11 [Climax]
As Icarus fought and defeated Jason, Pollux and Castor he had forgotten about the last of Chiron's students, Asclepius, one of, if not the greatest healer in history.
He had long, straight white hair which ran down to the length of his neck, sharp features, with a noble and refined air. He was covered in long black robes along with a plague doctor's mask covering his face. His eyes seemed to hold an analytical look towards everything.
Asclepius was not the greatest fighter nor fond of it in general, instead he loved to learn magic, arts, and especially medicine from Chiron. As the son of Apollo he had a natural affinity to such things and was very in-turn passionate about it.
So, imagine his surprise when the strongest of his fellow heroes in training, Heracles, blasted out from far away right into a tree nearby.
BOOM! ThUD!
"UhgGh.....damn, he got me." Heracles muttered to himself in a pained tone.
"Heracles are you alright?" A voice rang out from his side.
"Asclepius?" He asked, recognizing the voice and wondering if he was truly so lucky that the camp's healer was truly nearby.
"Indeed." Asclepius spoke once more, confirming Heracles' thoughts before reaching into his robes and taking out one of the many items he held on him at all times.
From out of his robe, his hand held a herb based paste, enriched with mana that he had refined in a pestle and mortar. This kind of medicine was more than Heracles, who only seemed to be disoriented, would need.
With Heracles' strength, the blow from before had likely only rattled his insides, but Asclepius would rather be safe than sorry and fed it to him regardless.
While feeding Heracles the medicine they had heard many explosions going off in and around the forest.
As Heracles finished up, Asclepius gave him a raised brow before asking, "What is happening?"
"Jason was attacked by a boy about our age and I had gotten into combat with him, the boy isn't remotely skilled but he is full of tricks." Heracles responded with a grunt as he quickly swallowed down the last of the foul tasting medicine.
"Very well, but before you head off, let me give you some assistance." Asclepius spoke once more before holding a hand out to Heracles and invoking a spell, "ενίσχυση!"[1]
The mana in the atmosphere bent to his will as it began to swirl towards the large boy, which caused Heracles to feel as strength filled his muscles once again, only more intense than before.
The spell's soft green light radiated from his body as he tightened his hand to feel his newfound strength able to kill over a dozen men.
"Haha! Thank you, Asclepius." He spoke in gratitude as the ground shook with his feet as he stood up.
"Indeed." Asclepius spoke, before allowing a slight smirk to rise in his lips, "Now, go show them the strongest of Chiron's students."
Heracles only responded with a smirk of his own before speaking in turn, "Indeed."
Asclepius barely had time to blink as Heracles disappeared in an afterimage.
"RRaGh!" He heard faintly from a rapidly disappearing Heracles rampaging towards where the explosions had gone off prior.
.....he could've swore he heard a faint yell that sounded a lot like 'Shit!'.
"Well, time to heal the others, judging by those sounds they are in need of assistance as well." Asclepius mused before following the path of destruction Heracles left prior while further shading his face from the warmth of the sun.
——————
"Shit!" Icarus screamed out as Heracles charged at him with the speed of a freight train on cocaine.
A fist appeared in his vision instantaneously as his crude sword barely had enough time to come up to meet it and absorb the energy.
POP!
....And promptly exploded.
The sword couldn't handle the force of the blow and was directly blown up instead.
Thankfully for Icarus, it had somewhat completed it's purpose as all the energy was both absorbed and dispersed in the explosion, rocketing him and Heracles outwards with momentous force.
Heracles briefly stumbled backward, falling onto his arms before quickly recovering and running off towards where Icarus had tumbled off to.
Meanwhile, Icarus flew back, his crudely reinforced body barely stopping the wooden shrapnel of the sword from piercing his body, leaving only faint cuts.
As his body hazardously flipped through the air, he barely maneuvered himself towards the ground before adjusting his position and directing his body to roll to the floor along with the force of his crash.
"Uggghh...fuck," Icarus groaned as he slowly dragged himself back to his feet, he heard the foliage in the distance behind him start to stampede and quickly pulled a Jason and started to run away as fast as possible.
'Shit! Shit! Did Heracles just get a fucking shonen protagonist power-up?!' Icarus thought as he scrambled to the trees while fleeing the mad berserker.
Icarus had definitely noticed the strange green aura permeating above Heracles' skin when he was thrown like a ragdoll and inferred that it greatly enhanced his abilities.
'Now way I'm beating that shit without killing him with a sneak attack using Chysia!' Icarus thought while hopping from tree to tree in an attempt to find their main camp and coincidentally meet Chiron.
"RaaAAAAAH!" A roar came from below!
"Shit!" Icarus screamed while diving out towards another tree as the one he was just on prior had it's trunk explode through the sheer force of Heracles' charge!
Icarus quickly hopped from tree to tree, barely escaping Heracles' relentless attacks!
Thinking quick on his feet he released the rest of his smoke bombs onto Heracles below before fleeing at maximum pace!
BoOm! BOom!
Icarus' reinforced body tumbled through the trees in a panic as he ran like a mad lad to avoid the charging monster behind him.
'Shit shit shit!'
But inevitably, the charging monster arrived.
'Damn! He is totally about to kill me! Fuck!' Thought as his eyes widened from the ensuing punch as Heracles' fist came with the power of a freight train, straight towards Icarus' face intending to pop it like a watermelon struck by a sledgehammer!
swoOOSH!
Then, out of nowhere, an arrow pierced through the air intending to shoot Heracles' blind spot!
Heracles' instincts immediately took action, shifting his weight and changing his movement to avoid it.
As the arrow forced Heracles to take a step back to avoid the shot, Icarus glanced at the arrow with a wicked smile.
'Thank you, Atalanta!' He shouted in his heart.
Icarus instantly recognized the arrow with his eyes and blessed his luck! The arrow was one he made and gave to Atalanta to use during dire situations!
The arrow incorporated the same abilities as the sword he had used prior, it would store then release kinetic energy upon use. The arrows were especially fearsome because Icarus had repeated beat them on a tree to store a large amount of kinetic energy for use later on!
Although, he couldn't help but grimace a bit as he could tell Heracles was about to dodge it.
Then he noticed something about the arrow and quickly muttered out a spell, "Αναλύστε τη δομή"[2]
The mana in the air responded, the spell began to probe the arrow while gleaning information from it. As the analysis finished, Icarus' eyes lit up and he couldn't help but praise Atalanta in his heart, 'Aya! I've raised this lass really well!"
While experimenting with this spell he wanted to try and use it during battle to gleam at the enemy's abilities by looking at their weapon similar to Emiya Shirou. He quickly learned that he could not do it the same as Emiya in efficiency or quality without his Sword Alignment assisting him to see the weapon's history and abilities.
And he sure as hell did not want the Sword Alignment.
But regardless, he was able to analyze something else instead.
Using the structural analysis spell he was able to gleam on the magic used on an object and unravel it!
He believed it was as strong hint towards his own alignment and believed it very beneficial, as long as it wasn't 'Sword'. He did not want to be unable to use any magic without the sword concept!
Due to this mysterious alignment complimenting the spell he was able to gleam a blueprint of an object's magical capabilities and used it on the arrow headed straight for Heracles!
And thus realized that Atalanta had not activated the use of releasing the arrow's kinetic energy!
His mind went a mile a second but quickly realized Atalanta's intention and grinned!
As Heracles continued his dodge Icarus stomped his foot on the ground and yelled out, "Τροποποίηση!"[3]
The spell performed as intended, sending mana to the ground while altering the terrain beneath Heracles' foot.
Heracles grimaced at the move he had experience prior, 'Such a troublesome situation...!' He thought with frustration!
The ground had shifted and Heracles could not divert his movements any further, causing his balance to fail and his body to begin tumbling towards the ground.
The arrow flew through the air, buzzing past the tripping Heracles as Icarus reached out to catch it!
Icarus' grinned widened even further than a Cheshire Cat as the arrow he caught in his hands activated! Spinning it in his hand before quickly jabbing the blunt end straight into the helpless Heracles' waiting neck!
PoP!
The released kinetic energy caused the arrow to explode in power as the sheer force impacting into Heracles' neck instantly incapacitating him regardless of his reinforcement, sending his unconscious body straight into the ground below with a heavy thud.
Icarus fell to his hands in exhaustion, the crude reinforcement leaving his body in tatters with bruises and torn muscles visible all over his skin.
"....no....way...." A voice sounded from nearby as Icarus quickly turned his extremely exhausted body towards the sound only to see Castor and Pollux up once more.
'....fuck sakes!' Icarus cried out in his mind in tired exasperation! '.....How many times do I have to beat these fellows...?!'
"Castor, Pollux." A refined voice that revealed itself as Asclepius spoke.
The two glanced back at the boy who spoke while Icarus was annoyed in his head, 'Damn, I forgot about this guy! They have the actual God of Medicine on their side!'[4]
"I'm still working on my abilities, so your body is still disoriented as I can only aid you this much, ενίσχυση!" Asclepius invoked as the mana from the atmosphere condensed into the twin's bodies and gave off a feint green glow.
Icarus's eyes widened in amazement as he finally was able to gleam at the true Reinforcement Spell used during the age of the gods. He immediately began analyzing the spell and even attempted structural analysis on it.
Unfortunately, structural analysis is a spell used for objects causing the spell to fail, but Icarus was still able to gleam some insight.
He had already established a little bit of experience with his crude, experimental, and dangerous version of the Reinforcement spell which helped him to comprehend bits and pieces of the one used by Asclepius.
Paired along with his recently discovered affinity for magic 'analysis?' The spell's mysteries seemed to unfold before his very eyes.
Icarus gave a tired grin as he spoke with newfound confidence, "ενίσχυση!"
He felt as the mana produced by the world itself bent to his will, purging his body from fatigue and replacing it with power, as his skin tightened and his muscles bulged with newfound strength.
"....!!" Castor, Pollux, Asclepius and even the centaur watching from the treetops above felt their eyes bulge in disbelief!
'He definitely just learned that from seeing it once!' They all thought in exasperation!
Learning to use spells, especially ones using only a single Divine Word was extremely difficult and took tons of practice, but Icarus did it with no difficulty!
Unfortunately, their inaction had consequences as Icarus could care less for their stunned reactions and immediately attacked!
He attacked Pollux first as he deemed her the highest threat! She kept a more steady mind then Castor, and was much closer than Asclepius who he was unable to attack with both twins guarding him.
His attack came quick as he instantly arrived next to her with his new strength, she barely had time to react before Icarus slammed his knee into her stomach!
"—Kuh!"
""Pollux!""
Castor rushed to defend his sibling but he was suddenly interrupted by a panicked cry from Asclepius!
"Kah—!"
Castor turned his head just in time to see a small girl with green hair drop from the tree tops above before falling on Asclepius and clawing him in the face like a wild animal!
"What in the name of Had—!" Castor was about to yell in disbelief before a forgotten Icarus took the opportunity to punch him in the gut!
"Kuh—kk—k!"
Icarus quickly slammed his reinforced fist into the surprised Castor with a rapid three hit combo straight to the gut! Castor couldn't bare the pain and could only spit out blood from his already exhausted body being further taxed by Reinforcement!
Soon enough, he passed out unconscious beside his sister who fell to the exact same moves.
The high of Icarus' reinforcement soon came crashing down low as he stumbled onto a stump in exhaustion.
His tired mind briefly glanced towards the unconscious bodies of the two twins in immense satisfaction!
'The good old blitz tactic, works every time! Thanks Germany!' Thought Icarus in humor as he watched Atalanta scratch a crying Asclepius into submission.[5]
'Ah, shit, I forgot to beat my words into them......'
The one watching in the treetops above couldn't help but sigh in exasperation from the events that took place.
Meanwhile, a certain blonde boy laid behind a tree, unconscious and forgotten.....
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[1] ενίσχυση - Greek word for Reinforcement
[2] Αναλύστε τη δομή - Greek words that mean Analyze Structure
[3] Τροποποίηση - A Greek word meaning Alteration
[4] After his death, Asclepius ascended into Olympus as the God of Medicine.
[5] Reference to the World War 2 German tactic 'Blitzkrieg' which allowed Germany to take most of Europe due to it's concentrated attacks aimed to bring quick victory with overwhelming and fast advancements that bring disorganization among enemy forces.
