Serious for once

On a small grassy hill, a young man was laying down with a peaceful expression on his face as he felt the warm wind blew through his hair as he laid down.

Ashur was currently relaxing outside of the city as he thought about what he was currently trying to create.

He wanted to create some kind of magic by himself, he consulted some gods that were proficient in creating magic and he knew that it would be more difficult because there is no such magic in heaven currently.

The magic Ashur currently wanted to create was illusion magic and he knew it would probably take a few years as illusions are outside his expertise, but he did know someone who could probably help him, and that was Loki.

She was a trickster goddess and he thought that illusions would be right up her alley.

He also wanted to create a storage ring like in those novels about immortals in his previous life, but he wanted to make it so that it could even stop time inside the space.

It's been over a year since he picked up that golden card and Ashur could tell after a year, that the pace the divine power that the golden card was draining from him, after fifty years, it would probably exceed the speed he regenerated his divine power and would probably steadily drain all his divine power after fifty years.

This was very concerning to Ashur, as he would basically become powerless after fifty years passed.

He was also very worried if it does not stop at his divine power or if It even kills him once the timer ends as it might not just mean just his divine power is consumed, but maybe even his life.

As he was laying down and contemplating, he suddenly noticed someone was calling him.

So he slowly opened his eyes before he lifted his hand to create a screen and what he saw at the other end was Athena. She was outside with a bit of sweat running down her head as she was swinging a sword up and down repetitively.

After he finished answering the call, Athena stopped swinging her sword and turned to Ashur before saying "Hey Ashur, what you up to?"

"Nothing much, just outside the city relaxing, what's up?"

"I was just wondering if you were interested in a bit of sparring today?" Athena asked while she wiped the sweat off her forehead with a towel she grabbed from the side.

"Sparring? Well, I'm free so why not?" said Ashur as he quite liked sparring with Athena as it gave him the chance to improve his fighting abilities.

"I'll head over now, I will be over there in around 20 minutes"

"Great! See you soon!" said Athena as she hanged up.

After she hanged up, Ashur picked himself up from the ground and started walking back to the city.

It did not take long to reach Athena's house as he was not far from where he was as it was at the outskirts near where he was.

As he approached her house, he directly went into her courtyard as he had been here many times as he has been coming here for over 10 months already and was used to just directly going in.

As he entered, he saw Athena off to the side sitting down on a bench off to the side.

In a practiced motion, instead of approaching her, he went straight to her armory and returned with a sword.

Unlike when he first started, this sword was not blunt but razor-sharp.

Ashur has gotten increasingly proficient in handling swords and he also sparred using all kinds of weapons not just swords.

Besides swords, He was also proficient in using daggers, followed by various martial arts weapons and other miscellaneous weapons such as halberds or spears.

Although Athena wanted someone to spar with, it was not just with swords but all kinds of weapons as she loved fighting with not just one, but all different kinds of weapons.

Athena already noticed Ashur as soon as he entered her courtyard and was already prepared to fight and as soon as Ashur left the armory, she attacked.

Ashur was used to Athena suddenly attacking out of nowhere and blocked with his sword.

Athena always said that an enemy will not wait for you to be ready and will always attack when you least expect it.

Sometimes when they were in the middle of chatting next to each other or taking a rest, Athena would suddenly burst out and attack him with extreme speeds like she was going to kill him.

At first, he was caught off guard with her sudden attacks but later on, he could barely defend against them.

As Ashur blocked Athena's strike, he used his sword to push hers away before he suddenly landed a kick on her stomach.

Athena felt his kick on her stomach and used her legs to spring back and disperse the impact of his kick as she used her sword to strike back towards him.

Ashur saw her strike coming and dodged to the side while backing off to gain more space between them.

As he pulled back, he could not help but regret that all this time, he could not make her go serious at all.

Over the 10 months of sparring, Ashur has not once made her get serious even though he has been growing by leaps and bounds.

But he had a plan today, to catch her off guard and make her go serious for once.

He then approached Athena as he used his feet to thrust off the ground and into the air towards her to make a leaping slash.

As Ashur slashed towards her, he opened his mouth as he looked at her with a determined expression before saying "Athena, I Love you! Please marry me!"

As Athena was ready to block his strike, could not help but have her mind blank out as she heard what he said as millions of thoughts suddenly rushed in her mind, and lost focus for a few seconds.

Not letting this chance slip away, he suddenly struck with all his strength as his sword descended upon her intensely.

Athena soon noticed the sword that was descending upon her and could not dodge or block in time because her mind was distracted and the only way she could get by unscathed was to use her true abilities.

Athena pushed her stray thoughts on the back of her mind as she focused on the sword that was coming at her and used her sword to manipulate Ashur's sword's momentum to deflect it to the side as they came into contact in a split second while she kicked him, leaving Ashur no time to react and knocking him away.

Ashur was set flying by her kick for a few meters before he landed with a thud while he rolled a little from the force of her kick.

After Ashur stopped rolling, he lets out a few coughs before picking himself up with a bit of difficulty.

Although he was battered pretty hard, he was actually full of joy. All this time Athena was just toying with him, but this time he actually forced her to go serious for once, even though it was for a split second.

"Yes! I've finally made you go serious for once!" shouted Ashur in joy as he succeeded in finally making her go serious against him, even though it was through it was a bit by underhanded means.

Athena looked at him celebrating and could not help but ask him with a chill to her voice "Hey, do you mean you don't like me?"

Ashur looked at her as if he was staring at an idiot before replying "Well duh, who would like such a manly tomboy like you!"

Athena gripped her sword tightly as she walked towards him with a dark smile on her face.

Ashur, seeing this, suddenly had flashbacks to the first day of them sparring.

"Hey wai-" but again like before, before he could finish what he said, he was sent flying.

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