Selene Vs Helios (Part 1)

[Music Recommendation: "Enemy" by Imagine Dragons - Arcane, League of Legends OST]

Inhale. Exhale.

I breathed in deeply to focus myself on the upcoming battle. If it's him, I'm not exactly at a disadvantage. Instead, I have a few leverages for myself. One was that I knew his stats since it was shared with me for the mission—although that meant he also knew mine. Nonetheless, I still have an idea of his weak areas—wait, he didn't have any. But still, he had stats lower than the others, right? Hmm… Sh*t. Now that I tried to remember it, all his stats were higher than mine!

Like characters in a game, all agents in Mythos were assessed in terms of intellect, physical, combat, technology, and many other areas. Each category and subcategory would have zero to a hundred ratings. Agent Helios' stats in all categories played at around 91.23% to 98.67%, while mine ranged from 87.16% to 92.75%, wherein most of them were about 87, 88, or 89%. I only got above 90 in my ranged weapon assessments.

Ugh. Think, Kim Ye-Ji. Which area did you have an advantage? And which one should you clearly avoid? As for advantage… wouldn't it be with range weapons? That's right! And his 98.67% was in close combat! I should avoid close combat!

BZZZZZZZTTTT!!!

The buzzer echoed an irritating sound all over the arena, signaling the start of the combat test. My moment of thinking was over. It's time for the battle to start!

I quickly ran away to hide from him instead of lunging toward him. Heading straight to the rocks and towers behind me, I ran as fast as possible. But then, a hand grabbed my shoulder and another fist holding a knife without a blade ready to stab me!

Tsk! He's so fast! We were several meters apart, and he had already caught up to me? Did he already guess my plan? Urgh!

I immediately blocked his knife attack and tried to disarm him while shoving away his other hand that grabbed my shoulder. I twisted his hands that held the knife, but my goodness, he's tough—and really strong. He's barely budging. Because of that, our hands briefly came to a standstill, fighting each other in strength.

Feeling overpowered, I moved my hands away instead and stepped back to distance myself from him.

"Haah… Haah…" I huffed as I stared at him.

No wonder his close combat skill was top-notch. I simply tried to defend myself from his stab and disarm him, but I had already used a lot of strength. Darn it. He's too strong!

He didn't attack me right away after I distanced myself. Instead, he looked at me pitifully with an annoying smirk on his lips.

"What's wrong? We're only just starting," he said, obviously mocking me.

"Hah. Don't get too cocky," I replied confidently. "After all, we are indeed only just starting."

Stealthily reaching out in my back pocket, I grabbed a small ball and threw it at him. It was a smoke bomb. I wasn't planning on using it yet, but I badly need to distance myself.

WHOOSH!

Thick smoke covered the area in a snap, and I used the chance to hide my presence. No matter how skilled he was, he wouldn't be able to see me from within the smoke. He wasn't wearing any goggles that could see heat energy to detect me or something—they weren't on the list of things we could use for this test. So, I used the chance to finally escape.

One of the skills that I'm really proud of was my stealth steps—the ability to walk or run with the faintest sound. Such skills were perfect for assassination missions, infiltration, and those alike. With it, I was able to hide from him and prepare my stage to defeat him.

Prior to the match, I was given ten minutes to set up the arena the way I wanted it to. And so, I used the opportunity to create traps in the east tower where I ran to. There were many small towers around, and that one was located in the most inconspicuous place, so I chose it as my base. Hopefully, he wouldn't be able to find me easily, so I still had time to target him from afar.

I ran towards the top of the tower where my hidden ranged weapons were. Once I reached the top, I quickly used the scope on one of my rifles to spot him while using a black cloak and taking advantage of the dark shadows in my position so he wouldn't spot me easily.

'Now, where is he?'

I scanned around, but I couldn't see him anywhere.

'It's fine. He's probably searching for me in the other towers. If he ever comes across this one, I would be alerted from the entrance and the windows—whichever he chooses to come inside.'

And so, I waited for him while keeping an eye outside and all the places he could come from.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Fifteen minutes passed, and I still couldn't find him. What could he be doing? Don't tell me he set up camp and decided to wait for me to come to him? After all, I only have an hour to pass this assessment. I need to subdue him within that timeframe!

'Oh no… Why didn't I think of that sooner? What if he really… ugh! That jerk! He probably figured out that I would choose long-range combat or shoot him from afar while hiding. And since I'm working on a time limit, he just… Ugh! How cunning! But of course! Why would he try to exert more effort when I'm obviously the one who needs to pass the assessment? It's not like looking for me will give him an advantage. It will just waste his energy. Darn it! That sly fox!'

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Time was running out.

'What to do? Should I start looking for him now? But what if it's a trap? What if he's just playing with my mind? Him, not going out for me to see would make me think that he's wasting time, so I would end up looking for him instead when time runs out. He's highly skilled in manipulating, after all.'

As thoughts occupied my head, it was too late when I noticed a figure behind me.

"Gotcha."