9 [Encounter]

While traversing the forest with Atalanta at his side, Icarus began to ponder back to some of the things he had done during his stay.

Other than hunting and teaching Atalanta Icarus worked on making crude Mystic Codes for himself. Icarus made 3 more of the explosive pouches and even 3 smoke bombs as well.

It took some time to recreate and he even added in some improvements such as increasing the explosive power.

The pouches are made from the remains of a phantasmal beast and are packed with different materials to work as shrapnel.

Icarus built in a sort of trigger so that when magical energy is injected into the pouch, it will cause the pouch to explode with a timer depending on his own input.

Icarus also worked on some more mundane weapons such as using his alteration spell to will mana to make daggers from the ground and trying to see how they can interact with magic in an attempt to add any enchantments.

He had pretty moderate progress even with having little proper education or materials to do so, thankfully he paid upmost attention to Daedalus' lessons.

The greatest success he had was with a crude sword he was able to make with an enchantment to collect and redistribute kinetic energy. The sword was flimsy but he made it so it could help bridge the gap between his own strength and an opponent's.

He also did the same for Atalanta's arrows so he could increase the damage output or speed by gathering more kinetic energy early and storing it for use later.

He knew he was weak, especially during this time period, so if he wanted to survive he would have to be an extremely tricky opponent.

———————-

It has been a few days since they had left their clearing and headed out towards the next destination. They mostly ate berries and some meat Icarus had dried and stored in his pack prior.

Icarus had awoke this morning on a treetop with Atalanta snuggled up by his side under an animal skin blanket.

Icarus woke up with a feeling that this morning was different, he heard a loud thunking sound from nearby. Icarus quickly got up and silently woke up Atalanta who was still asleep and motioned her to silently follow.

They slowly snuck towards the noise and peeked Icarus peaked his head out from behind a bush.

"....AHHh! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!" Icarus heard a voice cry out from nearby.

He quickly turned his head towards the screeching and saw a young boy about his age with bright blonde hair fighting off.....a rabbit.

"Shit! shit! shit! Why did they send me to catch the food?!" The boy shouted out while hopping side to side in an attempt to avoid the rabbit.

Icarus watched in amusement as the blonde boy dressed in black and green flailed a sword around with a limp wrist as the bunny shot off with frightening speed.

Just as the rabbit was about to hit the kid, he suddenly ducked at the perfect timing and avoided the hit.

"Damn it! I can do this!" The boy screeched as the rabbit quickly recovered and used the force from it's missed jump to ricochet back towards the boy once more.

Icarus watched in expectation as the boy's eyes hardened and his stance became firm. Icarus thought he truly had the visage of a hero at this moment and would fight the rabbit to his dying breath.

"Eat dirt!" The boy's childish voice screamed out as a cloud of dirt and dust erupted from his hand and into the encroaching rabbit's eyes.

"ScreeE!" The rabbit flinched as it's momentum carried on without aim, straight into the ground.

It rolled around in agony due to it's eyes stinging in pain as the boy began to silently cheer.

"...nice! I'll probably live! Now time to...." Icarus heard the boy mutter to himself as he seemed to have the perfect opportunity to finish it off.

"Run away!".....until he suddenly grabbed a rock from the forest and randomly threw it to the tree next to Icarus before sprinting off in the opposite direction.

The rabbit blindly charged towards Icarus' direction in a rage which caused him to click his tongue in annoyance.

CRACK

Icarus immediately caught it mid-charge before snapping it's neck and smoothly chucking it's corpse into his bag. "Sorry bunny."

Icarus shook his head in exasperation at why that kid was so scared of the rabbit, even without a sword they are weak as hell.

They are considered rodents or snacks during this era as they ferociously reproduce but are substantially weak. Even a small child such as himself could easily kill it.

After shaking his head, he decided to follow that kid from earlier as he had a good guess towards the boy's identity. That immense fear of death and good dodging instincts really helped identify him.

Icarus and Atalanta silently prowled towards the boy from the treetops and followed him as he stumbled away from the area in a panic, before finally stopping and breathing a sigh of relief.

Icarus glanced over at Atalanta before whispering, "Stay here and watch from the treetops, I'm gonna speak to him."

Atlanta tried to protest but Icarus firmly denied her and jumped down.

The boy's previous relief quickly changed to a screech in surprise as Icarus fell from the treetops above and spoke up, "Hey."

"Ahhh! Don't kill me!" He screamed out in fear before tripping then collapsing on the ground with a cry of pain.

"OUCH, someone HELP!" He wailed while Icarus tried to speak to him in exasperation, "Hey, I jus—!"

CrAcK! ThuD ThuD!

The bushes from nearby shook as rapid stomping approached at an immense speed, Icarus could barely turn his head before he was hit!

BaNG!

He briefly saw a blur as he was heavily slammed away and embedded into the trunk of a tree.

ThUD!

'FuCk! I felt like I was hit by a truck!' Icarus thought while clutching his head in pain as stars seemed to appear in his eyes.

He stumbled onto his feet with strain before slowly standing back up with a heave. His eyes were heavy as he clenched them in pain.

Only to have them shoot out from surprise at the boy's next words.

"Jason, are you okay?" The previous blur spoke in a childish but low pitched voice.

"Ah! Herc! Save me! He attacked me!" Jason screeched out in panic while pointing at Icarus.

'Herc!? Shit, I just got trucked the fuck out of by Heracles?!' Icarus thought while taking a moment to glance at the larger boy next to Jason who appeared to be slightly older than himself.

The newly arrived Heracles had dark skin and masculine features even as a child he was over a head taller than Icarus. As the passing glance finished, Icarus barely had time to react as the boy charged!

"Hey, chill ou—!" Icarus attempted to yell out in panic before quickly throwing his body to the side.

Icarus didn't have time to breathe as Heracles was already on him, willing mana to crudely reinforce his body only put Icarus' strength barely a tier higher than before, not even on the same playing field as Heracles, but the same couldn't be said for skill, or more specifically, deception.

Only Icarus' slightly superior dexterity allowed him to barely dodge jabs and kicks designed to quickly and brutally incapacitate him.

'Shit—!' Icarus screamed in his head as Heracles broke his flimsy guard and launched him away into a tree once more. Icarus quickly and shakily picked himself up while using his hand to wipe the blood that spit from his mouth and spoke up,

"Fine then, if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get." Icarus spoke with a facade of determination hiding a shaky resolve while thinking, 'Fuck this is risky!'

He wanted to join Chiron and this seemed a good if not only opportunity to prove myself, he also noticed that Heracles wasn't aiming to kill, so if he lost he would likely only get injured then dragged to Chiron forcefully.

Heracles spoke no words and charged towards Icarus once more, clearing the ten-foot distance between them in an instant.

Icarus had already stabbed his hand through the top of his bag before quickly meeting Heracles' fist with his newly equipped sword.

"—!" Heracles' eyes widened in surprise as the force of his fist died immediately after colliding against the crude sword!

Icarus didn't want to kill him nor reveal Chysia right now and opted for the sword he recently made instead.

He didn't dare to underestimate the most famous hero of Greece regardless of age and immediately put his focus at it's highest possible peak.

Hercules quickly recovered and launched more punches towards Icarus which he barely blocked even with the longer reach of his sword, immediately Heracles adjusted, changing to attempting to parry the sword away using his superior skills but noticed that the force he used would repeated be lost upon touching the sword.

So, he switched strategies again and tried to disarm Icarus instead, of course, Icarus couldn't let him do that and responded in turn. Using his crudely reinforced parameters to hastily stop any attacks Heracles launched his way by nullifying them with his sword before swiftly dodging any attempts to disarm him.

They were at a draw for now but Icarus knew that Heracles would definitely outlast him and eventually defeat him with his greater stamina and endurance, and that was without accounting for the strain the crude reinforcement gave his muscles along with the constant focus needed to maintain it.

Regardless, Icarus couldn't help the grin from forming on his face from the fight.

To be honest, he enjoyed it, and guessing from the same grin on Heracles' face, so did he. But, Icarus knew he would lose soon and was sure Heracles knew that as well.

Icarus wanted to win, he wanted to win really badly. He got chills at the prospect of defeating the greatest hero of Greece regardless of his age.

But it wasn't meant to be, Icarus simply couldn't keep up.

He grit his teeth, refusing to lose like this, but he truly wasn't much of an opponent to Heracles. Icarus wanted to be a hero, a legend, and didn't want to half-ass it. If he was going to do it, he wanted to be the best, and to be the best he had to defeat the person in front of him!

Icarus' determination took a step greater than before as his body broke into a second wind, the grin on his face grew at the challenge as his hands pushed to block and dodge Heracles' attacks at a speed greater than before.

But, just as Icarus picked up the pace, Heracles did as well. His refusal to accept defeat was just as fierce as he adjusted to Icarus' pace all the same. Icarus' eyes struggled in the attempt to take in every detail and movement he made.

Heracles was more powerful than Icarus.

Heracles was faster than Icarus.

Heracles was more skilled than Icarus.

Fortunately, he wasn't as tricky as Icarus.

Icarus' foot stomped the ground, an action concealed by another block of his sword, the world's mana subtly flooded the ground with magical energy at Icarus' discretion.

"Τροποποίηση!" Icarus shouted as the ground in front of his feet suddenly softened dramatically, causing Heracles to lose his footing and stumble.

Unfortunately for Icarus, he wasn't called the greatest hero of Greece without reason, and quickly caught himself before stepping back and out of the way.

Fortunately for Icarus though, that was enough of a window for him to advance instead, as Icarus dismissed the alteration to the terrain and attacked!

Icarus watched as Heracles' eyes widened in surprise before abruptly settling into mild confusion. Icarus understood why of course, the whole match Heracles learned that his sword would stop the kinetic force used on it, and he had already learned that it worked both ways.

Any attacks Icarus made towards him would be nullified as well.

But, what he didn't know was that it didn't cancel out the force, but stored it instead.

Icarus smirked as the sword was thrust, and the stored energy's stockpiled force was offloaded right onto Heracles' chest.

BOOM!

The grin on Icarus' face widened almost as far as his eyes did as Heracles was launched with enough kinetic force to throw him completely out of the clearing and from the thud Icarus heard in the distance, a tree as well.

Silence reverberated the forest with the only sound being Icarus' heavy breaths.

Icarus' muscles strained from exhaustion as the crude reinforcement was released, but he stood up tall regardless, after all, he had somehow won, and just in time to see Jason's befuddled face huffing from the corner.

"....Herc...lost?" Jason whispered to himself in disbelief.

avataravatar
Next chapter