Man and God (1)

A stony shower would be nice...so drop em stones and read your chapter. Pay the toll!

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Rumble—!

The ground shook from the boisterous cheers as I made my way to the stage.

I could see a masked man holding a microphone, commentating like the regular sports channel joe. Yet it brought the crowd's excitement to the peak.

People were shouting at the top of their lungs, wishing the demise of their once beloved gods. I honestly didn't know how to feel about this.

Often times, in scriptures, it was stated that the gods loved their creations. Although there were some gods like Buddha who supported the humans to the very end…

Majority of them were eager for a mass pruning.

Shelving my musings aside, I showed myself and greeted the audience.

From the corner, I could see a group of humans eyeing me. As if gauging me to the deep end.

'The previous competitors huh…I'll have to chat with them after this.'

[You're up against a god, whose to say you'll even make it through in one piece]

'Although I have no intel on Hades's strength. I've seen how the others fight.'

[And?]

'I beat Kojiro Sasaki on analysis, Adam on speed and strength. What more do I need?'

[You'll see soon enough…]

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As Andrew calmed himself, the announcer once again hyped up the crowd.

"A-And now! To fill the spot left by Buddha's betrayal…"

The audience gulped in trepidation, their hands clenched tightly.

"COMING ALL THE WAY FROM HELHEIM IN A TIME OF NEED…IS A GOD"

Numerous gods groaned out in reverence as they stood up. The silent footsteps of andrew's opponent echoed out loudly in his ears.

"WHEN THIS GOD WALKS…THE ENTIRE WORD TREMBLES."

And that is when Andrew realized, what it meant to truly face a being defined incomprehensible.

"WHEN HE SCOWLS…ALL BEFORE HIM BOW DOWN!!!"

A being that defied the normalcy set by humans.

"CERBERUS THE WATCHDOG OF HELL DROOPS HIS HEAD DOWN TO HIM!"

It was not 'just' a strong man.

"TYPHONE THE FEARSOME PURRS LIKE A FELINE."

It was a god…

"THE KING OF THE NETHERWORLD…..HADES!!!!!"

Unlike the loud cheers presented by humans upon Andrew's arrival….hades did not have a single chher.

There was no clap, no dance and nor a song.

Pure reverence was shown as the gods stood up from their seats and performed a salute. Their head facing down.

And as the two made eye contact.

Andrew immediately tensed. He understood why it was hard to beat a god.

Their presence itself demands you to bow down. There was no room for rationalism. There was no room for sophistry.

It was something engraved in the human soul. To worship a superior being.

'Yet the others fought on'

Sound of teeth grinding came from Andrew.

'They didn't falter like me. They proudly fought and won.'

To be honest, he no longer wished to fight this god.

It was not a question of whether the fight can be won or not.

It was simply the desire to not step out of line.

However,

'I'm not the only one whose life is at stake here.'

Alvitr was now fused with him…

Meaning that his loss would lead to her death.

'That cannot happen.'

The muddled mind was refreshed in a matter of seconds as Andrew slowly brought out his hands.

"FIGHT!"

As soon as the words left the commentator's mouth, Andrew leaped forth.

'When fighting someone stronger than you, don't give them a chance to counter.'

His mind, now completely merged with Veritas accelerated the world to an impossible degree.

Time no longer moved to a crawl.

It felt as if time had stopped completely.

The small twitches of Hades's hands and movements of his eyes, they were all recorded.

The numbers churned and soon a prediction came out.

Sweep—!

He ducked immediately to dodge the right swing of his spear.

The divine spear tore through the air, leaving a vacuum along with an afterimage.

There is a small window of vulnerability left right after a strong attack.

Fighters always capitalize on this small window.

One's ability to actively seek out these windows determines his potential.

But that is only when your opponent is normal.

Whoooooom—!

The blasters charged up and fired not at the god, but at his spear at point blank range…

The impact delivered at the tip of the spear caused its direction to change, causing the follow up spin slash to be disrupted.

Yet the god's eyes didn't twitch the slightest.

Booom—!

It was as if an explosion was set off as Hades kicked him in the head, sending him flying across the arena.

It would've been an immediate loss for Andrew, had he not fires his web shooters at the ground to sstop his ascent.

But this was not a turn based match.

For the first time, Hades approached him.

The unbelievable speed left a series of afterimages as he attempted to stab him.

The crowd watched in awe as he dodged the thrust by flying down.

The match has only gone for a total of 15 seconds, yet everyone understood how intese these 15 seconds had been.

They watched as the two exchanged blow after blow.

Evading, countering and striking in the most unorthodox methods.

The broken armor fell off into pieces as Andrew stood there with blood oozing out from his forehead.

He held his right arm and popped it back into place before Hades could charge in.

Hades now had small burn marks, from being exposed to the blasters and lasers.

His once pristine hair was disheveled as he looked at the mortal with acknowledgement.

The standoff didn't last long as they both charged ahead.

Analysis helped him evade the vital hits and deliver a strong kick at the cost of his fourth rib breaking.

Yet the pain was automatically offset.

Instead, as per his instruction, endorphins were released by his brain to turn the pain into pleasure.

The ground broke, shooting rocks everywhere as the two fought on.

The dust cloud helped Andrew tremendously as his drones came out and fired sound canons to disrupts the god's rhythm.

A crushing blow was delivered sending the god flying...