FIRST KILL

Athos dodged out of the way for the umpteenth time and instead of the Blemmayae's fist popping his head like a balloon, it merely grazed his face.

'Shit!'

His heart was beating out of his chest as he felt a drop of blood trickle down his cheek. He had never been in such a make-one-mistake-and-you-die fight before. He was always the stronger guy back then and it was in a controlled environment, but now the murderous intent leaking out of the monster was palpable.

They had been playing cat and mouse around the forest for over 5 minutes now and he was starting to sweat. He was never a physical match for the monster, and now that he was tired, the chances of him getting pulverized shot up drastically.

His stamina was considerable, yes. But only considerable for a five-year-old. Currently, he could only match a 17-year-old in that department, and evidently, It was not enough against this freak of nature.

'I can't keep this up forever, especially against this seemingly inexhaustible monster. Fuck you Tartarus'

He spotted a large tree to his left and quickly jumped behind it, trying to catch his breath, but the Blemmayae was having none of that.

"Could you die already? Please and thank you", it growled, flashing its unusually clean teeth once again as it riled up yet another punch.

*BOOM*

It's fist went right through the sturdy trunk, causing the tree to teeter and threaten to fall over, cracks spreading throughout its midsection. Athos didn't let this opportunity pass. Using the ice pick grip, ( A backward holding grip. Holding the dagger 90 degrees to the forearm ) he quickly sunk the dagger's sharp edge between the monster's knuckles, cleaving its fist into two.

'Damn, this dagger is sharp'

"Ghhrrrah!"

The Blemmayae let out an unearthly roar and stumbled backwards, gripping its hand that was now slowly turning into dust. Its eyes turned bloodshot and it looked at him with such visceral anger that it sent a shiver down his spine.

"T...This is...This is NOT POLITE!", it screamed.

But just when it was about launch itself at him again, he saw the partially broken trunk next to him and was struck with an incredibly stupid idea.

"Wait! I don't think you're the most polite Blemmayae I've ever met. You're quite rude.", he said hurriedly, praying that the sentence wouldn't just piss the Blemmayae off even more. But luckily, it seemed that the Blemmayae greatly valued being polite, for its maddened look vanished and was replaced with an incredibly offended one.

'Okay, great! I need just a few more seconds! Think! Athos, Think!', his mind was racing. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. All he had was a good memory.

"You killing me would not be politically correct. It would merely induce further marginalization and oppression of demigods who are already socially disadvantaged and discriminated against.", he continued blithering, hoping to buy some more time.

"Wha-"

*CRACK*

The sound of the tree breaking into two interrupted the confused Blemmyae. It was what Athos was waiting for. He dashed to his left and using his momentum, he spun around maximizing his torque, performing a tornado roundhouse kick. His foot slammed into the falling tree's bark with immense force, his smaller feet applying greater pressure due to their smaller area.

Wooden splinters went flying in all directions and some took refuge in his forearm which made him wince. He landed and instantly staggered backwards, his left foot swelling up. Yet he had a satisfied look on his face for he had achieved what he wanted. His kick changed the direction in which the tree would've fallen by a small degree. While it was supposed to fall next to the Blemmyae, it now landed heavily on its side. The best-case scenario would be if the tree had fallen right on top of the Blemmyae, but he had messed up the timing of the kick and he didn't have that much strength. At least, not yet.

"You Bas-"

With a large 'Thoom' the tree landed on the Blemmyae, cutting it off once again, preventing it from uttering a word that probably went against its code. Any other monster would have moved before the tree actually fell down as it was already threatening to fall down for a few seconds. But the Blemmyae didn't for two reasons. The simplest reason is that Blemmyae are usually quite stupid. No, scratch that. They are 'always' stupid. The second is that they have absolutely no depth perception which meant that they couldn't perceive the distance between objects all that well.

"Please tell me you're dead you Canadian wannabe", he said, feeling lightheaded, the pain in his left leg steadily increasing. He had exerted himself too much with that kick. Perhaps if he was not rusty, he wouldn't have injured himself this badly.

He sighed and made a mental reminder to set aside some time to practice for he had been an absolute idiot by not preparing for situations like this despite telling himself how dangerous this new world was.

'So ambitious, yet so stupid', he thought, chuckling to himself.

He shook his head and stared at the place where the tree had fallen. The dust was slowly starting to clear and Blemmyae was nowhere to be seen. It was fina-

*BOOM*

"NOT NICE! NOT NICE! NOT NICE! NOT NICE!", A badly injured, screaming Blemmayae burst out of the dust cloud, barrelling toward Athos with the intent to rip him into pieces. Its right arm, eye and a part of its torso were missing, and large amounts of dust spilt out from its large wound.

'Oh! For fucks sake!'

Anger started building up in Athos. All that and it was still alive. Blemmayae's were truly incredibly resilient. He immediately switched his grip to the hammer grip, and using his right hand he pointed the dagger at the Blemmayae that was rapidly closing distance, wildly swinging its only arm in a maddened rage.

He slipped inside a wild swing and stabbed its only other eye, inducing another crazed howl. He then used his left hand to grab onto the monster's hair, forming a pseudo-collar tie clinch. Due to the monster's 5'5 height, he was now hanging in the air, but he quickly started to pummel the monster's nose that protruded out of its sternum using his knees.

"DIE! You fucking cockroach!!!", he screamed as he used every bit of his remaining strength to drive his knee into the monster's 'face', and with a sickening crunch, its nose broke. The monster fell to its knees with a groan, but just before he could revel in his victory, a wild swing hit his side sending him tumbling to the side.

He gasped, all the air instantly sent out of his body and he felt that some of his ribs may have just been compromised. He spewed some expletives and tried to sit up not before a stabbing pain shot through his entire body. Just when he was about to curse his unluckiness, he saw the Blemmyae slowly turn into dust out of the corner of his eyes.

"No....ooo....ooo!!! Political...corre..ctness!!!", the Blemmyae bemoaned before transforming into a pile of dust with a bronze dagger on top.

Athos grinned at the sight.

"Fuck you Carl", he muttered weakly, before promptly fainting.