and the arena surrounding it all.
And in the center of that arena, a god who noticed me, instead of a greeting, unleashed a massive divine power and laughed fiercely.
“Πόλεμος ρομφαία!! σώμα προέλαση!!”
There was no grandiose aura nor an explosion of divine power.
Without any forewarning, a gigantic sword manifested in the hand of the distant War God and was swung horizontally towards me.
And filling the gaps of that massive sword, thousands upon thousands of flaming spears rushed at me.
It was an attack that felt like an entire legion was advancing.
Moreover, those were neither just large swords nor merely sharp spears.
Each one boasted immense destructive power, akin to the attacks of the advanced martial artists I’d encountered during the Great War of the Demons, and each aimed precisely at my openings and vital points.
A situation utterly unreasonable and absurd.
The choice was one of two.
Dodge, or counterattack.
“As expected of a battle maniac. Striking first without even a greeting.”
If this were in a game, I would have thought, “Wow, this is insanely unfair. This game is doomed,” and surrendered at 15 minutes.
But this was my reality, and one I’d faced countless times in my past life.
Experiencing it now from the other side, I understood why the people from the Murim Alliance would flee in terror at just the sight of my robes.
“Making someone who just ran all day sweat again!”
-Shaaah!
As my internal energy and demonic energy flowed through my entire body, my whole being ignited into a pitch-black mirage.
In an instant, two demonic arts manifested in my hands as powers.
“Dark Binding of Ten Thousand Membranes, Asura’s Heavenly Arts – Wrathful Thunder Fist.”
The bottomless pit of the Dark Binding Hell that devours everything.
The roaring thunderous sound like the wrath of an enraged Asura.
The black sword, barely the size of a medium sword, bit into the colossal greatsword like a mountain, and the pure force of the clash and the divine aura roared like thunder, tearing the ground and air.
-!!
A massive shock of strength against strength.
It was right after the moment so intense that even the air forgot to scream, and the ground forgot its firmness.
Just as the enormous turmoil that was hard to believe as a mere prelude to the fight began to subside.
-Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Don’t lose your focus!”
In an instant, Ares closed the distance with earth-shaking steps.
“I never did!”
Normally, this would be the time to exchange compliments like, ‘That’s an amazing martial skill...’ ‘You are also a formidable opponent.’
But Ares swiftly closed the distance and initiated hand-to-hand combat.
-Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
With each clash of fists and divine power, the ground shook as if bombarded.
“You’ve grown a lot, really grown!”
“Well, isn’t this the time to grow?!”
-BOOM!
With a forceful punch, I sent Ares’s straight punch flying backward.
We both took a moment to catch our breath, maintaining a cautious distance.