underwhelming announcement

warning: might piss you off, so chill out.

...

Once he had been punched outside, Hephaestus floated up high in the air as he took a deep breath feeling the fresh air, this  was going to be his first official battle and  he had a lot of options when it came on how to fight. Incidentally in the future he does plan on training Aphrodite so  that she can fight independently should he not be around, this was a good time to see how he would fair in  an actual fight so that he can teach it. Only  those who have experienced battle can teach others on how to battle.

Once both of them where outside Hephaestus was the first to  speak.

"just so you know, that was a freebie, starting now you best fight like you really mean it."

He spoke with  a surprising amount of confidence. Perhaps it was him being conceited and  arrogant or perhaps it was just a fact but at this moment Hephaestus believed Ares was far beneath him in  strength.

"please, why would I go all out at the beginning? And  besides you and I both know I'm stronger than you"

Ares responded with an  equal  amount of confidence, he  could feel the power course through his veins, with the amount of power he  currently had he felt as if he could obliterate Olympus with but a single punch from his fist, handling Hephaestus shouldn't be difficult as such its best to hold back and play around, taunt him a bit let him know how out matched he was.

With that in mind Ares disappeared  and  immediately not  but a split second later he appeared behind  Hephaestus and struck him on the back of  the head or he should have but Hephaestus lean forward and delivered a powerful heel kick right between Ares's legs. Of  course unlike humans male god's genitals weren't  so  fragile as such Ares suffered little damage but   Hephaestus' kick  carried a great deal of force  and  managed to  send him flying upwards before his  leg was grabbed and  Ares was thrown back down and slammed on to the  clouds that  served as  the ground for Olympus.

Without giving his opponent a  chance, Hephaestus utilized his divinity of fire, a blue and  intense flame ignited from his fingertip, the  flame was  similar to that of a cigar lighter but he  focused and  increased it's heat to  such a degree that it  became similar to a  torch before pointing  it Ares much like one would a gun. The  beam like fire sprang forth from his tip  and  expanded as it descended, by  the time it  struck Ares it  was big enough and  hot enough to evaporate steel. The  beam  Struck Ares  pushing him  further down  and  burning a  whole  through the ground and sent Ares falling down to  the world below and  Hephaestus never stopped the beam, he continuously let its stream flow and  increased its heat by the second.

"obviously he  won't die from  this, but let's see how long it takes for him to–"

Before he  could finish his  sentence,  Ares had already flew through the his torch and  appeared before him with his fist reeled back and already moving forward for a punch,  with  a look of intense rage on his face, he  threw the punch but Hephaestus caught it with ease.

"get back down there"

He  threw his own punch and landed a clean hit on Ares's face, the amount of force he put behind the punch shook  the entirety of Olympus and sent  Ares  falling back down at supersonic speeds and crashing onto the earth with enough impact to be heard all the way up to Olympus.

"what else should I test?"

Perhaps it was arrogance on his part but he felt that he needed to test his skills rather than take this fight seriously, he didn't even consider the fact that Ares gets stronger the longer he fights or rather he believed he could handle it. When he was sparing with Kratos he had developed the skill [Ultra instinct] however said  skill  was un-mastered and unpolished never did he bother to think to  train the skill or any of his skills for that matter circumstances prevented him from thinking about such things.

Hephaestus found himself getting flung through the air hearing the breaking of the sound barrier and found that a significant part of his jaw was broken, of course it had already begun to heal but shock was written on his face, before he could even processes what happened a sudden and powerful force collided with his stomach  causing him to spit out a mouthful of saliva as he crashed on to somebody house completely destroying it. Luckily it seemed like it was empty. Although he could hear the voice of someone screaming "My house". Incidentally their  bout had garnered the attention of all those in Olympus, with Hermes and Leto watching from afar.

Lying on his back, Ares stood over him, his skin had completely turned dark, nearly looking like obsidian, his eyes glowed a crimson. Ares himself had no idea why his skin and eyes changed whenever he used his divinity but he attributed that to simply being the result of the negative emotions associated with conflict and war, though Athena doesn't change skin colors when she uses her Divinity.

"I suppose I underestimated you"

He spoke as he stood over Hephaestus who was now trying to get back on his feet and  Ares did nothing to stop that.

"but now I'll show you the difference in our strength, and once I've killed you, I can have my way with Aphrodite.

"Is that why you attacked because you want Aphrodite?"

He was now on his feet staring straight back at Hephaestus, he had let his guard down and completely underestimated Ares, ultra instinct is only as fast as your own senses, if your body can't respond fast enough then it's pointless but no matter that won't happen again.

"No, I'm going to Kill you because in the future you'll be a problem for me, I can't have obstacles like you around."

"I thought you needed my help, not that I was going to help but this seems counter to your objective"

"Hera and Athena are the ones who  wanted your help plus it's not like you're the only one who can forge things now"

That was indeed true, before Hephaestus was even born Zeus and the others got their weapons from the cyclops so Hephaestus wasn't exactly needed  as Ares can always employ the cyclops.

"so you're trying to kill me because in the future I'm a threat to you?"

Hephaestus didn't need to be told, as just from what Ares had said he could infer that Ares quite possibly had the oracle or at the very least saw a future where Hephaestus kills him or something. This was the problem with seeing the future, you end  up doing things that might actually lead to the future you want to avoid or in the  case of Ares  do something that will get you killed before you  even get to that future.

"Yes as such getting rid of you is the most apt solution, not to mention I need to pay you back for the scar and that incident with my hand and  once I'm done I'll show that whore who's in charge"

"I suppose that  would settle things then"

He wasn't someone who would say they like they idea of killing, nor would he say that he is willing however if Ares is set on the idea of killing him then what other options was there but to retaliate in kind. His body glowed a bit as he Augmented his body, increasing both speed and power via magic, however he was aware that this fight wouldn't end because  the more they fight the stronger Ares gets and Hephaestus had infinite supply of magic he could easily augment himself indefinitely, continuously increasing his strength because of this the fight would be a stalemate  however that's only if Hephaestus doesn't use any of his skills and weapons.

"I that it would, now them back a–"

He could not finish that sentence as a right hook to the jaw twisted his  neck all the way around, a powerful punch that caused ichor to spurt out of his mouth, unfortunately he  didn't get sent flying as he was suddenly held in place by  chains that came out of multiple  golden portals that surrounded him. The force of the punch cleared out the rubble and flung it in all directions and it also caused the spectators that were a bit too close to get hit by it.

"I didn't push  the idea of fighting last time because, I didn't want to deal with the consequences of killing, after all you are Zeus's son, plus I myself would rather avoid killing when it's not necessary"

Hephaestus spoke, in  a slow and deliberate tone as he watched Ares' neck snap back into place, his skin slowly changed shades returned to its normal state. Ares could not hear any words that he Hephaestus spoke but instead had focused more on the sudden loss of power, He could no longer get feel the continuous stream of power that made him feel invincible.

"what did you do to me? What are these chains?!!"

He asked trying to use his divinity but could not, he tried to use his strength but that  was Futile, the chains didn't budge, his natural strength should be enough to break his free of any chains but unfortunately it couldn't break him out of these. Struggle as he might he was simply wasting his energy.

"I'm  not one to  torture people so I'll end this in one fell swoop"

Should  Hephaestus let Ares live, Ares will stop at nothing to kill him and  Hephaestus would rather not have that. In his head Hephaestus tried to think of any cons that would emerge should  he kill Ares and  he found that it  would  be surprisingly easy to get away with this considering the fact Ares is a traitor along with Hera, Themis and  Athena.

A golden portal appeared  right beside him  with  a purple hilt poking out. Hephaestus grabbed the  hilt and  pulled it out slowly revealing a charred blade, it looked similar to charcoal   the tip of the blade had a  single line of smoke that rose from it swaying in the air as it did. Ares found himself feeling a sense fear as his eyes stared into  the weapon held by Hephaestus, sweat began  to trickle down his  forehead and  for some reason seeing the  sword, it  reminded him of the Scythe and  could feel that should he get cut with that there'll be no coming back.

His body moved, thrashing about trying to free himself from the chains, doing his best to  get away but it was Futile, Hephaestus raised the  blade above his head and gripped the blade with both hands. It was a shame  he hadn't killed anyone before now after all he  kind of wanted to  mimic the battle between  Old man Yama and Yhwach, he'll have to make due and he can't go on a killing spree just for that.

He  swung the blade down and  bisected Ares from  the top of his head and all the way down, with  one swift  and  fast motion, once the tip of the blade hit the ground, a giant fissure was violently carved  completely destroying a huge section of  the  clouds that served as the ground and  Ares's body was obliterated with nothing left of him. The  chains that were holding him had been released at the last second but by that time it was to late to get away.

"Huh? What an underwhelming fight"

He  said as the charred blade returned to its normal state the sliver blade of a regular katana, he wondered if he  was going to get complaints for property damage as he inserted his weapon back into the Portal.

"Maybe it's about time she and I got acquainted in bed, I think I've held off my lust long enough"

He  voiced while taking a step toward the direction of Aphrodite's palace, from  this point forward he plans to  move their relationship much quicker, she seemed to have reflected on her life and is ready and make a change as such his love and support will be imperative. Perhaps falling in love with Athena would have been better but you can't help who you fall in love with.

...…..

A/N: hope you liked the fight, though for me it felt a bit too quick, had to let Ares get a few licks in otherwise this would have been a perfect for Hephaestus.