Mountain of the Immortals

Isoples had reached the pinnacle of fighting with any weapon known in the Greek world centuries ago. He was one of the deadliest and most skilled fighters I’d ever seen. And he was ready to prove it to us now. Each of his six arms was holding a different weapon, all of them giving off a faint glow of enchantment.

On his right side, he was holding a longsword, an axe, and a spear, and he had a shield, a morning star, and war hammer on his left side. He looked absolutely terrifying and if he had come at me like this some months ago, I would have been genuinely afraid of him.

But times had changed. I was much stronger now than I had been when I was driven away from Mount Orthys, and I wasn’t the same young god I had been when he was training me.

Seeing his elderly face made me feel warm at first, remembering all the good times we’d had together. He had been much more of a father to me than Cronus ever was. Then the warmth rapidly shifted to a creeping wave of cold realization as what I was going to have to do dawned on me. As much as Isoples cared for me and had tried to protect me over the centuries, he was a man of absolute loyalty. He would never do anything to betray his liege, and his loyalty lay with Cronus.

"It has been some time, teacher," I said as we moved closer to him. "You look as mighty as ever with all those weapons."

The centaur offered me a bitter smile and struck his front hoof on the ground, amused.

"I am but an old man myself, living in the knowledge that my body will never again be as strong as it once was," he replied. "Yet fighting is in my very nature."

I nodded and offered him a smile.

"You do not look half-bad yourself, young master," Isoples said.

"I've been training hard. Exactly like you taught me. I finally reached A-grade levels."

"It lifts my heart to hear that my teaching was not wasted on you, especially considering your tendency to party," he said, and chuckled. "But I'm not just referring to your equipment or your level. Your eyes have changed. You always had the potential to become powerful, but you did not have the resolve."

"Lots has happened since that time."

"I wish it had not come to this,” he said, “but I can take solace in the fact that you came out of it stronger, Zeus. I am very proud of you."

"Thank you, teacher," I said honestly. "Will you put aside your pride and let us continue up the steps without a fight?"

"You know that is something I cannot possibly do, young master," he replied and momentarily pursed his lips. "For better or for worse, I have sworn an oath to your father. It may have been eons ago, but an oath is an oath. And all of my work would be for naught if I broke my oath just because of something I didn’t want to do."

"I would never think less of you if you did, Isoples," I said, pleading with him to reconsider. "And nobody will ever know."

"Oh, but I will know, Zeus," he replied, his voice growing softer. "And this is something that I cannot live with for the rest of my life. If protecting Mount Orthys from invaders is the last thing I do, then so be it."

"It doesn't have to come to thi—" I said, but he interrupted me.

"I have made up my mind. You should know that there is absolutely no way you can change it. It is you I am worried about. What will you do once you reach your father? Titans are invincible, and you're not even at his level yet."

"But I am not alone in this. There is strength in numbers, which can only come if you put your trust in others. Without my guildmates, I would never have managed to get this weapon."

I held the spear in front of me and it shone under the sun. As I was holding it forward, Isoples scanned my weapon.

"A spear capable of killing a titan..." he said, and for the first time his shoulders relaxed. "Can it be that we are approaching the end of an era?"

"You can be there, by my side. You can step into this new world with us."

"There is nothing I would like to do more, young master," the centaur said, and clenched the weapons in his hands. "But this is not written for me."

"Where does this leave us, old teacher?"

"I think we both know. But I have a request."

"Don't buff me and stay back," I said in the guild chat, and then turned to my old teacher again. "Anything you ask for."

"Put this old mind of mine at ease by showing me how powerful you have become. Give me all you've got so I can leave this world knowing that you will be successful once you reach the top."

"That I promise. I’ll use everything that you taught me and all that I learned by myself because you made a warrior out of me."

"Then show me, Zeus," he said, and adopted a defensive posture.

I charged forward, feeling my body move more slowly than I’d been used to when fighting all this time. I’d spent the past few months enjoying Aphrodite's buffs, since she was always by my side. But I wanted this to be clean fight. I wanted him to see me for what I was by myself.

The first strike of my spear hit his shield and just as it was about to be deflected, I activated Spear of the Thunder God. This was a skill my teacher was familiar with, but he definitely wouldn’t be expecting it to be so powerful. The spear splintered the shield and ran straight through it, piercing his shoulder blade.

Isoples didn’t just take the hit, however. His weapons came down on me fast and I managed to avoid the sword, the spear, and the war hammer. Having fought with me multiple times, he knew most of my evasive tactics and thus brought down the axe at such an angle that was almost impossible for me to get out of its way.

But the Zeus that Isoples remembered was not the one fighting him right now. I had evolved both as a person and as a fighter. I pressed my body closer to him before pushing him back. That way, the axe hit me at an angle that caused absolutely no harm and I was able to deflect it.

The damn morning star, however, was always hard for me to predict. Whenever Isoples and I had dueled, he would make sure to remove or replace a few of the chain links so that the length, weight, and speed of his weapon would change slightly each time, and I could never be sure how fast the strike would reach me. The only thing I could do was flinch and wait for the hit to land. I was fully expecting the morning star to force my breath out of me as it hit me in the ribs, but all that happened was that I was pushed slightly to the side.

Not only did the weapon not penetrate the new armor Hephaestus had created for me, but it also dissipated most of the strikes force. Isoples was surprised by this and pushed himself back before I was able to manage another strike on him.

"You have grown very powerful, but I know you're still holding back. Come at me with all you've got."

I nodded in confirmation and activated all of my self-buffs. Single Point of Focus was perfect for a duel, since it increased Physical Accuracy and Critical Damage even though it disabled the ability to attack multiple enemies at once.

The Thrill of the Fight was another duel-focused skill. My movement speed would go down by ten percent, but my attack speed would increase by the same amount. Isoples would not be running away from this fight, so it was just perfect. The next ones required me to act in order to activate them, so I gathered all the anger that was pent up in me and let it all out with a scream that ended in a howl.

Roar of War increased my maximum HP by twenty-five percent and healed that amount as well, while Primal Battle Cry shot up my Physical Attack by another twenty-five percent. The final howl was so that I could land Intimidating Howl on Isoples, dropping his Physical Attack by twenty-three percent.

"More!" the centaur shouted. "I want to see more!"

I activated the Precision and Vandalier auras, raising my accuracy and critical damage and charged at him while casting Provocative Defiance. The debuff landed successfully on him, dropping his resistance to melee attacks.

My spear clashed with his weapons, which came down one after the other. But none of them were able to thwart my attack. I unleashed Devastating Blow on him and a fountain of blood exploded from him, his black horse body glistening with the dark wetness.

"Strong enough that I couldn’t even strike a single blow." The centaur huffed and hissed in pain. "But you're still not giving it your all, are you?"

"Isoples, please. Let's not do this."

"Give me everything, Zeus. You still can't beat Cronus like this."

"Buff me," I said, turning to Aphrodite and Ares.

"But I thought you said—" Ares started.

"I am who I am because of my friends in the guild, and I will fight Cronus with them," I said to Isoples, while Aphrodite had already started buffing me. "I will not show you my divine skills because I need to conserve my DP for my father but know this. I can come back from the dead multiple times, and I have skills more powerful than the one that brought down Typhon."

"Show me what you can show me, Zeus. Make this old man proud."

Ares synchronized his own buffs to those of Aphrodite so that they would finish casting them at the same time. With a renewed surge of power, I rushed at Isoples and unleashed my Stunning Strike. The centaur froze in place, arms in a defensive posture, as I moved behind him and struck him with Maelstrom of Steel followed by multiple standard attacks until the rest of my damaging skills came out of their cooldowns.

Every slash, every pierce hurt me almost as much as it hurt him. He was one of the few men under my father's command that I respected, and he was perhaps the reason I didn't stop training even though I preferred drinking and having fun much more.

I stopped attacking a few seconds before the stun effect ended since I could see Isoples was already on the brink of death. I knew that it was probably in vain but I had to try and convince him to back down at least one more time.

"It doesn't have to be this way, teacher," I said again, moving closer to him where he’d now fallen on his knees. "I beg of you. Don't make me do this."

"I have never been prouder of any of my disciples," he said, once he could speak again, though the weapons quickly dropped from his hands. "Not Demeter, nor Poseidon and Hades. You have everything it takes to overcome your father and rule this world."

"Isoples..."

"It was my honor to be your teacher. Now honor me one last time by giving me the death of a warrior."

"Thank you, old man," I whispered, and I thrust my spear through his chest.

By the look on his face, the attack was almost welcomed. He leaned to the side and fell to the ground as I removed my spear, but there was a smile on his face. He was peaceful and content. And I could barely hold back my tears.

"Let's move," I said. And I climbed onto the first step up the mountain without even turning to look at my guildmates.