You trained the lord and his son?

When Haze woke up, the short chubby man was leaning against the tree, eating an apple, just as he had been at the beginning.

"Ughh!", Haze groaned as he rubbed the back of his head.

The man saw he was awake and dropped the apple. "I see you're back in the land of the living, heir of Hades".

Haze frowned, he knew now that the man was no ordinary man, and definitely not a gardener like he thought originally. This man was a trained swordsman and a skilled combatant.

"Who are you?", Haze asked.

"Good, I see you've found your manners", The man said with a smile. "Sometimes you have to flog the insolence out of people.?", He made a striking gesture with his hand.

Hade got to his feet slowly. "You've not answered my question".

The man paused mid swing and looked at him. "I'm your master, and that's what i'll go by for the rest of our sessions".

"Master?", Haze repeated.

"Good boy", The man said and picked up his apple, he took a huge bite and droppped it again. "Now we need to act fast, we've already wasted most of our time".

Haze didn't understand what was going on. "Our time? What are you taking about old man?".

"Tch tch", The man clicked his tongue. "Address me as master. Now pick your sword, let's start with the basics".

Haze blinked. "You're teaching me?"

"Yes", The man said and looked around. "Who else will I be teaching?"

"I don't understand", Haze replied. "I'm supposed to learn swordplay from Hades today. Where is he?"

The man laughed. "Swordplay from Hades? Why would he bother himself with something like that? I'm your teacher boy".

Haze felt angry, he wanted to feel betrayed but his mind reminded him that Hades never said he would train him specifically.

The man noticed Haze's countenance and shrugged. "I don't know why you'd be upset anyway. He's not even that good with the sword".

Haze's head snapped up when he heard this. Hades had been completely superior to him and predicted all his moves accurately. This man was saying he wasn't even a good swordsman.

"What do you mean?", He asked.

The man shrugged. "He may fool the rest of you but not me, that boy was one of my worst students".

Haze's eyes widened. This man was claiming to have taught Hades. "Y..you're saying you taught Hades".

The man nodded.

Haze looked at him in a new light. To teach Hades, the man must have been alive for millennia, which meant he had immortality or slow aging. Probably even a god himself.

I just fought with another powerful being that could have killled me effortlessly. Just how strong were the people in this world? Thanks to the system, Haze was stronger than almost every human being alive, yet compared to beings like this, he was still a weakling. Even Elena was probably stronger than him.

He gritted his teeth. Just then the system flashed.

[Mission failed]

[Penalty: Two stat points removed from each attribute]

"That's unfair!", Haze wanted to cry out but he didn't want to arouse suspicion in front of the man. He supposed the system was designed to make him stronger and wanted him to always overpower his enemies. Haze had lost three fights in a row and the system was not having it.

I could lose it all. Haze suddenly realized. If I keep losing fights, my hard earned points can reduce. I have to make sure I never lose a fight again.

The man was watching Haze carefully. As a seasoned fighter and someone who lived in the court of Zeus, he had learned to be very observant. In a court where power was the only currency and gods and men alike did everything to secure some sort of power, if you let your guard down, it could mean instant doom. He looked at Haze and could see something change in his mood. At first the boy had been confused and angry. It was the first thing he noticed when he first saw him. There was a little arrogance sprinkled there too.

Then after the fight the mood had changed to one of despair and hopelessness. It was as though the boy was wondering what the point of all this was and if it was worth continuing. Then something had changed. The boy stared into space as if he was looking at something, his face scrunched up in the semblance of one who just received bad news and a steely edge settled into his face.

The man smiled when he saw this. Edge was good. It made you want to do better. It made you push yourself to the limits at the chance of improving. When there was only despair on the boys face, he had begun to worry that there was no point training the kid since he seemed likely to give up.

However, now that there was a fierce determination in his stance. It was time for their training to commence.

The man bent to pick up the stick he used in their earlier fight. He cleared his throat to draw Haze's attention.

"The secret to sword fighting is dancing", He announced.

Haze looked at the man suspiciously. "Dancing?", He repeated.

"Yes", The man said and began to shuffle his feet in slow but precise patterns. "Your footwork is very important as you won't be permitted to look down when you're fighting".

Haze looked at his feet. So far he had relied mainly on speed to fight and barely used any footwork. Was that why other people found it so easy to beat him?

The man continued shuffling his feet. He began to gather speed and soon his feet were a blur as he moved from left to right. After a while he stoppped and looked at Haze.

"There are two primary movements for your footwork. Vertical movement and horizontal movement".

He moved his right foot to the right and in the same movement, dragged his left feet too.

"You want to sidestep an attack, you have to do it as efficiently as possible so you can have time to launch your own attack".