Mastery

I watched as the cloud slowly began to go back to normal, I guess I had received a lot more power then I thought.

"Ummm… what was that move?" Emma asked.

I simply just handed her the notepad,

"The last one on the list." I replied.

She looked in shock at the notes I had written.

"You're going to master all of these?" She asked.

"Yes I am, and it looked like I already mastered my secret move." I said, a smile creeping onto my face.

"Show me." She said,

I took my notepad back and read off my first move,

"Dark Style: Physical Enhancements.. Times two." I said, my voice returning to that icy calm.

I pushed my darkness into every inch of my body, causing my muscles to grow and strengthen. I then tensed up my right leg and pressed it on the ground, the ground cracked before my strength.

"That one seems to be in perfect order.." I said, my voice happy.

Emma just looked on in shock as I cracked the very earth she stood on.

"Show me more…" She said, her voice dripping in awe.

I began to smile, "Dark Style: Dark Clones"

Darkness began to take shape at my right and left sides, it began to morph into identical images of me, they were in the exact same position as I was standing. The more I moved the more they copied what I did. I knew this one would be tricky to control because I'd have to find a way to make them aid me in what I needed. If they copied what I did then they'd be limited in battle.

"Go catch a butterfly." I said aloud, hoping they'd obey simple commands, or any commands in general for that matter.

They both raced off, which shocked me.

"Wait! Come back!" I barked.

They stopped and followed my directions, they stood in front of me again, as if waiting for new orders. I needed to figure out a way to recall them back into my body, so I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. By the time I opened them they were gone. I turned and asked Emma,

"Where'd they go?" I asked.

She tapped me on my chest, as if to say I absorbed them.

"Got any more you wanna show me?" She asked.

"Yeah.. one last one." I said.

"Dark Style: Dancing Swords.." I said.

I felt my darkness move around me, it began to shape itself. I looked around and I saw dozens of copies of my sword hanging in the air. I looked around in shock and saw that there were at least twenty five.

"This is insane…" Emma said.

"I agree.." I said.

"How do you feel?" Emma asked.

"I feel fine, I'm not tired in the slightest." I said, my body still feeling light and springy.

"Interesting, so this must be the bare minimum you can do without exerting too much energy." She said, her voice deep in thought.

"Yeah…." I said.

I gazed down at the mark on my hand, my mind flashing back to what my mother said before she died, "Your father will take care of you."

Is this what she meant? I had no idea. But I would use this new power to my advantage, even though I didn't want it in the first place, I was happy I had this power. I was happy I could master my moves so easily.

"I meant to come find you, Mr. B wants to meet with the two of us. It's about a secret mission.." She said, her voice dropping.

"Let's go." I said.

As we walked out of the arena, we met Mr. B as we got just outside.

"Oh we were just coming to find you." Emma said.

"Well I'm here.. So let's talk in the arena." He said.

We walked back in the arena and sat down in the center,

"I want to hold a tournament of power, to decide our team for this secret mission. Unless you two have an idea for teammates." He said.

"Marcus." I said, my voice firm.

"I'll talk to him. But that still leaves two people." He replied.

"Make it six." Emma said, "two teams of three seems better for something like this."

"Alright so we need the strongest of our camp. And I feel a tournament will give us the best judgments of that." He said.

"I agree." Emma said.

"Tell everyone the truth. Tell them what the mission is for." I said.

He looked down, "I planned on it." He said.

"Good." I said.

"There's one more thing… If you want to back out.." He said he trailed off when I looked at him.

"No. I will not. I will be the one to kill the leader of this organization. And I will be the captain of your squad to show you just how much I want this!! I snapped at him.

After a brief moment of hesitation i spoke again,

"My mother will not die in vain, I will be the one to decide our fate, and the fate of his little plot. If he wants a rivalry with me, he's got it. But his blood is what will be spilled next." I snapped.

"Safe to say he's back." Emma said.

"Yeah," Mr B replied, a smirk on his face.

"You're damn right I am." I replied.

"Good, so I'll tell everyone at dinner tonight, and then tomorrow well start the tournament." Mr.B said.

"Yeah." Emma and I said in unison.

"Alright, the two of you gotta get some rest. Big day tomorrow." Mr. B replied.

As the two of us got up to walk to our respective cabins, Mr. B said something that shocked me, He said,

"The beginning of our decisive moment is right now. Be ready for you two, i don't know what will be in store for us, but we will prevail, i swear it."

We didn't respond, we just kept walking. We knew that this moment would be the calm before the raging storm, and we were ready. Before we split off towards our cabins I felt Emma grab my hand and give it a quick squeeze. I didn't say or do anything, my mind was too focused on the tournament tomorrow morning. I opened the door to my cabin and walked in, i layed on my bed and instantly fell asleep.

That Next Morning

I woke up and instantly walked into the arena, my mind clear set on the goals we had today, I walked into the stage part where Mr. B and Emma were standing. The center of the arena was filled with competitors, all dressed and armed for battle. The only faces I recognized were Ashley, Brandon and David. I could only hope that they were gonna be ok.

"Alright everyone! Pair 1 and 99, meet in the center…. Begin!" Mr. B barked.

Brandon and another boy met up in the center of the arena, drew their weapons, Brandon had a sword, while the other boy had an ax.

"Begin!" Mr. B barked.

They clashed in a flurry of sparks and clanking metal, the tournament continued on and on until the sky grew dark, the different types of power and abilities were hard to keep track of and the matches went on for what felt like forever. Once the tournament was over there were three people remaining, Brandon, Ashley and David. The three other people who came in here with me, they must have trained really hard over the time they've been here. Brandon was a son of Ares, so he was specially skilled at swordplay. Ashley was a daughter of Demeter so she could do all sorts of things with plants and what can become of them. While David was a special case, he was a son of Boreas, so he was a wind user. He was severely adept at using his wind to control his surroundings and attack his enemies. I looked down at the three of them as they stood in front of us. They were so weak and helpless before, but now they are strong.

"You three. Well done." Mr. B said, his voice ringing out over the quiet arena.

"You will embark on a dangerous mission to save our world as we know it. Are you sure you're up for it?" He asked.

"Sir, yes sir!" They replied in unison.

"Good, I will be letting your captain speak for a moment before we begin the preparations to move on to the enemy camp." He said, stepping back.

I stepped forward, and locked eyes with the three of them. I took a deep breathe and began to speak,

"I'm not going to lie to you, this mission will be hard, it will be dangerous and it will be deadly. The leader of the Order of Disorder killed my mother, so his head is mine, but he will have more powerful allies. And I'm going to need a worthy squad of powerful allies to help me avenge my mother and save the world. Will you help me?" I asked, pouring emotion into my voice.

"Sir, yes sir!" They replied.

"Good, go get healed up." I said, stepping back.

"Alright everyone, now that we've concluded our squad assembly, I'd like all of you to go enjoy dinner, and take the rest of the night off… Dismissed!" Mr. B barked.

He turned to us and began to speak, "I have a full list of the enemy troops, and it doesn't look good, they've got at least one thousand humans on their side. Not to mention the backing of the lesser known gods. Follow me into the Main Building and I'll show you the full list.." He said.

So we did, we followed him into the building and along the way we grabbed some food. Once we got into the main building's library he went to a book that was sitting open on a lectern, he pointed at a list of names. I began to read them, they were in number order from weakest to strongest, the list went

The Colchian dragon

Python

Minotaur

Erymanthian Boar

Stymphalian Birds (1,000)

Nemean Lion

Hellhounds (2,000)

Mares of Diomedes (2,150)

Lemean Hydra

The Chimera

Giants (3,000)

Sphinx

Lamia

Harpies (4,000)

Empusa

Scylla

Sirens

The Gorgons

Echidna

Hellman Davis (Leader)

Disorder of The Sleeping All Father (Unknown)

Total Military Power: 25,000

"A military power of 25,000?" I asked, my voice shocked.

"Yeah, not to mention we don't know what the Disorder of The Sleeping All Father is, it could be a plan to wake up Typhoon, the all father of monsters for all we know." Mr. B said, his voice with a hint of worry.

"It is. We should plan accordingly, knowing that the sick bastard will try and wake him from under his mountain trap." I said, I could feel in my soul that I was right.

"Alright, ill plan what to do after we finish here. How do you think our squad will fare against these powerful foes?" Mr. B asked.

"With the skills we have now we have the foundation, not enough to beat them." I replied.

"I propose we train for at least one full year, until each member is as strong as or stronger than you. That is the only way we can win. You are obviously the strongest person on campus and if we cannot beat you we cannot beat the whole army. It seems like the easiest solution." I continued.

"I agree." Emma replied.

"Yes, that is most likely the better solution to our lack of power. But my only fear is that the enemy will not wait that long to attack here or Olympus. How do we combat this?" Mr. B asked.

"Send me and Josh into the enemy base and we'll make sure to do enough damage to buy us some time." A new voice replied.

I recognized it, it was Marcus.

"I agree with you. We are the most valuable fighters we have and the ones with the most destructive power. So it's only logical." I replied without turning my head.

"I don't like that idea but there might be no other option." Mr. B said as he turned around.

"We don't have a choice, and whether you give the ok or not I assume we'll probably do it anyway. Right… Captain.." Marcus said, his voice full of respect.

"That's right." I replied.

"Tsk.. you don't leave me much choice so i give you my permission. We do know where they are so get ready and we'll go together, and no I will not be fighting with you." He said.

"Alright. Let's go, we're ready." I replied.

We then began to walk towards the gate, our mouths silent. My mind raced through the plan, we were gonna go into enemy territory, destroy as much as we can, which will buy us some time to train up our power, and get out alive. It seemed simple, but we were walking into a place where the enemies were stronger than us, so we might just have to destroy their weaker infantry units while leaving the stronger ones for later. We stopped at the gate, Mr. B spoke,

"Just walk until you see a large crescent moon shaped rock, then take a hard left. It'll be right in front of you then." He said.

"You're not coming?" I asked.

"No, it isnt my place to interfere in your squad's battle." He said.

"We'll be back alive." I replied.

Then we walked, we walked not only towards the enemy's camp buut towards the future, we were walking into enemy territory for the safety of our friends and family. I could feel the spirit of vengeance walking with me along my path, but I pushed that aside for now, I saved it for the final fight. I could feel Marcus's eyes on me, as if I was emanating something.

"You sense it don't you? My emotions." I asked.

"Yeah.. The rage and anguish, but it's not exactly regular emotions. It seems refined and focused." He replied.

"I am focused. Without focus I'd be a monster." I said.

I opened my mouth again, but I stopped myself. We were at the crescent moon rock. I looked at the rock, my eyes watery.

"Make me a promise, right here, right now Marcus." I said.

"Ok.." He replied.

"If I ever get swallowed up into despair, and I lose focus on my mission, and if I turn into a monster. Put me down. I'd rather be a deadman than a monster who rampages with no goal. Can you do this for me?" I asked.

"Yes Captain." He replied.

"Then I too have a request… If my flames ever go out of control, put me out." He said.

"I will." I said, turning to face him.

"We will be the ones to become the kings of this area, right Captain?" He asked.

"You're goddamn right. I said, a smile creeping up on my face.